The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge.

 

The lobbying scourge    By John Menadue

 

Submission to Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee re Lobbying, February 8, 2024.

Regulation of the way we manage lobbying in Australia is an even more important issue than a National Integrity Commission.

Russia will outgun Ukraine 10 to one in weeks if the US fails to approve the additional funding for military aid that has stalled in Congress, the commander of US forces in Europe warned today. 

The head of US European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander, Army General Christopher Cavoli, informed the House Armed Services Committee that Russia’s artillery advantage over Ukraine will soon double, permitting Ukraine to only fire back one shell in response to 10 Russian ones.

"The situation is extremely serious,” he stressed, adding, “The biggest killer on the battlefield is artillery … and should Ukraine run out, they would run out because we stopped supplying."

Julian Assange has been metaphorically nailed to the cross for the crime of journalism.

After slaughtering 14 children overnight Israel killed several more on Eid day, including six of the family of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

The long Calvary of Julian Assange may be coming to an end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5e-0OpA6gA

 

Who would not condemn the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 when hundreds of Israeli civilians, as well as hundreds of military and security personnel were killed? Why then is Hamas so popular amongst Palestinians and in the wider Muslim world?

 

It is time to de-demonise Hamas    By Eugene Doyle

 

March 2024 polling by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) shows that 70% of Gazans continue to believe the October 7 attacks were justified. Support for Hamas remaining in control of Gaza has increased by 14 points. In a two-way competition between Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas, the Hamas leader would garner 70% of the vote.

Washington has insisted there is no reason to search for any other potential suspects besides Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), after Moscow said it was looking at certain Western companies and government officials as part of an investigation into the funding of a string of terrorist attacks in Russia.

The Russian Investigative Committee has “established that the funds, flowing through commercial organizations, including the oil and gas conglomerate Burisma Holdings, operating in Ukraine, have been used in recent years to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia,” spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said on Tuesday.

Besides last month’s Crocus City Hall massacre outside Moscow, the investigation is looking at other acts of terrorism, including the assassinations of prominent public figures and the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

SCIENCE AND POLITICS ARE OFTEN SUBJECTIVE BEDFELLOWS, A BIT LIKE RELIGION AND POLITICS OF THE PAST… SCIENCE ISN’T A RELIGION, BUT POLITICS, THOUGH UNDER DIFFERENT SYSTEM THAN MONOCRATIC RULERS ARE STILL DEPENDENT ON A MONOCRACY OF SORTS, ALBEIT ONE WITH ONE MORE VOTE THAN THE OTHER “SIDE”. 

 

SCIENCE DOES NOT LIKE BLIND FAITH, WHILE POLITICS IS AN ART FORM THAT PRETENDS TO BE SCIENTIFIC BUT IS MORE A PROPAGANDA SYSTEM DESIGNED TO CATCH FLIES.

SCIENCES RESEARCH, DISCOVER RELATIVELY AND MAKE PROGNOSIS. POLITICS DECIDES. UNLIKE RELIGION WHICH IS ALWAYS WRONG, SCIENCES ARE OFTEN RIGHT, BUT CAN BE WRONG — OR INCOMPLETE. 

 

CBDC NEWS: Swiss Bank REJECTS Retail CBDC, while European Bank Says It'll Help DISASTER Relief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm_sNk5pEYc

 

MEANWHILE:

 

Top EU rights court condemns Switzerland for climate inaction in first ruling of its kind

The EU's top rights court on Tuesday condemned Switzerland for violating the Convention on Human Rights through its inaction in the face of climate change in a landmark case brought by an association of elderly women. But the court rejected a similar claim against France filed by a former mayor and threw out as inadmissible a case against 32 states brought by a group of Portuguese youths.

Yuan displacing dollar on Russia’s foreign exchange market – Central Bank
The Chinese currency now accounts for the largest share of forex trading, the regulator reports

The share of the Chinese yuan on Russia’s foreign exchange market hit an all-time high in March, the Bank of Russia (CBR) reported in its financial risk review on Monday.

Russia’s shift away from major Western currencies started with the US and EU sanctions imposed on the country over the Ukraine conflict. The financial restrictions made cross-border trade in euros and dollars more difficult and their presence on the domestic foreign exchange market less important.

The turnover of exchange-traded yuan amounted to 53% last month compared to 46.6% in February, according to the CBR. The share of renminbi in over-the-counter trading also posted a record high, reaching 39.6%.

Madeleine King, Minister for Resources in the Albanese government, recently announced that she will curtail the ability of Australians to challenge resource corporation projects in court (The West Australian 26/3/24). This attack on democratic rights is built on decades of disinformation shaping the global discussion on fossil fuels and climate change.

 

Fossil fuel’s war on protest    By Lucy Hamilton

 

A full-scale military conflict in Europe has become more likely due to the standoff with Russia, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has claimed, while warning member states against relying on the US to defend them.

Several other European officials have cited a heightened military threat in recent months, with UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps saying last week that the world is moving from a “post-war to a pre-war” state due to the alleged threat emanating from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk made a similar “pre-war” assessment in March.

 

US facing worst risks since WWII – JPMorgan boss
Geopolitical tensions and political polarization at home threaten “America’s global leadership role,” Jamie Dimon has warned...

The US is facing grave risks in the wake of rising global geopolitical tensions and the nation’s domestic political polarization, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase chief executive, has warned.

In an annual shareholder letter on Monday the CEO of the largest US bank cited large amounts of government spending and efforts by the Federal Reserve to shrink its balance sheet, as well as the Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Hamas war, as creating an environment that “may very well be creating risks that could eclipse anything since World War II.”

Macron teams up with Cameron for Russia conflict

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXxaBZ01DlM

 

France's foreign minister said on Monday, April 8, it was no longer in Paris's "interest" to talk to Russia after differing accounts emerged from a rare phone call about last month's deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall.

"It is not in our interest currently to hold discussions with Russian officials because the statements and the summaries issued about them are lies," Stéphane Séjourné told broadcasters France24 and RFI.

Two decades after the Howard Government spied on Timor-Leste’s seabed boundary negotiating team, for oil company Woodside, the Albanese Government is still fighting against the truth coming out. Reporting on the biggest cover-up in Australia’s history, Rex Patrick explains why.

DFAT submissions found in the long-running FOI battle reveal how the commercial interests of Australian fossil fuel companies still take precedence.

 

Spies Like Us: why the Government is still backing Woodside over Timor-Leste

    by Rex Patrick

 

 

"The lingering cry of a crane is heard over the swamp.

I am listening, having gotten rid of unnecessary rhymes.

Sleep, torn and bloody land,

Shuddering from explosions, disrupting the heart's rhythm.”*

 

Lack of American funding is the reason Ukraine is failing on the battlefield, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday. He demanded the House Republicans pass the $61 billion aid bill as soon as possible.