The Australian government’s response to Gaza, and its handling of President Isaac Herzog’s visit, has blurred the line between antisemitism and criticism of Israel. The result is deeper division, weaker democracy and greater risk to Jewish communities.

John Menadue

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Volodymyr Zelensky should hurry up because Russia is willing to make a deal, otherwise, an opportunity will be missed.

"Zelensky is going to have to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal. And so let's get moving. Otherwise, he's going to miss a great opportunity," Trump told reporters.

As Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reported earlier on Friday, peace negotiations will continue on February 17-18 in Geneva. The Russian delegation will be led by Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky. The two previous rounds were headed by Igor Kostyukov, Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

A temple to the sea goddess Mazu has become a focal point in Taiwan's debate over engagement with China. Temple leader Chen Ming‑kun urges cross‑strait peace, but his ties to China raise concerns about political influence. As Beijing steps up pressure, Taiwan is countering with outreach to religious communities to resist infiltration. Many worshippers object, saying faith shouldn't be politicized.

Lawmakers from both parties on Capitol Hill have demanded answers from the US Department of Justice over its monitoring of congressional investigators’ search activity while they reviewed sensitive, unredacted documents connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The controversy erupted after Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday with printed material listing specific files and queries that Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal had accessed.

Wohin geht Amerika?
Deutschland ist in Vielem von einem guten Verhältnis zu den USA abhängig. Deshalb ist das Bemühen verständlich, auf politischer und wirtschaftlicher Ebene einen möglichst guten Konsens mit dem Präsidenten zu suchen, den sich die Mehrheit der Amerikaner bei der Wahl im November 2024 geleistet hat.

Homo stupidus

Russi, Florian

The US Republican Party has accused Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of “calling for the execution” of President Donald Trump, after she called him a “pedophile” and suggested that he would be put to death if he were in her native Somalia.

“Last night, Ilhan Omar tweeted, calling for the execution of the President of the United States,” the Pennsylvania branch of the GOP stated on Wednesday. Pointing out that “calling for the execution of a federal official is a felony under United States law,” the party urged Democrats to “take responsibility” for the apparent threat to Trump’s life.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is spending the last day of his trip to Australia in Melbourne.

He had planned to visit the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea, which was the target of a firebombing in 2024, but that was cancelled due to safety concerns.

Protesters have gathered in Melbourne to protest against his visit, with police deployed to monitor activity.

Police were granted special powers under terrorism legislation ahead of Mr Herzog's arrival in Melbourne.

Police Deputy Commissioner Bob Hill says that includes powers to stop and search vehicles or people in public places.

…in an old notebook of Marx’s I have found the eleven theses on Feuerbach […]. These are notes hurriedly scribbled down for later elaboration, absolutely not intended for publication, but they are invaluable as the first document in which is deposited the brilliant germ of the new world outlook.1

Last October, Deutsche Bahn (DB) launched a social media campaign with popular comic Anke Engelke in the main role. We watch Engelke, as train conductor Tina, and her team doing their best to navigate everything from defective doors to blocked toilets and broken-down trains — and, at the same time, keep passengers happy.

Upon its launch, a senior DB manager, Michael Peterson, called the nine-part series a "humorous declaration of love to the staff." Deutsche Bahn has some 230,000 employees.

Engelke's campaign was feted in the trade press for its media reach, too — with more than sixty major media organizations reporting on it. Within a few days of its launch, the promotion had already got over one million clicks.

Now that the Japanese ruling coalition has secured a majority in the lower house, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi doesn't need to "immediately resign". However, attention remains focused on her recent erroneous remarks and actions.

During a TV program late last month, Takaichi had asserted that in a so-called serious situation in the Taiwan Strait, Japan would collaborate with the United States to "evacuate nationals" from the Taiwan island. She argued that if US forces were attacked and Japan failed to respond, the Japan-US alliance would collapse.

Exactly 19 years ago on Tuesday [10/02/2026], Russian President Vladimir Putin took the podium at the Munich Security Conference and demolished the myths and falsehoods underpinning the American-led world order. Did anyone heed his warning?

To Russia, the “rules-based international order” has always been shorthand for a system in which the US makes the rules and issues the orders.

“However one might embellish this term, at the end of the day it refers to one type of situation, namely one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making,” Putin told the audience in Munich. “It is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.”

An unfortunate truth underlying the speculation about Sussan Ley’s future as Liberal leader was that most Australians didn’t care much for her or her putative replacement Angus Taylor. Stay or go, call on a ballot, make the change or not – none of it is likely to make much difference to public attitudes to the Liberal Party. Incredibly, a series of recent opinion polls suggest support for the Liberals is disturbingly close to the level of backing for the Greens, which consistently hovers around 12 per cent. I’m in my fifth decade of writing about Australian politics, and I never expected to write those words.

The resumption of contacts between Washington and Tehran in early February 2026 has reopened a narrow diplomatic corridor that many observers had already written off. The first indirect round in Muscat, mediated by Oman, produced the kind of cautious, mutually face-saving language that usually signals one thing more than any breakthrough. Both sides want room to keep talking. For a region that has lived for years with the expectation of sudden escalation, even that is not nothing.

The risk of war with Iran is growing despite talks

Current negotiations between Tehran and Washington are an opportunity – but a narrow one, surrounded by sharp edges

BY Murad Sadygzade