Mining executives and diplomats have been assured of access to Australian ores and expertise under the new federal government.

Resources Minister Madeleine King held private meetings with international delegations at a mining conference in Sydney as police with sniffer dogs prowled the vast expo floor.

Ms King vowed to back new gas and coal fields to combat the energy crisis. She also expressed support for the ongoing role of gas to power mining and refining, which will support a net-zero emissions economy.

by AAP

The Albanese government’s position on new coal and gas development is clear, the minister told the International Mining and Resources Conference.

Bulgarian lawmakers voted on Thursday to supply Ukraine with arms, with socialist and nationalist MPs resisting the decision. This leaves Hungary as the final NATO member refusing to provide military aid to Kiev.

A bill authorizing weapons supplies to Ukraine passed Bulgaria’s National Assembly by 175 votes to 49, the Novinite news site reported. The pro-Western GERB party, currently the largest faction in the assembly, proposed the bill amid coalition talks following elections last month.

Germany has become an economic satellite of America’s New Cold War with Russia, China and the rest of Eurasia. Germany and other NATO countries have been told to impose trade and investment sanctions upon themselves that will outlast today’s proxy war in Ukraine. U.S. President Biden and his State Department spokesmen have explained that Ukraine is just the opening arena in a much broader dynamic that is splitting the world into two opposing sets of economic alliances.

This global fracture promises to be a ten- or twenty-year struggle to determine whether the world economy will be a unipolar U.S.-centered dollarized economy, or a multipolar, multi-currency world centered on the Eurasian heartland with mixed public/private economies.

There is no doubt that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a serious war crime regardless of several provocations, including NATO’s eastward expansion and the role of the United States in the 2014 Maidan coup. Even so, the West is in no position to lecture Russia on sovereignty violations.

Given Russia’s modern history, it is possible to have sympathy with the Kremlin’s quest for a cordon sanitaire on its southwestern frontier without supporting an illegal war which is being fought “to the last Ukrainian” because the West sees the conflict as an opportunity to weaken its Cold War enemy. Washington knows Ukraine cannot prevail despite pouring weapons and munitions into the country. It cares little for the civilian population and, together with the UK, is firmly opposed to a diplomatic resolution.

The Defence Strategic Review must act in accordance with Australia’s commitment to sign the UN “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” (the ‘Ban Treaty’) and not seek to compromise that path by supporting roles in nuclear warfare alongside the US.

Anthony Albanese made a commitment in his “Changing the World” Speech (ALP National Conference, 18 Dec 2018), stating:

“We have on our side the overwhelming support of the Australian people. …

BY David Noonan B.Sc., M.Env.St.

We are urged at every turn to dismiss everything Vladimir Putin says as upside down to the truth. Those of us who keep our heads, while all about us others are losing theirs and blaming it on us, risk dismissal when we take the Russian president seriously.

Never mind. It is time simply to dismiss those who dismiss.

By Patrick Lawrence
Special to Consortium News

The attack on 82 year-old Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in his highly secured home, has given rise to various interpretations.

According to Ms. Pelosi and the Democratic Party, the attacker was a Trumpist who had gone to the house to kill her. Not finding her, he attacked her husband with a hammer, cracking his skull. The old man was hospitalized. His life is not in danger. According to the suspect’s former girlfriend, the man is a lunatic who takes himself for Jesus.

However, no trace of a break-in was found; moreover, the bodyguards did not intervene; and the only hammer on the scene belonged to Mr. Pelosi.

In contrast to the politicized dramatic interpretation of the Democrats which portrays a country on the verge of chaos, another much more prosaic version is drawing attention.

On the 17th of January, 1961, the first elected Prime Minister of newly independent Democratic Republic of Congo, was assassinated with the direct involvement of the Belgian government and collusion of the United States (Damian Zane, BBC, 20/06/2022). It is a damning indictment of the European and American claim to human rights and democratic values.

By Teow Loon Ti

The secrecy surrounding Australian foreign and defence policy protects planners from the public that elected them. The war in Afghanistan offers ample evidence.

The United States and Australia carried out an assassination campaign against the tactical leadership of the insurgency. Known as the Joint Prioritized Effects List (JPEL), it is an intelligence-driven assassination program enabled by drones and special forces. 

By  Clinton Fernandes
Declassified Australia

In an arc of militarisation across northern Australia, successive Australian governments, in close concert with the United States, have responded to the rise of a newly assertive China in terms that constitute an almost historically irrevocable opposition to any accommodation with China as a regional great power.

“The Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review is, at heart, a terrifying document. It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk. Citing rising threats from Russia and China, it argues that the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.” Stephen Young, Union of Concerned Scientists

The results are in for Brazil’s presidential election, which has drawn serious international attention. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known mononymously as Lula, won the contest with 50.9% of the vote, to incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro’s 49.1%, which is in line with what polls suggested would happen. My best friend, who I mentioned in my last column on this topic for RT, thankfully was not left in tears this time, but was shrieking over the phone in glee. 

Benito Mussolini’s seizure of power in Italy in 1922 was secretly assisted by the British government, which bet on the fascist dictator to protect its interests in the Mediterranean, a new book claims.

Backed by violent gangs of black shirts, Mussolini set up a fascist regime in Italy in the 1920s, banned Jews from public life in the 1930s and sided with Hitler in the Second World War before he was lynched by partisans in 1945.

by Tom Kington

Although he battled the British in Africa during the war, archives show that Mussolini partly owed his rapid rise to British officials who helped to organise his 1922 march on Rome, according to Giovanni Fasanella, co-author of Nero di Londra.

An open letter to Prime Minister Albanese, Defence Minister Marles and Foreign Minister Wong on Australia’s decision to train Ukrainian troops.

Dear Prime Minister Albanese, Defence Minister Marles and Foreign Minister Wong,

A surprise announcement was made on 26 October 2022 that Australia would send up to 70 troops to the United Kingdom to train forces from the Ukraine. There was little, or perhaps no, public debate on this decision in the lead up to the announcement. Given the importance of this matter, I have some questions on this decision, the answers to which I believe are in the public interest.

Sydney is set to burst into life this summer with concerts, food experiences, Christmas markets, international sporting events and arts and cultural events thanks to the NSW Government’s Summer in Sydney event series.

Premier Dominic Perrottet said dozens of unique events will roll out across the CBD and Western Sydney over summer to suit every age and interest and get people enjoying the city like never before.

“Whether you’re keen to dine at the city’s longest ever lunch, watch a harbourside concert on the Cahill Expressway, or soak up the festive spirit at Christmas markets in the Botanic Gardens, there will be something for everyone,” Mr Perrottet said.