Putin shares the view that allowing voters to send in ballots by mail undermines the validity of elections, Trump has told a US private TV broadcaster.

"Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting," Trump told Fox News Channel's "Hannity" after the two leaders met in Alaska. "He said there's not a country in the world that uses it now."

In fact, nearly 36 countries, including Germany, allow some form of postal vote, while Trump himself has voted by mail in some previous elections and urged his supporters to do so in 2024, when he won the White House again.

The killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif is shocking but that it is a culmination of planned mass assassination of journalists by the Israeli Government is an outrage.

Jeremy Webb

Since the beginning of the Gaza war the UN secretary-general reminds us that 242 journalists have been killed by the IDF – 13 journalists a month. According to Reporters Without Borders, the most deadly year for journalists covering the war was 2024 with more than 120 killed. The pace has not slackened: more than 50 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza this year.

Richard Werner discussed three different views of banking during his appearance on the Tucker Carlson show:

1. The financial intermediation theory;
2. The fractional reserve theory (which includes the “money multiplier”);
3. The credit creation theory

Richard Werner’s Credit Creation “Experiment”: How Do Banks Create Money?

BY Jonathan Newman

Werner claims to have empirically verified the credit creation theory by observing a bank making a loan. He rejects the other two theories.

DEAL-MAKING COULD BE THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC OF HOMO SAPIENS — MORE THAN INVENTING THE WHEEL OR WHATEVER. WHEN GORBACHEV DECIDED TO "MAKE THE USSR GIVE UP THE COLD WAR", INSTEAD OF A SITUATION WHERE WE KILL YOU IF YOU TRY TO KILL US, THE DEAL BECAME LOPSIDED: THE WINNER OF THE COLD WAR WAS NOT GOING TO BE "NICE"... IT'S THE BASEST HUMAN NATURE: WE WIN THE RIGHT TO RAPE YOU... AND THE WEST TRIED TO DO THIS TO RUSSIA UNTIL PUTIN CAME ALONG....

In 1867, the Russian empire sold Alaska to the US for $7.2 million. Perhaps the location of the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is a nod and a wink to such a great deal? Maybe Putin will like Alaska so much he will have seller’s remorse? 

Tara Reade: Without Zelensky, peace has a chance
The Ukrainian leader has become a liability to the West – which is why peace will be decided between Trump and Putin

Talks at the Russia-US summit in Alaska have formally begun, following the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, in Anchorage.

The negotiations at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Friday, will focus on finding a settlement to the Ukraine conflict. According to Moscow, global “peace and security” as well as “further development of bilateral cooperation” in the economy and trade will also be on the agenda.

In addition to Putin, the Russian delegation includes Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, and presidential economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who has been a key figure in the Ukraine settlement process.

Moscow is ready to present a clear stance at the upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, which will mainly focus on the Ukraine conflict, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

In an interview with the Russia 24 broadcaster released on Friday, Lavrov – who has reportedly already arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, where the talks are set to take place – declined to speculate on potential results of the summit. 

“We do not predict anything in advance. We know that we have arguments, our stance is clear and well-defined. We will present them,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal reports on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's White House is keeping an eye on the Smithsonian Museum to ensure that its exhibits on display for the United States' 250th anniversary "align with" the president's personal "interpretation of American history."

White House to Vet Smithsonian Exhibits to Ensure They 'Align With Trump's Interpretation' of US History'
Smithsonian exhibits should be "accurate, patriotic, and enlightening—ensuring they remain places of learning, wonder, and national pride for generations to come," the White House demanded.

BY BRAD REED

Those who accuse the Albanese Government of breaking with a historic Labor position of opposing recognition of a Palestinian state are wrong.

Labor has a long-held ambition of a two-state solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict.

Craig Emerson

It is not surprising that the Whitlam Government supported what has become known as a two-state solution before the phrase was coined – the right of Israel and Palestine to co-exist in peace.

But no Labor prime minister has been more avowedly pro-Israel than Bob Hawke.

Donald Trump has had meetings with EU leaders, NATO and Zelensky yesterday. He has reassured the Europeans that he won’t negotiate Ukraine’s territory with Vladimir Putin, ahead of the Alaska meeting. The EU leaders are willing to remove sanctions on Russia following a 15 day ceasefire, but they’re not willing to negotiate territory before that. It is being reported that Donald Trump will incentivise Vladimir Putin by offering Alaska’s natural resources.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ZtRRIDEgk

When asked to comment on reports that US President Donald Trump said he will impose a 100 percent tariff on imported goods such as semiconductors, and claimed TSMC will build world's largest wafer fabrication plant in Arizona backed with $300 billion, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, stated on Wednesday that when TSMC previously announced an additional $100 billion investment in the US, it sparked panic and public discontent in Taiwan; a $300 billion plan would further erode the island's economic vitality and autonomy. The DPP authorities are the biggest accomplice to the US in hollowing out Taiwan's industries.

The so-called "coalition of the willing" has opposed any restrictions on the Ukrainian armed forces as part of the deal on settling the Ukraine conflict ahead of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, a joint statement read.

"Ukraine must have robust and credible security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Coalition of the Willing is ready to play an active role, including through plans by those willing to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased. No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia could not have a veto against Ukraine‘s pathway to EU and NATO," the coalition said in a joint statement published by the office of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday.

The ANZUS Treaty is America’s instrument of political, diplomatic, and military coercion. And it is a clear and present danger to the strategic security of Russia and friends of the Russian people.

ANZUS and the dangers to Russia

BY Simon Westwood

WHAT FOLLOWS IS NOTHING NEW... TO SOME EXTEND IT IS ERRONEOUS BY GENERALISATION OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. WE HAVE TO SAY SOME HUMANS HAVE THE CAPACITY TO UNDERSTAND AND LEAD WHILE OTHERS "COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE"... THIS HAS BEEN THE CASE SINCE HOMO SAPIENS FELL FROM ITS TREE AND WALKED THE GRASSY PLAINS....

Evidence is piling up that the human brain can no longer keep up with the overshoot crisis which human greed has engendered.

sapiens has reached a point where our technology has outpaced our ability to comprehend what it delivers, let along do anything purposeful to correct it.

Julian Cribb

Zelenskyy and Europe agree five principles for peace deal with Russia

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Ukraine's European allies have agreed on five main requirements for a peace deal with Russia.

"We want President Donald Trump to be successful in Anchorage on Friday," Merz said following the virtual call he organized ahead of Trump's Alaska summit with Putin.

"We want negotiations to take place in the right order," said Merz, alongside the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin.