Forcibly conscripted Ukrainians are performing poorly on the battlefield, Kiev’s military intelligence chief, Kirill Budanov, has admitted. He warned, however, that the country’s harsh recruitment drive must continue, and that no one will be able to “escape mobilization.” 

The spymaster made the remarks during a panel discussion titled ‘2024: Challenges and Prospects’, excerpts from which were circulated by local media on Sunday. Budanov backed the idea of continuing forced conscription into the country’s military, claiming it was the only way to maintain numbers.

“It is impossible to escape mobilization,” he stated. “There are currently 1.1 million people in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. No recruiting can cover such volumes.”

Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is not the reason.

The real Israeli objective in Gaza is to drive out the population and destroy infrastructure as part of a long term plan to expel Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere.

 

Hamas, Gaza and the continuing Zionist project    By John Menadue

 

This settler colonisation has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba. In Australia we are very familiar with settler colonisation – driving out the original inhabitants.

In 1948 Palestinians owned 94% of all land; now Israelis own 82%. These figures tell the real story.

More than a year ago, leaders of the G7 group of big wealthy countries announced they were working on a series of deals to move emerging economies away from fossil fuels, particularly coal.

With South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) already underway, they said at the summit in Germany that they were negotiating with Indonesia, Vietnam and India.

 

By Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar

 

Since then, Indonesia and Vietnam have signed JETP deals — but not India. Experts familiar with the issue said that no Indian deal is expected in the near future.

ROME – While insisting that he continues to improve and has no present plans to resign, Pope Francis nevertheless has revealed in a new interview that he’s begun making plans for his own funeral and burial, including his desire to be entombed in Rome’s famed Basilica of St. Mary Major.

Speaking to Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki in an interview with Spanish-language news site N+ that was published Wednesday, Pope Francis gave an update on his health after being forced to cancel a Dec. 1-3 trip to Dubai for a United Nations climate summit, saying he is better, but people should be “a little bit” worried.

“I need you all to pray for my health,” he said, saying old age “does not put on makeup,” but it does come with many gifts, such as learning to see things “from another perspective.”

 silly

Australian Strategic Policy Institute Senior Analyst Malcolm Davis says Australia sending a navy warship to the Red Sea would not “leave” the nation short on its defence.

On Thursday, Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed he was considering sending Australian Navy personnel to assist the US in the Red Sea, with the Coalition urging the government to answer America’s call to deploy a navy warship to the area. “It doesn’t leave us short in the sense that the Navy has already assured the government that it is capable of sending a warship to the Red Sea and still maintaining its operational requirements here in the Indo-Pacific region,” he told Sky News Australia.

The Atlas Network’s main goal has been to spot and train global talent in the ultra free-market libertarian field and connect it to the free-flowing money that the alliance functions to assist. They now have at least 515 partner organisations in over 100 nations. Secrecy is key for the corporations and plutocrats funding this model, structuring replicating “think” tanks and funding academics and spin doctors to sell what the backers can’t say. Atlas and partners hate attention. We must not let them hide.

 

Secrecy and the climate disinformation industry   By Lucy Hamilton

 

The BBC and others keep revisiting Hamas crimes that day, but fail to report on growing evidence that Israel killed its own citizens, often in grotesque fashion

Middle East Eye – 15 December 2023

 

BY Jonathan Cook

 

Barely a day has passed since the 7 October attack by Hamas when the western media has not revisited those events, often to reveal what it claims are new details of astonishing atrocities carried out by the Palestinian group.

These disclosures have served to sustain public indignation in the West, and kept Palestinian solidarity activists on the back foot. 

We live on a small planet, a special environment that gave us life. The relationship between the environment, the evolution of this environment and our resultant comfort is undeniable. meanwhile we — superior monkeys that can read and write — have invented systems of dealing with each others, some based on nature, some based on delusions and comfort, in order to control what we do. 

 

We fight, we love, we disagree, we punish and we make friends.

We sometimes try to understand the world we live in as well as the systems we have devised in our wisdoms, but — apart from specialist geniuses — we are quite poor at grasping reality beyond a few basic tenets. We develop and maintain prejudices from the history of our place and of our people.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Lyrdkhu-U

Bill Maher Should Have To Shut About Ukraine After Saying This!

 

It’s the eternal question when it comes to Bill Maher and foreign policy: is he really this dumb or just pretending? The latest discussion of the Ukraine War on his show did nothing to solve the debate as Bill brought on two uber-establishment shills from the mainstream media to regurgitate long-ago exhausted talking points about having to deter Russian aggression and not appeasing power-mad dictators.

Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger talk to Due Dissidence host Russell Dobular about Bill Maher’s thickness and why he’ll never bring on guests like Glenn Greenwald and Thomas Frank again...

 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz convinced Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to leave the room where the bloc’s leaders were voting on whether to open negotiations with Ukraine about joining the EU, he confirmed to reporters on Saturday, admitting the controversial tactic could not serve as a “universal solution.” 

Scholz had told Orban “he should consider leaving the room briefly,” perhaps to “go grab a coffee outside” as negotiations over Ukraine’s accession to the EU dragged into a third hour in Brussels on Thursday, according to Politico. The absence of the Hungarian prime minister, a staunch opponent of EU membership for the nation he has described as “one of the most corrupt countries in the world,” allowed the bloc’s remaining members to approve the motion with the appearance of unanimity. 

I really didn’t want to write this article; I’d rather be saying something about the theological meaning of Christmas. Much safer.

But John Menadue wrote to me last week with a challenge: “It may look too dramatic, but it would be highly symbolic if the Pope went to Gaza to celebrate Mass on Christmas day … Perhaps he could be accompanied by leading Jewish and Muslim clerics. It would shock the world. Could you write it?”

 

Could Pope Francis provide some hope for peace in the Middle East?    By Paul Collins

 

Too easily seduced, I foolishly agreed to venture with my very limited knowledge into what is a highly complex geopolitical-religious situation!

Stretching for mile upon mile through desert, grasslands and even nature reserves, the US-Mexico border wall built over the years by successive governments does little to stop illegal immigration, claim its critics. However, it is cutting off wildlife, including endangered and threatened species, from vast expanses of their natural habitat, say wildlife experts, decreasing their chances of survival.

US-Mexico border wall: ‘Easily defeated’ by humans, disastrous for wildlife

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20231215-us-mexico-border-wall-easily-defeated-by-humans-disastrous-for-wildlife

 

REALLY??????

 

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is open to renewed dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin if it leads to “lasting peace” in Ukraine, responding after Putin blamed Paris for deteriorating relations.

Addressing reporters after a meeting in Brussels on Friday, Macron claimed that Russia’s military operation in Ukraine had made discussions “virtually impossible,” but said he would again be willing to hold talks to bring an end to the conflict.

Antisemitism is an ancient European pastime. But post-World War II we have seen the birth of the Antisemitism Industry – people who have made it their job to call out antisemitism, even where it might not exist.

Last week, Israel’s ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon told The Guardian that he was ‘very sad’ about the rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia and urged the Federal Government to “take all necessary measures” to ensure people of different faiths and backgrounds feel safe.

Mr Maimon’s position was humane, unequivocal and broad ranging, covering Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for Republican nominee for US president in 2024, inspired accusations of taking the rightwing talking point about “draining the swamp” too literally when his microphone appeared to broadcast himself urinating during an X Space conversation with Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Matt Gaetz and others.

On the same day that Musk welcomed Jones – the notorious conspiracy theorist – back to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that banned Jones in 2018 for abusive behavior, Musk invited him to speak with a constellation of far-right media figures and politicians.