Modern despots increasingly mimic the language and rituals of democracy while concentrating power through manipulation, spectacle, nationalism and the managed consent of their citizens.

Let’s begin with a troubling truth: in many countries, hundreds of millions of people feel that when it comes to the biggest decisions affecting their lives, despite all the talk of ‘democracy’ and ’the people’, they have no control over those who decide things in their name. Their shared experience of organised powerlessness is amplified by fears that our small blue planet is spinning out of control.

John Keane

https://yandex.com/video/preview/16613307568494764927

https://yandex.com/video/preview/13089194321333632740

https://yandex.com/video/preview/2247940627282892935

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

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

The NSW Parliament’s antisemitism report was folded into the Bondi Royal Commission, missing the airing of contesting views and rigorous questioning. Stephen Lawrence MLC writes.

Throughout 2025, I served on Australia’s first parliamentary inquiry into society-wide antisemitism. When the Bondi terrorist atrocity occurred, we had yet to finalise a report, and I supported the decision to simply send our evidence to the Royal Commission.

A notable feature of our inquiry was the care taken to test evidence and contentions through robust questioning.

This included testing key witnesses vigorously as to the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Israel, and on other key contentions and demands of Jewish representative groups of a Zionist perspective.

While the leaders of the world’s two largest economies are meeting in Beijing, FOX News anchor Bret Baier is waltzing around the city doing his job: scaremongering his viewers back in the United States about just how draconian China’s traffic enforcement is.

Baier claimed that he asked his Chinese driver to park illegally while they were filming, resulting in an instant fine after being caught on traffic cameras. You know exactly how FOX News are going to frame this, right?

Well, at least you won’t be surprised!

But today, I also want to show you another video, not a propaganda video carefully curated by the FOX News team, but one filmed by a Beijing local which shows exactly the regard Baier and his team have for law and order here in China.

With the US ceasefire announced on April 8 all but over, the conflict with Iran is intensifying. President Trump is escalating threats of renewed military attacks against Tehran.

On Monday, Trump dismissed Iran’s latest reply to a US proposal as “totally unacceptable,” called it a “piece of garbage,” and said he “didn’t even finish reading it.” He said the ceasefire—which effectively ended last week when the US fired on Iranian military targets—was on “massive life support.”

Trump threatens Iran will be “decimated” if it does not accept US-dictated deal

BY Kevin Reed

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Space Command (SPACECOM) and US allies expect to finalize a joint plan for future orbital warfare by the end of the year, SPACECOM Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting said.

"We are in the process now of building a defense of orbital assets CONOPS [an orbit Concept of Operations] together," Whiting said on Tuesday at the Mitchell Institute in Washington, as quoted by Breaking Defense.

He expects to have it finished by the end of this year.

According to the general, the US and its allies must determine how to combine their space capabilities, avoid duplicating efforts, and subsequently integrate and synchronize them.

The EU’s imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) has reached a record high this year, amid the growing energy crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to a report by a US-based energy think tank.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) reports that the bloc’s imports jumped 16% year on year in January-March, with France, Spain, and Belgium accounting for most deliveries. Russia remains the EU’s second-largest LNG supplier, despite the bloc aiming to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027, it noted.

EU countries spent €5.9 billion ($6.9 billion) on Russian pipeline gas and €6.7 billion on Russian LNG in 2025, according to the report. Russia accounted for about 13% of the EU’s combined natural gas and LNG imports in 2025, according to previous data.

This budget is a Labor dream come true. It will redistribute income from investors to workers.

It will redistribute real estate opportunity from the prosperous old to the aspirational young.

And, because it’s a Labor dream, it’ll be attacked by the Coalition as a nightmare. Which is exactly what the Albanese government is hoping for.

This budget will be attacked as a nightmare. That’s exactly what the PM wants

BY [SMH] Peter Hartcher

As Lebanon marks a month since “Black Wednesday”, when massive Israeli strikes killed 361 people, the international community continues to call on the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah. But the US legal imperative to ensure Israel has a “qualitative military edge” (QME) has kept the Lebanese military under-funded, under-equipped and unable to perform its role.

Keeping the Lebanese army weak: A hardened US military doctrine at Israel's service

By Leela JACINTO

[2025]... Remember when empty shipping containers were worth their weight in gold? Just a few years ago, after COVID-19 turned global logistics upside down, everyone was scrambling for metal boxes. Fast forward to May 2025, and the script has flipped completely.

Turns out we’ve got the opposite problem now. The shipping industry isn’t worrying about shortages anymore—they’re trying to figure out what to do with all these extra containers. Sluggish trade, political tensions, and new economic blocs have left ports with more capacity than they need. To understand how we got here, we need to rewind to the crisis days and track what changed.

France’s star-shaped fortress has fallen, and the colonial ledger is bleeding out in the desert sun. While Emmanuel Macron smiles for the cameras in Nairobi, Ibrahim Traoré is rewriting the rules of African sovereignty with blood, steel, and a 35% stake in the future.

Ibrahim Traore, Labazanga victory, Mali lithium 35%, Goulamina project, Macron Nairobi trip, AES Alliance, Francafrique collapse, Africa geopolitics 2026, Sahel security tax, Pan-African Pulse, black history real time, African sovereignty, lithium price 2026, colonial extraction, Ibrahim Traore speech 2026

The END of FRANÇAFRIQUE: How TRAORÉ’S Masterstroke In LABAZANGA Destroyed MACRON’S Ambition?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn-QkzffFlA

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The US has launched a probe into more than 120 American-funded biological labs abroad, including in Ukraine, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the New York Post on Monday.

Russia has consistently raised concerns about Pentagon-backed biological labs worldwide, particularly near its borders and in Ukraine, alleging that they are involved in bioweapons research.

Gabbard said that the move aims to halt risky virus experiments and follows President Donald Trump’s order restricting federal funding for “gain-of-function” research – studies that examine how viruses replicate and interact with human cells to increase their transmissibility.