LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of workers walked out on the first day of Britain's biggest rail strike in 30 years on Tuesday, with millions of passengers facing days of chaos as both the unions and government vowed to stick to their guns in a row over pay.

My graduating class at Davison High School had voted that I should give the graduation address at our commencement ceremony, which took place 50 years ago this weekend. The senior class had also voted me “Class Comic.” That should’ve been all the warning the school administration needed — that the senior class wanted the class clown to give the official graduation speech. They should’ve known this would not end well. 

In the weeks leading up to the end of the school year, those of us with the “good grades” were inducted into the National Honor Society, which meant we would receive flashy golden cords so we could parade around on graduation night and show everybody how really smart we were (when in fact, all it meant was that we were good test takers).

The EU must not revert to using coal and neglect its climate change goals in order to replace Russian gas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.

“We have to make sure that we use this crisis to move forward and not to have a backsliding on the dirty fossil fuels,” von der Leyen told the Financial Times on Monday.

“It’s a fine line and it’s not determined whether we are going to take the right turn.”

Von der Leyen said EU nations need to continue “massive investment in renewables.” 

She added that Brussels has “emergency steps in place” to respond to the threat of decreasing supplies from Russia, such as energy conservation and prioritizing which industries receive gas.

So Honest Joe Biden is now going to give another $1.2 billion to the Ukrainians on top of the sixty or so billion that is already in the pipeline, but who’s counting, particularly as Congress refused to approve having an inspector general to monitor whose pockets will be lined. The money will be printed up without any collateral or “borrowed” and the American taxpayer will somehow have to bear the burden of this latest folly that is ipso facto driving much of the world into recession.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a return to the 'spheres of influence' policy, but he will not succeed, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz claimed in an interview with the newspaper Munchner Merkur.

Among other topics, Scholz was asked to comment on Russia’s claims that Western sanctions were preventing deliveries of Russian gas to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline. Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the pipeline’s turbines have to undergo maintenance, but because of the sanctions “the Europeans are not returning them.”

“This justification is not plausible,” Scholz responded.

It is hard to be sanguine about the future. The breakdown of the ecosystem is well documented. So is the refusal of the global ruling elite to pursue measures that might mitigate the devastation. We accelerate the extraction of fossil fuels, wallow in profligate consumption, including our consumption of livestock, and make new wars as if we are gripped by a Freudian death wish. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Conquest, War, Famine and Death – gallop into the 21rst century.

BY CHRIS HEDGES

Spice lovers are bracing for a shortage of Sriracha sauce that experts say is likely due in part to the effects of climate change on chili peppers.

The green-capped, bright red product, whose popularity NPR described as “something of a cult following,” is beginning to disappear from supermarket shelves.  

US President Joe Biden thinks Ukraine is “very likely” to become a member of the European Union, he told reporters on Monday. He also said a visit to Kiev is still on the table, but probably not during his upcoming trip to Europe.

Biden spoke to a press gaggle in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he’s vacationing ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid, scheduled to start on June 29. The 79-year-old US leader fell off his bicycle on Saturday, but the White House later said he was unharmed.

The UN special Human Rights investigation into Palestine/Israel which found Israel to be primarily responsible for ongoing unrest and violence received a strong rebuke from the US, which in turn sought support from its allies to sign its statement. Australia declined to do so, issuing its own statement.

The significance is not so much in what the statement contained, but in the very fact that after nine years of blindly following the US, Australia wishes to make its own statement and judgement about human rights, justice, and peace. This should be resoundingly applauded. The US statement is predictably partisan, and while the Australian statement mirrors the US statement in the oft repeated claim that Israel is being unfairly picked on, it is far more nuanced.

BY GEORGE BROWNING

Russia doesn’t care about ‘eyes of the West’ – Lavrov

Moscow cares about international law, not what the West thinks, its foreign minister has told BBC

The fate of British fighters captured in Ukraine and sentenced to death as mercenaries is for the Donetsk People’s Republic to decide under international law, and Russia doesn’t care how that looks “in the eyes of the West,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told UK state broadcaster BBC in an interview on Thursday, on the sidelines of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Now is the time to end a dangerous threat to basic freedoms and the rule of law.  The Albanese government has a critical role to play in ensuring that outcome.

Will Merrick Garland Defend Democracy?

He came in wanting to depoliticize the Justice Department. But does that mean letting an ex-president get away with subverting democracy?

Fred Dagg, aka John Clarke, was a democracy fanatic... Clarke appeared on New Zealand TV screens as Dagg during the mid to late 1970s, "taking the piss" out of the post-pioneering Kiwi "blokes" and "blokesses".

 Fresh from banning more opposition parties, Ukraine's Zelensky takes it upon himself to shill for war with China over Taiwan

The actor-turned-politician has become the perfect useful idiot for Washington’s foreign policy priorities

If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky isn’t getting paid to foment war between the West and China, he should be. The ubiquitous media darling declared on Saturday that the “international community” must help Taiwan resist Chinese “aggression” now, before Beijing attacks the poor little heavily-armed island.

by Helen Buyniski