History sneers. Raw. Cyclical. Cruel. Every peace treaty gives birth to a field of ruins. Every solemn oath transforms, as soon as it is proclaimed, into a broken promise. Subtly—and sometimes ferociously.

From Potsdam 1945 to Istanbul 2025: The Metaphysics of Broken Promises

BY Cassandre G

The Tainted Oath

In 1945, in Potsdam [1], the Allies swore to build a new world. Four ideals were traced in fresh ink, while the still-warm ashes of the Apocalypse floated above the Berlin suburbs. Barely had the European fire extinguished when, in the shadows, others—driven by ideology or greed—stoked brighter embers.

Memory is not just a mere storage system; it’s the foundation of our identity, learning, and cognitive abilities. In this fast-paced world, improving memory and recall is becoming increasingly crucial. So, let’s delve into the fascinating science of memory and discover practical strategies to enhance our memory abilities.

Threats of new economic restrictions against Russia are not only “dangerous” and counterproductive, but a sign of the severe incoherence plaguing the Trump administration, the world-renowned US economist and political commentator says.

Anti-Russia Sanctions Ultimatum Will Blow Up in US' Face: Jeffrey Sachs Explains Why

“If the sanctions are actually applied, they are an escalation of the conflict, and therefore very dangerous. I do not believe that they will be effective. For example, I do not believe they will stop Russia from selling oil, gas, and other commodities to Asian markets. Yet, provocations and escalation often have unpredictable negative effects, and that could be true here as well,” Sachs told Sputnik.

RT has a larger American audience than CNN, former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has claimed. Clapper was a key figure behind the Russiagate conspiracy theory, which included claims that RT helped influence the election of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Earlier this month, Clapper's successor Tulsi Gabbard declassified a trove of Obama-era documents which reportedly detail efforts by the two-time US president and his senior officials to distort intelligence on unsubstantiated claims Moscow interfered in the 2016 US election.

The United Kingdom will recognize Palestinian statehood in September unless Israel takes significant steps to end the "appalling situation" in Gaza and meets other conditions, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday.

"Our goal remains a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state," Starmer said, according to a Downing Street statement.

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has declared that the situation in Gaza amounts to a “genocide,” blasting the worsening humanitarian crisis and starvation in the enclave.

She also called on Hamas to release the remaining hostages captured during the Islamist group’s October 7 assault on Israel, which left around 1,200 people dead.

“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” Greene wrote on X on Tuesday.

She was replying to a controversial tweet by Congressman Randy Fine.

“Release the hostages. Until then, starve away,” he wrote last week, suggesting that the discourse around starvation in Gaza was “Muslim terror propaganda.”

The Albanese Government says it has brokered a deal with the Trump Administration that will see American beef allowed into Australia in return for America keeping Scott Morrison on US soil.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said he was delighted with the deal, which he argued was strongly in Australia’s favour. “Yes, by allowing American beef into Australia there is a heightened risk of disease.  But that is a small price to pay for never having to see that galling little Scott Morrison smirk up close again,” he said.

Experts agree that both American beef and Scott Morrison can make you ill. “Just a small sample of it can make you vomit uncontrollably. Contaminated beef can make you quite sick too, but it’s not as bad,” scientist Samantha Priola said.

The press office of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has published an article suggesting that Russia and Washington should fight "Eurofascism" together, identifying France and Britain as its main ideologues. This is quite a contrast to the statements the service made a year ago. Vot Tak analyzed this and other publications of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and traced how its rhetoric has changed since Donald Trump came to power in the United States.

Call for a 'new united effort'

The warm-up for next month’s three-day economic roundtable has begun, and this week we’ll start hearing from worthies who know exactly what we should do to improve our productivity. What’s more, they have the modelling to prove it.

Ross Gittins

Many people, including President Donald Trump, have been suggesting over the last year that, because Trump survived being shot at during the 2024 presidential campaign, he and the things he does are endorsed by God. Indeed, this week, Trump, speaking with a reporter next to the Air Force One plane, said regarding the shooting that “God was protecting me, maybe because God wanted to see our country do better or do really well, make America great again.”

   by Adam Dick

The approach is not doctrinal, but is about speaking frankly to both Washington and Beijing.

Here is a foreign minister speaking about Australia’s China debate: “We Australians tend to have a habit, a cast of mind, which seeks for simplicity, and is uneasy with complexity, in foreign policy. We tend to see issues in terms of simple dichotomies – black or white, either-or, all or nothing.

James Curran

Why are we seeking simple happiness

In a world that survives on deep stress

Where many people experience distress

While only a few elites get success

By other countries’ race they aggress

We are promised a path to heaven

Though we bake in a climate oven

Or shot dead by raving mad men

Bleeding red all of the sudden

For the benefit of loons who govern

With ideas nothing worth a dozen

To make us morose and so sullen

While fighting the antichrist in vain

We are told to embrace the future

With empty pockets to endure

Pressed to be poor to stay pure

By priests and preachers with a lure

As governments indulge in torture

And the rats ransack our ordure

Our beliefs we firmly invent 

From silly idiotic ignorant intent

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered a fiery address, accusing the West—particularly Germany and the United States—of stoking conflict with Russia through unchecked military support for Ukraine. Speaking during a high-profile interview, Lavrov declared that "Russia is once again forced to fight alone" against a hostile collective West, drawing historical parallels with past invasions by Napoleon and Hitler.

Lavrov sharply criticized Berlin’s increasing militarization and suggested that Western leaders have forgotten the lessons of World War II. “We wanted peace. They wanted war,” Lavrov said, reinforcing Moscow’s claim that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked by NATO’s expansion and Washington’s refusal to engage diplomatically.

Perhaps Nero didn’t play the fiddle as Rome burned, as it’s often alleged. But he certainly stands as one of the worst Roman emperors.
Born in 37 C.E. as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero rose to power after the death of his stepfather, Claudius, in 54 C.E. It’s been alleged that Nero’s mother, Agrippina the Younger, had a hand in her husband’s death — possibly by feeding him poisoned mushrooms — in order to ensure her son’s ascendency.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/worst-roman-emperors

==================

US President Donald Trump has sharply reduced the time frame he set for Russia and Ukraine to agree on a ceasefire, warning that Moscow now has just 10 to 12 days to reach a deal or face sweeping new sanctions.

The US cannot sell any Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia without doubling its production rate, because it is making too few for its own defence, the navy’s nominee for chief of operations has told Congress.

There are “no magic beans” to boosting the US’s sclerotic shipbuilding capacity, Admiral Daryl Caudle said in frank evidence before a Senate committee.