BEN NORTON: Hey everyone, this is Ben Norton of Multipolarista. I’m joined by one of my favorite guests today, the brilliant economist Michael Hudson. And there are a lot of things that we plan on talking about today.

We’re going to address the partial student debt relief in the United States, and the problem of debt, which is something that Professor Hudson has written a lot about.

Moscow, officials from the Donbass republics, and even the regional administrations of Ukrainian territories liberated by Russian forces have repeatedly charged Kiev with the use of its Western-sourced artillery systems to indiscriminately target civilian infrastructure.

The Pentagon has committed $92 million to replenish the US military’s stocks of the M982 Excalibur, a 155mm artillery shell with an effective firing range of up to 57 km, Bloomberg has reported, citing a DoD accounting document.

Swiss MP and former editor-in-chief of the Tribune de Genève Guy Mettan paints a portrait of the acrobat who plays the role of president of Ukraine. He shows how this public entertainer became an ally of the Banderists and set up a dictatorship for them.

“Héros de la liberté”, “Hero of Our Time”, “Der Unbeugsame”, “The Unlikely Ukrainian Hero Who Defied Putin and United the World”, “Zelensky, Ukraine in blood”: the Western media and leaders no longer know what superlatives to use to sing the praises of the Ukrainian president, so fascinated are they by the “amazing resilience” of the comedian miraculously transformed into a “warlord” and “saviour of democracy”.

This is the situation in "Ukraine".... It's simple. Instead of being called EIRE, it's called the Donbass Republics. But the Yanking Yanks have other ideas (an ASSAULT ON THE HEARTLAND). The Donbass is populated by RUSSIANS. Crimea is populated by RUSSIANS. People there speak RUSSIAN. But the DICK-PIANO PLAYING COMIC WHO MASQUERADES AS THE PRESIDENT of a (nazi) country, claims that he will liberate the people on behalf of Ukraine in these regions is ludicrous. LUDICROUS. Please, Jo Biden, stop feeding the monster Zelensky....

A spectre is haunting Europe – it is the spectre of poverty. The bets are now on as to which European country will collapse first. Among the front runners you will find Portugal, Latvia, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Moldova, Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Bulgaria, France and Slovakia. But perhaps none of them is more likely to fall first than the UK. For it has a new Prime Minister, who, unthinkably, is an even greater clown than the last one and even threatens to press the nuclear button. Let me digress for a moment with a visit to the islands off the coast of North-Western Europe.

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My visit to the UK, after Wiesbaden in Germany, came at a time when the English peasants were revolting, but the governing elite did not yet know it.

Neocon publication The Atlantic has an article out titled “The Rise of the Liberal Hawks” which is infuriating as much for its sycophantic empire apologia as for how much of it is entirely correct.

“Progressives typically see war as inherently murderous and dehumanizing — sapping progress, curtailing free expression, and channeling resources into the ‘military-industrial complex,’” says the article’s author, Dominic Tierney.

When Green fanatic Robert Habeck, posing as Germany’s Economy Minister, said earlier this week “we should expect the worst” in terms of energy security, he conveniently forgot to spell out how the whole farce is a Made in Germany cum Made in Brussels crisis.

You have to admire the PRC Ambassador, Xiao Qian. After the uncivil behaviour, and gotcha questioning, and the visible personal animus journalists gave him at the National Press Club four weeks ago, he’d have been forgiven if he declined to make himself available to speak to Australian media for a while. Or at least, if he did so, only on agreed terms of civility.

In its muddles with the history of Ukraine, the West is NEVER mentioning the composition of this “country”. The West acts as if the Russians in Ukraine don’t exist or never existed. It’s like ignoring the Irish. 

So what is “Ukraine”? It’s not a monolith but the West acts as if it was a singularity. It’s not. And this is why there were the “Minsk Agreements” between the Kiev Government and the Donbass regions. There was a similar growing split between England and Ireland — and there could be one between Scotland and England, soon if the Scots become cleverer than the average badger…

Despite three brutal weeks in which his legacy collapsed and his character and leadership style were condemned as deceitful, controlling and strange, Scott Morrison is showing no signs of remorse.

The former PM will face an inquiry led by a former High Court Justice after he was revealed to have secretly taken on the powers of much of the Australian cabinet across five portfolios, assumed without telling all but one of the colleagues who had been the responsible minister.

Could you imagine being sent to prison for three years if you dared to set your thermostat above 66 degrees Fahrenheit?  As you will see below, this is a proposed regulation that is actually being considered in a major European country right now.  If you have not been paying much attention to what is happening in Europe, you need to wake up.  Natural gas in Europe is seven times more expensive than it was early last year, and that is because of the war in Ukraine. [GUS: NO. IT'S DUE TO THE SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA].  

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Washington’s aid has succeeded in its essential purpose, enabling Ukraine to defend its independence. Now the allies should indicate to Ukraine that their backing is not open-ended. U.S. and European support for Kiev should be tied to realistic war aims with an emphasis on reaching a stable peace settlement. 

Indeed, as part of this process the Biden administration should give Brussels the lead in aiding Ukraine and negotiating with Russia. Nearly eight decades after the conclusion of World War II and three decades after the demise of the Soviet Union, it is well past time for the Europeans to take over primary responsibility for their own defense. They will act like children as long as Washington treats them as children.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has pledged another $2.2 billion in long-term military financing to Ukraine and 18 neighbor states and territories “potentially at risk of future Russian aggression,” pending approval by Congress, Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed on Thursday during an unannounced visit to Kiev. 

Blinken met with President Vladimir Zelensky and other senior officials to discuss the details of the $2.2 billion package, of which $1 billion will go to Ukraine. The rest will be divided among “regional security partners” in order to help them “deter and defend against emergent threats to their sovereignty and territorial integrity” through strengthening their coordination with NATO and combating “Russian influence and aggression,” according to the State Department.

Tesla tycoon Elon Musk slammed Amazon Prime Video’s hotly-anticipated new ‘Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power’ series in a cluster of tweets on Monday, suggesting the series’ original author J.R.R. Tolkien was “turning in his grave.”

The SpaceX CEO explained that “almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both,” with only Galadriel – a female warrior elf – managing to be “brave, smart, and nice.” The series, the first two episodes of which premiered on Thursday, is the most expensive TV show ever made, costing $715 million for the first season alone – seven times as much as one season of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’.