Jamaican-British academic Stuart Hall once said “the university is a critical institution or it is nothing”. Indeed, universities have an important role to play in upholding the imperatives of academic freedom and critical inquiry, especially today, amid the growing debate and protests over Israel’s war on Gaza.

Gaza has shown European universities are no longer places of free inquiry
The crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech and activism on European campuses does not differ in essence from the repression students face in undemocratic settings.

By Tasnima Uddin and A H Misbach

Italy's Meloni pledges unwavering support for Ukraine after Zelensky talks
Italy's Giorgia Meloni said her country would not waver in its support for Kyiv after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of a business forum on Saturday. Zelensky earlier rejected calls for a ceasefire voiced by Hungary's Kremlin-friendly Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was also attending the summit in northern Italy. Read our live blog to see how the day's events unfolded.

Ukraine's invasion of Kursk has backfired drastically, as friend of the show Brian Berletic helps us understand its link to Russia's recent progress on the battlefield. This war has changed course and Ukraine is currently sitting on the losing side. This video breaks down why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D7pUxqvrUk

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian armed forces have eliminated more than 11,400 Ukrainian servicepeople and 89 tanks during military operations in the border areas of the Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.

Most of the Americans deceive themselves while the successive US administrations have been deceiving the world. 

As mentioned in 2006 on this site (see the Age of Deceit), the USA have been the most successful country in the world because it is the most deceitful…

The US constitution has been a document written by white men for white men to create the tools of freedom for the white men to conquer and control the world… 

Presently, as many people point out that the constitution does not mention “white men” per se, the US administration is interpreting the tenets of the constitution to limit the ability of the people in general to point to this problem, in order for the rich white men to continue their plunder of the world. 

A new academic year in Russia kicked off on September 1. This year will see an array of new subjects to preserve and strengthen traditional values among children.

The course Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland is being introduced to teach pupils basic military skills, and tactical, fire, and engineering exercises.

The course on Family Studies is designed to teach pupils about family values, building relations with relatives, basics of the family psychological health, and measures of state support for families.

Home economics course will include traditional lessons on carpentry, cooking and sewing, as well as new areas of robotics and 3D modeling.

Meanwhile, Western Shools Indulging in Neoliberal Values.

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González has vowed to "continue to fight" for democracy in his own country, after being granted asylum in Spain. 

Mr González left Venezuela on Saturday, having spent weeks in hiding at the Spanish embassy in Caracas - arriving at the Torrejón de Ardoz military air base in Madrid with his wife at about 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT). 

The departure of the 75-year-old from the country followed turmoil in the wake of the 28 July elections, in which President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory - something which was disputed by Mr González, and many sections of the international community. 

The CIA’s destructive role in world politics since the end of World War II as a secret rogue spy agency controlled by unelected intelligence officers has become so ubiquitous that it can be joked about. But behind the jokes lies a far darker reality: the agency’s imperial ambitions have fueled a legacy of death and destruction in the name of expanding American power. Hugh Wilford, author and professor of history at California State University Long Beach, joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to delve into the specifics of CIA operations and their impact on geopolitics from its inception to the present day.

“This pact exists throughout Brazil. It’s not privileged to Rio de Janeiro. Truth be said, it’s a very organic, structured relationship between Rio de Janeiro politicians, militia groups and the police. 

How does it function?

Militias control growing amounts of territory. Approximately one million to 1.9 million people (in Rio de Janeiro) reside under the dominion of militia groups that control these territories. They also control how people vote to elect representatives to parliament or state congress or the legislative assembly or even federal congress.

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: Why has Zelensky purged the Ukrainian government?
Over half of the country’s ministers have been dismissed. Why did Vladimir Zelensky decide to gut his team during an ongoing conflict?

A series of high-level resignations has taken place in the Ukrainian government and the Office of the President of Ukraine. Several ministers, including long-standing figures like Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishyna and Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, have left their posts.  

By Petr Lavrenin

The global order is under threat from a number of state actors, the heads of the American and British foreign intelligence agencies – the CIA and MI6 – claimed in a joint op-ed published by the Financial Times on Saturday.

In the piece, Bill Burns and Richard Moore pledged that Washington and London would work in lockstep to retain the status quo in a world where technology has considerably accelerated geo-political trends.

Following the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, and the sharp downturn in ties with the West, senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly proclaimed the end of US hegemony and a global shift to multipolarity.

Contemporary US-China tensions are often likened to the Cold War competition between the United States and the USSR. However, the rivalry also mirrors “The Great Game,” an intense 19th-century contest between the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia. Both empires saw this region as strategically crucial — Britain aimed to protect its colonial interests in India, while Russia sought to expand southward, threatening British India.

Before the last election in 2022, the Labor opposition promised to establish an integrity commission that would have a broad jurisdiction and strong investigative powers including the capacity to hold public hearings when it was in the public interest to do so.

This had been widely supported in the community, including by an open letter sent to the then Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, in December 2018, signed by 34 judges (including myself). Three former chief justices of the High Court (Sir Anthony Mason, Sir Gerard Brennan and Murray Gleeson AC) had also expressed their support for commissions being entitled to hold public hearings.

In his first public statements since his arrest by France on Aug. 24 at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov blasted French authorities for detaining and charging him, but also admitted that Telegram is not perfect and that he’ll work to clean up instances of criminals abusing the platform.

He argued in a post to Telegram that it wildly departs from norms for a government to go after a CEO personally, as opposed to the “established practice” of bringing legal against the company.

BY TYLER DURDEN

“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” the billionaire tech entrepreneur wrote.

On September 22 and 23, the United Nations member states will gather in New York City at the UN headquarters for the historic Summit of the Future with the intention to sign the Pact for the Future. This document is expected to radically accelerate the push towards the completion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2030.

The Summit of the Future is taking place during the 79th session of the annual UN General Assembly. The summit has been in the making since at least 2022 after repeated calls by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to shift financial resources to rapidly complete the Agenda 2030 goals set by the UN in 2015.

TLAV

War in Ukraine must end ‘this fall’ – Zelensky

Kiev has asked its Western helpers to redouble their pressure on Moscow

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has urged NATO countries to pressure Russia to agree to Kiev’s peace terms this fall. He made his statement during a meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Regular gatherings at Ramstein are designed to coordinate military aid to Kiev. 

Zelensky urged Western countries to help arrange joint production of weapons on Ukrainian soil, including drones and missiles. 

“To achieve this, we need funding – we are ready to quickly produce everything that will help us bring this war to an end, namely, by putting decisive pressure on Russia for real peace,”Zelensky said, according to his website.