SINCE THE INVENTION OF THE "NATIONAL ART GALLERIES" IN THE WESTERN WORLD, THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SOME CONTROVERSY ABOUT WHICH ARTISTS SHOULD BE EXHIBITED IN THERE (SAY RODIN WAS IGNORED MOST OF HIS LIFE) AND WHO SHOULD PAY FOR IT. FREE ENTRY USUALLY MEANS SPONSORSHIP. SPONSORSHIP CAN MEAN CONTROVERSY.

In the first week of December, German officials told journalists that Berlin’s last year’s promise to raise their defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP will be missed not only this year (2023) but also the next year. This is a decision not just based on simple economics but on geopolitics. German decision also means that the possibility of procuring fighter jets from the US will also be delayed. As reports in the US media show, the purchase of 35 F-35 jets is in jeopardy.

BY Salman Rafi Sheikh

In their article “Neutrality must not undermine international law” in the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” of 14 December 2022, two members of the Pro Militia association call on Switzerland to review the stipulations of its perpetual neutrality. They state “after a careful analysis” that the Federal Council acted wrongly when it refused to accede to Germany’s request and waive the non-re-export declaration for procured war material.

Controversial Cardinal George Pell wrote an anonymous memo criticising the Pope's leadership as a "catastrophe", says the journalist who released it.

The Australian cardinal, who died on Tuesday aged 81, was one of Pope Francis' top aides until he stepped down to face child sex abuse charges.

How did sensitive government documents from President Joe Biden's time as vice-president of the United States end up in his garage?

That's one of the key questions a special counsel appointed by the nation's top law enforcement official will seek to answer in a probe announced on Thursday, local time, in Washington DC.

Imagine there’s a dumb tribe

It's easy if you lie

With hell below cry

Above us, Starlink sky

Imagine all nasty bad guys

Livin' in the USA

Ah

Imagine the NATO crimes more

It isn't hard to do

Everything to kill and die for

And with religion, too

Imagine all you like me

Livin' life as nazis

You

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only goon

And someday you'll join the USA

And the world will bomb as one

Imagine nazi aggression

I wonder if you can

Full of creed and anger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all fuck’d people

Burning the world all

You

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only grunt

And someday you'll join the USA

The Kalashnikov Group has had the biggest year in its history, massively increasing both production and the scope of contracts, the company announced on Thursday.

The Izhevsk-based group is Russia’s biggest manufacturer of small arms and which also makes machine tools and motorcycles. In the past year, the firearms production division achieved a 20-year record, producing 40% more military and civilian small arms than in 2021, Kalashnikov said. The tool-making division’s output also rose by 8% over the previous year.

Just in time, the fundamental faults of AUKUS are being exposed in Canberra and Washington.

This development is not only due to the mounting concern among Australian civil society groups. The Australian mainstream media are now discussing the hitherto unmentionable drawbacks of AUKUS. But it’s because two US Senators, Democrat Jack Reed and Republican James Inhofe (since retired) warned President Biden that the US can’t meet its own submarine needs, let alone Australia’s. They also cautioned about American statutes and regulations that would have to be changed.

 “I obeyed my conscience rather than the law,” ex-Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana Belén Montes declared on her way into a federal prison. Accused of spying for Cuba, she is a hero on the besieged island, where she foiled countless US destabilization operations.

On January 8, 2023 the US has to release a federal prisoner who is known as one its most notable opponents of treatment of Cuba since its revolution. She is Ana Belén Montes, and she will be freed after over 21 years in a federal military prison.

BY STANSFIELD SMITH

A new multi-story facility in the central Hubei province is being touted as the “world’s tallest hog breeding site” that will house tens of thousands of pigs, as companies seek to modernize the husbandry sector and satisfy the country’s growing appetite for pork.

The 26-story breeding facility came under the spotlight after its owner, Hubei Zhongxinkaiwei Modern Farming Co. Ltd., announced it would kick off production at the end of August, according to media reports. Located in the city of Ezhou, the mega farm will have two 400,000-square-meter buildings, all of which will be equipped with automated feeding machines and smart air filtration and disinfecting systems.

PHILOSOPHERS AND CARTOONISTS LIVE LONGER THAN DRAG QUEENS AND FOOTBALLERS….

IT ONLY TAKES A FEW YOUNG YEARS TO DEVELOP A BODY THAT CAN PLAY FOOTBALL OR TENNIS. 

MIND YOU, NOT EVERYONE HAS THE PHYSIQUE TO BECOME A SPORTS STAR, BUT MOST PEOPLE CAN AT LEAST SHUFFLE AROUND THE BLOCK, THOUGH THE INVENTION OF THE DRIVE-IN FAST-FOOD OUTLET WAS DESIGNED TO PUT A STOP TO THIS… 

SPORTS ARE ENERGETIC PASS-TIMES THAT ONLY DO REQUIRE A TINY BIT OF PHILOSOPHY: 

“MY PHILOSOPHY IS TO WIN THE GAME — AND TO DO BETTER NEXT TIME”. FULL STOP. END OF PURPOSE.

BUT SOONER THAN THE WILLOW OF A CRICKET BAT CAN ROT IN THE SUMMER RAIN, THE MUSCLES, THE JOINTS AND THE AGILITY OF THE SPORTS PERSON BECOME USELESS. 

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky framed American patrons by showing the world that the United States officially supports Nazism. Thanks to him, SS lightning bolts flashed not only in Kiev, but also in the U.S. Congress.

During his trip to the U.S. in December, Zelensky met with President Joe Biden and also addressed Congress. After his speech, he handed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris a Ukrainian flag with slogans and wishes written on it. Attentive journalists noticed the SS lightning bolts among the handwritten messages.

A former US intelligence official has confirmed that the shambolic Maidan remix staged in Brasilia on 8 January was a CIA operation, and linked it to the recent attempts at color revolution in Iran.

On Sunday, alleged supporters of former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and  presidential palace, bypassing flimsy security barricades, climbing on roofs, smashing windows, destroying public property including precious paintings, while calling for a military coup as part of a regime change scheme targeting elected President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva.

BY Pepe Escobar

Even though one has become accustomed to seeing the United States government behaving irrationally on an epic scale with no concern for what happens to the average citizen who is not a member of one of the freak show constituencies of the Democratic Party, it is still possible to be surprised or even shocked.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an appearance via video at the Golden Globes on Tuesday night where he promised that his country would be victorious against Russian aggression.

After being introduced by actor Sean Penn, who has championed Zelensky since the war broke out in early 2022, Zelensky shared a pre-recorded message that thanked the United States for its continued support while adding that the “tide is turning” in the war.

“The First World War claimed millions of lives. The Second World War claimed 10s of millions of them. There will be no Third World War,” Zelensky said. “It is not a trilogy: Ukraine will stop the Russian aggression on our land.”