IN 2012, CRIKEY POSTED A SOMEWHAT PESSIMISTIC ARTICLE ON THE IRANIAN URANIUM DEAL:... 

For a couple of months things have been looking pretty bleak on the Iranian front. Many observers seem to be gripped by a deep pessimism — a feeling that Israel and the US are locked on a trajectory towards war with Iran, which everyone accepts would be a disaster but nobody seems to know how to stop.

Only faint hope for a deal with Iran on nukes

For a couple of months things have been looking pretty bleak on the Iranian front.

IN 2012, CRIKEY POSTED A SOMEWHAT PESSIMISTIC ARTICLE ON THE IRANIAN URANIUM DEAL... 

For a couple of months things have been looking pretty bleak on the Iranian front. Many observers seem to be gripped by a deep pessimism — a feeling that Israel and the US are locked on a trajectory towards war with Iran, which everyone accepts would be a disaster but nobody seems to know how to stop.

Only faint hope for a deal with Iran on nukes

For a couple of months things have been looking pretty bleak on the Iranian front.

The United Nations on Friday said its analysis of 36 recent Israeli strikes in Gaza showed only women and children were killed and decried the human cost of the war.

The UN rights office also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed ‘only women and children,’ UN finds

US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Friday as Donald Trump urged the Russian president to "get moving" on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said the meeting lasted for more than four hours and focused on "aspects of a Ukrainian settlement". The talks, Witkoff's third with Putin this year, were described by special envoy Kirill Dmitriev as "productive". 

Trump has expressed frustration with Putin over the state of talks. On Friday, he wrote on social media: "Russia has to get moving. Too many people ere [sic] DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war." 

As we're about to remember the sacrifice of soldiers in war, with ANZAC day, and about to vote for our Australian government we should reflect on the ideas that have shaped our choices through history. 

The history of war is remembered through dedicated memorials going back to the Boer Wars, conveniently forgetting the "Frontier Wars" as the English stole the country from the Aboriginal people. This war was easy — a few sheep and a few "colonists" were killed while many aborigines died. But it left an uneasy legacy in which every new government tries to fix or hide depending on the political party in charge. 

This is a sore point that the parties on the right want to bury by dismissing the robbery. Until a proper settlement is achieve this genocide will not go away — despite attempts to make it right.

Antony Sutton has been persecuted but never prosecuted for his research and subsequent publishing of his findings. His mainstream career was shattered by his devotion towards uncovering the truth. In 1968, his Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development was published by The Hoover Institute at Stanford University.

Sutton showed how the Soviet state's technological and manufacturing base, which was then engaged in supplying the North Vietnamese the armaments and supplies to kill and wound American soldiers, was built by US firms and mostly paid for by the US taxpayers. From their largest steel and iron plant, to automobile manufacturing equipment, to precision ball-bearings and computers, basically the majority of the Soviet's large industrial enterprises had been built with the United States help or technical assistance.

China likened the United States’ tariff policy to a ‘numbers game’ with no practical meaning after the administration of US President Donald Trump imposed multiple rounds of duties on Chinese imports over the past few weeks.

In a statement on Friday, the Chinese government accused Washington of using tariffs as a weapon for bullying and coercion, while hitting back with its own reciprocal trade duties.

”Even if the US continues to impose even higher tariffs, it would no longer have any economic significance and would go down as a joke in the history of world economics,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said, as cited by Reuters.

The US has imposed four major tariff hikes on China in just over two months, with the latest escalation on Wednesday bringing the duties from an initial average of 20% to a cumulative rate of 145%.

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, has said Kiev must mobilize 30,000 soldiers every month to sustain resistance against the Russian army. He also highlighted the growing disparity between the military capabilities of the two countries.

In an interview published on Wednesday by the Ukrainian outlet lb.ua, Syrsky claimed that Russia can mobilize up to 5 million trained and experienced troops, with a total potential force of 20 million. He emphasized this gap to underscore the urgency of continued mobilization by Ukraine amid the mounting battlefield pressure.

US Democratic Senator Adam Schiff has called on Congress to investigate President Donald Trump for possible insider trading and market manipulation following his abrupt trade policy U-turn. Global stocks soared after the president paused the imposition of tariffs on a multitude of countries this week.

On Wednesday, Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs against US trade partners, lowering duties to a flat 10% rate. The only exception was China, which he hit with an increase to 125% following Beijing’s tariff hike on US goods to 84%. Immediately after the announcement, US stock markets posted near-record gains after a week-long slump.

The Zionist Federation of Australia has filed a legal action with the Federal Court of Australia against renowned Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis relating to a complaint it first raised with the Australian Human Rights Commission in July 2024, claiming posts she made on social media platform X were antisemitic in nature.

Paul Gregoire

The Great Trump Toddler Tariff Tantrum that we have all been living through is so very Trump – blunt like a baseball bat, burn-it-down-first-figure-out-the-consequences-later reckless, and attention-grabbing like Kim Kardashian – that it is easy to forget that Donald Trump is merely human, too.  

Lessons Trump could learn from the last Soviet leader
Trying to salvage and empower an empire in decline, only to end up hastening its demise – we’ve seen that somewhere before

Let me play devil’s advocate for a minute. I’m not here to defend President Donald Trump’s tariffs. But I do want to push back against the way the conversation around them often unfolds – dismissing them offhand with a smug “well, that’s just dumb,” without any regard for the broader economic context, either at home or globally.

What if Trump’s tariffs actually make sense?
They’re messy, risky, and unpopular – but they might be part of a bigger, smarter plan
By Igor Makarov

Yes, Trump often shoots from the hip. He lies outright, makes rookie mistakes in his speeches, and fumbles the details. But behind the bluster is a surprisingly coherent strategy – one that wasn’t cobbled together by fools. You don’t have to agree with it to at least try to understand what it is.

The federal Coalition has left open the possibility it could leave the Paris climate accord, if it determines that meeting climate targets would do too much damage to the economy.

The Coalition has previously said it will dump Australia's current climate target to reduce emissions by 43 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.

 Federal election 2025 live: Stay across the latest updates from the campaign trail 

After the 2008 financial crisis, US money managers took control of big banks and industries across Europe. Former Russian ambassador to the UK and Rossiya Segodnya deputy chief Alexander Yakovenko reveals how.

What Are Mega-Funds?

US asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, State Street, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase control a combined $36.4T+ in wealth.

That's MASSIVE power to consolidate control in systemically important industries worldwide — including Europe.

Mega-funds enjoy strong patronage from the US government, which uses the Fed, courts, sanctions and scandals to deal blows to foreign competitors before US capital swoops in to buy them out.

THE "ARTICLE" BELOW BY BARB DADD (a 74 year old mother and grandmother living in regional Western Australia, driven by a lifelong pursuit of truth and justice) IS SOMEWHAT NAIVE... YES ASSAD WAS NOT THE PERFECT LEADER, BUT HE HAD A LOT "ON HIS PLATE"... THE WESTERN MEDIA ALSO PAINTED HIM BLACKER THAN THE DEVIL — ALL UNDER THE CIA PROPAGANDA... OBAMA WAS ACTUALLY FAR WORSE AS A DANGEROUS DESPOT THAN ASSAD — OR TRUMP SO FAR...