THERE IS AN ELECTION LOOMING IN NEW SOUTH WALES.... THE POSTERS ARE UP, BOREDOM HAS SET AMONGST THE POPULATION... WE REMEMBER ANDREW CONSTANCE WHO PROMISED THAT THERE WOULD BE INCREASE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT, BUT THEN HE RESIGNED FROM PARLIAMENT, WAS TO RETIRE BUT RE-PRESENTED HIMSELF FOR RE-ELECTION. HE GOT BOOTED OUT BY LABOR.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose Sydney, his hometown, for hosting the QUAD Leadership Summit which will be held midway through 2023, news agency the Hindustan Times reported.

The dates of the leadership summit have not been worked out but US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will travel to Australia to strengthen cooperation between the four nations and collectively thwart Chinese aggression that is impacting the Indo-Pacific region as well as the Asian continent.

Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore ties in China-brokered deal

After seven years of tension, Riyadh and Tehran will reopen embassies and revive a 2001 security agreement

Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed on Friday to resume diplomatic ties and re-open embassies within the next two months. Relations between the Sunni kingdom and the Shia republic broke down in 2016, and the two powers have backed opposing sides in multiple regional conflicts.

The agreement came after several days of talks in Beijing. As a result of the negotiations, both countries agreed to reopen their embassies “within a period not exceeding two months,” and to commit to “non-interference” in each other’s internal affairs, according to a joint statement by Saudi, Iranian, and Chinese officials. 

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), on Saturday urged Christian leaders of various denominations and international organizations, including the UN, to pressure Kiev over its plan to evict monks from Ukraine’s largest Orthodox monastery, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

The controversial plan was put in motion on Friday, when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was informed that its monks and clergy must vacate the monastery by March 29. The notice was given after a government commission decided the country’s largest religious organization was somehow in violation of the terms of its lease from the state. The church, however, has already stated that it refuses to move out, insisting there are no legal grounds for the eviction.

At around 10 a.m. EST this morning [March 9, 2023], Michael Shellenberger and I will be testifying at the “Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on the Twitter Files” for the House Judiciary Committee, in the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Just before, around 9:00 a.m., we’ll also be releasing a TwitterFiles “Statement to Congress” thread, which will be submitted to the record. It contains some surprises.

By Matt Taibbi / Racket News

My opening:

It seems that poor old Albanese has been sold a very greedy—though only virtual—pup. Think of the comparison with another Labor PM, Ben Chifley. Albanese doesn’t come out of it very well.

Caracas, paralyzed. A hiccup shook the sides of the cerros that the ranchitos are climbing. Hills, more hills. Then the whole country. The sovereign people. From the posh apartment buildings of the poshest neighborhoods to the humble hovels of the humblest pueblos.

BY Maurice LEMOINE

March 5, 2013
Murió.
He is dead, gone forever.
El commander...
Chávez Hugo Rafel Chávez Frías, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Murio el comandante, coño !
58 years old.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rode to power on pledges to clean up the Eastern European country, but the Pandora Papers reveal he and his close circle were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies, including some that owned expensive London property.

by Elena Loginova (OCCRP/Slidstvo.Info)

3 October 2021

Also published by our partner Slidstvo.Info (Ukraine, in Ukrainian).

Key Findings

Q. High Representative, the Estonian proposal had a very specific amount of money attached and the Estonians are also saying that needs to be separate money. It cannot be money that has already been pledged to the European Peace Facility. Do you agree with that assessment? 

BORRELL: Well, money does not come from the sky. It is not because one Member State is claiming that we need to have more money that the money will appear by miracle.  

By Moon of Alabama......

Right at the same moment the New York Times publishes a shoddy 'officials say' story about alleged intelligence about the Nord Stream terror attack the Germany weekly Die Zeit, which has strong U.S. secret services ties, comes up with an equally unbelievable tale of a 'Ukrainian owned' sailing boat playing the major role in the attack:

Speaking in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Wednesday, the Secretary-General assured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the United Nations “will continue to seek solutions and a just peace for the people of Ukraine, and the world.”
António Guterres expressed “deep solidarity” with all of those who have become victims of the full-scale Russian invasion of February last year.

Violation of the Charter

“The position of the United Nations, which I have consistently expressed, is crystal clear: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter and international law”, declared the UN chief.

He reiterated once again, that the sovereignty, independence, and integrity of Ukraine must be upheld within it’s [sic] recognized international borders, established at independence in 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. welcomed Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany to the White House today to reaffirm the strong bilateral relationship between the United States and Germany. 

German authorities probing explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines have identified a vessel that appears to have been involved in what is widely regarded as an act of sabotage, a host of German media outlets revealed on Tuesday. The yacht, which was reportedly used in the attack on the pipelines, belongs to a Polish-based company owned by two Ukrainians, according to the reports.

Germany’s ARD broadcaster SWR radio and Die Zeit newspaper launched what they called their own joint journalistic investigation into the activities of the German law enforcement authorities involved in this case.

URSULA: Thank you very much Mr President for the warm welcome here in Baku. And thank you for stepping up and for supporting the European Union. Because already before Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian gas supplies to Europe were no more reliable. [GUSNOTE: AMERICA FORBID EUROPE FROM USING RUSSIAN GAS — THEN IN SEPTEMBER, THE AMERICANS BLEW UP THE NORD SEA PIPELINE — UNLESS IT WAS RUDOLPH THE RED NOSE REINDEER]....

PLEASE AUSTRALIA, DON'T GET INVOLVED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....