Russian President Vladimir Putin wished his US counterpart, Donald Trump, a happy 80th birthday during a phone call, presidential aide Yury Ushakov has told journalists. Trump was “touched” by the greeting, and the two leaders spoke for about an hour in a “friendly and open” manner, the official added.

Trump was particularly appreciative of the gesture, Ushakov said, noting that Putin was the first foreign leader to call and give his best wishes on Sunday.

Putin also thanked Trump for his Russia Day greeting earlier this week, adding that the American president’s message conveyed a “feeling of respect for the Russian people.”

The two presidents discussed a wide range of pressing international issues, including the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, as well as the Ukraine conflict, Ushakov said.

German state media has accused Tesla trillionaire Elon Musk and anti-grooming gang activist Tommy Robinson of calling for the “hunting” of migrants in the wake of an alleged asylum seeker beheading attempt in Belfast.

Tuesday’s edition of German public broadcaster ZDF flagship programme ‘Today Live’ argued that the backlash to footage of a Sudanese asylum seeker allegedly attempting to cut a man’s head off in Northern Ireland earlier this month was a result of malign actors from abroad on social media, signalling out Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson in particular.

FROM TIME TO TIME WE NEED TO BE REMINDED OF THE CRAP THE AMERICAN AND OTHER WESTERN MEDIA HAVE BEEN PUMPING OUT FROM THE PROPAGANDIST SHIT-TANKS OF THE CIA AND THE PENTAGON... ZELENSKY ISN'T A CHURCHILL THOUGH THEY SHARE A LOVE OF DRUGS... CHURCHILL WAS ON AMPHETAMINES [AND BOOZE], ZELENSKY LOOKS LIKE HE IS SNIFFING COCAINE IN THE TOILETS...

SO HERE'S NEWSWEEK IN 2022 WHICH TO SOME EXTEND WAS QUITE HONEST ABOUT ZELENSKY BEING SUSPECT ABOUT RELIGION... OF COURSE NO MENTION OF NATO'S OWN TAKEOVER OF UKRAINE, NO MENTION OF THE AMERICAN ORGANISED MAIDAN COUP, NOR OF THE DONBASS BEING BOMBED BY YUCKRAINE DAILY AND KILLING 14,000 [UNITED NATIONS VERIFED] RUSSIAN/UKRAINIANS WHO DIDN'T LIKE THE NEW 2014 NAZI REGIME IN KIEV... AND NO MENTION OF ZELENSKY BEING A NAZI SUPPORTER HIMSELF....

America’s 2025 National Security Strategy calls for gaining control of the world’s oil trade. Toward this end, Donald Trump’s Oil War aims at depriving Iran, Iraq and its neighboring OPEC countries of their sovereignty over whom they may sell their oil to, just as he has done to Venezuela. There is no remorse for the collateral damage being caused by the disruption in energy trade that is plunging most of the world’s economies into depression.

Geopathology and the Econopathology Behind It

MICHAEL HUDSON

Operation “Bagration” was the Soviet revenge for the catastrophic disasters of 1941. It cost the Third Reich the lives of almost half a million of its soldiers, and the whole Army Group Center was destroyed during the process.

How Soviet operation ‘Bagration’ brought the Germans their greatest ever military defeat

JUNE 23 2019 BORIS EGOROV

In the summer of 1944, Soviet troops were ready to begin the liberation of Nazi-occupied Byelorussia. The Red Army command was eager to take revenge for the disastrous defeat it suffered there in 1941. Now the time for the Soviet Blitzkrieg had come. The offensive was planned for the 23rd June, almost to the day Barbarossa had started three years before.

LAST NIGHT, I WAS ABOUT TO POST AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE POLISH GOVERNMENT BEING UPSET AT ZELENSKY GLORIFYING NAZIS WHO, DURING WORLD WAR TWO, HAD MURDERED THOUSANDS OF POLISH PEOPLE — AND MANY JEWS AS WELL...

BUT I THOUGHT THIS IS SERIOUS ENOUGH TO SPILL INTO THE WESTERN MEDIA AND START CREATING TROUBLE FOR ZELENSKY WHO FOR ALL INTENT AND PURPOSES IS CROOKED, DEVIOUS, CORRUPT, HYPOCRITICAL AND POSSIBLY USING COCAINE... SO I WOULD WAIT TO SEE WHAT DIVERSION THE LITTLE DICK-PIANO PLAYER WAS GOING TO COME UP WITH, WITH THE HELP OF HIS MAIN HANDLER, MI6...

