The compromise reached between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on August 15 has still not materialized in Ukraine. The obstacles are not those the United States anticipated. Ukraine is not cooperating, while Germany and the United Kingdom want war.

The Obstacles to Peace in Europe Are Not What We Think*

by Thierry Meyssan

President Donald Trump acknowledged to his counterpart Xi Jinping that he was his equal. Since World War II, every American president has considered himself superior to others because he was the most powerful and the richest.

Conversely, from a Chinese perspective, Xi Jinping considers himself the equal not only of Donald Trump, but of each of his counterparts. A Chinese person does not believe that having greater resources makes you superior.

The media campaign against the Federal Budget is unprecedented, not for its vehemence but it’s uniformity across Murdoch and Nine Entertainment organs. Michael Pascoe fears for the future.

Peter Tonagh, the chairman of Nine Entertainment, is a former CEO of News Corp Australia. He is one of the four Nine board members who have Murdoch links. One of the remaining two was a senior advisor to Simon Birmingham when he was a Liberal Cabinet minister.

There’s a bit of that Liberal connection around the top ranks of Nine. The company’s director of communications and public affairs was a senior press secretary for  Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The Australian Financial Review’s editor-in-chief, James Chessell, was a press secretary for Treasurer Joe Hockey.

The US dollar emerged as the world’s reserve currency in the aftermath of World War II, becoming the main currency for international goods and coming to account for the majority of the world’s primary reserve currency.

Since Bretton Woods, “King Dollar” has seen off numerous challenges, from the rise of the euro to the suspension of gold convertibility in 1971, only to emerge more powerful than before.

In 1974, agreements between the US and Saudi Arabia led to the creation of the petrodollar system, under which the world’s oil is traded in US dollars in exchange for US protection of producers and their trade routes.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Wednesday she wants to implement a freeze on the country's consumption tax on food products "as soon as possible," despite concerns over the nation's fiscal health amid the ongoing Middle East crisis.

Japan PM vows to curb debt issuance as gov't eyes extra budget

During a one-on-one parliamentary debate with opposition party leaders, Takaichi also said the government will do its utmost to limit debt issuance to support the public, as her government plans to draft a supplementary budget amid concerns the crisis could have a prolonged economic impact.

You see very few blue-above-yellow banners on front lawns and porches these days, and those that remain are always bleached pale by sun and rain. I like the ones the winds have frayed so they droop like worn-out kitchen rags. 

Flying a Ukrainian flag such that your neighbors knew of your brave commitment to democracy, liberty, “values” and all that was for a long time the ne plus ultra in the virtue-signaling line.

PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Cokehead of Kiev, Exposed

Let all the delusions and illusions of the past five years — or 12, if you begin your count with the U.S.–sponsored coup in Kiev back in 2014 — finally fade like the flags.

“Friedrich Merz is Roman Catholic. He is deeply rooted in the Catholic faith […] and sees his faith as a calling to work for peace and freedom.” – This is what Google AI displays when you enter the keywords “Catholic” and “Friedrich Merz”.

Is the German chancellor provoking a war with Russia?

by Karl-Jürgen Müller

Ding Xuexiang, the first-ranked vice premier of the People's Republic of China, still carries a formal title he earned before politics arrived: professor-level senior engineer, granted after fourteen years working on forging and pressing technology at the Shanghai Research Institute of Materials. The designation appears in his official biography. In the governance culture that produced him, it is meant to be noticed.

China is Run by Engineers. America is Run by Lawyers.

An engineer is taught, from the first thermodynamics homework set, that the world is a system, that the system has constraints, that the constraints are non-negotiable...

by Dolapo Omoleme

Today’s Lavrov-Rubio call was a highly significant and alarming diplomatic communication, covering three major topics. The call took place at Lavrov’s request, with Rubio currently on a four-day trip to India attending the QUAD meeting in New Delhi. State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott confirmed: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Minister’s request. The parties exchanged views on the Russia-Ukraine war, bilateral relations, and the situation in Iran.”

Lavrov Tells Rubio, Russia Will End the War with Ukraine and the West

by Larry C. Johnson

Here is a full account:

Message 1: Imminent Systematic Strikes on Kyiv — By Direct Order of Putin

The National Anti-Corruption Commissioner, Paul Brereton, has submitted his resignation to the Governor-General, following three years of not very much.

His resignation follows a tenure marred by controversy, including failing to recuse himself when he should have, doing another job without disclosure, and generally leading a commission that has fallen well short of reasonable expectations.

In three years and an annual budget of $67m and 220 staff members, the highlight from the latest NACC report (2024-25) says it all:

There was more evidence this week of the Kiev regime’s endemic corruption. And yet the European Union leaders are lining up to send a massive €90 billion ($105bn ) loan to this regime, a regime which has become a byword for industrial-scale scamming.

The EU has already pumped about €200 billion into propping up the Ukrainian regime since February 2022, when the NATO proxy war with Russia escalated.

European leaders aren’t blind to Kiev corruption… they are key partners in a massive extortion racket

EU leaders like Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top foreign diplomat, have played dumb about the endless scandals seeping out of Kiev.

Artificial intelligence is no longer merely a technological tool but is becoming an instrument of regulatory power, which means that the rules of the Great Geopolitical Game may no longer be defined as they once were – that is, through the confrontation between great powers – but rather through a mediated dimension, indeed transposed into a sub-dimension: the virtual digital realm, where AI has, or so it seems, the ability to control cyberspace.

Geopolitics and AI: Who will write the Rules of the Game?

BY Lorenzo Maria Pacini

Technology has now begun to move at such a pace that it is dragging the centers of geopolitical power along with it – no longer the other way around.

Foreign ministers from NATO’s 32 member states met in Helsingborg, Sweden, on Thursday and Friday [21-22 May 2026] to prepare this summer’s NATO summit in Turkey. The meeting was dominated by sharpening antagonisms between the United States and its erstwhile European and Canadian allies under conditions of an ongoing war pursued by the imperialist powers to subordinate Russia to the status of a semi-colony.

NATO summit in Sweden exposes sharpening inter-imperialist antagonisms amid escalation of war on Russia

BY Jordan Shilton

AN ANALYSIS BY GUS LEONISKY: Power in politics or in social constructs presents a very bleak picture to the ordinary person seeking freedom.

A division of ideology is apparently sweeping France. Immigration has shifted representations in governments at local and national levels.

Some French people are going back to Foucault’s views in order to make sense of what is power. They know that philosphers can explain power... and that philosophers can't influence the powerful...

Let’s not mince words, the “death tax” campaign begun by The Australian and the rest of News Ltd stable is a pack of lies and manipulative misinformation. It is best met with facts and reassurance.

There is no death tax in the Budget. The changes to taxes on trusts only affect the very wealthiest of people. The changes to capital gains tax will not stymie innovation, send innovators offshore, or affect anyone unfairly.

Death to News Ltd’s propaganda

BY Crispin Hull

The campaign is classic propaganda designed to scare and dupe people into voting against their own interests.

Indeed, there is a solid argument that if the changes to trust income went further it would benefit the great majority of Australia’s 16 million taxpayers.