Russia has never refused dialogue with France and is ready to engage in negotiations “to the extent that our counterparts are ready,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly signaled his willingness to engage in meaningful negotiations with foreign powers, Peskov told reporters when asked for comment on the latest remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron.  

“The president has repeatedly stated his openness to negotiations, especially constructive negotiations, meant to achieve certain results,” the spokesman explained.

“We are ready for dialogue to the extent that our counterparts are ready for it. There are absolutely no conditions for this,” he added.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Russia’s defense minister — the first such conversation in 15 months.

Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced the call in a briefing Tuesday, saying Austin initiated the discussion.

“The secretary emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine,” Ryder said.

The public perception of the American empire, at least to those within the United States who have never seen the empire dominate and exploit the “wretched of the earth,” is radically different from reality. 

These manufactured illusions, ones Joseph Conrad wrote so presciently about, posit that the empire is a force for good. The empire, we are told, fosters democracy and liberty. It spreads the benefits of ‘western civilization’. 

These are deceptions repeated ad nauseam by a compliant media and mouthed by politicians, academics and the powerful. But they are lies, as all of us who have spent years reporting overseas understand.

The world’s ideological conflict ever since the Soviet Union in 1991 ended its communism, has been anti-imperialism versus the U.S. empire. There is only one empire left standing, and it aims to take control over the entire world: any country that resists being taken over by America’s Government is therefore its target and becomes targeted by all of its colonies, too (since any that would oppose it is therefore itself added to its target-list). (The U.S. Government decides what dissent is acceptable, and what is not.)

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty to US criminal charges as part of a deal that allows him to go free, according to court documents. 

Assange, 52, was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information. 

For years, the US has argued that the Wikileaks files - which disclosed information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - endangered lives.

He has spent the last five years in a British prison, from where he has been fighting extradition to the US. 

There comes a time in the history of a nation when extreme inequality turns into pillage.  If economic power is concentrated so is political power, and the wealthy are able to do whatever they damn well please.  They can lie, cheat, and steal because they know they won’t be held to account.

Have the super-rich now taken control of our political and economic systems? Some current news makes me worry.

By Les Leopold / Substack

They’ll stone you when you’re at the breakfast table.
They’ll stone you when you are young and able.
They’ll stone you when you’re tryin’ to make a buck.
They’ll stone you and then they’ll say good luck.

from “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35,” Bob Dylan

That Group of 7 gathering on the coast of the Adriatic June 13–15 was truly a doozy, I have to say. Readers might think it a waste of column inches to devote any linage to it, as many will surely have forgotten about it by now—not to mention those many others who did not know of it in the first place and so could not get as far as forgetting it. But this just is my point: The seven people claiming to be the world’s most powerful assemble for a summit and it is not worth our attention? Say whaaa? 

The significance of this year’s G–7, I mean to say, lies in its insignificance. Considering the mess these very folk have made of the world, this bears consideration. 

French President Emmanuel Macron will remain in power “whatever the results” of the snap parliamentary elections will be, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said. Macron dissolved the National Assembly and announced a new vote for France’s lower house of parliament two weeks ago.

The move was taken in response to Macron’s Renaissance Party suffering a crushing defeat in the EU parliamentary elections as the right-wing National Rally (RN) party doubled its vote.

The first round of the polls to choose the new government is set to take place on June 30, with a second vote scheduled for July 7.

Ho hum, the US has just committed itself to another ‘forever war.’ Its faithful obedient Western allies, like puppies wagging their tails, have fallen in behind. One would think they would tire, or at least learn lessons from, the game. Seemingly not.

The just concluded, annual G7 meeting in Italy, witnessed US President Joe Biden make a commitment to enter into a 10 year agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to bolster Ukraine’s defences against Russia’s invasion. I would guess Joe won’t be around to see how that commitment concludes, if ever.

Daniel Everett Hale killed lots of innocent people. He went to jail, not for killing people – he was paid to do that by the US government – but for revealing the truth behind it. Recently released, he has an astonishing story to tell.

We should care – and care deeply – that all around the world the brightest and best of our truth tellers – whether they be journalists, academics, whistleblowers or politicians – are being eliminated, either physically or by one of the other 50 Ways to Kill the Story. It profoundly impacts the society you and your children live in and which we ignore at our collective peril. Europe’s tilt to the far-right should trigger alarm bells because it is a by-product of this.

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has pushed back on Melinda French Gates’ endorsement of US President Joe Biden, suggesting it might be bad for the West.

The ex-wife of Microsoft mogul Bill Gates endorsed Biden on Thursday, presenting him as the candidate that cared about women. The incumbent Democrat is facing a rematch with his predecessor Donald Trump in November.

“I am once again asking for the scorned billionaire wife to Democrat activist pipeline to be studied,” conservative influencer Ashley St.Clair wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in response. “Melinda Gates is about to spend so much divorce money on getting Joe Biden elected.”

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Boris Johnson, aka BoJo – former British prime minister, foreign secretary, mayor of London, leader of the Conservative Party (Tories), and, last but not least, member of Parliament – is hawking his forthcoming memoir. Under the title “Unleashed,” the publisher promises it will be like no other prime minister’s reminiscences before. That, for once, is something we could almost believe, even if it’s Johnson who says it. 

Five-year-old Tala Ibrahim Muhammad al-Jalat is just about awake but not moving, her milky eyes rolled to the back of her head.

Tala is severely dehydrated and malnourished.

By her bedside in Nasser hospital in Khan Younis her father Ibrahim Muhmmad al-Jalat holds her hand, careful not to disturb the intravenous drip feeding into her wrist.

He knows that the scorching weather, with temperatures close to 40 degrees, and a lack of clean water have brought his daughter close to death.

"The situation is getting worse," he says.

"The temperature in our tent is unimaginable, and the water we drink is definitely contaminated, because both young and old are getting sick."

Wind, solar and pumped hydro energy storage can provide all the electrical energy we need, on demand, cheaply, quickly, with minimal carbon emissions. This is the message that will cut through the energy confusion. The clean energy debate is hampered by widespread lack of awareness of off-river pumped hydro energy storage. It is the third leg of the clean energy tripod. It uses mature technologies and there are abundant suitable sites.

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine was triggered by the irresponsible and provocative rhetoric of US President Joe Biden and his administration about Kiev joining NATO, Donald Trump has said.

Trump, who is seeking a rematch with Biden for the presidency in November, made the comments during a conversation on foreign policy with ‘All-In’ podcast co-host David Sacks on Thursday.

“For 20 years, I heard that if Ukraine goes into NATO, it’s a real problem for Russia. I’ve heard that for a long time. And I think that’s really why this war started,” Trump said. 

The Republican presidential candidate pointed out that there had been no talk about armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine when he was in the White House, but as soon as Biden replaced him, things began to deteriorate.