Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said it is in "Australia's national interest" to stand with Ukraine following a virtual meeting with other world leaders designed to drum up support for ceasefire discussions.

Mr Albanese joined a call with European and Commonwealth allies on Saturday night, hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Sir Keir urged the 25 world leaders, including Mr Albanese, to sign up to a "coalition of the willing" to protect Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire.

Britain and France both say they would be willing to send peacekeepers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, while Mr Albanese has said his government is open to requests.

US bombs Yemen: As it happened
The US president has ordered a “powerful military action” against the Yemeni-based Houthi militants

Dozens of people were killed or injured after the US launched a major airstrike campaign against Yemeni-based Houthi militants, with President Donald Trump personally observing the operation as it unfolded.

The strikes hit Yemen shortly after Trump announced a “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthis on Saturday, warning that “hell will rain down” on them unless they stop attacking US interests and disrupting international commercial navigation in the region.

We are currently experiencing a time of widespread and dangerous division. Donald Trump is dividing the US, the US government is dividing the democratic West, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is dividing German society, Europe is divided over the issue of migration and the whole world is divided over how to deal with climate change. The world is becoming polarized, and the gaps between different social groups and entire countries are deepening, observers warn.

In trying to understand US President Donald Trump, the proposition has been put that he is sultanistic. In many respects, Trump’s second presidency does appear to be “sultanistic”.

Sultanism requires all individuals, groups and institutions to be subject to what appears to be the unpredictable and despotic intervention of the ruler who does not operate according to an ideology or a plan. Sultanism is, in this respect, a form of authoritarianism notable for the personal presence of the ruler in all elements of governance.

 

Sultanistic or neo-fascist? President Trump and 21st century ideology    By Damien Kingsbury

 

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Kiev has received widespread applause from its Western backers over its handling of the recent talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. The diplomatic success, he stated, puts Russia in a difficult situation that could be hard to “wiggle out of.”

During a meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, the Ukrainian delegation agreed to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire.

“Everyone congratulated Ukraine on a real victory in Jeddah, the victory of diplomacy,” Zelensky stated on Saturday, without specifying who exactly reached out to Kiev. “Everyone believes that this is a serious progress,” he claimed.

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

Aaron Mate' HUMILIATES Rabbi Shmuley

 

WHO IS RABBI SHMULEY?

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” whom The Washington Post and Newsweek call “the most famous Rabbi in America,” is for many the face of Judaism in the modern world and one of the world’s most respected values and spiritual voices. He is one of the leading defenders of Israel and appears as a regular guest in international media outlets. Rabbi Shmuley is also one of the world’s most respected and oft-quoted relationship experts. 

HE APPEARS TO BE A MODERN DAY FOLLOWER OF THE NAZIS...

 

HAVING BEEN A FOLLOWER OF PETER SELLERS SINCE THE 1960s AND USING THE GOON SHOW REPEATS ON BBC (ONE?) TO SHARPEN MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HUMOUR — I HAVE RECENTLY DISCOVERED A LITTLE GEM FROM THE MASTER OF BUMBLING ALONG. 

 

IN THE PICTURE ABOVE, THE RUSSIANS AND THE EUROPEANS ARE PLAYING THE GAME OF DIPLOMACY — WHICH IS A VERSION OF MONOPOLY, IN WHICH THE PLAYERS CAN BUY AND SELL OR DESTROY COUNTRIES…

 

IT’S FROM A LITTLE MOVIE “The Mouse That Roared” (1959) THAT SEEMS TO HAVE PROPPED UP ON YOUTUBE, AS RUSSOPHOBIA AND THE UKRAINE CONFLICT HAVE MERRY-GO-ROUNDED IN FULL SWING…

THE MOVIE IS FULL OF MEMORABLE LINES:

— AMERICA WANTS NOTHING MORE THAN PEACE…

Europe and the United States should gradually normalize relations with Russia once the Ukraine conflict is over, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said.

The statement comes a day after the head of the US-led military bloc met President Donald Trump at the White House and amid ongoing efforts by Washington to establish a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev.

 

NATO countries should restore ties with Russia – bloc chief     It would be “normal” for relations to be resumed once the Ukraine conflict is over, Mark Rutte has suggested

 

Trump has also expressed interest in restoring economic ties with Russia, an idea that was supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

We have reached a point where, with regard to Russia, the US is more reasonable and less bellicose than its currently semi-rebellious European vassals.

Washington is trying to end the senseless proxy war against Russia via Ukraine and also to facilitate a broader détente with Moscow. The NATO-EU European elites are desperate to keep the war going and to build their own countries’ whole futures on confronting Russia – forever.

 

Meet the warmongers: This is where EU’s military frenzy is coming from
The bloc has allowed its most war-crazed members to dictate its Russia policies – and now they want to attack Moscow first

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqM9s7y6Ey

The End Of Ukraine's KURSK Adventure Causes Hysteria In The West

 

MEANWHILE:

The EU is in tatters as the bloc’s leadership feigns solidarity with the tide rising against globalism. With a trade war looming between the EU and its biggest customer, the United States, heads in Brussels can be heard clanking together to stabilize a horrendous situation. A U.S. Russia reset and Donald Trump’s refocus on America’s problems first spell big trouble for a European confederation already on the ropes.  

The EU’s Precarious Position: Awaiting the Trump Pendulum Effect

The Two Sessions, part of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, held last week at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, were a pretty serious deal.

Not only because the sessions set the framework for Beijing to confront serious economic challenges ahead.

But also because of the stellar performance by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who forcefully imprinted in the collective psyche of the Global Majority how China should be regarded as a premier source of stability in this extremely turbulent geopolitical juncture, standing firm “in the right side of History”.

 

Pepe Escobar: Made in China 2025 – Revisited

 

So let’s start with the key Wang Yi takeaways – which translate as de facto setting the tone for Beijing’s diplomacy throughout 2025.

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

 

Zelensky’s last stand? Trump’s push for a Ukraine settlement
The US president wants to extract value from Kiev, and has no love for the current leader
By Andrey Kortunov, Ph.D. in History, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, RIAC member

As high-stakes diplomacy unfolds between the United States and Ukraine, one thing is clear: President Donald Trump has little personal sympathy for his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky. Their last meeting at the White House in February only reinforced this reality, with Trump once again treating Zelensky with thinly veiled disdain.

Female pigs may be the "factories" of feral populations, but a new study suggests male pigs are the disease "super spreaders".

The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal eLife in February, analysed the movement of 146 feral pigs at nine locations in Queensland and New South Wales to create models of how disease spreads through feral populations. 

The Prince of Wales will make his first visit to Estonia at the end of next week to meet British troops providing a deterrent to Russian aggression in the region.

Prince William will travel in his role as colonel-in-chief of the Mercian Regiment to learn more about how British troops are bolstering Nato's eastern flank, Kensington Palace said.

He will also carry out engagements in Estonia's capital city Tallinn to see how the country, a Nato member, has responded to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and how it is innovating in renewable energy and technology.

Ukrainian forces encircled in Kursk Region – Russia’s top general
Eighty-six percent of Kursk Region’s territory previously held by Ukraine has been liberated, Valery Gerasimov has claimed

Ukrainian forces in Kursk Region, western Russia, have been encircled and isolated, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Tuesday. He added that 86% of the territory has been liberated, and that the systematic destruction of enemy forces is underway.

Gerasimov reported on the situation in Kursk Region during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at one of the command posts in the area.

Over the past five days, Russia’s ‘North’ military grouping took control of 24 settlements and 259 square kilometers of territory, Gerasimov said. In certain areas, Russian forces have advanced and crossed into Ukraine’s Sumy Region.