Balinese culture, a perpetual exercise in sophisticated subtlety, makes no distinction between the secular and the supernatural – sekala and niskala.

Sekala is what our senses may discern. As in the ritualized gestures of world leaders – real and minor – at a highly polarized G20.

Niskala is what cannot be sensed directly and can only be “suggested.” And that also applies to geopolitics. 

BY PEPE ESCOBAR

 Once a year, delegates from almost 200 countries gather for the purpose of finding ways to keep climate change from spiraling out of control. This time around, they’re meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27. And the event is brought to you by the largest plastic producer in the world, Coca-Cola.

While Coca-Cola is considered a lower-tier sponsor than the conference’s “partners,” which include Microsoft, IBM, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, Coca-Cola’s role has garnered an exceptionally large amount of criticism.

By Kate Yoder / Grist

The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping put me in mind of the public reaction in Australia when Whitlam met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971.

The meeting in Bali is potentially more than just a diplomatic reset. It could be a pivotal moment for Australia, in the dynamics of the ‘China question’ in our domestic politics – the way we think about and how we approach the relationship.

Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky has stepped out of line in his relationships with his foreign backers, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, has said. She was referring to his attempt to nudge NATO into retaliating against Russia for a deadly incident in Poland.

“Zelensky sits in a bunker and cannot understand why his version about a ‘Russian missile in Poland’ was dismissed even by the worst of Russophobes,” she wrote on social media on Wednesday. The president, she added, should realize that his job is “to do the dirty work and not tell bosses what they should do.”

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No big surprise to see Craig Foster elected chair of the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) last night. But in his first address to ARM members, he flagged a change to how the movement operates.

Peter FitzSimons has been the leader of the ARM for the past seven years. The author, SMH columnist and former rugby union player has been the recognisable face of an organisation which has supported the idea of an Australian head of state since 1991. It counted FitzSimons, novelist Thomas Keneally and Malcolm Turnbull among its founding members, and the latter went on to spearhead the campaign leading up to the 1999 referendum which was defeated, to the surprise of many at the time.

For the Western press, the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party offered a number of signals which—if read in good faith—could have been perceived as reassuring.

Instead, establishment outlets reverted to familiar narratives regarding China’s Covid mitigation strategy and tied these into renewed predictions of a long-prophesied economic disaster—one that would inevitably befall China as a result of its government’s decision to forsake the orthodoxy of open markets.

More than anything else, corporate media fixated on Hu Jintao’s departure from the congress hall, engaging in tabloid-variety speculation around the fate of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s 79-year-old predecessor.

The way the U.S. provoked and now sustains its Ukraine proxy war is no more ethical than its invasion of Iraq. If people can’t see this, it’s because the propaganda around the latest war hasn’t cleared from the air yet.

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

New research published by France’s Ecole de Guerre Economique has revealed some extraordinary findings about who and what the French intelligence services fear most when it comes to threats to the country’s economy.

The findings are based on extensive research and interviews with French intelligence experts, including representatives of spy agencies, and so reflect the positions and thinking of specialists in the under-researched field of economic warfare. Their collective view is very clear - 97 percent consider the US to be the foreign power that “most threatens” the “economic interests” of Paris.

UNITED NATIONS – Are 8 billion humans too many for planet Earth? As we reach this milestone on Nov. 15, most experts say the bigger problem is the overconsumption of resources by the wealthiest residents.

“Eight billion people, it is a momentous milestone for humanity,” said United Nations Population Fund chief Natalia Kanem, hailing an increase in life expectancy and fewer maternal and child deaths.

“Yet, I realize this moment might not be celebrated by all. Some express concerns that our world is overpopulated. I am here to say clearly that the sheer number of human lives is not a cause for fear.”

So, are there too many of us for Earth to sustain?

No, she’s not simply an idiot. Nor do the Hansiatic elites consider us to be so stupid. The nuclear dystopia or frozen future we may all soon experience is all about economics. So, they have us over a barrel, so to speak. Since they control the distribution of energy, which is the only true measure of success or failure nowadays. Ukraine, climate change, the green movement, freedom of this or that all boil down to profit, as I am sure you already know. Unfortunately for us, the last battle for a Btu or megawatt will be fought by us, for them.

by Phil Butler

Queen Elizabeth II of England advised the governor-general he could overthrow the elected government of Australia – and he did, Jenny Hocking and Peter Cronau report.

It is 47 years since the Australian governor-general, Sir John Kerr, dismissed without warning the elected Labor government of Gough Whitlam.

For decades after Whitlam’s dismissal, a disarmingly simple narrative had been locked in place, which kept the role of the queen and the Palace courtiers out of public view. 

Biden’s teleprompter 'Absolutely Believes' There is No Need for New Cold War With China

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US President Joe Biden expressed confidence on Monday after his first face-to-face presidential summit with China's Xi Jinping at the G20 in Bali. Following the meeting, he claimed that there need not be a new cold war with China.

“I absolutely believe there need not be a new cold war,” Biden told reporters after the talks.

He also expressed confidence that Beijing has no intention to invade Taiwan.

“I do not think there is any imminent attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan,” Biden added.

Kladderadatsch (onomatopoeic for "Crash") was a satirical German-language magazine first published in Berlin on 7 May 1848.[1] It appeared weekly or as the Kladderadatsch put it: "daily, except for weekdays."

THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT STILL GETS THINGS WRONG ON UKRAINE. ONE SHOULD NOT WONDER WHY…

NOT SURPRISINGLY, THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT FOLLOWS THE US ADMINISTRATION LIKE A GOOD DOG ON A LEACH. THEIR CONTRADICTORY POLICIES ARE: TAIWAN IS A SEPARATE ENTITY TO CHINA, BUT “UKRAINE” IS INDIVISIBLE. THE ONLY EXPLANATION HERE IS THAT WE’RE IN THE BUSINESS OF ANNOYING THE CHINESE AND THE RUSSIANS, BY BEING HYPOCRITICALLY FOCUSED ON BOTH FRONTS FOR CONQUEST. I DON'T REPEAT THIS OFTEN ENOUGH....