Relations between Moscow and Brussels are now at their “lowest point,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, told TASS in an interview published on Tuesday. The EU has declared a “hybrid war” on Moscow by unquestioningly following the US, the minister added.

Brussels' policies have only hurt the interests and well-being of EU citizens themselves, Lavrov said. He also accused Washington of barring EU nations from conducting dialogue on energy with Moscow, even though Russia’s supplies of fuel provided Europe with “unprecedented prosperity” for decades.

Following the launch of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, the EU began gradually reducing Russian energy imports through sanctions, which include a ban on EU imports of seaborne Russian oil, as well as a $60-per-barrel cap on Russian seaborne crude.

“A single word indicative of doubt, that any thing, or every thing, in that country is not the very best in the world, produces an effect which must be seen and felt to be understood. If the citizens of the United States were indeed the devoted patriots they call themselves, they would surely not thus encrust themselves in the hard, dry, stubborn persuasion, that they are the first and best of the human race, that nothing is to be learnt, but what they are able to teach, and that nothing is worth having, which they do not possess.” 
― Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans

The Sydney Peace Foundation has awarded its Gold Medal for peace with justice to WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange. The citation reads, ‘For exceptional courage and initiative in pursuit of human rights’.

WE CAN ACCEPT THIS. IT'S CLEAR, NEAT AND TO THE POINT. IT CAN ONLY MAKE US PROUD THAT ASSANGE IS AUSTRALIAN.

UNFORTUNATELY, MANY PEACE PRIZES ON THE PLANET SMELL OF SULPHUR FROM THE EMPIRE THAT DICTATES WHO SHOULD RECEIVE A MEDAL AND SOME CASH FOR HAVING BEEN DEFENDERS OF NAUGHTY IDEALS ON BEHALF OF AMERICA. TAKE THE SAKHAROV PRIZE:

Representatives of Ukraine have received the European Parliament’s 2022 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on behalf of "the brave people of Ukraine" amid their battle to repel invading Russian forces.

IT IS DIFFICULT TO ARGUE WITH SOME VIEWPOINTS ABOUT TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY. 

ESTABLISHED BORDERS SHOULD BE SACROSANCT, YET WE KNOW THAT THERE HAS BEEN SOME FLUIDITY IN REGARD TO ACTIONS BY A CERTAIN EMPIRE THAT WE SHALL NAME AS AMERICA.

TAKE FOR EXAMPLE, THE COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE. THIS IS AN AMERICAN OUTFIT THAT PROMOTES STRICK ADHERENCE TO ESTABLISHED BORDERS:

Respect for territorial integrity — the principle under international law that nation-states should not attempt to promote secessionist movements or to promote border changes in other nation-states, nor impose a border change through the use of force - is a guiding principle among OSCE participating States under Article IV of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. 

The Democratic Party has become the party of permanent war, fueling massive military spending which is hollowing out the country from the inside and flirting with nuclear war.

The Democrats position themselves as the party of virtue, cloaking their support for the war industry in moral language stretching back to Korea and Vietnam, when President Ngo Dinh Diem was as lionized as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. All the wars they support and fund are “good” wars.

By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost

Kiev has proposed holding a so-called "peace summit" by the end of February to mark the anniversary of Russia's military operation against Ukraine. The initiative was announced by Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who also set out Ukraine's conditions for inviting Moscow to the event.

In an interview with AP published on Monday, Kuleba admitted that while Ukraine will do whatever it can to win its ongoing military conflict with Russia in 2023, diplomacy will play an important role. "Every war ends in a diplomatic way," Kuleba said, adding that "every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table." 

Lawyer and Lendlease tax-fraud whistleblower Anthony Watson writes on Australia’s whistleblower laws and why reform is vital to protect those who expose wrongdoing from having to choose between their careers and silence.

by Tony Watson

Disclosing serious failings in the public interest must not remain the preserve of those citizens who are prepared to sacrifice their personal lives and those of their relatives, as has happened too often in the past.   Sounding the alarm must become a normal reflex of every responsible citizen who has become aware of serious threats in the public interest. 

