London: I have just returned from a week in Ukraine and I can’t stop thinking about it.

History has judged Neville Chamberlain − who led Britain into World War II − poorly for his infamous 1938 observation of the conflict between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia as a “quarrel in a far away country, between people of whom we know nothing”.

Less than two years later, of course, the Nazis were bombing London.

BY ROB HARRIS...

Last week’s terror attack on a Moscow concert venue has opened a Pandora’s Box of allegations by Russian officials accusing Western intelligence agencies and governments of secretly cooperating with, coordinating and masterminding the activities of international terrorist groups. Occasionally, however, Western actors don't even bother to hide it.

BY Ilya Tsukanov

US President Joe Biden has disparaged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the second time in two months, publicly calling him a “butcher” in connection with the Ukraine conflict.

Biden made the jab while speaking at a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday. He also advocated raising the average federal tax for America’s wealthiest from 8.2% to 25%, arguing that this would allow Washington to raise $400 billion over the next ten years.

“Imagine what we could do with that. We could fundamentally slash the federal deficit…  We could do so many things – consequential – including finally making sure that we take care of Ukraine from that butcher Putin,” he said.

On October 16, 2023, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi met with former leader of the Labour Party and former Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair in Beijing.

Wang Yi said that as major countries with global influence, China and the UK should strengthen cooperation to promote world development in the right direction. China's development strengthens the world's forces for peace and stability. Wang Yi expressed the hope that the UK government will pursue a rational, pragmatic and positive China policy and increase the connotation of the times in China-UK relations. The Communist Party of China is ready to strengthen exchanges with the Labour Party of the UK.

Russia rejects US sea annexations

American plans would violate international law, Moscow has said

Moscow does not recognize Washington’s attempt to illegally claim over a million square kilometers of maritime territory, including in the Arctic and the Bering Sea, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

Russian representatives informed the Council of the International Seabed Authority of this on Monday. The council is currently meeting in Kingston, Jamaica and operates under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The US is “unilaterally trying to reduce the area of ​​the seabed under the Authority, and hence the entire international community,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, has warned that demographics will inevitably strain pension systems and that longer lives are projected to force workers to retire later.

In his annual letter to chief executives and investors released on Tuesday, the billionaire investor called on governments to take urgent steps to tackle the “retirement crisis” by helping people save more for when they get old. Fink expressed concern that not enough is being done to ensure people have enough money to safeguard their retirement.

BREAKING: CBDC Launch Date REVEALED, Prepare!

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

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW...... astounding......

IN THE LIGHT OF SOME SECRET SHENANIGANS JUST DISCOVERED IN NEW ZEALAND, WE ALL SHOULD BE AWARE OF THE NEFARIOUS INTENTS OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE DESIGNED TO "OWN" AND "RULE" OVER THE WHOLE WORLD... THE IMAGE ABOVE IS PART OF A DOCUMENT IN WHICH THE CIA DIRECTOR, STANFIELD TURNER, MAKES AN OVERTURE TO THE US FEDEDAL BANK, IN ORDER TO HAVE A "CONVERSATION" ABOUT THINGS....

By Mick Hall
in Whangarei, New Zealand
Special to Consortium News

London High Court Ruling Considered 'Triumph' for Assange But Battle Far From Over

The court has allowed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to continue to challenge the decision on his extradition to the United States in UK courts. What does this mean for Assange's legal fight?

Julian Assange will not be extradited immediately to the US, a London High Court has ruled.

Likewise, Washington has been given three weeks to provide "satisfactory assurances" that the WikiLeaks founder will face a fair trial, could rely on the First Amendment, and will not be subject to the death penalty.

In October 2011, Keir Starmer was asked by a human rights group and law firm to issue an arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who was visiting London, over alleged war crimes.

Starmer was then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). But two days later, he blocked the application for Livni’s arrest, citing a Foreign Office decision to grant her visit “special mission” status.

When Russians went to the polls on March 17 to 19, it was less an election than an acclamation. 

Putin’s margin of victory – he claimed to have won 87.21% of votes cast – was the largest in the country’s history. It put the Russian president on a par with other great post-Soviet “democrats” Ilam Karimov of Uzbekistan and Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan whose vote shares rarely fell below 90% Aliyev ousted Azerbaijan’s democratically elected leader Abulfaz Elchibey in a 1993 military coup and subsequently won an election with 99% of the votes.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has lodged a demarche with the Australian Charge d'Affaires in Moscow over the distribution of false information by the embassy in connection with the presidential election in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

"On March 22, the Charge d'Affaires of Australia to Russia, J.Guthrie was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Guthrie, who was strongly protested in connection with the posts by the Australian Embassy on Telegram of a message questioning the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation and containing deliberately false information about voting in a number of Russian regions during the Russian presidential election on March 15-17, 2024," the statement said.

The US and the EU support Ukraine not because they love the Ukrainian people, but because this serves their geopolitical interests, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told CNN on Monday.

Appearing on Christiane Amanpour’s show, Borrell repeated the assertion of Brussels and Washington that Ukraine was not in any way involved in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Moscow, and urged the US to pass the $60 billion aid package for Kiev.

“You know, the US has a vested interest in supporting Ukraine. Otherwise we would be giving a free pass to Russia. And you know what happens then. Remember Crimea. Remember Syria,” he told Amanpour, without explaining what any of that meant.

A bold, provocative reckoning with our current political delusions and dysfunctions.

Ever since its publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan has unsettled and challenged how we understand the world. Condemned and vilified by each new generation, his cold political vision continues to see through any number of human political and ethical vanities.

The New Leviathans: Thoughts after Liberalism
by John Gray