Many people, including President Donald Trump, have been suggesting over the last year that, because Trump survived being shot at during the 2024 presidential campaign, he and the things he does are endorsed by God. Indeed, this week, Trump, speaking with a reporter next to the Air Force One plane, said regarding the shooting that “God was protecting me, maybe because God wanted to see our country do better or do really well, make America great again.”

   by Adam Dick

The approach is not doctrinal, but is about speaking frankly to both Washington and Beijing.

Here is a foreign minister speaking about Australia’s China debate: “We Australians tend to have a habit, a cast of mind, which seeks for simplicity, and is uneasy with complexity, in foreign policy. We tend to see issues in terms of simple dichotomies – black or white, either-or, all or nothing.

James Curran

Why are we seeking simple happiness

In a world that survives on deep stress

Where many people experience distress

While only a few elites get success

By other countries’ race they aggress

We are promised a path to heaven

Though we bake in a climate oven

Or shot dead by raving mad men

Bleeding red all of the sudden

For the benefit of loons who govern

With ideas nothing worth a dozen

To make us morose and so sullen

While fighting the antichrist in vain

We are told to embrace the future

With empty pockets to endure

Pressed to be poor to stay pure

By priests and preachers with a lure

As governments indulge in torture

And the rats ransack our ordure

Our beliefs we firmly invent 

From silly idiotic ignorant intent

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered a fiery address, accusing the West—particularly Germany and the United States—of stoking conflict with Russia through unchecked military support for Ukraine. Speaking during a high-profile interview, Lavrov declared that "Russia is once again forced to fight alone" against a hostile collective West, drawing historical parallels with past invasions by Napoleon and Hitler.

Lavrov sharply criticized Berlin’s increasing militarization and suggested that Western leaders have forgotten the lessons of World War II. “We wanted peace. They wanted war,” Lavrov said, reinforcing Moscow’s claim that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked by NATO’s expansion and Washington’s refusal to engage diplomatically.

Perhaps Nero didn’t play the fiddle as Rome burned, as it’s often alleged. But he certainly stands as one of the worst Roman emperors.
Born in 37 C.E. as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero rose to power after the death of his stepfather, Claudius, in 54 C.E. It’s been alleged that Nero’s mother, Agrippina the Younger, had a hand in her husband’s death — possibly by feeding him poisoned mushrooms — in order to ensure her son’s ascendency.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/worst-roman-emperors

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US President Donald Trump has sharply reduced the time frame he set for Russia and Ukraine to agree on a ceasefire, warning that Moscow now has just 10 to 12 days to reach a deal or face sweeping new sanctions.

The US cannot sell any Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia without doubling its production rate, because it is making too few for its own defence, the navy’s nominee for chief of operations has told Congress.

There are “no magic beans” to boosting the US’s sclerotic shipbuilding capacity, Admiral Daryl Caudle said in frank evidence before a Senate committee.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has condemned the new trade deal between Washington and Brussels, accusing the EU of yielding to US coercion.

On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finalized a controversial agreement with President Donald Trump, averting looming 30% tariffs from the US in exchange for a flat 15% levy on most goods. In return, the EU agreed to open its markets to American exports and impose no tariffs on them.

“Von der Leyen-Trump Agreement: It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, gathered to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submit,” Bayrou wrote on X on Monday.

Former Foreign Minister and NSW Premier Bob Carr has compared the situation in Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto, and urged the Government to move with the French on Palestinian statehood. He made his comments in an interview with ABC Radio National Breakfast host Sally Sara. 

Bob Carr

An edited transcript follows.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United States and the European Union have agreed on a new trade deal, which envisages, among other things, a zero tariff on US imports to the European markets and a 15% baseline tariff on all EU goods coming to the US, including cars, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday.

"I just want to congratulate you. I think it is great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all … I think it is the biggest deal ever made," Trump said at a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland.

Under the new deal, the EU agrees to purchase $750 billion worth of energy from the United States and "a vast amount" of military equipment, Trump said. The EU will invest an additional $600 billion in the US economy and open up the countries' markets to trade with the US at zero tariffs.

The United Kingdom could resort to military force against China in the event of an escalation over Taiwan, British Defense Secretary John Healey has said, though he emphasized that London continues to prefer a diplomatic resolution.

Speaking to The Telegraph during a visit to Australia, Healey said Britain would “secure peace through strength”if necessary – marking one of the clearest signals yet from a senior UK official regarding the possibility of direct confrontation with Beijing.

David Milne is an Aberdeenshire local who lives beside Trump's golf course. He won a bitter battle to stop Trump kicking him out his home and famously raised a Mexican flag above the course during the President's last visit.

Martin Ford was a councillor at the time and drew the future President's ire by casting the deciding vote to block his course getting built there.

LBC's Alan Zycinski went to speak to them to hear their stories and find out what it's like to be an enemy of Donald Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cBJ6hddoQE

Israel’s key enablers, the G7, plus Australia and New Zealand, have succeeded in muscling Israel back onto the invite list for the commemorations in Nagasaki on 9 August. Last year Israel was excluded, triggering a refusal by these countries to attend in 2024. Does the ‘personal’ invitation that Nagasaki has just sent to Israel represent a triumph of Western diplomacy or a sick joke?

Eugene Doyle

You know who your mates are when you’re committing genocide

Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, says the chipmaker has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence to China.

“Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us filing licenses to start shipping H20s,” Huang told reporters in Beijing. 

The news came in a company blog post late on Monday.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino boldly declared Saturday that he made recent discoveries about government corruption and weaponization that shocked him down to the core.

Without elaborating on what he found out, Bongino teased that investigations into those discoveries are ongoing and being done “by the book.”

“What I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core,” Bongino said in a shocking announcement on X.

“We cannot run a Republic like this. I’ll never be the same after learning what I’ve learned.”

Soviet Star Trek IV: The Wrath of Elon Musk (AI Trailer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVZqh_DnAj8

The fourth instalment in the cursed Soviet Trek Series. A prequel of sorts!

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe8j2I0lljA

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfcrJ1XZDtQ