IN THE CARTOON ABOVE, ONE COULD BE MISTAKEN... IT IS DEFINITIVELY (I HAVE NO IDEA, BUT IT LOOKS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME) OLAF SCHOLZ LOOKING AT SOME TOILET PAPER. ONE COULD EASILY INTERPRET THAT "SCHATZ" MEANS "SHIT" BUT IT DOES NOT. SCHATZ MEANS "SWEETHEART". SO THERE....

The unexpected exit of the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is only the confirmation of what has always been with the Atlanticists! She only recognized, as ex-Chancellor and official, the hypocritical attitude and the turpitudes of the “Western collective” towards the rest of the world and not only Russia.

by Amar DJERRAD

Little did we know that by 2023 the raging would go beyond paroxysm, Pepe Escobar writes.

It’s idle to dwell on the cringe-worthy visit of the Kiev clown to Crash Test Dummy at the White House, coupled with a “Churchillian” speech at the War Party dominions in Capitol Hill. History will ridicule this Hollywood soap for centuries ahead.

Way more juice is provided by the latest War Party P.R. show, sponsored by Raytheon Productions. After all Lloyd Austin, the current Pentagon head, is a former Raytheon weapons peddler.

After much fanfare, it was established that the Pentagon will provide not a collection, but a single Patriot battery to Kiev – either with four or eight missile launchers, and either the PAC 2 or PAC 3 version.

IN ORDER TO CONTROL ITS EMPIRE, AMERICA HAS MANY ORGANISATIONS/ORGANISMS/“DIPLOMATIKONS” DEDICATED TO MANAGE (DISTORT/FABRICATE) ALL INFORMATION INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE USA. 

WE’VE SEEN THE FUROUR OF THE US WHEN THEIR DIPLOMATIC CABLES WERE EXPOSED BY WIKILEAKS.

WHEN THE EMPIRE GOOFS, THESE ORGANISMS ARE THERE TO CLEAN UP THE MESS, LIKE IN BENGHAZI. THE MEDIA ARE ALSO USED LIKE SAW-DUST ON THE BLOODY FLOOR IN A BUTCHER SHOP.

APART FROM THE CIA AND OTHER “INTELLIGENCE” DISINFORMATION CHANNELS THESE OVERSEEING OUTLETS CONTROL THE MAINS STREAM MEDIA (MMMM — MEDIOCRE MASS MEDIA DE MIERDA). THESE MEDIA INCLUDE THE NYT AND THE WAPO THAT SUPPORT A FAKE LEFT FASCIST GOVERNMENT AND THE MURDOCH MEDIA THAT MOSTLY SUPPORTS AN ULTRA-RIGHT “LIBERAL” FASCIST ONE. IT’S PERVERSE AS ANYTHING, IT'S VERY DIRTY AND IS MELANGED BELOW THE ILLUSION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Earlier this month, I was in Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. The weather had turned cold and I couldn’t help noticing what an inhospitable place it had become for the city’s homeless and dispossessed. 

Once upon a time, anyone was allowed to be in the train station at any hour. Now, there were signs everywhere announcing that you needed a ticket to be there. Other warning signs indicated that you could only sit for 30 minutes at a time at the food-court tables, while barriers had been placed where benches used to be to make it that much harder to congregate, no less sit down.

By Liz Theoharis
TomDispatch.com

The Senate unanimously backed a plan to use certain confiscated Russian assets to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The United States and other countries targeted Russia and its oligarchs with a host of diplomatic and economic sanctions as punishment after it invaded its neighboring country in February. But U.S. law limited how money from those assets could be used, according to lawmakers.

Three days after it convened for its last public meeting, the House of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has released its long-awaited final report.

The dense 814-page document, accompanied by interview transcripts and video summaries, was published online on Thursday local time.

Read the final report from the select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack here.

Its 100-plus-page executive summary gives an overview of what's inside, presenting 17 specific findings.

Josh Frydenberg as treasurer and Scott Morrison as secret treasurer made a motza for foreign vulture funds in last year’s takeover boom and mega-sell-off of Australian assets. Who knew what when, and why are we flogging essential monopoly services to cuff-linked tax crooks? Callum Foote and Michael West report.

Two months after losing his seat at the federal election, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg landed on his feet with Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs was a banker to most of the large foreign takeovers that the Treasurer approved during his time. And there were some monsters: Afterpay, AusNet, Spark Infrastructure and Sydney Airport among them.