With its subtropical climate allowing for multiple fruit harvests a year, its fine sandy beaches along the Black Sea, and its hiking trails winding through deep forests and snow-capped Caucasus peaks, Abkhazia—once a holiday retreat for the Soviet *nomenklatura*—could be a tourist paradise featured in every travel agency’s catalog, much like Thailand or Acapulco.

A citizens' call to bring Abkhazia out of isolation

BY Frédéric DELORCA

Backed by their cheerleader-in-chief, Chris Minns, when you thought Murdoch writers couldn’t stoop any lower, they did. Andrew Brown was there.

On October 7, the Daily Telegraph told Sydney that “subhuman ghouls” were gathering again to celebrate a slaughter of innocents. I was at that gathering. It was a candlelight vigil at Town Hall, organised by Jews Against the Occupation ’48. About 200 people came, mostly older Australians.

They prayed for the Jewish and Palestinian dead.

Chris Minns called the vigil “heartless”. Four days later, last Sunday, October 11, thousands marched for Gaza, and Minns called them “disgraceful”. Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry called the marchers “obsessive, extreme and hateful”.

As President Donald Trump and his administration have ratcheted up pressure on Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries, citing harm to American consumers, they have remained silent on recent Russian strikes on US businesses in Ukraine.

MI5 chief Ken McCallum has urged the public not to exaggerate the impact of alleged Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum.

McCallum’s comments came after some pro-Brexit politicians accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of questioning the legitimacy of the vote by claiming it is “clear” that Russia interfered.

MI5 chief warns against exaggerating ‘Russian influence’ on Brexit

Ken McCallum’s remarks came after Prime Minister Andy Burnham claimed Moscow interfered in the 2016 referendum

Russia has firmly denied that it meddles in British domestic politics, including the 2016 referendum.

Incoming White House press secretary Katie Zacharia pledged to get to work immediately when she takes over the podium Monday, defending President Donald Trump's recent diesel deal as a move she says will help lower gas and grocery prices.

Speaking on "Fox & Friends Weekend," Zacharia said Trump is using a "multifaceted" approach to tackle inflation while balancing U.S. interests overseas.

In the 1930s, during the formation of Saudi Arabia, three provinces were taken from Yemen. The Yemeni have always wanted them back. They are now in a position where they may eventually achieve that aim.

The western parts of Yemen are unlike the deserts of Saudi Arabia. The area is mountainous and gets a decent amount of precipitation. Some 80 percent of the 33 million Yemeni live in there. Agricultural production in the mountains is however difficult and Yemen has long been dependent on trade to acquire enough food to keep its people alive.

War Against Yemen Endangers Saudi Crown Prince’s Position

by Moon of Alabama

Washington has reportedly pressured several governments to withdraw their support for a conference organized by an EU-funded “anti-disinfo” NGO that designated the US a potential source of foreign disinformation.

The event host is EU DisinfoLab, one of Brussels’ info-gatekeepers deployed to scapegoat and smear dissidents opposing the bloc’s political course. The NGO notoriously launched its career by labeling online critics of French President Emmanuel Macron as “Russophiles.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned those on the progressive side of politics not to “scold” or “mock” potential One Nation voters but instead to take seriously the task of persuading them away from the insurgent party. 

By directly acknowledging the seriousness of One Nation’s support and advancing a strategy for tackling it, Chalmers is underscoring that the party is a threat to Labor, not just to the Coalition. 

Delivering the Bernie Fraser Oration, sponsored by the Australia Institute, a progressive think tank, on Tuesday night, Chalmers also had a sobering message for straitened households. Reserve Bank and Treasury forecasts did not expect economic conditions to get much better in the next three months, he said, although they did expect things to get “a bit better” over the next year.

Republicans could be looking at a major wipeout in the midterm elections. 

Their tiny House majority was always going to be difficult to maintain, but the Senate should not be in play at all. Yet it surely is, with Democrats leading in nearly all the toss-up races, including in the reddest states, and competitive in at least a dozen of the contests that will determine which party controls the upper chamber.

BY W. James Antle III

It is more likely that Beijing will regard the issue as one relating to European competitiveness and demand, not merely to Chinese “unfairness”.

Europe and China Trade Negotiations: Can Brussels Face Reality?
Part 2

Ricardo Martins

That is to say, Brussels wishes for China to alter certain aspects of its economic behaviour. Beijing, on the other hand, wants Europe to look at its own competitiveness and refrain from imposing protectionist restrictions. These constitute very different negotiating positions.

Notice how the state and billionaire-owned media impose certain obligatory preconditions on politicians before they’re allowed to join the national conversation as respectable, and respected, participants. There are many examples, but let’s take two of the most obvious:

1. Do you condemn Hamas?
2. Does Israel have a right to exist?

Both relate to Israel, and both serve to strictly police political discourse — and in ways that extend far beyond the specific issue of Israel.

By Jonathan Cook

Our readers are familiar with the arguments put forward by the “Collective West” to justify the wars currently underway — and likely those to come as well; they are well known and need not be repeated ad nauseam; they are hollow and utterly disingenuous. As a consequence of these “justifications,” the West views Russians as aggressive subhumans who will attack the West to achieve their imperialist goals — not for the first time, but time and again. Yet every time, it was the West that attacked and brought death and destruction upon Russia.

I Have a Dream!

George Galloway — veteran British politician, seven-time MP, and one of the UK's most compelling speakers — visits Fudan University to share his observations on the evolution of British politics, shifting global dynamics, and East-West relations. Drawing on five decades of public life, Galloway offers a candid and thought-provoking perspective on a changing world.

George Galloway: The West is trying to stop the sun from rising — on China, NATO, Trump and WWIII

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xl-7GGYzo4

PLEASE VISIT:

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

         Gus Leonisky

The opposition leader has sought to give his troops a rev-up in the joint Coalition party room, telling the room that 'project Albanese has failed'.

His broad speech covered everything from interest rate hikes and fuel prices, to coal-mine approvals, immigration policy and defence spending.

It echoed the speech Angus Taylor gave to CPAC over the weekend, where he sought to convince the conservative heartland the Coalition was "the most credible alternative government".