The official position of the church on the Voice referendum is curious, because, despite overwhelming support for a YES vote from an extraordinary range of Catholic agencies, religious orders and congregations, and voluntary Catholic organisations, the highest national church authority, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, has not followed suit. This is surprising because the whole trajectory of debate within the church seemed to be leading in that direction. Most importantly, the ACBC has not followed the advice of its own Indigenous advisory body despite claiming to listen to it.

Kiev has lost a substantial number of Western-supplied armored vehicles in attempts to breach well-fortified Russian defenses in the southern section of the front, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing a military officer on the ground.

In an interview with the newspaper, an unnamed Ukrainian air-assault-unit commander claimed that Kiev had gained some ground in Zaporozhye Region near the settlements of Robotino and Verbovoye, scenes of fierce fighting in recent weeks, although he admitted that the advance was “modest.”

He added that the progress came at a high cost in military vehicles, including German Marder and US Stryker infantry fighting vehicles. “A lot of equipment was lost there,” he said, without providing exact numbers.

While central bank trading is a primary determinant of the price of gold and other currencies, gold market analysis seldom makes any reference to the broker that provides much camouflage for central bank gold trading: the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Of course over many years the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) has amassed much documentation of BIS interventions in the gold market. Among our favorites are a BIS PowerPoint presentation, made at a BIS conference for prospective BIS members , actually advertising that the bank’s services to members include gold market interventions…

By Chris Powell

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has been nominated to the board of directors of Fox Corporation, a day after Rupert Murdoch announced he was stepping down and his son Lachlan Murdoch would become the sole chairman.

Fox Corporation announced Abbott’s nomination in a statement released on Friday (US time), saying he would be considered by shareholders at the annual meeting later this year. Technology executive Margaret “Peggy” Johnson has also been nominated.

The wilder conspiracy theorists will tell you that the British Royal Family are actually lizards and the financial centre of the City of London, greatly inferior to Wall Street in turnover, apparently still rules the world. Let us lay aside such simplistic theories and look at some facts.

thanks to Batiushka, writer 

‘The whole of the troubles in the Middle East that have affected the world since 1948 can be laid fairly and squarely at Britain’s door’.

Edward Horne, A Job Well Done, 1982

CNN — Pope Francis formally began his 8,000-kilometer trip to Mongolia on Saturday, a country sandwiched between Russia and China that has a tiny Catholic population. 

Catholics from Mongolia and other countries, some seen waving Chinese flags, gathered in the main square of capital city Ulaanbaatar to catch a glimpse of the pontiff during an official welcome ceremony. 

“Lowell is a small town where the only reasonable response for a talented man like Kerouac is to clear off. We were only there for a night, but for me a night without a woman is like Gerry Conlon’s prison sentence — long and completely unjust. 

Western politicians are so obsessed with the idea of delivering a “strategic defeat” to Russia that they put themselves and their own nations in danger, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN General Assembly on Saturday. The prolonged feeling of impunity has made the West blind to the risks to its own survival, he added.

“A goal of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ upon Russia has been declared,”Lavrov said, commenting on the current policies of the US and its allies. “This obsession has ultimately blurred the vision of the reckless politicians, who feel a sense of impunity,” he warned, adding that “all the while, [they] lose the sense of self-preservation.”

In Asian media this week: Canada, India tensions have sorry history. Plus: BRI shows most countries shun ‘decoupling’; Myanmar rebels ‘will never give up’; China to dominate green car market; Putin and Kim lead ‘axis of outcasts’; China decline the fashionable chatter in Washington.

By David Armstrong

By the time of this month’s G20 summit in New Delhi, ties between Canada and India had become so frosty that Justin Trudeau skipped the official world leaders’ dinner.

The ‘disinformation’ (read: lies and bullshit) being propagated about the indigenous Voice to Parliament by the Murdoch media, among others, harms our society. It promotes division, celebrates and cultivates ignorance and bigotry, oppresses a minority and diminishes us all. Why do we tolerate such behaviour?

By Geoff Davies

EU chief warns of Russian ‘nuclear threat’

Ursula von der Leyen appeared to suggest that Moscow was responsible for the bombing of Hiroshima

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has appeared to imply that Russia, rather than the US, dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.

The top EU official was invited to an event hosted by pro-NATO think tank the Atlantic Council on Thursday, where she introduced Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and described him as “an ally and a friend.”

Much of von der Leyen’s speech was dedicated to condemning Russia for the conflict in Ukraine, as well as praising Japan for joining the US-led campaign to punish Moscow.

Gutfull, or Gutfeld whatever his name is, is often quite right about views of the world… His regular guests are on the conservative money as well. But in his show about the transAmericanUkrainian idiot threatening the naughty journalists who are supporting Putin (they are not “Putin lovers” per se but they explain the truth which is unsavoury for American eyes and ears, including gootfled's) Gutflab makes a few silly quips about Putin being a bad guy… Hello? Worse than Ivan the not so terrible? Feeling the breeze of another oligarch falling while standing next to an open window?

I cheered silently when I read the headline on France 24 about Russia’s Putin saying the Ukraine grain deal won’t be restored until the West meets Moscow’s demands on its agricultural exports. Russia must counter the maniacal strategies with weighty consequences, or the Ukraine bloodbath will continue perpetually. Why should the Russians give an inch after being pushed into the corner? The sooner the public understands this, the sooner we can demand a stop.

BY Phil Butler

The three-day trip began with the King and Queen touching down at Orly airport, near Paris.

They were greeted by the French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, before driving to a ceremonial welcome at the Arc De Triomphe in Paris.

At the Arc de Triomphe, the King and Queen were greeted by the French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte.