New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has pushed back on a central pillar of US President Joe Biden’s foreign policy, arguing it is overly simplistic to see modern geopolitics as a contest between democracies and authoritarian regimes such as China, given the world is “bloody messy”.

In a major foreign policy speech in Sydney, Ardern also appeared to take a softer line on China’s growing presence in the Pacific after attracting furious criticism from China during a recent visit to the US.

 

During her appearance at the Lowy Institute, Ardern said the war in Ukraine was “morally bankrupt and illegal” but it is wrong to characterise it as “the West versus Russia” or “democracy versus autocracy”.

If you think that in twenty years from now, China and Russia will be underfoot, you could be wrong. There is ten-million chances to one that you will be wrong. 

 

Russia and China are not going to go away. No matter the amount of containment you can think about the Sino-Russian problem, IT will not go away. Not only this, it is a historical problem created by the West as if we, the Westerners, had nothing better to do.

 

Step by step, the German SPD is abandoning all principles of peace policy

km. One thing first: It is not true that the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) abandoned its peace policy course only after 24 February 2022. Deviations from the peace policy course – which is actually a party principle – characterise the entire history of German social democracy: approval of the war credits in 1914, acceptance of German rearmament and NATO membership at the latest with the “Godesberg Programme” of 1959, active participation in the Kosovo war in 1999, which was contrary to international law, and the many speeches by prominent social democrats about “German responsibility” in recent years, to name just a few key words, have shown this.

The recent NATO summit held in Spain included as guests the nations of Australia, New Zealand and Japan. By expanding the invited countries, NATO was signaling that it was the longer confined to the North Atlantic, as its name consistently represents, but instead was expanding its sphere of influence to the Asia and Pacific region. The motives are obvious. It wishes to contain the inexorable rise of China, as the dominant power in Asia, and indeed, increasingly to the rest of the world.

On a dreary summer day in 1944, SS Gruppenführer Baron Otto Wächter and Nazi Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler paced in front of the men of the 14th SS-Volunteer Division “Galicia” they had created. Wächter, who escaped the Nurenburg tribunals via the infamous Catholic Church rat lines, would later die in Italy before he could reach Argentina.

The killer who created the notorious Kraków Ghetto also formed the Waffen-SS Galizien, which would become the First Division of the Ukrainian National Army. There is no official record from that June day when these two diabolical men reviewed Ukrainian SS troops, but it seems sure that the pass and review ended with Heil Hitler and “Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine).

 

The big banks have raised their mortgage rates following the decision to lift the cash rate to 1.35 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of Australia raised the rate by 50 basis points to 1.35 per cent on Tuesday, marking the third consecutive rise in a row.

Commonwealth Bank was the first to jump, saying on Wednesday morning it would pass on the rise in full by increasing rates on its variable home loan products. Two big bank rivals, ANZ and NAB followed later in the day, along with Macquarie Bank.

The Pentagon is set to dramatically increase spending on stratospheric aerostats, which are now being touted as able to boost US capabilities against Chinese and Russian hypersonic missiles, Politico reported on Tuesday.

The project, called Covert Long-Dwell Stratospheric Architecture (COLD STAR), was originally designed to spot drug traffickers. The Pentagon started testing 25 of the balloons in the state of South Dakota as a pilot project in 2019.

After former Energy Minister Angus Taylor expressed shock at the current flood devastation, Greenpeace CEO David Ritter explains why it wasn't hard to see coming.

HEY, ANGUS TAYLOR, you look surprised by the catastrophic flooding events. Can this be because you have been ignoring the warnings about climate change impacts? Here's a dozen or so expert warnings about increases in storms and floods that you may have ignored.

 

BY David Ritter

 

Anthony Albanese has shown during his recent trip to Europe that he is a prime minister addicted to hyperbole and oblivious to how countries can change in unexpected ways.

He told NATO leaders China aimed to become the most powerful nation in the world and its strengthening relations with Moscow “posed a risk to all democratic nations”. It’s most unlikely all democratic countries will be at risk. For a start, Russia will be in no condition to go to war with any other country after its abhorrent decision to invade Ukraine. It could be bogged down for years in a guerrilla war. China faces  a growing number of countries, including those in NATO, which are committed to containing its military and economic growth.

 

BY BRIAN TOOHEY

 

In recent weeks, a newly emboldened right-wing Supreme Court struck down a more than century-old New York law restricting the carrying of concealed weapons and a nearly 50-year-old precedent on abortion.  Meanwhile, the January 6th Committee has been laying out in graphic televised detail how our last president tried to subvert the 2020 election. 

 

Sergey Lavrov used to compare the West to a wounded predator. According to him, it should not be provoked because it would be taken by madness and could break everything. It is better to accompany it to the graveyard. The West does not see it that way. Washington and London are leading a crusade against Moscow and Beijing. They roar and are ready for anything. But what can they really do?

 

RISING TENSIONS (25)

The agony of the West

by Thierry Meyssan

 

Before his retirement, Graham E. Fuller was the Vice President of the “National Intelligence Council at CIA”, responsible for the intelligence assessment of the global situation. And he still observes the geopolitical situation very closely as one of the most experienced experts. He has now published a short analysis of the war in Ukraine and Europe’s disastrous – not to say suicidal – policy.

 

When will Europe finally wake up?      by Graham E. Fuller, British Columbia, Canada

 

 

At the G7 Summit in Germany, on June 26, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden made a pledge to raise $200 billion within the United States for global infrastructure spending.

 

With attempts to 'cancel' Pushkin, Ukraine's drive to eradicate Russian language and culture has reached the level of farce

 

The military operation affected the attitude towards Russians in the country. How will Moscow respond to that?

 

By Alexander Nepogodin, аn Odessa-born political journalist, expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union.

 

The first attempts to divide Ukrainian citizens into ‘natives’ and ‘outsiders’ began almost immediately after the country gained independence in 1991, and have continued with varying degrees of intensity to this day.