In the space of a couple of days this week two completely unprecedented attacks occurred that have the potential to rewrite world history. The US and UK directly attacked Russia and, for the first time ever in war, an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile was fired – by Russia. Naturally, most people in the West paid little attention.

Herbicide atrazine, widely used on agricultural crops in the US, Canada, and Australia, was banned in the European Union in 2004 after it was found to surpass the regulatory limits of pesticide (0.1µg/L) in groundwater. It has also been banned in over 40 countries. Sputnik investigates why is the US in no hurry to follow suit.

Registered initially in 1958 by CIBA-GEIGY, atrazine has been a major agricultural herbicide in the US for more than 30 years. Manufactured by Swiss-based agrochemical giant Syngenta, it is a chlorinated triazine systemic herbicide.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that a controversial US missile defense base in Poland is a potential target of the Russian military, comments that come amid soaring tensions as the US just authorized Ukraine to strike Russian territory with long-range NATO missiles.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, has laid out the incoming administration’s strategy for addressing the Ukraine conflict. He said the Trump team will begin working on negotiations from the very first day of Trump’s term, which begins on January 20.

Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, Waltz emphasized that a key priority will be organizing talks between Russia and Ukraine, with the aim of bringing both sides together to negotiate a ceasefire or peace agreement. “We need to discuss who is at this table, whether it will be an agreement, a truce, how to put both sides at the negotiating table, and then what is the scope of the deal,” he said.

This week marks a fateful threshold for the world. In a grave announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the three-year proxy war in Ukraine has now reached a global dimension.

The responsibility for this abysmal moment lies fully with the United States’ elitist rulers and their British accomplices. They are inciting global catastrophe in a desperate bid to save their hegemonic empire.

They’re at it again… the U.S. and Britain, inciting global war, must be defeated for good

Will the U.S. imperial aggressor and its NATO front go down in defeat, or will it push the world to a final global war?

ONE OF THE MAJOR ISSUE IN REGARD TO GLOBAL WARMING IS THE WAY THE WEST — THE MAJOR POLLUTER/EMITTER OF CO2 WANTS TO SHARE RESPONSIBILITY/GUILT WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD. 

IN THIS REGARD, GUS WOULD LIKE TO SEE NOT A COPXX BUT A WESTERN WORLD FINDING ITS OWN WAYS TO STOP CARRYING ON WITH ITS PRESENT OIL AND GAS MARKETS AND INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE. 

THE REST OF THE WORLD DOES NOT HAVE TO SHARE THIS GUILT TRIP, WHICH AT EVERY COPXX HAS BECOME THE NORM. CHINA IS DOING FAR MORE TO SOLVE ITS EMISSION PROBLEMS THAN THE USA, EMBROILED IN FOREVER WARS THAT PRODUCE MORE EMISSION THAT CAN BE SAVED BY CHANGING 650 BILLION LIGHT BULB….

After two weeks of intense negotiations, delegates at the UN climate summit in Baku, known as COP29, agreed late on Saturday to provide funding for developing countries to combat and adapt to climate change.

Historic wealthy emitters offered climate finance worth $300 billion a year by 2035, far lower than developing countries hoped for.

Also included in the agreement was a broader goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035. 

This would include funding from both public and private sources, which economists say matches the sum needed every year to address global warming.

Russian President Vladimir Putin should continue exercising “restraint” in his responses to the US-led proxy war against Russia waged by the Kiev regime, Jimmy Dore, political commentator and host of the Jimmy Dore Show, has warned. According to the progressive pundit, it is imperative that Putin wait until US president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January before making decisions that could kick-start World War III.

The Australian government has scrapped plans to introduce fines for social media platforms that fail to stop the spread of “seriously harmful mis and disinformation” online. The ruling Labor Party acknowledged that its Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill stood no chance of garnering enough support in parliament.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The White House promises sprint efforts to preserve the "legacy" and "productive" work of outgoing US President Joe Biden, who failed to win re-election for a second term and spent more than a third of his first term in country residences and on the beach.

"President Biden is focused on ensuring the remainder of his term is as productive as any other period in the last four years," the White House press service said in a statement.

It notes that the remainder of the current administration's time "is a sprint to build on the historic progress we've made under his presidency."

In the new era

Despite the punishments

We are grown

We are alert

We are more alive

To rescue each other

In the new era

Despite the dangers

Of brute force

Of the frightening night

We are in the struggle

To survive

So that our hope

Is more than revenge

Is always a path

That is left as an inheritance

—Lyrics from “Um Novo Tempo” (“A New Era”) by Ivan Lins 

Multiple nuclear peer adversaries challenge the U.S. and its allies' and partners' security, according to the Defense Department.

"We are now in a world where we're facing multiple nuclear competitors, multiple states that are growing, diversifying and modernizing their nuclear arsenals and also, unfortunately, prioritizing the role that nuclear weapons play in their national security strategies," said Richard C. Johnson. 

The House easily passed a bill that would give Donald Trump and future presidents a bludgeon to target and silence dissenting nonprofits on Thursday, in what opponents warned is a step toward allowing the executive branch to wield unchecked, authoritarian power.

H.R. 9495, nicknamed the “nonprofit killer” by critics, passed 219 to 184 with 15 Democrats voting “yes.” The legislation, which civil liberties groups have said could deliver a huge blow to the rights to free speech and dissent across the U.S., now goes to the Senate for consideration.

The bill would give the Treasury Secretary the ability to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit they deem to be a “terrorist supporting organization” without due process or substantial evidence, effectively dealing most groups a killing blow.

Keir Starmer and David Lammy have the “blood of Palestinian children on their hands” for supporting Israel, a lawyer from Gaza has said.

Ahmed Abofoul, who has seen over 60 members of his family killed by Israel, said the UK prime minister and foreign secretary are “monstrous war criminals”.

STARMER AND LAMMY ARE ‘MONSTROUS WAR CRIMINALS’ – PALESTINIAN LAWYER
Bereaved attorney accuses Britain of “active participation” in Israeli war crimes, as International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
PHIL MILLER

His comments come as the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.