How the West Made Trump's Destruction Possible

A guest article by Herfried Münkler on DER SPIEGEL

Donald Trump's geopolitics resembles a gigantic demolition project. The world after him will be a landscape of rubble. And will Europe be a plaything of the great powers?

HERE WE BEGIN OUR TREK THROUGH THE MURKY MAJOR CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN EUROPE PREPARING FOR WAR AND FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING…

THOUGH EUROPE HAS A DEFINITE PLAN ON GLOBAL WARMING, ONE CANNOT ESCAPE THAT IT APPEARS TO BE LIP SERVICE TO CALM THE ECOLOGISTS AND THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS, WITHOUT DOING MUCH ELSE...

Households are guaranteed a further $150 in energy bill rebates after the Coalition immediately matched Labor’s budget commitment, despite describing the support as a “Band-Aid to a bullet wound” of high power prices.

In a widely anticipated announcement ahead of Tuesday’s federal budget, the government confirmed on Sunday that it would extend power bill relief until the end of 2025 for all households and about 1m small businesses.

A delivery of second-hand Australian Abrams tanks to Ukraine faces possible complications after US President Donald Trump's recent temporary freeze on military assistance to the war-torn nation. 

Complications are emerging over how aging Abrams tanks gifted to Ukraine by Australia will be sent to the frontline, following Mr Trump's decision to freeze military assistance to the war-torn nation.

As the Defence department acknowledges the international military transfer remains "complex", the ABC can also reveal Ukraine's Defence Minister Rustem Umierov is scheduled to soon visit Canberra to discuss Australia's ongoing support.

Australia must take up the challenge presented by its rift with the United States over trade and foreign policy to strengthen bilateral relationships with other countries in these critical areas. We should also move to capitalise on the opportunities President Donald Trump has created by pulling back on climate commitments and USAID.

John Hewson
Road map to a US reset

A New York Times report on Thursday is either fake or people at the FBI or CIA ran to the paper to undermine their boss, though there’s no real reason both can’t be true.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid the asking price for Itamar Ben-Gvir’s return to the government in advance. Not out of his own pocket, of course, but with the blood of the 59 hostages whose fate could be sealed by the resumption of the war, which has already sealed the fate of hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children.

Russia’s diplomacy chief, Sergey Lavrov has had to deal with eight US secretaries of state, impressing almost all of them. Let’s have a glimpse at his track record with US diplomats.

LAVROV AND COLIN POWELL (2004-2005) Lavrov’s encounters with US foreign policy began with George W. Bush's trusted lieutenant, Colin Powell. Lavrov and Powell discussed global security, focusing on NATO's eastward expansion and the US invasion of Iraq, which Russia opposed.

WHEN SVANTE ARRHENIUS DID HIS CALCULATIONS IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY, HE PREDICTED THAT THE AMOUNT OF CO2 RELEASED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE BY THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION STARTED 50 YEARS EARLIER WAS ENOUGH TO RAISE GLOBAL TEMPERATURES BY ABOUT 2 (TWO) DEGREES CELSIUS. 

WAS HE CORRECT?

To a great degree, Arrhenius was accurate. Yet more than 130 years later, with emissions of CO2 from our industries having gone more than ten folds on his input, our planet has only warmed up by 1.49 degrees Celsius… 

What happened? What is happening and what will happen? 

The industrial revolution changed the Western World, which in turn changed the rest of the human planet…

Yesterday I read the following lines on the Internet – unfortunately without an author’s reference: This has never happened before: a man who has not even been elected chancellor yet negotiates the biggest borrowing in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany with parties that lost the election, in a Bundestag that has long since been dissolved.

If you had described Friedrich Merz’s current behavior to a German 10 years ago, you would have been declared insane and put in a clinic without raising a fuss.

Friedrich Merz, who refuses to form a coalition with the AFD because he accuses them of right-wing extremism, is preparing Germany for war against Russia. The AFD wants peace with Russia, Russia seeks peace, the Americans want peace and Merz opposes all those who seek peace.

Retired Royal Navy Rear Admiral Chris Parry stated that Russia would not be able to defend itself against a massive ICBM strike.

"One Trident submarine has the ability to incinerate 40 Russian cities very quickly. That is a lot of food for thought for Putin and that should make any world leader fearful," he told The Telegraph.

However, concerns have been raised about the state of Britain’s nuclear fleet. The Vanguard-class submarines are more than 25 years old, and two recent missile tests have ended in failure.

The UK possesses four Vanguard-class nuclear submarines:

• HMS Victorious,
• HMS Vanguard,
• HMS Vigilant,
• and HMS Vengeance.

Each is equipped with Trident ICBMs capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The big news on house insurance this week was the response of the insurance industry’s peak body to a parliamentary committee’s extensive criticisms of its treatment of people claiming on their policies after the massive floods of 2022.

The Insurance Council of Australia accepted some of the committee’s recommendations, announced an “industry action plan” and generally promised to be good boys in future. But the consumer groups were unimpressed.

Former US President Joe Biden has offered to raise funds, campaign, and do whatever is needed to help Democrats regain ground lost to the Republicans during his tenure, NBC News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Biden has reportedly made the offer in private conversations with party leaders, including a meeting last month with new Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin. The former president expressed his willingness to support the party amid its declining popularity, according to individuals familiar with the discussions.

Democratic favorability among registered voters polled recently for NBC came in at 27% — the lowest since polling began in 1990.

Broken promises and burned pipelines: Why diplomacy with Kiev is a dead end
Ukraine blew up a Russian gas facility just days after a mutual agreement not to do just that. As if anyone expected something different.

By Nadezhda Romanenko

In a brazen act of duplicity, Ukraine has once again demonstrated that it is not a reliable partner for diplomacy – let alone peace.

Mere days after a US-brokered agreement saw Moscow and Kiev commit to a mutual moratorium on targeting each other’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian forces reportedly launched a deliberate strike on a gas metering station in Russia’s Kursk region. This was no accident, no miscommunication, and no unfortunate timing—it was a calculated breach of trust and yet another glaring signal that Ukraine cannot be reasoned with.

Russian President Vladimir Putin would breach a peace deal with Ukraine if it is not defended, Sir Keir Starmer has said, after attending a meeting of senior military leaders in London.

The UK prime minister said any agreement to stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine would "only be lasting" if there were "security arrangements in place".

He was speaking at Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, London, where more than 20 countries gathered at a closed meeting to discuss proposals for troops in Ukraine to help guarantee the country's security as part of any peace deal.

Sir Keir said security arrangements would make clear to Russia there would be "severe consequences if they are to breach any deal".