U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken came under fire for the second time in just over a week when he wrote on social media Thursday that this year has been dangerous for members of the press—without mentioning the dozens of journalists who have been killed in Israel’s U.S.-backed assault of the Gaza Strip.

“This has been an extraordinarily dangerous year for press around the world,” Blinken said. “Many killed, many more wounded, hundreds detained, attacked, threatened, injured—simply for doing their jobs. I am profoundly grateful to the press for getting accurate, timely information to people.”

Das Vorgehen Israels in Gasa ist jenseits von Gut und Böse. Es ist kein Krieg. Es ist die endgültige Vertreibung der Palästinenser aus ihrer besetzten Heimat. Diese völkerrechtswidrigen Morde und die Zerstörung von Wohnraum werden einen weltweiten Judenhass auslösen, gegen den Hitlers Politik wie ein Kinderspiel aussehen wird.

Von Peter Haisenko 

Israel’s actions in Gaza are beyond good and evil. It is not a war. It is the final expulsion of the Palestinians from their occupied homeland. These murders and the destruction of living space, which violate international law, will trigger a worldwide hatred of Jews against which Hitler’s policies will look like child’s play.

As Russia's Armed Forces continue to dominate the battlefields of the Ukrainian conflict, Kiev's sponsors in the US have become increasingly worried about how setbacks suffered by their proxy may affect US politics.

The US leadership may resort to some drastic measures to avert Russia’s triumph, argued former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

During his recent interview on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s podcast Judging Freedom, McGovern postulated that the upcoming presidential election in the United States prompts the Biden administration to desperately search for a way to make it look like they are not losing in the Ukrainian conflict.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a simple promise to Germans after taking office: “You’ll never walk alone.” 

Scholz, a Social Democrat, borrowed the phrase from Liverpool Football Club’s anthem and has invoked it, mantra-like, at moments of tension, such as when Russia cut off natural gas deliveries to Germany, sending prices through the roof. 

Yet after two years in office, it is Scholz who walks increasingly alone amid a flurry of crises that have rocked and divided his three-way coalition with the Greens and the fiscally conservative Free Democrats (FDP), prompting voters to question whether the chancellor is up to the job and if his government should serve a full four-year term. 

Let it be clear friends: silence is complicity. And empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and an end to the occupation, and the shallow words of empathy without direct action: all under the banner of complicity.

Elvira Nabiullina is the top technocrat keeping Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine humming. During the decade she’s sat at the helm of Russia’s central bank, Nabiullina’s hawkish monetary policies have repeatedly saved the ruble and kept the country’s economy afloat. In the process, Putin’s banker, once considered a moderating influence and now his silent enabler, has managed to stave off the effects of unprecedented Western sanctions designed to drain the Kremlin’s coffers, *prolonging the war on Ukraine.

https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-class-of-2024/elvira-nabiullina/

If the gloves are off from the blood-soaked hands of Israel and the United States, then the gloves should come off for the rest of the world to tell them what they think of their genocidal actions and brutality. 

There’s no longer any pretence, no false humility, no drawing of the veil from either country. All lip service has been given up and the real aim and intentions of the U.S. and Israel have been made very, very clear. Many Israeli leaders have bellowed their hatred towards the Palestinians. They don’t care who listens or what the international community thinks. The following exclamations are not made up, they are real words of real Israeli hatred towards the Palestinians.

One third-two-third, for balance… sometimes half-and-half shall do, to go faster. One day you will understand. This has to do with aeroplane airlift and iffy polls for the president of America — both unrelated to rocket science. 

is capitalism compatible with democracy?

This is the complex or simple question that we will attempt to answer by using various studies — ending up with how can America rule itself — indeed the planet — with an old demented senile guy or an unpredictable clown in charge? 

None of these characters graduated from say Harvard or such, and Joe Biden had to cheat to barely pass average at his obscure business school. He has cheated ever since…

Capitalism is based on greed. Democracy is (or should be) based on equality. There are many tricks and devices that are taught in these “schools” to create captains of industries to make sure democracy does not work like it should — but most of the graduates are capitalism ready. That is to say, they are disciplined into the art of capitalism, like army command, and respond to such. 

Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny has confirmed the retreat of his troops to the outskirts of Maryinka, a key Donbass town, where Russian forces claimed victory on Monday after months of fierce fighting for the stronghold.

Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, Zaluzhny acknowledged the pullback of Ukrainian troops from Maryinka, located to the west of Donetsk. He likened the heavy fighting for the town in recent months to Ukraine’s loss earlier this year of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukrainian).

The European Union’s foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, was “honored”on Tuesday with a “Borat award for diplomacy” from Politico EU, for what the outlet called a history of “diplomatic ineptitude” on the job.

Borrell “never misses an opportunity to put his foot in his mouth,” said the Axel Springer-owned outlet, which described the Spaniard last month as having “a history of making gaffes.”

The first step in fixing any problem is acknowledging it. And for Australia on climate change, that means admitting we are a petrostate.

The paradox is glaring: while the UAE and Saudi Arabia are readily acknowledged and seemingly proud to be petrostates, Australia’s similar status is unspoken. It’s time to confront this uncomfortable truth – we are the third-largest fossil fuel exporter globally and the single largest exporter of coal and gas.

JULIAN

As Julian Assange approaches his “final” appeal against extradition to the United States, where he faces some 18 counts related to the release of vast troves of damning and embarrassing evidence against the US government, the 52-year-old WikiLeaks founder received a visit from Tucker Carlson to discuss his situation.

Carlson describes Assange as “one of the greatest journalists of our age,” who has “spent his adult life bringing previously concealed facts to the public about what our leaders are doing.”

Seeing the naked truth is usually the first step before we can go on to realize the truth of beauty and decency. We might hope that the world is taking that first step.

American President Joe Biden likes to talk about “inflexion points” when he is lecturing about world affairs and the supposed superiority of the United States. This year is indeed an inflexion point.

It was the year that the entire world saw the truly hideous and criminal nature of U.S. power.

Washington’s fuelling of the futile conflict in Ukraine and the despicable slaughter in Gaza is a wake-up call for the entire world. The United States stands barefaced and grotesque as the primary purveyor of war. There can be no doubt about that. For many it is shocking, scandalous and frightening.

Some of Australia’s largest and best-known brands are being urged to remove a tracking tool from Chinese-owned social media giant TikTok, amid revelations it is harvesting Australians’ data including email addresses, mobile phone numbers and browsing histories without their knowledge or consent, in a potential breach of the nation’s privacy laws.

TikTok’s tracking tool, known as a pixel, is an invisible piece of code that tracks a user’s web history and personal information, even if the user doesn’t have a TikTok account. The pixel can then track a user across the internet and piece together their identity including their email, phone number and buying habits – even if they don’t have TikTok on their phone.