France hosts European defense ministers to discuss Ukraine's security guarantees

Today in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron is hosting European defense ministers to discuss strengthening defense capabilities and security guarantees for Ukraine. This meeting follows recent talks about a ceasefire proposed by the United States and Ukraine in Jeddah. The participants, including representatives from the European Union and NATO, will focus on defining credible security guarantees to ensure a lasting peace in Ukraine. Here is FRANCE 24's James André's explanation.

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250312-france-hosts-european-defense-ministers-to-discuss-ukraine-s-security-guarantees

In 1951 Australia turned to its newfound “great and powerful friend” America, consummating the move by signing the ANZUS treaty. ANZUS remains seriously misunderstood by most Australians, especially among the ageing ranks of conservative aficionados in Australia where it has the status of a holy cow. This is despite the fact that the treaty is only an agreement to “consult” if ever Australia’s security is threatened. It is no guarantee that the US will come to Australia’s defence, whatever threat may arise.

Europe’s panicked response to the shift in Washington’s priorities raises a number of intriguing questions, not least why its leadership was so ill-prepared for the second coming of Donald Trump.

One of the most circulated images from his first term showed a peeved but defiant US president, arms crossed, seemingly being berated by European leaders led by Angela Merkel at a G7 summit in Canada. The body language was not dissimilar to that of Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his discomfiture in the Oval Office at the end of February.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has given a lengthy interview with three US bloggers who traveled to Moscow. The discussion touched on Russian relations with the administration of US President Donald Trump, the settlement of the Ukraine conflict, and other issues.

For more than 90 minutes, Lavrov answered questions from Mario Nawfal, the host of one of the most popular interview shows on X, as well as former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) group, Larry Johnson, and former judge Andrew Napolitano, who previously worked for Fox News and wrote for the Washington Post and other outlets.

During the interview, Lavrov suggested that “a return to normalcy” has been emerging in the US since the start of Trump’s second term at the White House.

COVID pandemic likely unleashed by lab mishap: Germany's BND
Timothy Jones with Reuters and AFP
Germany's spy agency thinks an accident in a Chinese lab likely led to the COVID-19 pandemic, media say. Evidence it collected allegedly indicates negligence at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, concluded that the outbreak of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic in 2020 could well have been triggered by an accident at a Chinese laboratory that does virus research, German media reported on Wednesday.

I'm on the Ukrainian 'Enemies List' due to my work at 

@infowars and with @RealAlexJones on the Ukraine proxy war…

The group who compiled this list is tied to the U.S. State Dept, USAID, CIA and George Soros….. JAMIE WHITE.

PLEASE TAKE A DEEP BREATH… “THEY” MURDERED JAMIE WHITE….

BY THE TIME JOURNALISTS WRITE AND PUBLISH A STORY ABOUT UKRAINE, THE DYNAMICS HAVE ALREADY CHANGED… FOR EXAMPLE:

Salman Rafi Sheikh, March 11, 2025

THIS LINE OF COMMENTS IS DESIGNED TO EXPLORE RIGHT-WING CONTROVERSIES FROM A RIGHT-WING VIEW POINT... THIS IS WHY IT IS KEPT IN THE BACKGROUND....

2020 is a revelation still unfolding. It harshly schooled everyone who endured it. Five years later, what have those with eyes to see learned? Most of it is frightening, but some is hopeful. 

It was the mid-60s and The Canberra Times had a problem.

Rupert Murdoch was setting up The Australian just up the road on Mort Street: a fresh, modern-looking broadsheet with a national agenda. The Times, serving the national city since 1926, had a local challenger.

It prompted the Shakespeare family, which established the Times, to sell the paper in April 1964 to Fairfax & Sons, the powerful family business behind The Sydney Morning Herald.

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has announced that he will get in touch with his “Russian counterpart” in the coming days to discuss a potential settlement to the Ukraine conflict.

The official made the remark following negotiations with a Ukrainian delegation, who reportedly agreed to Washington’s proposal for an interim ceasefire.

At a press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia late on Tuesday, Waltz said that the Ukrainian delegation had made it clear that “they share President [Donald] Trump’s vision for peace” and “his determination to end the fighting.” The official added that Kiev’s representatives had “made concrete steps and concrete proposals.”

“I will talk to my Russian counterpart in the coming days,” Waltz added.

The news has become intolerable and inhumane. Democracy’s vital feedback mechanism is broken

It is little wonder that people are turning off the news in record numbers. The images are often unwatchable, the descriptions beyond imagining, the scale incomprehensible.

Everywhere you look the cruelty of the human spirit is on display.

The news has become intolerable and inhumane. Democracy’s vital feedback mechanism is broken

This article is more than 1 year old

BY Julianne Schultz

Syrian security forces are alleged to have executed dozens of people belonging to the Alawite minority in the coastal province of Latakia, according to a war monitoring group.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said 162 civilians have been killed in "field executions" in the region - a heartland of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, who also belongs to the Alawite sect.

An interior ministry source told the country's official news agency Sana that "individual violations" had occurred on the coast and pledged to put a stop to them.

BBC News has not been able to verify claims that the killings were committed by the forces of Syria's new rulers.

US President Donald Trump has reportedly been exploring ways to ease sanctions on Russia as part of a broader effort to facilitate peace negotiations over Ukraine, Bloomberg has reported.

The US has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Moscow since 2022, targeting major financial institutions and the energy sector in response to the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. Last week, Trump stated that he is “strongly considering” imposing additional banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia to push for a peace settlement.

However, Bloomberg has claimed, citing anonymous sources, that Trump’s advisers are also looking at what sanctions the US could lift or tweak in order to encourage Moscow to agree to a ceasefire. These steps reportedly include potentially lifting the $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil as part of a sanctions relief plan.

Donald Trump pitched a deal to the bosses of America’s Big Oil firms last year. Over a dinner of chopped steak at Mar-a-Lago in April, he told his guests: “You all are wealthy enough,” The Washington Post reported him as saying, “that you should raise $US1 billion to return me to the White House.”

He promised to reverse dozens of environmental rules and prevent any new ones should he win the election. He said that giving $US1 billion would be a “deal”, according to the masthead, because of the tax and regulation they would avoid.

Shyster in chief? How Trump is making a mockery of good governance

The Australian War Memorial has dismissed calls to stop taking money from the world's largest weapons manufacturers, despite outrage from critics and historians that it defiles the commemoration of the nation's war dead.

A Four Corners investigation has also found that the memorial's chairman, and former politician, Kim Beazley has paid roles with two multinational arms companies.

Those links are not disclosed on the war memorial's website.

Taking weapons makers' 'dirty money' not a problem for war memorial chairman Kim Beazley

By Mark Willacy

Russia has told Australia there will be "grave consequences" if it puts "boots on the ground" in Ukraine as part of a Western peacekeeping operation proposed by UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week unexpectedly left open the possibility of Australian troops joining a "coalition of the willing" in the war-torn country to enforce any peace deal brokered between Russia and Ukraine.