Over and over, U.S. government officials and their mainstream media allies called Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine an “unprovoked attack.” The slogan became so overused that people began to ask the obvious question: Why do they protest so much?

In Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, Scott Horton explains how since the end of the last Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, successive U.S. administrations pressed their advantage against the new Russian Federation to the point that it finally blew up into a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine.

Anthony Albanese will hold power as prime minister after leading Labor to an extraordinary victory at the federal election and driving Peter Dutton to the brink of defeat in his home seat.

A significant swing to Labor in more than a dozen seats put Labor in position to increase its majority in parliament, with some supporters calling the results a landslide.

The results made it impossible for Dutton to claim power, whether in minority or majority government, as the opposition leader was in danger of losing his seat of Dickson on the northern edge of Brisbane.

We keep hearing that Israel’s genocide in Gaza is “AI-powered.” Many pundits warn that this marks a new era in warfare, the first time that “automated” war has been waged. Foreign Policy declares that “AI Decides Who Lives and Dies.” Vox reports that “AI tells Israel who to bomb.” The Washington Post claims “Israel offers a glimpse into the terrifying world of military AI.”

"The legitimacy of the leadership depends on what that country thinks of its leaders. When we lay off, more and more Iranians tend to be critical of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The more abusive we are and the more pressure we put on them, the more nationalism fuses with fundamentalism in Iran."

The Stakes of Donald Trump’s Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran
by Thierry Meyssan

This week marks the 50-year anniversary of the end of the U.S. war against the country and people of Vietnam. Americans refer to the war as the Vietnam War, but it was actually an American war.

This war had a huge impact on me, my generation and, of course, the Vietnamese.

Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s during the Cold War, we were inundated with anti-communism. I didn’t really know what a Communist was but I knew that they were bad and we were made to feel threatened by them. I believed that it was okay to kill the Communists before they could come to my country.

Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War
By Scott Camil

The hope, shared among many, that replacing the Biden government would increase the chances of peace in Europe is rapidly fading. The war obsession among Europe’s power elites is at this point unremitting. The European public is inundated with a relentless wave of propaganda. The new US administration is also sending out contradictory signals and is by no means consistent in its efforts to correct its aggressive course.
 

The Western strategy of escalation is threatening mankind

by Karl-Jürgen Müller

We live in troubling times, globally and regionally, with not the least of our troubles being the current occupant of the White House.

What most troubles me about Donald Trump — and I think should trouble all of us whatever our political leanings, and I’m conscious that not all of you here will share mine — is not just the dumb destructiveness of his assault on all that is best in the global economic and security order we have known since the end of World War II, an order from which just about everyone, not least the US itself, has benefitted.

Gareth Evans

Treasury chief Bessent says President Trump handed Zelensky "a royal flush" with the US-Ukraine mineral deal which he can use in negotiations with Russia, signalling that there's "no daylight between the Ukrainian people, the American people, between our goals." There's just one problem, experts say: the entire deal looks like a propaganda stunt.

The Trump administration desperately needs a foreign policy victory amid the chaos and uncertainty surrounding it, hence its officials’ boasting about the minerals deal in “a typical case of speculative promotion,” veteran French geopolitical analyst Come Carpentier de Gourdon told Sputnik.

As for Zelensky, he can now claim the deal will ‘save Ukraine’, hoping “that Trump’s America will now be bound to support his regime militarily in exchange for a monopoly on the exploitation of some valuable Ukrainian natural resources.”

Germany's spy agency BfV has labeled the entirety of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an extremist entity.

The BfV, which is in charge of safeguarding Germany's constitutional order, said Friday's announcement came after an "intense and comprehensive" examination.

The designation gives authorities greater powers to monitor the party, with measures such as intercepting phone calls and using undercover agents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2eYVI3M6lA

President Trump has made another idiotic move, announcing on Truth Social that anyone who buys oil from Iran will be banned from "doing business" with the U.S. "in any way, shape, or form."

The problem? China is Iran's largest oil customer, buying 1.8 million barrels per day! Is China going to stop buying oil from Iran after Trump's threat? Absolutely not.

So is Trump man enough to stand by his word and ban all China trade?

Also today, we hit the streets of Shanghai to find out what Americans living in China think of Trump's tariff tantrums.

Today, we'll go behind the propaganda.

The Trump administration is prepared to dedicate another 100 days to mediating a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, US Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News in an interview published on Wednesday. He said the US has made progress by getting both sides to present their ideas for resolving the conflict.

“We’ve got this first step,” the vice president said, reflecting on the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term.

“We’ve got the peace proposal out there and issued, and we’re going to work very hard over the next 100 days to try to bring these guys together.”

After months of tense negotiations, Ukraine and the US ink a minerals deal. 

Washington has long demanded compensation for the billions in aid it's given to Kyiv. 

Now, the Trump administration has secured preferential access to Ukraine's mineral resources, and an equal share with Ukraine's government in exploiting them. The US says the deal is a message to Russia.

Ex-GOP Senator and Republican Jewish Coalition chair Norm Coleman proclaimed with a straight face that Jews control the world during a Jerusalem conference featuring a speech by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Former US Senator Norm Coleman has raised eyebrows by declaring that “the masters of the universe are Jews” at a major Zionist lobby event in Jerusalem. In an address to a summit hosted by the Adelson-funded Jewish News Syndicate on April 27, Coleman pointed to various major technology firms founded by Jews, suggesting the shared religion of the companies’ creators should translate into a greater zeal for censoring criticism of Israel.

“The masters of the universe are Jews,” former US Senator declares in Israel
BY WYATT REED

US President Donald Trump has forced Kiev to sell off Ukraine’s mineral wealth for continued military aid, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

Washington and Kiev signed a long-anticipated deal on the joint extraction of Ukrainian natural resources on Wednesday, after months of contentious negotiations. Trump has advertised the agreement as a way to get back the roughly $350 billion he claims Washington has spent on support for Kiev in the conflict with Russia.

The agreement does not mention security guarantees, which Ukraine previously insisted on. Instead, it focuses on future US aid, rather than paying back assistance provided to Ukraine in the past.

If I were attorney-general of the Commonwealth after Saturday’s election there is one person I would seek to emulate, the Whitlam era’s Lionel Murphy.

Murphy, the most reformist attorney-general in Australian history. Think legal aid, the Family Law Act, trade practices legislation and an attempt to pass a human rights act. His brief period in office, 1972 to early 1975, when he took up a seat on the High Court, was impressive in its scope.

Greg Barns

Since Murphy, attorneys-general have been, at best, implementers of incremental reform, devoid of big-picture vision.

Yet there is so much to be done.