President Joe Biden does not want the standoff with Russia over Ukraine to trigger a global war, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby has said. He made his statement days after the White House confirmed that Biden had granted Kiev permission to use US-supplied weapons systems for strikes deep inside Russia.

Ukraine had requested to ease the restrictions on the use of foreign arms after Russian troops launched a new offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkov Region last month and have captured several villages along the border.

“We’ve been concerned about escalation since the very beginning of this war. And those concerns remain valid,” Kirby told ABC News on Sunday. “The president has said he does not want to be responsible for starting World War III. We’re not looking for a conflict with Russia, another nuclear power.”

Israel has waged a nearly decade-long campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC), deploying its intelligence agencies to spy on, hack, and pressure its senior staff members in an effort to undermine the court’s investigations. 

Tel Aviv “deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries,” according to a joint investigation by the Guardian and two Israeli magazines, +972and Local Call. 

This “war” against the ICC has been ongoing for nearly 10 years.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has married again, tying the knot for the fifth time at his California vineyard on Saturday.

The former Fox and News Corp chairman, 93, married 67-year-old Elena Zhukova after a short engagement. The pair started dating in 2023 and confirmed their plans to wed to the New York Times in March this year.

Zhukova, a retired molecular biologist, was introduced to Murdoch by his third wife Wendi Deng.

Moscow native Zhukova was previously married to billionaire Alexander Zhukov.

Trump and ‘our democracy’: What happens when a political system becomes a meme?
It is a sign of deep crisis that the concept of democracy has devolved into an ideologically tinged narrative that is defended with empty and exaggerated rhetoric

The verdict in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has bestirred the usual characters in all the predictable ways. And never far from anybody's lips is the word ‘democracy’.

By Henry Johnston

The Islamic republic goes to the polls on June 28 to replace ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19.

Ahmadinejad, 67, held the post for two straight terms from 2005 to 2013, a period marked by a standoff with the West especially over Iran's nuclear programme and his incendiary remarks on Israel.

The return on stage of “The End of History and Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama (1992) and the questioning of “The Clash of Civilizations” by Samuel P. Huntington (1996), it is implicitly the end of the West and the emergence of the new multipolar world order. The BRICS alliance is at the heart of the transit dynamic and constitutes the engine of Multipolarism.

BY Mohamed Lamine KABA

The recent official trips of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are part of this logic of rupture with the imposed unipolar world order inherited from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the illusion of the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Neutrality offers Australia a foreign policy alternative which would keep us out of a U.S.-China war. Although this position is favoured by over two thirds of Australians, the presence of U.S. military bases on our soil and the government’s embrace of the AUKUS pact, block its adoption.

BRAVE German MP Destroys NATO Lies Publicly! | Sevim Dagdelen

[Part 1 of 2] In her latest book, Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the Bundestag (German Parliament) not only dispels the myths of NATO but also explains why Germany needs more "courage for neutrality" to resist Washington's dictates and pursue an independent foreign policy that is focused on Germany's welfare. The war in Ukraine must be ended as quickly as possible through negotiations, not prolonged with more weapons and further escalation. The desire of the warmongers to spread this tragedy across all of Europe must be stopped!

In this conversation, Mrs. Dagdelen shares her analysis of the situation and proposals for a more sensible German foreign and security policy.

NATO’s eastward expansion was not to blame for the outbreak of the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin believes. He singled Moscow out as the sole responsible party for the bloodshed, in line with the longstanding Western narrative.

President Vladimir Putin identified Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO as one of the reasons for military action. The Kremlin sees Kiev’s potential membership in the US-led military bloc as a major threat to Russia’s national security.

Western officials discuss Russia at secret summit
Representatives from Washington, Kiev, and NATO will all attend the closed-doors Bilderberg Meeting in Madrid

Government officials from across the Western world are meeting with business leaders and academics in Madrid at the 70th Bilderberg summit this weekend. Behind closed doors and out of reach of the press, the attendees are scheduled to discuss “Ukraine,” “Russia,” and “The future of warfare.”

Held every year since 1954, the Bilderberg Meeting brings together the wealthy and powerful from Europe and North America to discuss – according to most reports – how to more closely align their economies and policies. 

Contrary to popular belief, the French have never been in favour of colonization, but a pressure group, self-proclaimed "Colonial Party", did manage to use its army to conquer economic opportunities. This pressure group, revived by presidents Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, François Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Emmanuel Macron, laid the foundations for the current crisis in Mayotte and New Caledonia. If the policies they have imposed continue, the populations of these territories will be forced to wage war to regain their dignity, as was the case in Indochina and Algeria.

The French "Colonial Party" still hasn’t come to terms with the loss of its Empire
   by Thierry Meyssan

Each of the last five presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have brought us closer to the brink. We desperately need leaders with a knack for peace who can steer the nation, and the world, toward a more secure and less dangerous future.

Pope Francis has apologised after he was quoted using a vulgar and derogatory term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church's ban on gay priests.

The ruckus that ensued underscored how the church's official teaching about homosexuality often bumps up against the unacknowledged reality that there are plenty of gay men in the priesthood, and plenty of LGBTQ+ Catholics who want to be fully part of the life and sacraments of the church.

On Tuesday local time, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, issued a statement acknowledging the media storm that erupted about Francis's comments, which were delivered behind closed doors to Italian bishops on May 20.

The organization co-founded by Hollywood A-lister George Clooney has declared open season on Russian journalists, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. The statement comes after it was revealed that the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) has been pushing for secret arrest warrants for Russian media figures. 

Actor and filmmaker George Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, founded the CFJ in 2016 with the aim to “fight systemic injustice against vulnerable communities” around the world, according to its mission statement.

The recent public uproar about the comments made by ABC journalist Laura Tingle, where she stated that in her view Australia ‘Australia is a racist country’, demonstrates how, as a society, we are still incapable of having a nuanced, mature and respectful conversation about a wicked social problem that continues to be a blight on our collective conscience.