The European Commission is plotting to help oust Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over what it considers his overly independent policy, according to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

The Hungarian leader has repeatedly clashed with Brussels in recent years, opposing EU military aid to Ukraine and Kiev’s bid to join the bloc.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “is seriously studying regime change scenarios” in Hungary, the SVR press service said in a statement on Wednesday.

Brussels intends to bring Peter Magyar, leader of the Hungarian opposition Tisza Party – seen as “loyal to globalist elites” and “the main candidate for the post of Prime Minister” – to power in the 2026 parliamentary elections, “if not sooner,” according to the SVR.

111 years ago the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria became the pretext for the butchery of World War I. 

A teenage Serbian revolutionary shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the presumptive heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie on their visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.

BY GUS LEONISKY

The way India manoeuvres reflects the key features of both the current global landscape and the ongoing process of its transformation. This process began almost immediately after the Cold War ended, but in recent years, it has accelerated at an unprecedented pace. In turn, the rapid transformation of the world order inevitably injects various factors of uncertainty into the political arena.

India Manoeuvres Amid Foreign Policy Uncertainties

BY Vladimir Terehov

The Australian Jewish Association and its charity arm, the Australian Jewish Association Tzedakah Incorporated, are facing a landmark legal challenge after more than a year of alleged racial and religious vilification targeting Palestinians and Muslims.

Mohamed Ainullah

On Wednesday 6 August 2025, the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW has formally accepted a 58-page complaint lodged by Kassem Chalabi, a Palestinian Muslim man from New South Wales, accusing the organisations of conducting a sustained campaign of hate speech between July 2024 and February 2025.

Ukraine is preparing a new provocation to disrupt negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

A group of foreign journalists has already been taken to the city of Chuguev in Kharkov Region, in order to “prepare a series of reports about residents of the city in the frontline zone,” the ministry said. The Ukrainian Army is plotting a provocative strike using UAVs and missiles on one of Chuguev’s densely populated residential areas or a hospital, which will be “immediately recorded by the Western journalists brought in.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused “local idiots” and “foreign agents” of stoking tensions between Poland and Ukraine, following the display of a flag used by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators who participated in the ethnic cleansing of Poles during World War II, at a rap concert in Warsaw.

Former Polish ambassador to Washington, Marek Magierowski, said that the concert had been attended by “hundreds of able-bodied, conscription-age Ukrainians.” He added that they were “Proudly displaying a red-and-black nationalist flag, an outrageous insult to most Poles.”

United States Donald Trump, during a press conference on Monday (Aug 11), said that he will be going to Russia to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also said that he will know about Putin's intention regarding the Ukraine war in "two minutes." However, his statement saying that he would travel to Russia was quickly picked up on social media, with netizens asking about the 'real' plans. Some also asked if the US is planning to give away Alaska for Putin to stop the Ukraine war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nQ71vTw2bs

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

... "Moscow must remain vigilant, because in this type of bilateral summit, the readability of Washington’s strategic intentions remains, by nature, uncertain and subject to reversibility."

Yalta 2.0: escalation logic and mutual threat perception between Moscow and Washington

BY Mohamed Lamine KABA

The Digital Media Bargaining Code, brainchild of Josh Frydenberg, unopposed by Labor, is lining the pockets of the big end of town. What’s the scam?

The scam has been exposed by Chris Janz, former publisher at Nine Entertainment. Janz told ABC Radio National’s Medialand program last week that the money from (the code) mostly went to the shareholders of Australia’s biggest media companies or was used to pay off their debts.

“…Google and Facebook were encouraged to do deals with effectively the big end of town. The bulk of the cash flowed to the big end of town. I was running one of those at the time. It was fantastic … the reality is, though, the money flowed to shareholders or flowed to retire debt.”

US President Donald Trump has described Russia as a “warring country,” saying Moscow has been engaged in conflicts for centuries and “just keeps on fighting.”

Trump made the remarks on Monday at a press conference, where he talked about his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the US state of Alaska to discuss a possible settlement of the Ukraine conflict.

“Russia is a warring nation. That’s what they do – they fight a lot of wars,” he said.

“A friend of mine said, Russia is tough because they just keep on fighting,” Trump added. “They beat Hitler – so did we. And they beat Napoleon. You know, they’ve been doing this for a long time.”

US President Donald Trump has again said that a land swap for peace will be discussed at the upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. The statement clashes with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky’s earlier refusal to consider any territorial concessions.

“They’ve [Russia] occupied some very prime territory. We’re going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine,” Trump said, implying that some areas might remain under Russian control in a future settlement.

The Lugansk People’s Republic, Donetsk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions became part of Russia following referendums held in 2022. Crimea voted to join the country in 2014, following the armed Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday upped the reward it’s offering for information that leads to the arrest of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million. 

“He is one of the largest narco traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security. Therefore, we’ve doubled his reward to $50 million,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video posted to X. 

Israel's ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon says the recognition of a Palestinian state will do nothing to end the war in Gaza.

Ambassador Maimon also denied that Israel has a policy of starvation in Gaza during an appearance on 7.30, where Foreign Minister Penny Wong, said the action undertaken by the Australian government was in part spurred on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to extend his nation's offensive.

You are being watched. Not just by a camera or a satellite or a data broker.

But by your smart mirror.
Your fitness ring.
Your gut biome dashboard.
Your digital assistant that noticed you’ve been coughing more lately.

Precision Consumer 2030: Wellness as a Window into You
BY Zakariyas James

This isn’t surveillance in the dystopian, authoritarian sense. It’s subtler than that. It’s called “precision wellness”.

By 2030, so they say especially if certain think tanks have their way, it’ll be normalized. Incrementally, then all at once. After that, it’ll more than likely be dystopian but let’s take a step back.

Donald Trump chose Alaska as the place to hold his meeting with Vladimir Putin for two reasons, argues Tiberio Graziani, chairman at Vision & Global Trends - International Institute for Global Analyses:

To assert his administration’s intent to “enhance the US' role as a diplomatic actor”

Putin and Trump May 'Reconfigure the World Order' in Alaska

Due to the region’s shared history with both the US and Russia, and its location, that both highlights the closeness between Trump and Putin and the distance between Trump and the EU