The six policy priorities of the von der Leyen Commission: State of play in autumn 2022

Written by Etienne Bassot.

In 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica, aboard her yacht The Britannia, the Queen told me that ‘your Prime Minister had been ‘rude’ to my family.’ I was the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at the time.

BY JOHN MENADUE

Forgive me for mentioning it but when you read down you will understand.

Prior to that meeting between the Queen and Gough Whitlam he had told me one of the matters he intended to raise with the Queen.

He was concerned that some state premiers, particularly Charles Court from WA and Joe Bjelke Petersen from Queensland were making a habit of inviting princes and princesses to visit their state. These ‘lesser royals’ were only too keen to have a free trip to Australia.

The situation is very serious. Since 1700 three people have tried to take Moscow: Karl XII who lost his Swedish empire, Napoleon who lost his, Hitler who lost his… and now NATO / AUKUS, in which we are mindlessly participant. The US budget year begins with 830 billion for defence, 600 billion for nuclear refurbishment. Not news in Australia.

BY Caitlin Johnstone

The Ukrainian government is being heavily supported with American money, with Washington contributing $1.5 billion per month to the budget, Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky has revealed.

The sum was mentioned by the Ukrainian leader during an interview with CBS host Margaret Brennan for the ‘Face the Nation’ program, which was aired on Sunday.

Currently Kiev runs “a deficit of $5 billion in our budget,” Zelensky said, adding that “the United States gives us $1.5 billion every month to support our budget to fight” against Russia.

Zelensky argued that arming and otherwise helping Ukraine militarily is a “win-win” for the US. He pledged that once Russia is defeated, the Ukrainian people will return to their home country and start paying taxes there, relieving the burden on American taxpayers.

As Democrats attempt to depict their newly-released energy permitting bill as a climate “win,” they are being boosted by a “clean power” lobbying group with ties to the fossil fuel industry.

Más mian leat alt a scríobh nach léifidh aon duine, is dócha gurb é an ceannlíne is fearr ná “Northern Ireland Protocol”. Ó rinneadh mar chuid den chomhaontú Brexit ath-idirbheartaithe é in 2019, tá gach duine tar éis a bheith trína chéile ag argóint faoi, nó ag roghnú neamhaird a dhéanamh air.

Bíonn gach éinne tinn tuirseach de bheith ag cloisteáil faoi Thuaisceart Éireann agus na coimhlintí dochloíte a bhí ann, fiú iad siúd sa chúige féin a bhíodh ag cur gach mionsonra suarach. Fiú amháin tar éis tréimhse fhada síochána, níl aon duine ag iarraidh teagmháil a dhéanamh leis ar eagla nach dtuigfidh sé é.

As Russia mobilizes hundreds of thousands of troops, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a United Nations meeting on Thursday that Washington will bolster Kiev’s forces until it can end the conflict with Russia on favorable terms.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Blinken declared that the US “will continue to support Ukraine as it defends itself, and strengthen its hand to achieve a diplomatic solution on just terms at a negotiating table.”

“Diplomacy is the only way to end this war,” Blinken continued. “But diplomacy cannot and must not be used as a cudgel to impose on Ukraine a settlement that cuts against the UN Charter, or rewards Russia for violating it.”

The United Nations General Assembly began its 77th session on September 13, with world leaders now taking center stage during High-Level Week from September 19-23. As the world endures myriad crises that deserve the UN’s attention, one issue is being left to the wayside that profoundly concerns the organization – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015.

The SDGs are a group of 17 global goals meant to be a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”They range from poverty reduction to quality education and are meant to be achieved by 2030. Per UN metrics, the world is falling short of these lofty goals and, in fact, is no longer making progress for the second year in a row as of 2021. 

As Israel was launching a deadly assault on Gaza, killing thousands of civilians and displacing more than 100,000 people, many of America’s top TV, music and film producers were organizing to protect the apartheid state’s reputation from widespread international condemnation.

Thanks to Establishment media, the sorcerer apprentices advising President Joe Biden – I refer to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jacob Sullivan, and China specialist Kurt Campbell – will have no trouble rallying Americans for the widest war in 77 years, starting in Ukraine, and maybe spreading to China. And, shockingly, under false pretenses.

By Ray McGovern / Antiwar.com

In an article on May 13, 2014 in The Guardian, republished here, John Pilger warned the “U.S. is threatening to take the world to war” over Ukraine, words that have taken on new meaning.

The great English literary personality Samuel Johnson (1709-84) had just completed his great dictionary of the English language, which he had been toiling away at for eight years. A coalition of seven London booksellers had commissioned the project eight years previously, at a fixed price of £1,575. At that time Johnson had issued a plan for the work, in the hope of bringing in more funds from patrons.

Reports that Labor is in talks with Peter Dutton over the looming Federal Integrity Commission laws have spread alarm Anthony Albanese might walk back on his pledge for a credible anti-corruption body. Callum Foote reports on the timing, the critical detail, the delays and the latest scare.

Call it what you like: a Federal ICAC, a Commonwealth Integrity Commission or Bloody Well About Time, the introduction of an anti-corruption body to root out the dodgy business which has plagued Australian federal politics for years, and increasingly so, was one of the major issues at the 2022 election. 

by Callum Foote

As the Queen, Elizabeth number 2, is buried at her favourite location, St George's Chapel, Windsor, United Kingdom, we should tread on the non-royal theatre of her bawdy "majestee", Aphra Behn... .We have mentioned this clever woman with Rousseau, the noble ultra-misogynist philosopher. Though Ms Behn died quite a few years before he was born, the two had a connection: he "borrowed" one of her stories to invent "the noble savage". Apart from this Ms Behn knew life, Rouseau imagined life. And we mention Aphra because she is honoured by a burial site inside Westminster Abbey. 

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Declassified Australia’s Peter Cronau flags and analyzes a report by researchers at Stanford University and Graphika about a massive secret propaganda operation being run out of the U.S.  The report, from late August, has been buried by the Western media.

A covert online propaganda operation said to be the world’s largest promoting “pro-Western narratives” has been found to be operating primarily out of the United States, targeting Russia, China and Iran.