As if the news weren’t bad enough, recent tests show American students are getting worse at history, geography, and civics—and they were pretty bad to begin with. We can fix this, but first we need to understand what the problem is.

Why Kids Know Even Less About History Now—And Why It Matters
By Natalie Wexler

Apr 24, 2020......

The Vatican has warned Catholics against polygamy, insisting that real marriage is a lifelong and exclusive union of one man and one woman.

In a new doctrinal note backing monogamy signed by Pope Leo XIV and released on Tuesday, the Vatican rejected both polygamy and polyamory, saying these practices rely on “the illusion that the intensity of the relationship can be found in the succession of faces.”

The document said that “various public forms of non-monogamous unions – sometimes called ‘polyamory’ – are growing in the West.” It argued that every genuine marriage is a union of two people “of exactly the same dignity and the same rights” and therefore demands exclusivity.

It framed both polyamory and polygamy as incompatible with the equal dignity and mutual belonging that the Catholic Church considers essential to marriage.

As Palestinians face another winter of displacement and bombardment, Australia celebrates Christmas while ignoring its own obligations under international law. If recognition of Palestine is to mean anything, the government must act – not look away.

Stuart Rees,  Margaret Reynolds

Ukraine is running out of men, having lost 47,500 troops in October while mobilizing only 14,000, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed on Thursday. How do the facts on the ground affect the negotiating process?

"The casualty trends are extremely negative for Kiev," National Defense magazine editor-in-chief Igor Korotchenko tells Sputnik. "But despite these highly unfavorable developments, the Zelensky regime continues the conflict with Western support."

Everything depends on two factors, the pundit says:

What impact further Russian military gains have on Ukraine along the front line

How much pressure the US will put on Zelensky to make him acknowledge reality

While there is no denying that Europe during the last 500 years was the foundation of Western civilization and led the way in the industrial revolution and scientific advancements, it also created a bloody colonial legacy that produced incalculable human suffering across the globe.

Why Europe No Longer Matters

by Larry C. Johnson

Europe, along with the United States, has ruled the world financially for the last three centuries. But the sun is setting on Europe. It is no longer relevant in the new financial and political order that is forming in the Global south, with China and Russia playing critical roles in the birth of this new world.

Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko explores how trade shapes the rise of states, the crisis of U.S. hegemony, and the birth of a new global order.

FRED TURNER, Editor

Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko argues that both socialist and feudal societies treated trade as an unworthy occupation — something equally alien to the proletarian and the nobleman. Yet, he stresses, neither system could survive without it. In his view, commerce is the engine of progress and the very foundation of civilization.

HOPE IS AN IMPERSONAL HEROE…..

Who tries to defy net zero

contrarily to RATIONEMACY

Forgetting SAPIENTIAMACY

And abandoning IUSTUMACY

The eternal rose on my desk

Could appear as grotesque

Being made of fine Chinese silk

Like so many fakes of her ilk

Contemplating alternative to DUMBOCRACY

There’s no answers in the aequus of MAGICRACY

Sprinkling dust into our naive eyes

As we see pies in the stormy skies

While the fake rose maintains beauty

Beyond my own life’s fading bounty

Surviving the ravages of climate change

Unlike the natural flower that can’t last

A day of sunlight's wavelength range

Perishing with hope of a seed blast

May be may be NOT

As the weather gets quite HOT

Hope is an IMPERSONAL HEROE

Trying to define DEMOCRACY

MORE THAN A HANDSHAKE, THERE ARE WRITTEN RECORDS OF THE PROMISE MADE BY REAGAN TO GORBACHEV....

MORE TO COME.

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

US–Israel manoeuvring over Gaza is already widening the conflict. As Sudan burns and propaganda intensifies, Iran may be the next target — with Australia again at risk of being drawn in.

The ‘Board of Peace’ in Gaza that the US and Israel got the UN Security Council to agree on will be anything but that. And the Palestinian Authority went along with it. Now watch the Zionists’ war elevator as it moves up another level: Iran.

Alison Broinowski

Journalists from Michael West Media have scooped the pool in this year’s Walkey Awards for Excellence in Journalism taking home no less than 28 Walkeys*.
This year’s Gold Walkey (not sponsored by Woodside) was a hard-fought affair with Rex Patrick taking out the gong for his body of work on government transparency and Australia’s 60-year campaign to steal Timor’s oil and gas.

Michael West Media scoops the prize pool in the 2025 Walkey Awards

by Michael West

READ MORE:

https://michaelwest.com.au/michael-west-media-scoops-the-prize-pool-in-the-2025-walkey-awards/

Two rival peace proposals for Ukraine have emerged – one from the US, echoing long-standing Russian demands, and another from Europe. Kyiv has rejected the US plan as written, insisting its sovereignty cannot be bargained away.

A flurry of recent diplomatic activity has seen two competing peace plans for Ukraine emerge.

The first, widely touted as a US plan, was apparently  hashed out between Kremlin insider Kirill Dmitriev and Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s Russia point-man.

Matthew Sussex

Over three and a half years into the conflict, US president Donald Trump is trying to sell the world on a grand bargain for Ukraine – a peace plan, based on discussions with all parties and originally laid out in 28 points. After a tense weekend of talks in Geneva, that plan has been cut down and rebranded as an “updated and refined peace framework,” but the core reality hasn’t changed: Washington, key EU capitals, Kiev and Moscow are all reading from different scripts.

A Ukraine peace plan: Where things stand – and why the West still isn’t on the same page
What began as a US-led blueprint to “end the war by Thanksgiving” has turned into a three-way tug-of-war between Washington, the EU and Kiev – while Moscow waits...

Do you know how to trace the path your water takes before it comes out of your tap?

Can you name five edible native plants from your region?

Are you familiar with the lunar cycles and the growing seasons of your local plants?

In reality, what knowledge do you have of your territory, what connection do you have with the soil you walk on, with the living beings with whom you share your life?

Understanding bioregionalism

BY LEA DUMAS

Etudiante en architecture

Transcript of Steve Witkoff's conversation with Yuri Ushakov on October 14

[phone rings]

Steve Witkoff: Hi Yuri.

Yuri Ushakov: Yeah Steve hi, how are you?

SW: Good Yuri. How you doing?

YU: I am ok. Congratulations my friend.

SW: Thank you.

YU: You made a great job. Just a great job. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.

SW: Thank you Yuri and thanks for your support. I know your country supported it and I thank you.

YU: Yes, yes, yes. Yes. You know that’s why we suspend the organisation of first Russian-Arabic summit.

SW: Yes.