MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Defense Secretary John Healey said that he wants to be the first in the role to send British troops to Ukraine.

"I want to be the Defence Secretary who deploys British troops to Ukraine – because this will mean that this war is finally over," Healey wrote in a comment published in the Telegraph newspaper on Saturday.

A 70-person headquarters has been set up as part of a multinational force for Ukraine that was unveiled in Paris in January, the minister said.

In early January, Paris hosted a meeting of the "coalition of the willing," which saw UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledge to establish military bases across Ukraine together with France in the event of a ceasefire.

The death of James Petras—the American sociologist whose writings influenced generations of critical thinkers across continents—passed through the world almost like a whisper. A scholar who spent his life exposing the violence of power, the inequalities of global capitalism, and the illusions of empire left this world with little noise beyond small circles of readers and comrades. In a time when intellectual eminence is often measured by luminosity, the silence around his passing speaks volumes about the place reserved for dissenting voices in contemporary public life.

James Petras: The Radical Scholar the World Chose to Ignore

By K. M. Seethi

Originally published: The Wire

On July 20, 2016, Epstein fired off a link to an article about the erupting 1MDB scandal in Malaysia, where billions had been siphoned from the sovereign wealth fund into a vortex of luxury yachts, Hollywood films, and shadowy international bank accounts. He didn’t just share the news—he provided her with a link to a New York Times article about the 1MDB scandal, before dispensing advice, warning her how American prosecutors might scrutinise her every move in relation to this massive scandal.

Buried in DOJ Files: Epstein Was a Fixer for Rothschild Banking Dynasty

BY FREDDIE PONTON

Whenever you say anything online opposing the way the US is preparing for war with Iran or strangling Cuba to death with siege warfare, you’ll always get people whose family comes from the nation in question telling you to be silent and support the US war machine. Their family emigrated at some point because they didn’t like the government, so now they spend their time on social media telling everyone to support US operations to topple that government.

Tell Iranian And Cuban Diaspora Warmongers To Shut The Fuck Up

I’m going to oppose the most evil and depraved agendas of the western power structure I live under, thank you very much. If you don’t like it you can go choke on a dick.

Caitlin Johnstone

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the chief instruments of global capital, has been calling on China for some time to reorient its economic policies and reduce its reliance on exports, with the implied threat there will be retaliation from other major powers if it does not do so.

IMF calls on China to restructure its economy

by Nick Beams

Following last year’s record Chinese trade surplus of $1.2 trillion, the latest IMF report on China released earlier this week was more specific on what it considers needs to be done.

Iran has not backed down in the face of the increasing US military presence in the Middle East, much to the frustration of President Trump. Meanwhile, there have been further student protests in Iran.

Iran: Trump 'curious' as to why Tehran hasn't 'capitulated'

BY Louis Oelofse | Matt Ford with AFP, Reuters

US President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not yielded to mounting military pressure, according to special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Too often I dream

Our lousy world leaders

Spirited from the ice cream

But to the world’s horrors

Replacement would be

Stung evermore by the bee

Imagine Rubio Hegseth or Vance

Taking over the Donald’s trance

Spinning the macabre dance

Of a debauched Epstein stance

Should we take such a chance

Til one left is Chuck Schumer

Or a loser named Booker

Imagine the idiots replacing Sir Keir

Awaiting lodged in his hollow rear

Morons replacing Manu Macron

New imbecile Germany’s Chancellor

Adolph Hitlers with untold ambition

Nazi hypocrisy of crummy valour

Imagine second fiddles ruling the roost

Your beautiful panic getting a boost

New leaders being bought

With money and sex

No second thought

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Could we?

Only Parliamentary nerds noticed. One such nerd Rex Patrick noticed and reports on a transparency dummy spit by Labor on the floor of the Senate.

At about 3:30 pm each Senate sitting day (except Thursdays, when it occurs at 11:45 am) ‘Formal Business’ is dealt with. This includes boring matters, such as the seeking of approval for senators to be absent, but also more interesting matters such as the ordering of the Government to provide documents to the Senate and referrals of matters to Senate Committees.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference last weekend was another troubling declaration of intent by the Trump administration.

From the bestselling author of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the fascinating story of how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power for more than 2,000 years....

Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern

BY Mary Beard

Arab and Muslim-majority countries have condemned US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee for arguing that Israel has a biblical right to much of the Middle East.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson released on Friday, Huckabee, a Baptist minister and self-described Christian Zionist, said it “would be fine”if Israel took territory stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates. He later added that Israel is not seeking to expand its territory and has a right to maintain its security.

The Arab League, a coalition of 22 member states, slammed the remarks as “highly extremist,” saying they are “inconsistent with the fundamental principles and norms of diplomacy.”

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Epstein files comprise over six million pages.[1] So far about three and a half million files have been made public, among them 180,000 images and 2,000 videos

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that the UK and its allies should deploy non-combat troops to Ukraine right now, to "flip a switch" in Russian President Vladimir Putin's head.

Speaking exclusively to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg alongside the former head of the military, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, Johnson said troops should be sent to peaceful regions in non-fighting roles.

"This week’s news that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died after allegedly ingesting poison from a South American frog while imprisoned in the Arctic is a reminder that Russia also has a long history of assassinating critics of the regime."

.....

This sentence buried in an article in The Conversation about political assassinations is cleverly using the word “allegedly”. If you believe that Navalny was poisoned with a dart frog thingy, you would also believe that my grandmother was a professional cyclist circumnavigating the moon on Michelin tyres.