Russia is preparing to host the 12th annual Primakov Readings International Forum, one of the country’s leading platforms for discussion of global politics and the world economy. The event, themed ‘World Without Rules: Power Game?’, will take place in Moscow on June 23–24, 2026, at the Radisson Blu Leninsky Prospect Hotel, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of IMEMO.

The forum is expected to bring together senior Russian officials, including presidential aide Yury Ushakov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, alongside leading Russian and international experts in international security, global politics, and economics, as well as diplomats, politicians, and representatives of public organizations.

With the Coalition in decline, Labor cautious and One Nation on the rise, the Greens need to move beyond issue-based advocacy and present a comprehensive alternative capable of winning government.

Recently economist Steven Hail commented on why Modern Money Theory (MMT) is influencing the Greens in Britain, whose political fortunes are rising, but the Greens in Australia have shown little interest, despite many attempts to explain MMT.

Geoff Davies

Claims that climate scientists have abandoned their most dire scenario have been widely misunderstood. While the highest emissions pathway is now considered unlikely, evidence suggests the climate system may still be tracking toward dangerously high levels of warming.

Occasionally, climate science is big news. On 26 May, the New York Times headlined: “Why scientists retired the dire climate scenario used for over a decade”. A good story!

David Spratt

The calm woman is smoking

Long ago painted by street artists

On a decrepit wall in front of weeds

Mural damaged by urban terrorists

Who hate civilisation’s marking

That cater for wants and needs

She can’t catch throat cancer

Fading old spray-paint pealing

Attacked by sore tagging

Looking like a fake revolution

Designed to create revulsion

Hooded stupidity idiotic fever

Lacking philosophy without ideology

Hating everything even if in need 

Of doctor a hospital or another fix

Tagging life is lousy carelessology

Without need nor loving creed

Smoking with a nihilist final risk

With freedom to smoke and self-kill

My mate died long ago

Tobacco was on his final bill

Debonaire flick of a spent mégot

SOMEWHERE ON THIS SITE, GUS POSTED ABOUT THE MAGNETIC FLIP...

UNDER A SERIOUS GEOPALEONTOLOGIST'S TUTELAGE, GUS STUDIED THIS "IRREGULAR" EVENT OF PLANET EARTH WHICH HAPPENS EVERY SO OFTEN IN 100 THOUSANDS OF YEARS... WE KNOW...

THE LAST FLIP [NORTH MAGNETIC POLE INVERTING INTO THE SOUTH MAGNETIC POLE] HAPPENED RECENTLY,  ABOUT 42,000 YEARS AGO. THE SEA BEDS "RECORD" THE FLIPS AT THE EXPANDING JUNCTURE OF TECTONIC SEA PLATES [WHICH EVENTUALLY SINK UNDER CONTINENTAL PLATES OVER MILLION OF YEARS]. EVERY TIME A FLIP HAPPENS, THE IRON LADDEN OOZE SURGING BETWEEN THE SEA PLATES CHANGES POLARITY. THIS HAS BEEN MEASURED WITH HIGH DEGREE OF PRECISION.

THE FLIP DOES NOT HAPPEN FROM ONE DAY TO THE NEXT, BUT OVER 300 TO 500 YEARS.

The real threat to Australia’s economic resilience is not a fleet of Chinese-made parliamentary vehicles but decades of industrial decline. The failure to confront that reality is creating political space for One Nation to occupy.

There is a sentence I never expected to write. But here we are.

On the question of what Australia should do about its economic vulnerabilities and industrial dependencies, Pauline Hanson is currently asking more substantive questions than the official opposition.

Fred Zhang

Israel’s military campaign has been accompanied by a broader objective: the destruction of Gaza’s social, civic and institutional fabric, creating conditions in which mass displacement becomes increasingly possible.

Israel does have a postwar plan for Gaza. The notion that it lacked one was badly mistaken. I wish this plan didn’t exist. Far from global and Israeli public attention, the implementation of the next phase of Israel’s gradual strategy is already well underway.

Gideon Levy

DURING WORLD WAR TWO, THE WEST [UK AND EUROPE] WAS DESPERATE... AMERICA WAS NOT READY TO FIGHT IN EUROPE, HAVING TO DEAL WITH THE JAPANESE IN THE PACIFIC... HERE ONE CAN SAY THAT THE ANTI-RUSSIAN SENTIMENT, WHICH HAD FOLLOWED WORLD WAR ONE IN THE WEST, ESPECIALLY AMERICA, WAS HYPOCRITICALLY SET ASIDE.

FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC, THE RUSSIANS WERE OUR FRIENDS... THEY WERE COURAGEOUSLY FIGHTING THE NAZIS ON THE EASTERN FRONT.

Trump claims a peace deal with Iran is coming any second, but he's been saying that for months. Jon Stewart takes a look at Trump's unimpressive track record as a negotiator, despite being the self-proclaimed best negotiator in the world, and pulls back the curtain on the president's "Art of the Deal" as merely the art of trolling. Plus, the Freedom 250 concert is falling apart as more and more headliners pull out, and TDS News Team alum Olivia Munn stops by to offer Jon Stewart a heartfelt tribute that was definitely not meant for Stephen Colbert....

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

Defense tech contractor Anduril is currently valued at $61 billion, with plans to expand and go public. But it’s a valuation that depends on its founder’s ability to hawk vaporware to the Pentagon, and to talk the US to the edge of a cataclysmic war with China.

MATHEMATICS RULE. WE DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THIS BECAUSE MOST OF US HAVE NO IDEA HOW STRINGS OF ONES AND ZEROS BECOME LANGUAGE, WRITTEN AND SPOKEN AT SPEEDS WE CAN'T IMAGINE, WHILE STROLLING THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE... POLITICS AND ECONOMICS BECOME VICTIMS/USERS OF MATHEMATICS, THROUGH POLLS, STATISTICS AND TRENDS. WE, LITTLE BOURGEOIS, COUNT OUR MONEY ON OUR FINGERS.... ASTRONOMERS COUNT STARS IN BILLIONS OF BILLIONS...

The first tranche of hearings of the Antisemitism Royal Commission did not hear enough from those Jewish Australians who oppose Israel’s actions in the Occupied Territories. 

The first tranche of hearings of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has concluded, with testimony from lived experience witnesses. Missing from the evidence was recognition of the diversity of opinion in the Jewish community. This omission is not new. Since 7 October 2023, pro-Israel perspectives have dominated the political and mainstream media landscape, and exacerbated divisions between Jews who uncritically embrace a Zionist frame and those who do not.

Linda Briskman

There’s no keener contributor to the media campaign against Labor’s proposed capital gains tax reform than Rich Lister funds manager Geoff Wilson. Michael Pascoe wonders why.

Fund manager Geoff Wilson was as responsible as anyone for Labor losing the 2019 election, leading the wildly successful campaign against Bill Shorten’s attempt to reform dividend franking. The campaign and result were certainly in Wilson’s best interests – franked dividends have helped to elevate him to the AFR’s 2026 Rich List with an estimated worth of $891m.

Geoff Wilson. Staunchest campaigner for the wealth lobby

by Michael Pascoe

Recent history has confirmed what I wrote: the Algerian army is not and will never be an expansionist force. Unlike Western armies that have sown chaos in the Sahel and destroyed regional balances under the guise of the "springtime philosophy" of Bernard-Henri Lévy and his local cronies, such as Boualem Sansal and Kamel Daoud, Algeria maintains a strict doctrine of non-interference and peace.

The great bluff of geopolitical fiction: When the reality of 2026 sweeps away fantasies about Algeria

BY Omar CHAALAL

BEFORE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE ABC THAT FOLLOWS THIS EXPLANATION, HANDS UP THOSE WHO THINK THAT RUSSIA WILL ABANDON THE DONBASS TERRITORIES AND CRIMEA, FOR PEACE?... OKAY I CAN SEE A FEW HANDS UP...

LET ME TELL YOU RUSSIA WILL NEVER GIVE UP THESE OBLASTS WHICH USED TO BE RUSSIAN... 100 PER CENT. SO WHATEVER YUCKRAINE [THE NAZI KIEV REGIME SUPPORTED BY THE NATO/EU/UK/US FASCISTS] IS DOING, INCLUDING KILLING SCHOOL GIRLS, WON'T MAKE AN OUNCE ON THE RESULT. 

SO WHY CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR SOMETHING THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN?

I SEE, THIS CONFLICT ISN'T ABOUT YUCKRAINE WINNING [IT'S LOSING 1,100 SOLDIERS A DAY ON AVERAGE] BUT ABOUT NATO SHARPENING ITS TEETH FOR THE BIG ONE IN 2029... NATO DECLARING WAR ON RUSSIA [THAT'S THE PLAN]... MEANWHILE, LOSING-UKRAINE IS A TESTING BED FOR NEW WESTERN WEAPONS DESIGNED TO MATCH THE RUSSIANS... WHICH THEY WON'T MATCH....