There are some on the right who thrive on the tension. And they blame the breakdown entirely on the other side. China’s statement following the first meeting between foreign ministers Penny Wong and Wang Yi has been denounced as ‘‘China’s four demands’’. One such ‘‘demand’’ is that the two countries seek common ground. Oh, the effrontery!

The other three speak of Australia regarding China as a partner rather than a rival, of positive and pragmatic social foundations, and of avoiding being controlled by any third party.

Do we really insist on being a rival, on having negative social foundations with China, or being controlled by a third party?

Appearing on last Thursday’s ABC Q&A programme, George Brandis, former Attorney General and former Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, behaved as though Australian citizens should always be grateful for the way he would protect their interests.

Questioned about his attitude to imprisoned Australian Julian Assange, he insisted on the benefits of siding with powerful establishment interests. To do otherwise, by protesting on behalf of powerless people, did not fit his idea of proper conduct, let alone of justice.

It has been quite a week for the regime in Kiev. On Sunday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suspended the head of his domestic intelligence service, Ivan Bakanov, and the Justice Ministry’s chief prosecutor, Iryna Venediktova. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature, ratified these suspensions Monday. These two officials are now fired. They both failed, it seems, to root out what the regime is calling treasonous collaborations with Russians. 

Pelosi to Blinken: Label Russia as terrorist state, or else Congress will

Her comments highlight the chasm in the actions lawmakers want the administration to take and what the secretary is comfortable doing. 

The warning, made on a call between the two earlier this week, was described to POLITICO by two sources familiar with the conversation. Spokespersons for the State Department and Pelosi’s office declined to comment.

President Vladimir Putin is “entirely too healthy,” CIA Director William Burns said on Wednesday, dispelling speculation about the Russian leader's wellbeing.

“There are a lot of rumors about President Putin’s health, and as far as we can tell, he is entirely too healthy. It’s not a formal intelligence judgment,” he said, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum.

The CIA chief’s comments were later echoed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who claimed on Thursday that the Russian leader is in good health. “Ukrainian, US, and British would-be media professionals have been spreading bogus stories about the president’s health condition in recent months. This is all hoax,” he said.

Something Happened One — By Gus Leonisky

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For every avowed supporter, however, there are multiple critics in the parliamentary party who don’t believe she has what it takes to pull off a win for the Tories in the next general election.

Many Labour MPs are openly gleeful at the prospect of facing her as PM, believing her to be wooden, gaffe-prone and likely to bomb with the public.

One Tory MP described her as "electoral kryptonite," while another said she was “divisive” and “Marmite.”

“Some people adore her, but for many, she's a real turnoff,” the former minister said. 

But all that matters, for now, are the opinions of around 200,000 Tory grassroots members, who alone will decide whether Truss or Sunak is the next prime minister.

Documents shared with MintPress reveal that Valent Projects – a shadowy communications firm that advises social media platforms such as Facebook on alleged state-backed online influence campaigns – has itself received $1.2 million from U.S. intelligence front USAID, for “counter disinformation and communications support.”

This relationship has hitherto never been publicly acknowledged, and the resulting income is not reflected in the company’s published accounts.

US President Joe Biden is acting out the script written for the so-called “Obama Doctrine” perfectly. Which is no small feat considering the man seems narcoleptic. The truly sad part of all this is that the people of the countries involved do not want war. The world does not want more war. We are sick to death of the bloodshed so that all our elites can profit. The pundits of America’s foreign policy decisions, unfortunately, do not give a damn what the normal people want. If we truly are facing an endgame, history will tell how we marched in blindfolded.

Russia's military focus in Ukraine is no longer "only" the east of the country, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. 

In an interview with Russian state media, he implied Moscow's strategy had changed after the West supplied Ukraine with longer-range weapons. 

Russia would now have to push Ukrainian forces further from the front line to ensure its own security, he explained. 

The US had earlier accused Russia of preparing to annex parts of Ukraine. 

If Boris Johnson was expecting a teary-eyed send off from all MPs, he didn't get one at his final Prime Minister's Questions.

The outgoing prime minister's last weekly grilling at the dispatch box was not unlike his first in September 2019 - acrimonious, raucous, and littered with his colourful quips.

Macron hosts UAE’s leader Sheikh Mohamed as the EU scrambles for energy deals to replace imports from Russia.

France has secured promises of new energy supplies from the United Arab Emirates after talks between President Emmanuel Macron and UAE leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in Paris.

The UAE has emerged as a key partner for Western countries as they scramble for energy deals worldwide to replace imports from sanctions-hit Russia.

Ukraine has invited foreign arms manufacturers to use it as a location for trying out new weapons in battlefield conditions, the country’s Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov said on Tuesday.

In an interview with the Atlantic Council, a US-based pro-NATO lobby group partly funded by the industry, Reznikov said that, in his opinion, Ukraine can already be considered as “essentially a testing ground.”

“Many weapons are now getting tested in the field, in the real conditions of the battle against the Russian army, which has plenty of the modern systems of its own,” he explained.

Stressing that Ukraine is a trusted partner and needs all sorts of weapons, Reznikov revealed that the government is interested in building up the country’s “testing ground” potential.

The sun is high, and some inhabitants try to escape the stifling heat by taking refuge around the Créteil lake, in the Val-de-Marne  — A 42-hectare body of water where you can enjoy a light breeze in the shade of the plane trees. Adrien Cazal, a 21-year-old electrician, took a week's vacation to better withstand the heat wave.

“I install CCTV cameras outside, I could no longer work. It's unbearable," he says. If swimming is prohibited in this artificial lake created in a former quarry, Saïd Ryaad, an 18-year-old student, still plans to swim with his three friends "because the heat wave is crazy". “I had a fever a few days ago with the heat,” he explains, his towel and a pack of water under his arm. A few joggers, men in their fifties, push their limits but probably not the danger.