The relationship between the United States and key ally Ukraine is dissolving before our eyes.

Donald Trump's social media diatribe on Wednesday, local time, in which he described the country's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "dictator" who's "done a terrible job", was just the latest deterioration.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called out Donald Trump for making inflammatory and misleading statements about Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a striking contrast to senior Albanese government ministers’ reluctance to directly criticise the US president.

The Australian-Ukrainian community has pleaded with the government to speak out more strongly in defence of Ukraine after Trump called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” and claimed the war was Ukraine’s fault, despite Russia invading its smaller neighbour in 2022.

“I think President Trump has got it wrong in relation to some of the public commentary that I’ve seen him make in relation to President Zelensky and the situation in the Ukraine,” Dutton told 2GB radio on Thursday.

The board of Creative Australia, formerly the Australia Council, has betrayed its mission by enabling censorship and gross political interference in the arts, and its members must resign or be sacked.

Five days after Lebanese-born artist Khaled Sabsabi was appointed to represent Australia at the next Venice Biennale in 2026, he was unceremoniously dumped by the board late on 13 February. The decision followed an attack on the artist’s work by The Australian, flagship of the Murdoch media empire, and questions in Parliament by opposition arts spokesperson Claire Chandler.

President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky have become embroiled in a war of words a day after the Russia-US meeting in Riyadh focusing on Ukraine. Trump slammed Zelensky over his refusal to hold elections, saying he's down to "4% approval" and that Ukraine looks like a "massive demolition site" under his leadership. He's not wrong. Here's why.

Didn’t Make Peace

Zelensky did not make good on his promise to end the war in the Donbass – the single biggest reason he was elected in the spring of 2019.

Declaring verbal support for the Minsk Agreements in October 2019, Zelensky triggered large-scale street protests led by nationalist thugs threatening to oust him. He quickly backed down, never returning to the issue again.

Intelligence officials have disrupted numerous attempts by hostile countries to kill or harm critics in Australia, and in one recent operation even thwarted a plot to lure an unsuspecting human rights activist overseas, who was to be silenced in an "accident".

The boss of the country's domestic intelligence agency has delivered his annual threat assessment, where he's also expressed concern antisemitic attacks have "not yet plateaued" here, and warned Russia could soon conduct sabotage against Australia.

ASIO boss reveals multiple nations plotted to murder critics in Australia

Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson traded barbs after an attempt to unify their party fell apart, over disagreements about who should lead and bankroll their hoped-for singular right-wing populist movement.

Amid concern that a swathe of "Australia First"-type groups and individuals may cannibalise each other's supporters at the upcoming election, Mr Palmer on Wednesday announced he would campaign on a Donald Trump-style platform.

If national governments across the globe are prepared to put minimising the climate threat ahead of protecting the fossil fuel industry, they will have to make major changes to how the net zero concept is being applied. This will require carbon offsetting to be brought in line with its intended application, and a consequential major reduction in its use.

The Trump administration’s decision to pause USAID funding has plunged hundreds of so-called “independent media” outlets into crisis, thereby exposing a worldwide network of thousands of journalists, all working to promote U.S. interests in their home countries.

    by Alan MacLeod

The British government is debating the possibility of an air policing mission over Ukraine, The Times reported on Tuesday. The potential deployment of Typhoon fighter jets from bases in Poland is viewed as an alternative to stationing a significant number of ground troops and would require Moscow’s consent, the report says.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated that the UK is “ready and willing” to station troops in Ukraine as part of a security arrangement following a potential truce with Russia. A senior government source told the newspaper that an air patrol initiative involving British military aircraft and anti-aircraft systems protecting them could complement a small number of troops inside Ukraine.

INVESTIGATION BY JULES LETAMBOUR....

WARNING: JULES COULD BE WRONG, BUT FROM THE ROUGH TEXT OF HIS REPORT (BEING REVISED AND ADDED TO) WITH ORIGINAL SOURCES, IT IS LIKELY THAT CHARLIE HEBDO IS WILLINGLY OR ACCIDENTALLY SPREADING CIA SUPPLIED DISCREDITED/FALSE INFORMATION AS TRUTH. WE ALREADY HAVE MENTIONED THAT THE MAGAZINE OFTEN PROPS UP THE SILLY MACRON GOVERNMENT... WE SHALL SEE.

SO, IS CHARLIE HEBDO A CIA ASSET?

THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS "IT COULD BE"… CH IS A RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDIST DISGUISED AS A LEFT-WING CARTOONIST SILLY HAVEN — WHILE SUPPORTING NEO-NAZI COLOURED REVOLUTIONS AND THE AMERICAN EMPIRE LITTLE VENTURES...

Trump taking Washington out of NATO “is a realistic threat,” EMP Task Force scholar and former Pentagon officer David Pyne tells Sputnik.

He could do this "by either withdrawing US security guarantees for individual countries that oppose his peace initiatives with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, or else perhaps to threaten to pull the US out of NATO entirely," Pyne says.

Trump considered withdrawing from NATO twice during his first term, viewing the alliance as obsolete and seeing no threats to justify a US military presence in Europe.

The more the EU and UK try to derail Trump’s peace initiative, the more likely he is to retaliate, says Pyne.

The federal corruption watchdog will investigate six people responsible for the former government’s illegal debt collection scheme, backflipping on a previous decision.

Following a review process, the National Anti-Corruption Commission revealed on Tuesday it will probe whether any of the six officials referred in the robodebt royal commission’s final report engaged in corrupt conduct.

This overturns the commission’s controversial June decision not to investigate the referrals.

From 2016 to 2019, the robodebt scheme recovered more than $750 million from almost 400,000 people. 

The watchdog did not reveal reasons for starting an investigation, noting that could prejudice the process.

WHEN SOMEONE SAYS THAT THEY DON'T SUFFER FROM "TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME", IT IS MOST LIKELY THAT THEY DO AS THEY EXPLAIN IN DETAIL WHY THEY DON'T, BUT DO... YES, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CHOSE A CONVICTED FELON, A SELF-CONFESSED SEX PREDATOR, A RACIST, A NARCISSIST, A PROTECTIONIST, AND SOMEONE WHO DISPLAYS CONTEMPT FOR THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION...

THIS WAS A DESCRIPTION OF JOE BIDEN MOSTLY, APART FROM THE "CONVICTED" FELON BIT THOUGH JOE WAS CORRUPT AND SHOULD BE IN PRISON (ASK TARA READE ABOUT JOE'S SEXUAL AGGRESSION, INCLUDING SMELLING YOUNG GIRLS' HAIR... SEE HOW JOE BRAGGED ABOUT BLACKMAILING POROSHENKO). JOE BIDEN HAD FAR MORE DISDAIN OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION THAN TRUMP.

It is already certain that the high-level Russian-American meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh will have a place in the history books.

Together with a recent telephone conversation between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump and statements made in Germany by US vice president JD Vance and secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, the Riyadh talks show that something very dangerous has ended: namely the bizarre period of non-communication between the world’s two largest nuclear powers that had been imposed by US obstructionism.

Shutting the EU and Ukraine out of the talks is the only way to peace
With Russia and the US finally sitting down for negotiations, we now live in a slightly more normal world

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

This is the first of two commentaries examining what the writer reads as President Trump’s unfolding offensive against the institutions and agencies comprising the deep state — or, if you prefer, the administrative state or the permanent state or the invisible government. The second in this series will follow shortly.

Patrick Lawrence: Trump vs. the Deep State