French President Emmanuel Macron will remain in power “whatever the results” of the snap parliamentary elections will be, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said. Macron dissolved the National Assembly and announced a new vote for France’s lower house of parliament two weeks ago.

The move was taken in response to Macron’s Renaissance Party suffering a crushing defeat in the EU parliamentary elections as the right-wing National Rally (RN) party doubled its vote.

The first round of the polls to choose the new government is set to take place on June 30, with a second vote scheduled for July 7.

Ho hum, the US has just committed itself to another ‘forever war.’ Its faithful obedient Western allies, like puppies wagging their tails, have fallen in behind. One would think they would tire, or at least learn lessons from, the game. Seemingly not.

The just concluded, annual G7 meeting in Italy, witnessed US President Joe Biden make a commitment to enter into a 10 year agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to bolster Ukraine’s defences against Russia’s invasion. I would guess Joe won’t be around to see how that commitment concludes, if ever.

Daniel Everett Hale killed lots of innocent people. He went to jail, not for killing people – he was paid to do that by the US government – but for revealing the truth behind it. Recently released, he has an astonishing story to tell.

We should care – and care deeply – that all around the world the brightest and best of our truth tellers – whether they be journalists, academics, whistleblowers or politicians – are being eliminated, either physically or by one of the other 50 Ways to Kill the Story. It profoundly impacts the society you and your children live in and which we ignore at our collective peril. Europe’s tilt to the far-right should trigger alarm bells because it is a by-product of this.

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has pushed back on Melinda French Gates’ endorsement of US President Joe Biden, suggesting it might be bad for the West.

The ex-wife of Microsoft mogul Bill Gates endorsed Biden on Thursday, presenting him as the candidate that cared about women. The incumbent Democrat is facing a rematch with his predecessor Donald Trump in November.

“I am once again asking for the scorned billionaire wife to Democrat activist pipeline to be studied,” conservative influencer Ashley St.Clair wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in response. “Melinda Gates is about to spend so much divorce money on getting Joe Biden elected.”

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Boris Johnson, aka BoJo – former British prime minister, foreign secretary, mayor of London, leader of the Conservative Party (Tories), and, last but not least, member of Parliament – is hawking his forthcoming memoir. Under the title “Unleashed,” the publisher promises it will be like no other prime minister’s reminiscences before. That, for once, is something we could almost believe, even if it’s Johnson who says it. 

Five-year-old Tala Ibrahim Muhammad al-Jalat is just about awake but not moving, her milky eyes rolled to the back of her head.

Tala is severely dehydrated and malnourished.

By her bedside in Nasser hospital in Khan Younis her father Ibrahim Muhmmad al-Jalat holds her hand, careful not to disturb the intravenous drip feeding into her wrist.

He knows that the scorching weather, with temperatures close to 40 degrees, and a lack of clean water have brought his daughter close to death.

"The situation is getting worse," he says.

"The temperature in our tent is unimaginable, and the water we drink is definitely contaminated, because both young and old are getting sick."

Wind, solar and pumped hydro energy storage can provide all the electrical energy we need, on demand, cheaply, quickly, with minimal carbon emissions. This is the message that will cut through the energy confusion. The clean energy debate is hampered by widespread lack of awareness of off-river pumped hydro energy storage. It is the third leg of the clean energy tripod. It uses mature technologies and there are abundant suitable sites.

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine was triggered by the irresponsible and provocative rhetoric of US President Joe Biden and his administration about Kiev joining NATO, Donald Trump has said.

Trump, who is seeking a rematch with Biden for the presidency in November, made the comments during a conversation on foreign policy with ‘All-In’ podcast co-host David Sacks on Thursday.

“For 20 years, I heard that if Ukraine goes into NATO, it’s a real problem for Russia. I’ve heard that for a long time. And I think that’s really why this war started,” Trump said. 

The Republican presidential candidate pointed out that there had been no talk about armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine when he was in the White House, but as soon as Biden replaced him, things began to deteriorate.

Gus is in hospital with a bad case of old age. Back on deck mid next week.

French President Emmanuel Macron is taking the bull by the horns. On Sunday evening, after being roundly defeated in the European elections, Macron announced a new election for the French parliament, the National Assembly.

Macron Says France Working To ‘Finalize’ Plan To Send Troops to Ukraine
The French leader says other NATO countries have agreed to send troops to train Ukrainian forces

by Dave DeCamp 

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said France was working to “finalize a coalition” of NATO countries that are willing to send troops to Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a step that would mark a huge escalation in the proxy war.

During a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris, Macron said Ukraine’s request for NATO trainers was “legitimate” and downplayed the risk of escalation.

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE BY PSEUDO-HISTORIANICAL PETER HARTCHER AT THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD IS A WINCE-LEMON-VINEGAR-CHLORIDRIC ACID INDUCED ROTTEN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO RUSSIA WHICH PROVOKED THE MILITARY INTERVENTION IN NAZI YUCKRAINE. 

ONE CAN GET BLUE OR RED IN THE FACE, HARTCHER HAS ONE TRACK IN HIS SHRINKING UNINTELLIGENT PEA-THINKING APPARATUS:... RUSSIA WANTS TO RECREATE ITS FORMER EMPIRE OR THE GLORIOUS USSR OR WHATEVER THE AMERICANS HAVE BEEN DOING SINCE 1776...

Launched from the sanctuary of its own airspace, Russia has been using 1.5-tonne "glide bombs" to help gain ground and wreak havoc on Ukraine's second-largest city.

And there's little Ukraine can do right now to stop them.

Russia's big, cheap, retrofitted Soviet-era bombs have become one of its most effective weapons in the full-scale invasion.

NEW YORK – This city’s splendid Fifth Avenue and parts of the adjacent Central Park were thronged last weekend by masses of pro-Israel demonstrators demanding even more US support of Israel’s laying to waste of Gaza.

New York is the world’s leading Jewish City, exceeding even Israel’s Tel Aviv. More important, this city’s billionaires, many of them Jewish, are Israel’s most ardent and influential supporters. Their donations reach almost all politicians, high officials and, just revealed, important black and Hispanic members of Congress.

    by Eric Margolis

The United States's provocative actions are the principal reason the "unthinkable" possibility of nuclear war is becoming ever more likely.

The unthinkable is becoming thinkable. Nuclear war. The United States’s provocative actions are the principal reason. Desperate to remain the global supremo, our foreign affairs elites are embarked on an increasingly dangerous venture. Going mano a mano with China and Russia in a vain attempt to preserve its hegemonic standing against the tides of history, America is endangering itself and the rest of world.