Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky won support from the leaders of Britain, France and Germany on Sunday for direct ceasefire talks with Russia, as diplomatic efforts to end the war remain stalled. The appeal came as Russian strikes reportedly damaged a nuclear fuel storage facility [EMPTY] near the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Bots and AI agents now generate more web traffic than humans, according to data from internet infrastructure company Cloudflare. CEO Matthew Prince has described the development as a major turning point in the history of the web.

Recent Cloudflare Radar data shows that automated bot requests account for roughly 57% of traffic to ordinary webpages across a selection of websites using the company’s services, compared with about 43% generated by humans. 

“Welp, that happened faster than I predicted,” Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince wrote on X on Wednesday. He stated that he had expected automated traffic to overtake human activity only in 2027, but that “agentic traffic” has grown rapidly enough for bots to pass humans “for the first time in the Internet’s history.” 

[2013] To realize their fantasies of world domination, the neocons resorted to a triple discourse, as Laurent Guyénot shows in this study, i.e. a cynical political philosophy developed by their mentor Leo Strauss for domestic consumption; a cold analysis of Israeli strategic interests for the benefit of the leaders in Tel Aviv, and a fear-mongering warning against imaginary dangers besetting U.S. public opinion.

“The machiavelian threefold game of the neoconservatives”

by Laurent Guyénot

In emerging and developing economies, the shift away from fossil fuels is increasingly being driven by energy security, affordability and economic pressure rather than formal climate targets alone.

As the world pursues decarbonisation, the concept of a ‘just transition’ has become ubiquitous, particularly when describing the shift away from fossil fuels in emerging and developing economies. Emissions targets at the global and national levels are viewed as the main drivers of the energy transition, and the climate policies developed to meet those targets must balance environmental and social objectives.

Saliem Fakir

Much western commentary portrays Xi Jinping as a revisionist strongman bent on overturning the global order. A closer reading of Chinese political thought and diplomacy suggests a more complex emphasis on multilateralism, reciprocity and long-term stability.

Ronald C. Keith

In the first of an eight-part series, political theorist John Keane examines the effect of disruptions to the world order on democracy and its future.

Our world is passing through a moment of mounting political nervousness and confusion about the breakdown of the post-1945 rules-based international order. Some spectators speak of its terminally catastrophic breakdown. Others say we are returning to an era of ‘sovereign’ nation state rivalry or instead predict its replacement by a new world order variously described as ‘multi-polar’, ‘heteropolar’ or as a form of ‘new medievalism’.

John Keane

German lawmakers want former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock questioned over Berlin’s failure to secure a seat on the UN Security Council, Bild reports. According to the outlet, the ruling CDU/CSU alliance blames the former top diplomat for the setback and wants her summoned before the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Germany failed to win a non-permanent seat on the UNSC – the UN’s most powerful body, with authority to adopt legally binding resolutions and sanctions – for the first time in modern history on Wednesday, losing out to Portugal and Austria. Germany won all six previous contests it entered since 1977, but this time received only 104 votes, well short of the required two-thirds majority.

Donald Trump has not only made war on Iran. He has traded through it.

In the first three months of 2026, an account in the president’s name executed 3,642 trades worth hundreds of million of dollars. US regulators are examining oil futures trades placed shortly before major Trump policy shifts on Iran. In March, roughly $580 million in oil futures changed hands in a single minute before Trump posted about talks with Iran — nearly nine times the average volume for that window over the previous five trading days. On Polymarket, nine linked accounts made $2.4 million betting on Iran war outcomes, with a 98% win rate.

PI Briefing | No. 16 | The Wages of Aggression
From oil futures to fertiliser markets, the US-Israeli war on Iran is rippling through the world economy — and sharpening the choice between scarcity and sovereignty.

ACCORDING TO A VERY DEAR OLD FRIEND, THE WORLD IS GOING DOWN THE CHUTE... DAILY WE CAN SEE THE LIKES OF AMERICA AND ISRAEL DOING THEIR BEST TO MAKE US MISERABLY UNCERTAIN ABOUT THE VALUE OF BEING GOOD... WHILE THEY INDULGE IN TERRIBLE POLITICS.

MEANWHILE, MOST OF US ARE REASONABLY COMFORTABLE DESPITE THESE TURMOILS... [WE HAVE ENOUGH CASH TO GAMBLE AND DRINK AT THE PUB] BUT WE ARE PUSHED TO BE NEGATIVE AND FIGHT SOMETHING WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW — [RATHER THAN BE CONTRIBUTING SOMETHING] — BY THE LIKES OF GRUMPY CHARACTERS SUCH AS PAULINE HANSON AND ANGUS TAYLOR BECAUSE LABOR IS TRYING TO MAKE A MORE EQUITABLE BUDGET... THEN THE GREENS WILL COMPLAIN THAT LABOR ISN'T GOING FAR ENOUGH...

NO ONE IS HAPPY IN POLITICS...

The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has elevated the threat posed by Israeli espionage to the highest level as tensions over Iran and Lebanon grow, NBC News and the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The assessment, which was circulated internally in recent weeks, includes a seven-page document and a chart rating Israel’s human and technical intelligence-gathering capabilities as “critical,” according to NBC.

A truckload of lithium carbonate leaves a salar high in the Puna, on the border between Argentina and Chile, where the brine has spent eighteen months evaporating in turquoise ponds the size of small towns. It crosses the Andes, reaches a Pacific port, and sails to China. Some months later, a fraction of that same lithium returns to South America–not as a raw material but as the cells inside an imported electric car, or as the stationary battery in a solar installation, priced at many multiples of what it left at. The mineral made a round trip. The value did not. It got off the boat in Ningde and never came back.

Who owns the chain

by Emiliano López

Truly independent media depends on money from small donors. No wonder that it reports from the perspective of the average woman and man against corporate-controlled government agendas at home and abroad. 

With the concentration of Big Media in the hands of a few big corporations, and with Big Media supporting the militarist agenda of governments in pursuit of corporate profits, independent media has never been needed more than today, especially as the pursuit of power and profit has given us genocide and the peril of world war in a nuclear age.

Big Media and Independent Journalism

June 5, 2026

Big Media depends on big money from big corporations. No wonder that it promotes the corporate agenda and the agendas of governments that serve corporate interests.

Leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone expose how the Soros-run Open Society Foundations plotted to “prevent the continuation” of Indonesia’s elected government by bankrolling opposition media, youth activists groups and lawfare operations to remove President Prabowo Subianto.

BY KIT KLARENBERG

WAY BEFORE THERE WAS Cracked or Mad magazine, there was Puck, a weekly political satire publication out of St. Louis, Missouri. The founder of Puck, Joseph Ferdinand Keppler, published it in English and German, and each issue included several full-color illustrations: on the cover, on the background and on a double-page centerfold. Puck’s images were full of pawky humor that illustrated the political aspects and world line-up before the First World War. By 1884, its success was notable, with a circulation of at least 125,000 copies. 

The story goes that the late billionaire Australian media magnate Kerry Packer once visited a Las Vegas casino, where a Texan was bragging about his ranch and how many millions it was worth. 

Packer produced a coin from his pocket and said: “I’ll toss you for it: my cash against your ranch”. 

The Texan declined.

The biggest losers: how Australians became the world’s most enthusiastic gamblers

Published: April 24, 2025

BY Wayne Peake