Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson traded barbs after an attempt to unify their party fell apart, over disagreements about who should lead and bankroll their hoped-for singular right-wing populist movement.

Amid concern that a swathe of "Australia First"-type groups and individuals may cannibalise each other's supporters at the upcoming election, Mr Palmer on Wednesday announced he would campaign on a Donald Trump-style platform.

If national governments across the globe are prepared to put minimising the climate threat ahead of protecting the fossil fuel industry, they will have to make major changes to how the net zero concept is being applied. This will require carbon offsetting to be brought in line with its intended application, and a consequential major reduction in its use.

The Trump administration’s decision to pause USAID funding has plunged hundreds of so-called “independent media” outlets into crisis, thereby exposing a worldwide network of thousands of journalists, all working to promote U.S. interests in their home countries.

    by Alan MacLeod

The British government is debating the possibility of an air policing mission over Ukraine, The Times reported on Tuesday. The potential deployment of Typhoon fighter jets from bases in Poland is viewed as an alternative to stationing a significant number of ground troops and would require Moscow’s consent, the report says.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated that the UK is “ready and willing” to station troops in Ukraine as part of a security arrangement following a potential truce with Russia. A senior government source told the newspaper that an air patrol initiative involving British military aircraft and anti-aircraft systems protecting them could complement a small number of troops inside Ukraine.

INVESTIGATION BY JULES LETAMBOUR....

WARNING: JULES COULD BE WRONG, BUT FROM THE ROUGH TEXT OF HIS REPORT (BEING REVISED AND ADDED TO) WITH ORIGINAL SOURCES, IT IS LIKELY THAT CHARLIE HEBDO IS WILLINGLY OR ACCIDENTALLY SPREADING CIA SUPPLIED DISCREDITED/FALSE INFORMATION AS TRUTH. WE ALREADY HAVE MENTIONED THAT THE MAGAZINE OFTEN PROPS UP THE SILLY MACRON GOVERNMENT... WE SHALL SEE.

SO, IS CHARLIE HEBDO A CIA ASSET?

THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS "IT COULD BE"… CH IS A RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDIST DISGUISED AS A LEFT-WING CARTOONIST SILLY HAVEN — WHILE SUPPORTING NEO-NAZI COLOURED REVOLUTIONS AND THE AMERICAN EMPIRE LITTLE VENTURES...

Trump taking Washington out of NATO “is a realistic threat,” EMP Task Force scholar and former Pentagon officer David Pyne tells Sputnik.

He could do this "by either withdrawing US security guarantees for individual countries that oppose his peace initiatives with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, or else perhaps to threaten to pull the US out of NATO entirely," Pyne says.

Trump considered withdrawing from NATO twice during his first term, viewing the alliance as obsolete and seeing no threats to justify a US military presence in Europe.

The more the EU and UK try to derail Trump’s peace initiative, the more likely he is to retaliate, says Pyne.

The federal corruption watchdog will investigate six people responsible for the former government’s illegal debt collection scheme, backflipping on a previous decision.

Following a review process, the National Anti-Corruption Commission revealed on Tuesday it will probe whether any of the six officials referred in the robodebt royal commission’s final report engaged in corrupt conduct.

This overturns the commission’s controversial June decision not to investigate the referrals.

From 2016 to 2019, the robodebt scheme recovered more than $750 million from almost 400,000 people. 

The watchdog did not reveal reasons for starting an investigation, noting that could prejudice the process.

WHEN SOMEONE SAYS THAT THEY DON'T SUFFER FROM "TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME", IT IS MOST LIKELY THAT THEY DO AS THEY EXPLAIN IN DETAIL WHY THEY DON'T, BUT DO... YES, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CHOSE A CONVICTED FELON, A SELF-CONFESSED SEX PREDATOR, A RACIST, A NARCISSIST, A PROTECTIONIST, AND SOMEONE WHO DISPLAYS CONTEMPT FOR THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION...

THIS WAS A DESCRIPTION OF JOE BIDEN MOSTLY, APART FROM THE "CONVICTED" FELON BIT THOUGH JOE WAS CORRUPT AND SHOULD BE IN PRISON (ASK TARA READE ABOUT JOE'S SEXUAL AGGRESSION, INCLUDING SMELLING YOUNG GIRLS' HAIR... SEE HOW JOE BRAGGED ABOUT BLACKMAILING POROSHENKO). JOE BIDEN HAD FAR MORE DISDAIN OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION THAN TRUMP.

It is already certain that the high-level Russian-American meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh will have a place in the history books.

Together with a recent telephone conversation between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump and statements made in Germany by US vice president JD Vance and secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, the Riyadh talks show that something very dangerous has ended: namely the bizarre period of non-communication between the world’s two largest nuclear powers that had been imposed by US obstructionism.

Shutting the EU and Ukraine out of the talks is the only way to peace
With Russia and the US finally sitting down for negotiations, we now live in a slightly more normal world

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

This is the first of two commentaries examining what the writer reads as President Trump’s unfolding offensive against the institutions and agencies comprising the deep state — or, if you prefer, the administrative state or the permanent state or the invisible government. The second in this series will follow shortly.

Patrick Lawrence: Trump vs. the Deep State

Top Russian and US diplomats are holding talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to find a way to restore diplomatic relations, set the stage for a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, and pave the way for resolving the Ukraine conflict.

The Russian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and includes Yury Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, and Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). The American side is represented by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Steve Witkoff, the special envoy for the Middle East.

Neither Ukraine nor the EU is attending the meeting, with Kiev signaling that it won’t recognize the results of the talks unless it is included.

18 February 2025

The presentation criticizes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for insisting on Ukraine's direct involvement in peace negotiations with Russia and the U.S. regarding the war. It argues that Zelensky lacks the leverage to demand a seat at the table and portrays him as an irrational actor with a history of poor military and diplomatic decisions.

Zelensky's HARD (dicky) STAND...

The speaker highlights past opportunities Zelensky allegedly had to prevent or end the war but claims he rejected diplomatic solutions due to arrogance and unrealistic expectations. The presentation also critiques Ukraine's military strategy, suggesting that Zelensky's decisions led to unnecessary losses. It contrasts Russia’s strategic retreats with Ukraine's persistence in doomed battles.

In Australia at the federal level of government, we have some of the shortest election cycles in the world: often barely three years. This mitigates against even medium-term planning. A new government takes a year to learn the ropes of office, another year to govern before preparing for re-election in the third. And even if a government survives that long, the odds are its leader won’t.

As a government minister, why forward plan and propose large national projects which might take more than a decade to complete if you are not in office to take the credit for them?

Key European leaders arrived Monday at the Élysée Palace in Paris for an emergency summit called by French President Emmanuel Macron to agree on a coordinated response to a shock policy shift on the Ukraine war by the new US President Donald Trump. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were among the heads of state greeted by Macron, who had a phone call with Trump just before the summit. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.

An emergency summit of European leaders is gathering in Paris on Monday to discuss the Ukraine war and Europe’s security as the continent scrambles to address the fallout of the US-Russian bilateral agreement to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has said Europe would not be directly involved in talks on Ukraine, though it would still have "input".

Has Vladimir Putin ever had a better few days in Washington? Donald Trump, just four weeks into his second term, has executed a breathtaking pivot toward Moscow, reversing course after years of ruptured relations between the U.S. and Russia that resulted from Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

It Took Trump Only Twenty-four Days to Sell Out Ukraine
Amid the chaos in Washington, the President’s phone call with Putin has Moscow filled with glee.