We stand at a critical juncture in human history, where the decisions we make today will determine whether humanity continues to exist—or falls to the inevitability of its own hubris. Nuclear annihilation, environmental collapse, and societal breakdown are not looming threats but present realities. These crises are the culmination of centuries of systems and values built not for human flourishing but for domination, consumption, and despair.

Ukrainians who have died in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev “have already won,” Vladimir Zelensky claimed in an interview with Sky News released this week. Those sacrifices enabled Kiev to secure aid from its Western backers and eventually prevent Moscow from achieving its goals, according to the Ukrainian leader.

When asked by Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay if he believed that those Ukrainians who had died throughout the conflict had given their lives for nothing, Zelensky said “it was wrong” to think so. “They are already winners,” he added.

Social media companies on Friday criticized Australia's decision to ban them from allowing children under 16 to use their platforms, saying the move has left "many unanswered questions."

The law, passed by Australian lawmakers on Thursday, will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (€30.5 million, $32 million) if they fail to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

In the span of one week, a cargo plane belonging to German logistics company DHL crashed in Lithuania, two underwater data cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea, and pro-Russian right-wing extremist Calin Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of Romania's presidential election.

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a former aide, Kash Patel, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency Patel has often criticised.

A former US defence department chief of staff in the first Trump administration, Patel has been a steadfast supporter of the incoming Republican president.

For Patel to take the job, the current FBI director Christopher Wray would need to resign or be fired - although Trump did not call on him to do so in his post.

Separately, Trump said he plans to nominate Chad Chronister, sheriff of Florida's Hillsborough County, as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Unfortunately the Australian Friends of Palestine Association’s campaign to ensure that an Israeli team is not registered for any events in the International Cycling World Tour 2025 and especially in the South Australian Santos Tour Down Under has not met with success.

“Our [Western] media’s role is not to be a check on power, it’s to regurgitate their lies.” This system of reporting is “mood music to get their genocide done” says Journalist Matt Kennard from the Middle East Eye. 

It’s weird to me that the bloke who undertook to build a national environmental protection agency for all Australians on the eve of the last federal election just blew it all up. Labor was so close – this close! – to securing a deal with the Greens to establish Environment Protection Australia and a new data body called Environment Information Australia. And then, bam, Anthony Albanese kiboshed the whole deal.

In the words of one insider, “He wets the bed so easily and regularly. It seems like we were on the brink of securing it all – we had secured it all. And he’s just gone, ‘Nope’.”

Many of my American FRIENDS are at a loss. They grieve the election result by not understanding how ANY AMERICANS could vote for Donald Trump… Not only this, they also are dismayed at the REPUBLICAN (TRUMP’S) picks for the official duties of running America… They had so much hope in the WOMAN of COLOR !!! And so should everyone else have had ! So… THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND !

THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND !   

BY GUS LEONISKY

I could try to explain in situ but I would get pilloried, possibly murdered, for TRYING to make them understand… UNDERSTANDING THE RESULT would legitimise DONALD TRUMP AS PRESIDENT…  a fact they cannot accept… so I nod and keep my trap shut, otherwise they would believe that I support TRUMP, of all horrors…

The ragtag Yemeni militia’s self-imposed partial blockade of Red Sea waters to Israeli, US and ‘Israeli-linked’ commercial shipping over the past year has humbled Israel’s powerful American allies, with Western warship deployments and attempts to “degrade” the militia’s capabilities proving fruitless to date.

The US military is “locked in a dangerous stalemate” in its campaign against the Houthis, proving “unable to effectively stop the rebels from attacking ships,” and at the same time “unlikely” to be given a free hand for all-out war against the group, a top mainstream US business publication has suggested.

The BRICS nations will be hit with 100% tariffs on their goods if they try to introduce a reserve currency to rival the dollar, US President-elect Donald Trump has warned. Trump has repeatedly threatened to use tariffs to achieve his geopolitical goals.

”The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,”Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

Trump went on to say that he would ask the BRICS nations to promise not to create a common currency, “nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar,” or they will face 100% tariffs.

”They can go find another ‘sucker!’” he continued. “There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America.”

Palestinians are being intentionally massacred, starved, and stripped of everything needed to sustain human life. There are no words that can adequately convey the pain and depravity of this aggression. Those who cannot be moved by the pictures of dismembered and charred corpses will not be moved by some words. What sort of world have we descended into?  Asks Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan.

AAP FACTCHECK – US Vice President Kamala Harris has been captured slurring her words at an event in Georgia, videos on social media appear to show.

This is false. The clip has been slowed down to make it appear that Ms Harris is drunk.

The clip appears in Facebook posts, with the text “Looks like she’s never too far from her favorite bottle!” suggesting Ms Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, had been drinking alcohol before giving the speech.

Joe Rogan hit back at “The View” co-host Joy Behar who blasted the Spotify podcaster as an unreliable source of information who “believes in dragons.”

Rogan confronted the Behar comments head-on during a special podcast episode that was released on Thanksgiving.

The podcaster, who commands an audience that is estimated to exceed 11 million people, has been a hot topic of conversation during the recent election after he endorsed the eventual winner — President-elect Donald Trump. 

Lieutenant General Stickland was appointed Chief Joint Operations at the Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood in November 2021, responsible for the command and integration of UK global operations.

He previously served as Assistant Chief of Defence Staff for Operations & Commitments in the MOD in May 2019 and was intimately involved in all UK Resilience and Overseas operations, notably the national COVID response and Operation PITTING, the UK’s extraction from Afghanistan.