French celebrate Morrison’s defeat

By Latika Bourke

France’s foreign minster Jean-Yves Le Drian has barely concealed his delight with Scott Morrison’s defeat. 

“I can’t stop myself from saying that the defeat of Morrison suits me fine,” Le Drian told reporters on Sunday morning AEST, as he handed over to his successor Catherine Colonna. 

Read more from our Europe correspondent Rob Harris: The only way is up for French relations after Le Drian takes final swipe at Morrison....

Ukraine has “broken the backbone” of the Russian army and will gain victory in bloody battle, but the end of the war will be achieved through diplomacy, says Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a TV interview to mark his third year as president, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s military had inflicted enough damage on Russia to ensure “they will not be able to get back on their feet for the next few years”.

His comments came as Russia claimed control of Mariupol after the last 2400 Ukrainian forces, who been defending the city’s Azovstal steelworks, surrendered and were taken captive.

Australian politics has experienced a seismic and profound shift.

Scott Morrison's prime ministership is over on the back of a female independent climate revolt. It's the women, stupid.

The Liberal Party has been smashed by a sea of teal women.

Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham told the ABC that gender was "clearly a factor" in the election result. Former Liberal minister Julie Bishop said independents appealed to people who felt that the moderates within the Liberal Party were not being heard in a government that was led by "Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce".

The Coalition's own tracking polls said Morrison was unpopular with women. In fact, it was lethal.

We cry for Argentina,

We cry for Ukraine,

But we don’t cry for Russians

Killed by neo-nazi Ukrainians,

Nor accept Russia’s Crimea.

Our windbag against war is vain

And does not feel real pain.

This is not very odd,

It’s in our Western blood

To hate all that is Russian

Far more than what was Prussian —

And now we love neo-nazi Ukrainians,

Under American rules-biased disorders.

Our windbag against war is vain

And does not feel real pain.

In this new cold war of anti-Russian

Affray,

Global military spending tops $2 trillion [per annum] for the first time 

The US far outpaces all spenders when pressing threats like climate change and nuclear conflict that require diplomatic strategies receive little funding.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has crossed the country twice and shaken hands with thousands of people in the final week of campaigning before polling day, but his conspicuous absence from five battleground seats underscores his greatest challenge this election.

From Tasmania to Darwin and Sydney to Perth, Mr Morrison’s trans-continental final week campaign blitz has seen the Prime Minister and travelling press pack fly and bus to 14 electorates in just six days.

He visited every state except South Australia, speaking to retirees, first-home buyers, soccer players and paver manufacturers in marginal electorates the Coalition believes are within its grasp.

This might well be the single funniest thing that has ever happened in all of human history.

George W. Bush was giving a speech denouncing Russia and made a Freudian slip, calling out Putin for launching a “wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq.”

The moronic former Moron-in-Chief slowly corrected himself: “I mean the Ukraine. Heh [sic].”

Then, in apparently a piece of self-deprecating humor, he said, “Iraq too. Anyway.”

The crowd laughed.

Two warriors rush to each other; their weapons 

Splatter the air with stars and blood. 

This fencing, this clashing of steel, are the sounds

Of youth when it is a prey to grand love at odd.

The blades break! like our eternal youth

My darling! But the teeth, the fingernails, uncouth,

Soon avenge the sword and the treacherous dagger.

— O Fury of mature heart, embittered of a lover!

In the ravine haunted by lynxes and panthers, 

Our heroes roll viciously clasping each other's, 

And their skin bleed like flowers on lifeless threads.

This is hell, this abyss full of our friends!

Let’s roll here without remorse, cruel encore,

So the ardor of our hatred will be forever more!

— Charles Baudelaire

How will human life on the third rock from the sun end? A comet, or a bug, or nuclear war, or alien creatures might come and kick us all in the posterior.

Actually, probably, well, possibly, one of these millions of years, all life will cease on our planet, except for very hardy micro-organisms. What are the candidates to do the evil deed?

First up in the batter’s box is some sort of super-duper bug that will make Covid look like a walk in the park. Second in the batting order will be a nuclear war between human beings. In third place? A gigantic comet will come crashing down upon us, obliterating the entire planet. That one will challenge even our fellow micro-organism creatures. In the clean-up position? Who knows. Maybe advanced powerful alien creatures from the planet Zorgon who want to eat us all.

The World Health Organisation convened an emergency meeting of experts on Friday to discuss the monkeypox outbreak. The disease, endemic to much of Africa and whose symptoms commonly include fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a blistery rash, was detected in the UK in early May, later spreading to continental Europe, Australia, Canada, and the US.

In 2021, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Munich Security Conference modelled what would happen if a bioengineered, highly deadly strain of the monkeypox virus was released by terrorists and spread across the globe.

Why is Germany sending weapons to Ukraine? Don’t they realize these weapons will be used to kill Russian soldiers? Don’t they realize these weapons will be given to Nazi combatants who tattoo swastikas on their arms and march in torchlight parades? Don’t the German people care about that?

In World War 2, the German Wehrmacht killed 27 million Russians. Isn’t that enough? How many Russians have to die to satisfy Germany’s bloodlust? Another million or so? 5 million? 27 million? How many?

With a $40 billion plan, the US is setting itself up for an expensive failure in Ukraine

Eight decades ago, America’s ‘arsenal of democracy’ helped in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. In recent years, however, it's been less effective

"Here's what your president did when he first came to office," said Hawley. "He immediately re-entered the Paris Climate Accord, he canceled the Keystone Pipeline, he halted leasing programs in ANWR, he issued a sixty-day halt on all new oil and gas leases and drilling permits on federal lands and waters ... that accounts for 25 percent of US oil production. He directed federal agencies to eliminate all support efforts for fossil fuels, he imposed new regulations on oil and gas, and methane emissions; those were all just in the first few days! Are you telling me that's had no effect on our energy supply?" 

President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented Ukraine’s famous mine-sniffing dog Patron and his owner with a medal to recognise their dedicated service since Russia’s invasion.

The pint-size Jack Russell terrier has been credited with detecting more than 200 explosives and preventing their detonation since the start of the war on February 24, quickly becoming a canine symbol of Ukrainian patriotism.

Mr Zelensky made the award at a news conference in Kyiv with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Mr Trudeau made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday.

The prime minister has denied that a senior minister in his own government leaked sensitive information days out from polling day.

Cabinet’s national security committee reportedly rejected a proposition from Foreign Minister Marise Payne to double Australia’s Pacific aid funding to counter rising Chinese influence as too expensive, according to The Australian.

Scott Morrison rejected the notion that a member of his team had leaked cabinet deliberations to the press but wouldn’t comment on the veracity of the report, saying he did not confirm or deny matters of national security.

“The members of my national security committee are very, very tight … I’m not going to confirm one way or another the matters in that report,” he said.