Since the onset of the Gaza War, many Australians have urged the Albanese Government to speak up in condemning the Netanyahu regime’s constant breaches of international law and to act urgently to protect innocent civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

While the government has been strident in attacking those Green and Independent parliamentarians who dared to voice their concerns about the devastating death toll of Palestinian civilians , the Australian prime minister has continually refused to condemn the indiscriminate retaliatory behaviour of the Israel Defence Force.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, claiming that there is no alternative to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine other than the "Zelensky formula," wants to remain in history as Europe's main Russophobe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"In his last speech, Josep Borrell said that there is no alternative to negotiations other than the 'Zelensky formula.' I thought that they at least have an education, that they have an understanding of how to conduct a reality-based policy. This is a dead end. It is clear that Borrell now wants to go down in history as the main Russophobe in Europe. He is leaving his posts. This is amateurism or already madness that has replaced the minds of diplomats and politicians," Lavrov said in an interview with RT for the documentary "Bridges to the East."

Egyptian cartoonist Ashraf Omar tortured in detention

According to the cartoonist’s wife, Nada Mugheeth, and lawyer Khaled Ali, Ashraf Omar was physically abused and tortured while in detention.

While official documents date his arrest to Wednesday 24 July, the cartoonist was taken from his home in the suburbs of Giza province on the night of Monday 22 July, before reappearing before the State Security Prosecutor’s Office on the evening of Wednesday 24 July, almost 60 hours later. It was during this enforced disappearance that he was allegedly subjected to violence and electric shock torture.

The Russian economy is growing at a faster pace than projected, with GDP expected to soar 3.9% this year, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced on Friday.

Siluanov told TV channel Russia-24 that GDP growth in the first half of the year amounted to 4.7%, which is “a very good figure.”

“We see investments growing, at around 8%, real disposable incomes of the population are also increasing,” the minister stated.

“The estimates for the dynamics of the economy for this year are also higher than we initially included in our forecasts … Last year, the figure was 3.6%, it was high, and this year we will exceed it,” he said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian forces have freed the settlements of Viyemka and Ptichye in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), eliminating up to 1,920 Ukrainian soldiers over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

"As a result of successful actions of units of the Southern Group of Forces, the settlement of Viyemka of the DPR was liberated ... Units of the Central Group of Forces actively liberated the village of Ptichye of the DPR and continue to advance deeper into the enemy's defense," the statement read.

https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/24/the-war-on-gaza-2-6-24/

The moral distinction between liberal democracies and dictatorships is being flattened by the carnage in Gaza.

Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan may well have minimal carbon emissions, but the distant time of arrival, and ignoring the well known drawbacks makes it a dud.

On the face of it, it is all whizzbang white heat of technology (albeit of 60 years ago) and no carbon emissions (never mind the other ones). The problem lies with the nature of the beast.

In 1988, a young professor of international relations at Fudan University in China travelled the length and breadth of the USA for half a year. He wanted to understand that great country in depth, at a time when the Soviet Union was coming to an end, Japan was challenging the US for the status of the world’s leading economy and the latter was intensifying its neoliberal process begun in the 70s.

BY Ricardo Nuno Costa

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US military officials believe that Kiev's loss of the F-16 fighter transferred to it was probably not connected to a friendly fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces on its own aircraft, The New York Times reported.

On August 29, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces acknowledged the loss of the F-16 fighter transferred to Ukraine; a special commission is investigating the causes of the crash. The Wall Street Journal previously wrote that the F-16 crashed due to pilot error. Ukrainian lawmaker Maryana Bezuhla said that the F-16 had been shot down by the Patriot air defense system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces due to a failure in coordination between the units.

The news in cartoons: France still waiting for its new Prime Minister
Since July 16 and the resignation of Gabriel Attal, France still does not have a new Prime Minister. The current government, which has resigned, is managing current affairs. And the consultations conducted in recent days by Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée were not enough to appoint a new tenant at Matignon.

It has been 45 days – since President Emmanuel Macron accepted Gabriel Attal's resignation, the day after the last legislative elections – that the French government has resigned and is dealing with current affairs. Emmanuel Macron has not yet managed to find a successor to Gabriel Attal, despite the time gained by the head of state during the Olympic Games.

“Internet platforms have a powerful incentive to please important federal officials, and the record in this case shows that high-ranking officials skillfully exploited Facebook’s vulnerability... Not surprisingly these efforts bore fruit. Facebook adopted new rules that better conformed to the officials’ wishes, and many users who expressed disapproved views about the pandemic or COVID–19 vaccines were ‘deplatformed’ or otherwise injured.”—Justice Samuel Alito, dissenting in Murthy v. Missouri 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not concerned that Mongolia could arrest him on International Criminal Court charges during his upcoming trip, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Putin is scheduled to visit Mongolia on Monday for a World War II commemoration. This would theoretically put him at risk of arrest on the ICC’s “war crimes” warrant, as Ulaanbaatar recognizes the court’s jurisdiction.

“We have excellent relations with our friends from Mongolia,” Peskov told reporters on Friday. All issues concerning Putin’s visit have been “worked out separately” he added, noting that Moscow “has no concerns” about the ICC warrant.

The Anglo-American colonial project in Palestine has launched another war to remove the indigenous population from its land.

Israel launches major operation in West Bank; Palestinian officials say 9 killed - Washington Post

The troops were sent in with air support and bulldozers, according to an Israeli military official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military operation. Eyewitnesses cited drones scanning the skies and armored personnel carriers carrying troops on the ground.

It is difficult to understand why Senator James Patterson and “dewy eyed” Defence Minister Richard Marles think of China as part of a threat environment. There is a remarkable agreement between these two defence mavens from the opposite sides of politics that has a common source.

Our understanding of the darker foundations of US thinking about the US-China relationship is obscured by the public utterances of presidents, politicians and public policy commentators. This is the froth and bubble of policy, but it does little to reveal the foundations of this visceral fear of China.

A government is in trouble when it has to utter the banal and reiterate the damnably obvious. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is certainly struggling of late, a state of affairs all the more unspeakable given the calibre of his opponent. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton barely makes the grade of a two-dimensional politician, but has risen in the polls on a drab mixture of resentment, loathing and fear. Such a political approach does not always work but has done so in the past.