German lawmakers want former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock questioned over Berlin’s failure to secure a seat on the UN Security Council, Bild reports. According to the outlet, the ruling CDU/CSU alliance blames the former top diplomat for the setback and wants her summoned before the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Germany failed to win a non-permanent seat on the UNSC – the UN’s most powerful body, with authority to adopt legally binding resolutions and sanctions – for the first time in modern history on Wednesday, losing out to Portugal and Austria. Germany won all six previous contests it entered since 1977, but this time received only 104 votes, well short of the required two-thirds majority.

Donald Trump has not only made war on Iran. He has traded through it.

In the first three months of 2026, an account in the president’s name executed 3,642 trades worth hundreds of million of dollars. US regulators are examining oil futures trades placed shortly before major Trump policy shifts on Iran. In March, roughly $580 million in oil futures changed hands in a single minute before Trump posted about talks with Iran — nearly nine times the average volume for that window over the previous five trading days. On Polymarket, nine linked accounts made $2.4 million betting on Iran war outcomes, with a 98% win rate.

PI Briefing | No. 16 | The Wages of Aggression
From oil futures to fertiliser markets, the US-Israeli war on Iran is rippling through the world economy — and sharpening the choice between scarcity and sovereignty.

ACCORDING TO A VERY DEAR OLD FRIEND, THE WORLD IS GOING DOWN THE CHUTE... DAILY WE CAN SEE THE LIKES OF AMERICA AND ISRAEL DOING THEIR BEST TO MAKE US MISERABLY UNCERTAIN ABOUT THE VALUE OF BEING GOOD... WHILE THEY INDULGE IN TERRIBLE POLITICS.

MEANWHILE, MOST OF US ARE REASONABLY COMFORTABLE DESPITE THESE TURMOILS... [WE HAVE ENOUGH CASH TO GAMBLE AND DRINK AT THE PUB] BUT WE ARE PUSHED TO BE NEGATIVE AND FIGHT SOMETHING WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW — [RATHER THAN BE CONTRIBUTING SOMETHING] — BY THE LIKES OF GRUMPY CHARACTERS SUCH AS PAULINE HANSON AND ANGUS TAYLOR BECAUSE LABOR IS TRYING TO MAKE A MORE EQUITABLE BUDGET... THEN THE GREENS WILL COMPLAIN THAT LABOR ISN'T GOING FAR ENOUGH...

NO ONE IS HAPPY IN POLITICS...

The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has elevated the threat posed by Israeli espionage to the highest level as tensions over Iran and Lebanon grow, NBC News and the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The assessment, which was circulated internally in recent weeks, includes a seven-page document and a chart rating Israel’s human and technical intelligence-gathering capabilities as “critical,” according to NBC.

A truckload of lithium carbonate leaves a salar high in the Puna, on the border between Argentina and Chile, where the brine has spent eighteen months evaporating in turquoise ponds the size of small towns. It crosses the Andes, reaches a Pacific port, and sails to China. Some months later, a fraction of that same lithium returns to South America–not as a raw material but as the cells inside an imported electric car, or as the stationary battery in a solar installation, priced at many multiples of what it left at. The mineral made a round trip. The value did not. It got off the boat in Ningde and never came back.

Who owns the chain

by Emiliano López

Truly independent media depends on money from small donors. No wonder that it reports from the perspective of the average woman and man against corporate-controlled government agendas at home and abroad. 

With the concentration of Big Media in the hands of a few big corporations, and with Big Media supporting the militarist agenda of governments in pursuit of corporate profits, independent media has never been needed more than today, especially as the pursuit of power and profit has given us genocide and the peril of world war in a nuclear age.

Big Media and Independent Journalism

June 5, 2026

Big Media depends on big money from big corporations. No wonder that it promotes the corporate agenda and the agendas of governments that serve corporate interests.

Leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone expose how the Soros-run Open Society Foundations plotted to “prevent the continuation” of Indonesia’s elected government by bankrolling opposition media, youth activists groups and lawfare operations to remove President Prabowo Subianto.

BY KIT KLARENBERG

WAY BEFORE THERE WAS Cracked or Mad magazine, there was Puck, a weekly political satire publication out of St. Louis, Missouri. The founder of Puck, Joseph Ferdinand Keppler, published it in English and German, and each issue included several full-color illustrations: on the cover, on the background and on a double-page centerfold. Puck’s images were full of pawky humor that illustrated the political aspects and world line-up before the First World War. By 1884, its success was notable, with a circulation of at least 125,000 copies. 

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