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.

When a title in the Washington Post is so revealing, you can understand that the handwriting is on the wall, and that really is SO revealing, and if it is not an “I hate to tell you so, but I told you so” moment, then how else can we interpret the headline “Ukraine’s inability to demonstrate decisive success on the battlefield is stoking fears that the conflict is becoming a stalemate and international support could erode?”

 

BY Henry Kamens

 

Not only appears to be!

It is time for us to use the words Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid. We are applying these words to an occupying power truculent and implacable in its determination its occupation will never end, committed to a creeping annexation to deliver it a permanent hold over Palestinian land and Palestinian people. … Twenty years ago it would have been unthinkable that Australia’s oldest and largest political party would endorse Palestinian recognition. That’s now taken for granted as the very least we can do in the face of a cruel and continuing catastrophe. 

 

BY BOB CARR

 

Pain and dying. It’s what we do. We endure the pain of birth through a passage that is too narrow both for child and mother. In China, more than fifty per cent of birth are done through Caesarean sections. We also use pain killers. Could the natural birthing limit the size of our brain? Much of what we do in life is designed to alleviate pain and achieve a certain level of contentment, though we are often told “no pain, no gain”. This of course is a contentious concept. Can we achieve a better way of thinking? 

 

In eighteenth century Europe, a bold new idea came along with the “robots” of Monsieur Jacques de Vaucanson. They were not robots per se, but automated figurines that through various clock mechanisms could perform complex tasks such as playing music, drawing images and playing games. Eventually, we thought such machines could develop reason and emotions. 

Joe Biden has accused his opponent Donald Trump of trucking with 'domestic extremists'. Ryan Cristian, founder and editor of podcast The Last American Vagabond, pointed out the hypocrisy of the president who arms Ukrainian Nazis.

The CIA is using fascist groups as tools of state policy at home and abroad, says an independent media commentator.

Several dozen members of the Blood Tribe and Goyim Defense League neo-Nazi groups marched to Disney World in Florida on Saturday.

Russia will extend its voluntary cut in oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak announced on Tuesday. 

“The additional voluntary reduction in oil supplies for export is aimed at strengthening the precautionary measures taken by the OPEC+ countries in order to maintain stability and balance on the oil markets,” the official stated.   

Russia will review its voluntary cuts monthly, in order “to consider the possibility of deepening the reduction or increasing production, depending on the situation on the world market,” Novak added.   

The EU intends to endorse the African Union’s bid to become a permanent member of the G20 at the group’s upcoming summit in New Delhi, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping both announcing that they’re going to skip the event in New Delhi next week, Brussels is looking “to seize the moment... to show that it is serious about redefining its partnership with Africa, despite the troubled legacy of colonialism,” the news outlet claimed in a report on Tuesday.

According to the sources, the bloc's officials are planning to organize a “mini-summit” with the African Union (AU), which incorporates 55 of the continent’s countries, on the sidelines of the G20 event on September 9, the first day of the two-day gathering.

Adani Group, chaired by India’s second-richest man Gautam Adani, on Thursday categorically rejected allegations of stock-trading violations made by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international investigative platform known for its work on the ‘Panama papers’ and ‘Pandora papers’. 

Long time ago, there was joy in the air

When one was young without wear and tear

The days were full of love and beauty

While the earth gave us a horn of bounty

 

Then the psychos won the time of day

With illusions and promises of goodness

Hiding behind a horrible deceitful mess

Pompously leading a deranged military

 

With war drums beaten to the tune of hate

Claiming righteousness to justify our madness

Did we osmose the psychos’ ugly fate

How come now we took the bait

 

Have we destroyed our own goodness

That of our youth without anger nor debate

The days were full of love and beauty

While the earth gave away tons of bounty

 

Until the psychos won the day either way.