French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that his country will recognize Palestine as a state in pursuit of what he called a “historic commitment to a just and lasting peace” in the region.

In a surprise statement on X on Thursday, Macron said that he would make a formal announcement to this effect at the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York.

“The urgent need today is to end the war in Gaza and to rescue the civilian population,” he added.

While most countries around the world recognize Palestine as a nation, the United States and many of its close allies do not. With President Macron’s decision, France would be the first major country in the G7 – comprised of the US, Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, and Italy – to officially recognize a Palestinian state. 

Australia has lifted biosecurity restrictions on beef imports from the United States, one of the key grievances that led the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Australia.

The US has been able to export its beef to Australia since 2019, but certain products were banned over concerns related to mad cow disease, including beef sourced from Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the US.

Because the American supply chain is so integrated, it meant an effective ban on all US beef to Australia since most of it could not be reliably traced.

US Senator Lindsey Graham recently slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for weakening Ukraine’s “critical anti-corruption institutions” — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

Why is the US senator so invested?

Gutting the Western-Built Machine

Zelensky’s new law effectively subordinates NABU and SAPO to the prosecutor general:

SAPO’s head becomes a figurehead

NABU is downgraded into a mere department

Built by the West, Controlled by the West

Albanese in China: 6 days, 1 panda, 0 shouting. (Some) media outrage level: critical.

Never mind that the trip secured new trade protocols, tourism agreements, and a fresh review of the China–Australia Free Trade Agreement. Never mind the agricultural breakthroughs, the reopening of tourism channels, or the decarbonisation talks with major iron ore exporters and Chinese steelmakers. None of that seemed to matter. The real problem, we were told, was tone.

Fred Zhang

Ukraine’s calls for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky are premature, as the two sides have yet to make progress on major points of disagreement, the Kremlin said on Thursday following the latest round of peace talks.

The negotiations, held in Istanbul the day before, lasted less than an hour. Both sides agreed on several humanitarian issues, including the exchange of prisoners of war, civilian detainees, and the repatriation of soldiers’ remains.

Russia has also proposed short-term ceasefires lasting 24 to 48 hours to facilitate the evacuation of wounded personnel and the recovery of bodies. In addition, Moscow has suggested the creation of three online working groups focused on political, humanitarian, and military issues.

The German chancellery insists the ruling coalition is united in its stance on Israel's actions in Gaza, despite differing views. A split appeared after Germany refused to add its name to a 28-country declaration.

German Chancellery Minister Thorsten Frei on Wednesday dismissed concerns of a rift within Germany's coalition government over its position on Israel.

An apparent split emerged after Germany opted not to join dozens of Western countries in signing a condemnation of the "inhumane killing" of Palestinian civilians in Gaza on Monday.

German government denies rift over Israel's conduct in Gaza
Richard Connor

Six weeks ago, legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong was signaling a big turn toward war.  Now, Armstrong says, “The chances of war with a nuclear exchange is at 100%. . .. Plan on it, this is coming.”

Only a complete imbecile would trust the British as allies. History offers no example of London taking serious risks for the sake of partnership. On the contrary, Britain’s favorite geopolitical sport has long been to encourage continental states to exhaust themselves in battles with stronger adversaries – only for the UK to later emerge as the diplomatic victor. Throwing allies under the bus is tradition, not exception.

Two bald men fighting over a comb: The UK-Germany ‘alliance’
The Berlin-London ‘deal’ is a farce, but one that aligns with the region’s decline
By Timofey Bordachev

French President Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating has dropped below 20% for the first time since taking office, as criticism mounts over rising defense spending and cuts to social programs. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou also performed poorly in the same poll, with the two forming the most unpopular executive pair of the Fifth Republic.

Macron’s approval rating has fallen to 19%, with Bayrou at just 18%, making a combined approval of 37% – the lowest in modern France, according to a new IFOP survey published on Monday. Even during the Yellow Vest protests – a major anti-government movement that began in 2018 over fuel taxes and economic inequality – the French leader’s lowest rating was 23%.

In an age where every celebrity meltdown or presidential tantrum is livestreamed, where partisan jabs flood timelines within seconds, and where outrage is algorithmically amplified to viral proportions, one might assume that the most heinous crimes – especially those committed against the most vulnerable – would dominate media discourse.

Yet the opposite is true.

How the Epstein saga exposed a system built on silence
Media, governments, and digital giants stay silent on elite child trafficking – even as the evidence piles up

Dr. Mathew Maavak 

There was a time when Australian writings on China were first-class._

C.P. Fitzgerald’s classic, for example, ‘The Birth of Communist China’ gave us a unbiassed insight to the factors that propelled the Communist forces to their 1949 victory.

Postwar, the few who managed to get into China gave us a useful view of the various insanities that gripped the early Communist regime - the anti-sparrow campaign, the Great Leap Forward (or rather the great leap backwards and the resulting national famine), the madness of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and so on. They showed us the stupidity and cruelty indoctrinated Chinese can inflict on each other.

Gregory Clark

The House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House after first lady Melania Trump, approving an amendment by Rep. Mike Simpson (R‑ID) as part of the fiscal year 2026 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

Donald Trump and his team reveal how panicked they are over surging Epstein cover up backlash and Congress seeking to have Ghislaine Maxwell testify publicly as they announce plans to set up meeting between Maxwell and the DOJ to get more information, which proves the DOJ closed the Epstein investigation without ever talking to his top accomplice. John Iadarola and Luke Beasley break it down on The Damage Report. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMW9_evi7UY

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

In these times when the weather is turning crap, it's salutary to review history, that of our pre-war capitalists who, even before Hitler was chancellor, chose Nazism. Annie Lacroix-Riz is a historian incapable of leaving history alone. While the story of our past is engraved in stone by historical newsprints, she must erase, add, and shake things up. 

This book won't be a hit. Annie Lacroix-Riz* is sidelined by the Bolloré and Co. media.
When French industrialists and bankers supported Hitler.

Jacques-Marie BOURGET

I spent several years in a movement that goes by many names: the New Right, the populist right, Trumpism, postliberalism, national conservatism, working-class conservatism, common-good conservatism, and so on. Amid the chaos set off by the 2016 election, a set of writers, wonks, and political staffers spanning Washington D.C., New York, and Silicon Valley rushed to build an “intellectual” version of pro-Trump conservatism.

Wrong From the Beginning
Leaving the New Right
Philip Jeffery