BEFORE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE ABC THAT FOLLOWS THIS EXPLANATION, HANDS UP THOSE WHO THINK THAT RUSSIA WILL ABANDON THE DONBASS TERRITORIES AND CRIMEA, FOR PEACE?... OKAY I CAN SEE A FEW HANDS UP...

LET ME TELL YOU RUSSIA WILL NEVER GIVE UP THESE OBLASTS WHICH USED TO BE RUSSIAN... 100 PER CENT. SO WHATEVER YUCKRAINE [THE NAZI KIEV REGIME SUPPORTED BY THE NATO/EU/UK/US FASCISTS] IS DOING, INCLUDING KILLING SCHOOL GIRLS, WON'T MAKE AN OUNCE ON THE RESULT. 

SO WHY CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR SOMETHING THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN?

I SEE, THIS CONFLICT ISN'T ABOUT YUCKRAINE WINNING [IT'S LOSING 1,100 SOLDIERS A DAY ON AVERAGE] BUT ABOUT NATO SHARPENING ITS TEETH FOR THE BIG ONE IN 2029... NATO DECLARING WAR ON RUSSIA [THAT'S THE PLAN]... MEANWHILE, LOSING-UKRAINE IS A TESTING BED FOR NEW WESTERN WEAPONS DESIGNED TO MATCH THE RUSSIANS... WHICH THEY WON'T MATCH....

Defence Minister Richard Marles says taxpayers will save money by ditching a plan to acquire a new and upgraded nuclear-powered submarine from the United States, but experts warn Australia will receive a less capable vessel with a shorter lifespan under the AUKUS shift.

Marles and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday said the last of three Virginia-class submarines Australia plans to buy from the US will now be second-hand rather than a new boat as originally planned.

Under the AUKUS plan announced in 2023, Australia was to buy a mix of new and second-hand submarines from the US. The vision was for two second-hand US submarines to arrive beginning in 2032 and the third submarine was to be a new and improved Block VII Virginia-class boat.

If President Donald Trump succeeds in closing a “deal” with Iran, the more likely ultimate outcome in the months ahead is that it will fail – just as the “deal” he made to end the war in Gaza is failing. No Nobel likely.

Germany’s policy on Russia is riddled with contradictions, veteran German politician Sahra Wagenknecht has argued, accusing Berlin of punishing Moscow over alleged violations of international law while excusing similar accusations leveled against the US and damaging its own economy in the process.

Speaking at a public appearance in Berlin this week, Wagenknecht took aim at Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s support for the Western sanctions on Russia and his stance on international law.

Fans torched scooters and clashed with police in Paris on Saturday after local football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) won the Champions League, defeating Arsenal.

According to AFP, some 20,000 people gathered on the Champs-Elysees to watch a broadcast of the match, which was played in Budapest, Hungary. The crowd erupted in celebration after the French club beat its English rival in a dramatic 4-3 penalty shootout.

Violence soon broke out as some fans set scooters on fire and launched fireworks at police.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that 416 people have been detained. One officer was injured.

Police detained several people outside the Parc des Princes stadium.

FOLLOWING THIS INTRODUCTION, AN ARTICLE IN THE SMH HAS TO BE READ KNOWING THE FACT THAT NATO AND THE WEST PROVOKED THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE... IT HAS TO BE RECOGNISED THAT BY APRIL 2022, THE UKRAINIAN ARMY HAD BEEN DEFEATED AND THE RUSSIAN ARMY STOPPED SHORT OF ENTERING KIEV BECAUSE A PEACE DEAL WAS BEEING NEGOTIATED IN TURKEY.

A senior lawmaker from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU has proposed requiring Germans to use their homes to pay for elderly care, triggering a political row over social welfare amid the country’s mounting fiscal pressures.

The proposal by Albert Stegemann, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, would tighten eligibility rules for public assistance with nursing-home costs, potentially requiring homeowners to draw on property wealth before receiving state support.

“Those who own assets must first use their own assets, including their home, before the community pays,” Stegemann told Bild on Thursday.

AI megacorporations like OpenAI and Anthropic have scraped every word of human knowledge from the internet, and the US government is helping them sell it back to the public, Google whistleblower Zach Vorhies has told RT.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman caused controversy last month during an appearance at BlackRock in Washington DC, when he described his company’s vision of “a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

US government protecting ‘data cartels’ – whistleblower to RT (VIDEO)

Sam Altman’s Open AI is building a monopoly on human knowledge, Zach Vorhies has warned

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, US defence secretary struck a relatively balanced tone in his address, first acknowledging some progress in China-US ties before expressing the usual Western rhetorics over China’s military strength. Analysts note that Hegseth’s speech contained a relatively higher degree of positive remarks on the bilateral ties compared with previous years. However, these remarks were still accompanied by persistent stereotypes and flawed assumptions about China’s strategic intentions.

Hegseth’s Shangri-La address shows more positivity on China-US ties, but also familiar rhetoric: Chinese experts

By Su Yaxuan and Guo Yuandan in Singapore and Li Aixin in Beijing

America is Profiteering on the Coffins of Innocent Iranians

Pranay Kumar Shome

The United States is caught in a trap of its own making. It wants to preserve its unique position in world politics, while at the same time freeing itself from the growing burden that this position imposes. Yet Washington hasn’t found any way to do so except by insisting, ever more loudly, on its own superiority so the result is that America clings more tightly to the very role it should have consciously begun to abandon long ago.

This is the dangerous myth holding America hostage

Washington’s global supremacy has become its own tar pit

By Timofey Bordachev

French officials and analysts are raising the alarm after former RT France chief Xenia Fedorova began appearing regularly on major conservative media outlets in the country. They warn that Kremlin-aligned narratives are gaining visibility ahead of crucial elections, testing the limits of free speech in France. 

The soft-spoken commentator delivered her views in fluent, Russian-accented French, as she appeared this week on one of France's most influential television channels.

New Liberal federal president Tony Abbott has sought to rally the party at “this time of existential crisis”, labelling it “the patriot party” and declaring it must boost its membership. 

While not directly mentioning the threat from Pauline Hanson, One Nation’s surge was clearly in Abbott’s mind when he addressed the Liberal federal council in Melbourne after being elected president unopposed on Friday.

New Liberal president Abbott tells party it must build bigger membership in time of ‘existential crisis’

BY Michelle Grattan

Pope Leo’s first encyclical offers a vision in which human dignity and relationships guide technological development rather than people becoming slaves to technology.

Adrian Rosenfeldt