The government’s main policy instrument for reducing greenhouse gases only covers a small proportion of emissions and allows companies to offset these emissions. This is totally inadequate when the climate imperative is to rapidly reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Ken Russell

In theory, the Safeguard Mechanism should be reducing greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities. It applies to companies across a range of sectors, including mining, oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, transport and waste that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.

The EU will turn to a long-term strategy involving cow dung to stave off a looming fertilizer shortage, rather than supporting farmers with immediate measures like suspending tariffs on Russian and Belarusian imports, Politico wrote on Monday.

The US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles an estimated one third of the global fertilizer trade, and a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) – a commodity important in the production of nitrate fertilizers. The key waterway was blocked during planting season in the Northern Hemisphere, with analysts warning of a potential global shortage of crucial crop nutrients and a delayed world-wide food shock.

As the EU had already secured fertilizer supplies this crop season, any knock-on effect for the bloc’s farmers and consumers is likely to be delayed, Politico wrote.

"The first time I ever really listened to Kyle Kulinski’s show was in the back of a cab last summer. The driver had his phone hooked up through the stereo and was pumping out an episode through the car speakers — loudly, as if looking to convert a captive audience.

“Do you like Kyle Kulinski?”

Bill Maher’s REPULSIVE Israel Rant Shocks Audience Into Silence | The Kyle Kulinski Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGB8Z0ywqDo

The driver, Ahmed, was a recent immigrant and apparently a die-hard fan of Secular Talk, the political talk show that Kulinski broadcasts on YouTube. I told him, yes, in fact. I do like Kulinski, had come across his show several years ago, and, all things considered, he seemed pretty good.

The Trillion Dollar Silencer investigates the astounding lack of popular protest at the death and destruction that the military industrial complex is inflicting on people, nations, and the environment, and its budget-draining costs. Where is the antiwar protest by progressives, libertarians, environmentalists, civil rights advocates, academics, clergy, community volunteers, artists, et al? This book will focus on how military largesse infests such public sectors’ interests. 

The Trillion Dollar Silencer: Why There Is so Little Anti-War Protest in the United States,

by Joan Roelofs, Clarity Press, Jan 2023, 218 pp.

The EU’s search for a potential negotiator with Russian President Vladimir Putin has apparently been narrowed down to three candidates: Angela Merkel, Alexander Stubb, and Mario Draghi. However, all three come with baggage that could end any Ukraine peace talks before they begin.

European leaders have reportedly discussed appointing an envoy to Moscow since early 2025, apparently out of concern that the EU’s interests could be sidelined if the US and Russia draw up a peace deal for Ukraine without their involvement. In a report on Monday, Politico revealed that chatter in Brussels has focused on three potential candidates: former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

It was a windy morning. As Cyrul Lee entered the imposing building of the Security Ministry of TSTLE (called TT Area by people in common conversation) No. 17, he exuded all the confidence and walked with his head held high. He was the Chief Security Officer of TT Area 17, and reported only to the CEO of TT 17.

He had carefully listened to the weather bulletin before leaving his home. It matters not how intense is the storm, he had told himself firmly, our forces will just go ahead and do what has to be done.

Despite all his outward confidence, Cyrul could not avoid pangs of anxiety arising within him. But his response was to brush this aside and walk even more erectly.

Sloppy decision-making and an inability to agree on key issues have rendered the EU effectively irrelevant on the global stage, the bloc’s former foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has argued.

The former top diplomat made the remarks in an interview with Belgian broadcaster RTBF on Friday, somewhat echoing the stance of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The top official, who has been in power since 2019, has repeatedly urged the bloc to remove individual member states’ veto powers and move to qualified majority voting on foreign policy and defense issues.

The bloc’s decision-making process has become inadequate in its ability to react to the ever-shifting global situation, Borrell has said, arguing the EU “was not designed for the world in which we live today”in the first place. 

The Foundation to Battle Injustice has obtained previously unpublished evidence of child abuse practices by high-ranking U.S. officials and businessmen. The Foundation to Battle Injustice examined methods of protecting high-ranking pedophiles from media attention and prosecution.

Human rights activists assessed the extent of official legalization of pedophilia in the U.S. and found out what facts of the scandalous Jeffrey Epstein case are still classified. The Foundation also obtained the names and positions of President Biden's administration officials, businessmen and lawmakers, possibly involved in lewd acts of a sexual nature against minors, and revealed details about American elite pedophile organizations.

Le Grand Soir (with the help of its readers) sent Loïc and Erwan, two of its journalists, to Russia—to Moscow—and to the war-torn Donbas region, to make a film. While we wait for the final version, here is the first part of the written account of this report.

Two special correspondents from Le Grand Soir in Russia
Russian Fragments (1)

"Unity is where Russia is"

The US government is considering a proposal to seize part of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) frozen tax revenue to fund the operations of the Board of Peace for Gaza, Reuters reported on 15 May.

Three sources with knowledge of the matter said the US has not yet decided whether to formally request that Israel transfer the funds to the Board of Peace. 

Two Palestinian sources indicated that the proposal would allocate some of the withheld revenue to a US-backed transitional authority in Gaza, while the remaining funds would be released to the PA only if it implements Israeli-mandated reforms.

The 57 confirmed bombings of boats that the Trump administration has carried out so far since last September have shattered families and communities across Latin America, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Southern Command never acknowledging the identities of the at least 192 people they’ve killed, beyond declaring them “narco-terrorists.”

Names of Some US Boat Strike Victims Revealed

Jim Chalmers’ budget has done the economy a favour by wiping out the policy distortions of negative gearing and CGT discounts, writes Michael Pascoe.

You’d never guess it from the usual suspects’ headlines but Jim Chalmers’ budget does retail investors a big favour by forcing them to reconsider residential real estate’s sacred cow status. 

Yes, Virginia, house prices have jumped. No, Virginia, that doesn’t mean becoming a landlord is the smartest or foolproof way to build wealth. 

Some of the world's biggest and most powerful brands are attempting to be more cute and cuddly.

Tech giants Microsoft and Apple are among a wave of businesses who have recently introduced new cartoon character mascots, a tactic experts say is often used to make a brand seem more human and friendly, and to build a stronger connection with customers.

Apple's character, a blue and white figure with an outsized head, has become unofficially known as Little Finder Guy. Introduced in March in social media videos to promote a new laptop, it has gained some positive coverage.

Paul Ehrlich, the leading false prophet of inevitable environmental doom and author of the infamous The Population Bomb, has died at age 93. Why infamous? Consider the prologue to the 1968 edition: