As a tsunami of crocodile tears engulfs Western politicians, history is suppressed. More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the United States, Britain and their “allies” destroyed.

In 1978, a liberation movement led by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) overthrew the dictatorship of Mohammad Dawd, the cousin of King Zahir Shah. It was an immensely popular revolution that took the British and Americans by surprise.

 

The Great Game of Smashing Nations

2021 ARTICLE BY JOHN PILGER

 

French Prime Minister François Bayrou has warned that he will use special executive powers to force his government’s contentious 2025 budget through parliament without a vote – a move that is certain to trigger a no-confidence motion...

 

French PM Bayrou says will force through contentious budget without a vote

 

France’s minority government faced the prospect of a no-confidence motion next week after Prime Minister François Bayrou confirmed he would use special powers to force through his budget without a vote in parliament.

China will file a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and take other retaliatory measures against US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on its goods, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. According to the statement, Beijing sees Washington’s unilateral tariff increase as “seriously violating” WTO rules.

Trump announced new tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada on Saturday, citing concerns over the three countries’ failures in stemming the flow of migrants and illegal drugs, such as fentanyl, into the US. In order to hike the tariffs, Trump declared a national economic emergency, invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which authorizes the president to unilaterally manage imports.

 

As campaigning ramps up ahead of the date announcement for the 2025 federal election, shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash says Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would take action in the same manner as US President Donald Trump.

Answering a question on Nine’s Today this morning, Cash said Trump was showing that “he’s a man of action” by delivering his promised tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

 

Dutton would deliver the ‘exact same’ attitude as Trump: Michaelia Cash
By Josefine Ganko

 

“The American people, they expect action. And that is what they’re getting. And they’ll get the exact same attitude under a Peter Dutton government,” Cash said.

 

In 2024, member states collectively spent an average of 1.9% of GDP on defence, while Russia was spending 9%, Kaja Kallas told the audience of the European Defence Agency annual conference on Monday.

The European Union must boost its defence spending to "prepare for the worst" and be able to defend itself "alone if needed" against a belligerent Russia, the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday. 

"Many of our national intelligence agencies* are giving us the information that Russia could test the EU's readiness to defend itself in three to five years," Kallas told the audience at the European Defence Agency's annual conference in Brussels. 

What do Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and John Howard have in common with the Piltdown Man? They all managed to sell a hoax that lasted for decades, before it was exposed as completely false. But wait, their hoax is still central to transglobal neoliberal capitalism’s stranglehold on us all, whereas Charles Dawson’s 1912 forged ‘missing link’ skull from East Sussex became a lesson in how dangerous it is to let preconceptions override evidence.

 

Hoaxes that gush for winners and trickle down for losers    By Robbie Lloyd

 

Jan 30 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday warned off BRICS member countries from replacing the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency by repeating a 100%-tariffs threat he had made weeks after winning the November presidential elections.

"We are going to require a commitment from these seemingly hostile Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs," Trump said on Truth Social in a statement nearly identical to one he posted on Nov. 30.

 

NPR Chief's DIABOLICAL Comments on ‘Truth’ Trigger FCC INVESTIGATION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyG2p-YBEe8

 

The CEO Of NPR, Katherine Maher, proudly showed off her lack of respect for the “truth” in a bizarre pseudo-intellectual Ted Talk. Trish Regan rips Maher’s ridiculous and elitist narrative. Is it any wonder that Trump’s FCC just launched an investigation into National Public Radio?

 

The Bureau of Meteorology has been using hundreds of millions of dollars granted specifically for “proactive” maintenance of its ageing weather observing system to prop up the agency’s deteriorating financial position and cover cost overruns on major technology rollouts. According to a scathing audit report, it has also failed to account for this money.

The blistering assessment from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has revealed an agency with missing plans or inexplicable broken promises. It is only meeting between 52 and 79 per cent of its own preventive maintenance targets and there are unresolved work orders on its live dashboards that are four years old.

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GUSNOTE: NOT BEING FAMILIAR WITH THIS SHAKESPEARE'S PLAY, I HAD TO DIG AROUND TO FIND A MODERN INTERPRETATION. FROM THE NEW YORKER:

There’s cleverness in Ralph Fiennes’s adaptation of “Coriolanus” but little beauty. It would be an insult to prose writers to say that his filming is prosaic rather than poetic; rather, the movie is filmed merely functionally. Fiennes updates the story—of a great and proud Roman warrior whose contempt for commoners results in his exile, where he makes common cause with the city’s enemies, the Volscians, and prepares to make war on Rome—to a current-day “place calling itself Rome” (a reference to John Osborne’s 1973 adaptation; also, a place where Serbian graffiti is legible on walls).  

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/notes-on-coriolanus

A “huge” new bureaucracy, numbering thousands of extra public servant positions, would need to be created by the Coalition to establish and support an Australian nuclear power industry, according to the minister for public service, Katy Gallagher.

The proposal for a civil nuclear power program, as described by shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien last year, included “institutional architecture” that he said would entail an expansion of the regulatory agency, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), a new independent nuclear energy coordinating authority and a government business enterprise to be called Affordable Energy Australia.

 

Exclusive: Dutton’s nuclear plan requires ‘huge’ new bureaucracy

Moscow has condemned remarks by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres which omitted mention of the Red Army’s role in freeing the inmates of Auschwitz, as well as the Soviet Union’s sacrifices in defeating Nazi Germany.  Guterres spoke on Monday to mark the anniversary of the concentration camp’s liberation.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Saturday that the UN chief’s remarks were “outrageous” and accused him of yielding to “distorted political correctness popular in the West.”

When Donald J. Trump sued CBS for $10 billion days before the 2024 election, accusing the company of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, many legal experts dismissed the litigation as a far-fetched attempt to punish an out-of-favor news outlet.

 

Paramount in Settlement Talks With Trump Over ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit

A settlement, if reached, would be an extraordinary concession by a major U.S. media company to a sitting president.

He began with a sombre tone.

"This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital and in our nation's history — a tragedy of terrible proportions," Donald Trump told the packed room of journalists.

"As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly."

He asked those at Thursday's press conference to join him in a moment of silence to reflect on the 67 lives lost the night before.

But that moment proved to be the proverbial calm before the storm.

 

Donald Trump turns aviation tragedy into new front in the culture wars
By North America correspondent Carrington Clarke