The story goes that the late billionaire Australian media magnate Kerry Packer once visited a Las Vegas casino, where a Texan was bragging about his ranch and how many millions it was worth. 

Packer produced a coin from his pocket and said: “I’ll toss you for it: my cash against your ranch”. 

The Texan declined.

The biggest losers: how Australians became the world’s most enthusiastic gamblers

Published: April 24, 2025

BY Wayne Peake

Back in the George W. Bush years, I began thinking the US ruling class had entered a serious phase of rot. After a round of tax cuts skewed toward the very rich, Bush and his cronies launched a horribly destructive and expensive war on Iraq that greatly damaged the reputation and finances of the United States on its own imperial terms.

Take Me to Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class 

BY DOUG HENWOOD [April 27, 2021]

We are used to thinking that history is written by men in crowns. But in reality, the fate of empires is often decided by a chill running through the bones. Between the 14th and 19th centuries, the planet entered what was essentially a "mini ice age.” While Europe admired its frozen canals, Russia struggled to survive in conditions where average temperatures dropped by only a couple of degrees. It may sound insignificant, but for an agrarian country it was a death sentence. When the ground turns to stone and winter crops freeze even in May, politics gives way to biology.

VIKTOR PAKHOMOV 25.05.2026 19:16

How the Little Ice Age Nearly Destroyed Russia and Changed World History

"Today Europe Is a Rabid Dog." Those were among the most controversial remarks made by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter during a panel discussion at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

In a speech that quickly drew attention, Ritter claimed that "Europe doesn't exist," argued that Europe "stands for nothing," accused Germany of returning to its militaristic past, and warned that the world is becoming increasingly dangerous as nuclear tensions rise.

Ritter also criticized U.S. foreign policy, describing American actions in Iraq as driven by regime change rather than disarmament, and issued a stark warning about nuclear conflict, arguing that once a nuclear war begins, it could escalate into global destruction.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s efforts to capitalize on their more than a billion-dollar development of an island off the coast of Albania are sparking massive protests in the Balkan nation.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, committing both nations to a structured partnership on environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and the sustainable management of natural resources.

Saudi Arabia, Russia forge green alliance in Moscow

Cooperation will be implemented through exchange of information, visits, organization of joint conferences, seminars, training courses

After Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur were banned from entering the UK earlier this week, reportedly because of their criticism of Israel, Piker commented that he “would never have imagined that a [Labour] government would ban me from entering the UK.” Indeed, millions of UK voters would likely agree.

How Secret Pro-Israel Money Flooded the Labour Party and Ended with a Ban of Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur

DROP SITE NEWS

In the United States, over half of annual discretionary federal spending goes to the military (most of it through the Pentagon), and it is over $1.5 trillion per year, which is 65% of what SIPRI says is the total world’s annual military spending (but SIPRI ignores the one third of U.S. military expenses that are being paid out of other federal departments than the “War Department”).

The Iran war is testing the assumptions behind US and Israeli strategy, with Tehran’s capacity to withstand economic pressure and continue missile production raising political risks for both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Seymour Hersh

Russian President Vladimir Putin fielded questions from the heads of international news agencies on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday. The agencies included Chinese, Belarusian, German, French, Spanish, and Iranian state news outlets, as well as representatives of Reuters and the Associated Press.

The mammoth Q&A session lasted just over two hours and touched on a variety of subjects, including Russian domestic and foreign policy, the Ukraine conflict, and potential routes to rapprochement with Europe.

Here are the main topics discussed.

The Russian economy

When asked whether Russia could withstand the economic strain caused by the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions, Putin replied by citing Mark Twain’s joke: “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

BEING A PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS, ONE HAS TO CROSS MANY ANGRY SEAS, DESERTS AND CLIMB THE HIGHEST PEAKS. “LA VIE D’ARTISTE” IS NOT FOR EVERYONE… IT HAS MANY PITFALLS, MOMENTS OF DESPAIR AND PECUNIARY PROBLEMS, EXCEPT FOR A FEW. WE OFTEN ASK WHAT IS ART?…

AS WE HAVE EXPLORED ON THIS SITE MANY TIMES, FROM THE CLASSICAL PAINTERS, ACTORS AND MUSICIANS, TO THE LATEST NIHILISTIC WORKS, OUR ARTISTIC LIFE IS DEDICATED TO EXPRESS, ENTERTAIN OR SHOCK… IT DEMANDS A STYLISTIC CONVICTION THAT WE BECOME SURE WHEN WE ARE DOUBTFUL AND FORCEFUL WHEN ARE SHY… I GET ANNOYED THAN SOME ARTISTS DO NOT GO BEYOND THEIR OWN NAVEL-GAZING, WITH A HOPE THAT THEY WILL BE NOTICED, AS THEY FALL IN THE “ARTS AND CRAFTS” SKILL-FULL BASKET, WITH UNEVENTFUL RESULTS AND A NON POLITICAL BLANCMANGE. 

THEY DO NOT SHAKE THE POSSUM SO TO SPEAK. THEY ARE NOT CRAZY ENOUGH... BUT CRAZY ISN'T ENOUGH...

When the political class keeps choosing to squeeze outer-suburban, mortgage-stressed, salaried workers, we shouldn’t be surprised to see these people turning to One Nation.

On the night of his ‘miracle’ in 2019, Scott Morrison stood before a euphoric room and thanked the quiet Australians. It was a masterstroke of political poetry, a phrase that meant everything and therefore nothing, a Rorschach blot onto which the entire commentariat could immediately project a face.

Kos Samaras

There’s a 2.4-million-square-foot ticking time bomb on Capitol Hill, and lawmakers are dithering over how to deal with it as anxieties rise over the massive costs and disruptions involved.

The Rayburn House Office Building has never undergone a full renovation since it opened in 1965, and as plans for a massive revamp of Congress’s largest office complex keep getting pushed off, key systems are routinely failing and expensive piecemeal repairs are weighing on the legislative branch budget.

In 1950, Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi sat down to lunch with some of his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he had worked five years prior as part of the Manhattan Project. According to various accounts, the conversation turned to aliens and the recent spate of UFOs. Into this, Fermi issued a statement that would go down in the annals of history: " Where is everybody? "