Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under fire after media revelations that he failed to disclose pricey gifts of clothing to his wife from longtime Labour megadonor Waheed Alli. Who is the mysterious businessman, and what’s behind his ‘generosity’ to the Starmers?

Born in Croydon, England to Indo-Trinidadian and Indo-Guyanese parents in 1964, 59-year-old Baron and Lord Waheed Alli was described in a gushing 2000 BBC profile as a member of a “new generation” of Blairite “New Labour working peers appointed to revolutionize the House of Lords,” the UK’s upper chamber of parliament – “young, Asian and from the world of media and entertainment.”

Hundreds of Russian researchers working at the particle physics laboratory CERN in Switzerland will have to leave the Alpine country later this year, the journal Nature reported on Wednesday.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) plans to end its cooperation agreement with Russia on December 1, banning all scientists affiliated with the nation from its premises, the journal said. The scientists will also be stripped of any French or Swiss residency permits they currently hold, according to the report.

Washington’s new plan to control the Global South...
Not satisfied with banning RT in most Western countries nearly three years ago, the US and its allies have unveiled a new plan to bully the rest of the world into following suit...

When US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced a new “joint diplomatic campaign” to be implemented in concert with Canada and the UK last week, he clearly set out the initiative’s goal – “to rally allies and partners around the world to join us in addressing the threat posed by RT and other machinery of Russian disinformation and covert influence.”

The head of the University of Sydney has apologised to Jewish students and staff, admitting he "failed them" in his handling of a pro-Palestinian student encampment on campus.

Vice-chancellor Professor Mark Scott is fronting a Senate inquiry into anti-Semitism on campus, set up following the establishment of protester tent cities on several university campuses earlier this year.

The inquiry has received submissions from Jewish students at the University of Sydney who reported feeling unsafe and unwelcome on campus during the eight week Students for Palestine protest.

Mr Scott has defended his decision not to forcibly remove the encampment earlier, and apologised to students who were upset.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - NATO has transformed its eastern flank from having no combat-ready troops in place in 2014 to tens of thousands now, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

"We have, over these ten years [since 2014 that he took over], undergone the biggest transformation in a generation. We have strengthened our defenses, from having zero to tens of thousands combat-ready NATO soldiers on our eastern flank, from thousands to half a million troops on high readiness and from 3 to 23 allies spending at least 2% of GDP on defense," Stoltenberg said during a session named "Reflections on a Challenging Decade," hosted by the German Marshal fund in Brussels.

Something absolutely stupefying is happening in Germany: its iconic auto company, VW, the darling of every Chancellor from Adolf Hitler to Olaf Scholz, appears to be in a death spiral. At the end of this story I’ll draw a link to the salutary lesson countries like Australia and New Zealand need to draw from the German experience if we are to survive and thrive in the coming world. 

Cameron Stewart recently attempted to vaunt the virtues, so to speak, of the AUKUS nuclear submarines via an article in The Australian newspaper. In part, it’s threaded together with tufts of intellectual fluff from Kim Beazley, his one-time offsider, Paul Dibb, Peter Dean from the United States Study Centre in Sydney, Mike Pezzullo formerly of the Department of Home Affairs and John Blaxland from the ANU.

Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the world’s one billion Catholics, arrived in Indonesia on 3 September. He then travelled to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore, before returning to Rome on the evening of 13 September.

In each place, the Pope met government dignitaries, religious and clerical persons, and celebrated masses attended by tens of thousands of people. He also visited a place of care for a particular group in each nation. International news outlets reported the Pontiff’s messages of peace, encouragement and challenge and the numerous photos show the joy and positive engagement of countless people.

Zelensky had furious row with Polish FM – ex-diplomat
Now a newspaper columnist, Witold Jurasz has described a quarrel at top-level talks with Ukraine...

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had a serious disagreement during a trilateral meeting in Kiev last week, a former Polish diplomat has claimed.

In a newspaper column, Witold Jurasz said that the meeting last Friday also involved Gabrielius Landsbergis, the foreign minister of Lithuania. Jurasz, who is a former diplomat, claimed on Monday that the negotiations were marred by antagonism, based on accounts from his sources.

The term “mindful communication” sparked the most heated discussion. If I understood the forum’s organizers correctly, they define “mindful communication” as an ethical approach to media reporting that prioritizes compassion, love, and respect for individuals as the key elements of journalism. In other words, it’s about applying Buddhist principles to traditional journalism and blogging.

In 1939, shortly before the German invasion of Poland, a British emissary, Lord Lothian, visited the White House with an unusual request. The United Kingdom was unable to protect the world from the Nazis, Lothian told President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “Anglo-Saxon civilization” would thus need a new guardian. The scepter was falling from British hands, Lothian explained, and the United States must “snatch it up.” Though informally made, it was an extraordinary entreaty. London was willing to step aside and let Washington lead the world.

Should America Still Police the World?

We are on the eve of the possible final act of the tragicomedy that is Ukraine. 

It could come at the end of the month during the general debate at the U.N. General Assembly when  the odd couple of the lame-duck and expired presidents of the U.S. and Ukraine could reveal to the world its fate.

     BY Edward Lozansky 

What in hell then is the excuse of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ)? The WSJ just published a deranged piece by a Catholic University Professor, Michael Kimmage, titled — Ignore the Defeatists. America’s Strategy Is Working in Ukraine. I don’t think Professor Kimmage knows the meaning of the word, “working.”

Here is his thesis:

The wave of synchronized pager explosions in Lebanon was “reckless”because the method did not account for potential civilian casualties, Edward Snowden has said. 

At least nine people were killed and some 2,800 injured across Lebanon when handheld pagers used by Hezbollah members simultaneously exploded on Tuesday. The pro-Palestinian militant group has blamed Israel for “sinful aggression” and vowed to retaliate. 

Israel has not acknowledged any involvement in the blasts. The Jewish state, however, has conducted airstrikes against Hezbollah members in the past and threatened more “military action” if the group does not stop its cross-border attacks on Israelis.

Larry C. Johnson: Ukraine's Offensive Failing? Russia Makes Major Gains! - Israel in Grave Troubles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYaKGnVFXT8

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Kiev’s president Zelensky tried to calm down his Western patrons claiming that everything is going according to plan in the Kursk region, but the pincer of Russian counteroffensive is shrinking the Ukrainian grouping on Russian territory.