Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an appearance via video at the Golden Globes on Tuesday night where he promised that his country would be victorious against Russian aggression.

After being introduced by actor Sean Penn, who has championed Zelensky since the war broke out in early 2022, Zelensky shared a pre-recorded message that thanked the United States for its continued support while adding that the “tide is turning” in the war.

“The First World War claimed millions of lives. The Second World War claimed 10s of millions of them. There will be no Third World War,” Zelensky said. “It is not a trilogy: Ukraine will stop the Russian aggression on our land.”

It is a constant of History: changes are rare, but sudden. Those who bear the brunt of them are generally the last to see them coming. They perceive them only too late. Contrary to the static image that prevails in the West, international relations have been turned upside down in 2022, mainly to the detriment of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, often to the benefit of China and Russia. With their eyes riveted on Ukraine, Westerners do not perceive the redistribution of the cards.

 

The world order already changed in 2022

 

by Thierry Meyssan

 

The unprecedented sanctions introduced against Russian individuals since the beginning of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine have drastically impacted the list of Russia’s wealthiest people, according to the latest estimates by Forbes.

Moreover, data tracked by the magazine shows that those remaining at the top of the country’s rich list saw their fortunes dwindling.

Alexey Mordashov, the chairman of steel giant Severstal, has led the list of the biggest losers, with his wealth dropping $11.1 billion during 2022 to $18.4 billion.

There always have been and always will be clashes and tensions between different civilisations. In the words of an old Tom Lehrer song, National Brotherhood Week:

The Protestants hate the Catholics,
The Catholics hate the Protestants,
The Muslims hate the Hindus,
The Hindus hate the Muslims,
And everybody hates the Jews.

So sang a Jewish singer, some of whose ancestors, I believe, fled to the USA after the 1905 pogrom in Odessa, a city which for the moment is still in the Ukraine) (1).

 

By Batiushka for the Saker blog

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not an “unpleasant” man, Emmanuel Macron has said, but that cannot be an excuse for launching a “war” on Ukraine. The French president made the bizarre remark during an appearance on Saturday at Les Rencontres du Papotin, a TV program hosted by a group of journalists with autism.

Macron was grilled by the journalists on assorted issues, including his ties with Putin.

IS PUTIN A THUG? THE CLEAR AND DEFINITIVE ANSWER TO THIS IS AN EMPHATIC NO. THIS IS NOT THE VIEW FROM MOST OF THE WESTERN JOURNALISTS, THOUGH. 

 

There's a key difference between the classified documents found at a former Biden office and the ones Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago, national security expert says.

 

• CBS News reported Monday that classified documents were found at an office used by President Biden.
• The documents were found by Biden's attorneys and provided to the National Archives.
• A legal expert said Biden's team appears to have done "exactly what you're supposed to do."

 

A US attorney is reviewing a handful of classified documents found at President Joe Biden's former office in Washington, CBS News reported Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not an “unpleasant” man, Emmanuel Macron has said, but that cannot be an excuse for launching a “war” on Ukraine. The French president made the bizarre remark during an appearance on Saturday at Les Rencontres du Papotin, a TV program hosted by a group of journalists with autism.

Macron was grilled by the journalists on assorted issues, including his ties with Putin.

“When you meet him like that, he’s not unpleasant. That’s the paradox,” Macron stated, adding that “there is nothing to justify starting a war.”

The French president also expressed his view of the roots of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, alleging that the true goal of Putin was the restoration of the Russian “empire.” Macron, however, did not elaborate on how exactly the ongoing hostilities might help achieve this alleged goal.

On his Youtube channel, renowned German economics and finance expert Ernst Wolff constantly sheds light on the opaque world of global finance through his contributions and interviews. Complex relationships are reduced to the essentials and explained in an understandable way, even for laymen. In the section “Current commentary”, Ernst Wolff also takes a stand on current topics and shows the undersides and contexts that are not talked about in the mainstream media. Here is a comment about Elon Musk and Twitter:

For decades, U.S. scientists have led the world in documenting the risks of climate change, and U.S. diplomats have cast global warming as a dire threat in international fora. Those warnings rang hollow, though, because unlike many wealthy countries, the world’s second largest producer of greenhouse gases had never passed a law to substantially reduce those emissions. This summer, attempts to pass such a bill appeared doomed to fail yet again.

 

United States passes landmark climate law

BY PAUL VOOSEN

 

Prince Harry has accused the Royal Family of failing to defend his wife Meghan in the controversy over a Jeremy Clarkson newspaper column.

In an ITV interview, the Duke of Sussex said the "silence is deafening" about the "horrific" Sun article last month.

The 15 rounds of voting it took to install Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House is part of the carnival of folly that passes for politics.

Il y a bien longtemps, trop longtemps

Que le Canard était marrant, amusant, désopilant

Informant et tranchant.

Mais maintenant le Canard est décevant, 

Et boring presque complètement.

 

C’est possible que le Canard represent le government

De l’hexagone sous la domination du Pentagone

Et la plupart des gens qui y vivent dedans —

Sont des français aux cent-mille fromages sentants

Qui n’ont plus aucune idée au sujet d’Antigone.

                         Jules Letambour

 

In November 2022, I brought a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the Australian Government to disclose the basis of its non-acceptance of the reports that apartheid exists in Israel. Last week, DFAT rejected the request on the risible basis that to process it would “unreasonably divert the department’s resources.”  

I refer to my earlier article, Australia must clarify Israel’s status as an apartheid State published in Pearls and Irritations on 3 November 2022.

 

BY Paul Heywood-Smith

 

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates have admitted that Ukraine’s economy and military are almost completely reliant on bailouts from the West, and barring a dramatic turnaround, its chances of victory are slipping away.

Ukraine’s “economy is in a shambles,” the ex-diplomat and former Pentagon chief wrote in the Washington Post on Saturday.

The country’s “military capability and economy are now dependent almost entirely on lifelines from the West,” they continued, arguing that should Ukraine fail to mount a successful offensive in the near future, President Vladimir Zelensky will be pressured by the West to negotiate a ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin – something the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly refused to consider.

A call from veterans and communist resistance fighters: THE ANTI-NAZI COMMITMENT OF STALINGRAD FIGHTERS IS MORE CURRENT THAN EVER! 80th ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORY OF STALINGRAD, RALLY on the initiative of the P.R.C.F., February 4, 2023, Paris, Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad.