Jowett and O’Donnell (2012), scholars in the field of political communication and propaganda studies, define propaganda as “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”

Propaganda has always been a weapon of war, but in today’s Europe, and especially Germany, it has reached new levels of sophistication. What once targeted foreign adversaries is now increasingly directed at domestic populations.

Propaganda, Cognitive Warfare, and Europe’s Path to Self-Destruction

Ricardo Martins

Ukraine working with US to look for 'compromises that strengthen, not weaken us,' Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that “the core principle that kept Europe peaceful longer than at any other time in its history must be respected,” as borders should not be changed by force.

Speaking via a videolink at the opening session of the Crimea Platform parliamentary summit in Sweden, he warned that if this principle “does not work in Europe, then were will it work?”

Following the Libs ‘Net Zero’ battle, ‘Net Gain’ will be the focus this week as Murray Watt struggles to get changes to environmental laws passed. Rex Patrick reports.

One of the changes in Minister Watt’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation reform is the introduction of a requirement for a proposed project to pass a ‘net gain’ test.

From ‘net zero’ to ‘net gain’. The platypus-to-possum exchange rate

by Rex Patrick

What does ‘net gain’ mean?

HOW DOES ONE GIVES HOPE AND HAPPINESS IN A WORLD WHERE LIFE TAKETH WHAT IT GAVE YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE? THIS HAS BEEN THE CENTRAL TRAUMA OF BEING HUMAN — OF BEING Homo sapiens.... AS WE DISTRACT OURSELVES WITH VARIOUS DEVICES FROM TIKTOK TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, WARS AND FAIRY TALES, THE CENTREPIECE OF OUR MORAL BEHAVIOUR OFTEN RELIES ON A RELIGIOUS DOGMA.

FROM ISLAM TO CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM, FROM BUDDHISM AND POLYTHEISM, WE ARE ENTICED TO BELIEVE WE HAVE A CHANCE TO ESCAPE "THIS MORTAL COIL" AND JOIN THE GLORIOUS TROUPE OF HEAVENLY CLOWNS, WHO ARE HAPPY FOREVER.

LIFE IS A TRAGEDY IN WHICH WE NEED TO FIND OUR OWN COMEDY PLATFORM IN WHICH WE CAN ELIMINATE PAIN AND SUFFERINGS, WHILE SMILING ALL THE WAY TO OBLIVION... I KNOW, IT'S A BIG ASK — AND ONLY DOGS, CATS, BUTTERFLIES, BIRDS, ANTS AND RATS CAN DO THIS WITHOUT QUESTIONING THEIR EXISTENCE. 

All we had to do was survive until 25. Remember that jaunty little phrase? Now, here we are, limping to the end of a year in which we’ve experienced the highest unemployment numbers since 1994 and felt GDP contract like we were 10cm dilated. 

Living in New Zealand in 2025 has resembled living in a dying marriage. You can remember a time when things were good, but that feels so long ago now and you’re struggling to see a future. 

Veronica Schmidt

In this episode of RT’s ‘Sanchez Effect’, Rick is joined by Independent geopolitical analyst, author and correspondent with 40 years of experience – Pepe Escobar, to discuss the peace deal proposed by Donald Trump. Despite the proposal being portrayed by the West as ‘pro-Russian’, Pepe trashed it point by point, saying that the whole paper is unacceptable to Moscow.

Sanchez Effect | Pepe Escobar: 'They have to re-write 80% of the deal to make it work'

The nature of time has plagued thinkers for as long as we’ve tried to understand the world we live in. Intuitively, we know what time is, but try to explain it, and we end up tying our minds in knots.

St. Augustine of Hippo, a theologian whose writings influenced western philosophy, captured a paradoxical challenge in trying to articulate time more than 1,600 years ago:

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I want to explain it to a questioner, I do not know.”

Physicists and philosophers have long struggled to understand the nature of time: Here’s why

The Security Council’s backing of the Trump plan for Gaza ignores international law, punishes the Palestinians, and rewards those responsible for genocide.

More than two years into the genocide in Palestine, the UN Security Council has finally acted. But rather than acting to enforce international law, protect the victims, and hold the perpetrators accountable, it adopted a resolution that openly flouts key provisions of international law, disempowers and further punishes the victims, and rewards and empowers the perpetrators.

Craig Mokhiber

The EU has reportedly rejected the Ukraine peace deal drafted by the White House, putting forward its own set of conditions for a potential agreement.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement on Sunday as US officials were discussing Washington’s proposal with EU and Ukrainian representatives in Geneva, Switzerland.

The US had submitted its plan to both Moscow and Kiev earlier this week. The contents of the document have not been officially disclosed to the public.

Media outlets have claimed that, among other things, it calls upon Kiev to withdraw troops from the part of Russia’s Donbass it still controls, downsize its military, and shelve its NATO aspirations in exchange for Western security guarantees.

THE PICTURE USED ON THE SPECTATOR ARTICLE IS EITHER DESIGNED TO REPRESENT THE CRAPPY SPECTATOR VIEW ON GLOBAL WARMING OR TO STIR THE POSSUM. GUS THINKS THAT THE SPECTATOR VIEWS ARE BROUGHT FORTH TO SLOW DOWN OUR EFFORTS TO MITIGATE WHAT IS CHANGING CLIMATE INDICATORS OF PLANET EARTH, INCLUDING UNDENIABLE RISING TEMPERATURE. HERE IS THE ARTICLE:

It’s not science if you can’t question it

The Spectator

22 November 2025

Thierry Meyssan had already drawn his readers’ attention to the bias of the United Nations Secretariat. Here, he revisits the controversy between Germany, France, and the United Kingdom and Russia, Iran, and China regarding the coherence of international law. This is not about technical legal issues, but rather about either the superiority of the Western perspective or the hierarchy of international norms.

What are Germany, France, and the United Kingdom up to at the UN and the IAEA?

by Thierry Meyssan

The Venezuelan parliament has approved a 15-year extension of joint ventures between state company PDVSA and Russian oil firm Roszarubezhneft, according to a statement on the National Assembly’s website.

The deepening energy cooperation comes despite sweeping US sanctions on both nations and amid accusations that Washington wants to depose President Nicolas Maduro under the guise of an anti-drug campaign.

Venezuela extends Russian oil ventures
The National Assembly has approved a 15-year renewal for two joint oilfields

Ukraine said Saturday that its officials will meet US counterparts in Switzerland to discuss Washington’s proposed peace plan. Kyiv will seek to push back against provisions that mirror some of Moscow’s toughest demands, while European leaders said the US plan "is a basis which will require additional work". 

European leaders say US plan for Ukraine 'requires additional work' ahead of Geneva talks

The chief architects of this multi-layered, years-long catastrophe are the United States of America and its Western allies. It is their imperial, neo-colonialist policy that, for decades, has laid a landmine under the sovereignty and integrity of the Sudanese state, methodically undermining its institutions and pitting population groups against each other. The current bloodbath between General al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and General Hemedti’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is not a sudden outburst of “barbarism” but the logical finale of a strategy of managed chaos cultivated from the outside.

Hosting a UN climate summit should be about global cooperation on combating climate change. Australia’s bid for COP31 reveals how far COP has drifted.

I wrote most of what follows before the location of next year’s climate COP meeting had been decided. My general thesis was that I was ambivalent about Australia being the host, a diffidence I’d expressed earlier this year. I was concerned that under Australia’s stewardship the COP would continue the trend of recent COPs to degenerate into fossil fuel trade shows and opportunities for the host nation to showcase its business and investment potential.