If the US stops funding Ukraine, Russia will win the ongoing conflict between the two countries, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday, making the case for $44 billion more in military and other aid to the government in Kiev.

“I can guarantee that, without our support, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will be successful,” Austin told the senators. “If we pull the rug out from under them now, Putin will only get stronger and he will be successful in doing what he wants to do.” 

Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were asking the lawmakers to approve President Joe Biden’s $106 billion supplemental funding request, which has bundled the Ukraine funding with aid to Israel and Taiwan, among other things.

Since 2018 the painstaking discussions have picked through everything from chemicals to cosmetics, but have repeatedly come unstuck over market access for Australian products such as beef and sheep meat.

Australian agriculture minister Murray Watt said EU negotiators had refused to budge during the latest round of talks, held on the sidelines of a Group of Seven meeting in Japan.

"Unfortunately we just didn't get the movement on the EU side that was required," he told national broadcaster ABC on Monday.

A new war in Europe is no longer unthinkable and German society must adapt to this reality, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has claimed as he called for increased military spending.

In an interview with Germany’s ZDF broadcaster on Sunday, Pistorius insisted that Germans “must again get used to the thought that the danger of a war in Europe could pose a threat.” Discussing Berlin’s defense capabilities, the minister called on his compatriots to “become war-capable.”

The official cited the Ukraine conflict as well as hostilities between Israel and Hamas as proof that fighting could also erupt elsewhere.

Hunter Biden received a $250,000 loan from a foreign businessman after his father, Joe Biden, announced his election bid; Hunter's debt was later paid off by a politically connected Hollywood lawyer, documents say. Was it a mere coincidence?

Documents collected by US federal authorities and reviewed by independent American media outlet Just the News indicate that Hunter Biden, son of the incumbent president of the United States, received a loan amounting to $250,000 from Xiangsheng "Jonathan" Li in July, 2019.

A leaked policy document compiled by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence calls for the depopulation of Gaza and the forced displacement of its residents to Egyptian territory, according to a copy published by the Sicha Mekomit news site on Saturday.

The ten-page document, dated October 13, recommends that Israel establish tent cities in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula to accommodate the Gazan population. These tent cities should then be developed into permanent settlements, with a“sterile zone of several kilometers” separating them from the Israeli border. 

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky feels “betrayed” by his Western backers, who have denied him the support and attention he has grown used to, his aides told Time magazine. According to the report, the president’s circle now see him as “delusional” and the conflict with Russia as impossible to win.

Zelensky and his advisors spoke to the US magazine after the Ukrainian president visited Washington last month. Unlike the hero’s welcome he received last December, the most recent visit saw Zelensky grilled about corruption in Ukraine and forbidden from addressing lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, ending his campaign for the White House after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls.

“It’s become clear to me: This is not my time,” Pence said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual gathering in Las Vegas. “So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”

New House Speaker: Russia, China, and Iran Are New Axis of Evil

In an interview with Sean Hannity, Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson said Putin cannot win in Ukraine 

by Kyle Anzalone 

Representative Mike Johnson vowed to support the wars in Ukraine and Israel in an interview after becoming House Speaker. The Congressman told Sean Hannity that China, Russia, and Iran make up an “axis of evil” that poses a huge threat to the US.

With more than 7,300 Palestinians killed so far in Israel’s three-week bombardment of Gaza, a series of reports this week have exposed how U.S. weapon-makers and billionaire donors are enabling what legal scholars say could amount to genocide.

“I love you…”

“This is MY flower…”

“Piss off…”

“Give us a kiss…”

“War! You want war?…”

“It’s a beautiful day…”

“We are lucky…”

“Don’t push me!…”

“This is sweet…”

“Here comes the noisy miner…”

“Let’s chase him…”

“I dare you…”

“We don’t share…”

“I love you…”

“It’s a beautiful day…”

“War! You want war?…”

“Piss off…”

“I like your colour scheme…”

“Thank you…”

“YOU make a racket…”

“This is MY flower…”

“THIS is my flower…”

“This IS my flower…”

“This is my FLOWER”

“This is my flower…”

“It’s a beautiful day…”

ROBERT URBANOSKI  — 29 October 2023

“We agree with the central proposition, that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire and human suffering is widespread and unacceptable,” Larsen said.

“The resolution did not recognise terror group Hamas as the perpetrator of the 7 October attack, and Australia again explicitly calls for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-abstains-on-incomplete-un-resolution-for-gaza-truce-20231028-p5efqv.html

A TRUCE OR A CEASEFIRE IS NOT THERE TO MAKE DEMANDS OF ANY SORTS... ABSTENTION IS A COPOUT.

-----------------

axis

The Biden administration has not made clear exactly what it wants to achieve by providing billions of dollars in support to Ukraine, newly elected US House Speaker Mike Johnson has said, indicating that Republicans may want to handle that separately from financial help to Israel.

In an interview with Fox News released on Thursday, Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who is considered a Trump ally and a skeptic of Ukraine aid, said the American people “are demanding some real accountability” on the matter.

The speaker stressed that while Republicans are not opposed to helping Kiev in the conflict with Moscow, “we want to know what the object is there, what is the end game in Ukraine.”

“The White House has not provided that,” he explained, adding that he has made this position clear to top administration officials.

With Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killing at least twenty Palestinian journalists—and the Biden administration working to muzzle others—Big Tech is quietly coordinating with Tel Aviv to muzzle Palestinian media outfits. 

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinian journalists on October 25 in one of the deadliest days for local reporters since the military’s bombing campaign began nearly three weeks before. As the hours passed, footage appeared showing the moment Ramallah-based journalist Mohammed Farra learned that his wife and children were all killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza’s Khan Younes neighborhood. 

A day before President Joe Biden delivered his primetime Oval Office address demanding more military aid for Israel, a group of expert attorneys issued a grave warning.

By continuing to arm the Israeli military as it carries out a massive assault on the Gaza Strip, the lawyers argued in an emergency briefing paper, the Biden administration is rendering itself complicit in possible genocide against Palestinians in the occupied territory.

The American military invaded the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada – with a population of 100,000 – on 25 October 1983.

US president Ronald Reagan, the architect of the ‘second cold war’ with the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, claimed America was intervening to protect US citizens, prevent disorder and restore democracy following an armed coup on the island.

Yet Washington barely paid any attention to the fact that Grenada, although an independent country, was a member of the Commonwealth presided over by a governor general appointed by the Queen.