It seems Russia's tentacles extend around the world.

The UK has made multiple arrests this year alone, accusing people of spying for Moscow while Ireland stopped issuing diplomatic visas to Russians amid concerns Vladimir Putin's embassy in Dublin had become a hotbed of intelligence operatives posing as attachés.

 

Iran’s president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian has described Russia as “a valued strategic partner” and pledged to further strengthen relations with Moscow.

Pezeshkian, who will be inaugurated on July 30, set out his foreign policy priorities in an article entitled: ‘My message to the new world’, published by the Tehran Times on Friday.

"Russia is a valued strategic ally and neighbor to Iran and my administration will remain committed to expanding and enhancing our cooperation,” he wrote.

Tehran will continue to “prioritize” relations with Russia both on a bilateral level and as part of international organizations such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Eurasian Economic Union, the president-elect stressed.

Every generation, or thereabouts, has its moment of unlearning or forgetting two salutary lessons that should be indelibly imprinted on the memory and the consciousness with the advent of war: first, idiosyncrasies or hubris, or both, can overpower political leaders; second allies are not necessarily friends no matter how much they may seem like us, nor are we like them. The appearances are an illusion. Worse, assuming the identity of the ally is an appropriation unworthy of a sovereign, ethical people; indeed, it is an indictment.

 

Allies playing gods     By Michael McKinley

 

Trump, Orban, Putin: Why are all the ‘dictators’ hellbent on peace?
With the Washinton and Brussels establishment apparently only interested in more bloodshed, someone has to speak sense...

One of the greatest farces of these modern times is that those who scream the loudest about democracy and human rights are the very same people who violate international norms at every opportunity.

 

BY Robert Bridge

 

In the June issue of The New Republic, a left-leaning US political journal, a scowling Donald Trump was featured on the cover sporting a Hitler moustache above a caption that read: “American fascism, what it would look like.”

Warfare is a geopolitical tool of the first order; only wars of scale can measure the real strength of nations. For decades American claims of hegemony, and by extension that of the West, have been based on what has now proved to be a carefully constructed mythology of economic and military supremacy. This is Andrei Martyanov’s fourth book addressing this issue, now as it concerns the war in Ukraine. In America’s Final War, he lays out in detail the underpinning causes and extent of its self-deception. 

 

by  Andrei Martyanov 

While the Democratic party melts down over Joe Biden’s cognitive decline – an obvious risk to US national security, the 2024 election wouldn’t be complete without a Trump-Russia narrative.

To that end, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Russian government has launched a ‘whole-of-government” effort to influence the US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump – who, for some reason, Russia held off on invading Ukraine while he was president (and ostensibly wouldn’t have sent $175 billion and counting in US aid to combat).

 

Behold, now behemoth … Behold, he drinketh up a river … The Book of Job, 40: 15 and 23.

‘Most of us don’t know 95 percent of what Amazon is doing,’ Amy Webb warns in her The Big Nine (2019). While Amazon Prime is diverting audiences with its rom-com, The Idea of You, the Australian Signals Directorate is paying Amazon Web Services two billion dollars to store secrets in three locations on the Cloud with a golden lining for Amazon which holds the largest slice globally, at around a third.

 

The Bezosmoth    By Humphrey McQueen

 

(Will the ASD sites need Dutton’s nuclear plants to power them?)

Pharma-Funded Republican Comes Out Swinging Against Medical Debt Cancellation
Sen. Bernie Sanders, by contrast, argued that "we must cancel all medical debt" and "move to Medicare for All."

A Republican senator heavily bankrolled by the pharmaceutical industry spoke out Thursday against calls to cancel medical debt, arguing that wiping out a financial burden saddling 100 million Americans "is not a solution."

 

BY Jake Johnson/COMMON DREAMS

 

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - NATO declares the right to use force anywhere in the world, whether under the pretext of democracy or battling terrorism, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has said, summarizing the results of the NATO summit that has ended in Washington.

"The states of 'golden billion' want to keep in a squeezed state and suck the juices from all regions of the world. For the sake of imposing neocolonial orders, NATO actually declares the right to use force anywhere on the planet, whether under the pretext of exporting democracy, protecting human rights or fighting terrorism," Antonov told journalists on Thursday.

Professor John Mearsheimer delivers an incisive analysis of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and its implications for the region and the world. In this compelling discussion, Prof. Mearsheimer examines the factors leading to Ukraine's potential collapse, the geopolitical stakes, and the broader ramifications for international stability. Don't miss this critical exploration of one of today's most urgent global issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZRw0Dcxs6I

 

Prof. John Mearsheimer: Ukraine Collapsing

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

Powell told lawmakers that he did not want "to be sending any signals about the timing of any future actions" on interest rates, a stance consistent with the chair's recent efforts to focus attention more on the evolution of economic data - and the possible choices the Fed might make in response - and less on firm guidance about what might happen on what timetable.
Still, with a Nov. 5 presidential election on the horizon and just two scheduled Fed meetings before it, Powell was quizzed by Democrats about the risks to the job market of not cutting rates soon, and by Republicans about the pain to households of inflation that remains above the central bank's 2% target.

Hosting US long-range missiles will allow Germany the opportunity to develop similar weapons of its own, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said.

Berlin and Washington announced at the end of the NATO summit in this week that US cruise missiles will be stationed in Germany from 2026. Deployment of such weapons would previously have been banned under the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, but Washington withdrew from the landmark agreement in 2019.

Speaking to the Deutschlandfunk broadcaster on Thursday, Pistorius expressed relief that US long-range missiles would be deployed in Germany, arguing that this would help cover a “serious loophole” in defense. He also expressed confidence that future US administrations would not reverse the decision.

Australia is promising $250 million worth of military aid for Ukraine, the largest single package it has provided for the country's defence against Russia to date.

NATO allies are also pledging more support, and calling on China to cease being an enabler of Russia's war.

This summer’s Paris Olympics must surmount some truly Olympian hurdles, the chief of which, if our friends in Estonian Intelligence are to be believed, is Vladimir Putin’s disinformation efforts. Although it is anyone’s guess why Russia would want to play spoilsport to a series of games that seem destined for economic failure, more to the point is why Estonia, a country of just over a million people, would be able to obtain that information, where the vastly superior intelligence forces of the United States and France could not.

 

This summer’s Paris Olympics risks descending into a French farce

It’s hard to completely fathom what happened in the UK with the general elections which installed Sir Keir Starmer, a lawyer by training, into Downing Street. Certainly, two key aspects of July 4th were critical though. One, a low voter turnout with many Tory voters simply staying at home; and, secondly, a protest vote from the conventional Tory voters either to Labour – in great numbers – and to some extent fringe parties like Reform UK.

 

Who exactly is Sir Keir Starmer? George Smiley being jointly run by Israel and U.S.?

    BY Martin Jay