US ‘helpless’ as Middle East burns – Moscow
Washington’s policy is a “complete failure,” according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

The surge in violence in the Middle East signifies the “complete failure” of US policy in the region under President Joe Biden, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said, shortly after Iran launched a significant retaliatory missile barrage against Israel on Tuesday evening.

According to Israel, Tehran fired 181 ballistic missiles at targets in the Jewish state, although the Israeli military said that most were repelled by its air defenses. Sources in Iran, however, have claimed that Israeli military infrastructure suffered significant damage.

France is not ruling out deploying troops to Ukraine, the country's European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad has said, insisting that President Emmanuel Macron stands by his previous statements on the issue. The EU “has a duty to further support Ukraine” in its conflict with Russia, Haddad insisted.

Macron first floated the possibility of putting NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine in February, but faced significant pushback from other members of the US-led military bloc.

In an interview with Germany’s Berliner Zeitung published on Tuesday, Haddad stated that “President Macron has said that we should not rule out anything, and this stands as ever.” The West ought to “contemplate training missions in particular,” the minister added.

The context to my article below is today’s extreme media, and Dutton’s and the Albanese government’s hysteria regarding the appearance of the Hezbollah flag at this week’s protest against the Gazan genocide and bombing of Beirut in Melbourne.

Unbelievable. The Albanese government is engaging in totalitarian newspeak and doubly so, has the hysterical Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen. Murdoch’s media, especially, The Australian newspaper, has led a bloodhound pack against dissidents opposed to the Palestinian genocide, followed by Dutton, Albanese and smaller basset hounds in the rest of the media and repressive sectors of the Australian state apparatus.

 

A senior US Army officer has emphasised the importance of strategic allies like Australia for building collective military strength to deter adversaries including China, while warning local defence and industry officials that a "fight is coming".

In candid remarks during last month's International Land Forces conference in Melbourne, visiting Brigadier General Frank J Lozano also expressed confidence that a "coalition of the willing" could outpace Beijing's rising regional dominance.

"We're not really in a one-for-one race with the PRC [People's Republic of China], because we understand that we will always go into a fight as a part of a coalition of the willing," General Lozano said during an address to a defence industry dinner.

Reporters Without Borders has published a sensationalist report on Russian media's work in the Balkans as part of a new project known as 'The Propaganda Monitor', accusing Sputnik and RT of spreading "disinformation" and demanding a crackdown by the EU. Balkan affairs expert Stevan Gajic tells Sputnik why such fearmongering doesn't work on Serbs.

Reporters Without Borders' (French acronym RSF) new 'Propaganda Monitoring' multimedia minisite promises to "promote reliable journalism" by exposing "the many faces and tactics behind propaganda worldwide, bolstering the public's understanding of the information space and helping them navigate it more safely."

NATO’s newly appointed Secretary General, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has backed the idea of allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons to strike deep into Russian territory.

Rutte made the remarks on Tuesday during a press conference following a ceremony commemorating the transfer of power from his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg. The new NATO chief backed the idea of Ukraine doing whatever it sees fit, claiming the country is within its rights to do so.

“We know international law, and according to international law, this right does not end at the border. So that means that supporting Ukraine’s right to self-defense means that it is also possible for them to strike legitimate targets on the aggressor territory,” Rutte said.

The global standing of the US has been called into question by the Ukraine conflict, the country’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander admitted on Tuesday. The senior official tried to allay concerns regarding the future of Washington’s security cooperation with its Western European allies when it comes to dealing with Russia.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the Warsaw Security Forum this week, Wallander argued that “American global credibility is at stake” in Ukraine. In light of this challenge, she continued, “the United States and Europe .. must work together for credible defense and deterrence against Russia.”

In the Progressive International's 38th Briefing of 2024, we bring you news from Lebanon and the spiraling illogic of “de-escalation by escalation”. If you would like to receive our Briefing in your inbox, you can sign up using the form at the bottom of this page.

1978. 1982. 2006. 2024.

Once again Israeli military forces muster to the North, preparing to invade Lebanon. On Wednesday, Herzi Halevi, the head of Israel’s military, set out the plan to his troops in plain terms. “Your military boots,” he said, “will enter enemy territory.”

And on Saturday, Israel warplanes assassinated Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, in a ruthless assault that flattened an entire bloc of residential buildings in Beirut with US “bunker-buster” bombs, killing hundreds in the process.

For years now, Fox News and other right-wing media have warned about an invasion of “illegal aliens” into the United States that supposedly threatens national security.

Donald Trump catapulted himself to the presidency in 2016 by vowing to crack down on illegal immigration and to build a border wall, which the Biden administration has extended.

 

The following speakers shared their insights on Saturday afternoon in Kingston, New York on how to restore the peace and freedom that has been robbed from us by politicians… 

• Roger Waters,  activist, bassist, a founder of Pink Floyd.

• Judge Andrew Napolitano, constitutional expert, and host of Judging Freedom podcast.

• Scott Ritter, former U.N. weapons inspector, analyst, columnist.

Britain goes full Orwell accusing Putin of imperialism
Foreign Secretary David Lammy launched into a weird rant against Russia, accusing it of the crimes Britain has committed...

There are intriguing and disappointing – though not surprising – continuities between Great Britain under the conservative Tories and the current iteration under a hardly less rightwing version of the Labour party. Crony corruption scandals that reveal the British political elite as comically greedy and petty are already erupting again.

 

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

 

The freedom for individuals to choose their sources of information makes it difficult to govern effectively, former US Secretary of State John Kerry has said.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on Green Energy last week, Kerry criticized the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of speech and the press. 

“It’s really hard to govern today,” he remarked, arguing that social media poses challenges for building consensus in democracies. 

The referees we used to have to determine what is fact and what isn’t have kind of been eviscerated,” Kerry stated, adding that individuals now decide where to get their news.

In the US media and in the writings of a number of political scientists, the decline of the role and influence of the United States in the world is increasingly recognised. However, Washington is still thinking in terms of the last century, believing that the whole world revolves only around itself, and that the ‘poor’ United States are being opposed by revisionist (i.e. refusing to live according to US ways) powers, such as China and Russia, and such ‘villains’ as Iran and DPRK even openly sabotage US policy. 

 

The US elites just cannot accept the changes in the world   Veniamin Popov 

 

The similarities between Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton as opposition leader are obvious.

Dutton has taken a leaf from the Abbott “just say no” playbook and has relentlessly highlighted climate change as a key point of difference between the opposition under his leadership and the Albanese Labor government.

But there is another key similarity – the role played by Abbott’s powerful chief of staff, Peta Credlin.

 

The lingering influence of Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin on Peter Dutton   BY James Massola

 

During a meeting with US media on the UNGA sidelines, Max Blumenthal asked Masoud Pezeshkian about the Biden administration’s accusation this his government was funding pro-Palestine protest in the US, while the newly inaugurated Iranian president campaigned to prevent regional war.

 

BY MAX BLUMENTHAL AND ANYA PARAMPIL