"Being the ambassador to Russia was probably the hardest assignment of my career," Lynne Tracy, who represented the US in Moscow from 2023 to 2025, tells the BBC.

US, UK and European diplomats once played a crucial role in Russia, defusing tensions even at the worst moments of the Cold War.

Surveillance and 'constant paranoia': Western diplomats tell BBC of life in war-time Moscow

BY Liza Fokht

Russia remains ready to negotiate a lasting settlement in Ukraine but will achieve its objectives regardless, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Thursday. He also outright rejected “schizophrenic” claims in Western media that Moscow could be seeking a war with Europe.

Putin’s comments followed nearly three hours of talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Witkoff brought new peace talk proposals following his own discussions with Vladimir Zelensky, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s Chief of Staff Bjoern Siebert, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Oslo.

One Nation wants to restart native forest logging in Victoria, but decades of losses, shrinking timber supply and a $402 million legal claim show why the industry ended.

One Nation has released its policy to bring back native forest logging in Victoria. The numbers don’t support it.

Years of financial losses, not politics, had already put Victoria’s native forest logging industry in trouble.

David Lindenmayer

Senator John Kennedy’s pointed question to a top Marine official, “Who do we want to win that war?”, has drawn attention amid President Donald Trump’s changing stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The exchange has renewed focus on America’s position in the war, its support for Ukraine, and the administration’s approach toward Russia. The hearing is attracting attention across political and social media discussions.

‘WHO DO WE WANT TO WIN?’: Kennedy’s Question Goes Viral Amid Trump’s Changing Russia Stance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i148xZKMqgk

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I don’t really fit in with any group. Too woo-woo spiritual for the Marxists. Too angry for the Buddhists. Too political for the nondualists. Too much of a liberal-hating commie for the witches. Too radical for the socdems or demsocs. Too grown up for the anarchists.

I Love You Guys

I don’t know what kind of future we’re moving into — could be very, very bad, could be very, very good. But I’m glad we’re moving into it together.

BY Caitlin Johnstone

Framing the Pacific as a permanent contest with China overstates the symmetry between the two powers, underestimates Pacific agency and risks producing the very outcome Australia fears.

In June 2024 Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the ABC that Australia had lost the chance to be the Pacific’s “only partner of choice”. According to Wong, Australia was therefore locked in a “state of permanent contest” in the region.

As diplomacy resumes, a proposed settlement would combine Ukrainian neutrality and EU membership with an armistice line, limits on NATO enlargement and a new European security framework.

The war in Ukraine can be ended permanently on terms that protect Ukraine’s statehood, meet Russia’s security concerns, and lay the foundation for a durable European security order.

Jeffrey D. Sachs

A huge global survey found Israel is the least popular country on Earth, following its genocide in Gaza. Another poll shows 67% in dozens of countries oppose Israel. Even 62% of Americans dislike it.

Ben Norton PopularResistance.org

Comprehensive global polls show Israel is now the most unpopular country on Earth, following its thoroughly documented genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

A mine upstream of the Great Barrier Reef is “two signatures away” from a Queensland government green light, ignoring Federal government rules. Andrew Gardiner reports.

The proposed 272-hectare gold and copper mine project, Dittmer Mine, poses potential risks to local waterways and fauna. Critics also say two of its main backers should have been banned from mining after Bowen Coking Coal walked away from environmental obligations and Bowen Basin Mine went broke last year.

It takes a lot to get tens of thousands of people to riot. For it to happen simultaneously across several countries points to a supranational underlying cause, as opposed to local grievance at an egregious state injustice. That the temporary collapse of authority and restraint will allow some opportunists to loot is an inevitable concomitant. That does not make theft the cause. 

Craig Murray: ‘France Has Never Been Richer’

Riot and rebellion are acts of extremely high risk and they are a sign of an epidemic sweeping the Western world — an epidemic of billionaires.

Religious nationalism is increasingly entangled with political and military power in the United States and elsewhere. Australia should ask what that means for an alliance on which it continues to rely.

The reason for Pete Hegseth, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump’s Iranian conflict, which seems without end, and in the process wreaking untold global damage, has not been properly documented. Its primary cause is not military threat but religious nationalism – in Hegseth’s case, Christian nationalism; in Netanyahu’s case, Zionistic nationalism.

George Browning

For over a decade, scientists have warned the world must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) to avoid the most severe consequences of climate change.

That goal is no longer within reach.

Russia is ready to resume three-way negotiations with the US and Ukraine to discuss security arrangements for when the conflict has ended, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.

The announcement followed nearly three hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff at Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Jared Kushner joined by video link after illness prevented him from traveling.

Ushakov said Putin told Witkoff that Moscow was “in principle, ready to resume” trilateral negotiations in mid-November, with the main topic being a post-conflict security system for Russia and Ukraine. Witkoff indicated that Trump would welcome the proposal, the aide added.

Residents of New South Wales, Australia could soon have the option to make a final contribution to their garden upon death, after the state’s parliament approved turning human remains into compost as an alternative to burial and cremation.

The bill, introduced by Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, cleared the upper house on Wednesday after passing the lower house unanimously last week. It now awaits assent, with a minimum two-year wait before going into force.

Known as ‘terramation’ or natural organic reduction, a body is placed in a vessel with wood chips, straw, and other plant material. Microbes break down the remains, producing material that can eventually nourish trees and gardens.

US operator Recompose says its process takes 8-12 weeks, including a curing period. Remaining bones are mechanically ground down and mixed back in, and artificial implants are removed.