Je vois des peuples infortunés gémissants sous un joug de fer, le genre humain écrasé par une poignée d’oppresseurs, une foule affamée, accablée de peine et de faim, dont le riche boit en paix le sang et les larmes, et partout le fort armé contre le faible du redoutable pouvoir des lois... 

           Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I see unfortunate peoples groaning under an iron yoke, humankind crushed by a handful of oppressors, a starving crowd, overwhelmed with sorrow and hunger, whose blood and tears the rich drink in peace, and everywhere the strong armed against the weak with the formidable power of decrees...

------------------------------

Former US Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo seems irked that the Ukraine conflict could end without Russia groveling and handing over concessions on a silver platter.

That’s because Russia is objectively winning on the battlefield. Even some establishment figures capable of independent thought have finally caught on. British historian Niall Ferguson has been saying since September that despite all the West’s punitive efforts, he struggled to imagine any scenario other than Russia “nevertheless grinds out a victory.”

This one delusional neocon gives a perfect glimpse into the Ukraine War Fantasy Land they all live in
Someone really should explain to Mike Pompeo how peace deals actually work

BY Rachel Marsden

The Australian government remains silent on Israel banning 37 international aid organisations in Gaza, despite warnings from humanitarian groups. Stephanie Tran reports.

Under new registration requirements introduced by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, NGOs were required to submit lists of their Palestinian employees for review and refrain from criticism of Israel.

In an article published in the Swiss Military Journal, Swiss officer Pascal Koller slanders Jacques Baud in the most despicable manner. We prove that he is lying and show that criminal charges are the only way to put this petty criminal in his place. Is he being protected by the Swiss army leadership or is he acting alone?

The fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by an ICE agent was a “tragedy of her own making,” US Vice President J.D. Vance has said, throwing his full support behind the agency.  

Graphic footage shows multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) swarming the victim’s SUV. One of the agents attempts to forcibly open the vehicle’s door, while another agent, who tried to block the car from the front, fires several shots at the driver at point-blank range as she attempts to drive away. The victim, 37-year-old mother of three Renee Nicole Good, was killed on the spot.  

What exactly is this? It’s not regime change because, having unleashed a military raid to snatch Venezuela’s president from his bed, US President Donald Trump has left the rest of the regime in place. Nicolás Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, has inherited the presidency, just as Maduro did from Hugo Chavez, and the Venezuelan government remains Chavistas all the way down. And whatever Trump means when he asserts the US is now “running” the country, he apparently envisages no transition to democracy.

To make sense of the Venezuela attack, look to the hotter heads around Trump

BY Waleed Aly

Are Russia and China, the BRICS, willing to continue to let Trump redraw the ‘mappa mundi’ according to his own exclusive interests? Or is it time to see a real alternative to US hegemony take shape?

No alternative to US hegemony?

Ricardo Nuno Costa

A new analysis finds that the richest 15 billionaires in the U.S. saw their wealth skyrocket by nearly $1 trillion in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, which also contained one of the single largest cuts to welfare benefits in U.S. history.

The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) report, citing data from Forbes, has found that U.S. billionaires’ assets surged by a whopping 21 percent in 2025. 

With corporate media forcing PM Albanese into a small target corner on messaging, the right is filling the rhetorical void. Andrew Gardiner looks at the repercussions.

Albo’s search for the middle leaves him exposed on both flanks

by Andrew Gardiner

Canberra’s spin cycle took a familiar turn following both Donald Trump’s abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, at the weekend, and the Bondi Beach attacks before that.  It’s a dynamic we’re seeing more and more of, the right straight out of the blocks, with a clear (if contentious) stand on both, which left our super-cautious PM in the rhetorical dust.

Australia’s visa laws allow exclusion on grounds of character and incitement of discord. Those tests raise serious questions about whether Israel’s president should be welcomed while the killing in Gaza continues.

John Menadue

As an indicted war criminal, Netanyahu would be arrested on arrival in Australia and delivered for trial to The Hague. So, Israeli President Herzog is invited as a substitute.

Authors including Miles Franklin winners Michelle de Kretser and Melissa Lucashenko will boycott Adelaide Writers' Week (AWW) ...

The US Justice Department has quietly scaled back its indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, retreating from a central Trump-era claim that he led a drug cartel.

The original accusation, included in a 2020 grand jury indictment, portrayed the Cartel de los Soles as an organized criminal group allegedly led by Maduro and engaged in large-scale cocaine trafficking.

The claim became a central pillar of Washington’s pressure campaign against Caracas and was repeatedly cited to justify escalating sanctions and military operations.

In July 2025, the US Treasury Department designated the so-called cartel as a terrorist organization, a move later backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien.

In the face of Trump and his triumphant ethnonationalism, the regulatory parties – whether it be on artificial intelligence, environmental policy, financial capitalism or international relations – are remaining silent for now, notes Le Monde columnist Gilles Paris.

'The Democratic Party is waiting for Trump's departure, praying his successors fail to revive Trumpism'

Ukraine must create conditions that encourage its young men to remain in the country rather than flee to Western Europe, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said.

Merz made the statement while standing next to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky at a press-conference following a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting in Paris on Tuesday. Additionally, the UK and France announced plans to send troops to Ukraine “in the event of a peace deal”with Russia, despite the fact that Moscow has categorically ruled out the deployment of any NATO forces in the country.

According to the German chancellor, rebuilding Ukraine and providing security guarantees are indivisible issues. Only an economically strong Kiev can present a credible deterrent to Moscow after the conflict is settled, he said.