Russian forces have bombarded areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region from land and air, destroying houses in residential districts and killing civilians.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says the assaults have turned the Donbas into “hell”.

“The Donbas is completely destroyed,” Mr Zelenskiy said in an address on Thursday night. “It is hell there – and that is not an exaggeration.”

As the war nears its three-month mark, the Ukrainian general staff say massive artillery barrages, including multiple rocket-launchers, have hit civilian infrastructure.

Russian aircraft have also struck at targets, the general staff said in a statement on Friday.

The meaning of war in the 21st century

by Thierry Meyssan

Interrupting his series of articles on the war in Ukraine, Thierry Meyssan delivers some thoughts on the evolution of the human dimension of war. The end of industrial capitalism and the globalization of exchanges do not only transform our societies and our ways of thinking, but the meaning of all our activities, including wars.

Teary Tim Wilson concedes defeat to Zoe Daniel

By Latika Bourke

Tim Wilson is conceding the Melbourne seat of Goldstein to teal independent Zoe Daniel.

He began to cry as he talked about the support from his husband, Ryan.

“Nobody pretends you’re not shattered after something like this,” he said.

“My contribution at this point appears to be ending. It’s challenging to face the fact. It is what it is.”

He said that looking at himself in the mirror, he could unequivocally say he did everything he could.

In the fray of the Australian federal elections, the climate seems to have taken a front seat with the winning “teal” independents and most of Labor members…

One has to acknowledge that coal is still the main driver of world energy supply as well as the worst culprit for inducing global warming. Not coal's fault but our burning it....

According to analysis of the logistics map (in French) of the present Russian intervention in Ukraine, Putin has achieved his main objectives… Bear with us, this map is already a few days old.

All Russia has to do now is be patient until Zelenskyyyy-y gives up his delusion of a “victory”. By this stage many Ukrainians would have seen through the stage-managed hubris of this fascist puppet of Washington. Some Ukrainians would have died for “nothing” more, than the US sponsored self-interest of Pinocchio Volodymyr.

French celebrate Morrison’s defeat

By Latika Bourke

France’s foreign minster Jean-Yves Le Drian has barely concealed his delight with Scott Morrison’s defeat. 

“I can’t stop myself from saying that the defeat of Morrison suits me fine,” Le Drian told reporters on Sunday morning AEST, as he handed over to his successor Catherine Colonna. 

Read more from our Europe correspondent Rob Harris: The only way is up for French relations after Le Drian takes final swipe at Morrison....

Ukraine has “broken the backbone” of the Russian army and will gain victory in bloody battle, but the end of the war will be achieved through diplomacy, says Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a TV interview to mark his third year as president, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s military had inflicted enough damage on Russia to ensure “they will not be able to get back on their feet for the next few years”.

His comments came as Russia claimed control of Mariupol after the last 2400 Ukrainian forces, who been defending the city’s Azovstal steelworks, surrendered and were taken captive.

Australian politics has experienced a seismic and profound shift.

Scott Morrison's prime ministership is over on the back of a female independent climate revolt. It's the women, stupid.

The Liberal Party has been smashed by a sea of teal women.

Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham told the ABC that gender was "clearly a factor" in the election result. Former Liberal minister Julie Bishop said independents appealed to people who felt that the moderates within the Liberal Party were not being heard in a government that was led by "Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce".

The Coalition's own tracking polls said Morrison was unpopular with women. In fact, it was lethal.

We cry for Argentina,

We cry for Ukraine,

But we don’t cry for Russians

Killed by neo-nazi Ukrainians,

Nor accept Russia’s Crimea.

Our windbag against war is vain

And does not feel real pain.

This is not very odd,

It’s in our Western blood

To hate all that is Russian

Far more than what was Prussian —

And now we love neo-nazi Ukrainians,

Under American rules-biased disorders.

Our windbag against war is vain

And does not feel real pain.

In this new cold war of anti-Russian

Affray,

Global military spending tops $2 trillion [per annum] for the first time 

The US far outpaces all spenders when pressing threats like climate change and nuclear conflict that require diplomatic strategies receive little funding.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has crossed the country twice and shaken hands with thousands of people in the final week of campaigning before polling day, but his conspicuous absence from five battleground seats underscores his greatest challenge this election.

From Tasmania to Darwin and Sydney to Perth, Mr Morrison’s trans-continental final week campaign blitz has seen the Prime Minister and travelling press pack fly and bus to 14 electorates in just six days.

He visited every state except South Australia, speaking to retirees, first-home buyers, soccer players and paver manufacturers in marginal electorates the Coalition believes are within its grasp.

This might well be the single funniest thing that has ever happened in all of human history.

George W. Bush was giving a speech denouncing Russia and made a Freudian slip, calling out Putin for launching a “wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq.”

The moronic former Moron-in-Chief slowly corrected himself: “I mean the Ukraine. Heh [sic].”

Then, in apparently a piece of self-deprecating humor, he said, “Iraq too. Anyway.”

The crowd laughed.

Two warriors rush to each other; their weapons 

Splatter the air with stars and blood. 

This fencing, this clashing of steel, are the sounds

Of youth when it is a prey to grand love at odd.

The blades break! like our eternal youth

My darling! But the teeth, the fingernails, uncouth,

Soon avenge the sword and the treacherous dagger.

— O Fury of mature heart, embittered of a lover!

In the ravine haunted by lynxes and panthers, 

Our heroes roll viciously clasping each other's, 

And their skin bleed like flowers on lifeless threads.

This is hell, this abyss full of our friends!

Let’s roll here without remorse, cruel encore,

So the ardor of our hatred will be forever more!

— Charles Baudelaire

How will human life on the third rock from the sun end? A comet, or a bug, or nuclear war, or alien creatures might come and kick us all in the posterior.

Actually, probably, well, possibly, one of these millions of years, all life will cease on our planet, except for very hardy micro-organisms. What are the candidates to do the evil deed?

First up in the batter’s box is some sort of super-duper bug that will make Covid look like a walk in the park. Second in the batting order will be a nuclear war between human beings. In third place? A gigantic comet will come crashing down upon us, obliterating the entire planet. That one will challenge even our fellow micro-organism creatures. In the clean-up position? Who knows. Maybe advanced powerful alien creatures from the planet Zorgon who want to eat us all.

The World Health Organisation convened an emergency meeting of experts on Friday to discuss the monkeypox outbreak. The disease, endemic to much of Africa and whose symptoms commonly include fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a blistery rash, was detected in the UK in early May, later spreading to continental Europe, Australia, Canada, and the US.

In 2021, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Munich Security Conference modelled what would happen if a bioengineered, highly deadly strain of the monkeypox virus was released by terrorists and spread across the globe.