AT THIS STAGE I DO NOT HAVE ANY PROOF THAT ZELENSKY HIT THE ROOF OF THE MONASTERY, BUT THE REBUTAL FROM THE 100 PER CENT RELIABLE MARIA ZAKHAROVA IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME...

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has bought a $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) stake in SpaceX, the biggest investment outside iron ore in the private miner’s history and a bet on Elon Musk days after his rocket and satellite company staged the largest float on record.

SpaceX raised $US75 billion in its Nasdaq listing on June 12, the biggest initial public offering ever, and closed its first session up 19.2 per cent and worth about $US2.1 trillion. The debut made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, said the investment reflected Hancock’s confidence in Musk and “the need for the West to keep investing in technology and innovation”.

2026 marks the Semiquincentennial of the United States, the 250th birthday of the nation.

(Or does it? The niggling historian might note that 250 years from 1776 marks the Declaration of Independence as the start of the United States, but, of course, in 1776 there was no United States. Or in 1786, for that matter. The Constitution, which created the legal framework for the nation, was written in 1787 and wasn’t finally ratified until 1788.)

But never mind. 1776 it is, and so on with the Semiquincentennial celebrations!

Happy 250th Birthday America!

By Steven Conn

Gaza requires urgent international attention.

What is happening in the besieged and devastated strip at the moment by far exceeds an unfolding humanitarian disaster; it is a calculated geopolitical reshaping. Israel is actively executing a plan to permanently occupy the vast majority of Gaza, with consequences that require little elaboration considering what we already know about the ongoing genocide.

Israel’s Designs on Gaza

Netanyahu has been explicit about having no intention of following any peace road map, planning instead for the permanent incremental takeover of Gaza, writes Ramzy Baroud.

Currently, much of the international debate centers on a single official: Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov.

Over recent weeks, the slogan “ditch the witch” has been featured alongside AI-generated photos of Victorian premier Jacinta Allan. She’s depicted in a dusty and distressed witch’s hat, a fake wart on her chin, on billboards and trucks around Melbourne in the lead up to the state election this November. 

Instead of critiquing her policies or governance, the campaign attacked her gender. The brothel owner who partly funded the campaign says the slogan is not sexist.

It’s not the first time the phrase has been used that way. In 2011, then-opposition leader Tony Abbott stood before protest placards that read “ditch the witch”, targeted on that occasion toward our first woman prime minister, Julia Gillard.

Studying archaeology, alongside Greek and Roman Civilization, for my bachelor’s degree has given me a pessimistic outlook on the world. At least that’s what my dad told me in June 2001 on a drive from Istanbul to Dublin. Yet he’s to blame for my studying the science after bringing me to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in the cinema. The romantic career turned quickly into something different, when learning about ‘panem et circenses’ [bread and circuses] and standing knee deep in medieval human waste in the middle of an Irish bog.

Make Rome fall again

Trump’s UFC spectacle turns America’s birthday into a bloodsport metaphor for imperial decline

BY Alan Moore

PUTIN IS TOO SOFT…. This is one of the criticisms made by a small but growing number of Russians… In Russia, some young people are also unhappy about websites and some APPS, such as Youtube, being blocked… [in Australia, by law, access to the internet is very limited for under 16 years of age]. Meanwhile, inflation and sanctions are hurting some businesses. As well, the limited success of the Kiev Regime sending drones deep into Russia is starting to “scare a few people”… Despite all this, Putin still enjoys nearly 80 percent support from the people.

A dissertation by Gus Leonisky... 

Followed by an interview with Vladimir Fedorovski

The Kiev regime is under the control of MI6, on behalf of Washington and Brussels... So what is Putin to do?  

Will there be a shakedown at the next election between One Nation, backed by mining magnate Gina Rinehart, and fellow mining magnate Clive Palmer's United Australia Party? Trying to outflank the Hard-Right from the Right is an ambitious exercise, writes investigation editor Ross Jones.

ONANISM is on the rise.

According to The Australian of 7 June:

Will it one day be possible for climate-neutral planes to fly without leaving contrails*? What does the rover that will be used to drill a two-meter-deep hole in Phobos, one of moons that orbits planet Mars, look like? These are just two of the questions being explored at the ILA in the German capital, one of the biggest air shows in Europe.

Gold rush atmosphere at Berlin's military air trade show

Nina Werkhäuser | Sabine Kinkartz

This year's ILA Berlin Air Show is breaking records, primarily because of the booming defense sector, which is reaping billions in contracts as a result of wars and crises.