Senior officials in Poland and the Baltic states have blasted former German Chancellor Angela Merkel after she claimed they derailed potential EU-Russia talks on Ukraine months before the escalation of the conflict in 2022.

As chancellor, Merkel spearheaded the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements, which aimed to resolve the hostilities in Donbass by giving the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. However, Russia accused Ukraine of failing to implement the agreement and ultimately sent troops into the neighboring country to protect the people of Donbass.

Uproar in EU after Merkel’s claim of Ukraine talks ‘sabotage’
Leaders in Poland and the Baltic states are fuming after the ex-German chancellor suggested they derailed 2021 negotiations with Russia

Argentina is on the brink of bankruptcy. Because that’s the name for where you are when you desperately need a promise of a bailout to buy time, while you may still need the full bailout later, as both the Financial Times and The Economist admit.

This president took a chainsaw to his BRICS prospects, and look where it got his country
Javier Milei has led Argentine to ruin by utterly subjugating it to the US

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

Any EU move to use frozen Russian state assets to support Ukraine must comply with international law, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Monday, adding that the institution was following the process closely.

The comment comes as EU nations’ leaders are discussing a plan to provide Kiev with a €140 billion ($164 billion) loan backed by Russia’s immobilized central bank assets.

ECB boss warns EU against seizing Russian assets
The European Commission has proposed using the frozen funds to guarantee loans to Kiev

The scheme, designed to avoid the legal hurdle of outright confiscation, would invest the blocked Russian funds into EU-backed bonds. The proceeds would then be used to pay off a “reparations loan” to Ukraine.

Rising inequality and declining living standards have posed a threat to democracy in several democracies, but so far not in Australia. However, the increasing inequality of wealth, driven by housing becoming unaffordable without rich parents, is a threat.

Michael Keating

The requirements for democracy

President Donald Trump has hinted that US forces could soon move from sea to land operations in Venezuela, expanding what he called “a war on terrorist drug cartels.”
Speaking at a Navy anniversary ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, Trump said American forces had struck another vessel off Venezuela’s coast allegedly carrying narcotics.

“In recent weeks, the Navy has supported our mission to blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water ... we did another one last night. Now we just can’t find any,” he said.

“They’re not coming in by sea anymore, so now we’ll have to start looking about the land because they’ll be forced to go by land.”

Britain is “furious” over its failure to bring about the “strategic defeat” of Russia and is preparing a new “provocation” in response to battlefield gains in the Ukraine conflict, Moscow's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has warned.

In a statement on Monday, the SVR claimed that UK secret services have resorted to preparing a group of Russian nationals who fight for Ukraine to sabotage a Ukrainian navy ship or a foreign civilian vessel in a European port, after which London would accuse Moscow of orchestrating the attack.

The service also claimed that the group would leave behind them Chinese-made underwater equipment, which would later be presented as “proof” of Beijing’s support for Russia.

The Israeli authorities have confirmed deporting activist Greta Thunberg. She and hundreds of others were detained last week after attempting to reach Gaza aboard an aid flotilla.

Thunberg was a part of a group of over 170 activists deported to Greece and Slovakia on Monday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a post on X. It also published a photo of her and two other women at the Ben Gurion airport.

The group included citizens of a total of 19 nations, including the US, the UK, Germany, and France, among others, according to the ministry.

The US President Donald Trump has said he had already made a decision on supplying long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. He however refused to reveal what the exact decision is.

“I’ve sort of made a decision on that. I would have to ask the question where are they sending them,” he told journalists at the White House on Monday.

“I’m not looking to see escalation,”Trump stressed.

Last month, US Vice President J.D. Vance revealed that the White House was considering supplying Kiev with the rockets, which cost an estimated $1.3 million each and have a range of 2,500km (1,550 miles), meaning that they could potentially reach Moscow and far beyond.

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

Roger Waters joins the show to talk about Gaza, the UN, free speech & what he wants the president of Colombia to do. Plus, he reacts to the latest crackdowns on speech, the war in Ukraine, & why some musicians are such cowards when it comes to Israel.

For the full discussion, please join us on Patreon at - / patreon-full-140151702

00:00 What the hell is up with Regina Spektor?
02:13 What the hell is up with Bono??
03:08 What the hell is up with Nick Cave???
05:22 What the hell is up with non-Jews being pro-Israel????
08:46 What the hell is up with U2?????
09:53 What the hell is up with Thom Yorke of Radiohead’s email address??????
11:03 What the hell is up with Gwenyth Paltrow and Chris Martin???????

The current European nonentities have replaced titans—flawed, perhaps, but figures with gravitas, charisma, and historical will. There was Merkel, who could take a punch; Macron, young and with the ambitions of a new Napoleon; and even Johnson with his chaotic but distinct style

The EU’s House of Cards: How Talentless Pygmalions Are Molding a World Out of Nothingness

Mohammed ibn Faisal al-Rashid
An era of mediocrity is at the helm of a once mighty and prosperous Europe, which, due to its leaders, is now slowly but surely heading toward its decline.

George Orwell completed his most famous novel 1984 in 1948, shortly before his early death at 46. A few years earlier, in a remarkable short 1945 essay, Orwell foresaw a future world order overseen by America, Russia and China.

Richard Cullen

The galloping US national debt had reached $37.5 trillion, according to the US Treasury site, which was last updated on September 30, 2025. At 123% of the GDP, the debt has doubled since 2015, when it was slightly over 18 trillion, showing an incredible rate of expansion, which pushes Washington to accelerate reckless plans of plundering other countries.

The Church of England has appointed its first female Archbishop of Canterbury, ending 1,400 years of male leadership. Former top British nurse, Sarah Mullally, was installed as the confession’s highest-ranking clergy by a church synod on Friday.

Though female priests were first ordained in 1994, women were not permitted to take senior posts until 2014, a reform that followed years of internal schisms and debates within the Church.

Before entering the clergy, Mullally built a distinguished career in nursing, rising to become England’s Chief Nursing Officer. She was ordained as a priest in 2002, and went on to serve as as Bishop of Crediton and then Bishop of London, the Church’s third most senior post. Known for her inclusive stance, she has supported prayers and blessings for same-sex couples, framing her leadership around openness and pastoral care.

As a private citizen, I have long sought to understand how finance has imposed its influence on the States themselves. I discovered, by consulting the most eminent economists, that the answer, far from being complicated, is quite simple, as described by Michael Hudson, an American economist, considered by his peers to be one of the greatest in the world....

Monetary power and public debt

BY Thomas Erpé