1) The Americans are a bunch of nice people. 2) Americans are addicted to the theatre of “news”. 

I watched the Cassini probe videos and the final transmission which won an Emmy. Magic stuff. Pity about the rehearsal of the theatrics… I agree one has to acknowledge one’s achievements and applaud. I remember when I was in the US, every-time our plane landed, the passengers applauded the pilot for doing his job. I guess we don’t applaud enough. This year’s Oscars were about to tank… The bunch of movies on offer were half-rehash of Hollywood’s backlist. Here comes Will Smith....

In the winter of 2015, The Minsk Peace Agreements became the sole possible means to reaching a lasting diplomatic resolution to the conflict in the Donbass. Why were the agreements necessary? What were their main points? Why did they fail to bear fruit and secure peace, and who was responsible?

Prelude

Western media clubs together to white-wash Ukrainian Neo-Nazis

Multiple outlets use the same talking points, quotes, and ‘experts’ to whitewash Ukraine’s notorious “Azov” regiment

During the last week of March, multiple major media outlets in the UK and the US ran stories about Ukraine’s ‘Azov Batalion’, seeking to whitewash almost a decade of previous reporting that clearly identified the unit’s Nazi sympathies and ethos. Supposedly acting independently, they nonetheless stuck to the same talking points and often the same verbiage, suggesting a concerted effort to spin the unit as heroic defenders of Ukraine against the alleged “real” fascists – the Russians.

It is now clear that today’s escalation of the New Cold War was planned over a year ago, with serious strategy associated with America’s plan to block Nord Stream 2 as part of its aim of blocking Western Europe (“NATO”) from seeking prosperity by mutual trade and investment with China and Russia.

As President Biden and U.S. national-security reports announced, China was seen as the major enemy. Despite China’s helpful role in enabling corporate America to drive down labor’s wage rates by de-industrializing the U.S. economy in favor of Chinese industrialization, China’s growth was recognized as posing the Ultimate Terror: prosperity through socialism.

Instead of doing a chemical weapons false flag, the West has decided to do random traditional weapons attacks against civilians in the Ukraine.

I don’t think anyone who isn’t a totally brainwashed American believes this garbage.

RT:

Bastille

Macron takes to the stage greeted by supporters chanting "and one and two and five more [years]" and "Macron President".

He thanked those who voted for him, as well as the candidates who stood against him, and those who asked for their supporters to back him.

The US intelligence community has long claimed that integrity in the search for truth was its core value. In March 1992, Robert Gates, who at that time was serving as director of Central Intelligence, addressed the CIA’s analytical community on the issue of politicized intelligence. 

If you missed Scott Morrison’s election launch, sorry, interview with Leigh Sales on ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday (5 April), you missed an excellent opportunity to be appraised of all the great things the Morrison Government has done for Australia.

Short program, you say? Unfortunately, the interview proceeded for the usual length of time — a total of 16.33 minutes, which viewers will never get back. It also took the form of a completely one-sided affair in which Sales did not channel any of the usual fervour or disdain she apparently reserves for attacking Labor politicians, such as Anthony Albanese or Daniel Andrews.

 NATO

Vijay Prashad reviews the geopolitical battles of recent decades that leave Germany, Japan and India — among others — rattled in their response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

By Vijay Prashad

no magic carpet bombing...

For four months in 2017, an American-led coalition in Syria dropped some ten thousand bombs on Raqqa, the densely populated capital of the Islamic State. Nearly eighty per cent of the city, which has a population of three hundred thousand, was destroyed. I visited shortly after ISIS relinquished control, and found the scale of the devastation difficult to comprehend: the skeletal silhouettes of collapsed apartment buildings, the charred schools, the gaping craters.

bojo

Boris Johnson made an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital. US and UK officials have warned of increased Russian attacks in the east after a deadly train station strike. DW has the latest.

This article was last updated at 20:48 GMT/UTC.

Russia has evacuated more than 700,000 people from Ukraine to its own territory since its invasion began on February 24, according to Moscow's military.

Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev of the Russian Defence Ministry said almost 27,000 people left for Russia on Saturday alone.

disney

Child raising is stressful. From a coldly anthropological point of view, it’s amazing the number of different systems that human beings have come up with to alleviate those stresses, from widespread infanticide to modern modes of education.

A major review on the health effects of e-cigarettes reflects what public health advocates have feared – escalating use of e-cigarettes in school-aged children, early warning signs of increased smoking rates in young Australians, and direct health harms of vaping in all ages.

The review, which was released today, was commissioned by the federal health department and conducted by researchers at the Australian National University. 

Overall, it found the health risks from e-cigarettes significantly outweighed any potential benefits.

As this idiotic, servile venture proceeds, Australian territory, sites and facilities will become every more attractive for assault in the fulness of time.

If further clues were needed as to why AUKUS, the security pact comprising the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, was created, the latest announcement on weapons would have given the game away.  Australia, just as it became real estate to park British nuclear weapons experiments, is now looking promising as a site for hypersonic missile testing, development, and manufacture.

The joint Russian military-Donetsk People's Militia operation to free the Azov Sea-adjacent city of Mariupol has turned into one of the toughest slogs of the campaign in Ukraine, with Ukrainian military and neo-Nazi Azov units setting up defences inside the city, taking civilians hostage, and turning the battle into a brutal house-by-house fight.

Significant numbers of foreign mercenaries are active in those areas of Mariupol which remain under Ukrainian control, Russian Ministry of Defence spokesman Igor Konashenkov has reported.