‘Ukrainians offer no evidence’ says Lebanese customs official over allegedly looted Syrian ship cargo

The Ukrainian accusation has caused a 'huge ruckus' at the highest levels of Lebanon's government

A Syrian ship currently docked in the Lebanese port of Tripoli, and reported to be carrying Russian-origin flour, has been accused by Ukrainian officials of containing goods “plundered by Russia from Ukrainian stores.”

The shipping data website MarineTraffic shows that the Laodicea, a ship reportedly under US sanctions, docked in Tripoli on 27 July.

Canberra for Assange is organising a public rally, Converge on Canberra for Assange, at Parliament House to demonstrate public support for bringing Julian home and maintain the pressure on the Prime Minister to act on his statement that enough is enough by calling on President Joe Biden to drop the charges. The rally will take place on Thursday 28 July from 12-1.30pm in the first week of the new Parliament.

https://www.amnesty.org.au/events/converge-on-canberra-for-assange/

ACCORDING TO GUS'S RESEARCH, THE EVENT CAME AND WENT, LEAVING NO RELEVANT IMPRINT IN THE AUSSIE MEDIA....

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has defended his government’s handling of Australia’s relationship with China, telling a summit in Japan he sought to “resist, not provoke the PRC”.

Mr Morrison skipped the first week of Parliament and his seat on the Opposition backbench to attend the Global Opinion Leaders Summit in Tokyo.

Speaking on Thursday night, the Member for Cook said his government took “a strong stand in response to the PRC’s assertiveness”. 

“We chose to resist, not provoke the PRC,” he said.

“I do not accept second place for the United States of America.” That simple statement, delivered to rousing effect by Barack Obama in his first State of the Union, in January 2010, managed to summarize the current American strategic horizon in a single sentence.

For decades, the United States has been in relative decline, facing the prospect of someday being overtaken by a rival power. Its main problem, however, is not the relative decline itself – it’s a natural phenomenon occurring as companies, sectors, regions and countries grow at uneven rates. Instead, its main problem is a failure to recognise this condition, whether out of pride, electoral calculation or simple lack of awareness.

BY Manlio Graziano

The Western media lamented China’s most recent breakthrough in computer chip manufacturing, achieving standards in production that were thought impossible because of sanctions imposed by the United States specifically designed to stifle Chinese advances.

A report from early July by CNBC would discuss these sanctions. In their article, “US mulls fresh bid to restrict chipmaking tools for China’s SMIC,” CNBC would report:

DPRK leader Kim Jong-un announced on Thursday that Pyongyang’s “nuclear war deterrent” was “fully ready” to respond to threats. Such saber-rattling is nothing new from Kim, but it does come after a slew of artillery and missile tests.

In a speech marking the 69th anniversary of the armistice that halted the 1950-1953 Korean War, Kim accused South Korea of pursuing “suicidal” confrontation against North Korea in a bid to deepen ties with “the US imperialists,” according to a transcript from the Korean Central News Agency.

“Our armed forces are now fully prepared to cope with any sort of crisis, and our state's nuclear war deterrent is also fully ready to demonstrate its absolute power accurately and promptly true to its mission,” Kim declared. 

Ukraine bombards Donetsk with landmines – mayor

The Donbass official urged residents to stay vigilant for banned explosive devices

Ukrainian forces airdropped banned PFM-1 anti-personnel landmines on the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic on Wednesday night, Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said.

The mayor wrote on his Telegram channel that mines were discovered on several streets in the northwestern part of the city.

“A bomb squad and rescuers have been working on the site since the early morning. A vehicle equipped with a loudspeaker is alerting local residents,” Kulemzin said, urging people to be vigilant and not approach the mines.

Define ‘recession’: Biden’s administration refuses to see economic reality

Instead of addressing the most pressing problem of regular Americans, the president and his staff play word games

As anyone with a pulse can attest, times are tough, and every non-millionaire American is struggling with the weight of the economy.

Inflation is now sitting at a 40-year high, and economic conditions are worse than when Jimmy Carter was running the show. And yet, despite all the facts, Joe Biden and his team at the White House insist that everything is fine, like the meme dog in the burning house.

BY Ian Miles Cheong

After leaving The Washington Post in 1977, Carl Bernstein spent six months looking at the relationship of the CIA and the press during the Cold War years. His 25,000-word cover story, published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977, is reprinted below.

How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up

BY CARL BERNSTEIN

In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA.

Ukraine’s celebrity-in-chief just took time off from his heavy schedule of appearances at major Western gatherings for a photo shoot with his wife in Vogue magazine.  

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

Listen to a reading of this article.

The US has one of the most deeply-ingrained nationalistic ideologies of any nation. Accompanying the grand mass hysterias of patriotism and freedom, one of the most pervasive links in the ideological chain that creates the American sense of identity is a belief in “The American Dream”, an imaginary ideal that offers a rags-to-riches path to prosperity.

As Putin is blamed for the war (intervention) in Ukraine, many good people misunderstand the harsh situation. Russia was placed in a bind (a trap). The choice was ratshit. Either accept that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and that the new autonomous territories of Ukraine be taken over Kiev after fierce battles that would have killed hundred of thousands OR defend the Donbass region and imposing a certain will on Kiev as not to join NATO. Putin is smarter than the average bear. Contrary to what is painted in the West, Putin is honest. He made some demands last year (2021) as to the West not to cross certain red lines. The West pissed on him.

Which Australian Defence Minister convinced the Hawke Cabinet to create a submarine production industry at Port Adelaide with no commercial prospects, its product being of only marginal benefit to our defence, with zero local construction expertise, at extraordinary cost to taxpayers yet available economically elsewhere – while obscuring the finding by his Department that submarines suffer critical limitations in defending Australia?

BY MIKE GILLIGAN

Bosses at Western banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and HSBC are committing war crimes by continuing to indirectly finance the Russian state, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Oleg Ustenko, claimed on Tuesday.

In an interview with CNBC, Ustenko announced that Kiev continues to gather data on banks it believes are financing traders of Russian oil, and plans to forward its complaints to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, against Ukrainians," Ustenko told the outlet. “In our logic, everybody who is financing these war criminals who are doing these terrible things in Ukraine are also committing war crimes,” he added, noting that Kiev will not pursue the banks themselves, but their leaders and managers.

A US aircraft carrier and its retinue of warships departed from Singapore on Tuesday, steaming northward toward Taiwan. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is slated to visit the island next month despite protests by Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a Chinese province in rebellion. Now, she’s inviting more lawmakers along.