KURSK, Russia (Sputnik) - The NATO bloc's staff committee had been preparing the Ukrainian armed forces' invasion of Russia's Kursk Region for over half a year, the deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's military-political office, Lt. Gen. Apti Alaudinov, told Sputnik.

"The NATO bloc's staff committee was preparing such a super operation, which in essence had to be guaranteed to be effective. They gathered all the resources that they had, all types of foreign equipment, trained fighters. They had been preparing the operation for more than half a year, with the fighters trained in the United Kingdom and in other NATO countries," Alaudinov said.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces planned to use the territories they had temporarily captured in the Kursk region as leverage in negotiations.

Russia has continued to make billions from fossil fuel exports to the West, data shows, helping to finance its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – now in its fourth year.

Since the start of that invasion in February 2022, Russia has made more than three times as much money by exporting hydrocarbons than Ukraine has received in aid allocated by its allies.

Data analysed by the BBC show that Ukraine's Western allies have paid Russia more for its hydrocarbons than they have given Ukraine in aid.

Campaigners say governments in Europe and North America need to do more to stop Russian oil and gas from fuelling the war with Ukraine.

During this Reconciliation Week (27 May – 3 June), with the theme Bridging Now to Next, the nation is aware that there is still unfinished business on the national agenda when it comes to the due recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Frank Brennan

US President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that he intends to lift all sanctions on Syria stands as one of the most unexpected and controversial foreign policy moves Washington has made in the past decade.

Declared during Trump’s Middle East tour at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, the decision marks a dramatic shift in America’s approach to the region – one that could reshape the strategic landscape for both allies and adversaries.

What is Trump’s game in Syria?
Why has the US president decided to lift all sanctions on Damascus, and how will it shape the future of the region?

Moscow has the means to respond to Berlin’s decision to lift the range restrictions on Ukrainian strikes with missiles provided by Germany, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu has said.

Earlier this week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz claimed that “there are no longer any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine, neither from the British nor the French, nor from us, nor from the Americans.”

In a separate interview on Wednesday, Merz said deliveries of German Taurus missiles – which have a range of 500km and could potentially reach Moscow – to Kiev is “in the realm of possible.”

Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Shoigu highlighted the inconsistency of Ukraine’s Western backers regarding the use of long-range weapons.

After Merz's speech, von der Leyen was awarded the Charlemagne Prize. 

Shortly afterward, von der Leyen gave an address of what Europe means for her and how she views the way forward for the continent in the future. 

Von der Leyen urged the building of an "independent Europe."

"The next great era, our next great, unifying project must be about an independent Europe," von der Leyen said. 

She said this doesn't just mean the countries in the European Union, but also countries on the whole continent.

In light of "enormous" geopolitical tensions, von der Leyen asserted, "what we once took for granted as an international order has tranformed into international disorder within a very short time."

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Adam Riess was 27 years old when he began the work that earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics, and just 41 when he received it. Earlier this year, Riess, who is now in his early 50s, pulled a graph-paper notebook off a bookshelf in his office at Johns Hopkins University so that I could see the yellowing page on which he’d made his famous calculations. He told me how these pen scratches led to a new theory of the universe. And then he told me why he now thinks that theory might be wrong.

Today is the 139th anniversary of Randolph Bourne’s birthday. Antiwar.com named its parent institute for this early 20th century antiwar activist. Read Jeff Riggenbach’s biography of Bourne.

[Transcribed from the Libertarian Tradition podcast episode “Randolph Bourne (1886–1918)”]

Senate Republicans and their majority leader are Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to punishing Russia with sanctions after bad Vlad Putin and crew upped their missile strikes against Ukraine. Political strongmen tend to get a little testy when they suspect the countries they’re attacking of trying to blow them up. 

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has announced that he will no longer serve as a government employee. The statement comes amid reports of a growing rift between Musk and President Donald Trump.

Trump established DOGE to identify and eliminate wasteful spending as part of his effort to make the federal government more responsive to everyday Americans. Musk’s organization, which is not a federal agency in the traditional sense, has overseen the elimination of grants and programs, as well as the termination of government jobs. Trump has also used DOGE to dismantle the Department of Education and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

US President Donald Trump has banned international students from attending Harvard University, citing national security concerns.

The move has sparked widespread condemnation from academics and foreign governments, who warn it could damage America’s global influence and reputation for academic openness. At stake is not just Harvard’s global appeal, but the very premise of open academic exchange that has long defined elite higher education in the US.

Elite Western universities form a corrupt and parasitic empire
Instead of high-quality education, these institutions are fostering a global neo-feudal system reminiscent of the British Raj

BY Mathew Maavak

March 23rd, 2023: Fox News host Greg Gutfeld doused the woke climate change cult in a heavy layer of sarcasm on Wednesday night’s Gutfeld! as he ridiculed a New York Times hypocritical doom and gloom take on the latest UN climate report. 

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Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov has provided details on Russia’s conditions for ceasefire and peace talks. Reuters are also reporting on what three sources from Russia are saying about Russia’s conditions to end the war. Essentially the Russians want Ukraine to remain neutral and a non-nuclear state. Friedrich Merz has made an announcement regarding Nord-Stream 2 pipeline and has vowed to close it down, so that Germany will support Ukraine. Also, Friedrich Merz has stated that Germany will do everything in its power regarding sanctions on Russia and the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

Patrick Dodson stands on a headland above Broome’s Simpsons Beach, a picturesque spot for tourists to capture images of the red pindan country, azure waters and mangrove stands. In Dodson’s youth, it was an important place for sustaining Aboriginal people. “My uncles would walk along here looking for turtle eggs, crabs, anything they could bring home to eat.” He adds, grinning: “It was also where all the offal and blood were discharged into the sea from the back of the old meatworks. Every shark in north-west Australia decided it was the place to be!”

Find things in common’: After a cancer shock, Pat Dodson has words of hope

Less than two years ago, Pat Dodson was confronting death. Now the former Labor senator and Father of Reconciliation is back with a message for those who felt defeated after the Voice.