GUSNOTE: TO TELL THE TRUTH [a theory about it], THE URANIUM TRUMP PROBLEM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IRAN BEING ABLE TO MAKE NUKES... 

On January 16, 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran has completed the necessary steps under the Iran deal that will ensure Iran's nuclear program is and remains exclusively peaceful.

Before this agreement, Iran's breakout time — or the time it would have taken for Iran to gather enough fissile material to build a weapon — was only two to three months. Today, because of the Iran deal, it would take Iran 12 months or more. And with the unprecedented monitoring and access this deal puts in place, if Iran tries, we will know and sanctions will snap back into place.

Here's how we got to this point. Since October, Iran has:

UK officials have pushed to bar journalists from a meeting between King Charles III and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, out of concern over potentially embarrassing incidents, The Guardian reported on Tuesday, citing people involved in planning the monarch’s trip to Washington.

According to the newspaper, the White House agreed that any meeting between the two leaders should be held off camera to avoid what it described as “potential humiliation.”Trump and Charles would pose for photographs but would not be filmed “talking about anything substantive.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has boldly signaled his ambition for Ukraine to become the central pillar of European security, using the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster to urge total European unity against Russia.

Speaking alongside Moldova's Maia Sandu, Zelensky outlined a strategy for deeper defense integration and a regional security axis. However, this aggressive pitch has sparked a fierce backlash from Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sharply accused Zelensky of attempting to dominate a new European military formation and criticized his diplomatic approach, claiming Zelensky has been openly rude to sitting US President Donald Trump.

As Kyiv and Moscow clash over the future of Europe's security architecture, the geopolitical stakes continue to rise.

"I am the evidence," was the eyebrow-raising comment made by Donald Trump when he appeared before the Scottish Parliament in 2012.

He was speaking as an "expert" witness on green energy targets, describing how he believed wind turbines were damaging tourism in Scotland. 

Five years before he first became US president, it was one of his earliest interventions on renewable energy - but since then his opposition to them has grown to become government policy in the world's biggest economy.

He was objecting to 11 turbines which were planned - and ultimately constructed - alongside his Aberdeenshire golf course.

Few believe British prime minister Keir Starmer when he says he learnt only recently that Peter Mandelson, his political mentor in the Labour party, failed to receive the security clearance needed to be appointed as ambassador to the United States in late 2024.

Starmer’s ‘Incredible’ Rise to Power

The system is rigged – and the political and media class rigging it are not about to draw our attention to the ugly reality of what they have been up to over the past decade

By Jonathan Cook

Writers and artists are being cancelled for their political views, even when those views are not expressed in their work, narrowing the space for cultural debate and free expression.

Is this the next step in cancel culture?

The University of Queensland Press has scrapped 5,000 copies of a forthcoming children’s book, Bila: A River Cycle by Wiradjuri poet Jazz Money, illustrated by Matt Chun.

Dennis Altman

Foolish boos marred Anzac Day and our remembrance of sacrifice. Michael Pascoe writes our most solemn day is a challenge, a reminder to be better, not national pride deserved.

Monday. It is a public holiday in NSW, WA and the ACT to compensate for Anzac Day falling on a Saturday. I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do, not sure it pays due respect to what, for now, is our real national day, a day with a solemn underpinning. 

But a holiday it is two days after the event. Discarded sprigs of rosemary binned, flags furled. Actual flags packed or shoved away, metaphorical flags at least wrapped a little less obviously around those who seek to wear them, brandish them.

Donald Trump likes to convey the impression of being a strong president who fully exercises the powers granted to him under the US Constitution. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he is allowed to initiate a military operation but must formally notify Congress within 48 hours. In the case of the Iran war, he did do this on time, on March 2.

Iran war deadline heats up Trump-Congress showdown

BY David Ehl

Some expressions have a unique history, and the term “state capitalism” is undoubtedly one of the most elastic in contemporary political science. When the West tries to name contemporary China, to offer a scholarly description of it, or, to use Marxist terminology, to identify the social formation that characterises it, “state capitalism” immediately bursts into the discourse: from right to left, from Marxists to liberals and including conservatives, everyone seems to agree. As if it were self-evident that China falls into such a category, a remarkable unanimity, from Steve Bannon to Frédéric Lordon, erases the usual ideological animosities. (1)

NON, LA CHINE N’EST PAS UN “CAPITALISME D’ETAT”

NO, CHINA IS NOT “STATE CAPITALISM”

BY Bruno GUIGUE

What if a country could bomb another nation… kidnap its president… and claim its natural resources as its own?

On January 3rd, 2026, under the leadership of Donald Trump, the United States launched a shocking military operation over Caracas, Venezuela. 150 warplanes. A full blackout. And the capture of Venezuela’s sitting president Nicolás Maduro.

Trump claimed Venezuela had “stolen American oil.” But was that oil ever America’s to begin with?

This video breaks down the real history of Venezuela’s oil industry, from foreign contracts with companies like ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell to the 1976 nationalization under Carlos Andrés Pérez. We uncover the truth behind ownership, compensation, and the global energy struggle.

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar, particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England. But in old times this contest was between subjects, or some classes of subjects, and the Government. By liberty, was meant protection against the tyranny of the political rulers. The rulers were conceived (except in some of the popular governments of Greece) as in a necessarily antagonistic position to the people whom they ruled.

On Liberty

John Stuart Mill — 1859

INTRODUCTION

The German Bundeswehr has for the first time officially adopted a military strategy, citing an increasingly dangerous international situation. The strategy defines the future focus of the German armed forces and analyzes how the Bundeswehr can counter potential threats.

"Rarely has a military strategy been as necessary as it is in this historic period," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during the presentation of the new strategy in Berlin.

Germany unveils first-ever military strategy for Bundeswehr

Australia’s defence and foreign policy settings are focused on geopolitical rivalry, while far greater systemic risks – especially climate disruption – receive little strategic attention.

Blinded to the greater risks, the Albanese Government and the security commentariat have spent four, unrelenting years making the case that China is the biggest threat to Australia’s future.

David Spratt

CNN — [2024] Elon Musk says artificial intelligence will take all our jobs and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“Probably none of us will have a job,” Musk said about AI at a tech conference on Thursday.

While speaking remotely via webcam at VivaTech 2024 in Paris, Musk described a future where jobs would be “optional.”