BRUSSELS, March 5th. /tass/. The European Commission (EC) estimates the total level of unused savings of EU citizens at €10 trillion, and it intends to find ways to mobilize this money to finance its plans to militarize Europe and support the European military-industrial complex. This is stated in a statement issued by the EC's press service by Maria Luis Albuquerque, European Commissioner for Financial Services and Investments.

"A significant part of Europeans' savings lies in the form of deposits at very low interest rates (from 0.3 to 0.8% per annum) and even in the form of cash reserves. The mobilization of even a small part of these resources will make it possible to change the investment landscape in the EU," the European Commissioner said.

The Albanese Government has jammed itself by trying to not talk about the greatest threat to Australia’s future, but has now opened itself to the charge of playing politics with security issues.

The absurdity was on full display in a front-page story last weekend, when The Saturday Paper reported that the government gave a secret briefing on 9 December last year to a number of Teal and independent members of parliament on the contents of the Office of National Intelligence assessment of climate-related security risks — one which the government has classified and refused to release in a declassified form for two years.

Russia has accused the United Kingdom of engaging in modern-day piracy following former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s call to seize the Russian assets that were frozen in the West as part of Ukraine-related sanctions. 

In a social media post on Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova likened Sunak’s position to historical acts of piracy. 

“This is one of the English traditions, like tea drinking and horse racing. The fact is that piracy was legalized in England. Pirates were forbidden to attack English ships but were allowed to plunder rival vessels,”Zakharova wrote on Telegram. 

Zakharova’s criticism follows Sunak’s post on X, where he claimed that “Now is the time to seize [the Russian assets] and make Russia pay.” 

Dr Edmund Freud of the European Centre for Political Pathologies recently completed a secret in-depth review of world leaders for the United Nations Security Council.  His reports on President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer are now public, thanks to hackers, believed to be Russian, who have posted the findings on Tik-tok. 

10 Downing Street has dismissed the claims as Russian disinformation but the clinical profiles seem accurate according to sources in Washington, Paris and London who spoke on condition of anonymity. Dr Freud has been uncontactable since the leaks. The Palais de l'Élysée has warned that the Tik-Tok “désinformation scandaleuse” is so serious that the next French Presidential elections may have to be postponed indefinitely in order to preserve democracy.

European militarism on steroids is not good, either
Lacking in any strategic thinking, a new bellicism has swept up the elites and gone into cataclysmic overdrive in recent weeks

U.S. security experts and leaders have been telling European NATO allies to increase their defense spending for at least a quarter century, initially as a gentle nudging, later more insistently, rising to a deafening din after Trump’s election.

BY ALMUT ROCHOWANSKI

French Member of the European Parliament Raphael Glucksmann has urged the United States to return the Statue of Liberty, claiming that recent policy shifts under President Donald Trump contradict the fundamental values the monument represents.

The Statue of Liberty, designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel, was gifted to the US to commemorate the centennial of American independence. Since 1886, it has stood in New York Harbor as a symbol of freedom and a beacon for immigrants seeking a better life.

Washington under President Donald Trump has created more “uncertainty” than the Covid-19 pandemic, Luis de Guindos, the vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has claimed.

The official made the remarks in an interview with The Sunday Times during which he bemoaned Trump’s use of tariffs, as well as plans to reform corporate taxes and deregulate the financial system. The actions of the new US administration have been causing short-term volatility in markets while making inflation expectations and interest rates hard to predict, he said.

“We need to consider the uncertainty of the current environment, which is even higher than it was during the pandemic,” the ECB vice president said.

Knowing well in advance that Russia would reject it, the U.S. and Ukraine announced with fanfare that its ceasefire deal was in “Russia’s court” in what was an exercise of pure public relations, writes Joe Lauria.

Nothing could have been clearer than Russia’s repeated conditions for a permanent end of the war, rather than a temporary ceasefire: Ukraine’s neutrality, its demilitarization and denazification, the inclusion of four Russian-speaking oblasts into the Russian Federation and treaties establishing a new security architecture in Europe.

Equally clear was Ukraine’s utter rejection of these conditions, demanding instead the return of every inch of its territory, including Crimea, and Ukraine’s membership in NATO.

Exclusive: Victoria Nuland and Robert Kagan have a great mom-and-pop business going. From the State Department, she generates wars and from op-ed pages he demands Congress buy more weapons. There’s a pay-off, too, as grateful military contractors kick in money to think tanks where other Kagans work, writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry*

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said it is in "Australia's national interest" to stand with Ukraine following a virtual meeting with other world leaders designed to drum up support for ceasefire discussions.

Mr Albanese joined a call with European and Commonwealth allies on Saturday night, hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Sir Keir urged the 25 world leaders, including Mr Albanese, to sign up to a "coalition of the willing" to protect Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire.

Britain and France both say they would be willing to send peacekeepers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, while Mr Albanese has said his government is open to requests.

US bombs Yemen: As it happened
The US president has ordered a “powerful military action” against the Yemeni-based Houthi militants

Dozens of people were killed or injured after the US launched a major airstrike campaign against Yemeni-based Houthi militants, with President Donald Trump personally observing the operation as it unfolded.

The strikes hit Yemen shortly after Trump announced a “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthis on Saturday, warning that “hell will rain down” on them unless they stop attacking US interests and disrupting international commercial navigation in the region.

We are currently experiencing a time of widespread and dangerous division. Donald Trump is dividing the US, the US government is dividing the democratic West, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is dividing German society, Europe is divided over the issue of migration and the whole world is divided over how to deal with climate change. The world is becoming polarized, and the gaps between different social groups and entire countries are deepening, observers warn.

In trying to understand US President Donald Trump, the proposition has been put that he is sultanistic. In many respects, Trump’s second presidency does appear to be “sultanistic”.

Sultanism requires all individuals, groups and institutions to be subject to what appears to be the unpredictable and despotic intervention of the ruler who does not operate according to an ideology or a plan. Sultanism is, in this respect, a form of authoritarianism notable for the personal presence of the ruler in all elements of governance.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Kiev has received widespread applause from its Western backers over its handling of the recent talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. The diplomatic success, he stated, puts Russia in a difficult situation that could be hard to “wiggle out of.”

During a meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, the Ukrainian delegation agreed to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire.

“Everyone congratulated Ukraine on a real victory in Jeddah, the victory of diplomacy,” Zelensky stated on Saturday, without specifying who exactly reached out to Kiev. “Everyone believes that this is a serious progress,” he claimed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoqmVXkywCo

WHO IS RABBI SHMULEY?

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” whom The Washington Post and Newsweek call “the most famous Rabbi in America,” is for many the face of Judaism in the modern world and one of the world’s most respected values and spiritual voices. He is one of the leading defenders of Israel and appears as a regular guest in international media outlets. Rabbi Shmuley is also one of the world’s most respected and oft-quoted relationship experts. 

HE APPEARS TO BE A MODERN DAY FOLLOWER OF THE NAZIS...