State-owned Forestry Corporation’s latest effort to start logging Oakes State Forest is threatening the NSW Government’s promised Great Koala National Park. It’s attracting local consternation and global condemnation, Sue Arnold reports.

Gigantic logging trucks and bulldozers tearing down trees, big old growth giants, fauna habitats, destroying endangered flora as the operation tramples everything in its path. All witnessed by devastated, angry people, desperate to end the annihilation.

Indigenous leader Marcia Langton says a no vote in the referendum would be “a mandate to cause us even further harm” while raising fears about setbacks to reconciliation.

Rejecting claims the consultation body would divide the nation, Prof Langton, the author of an influential co-design report suggesting a model for the voice, said the exact details of the Indigenous committee would have to be set by the parliament, including politicians opposed to the body, such as the opposition leader, Peter Dutton.

At a political fundraiser in Utah on 10 August, U.S. President Joe Biden described China’s economy as a “ticking time bomb”, adding that “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”. It’s not only an unusually undiplomatic comment, but an unfair one that borders on the ridiculous. 

 

By Colin Mackerras

 

Journalists from other countries were not allowed to attend the press conference of French President Emmanuel Macron in New Delhi. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the decision was taken to protect freedom of speech. The French government has not commented on the decision.

The decision was made to protect the freedom of the press, according to the Russian foreign ministry. The issue was raised in a meeting of the Union of Journalists of Russia (UJ) in Moscow. The UJ said the decision to not allow journalists to attend was taken on behalf of the French government.

Chairman of the Union of Journalists of Russia (UJR) Vladimir Solovyov commented in an interview with RT on the message about the non-admission of journalists to Macron's conference.Solovyov called this case "extremely unpleasant."

By now, it’s clear to almost everyone that the West versus East policy train wreck we are witnessing is as much about personalities and warped ideals as it is about hard truths, reality, or anything quantifiable. The Western world is a broken rollercoaster of paid or converted geopolitical psychopaths. Here are some of the latest churnings from the Washington asylum, with my comments.

 

BY Phil Butler

 

The Rabotino 'meat grinder': Why are Russia and Ukraine fighting so fiercely over a tiny village on the southern front?

What’s going on in the small hamlet in Zaporozhye Region which Kiev claims to have captured?

Since mid-August, the tiny village of Rabotino – located in Zaporozhye Region between the Ukrainian-controlled city of Orekhov and Russian-controlled Tokmak – has been the site of fierce battles. 

 

By Vladislav Ugolny

 

Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, says she will seek re-election next November. 

Mrs Pelosi, 83, was first elected to her San Francisco district in 1987, before serving two terms as speaker between 2007-2011 and 2019-2023.

 

In discussions of the upcoming referendum on establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a question often raised is how will it make a difference? This has been difficult for advocates to address because instances of governments’ empowering our First Nations peoples are few and far between.

There is, however, a valuable example in NSW of the demonstrable benefits of having Aboriginal advisers working closely with government. This year marks 25 years since the Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO) took control of the provision of social housing for Aboriginal people in NSW.

 

Many of us who write for and read Consortium News are worried about Julian Assange’s personal well-being, especially amid rumors that the British High Court will soon issue a decision to extradite the WikiLeaks publisher to the notorious Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) to face multiple counts of espionage.

Julian deserves unwavering support, at the very least because he alerted the world to crimes being committed by the U.S. government.  His bravery has been well-documented, even if the government says that he is a danger to American national security.

 

By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

 

With Moscow and Kiev set on achieving their aims by force, there is no hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine in the immediate future, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Friday.

“I am not very hopeful that we’ll have a peaceful solution in the immediate future,” Guterres said at a press conference ahead of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India. “I think the two parties have still decided to move on with the conflict.” 

In Ukraine, recent months have seen Kiev’s forces expend 66,000 men and 7,600 pieces of heavy equipment attempting to break through Russia’s defenses between Kherson and Donetsk regions, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Trump’s Crowded Legal Calendar Leaves Judges to Juggle Court Dates
Since it's not reasonable to expect any defendant – let alone a former president – to juggle court appearances in five different locations, who gets to go first?

By Susan Milligan

 

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is running for his life. But the myriad indictments against him might out-pace him as he seeks to become president again.

Including a civil defamation lawsuit and a case against Trump's company, the former president now faces five court cases, with a sixth one possible from a Georgia district attorney who has indicated she will issue charging documents this month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMf0OjTmFGQ

FOX News host Jesse Watters says President Biden is in the weakest position he has ever been in on 'Jesse Watters Primetime.'

 

"Jesse Watters: CNN wants Trump for president"

 

SEE ALSO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hMXbscF5tU

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyCYU56Xbls

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5o-tEAL_bQ

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW. 

 

 

Economies the world over are struggling with some of the worst bouts of inflation and economic slowdown seen in decades. The COVID-19 pandemic with its lockdowns and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia not long after have been significant shocks to global economic activity, causing severe disruptions in global value chains and sending commodity prices skyrocketing. Governments have been shaken to their core in dealing with inflationary and debt crises. The United States, the largest economy in the world, is not immune to these shocks either. 

 

BY Taut Bataut

 

In matters of defence and national security strategy Australia has entered a period of great transformations. The AUKUS submarine project is the proximate cause: a vanity project born of fantasies so dense that, strategically speaking, it has created gravitational waves of a magnitude that warps everything it encounters. More precisely, it warps in ways that are above and beyond the almost normalized disfigurements within the conversations on national security which already existed.

 

By Michael McKinley

 

Ukraine is closer than ever to joining NATO, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has claimed, adding that Russia “cannot veto” Kiev’s future membership.

The NATO chief made the comments on Thursday at the European Parliament, where he briefed MEPs on cooperation between the US-led military bloc and the EU. Stoltenberg insisted that the two sides “share the same values [and] the same challenges.”

Part of his address was dedicated to what NATO offered Ukraine at a recent summit in Lithuania. Kiev was not provided the roadmap to membership that it had requested, but was promised more military aid, representation through a newly created council, and an opportunity to skip a step that NATO candidates typically have to pass.