Autistic disability rights advocate Michelle Swan was frustrated when she heard Scott Morrison say he was "blessed" that his children hadn't had to deal with a disability in Wednesday's leaders' debate. But her six kids — all of whom are neurodiverse — had an even stronger reaction.

"They were more angry than I was. They could see that by implication if he was blessed not to have children like them, then I must not be blessed to have had them," Ms Swan says.

A retired US Army general will help coordinate the massive effort to deliver weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, the White House announced on Friday. Veteran Pentagon policy planner Terry Wolff, who previously oversaw Washington’s aid to militants in Syria, was brought onto the National Security Council after a group of senators urged President Joe Biden to put someone in charge of the program.

Wolff “recently” joined the NSC, a spokesman told reporters on Friday, noting the retired three-star general’s previous experience with the White House body, as well as the State Department, the Pentagon and the Joint Staff.

A high-level Hillsong Church executive dismissed founder Brian Houston’s explanation for why he visited the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes during the church’s annual conference in 2019 as insulting “dribble” just days before Houston resigned, a leaked letter suggests.

Ukraine will not be left alone if Russia uses tactical nuclear weapons, Victoria Nuland said 

Russia will pay an “astronomical” price should its President Vladimir Putin order the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said on Friday, amid the ongoing Russian offensive.

In an interview for the Ukrainian outlet European Pravda, Nuland was asked to assess the possibility of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons. She responded that she could not rule out such a “catastrophic scenario.” As Putin “has already ordered” what, she said, were “brutal war crimes,” the world must be prepared for the worst. At the same time, Nuland stressed, the consequences of such steps would be catastrophic for Russia and for Putin personally.

It was a dastardly formality. On April 20, at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court, Julian Assange, beamed in via video link from Belmarsh Prison, his carceral home for three years, is to be extradited to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 based on the US Espionage Act of 1917.

Russia is bad. There is no excuse for attacking Ukraine, and the argument that it was a strategic imperative to stop NATO’s encroachment is just propaganda, right? That’s what every source in the mainstream media will tell you. But oddly enough, that logic never seems to apply when western countries perceive rival states to be encroaching on their own peripheries, and there’s been no bigger example of that than as to how American and Australian political classes have reacted to the now signed “Bilateral security agreement” between China and the Solomon Islands, a small archipelago which exists not far from Papua New Guinea. 

 

“I’m going to become the Joker” is some of the Internet’s most poignant shorthand. Referencing Todd Phillips’ 2019 film noir, the phrase describes becoming so thoroughly disillusioned that one loses faith in everything.

The process is a dark descent: Individual indignity after interpersonal insult after institutional injustice prompts a downward spiral from George Costanza screaming “we’re living in a society!” to nihilists barking “we believe in nothing, Lebowski” to finally just a depressed clown laughing at the idea of anything mattering at all.

Many thousands of people have fallen victim to war in Ukraine over the past eight years. Indeed, another “defeat of humanity”. Every day sooner that the weapons rest means saving human lives. An early positive outcome of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine should therefore be desired by everyone. But many who are currently condemning this war are doing so with quite bellicose intentions. Unfortunately, this is also the case in Germany.

 

German politicians speak about peace – but what do they do about it? by Karl-Jürgen Müller

 

 

The recent Russophobic frenzy by Washington and its Western allies over Russia’s special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine with more and more anti-Russian sanctions imposed each passing day, makes one involuntarily wonder: why then doesn’t the West react in the same way to another special operation – the one Turkey is conducting on Iraqi territory? And how, in fact, are the two special operations different in their international treatment?

As you know, Turkey launched another (sic!) military special operation in Northern Iraq on April 18, striking the hideouts, bunkers, caves and warehouses of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). “We’re determined to save our noble nation from the scourge of terrorism,” said the country’s Minister of Defense Khulusi Akar, adding “Our struggle will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized.”

Former Intelligence Officials, Citing Russia, Say Big Tech Monopoly Power is Vital to National Security

When the U.S. security state announces that Big Tech's centralized censorship power must be preserved, we should ask what this reveals about whom this regime serves.

 

BY Glenn Greenwald

 

The criticism of UK PM Boris Johnson by Amnesty International comes as he is already facing a growing clamour to step down for breaching COVID rules by partying with his cabinet colleagues at his official residence during the lockdown in 2020. Johnson has been fined by police and even rendered a parliamentary apology.

Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has hit out at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a visit to a new bulldozer-manufacturing factory located in the west Indian city of Vadodara in Gujarat state.

Before late February, Germany had been cool to US demands that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline be canceled, saying the gas it would bring to Europe was essential and dissenting from US plans to further antagonize Russia over Eastern European security issues. However, the NATO ally soon fell into line after a personal visit from US President Joe Biden.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen praised European efforts to wean off Russian energy imports, but cautioned against the destructive effects of doing so too quickly. Her comments come as European leaders continue to debate boycotting Russian oil and gas products.