It's the only honourable course open to him. Remember honour?

June is Radiothon Month at Melbourne community radio station 3CR. The station needs your help to Stay Radical and provide a vital platform for the issues that get left behind, and the voices that get silenced. We need the community Continue reading

"The RBA needs to explain itself!" My God, Jim's fired his strongest ammo first. How do you take it up from there Jim? Actually old mate, the RBA has explained itself, in detail, here. https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2023/mr-23-13.html Monetary policy 101 Jim me boy. Your government is pushing inflation up. The RBA will...

So,was she lying then or now? Surely not telling lies to a rape victim to score the interview?

At its meeting today, the Board decided to increase the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.10 per cent. It also increased the interest rate paid on Exchange Settlement balances by 25 basis points to 4.00 per cent. Inflation in Australia has passed its peak, but at 7...

Flag marshals in all Australian Government departments, authorities and related portfolio agencies are requested to fly or display the Australian National Flag on Monday 12 June 2023, to celebrate The Kings Birthday. Other organisations are encouraged to follow this protocol. Queensland and Western Australia celebrate the birthday on different dates....

Leaders in communities impacted by Rio Tintos former Panguna mine are growing increasingly concerned about the dangerous and volatile situation they are living in. In particular, recent heavy rainfall has seen rivers choked with mine tailings waste flood, swamping several communities.

Residents reported that flooding in recent months had inundated peoples homes, water supplies and food crops, causing food and water shortages and damage to roads and the environment. Up to ten villages are reported to have been affected.

Risks of flooding were warned of in an independent report by Tetra Tech Coffey published last year. This report was prepared as a baseline to inform an independent human rights and environmental impact assessment that launched in December 2022 and which Rio Tinto committed to fund in response to a human rights complaint by 156 local residents. Phase 1 of the assessment is due to report in mid-2024.

Community leaders are calling for immediate funding from Rio Tinto for tangible action to address urgent health and safety issues in their communities, as well as a commitment from the company now that it will fund long-term solutions after each phase of the impact assessment.

To date, Rio Tinto has agreed to fund the human rights and environmental impact assessment only.

Chairperson of the Lower Tailings Landowners Association, Bernardine Kiraa, said:

Our communities are drowning in mine tailings waste. The recent flooding damaged peoples' houses, food crops and water sources. Women have been having trouble finding clean water to wash their babies. We worry about the spread of mosquitoes and disease following the flooding."

"We support the independent investigation of the mine's impacts, but our communities also need action now. This is not the first time our lands have been flooded and it will not be the last because the river is full of mine waste."

Traditional landowner and lead complainant*, Theonila Roka-Matbob, said:

We have welcomed Rio Tintos commitment to assessing the impacts of the Panguna mine. We know the process will be a long one. But we have been dealing with the disaster caused by the mine for decades.

We are always worrying that the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe is not safe. We worry about levees collapsing and mine waste flooding our lands and communities.

We need tangible action now to address urgent health and safety issues. And we need to know what Rios intentions are after the impact assessment that they will stick with us and fund the long-term solutions we need.

Adrianne Walters, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre:

Water is the lifeblood of all communities for drinking, bathing, washing and gr......

Every now and then the ABC luvvies ask a question that they think they know the answer to. Not this time. ABC nuke is bad group-think under threat.

by Dee McLachlan

The title refers to Senator Bill Heffernans 2015 speech into the Wood Royal Commission, where he said Its time the Institution of the Law face reality.

A Reality Check

I have known for a long time, as others have, that the family and childrens court do NOT deal with allegations of child sexual abuse and regularly dispense with the matter as one would sanitary products that is wrap it up tightly, and bin it. By trashing the facts; i.e., the allegations of children about persons harming, raping, or torturing them, in such a...

JAKARTA Most peatlands in Indonesia that need protection are currently not protected, a new study has found. It identifies 5.65 million hectares (13.96 million acres) of peatlands an area nearly twice the size of Belgium that should be conserved, but that are located outside of protected areas. Peatlands serve as a major carbon sink. Their defining feature is a thick soil layer of leaf litter and other dead vegetation in a waterlogged state, meaning it cant fully decompose, which prevents vast amounts of carbon emissions. Peatlands account for only 2-3% of Earths total land surface, and yet theyre the largest terrestrial organic carbon sinks, storing up to 46% of soil carbon and about 25% of organic carbon globally. Indonesia is home to the largest area of tropical peatlands of any country, which hold an estimated at 55 billion to 57 billion metric tons of carbon. This is the equivalent of almost two years of global carbon emissions at existing rates. Many of these peatlands need protection to prevent them from being degraded and thus releasing their vast stores of CO2 into the atmosphere, which would severely exacerbate climate change. To identify which peatlands in Indonesia need to be protected, researchers from Italy, Malaysia and Australia analyzed 14.9 million hectares (36.8 million acres) of peatlands on Sumatra and the Indonesian portions of the islands of Borneo and New Guinea. Together, peatlands in these three regions make up 99% of the countrys total peatland area. The researchers divided theThis article was originally published on Mongabay

What is it about government contracts that produces the worst results and poorest returns? Those clods behind such deals, notably in the poison chaliced field of public transport, seem so utterly incapable at even modest competence.

In public transport, muddles, bungling and oh so much fumbling are common; the whole show comes into view when public money is thrown at a project, and the planners get enthusiastic about a contractor they favour. In the Australian state of Victoria, this seems to be of a particularly advanced order. When it comes to paying for public transport, things always seem to be untidy and inchoate. With the plastic transport card known as Myki be wary when government officials call them smart a triumph of clumsiness and ineptitude came into being.

The list of problems, tweaks, and aberrations afflicting the soon-to-be-reformed myki system, covering trams, buses and trains, is lengthy. From the time the contract was made in 2005 with Kamco, subsequently acquired by NTT Data, it seemed that it was a system designed to create problems. In June 2008, it was reported that the new Myki ticketing system had failed 10% of the tests it had been subjected to. The system, projected to cost A$500 million, had already been running three years behind schedule, leading the Labor Brumby government to put A$350 million into the scheme to cover the burgeoning blowout.

In May that year, Transport Minister Lynne Kosky was forced to concede that the government had underestimated the problems that would come with the introduction of the new smart card across the transport network. But she still insisted, as the provincially minded always do, that Australias second most populous state would be receiving the worlds best system by early 2010.

As a result of such delays, both myki ticketing, and the pre-existing Metcard ticket system would be run parallel to each other for up to 18 months, adding twelve months to what had originally been planned. Not exactly the worlds best solution.

Then came the information pamphlet fiasco, where 500,000 booklets of 28 pages were scrapped for being out of date. The then opposition public transport spokesman, Terry Mulder, asked the sensible question: Wouldnt you think number one, you get the system working properly, number two, you get the brochure printed and you send it out. Too logical; too tidy.

Victorias Transport Ticketing Authority was defensive on the issue. [The] project schedule is different to what was expected then, an...

The pedophile Frank Houston founder of Hillsong. Pictured in Sydney in the 1980s

Donald Elley of Bellingen

From May 19 to 21, President Yoon Suk-yeol attended the G7 Summit in Hiroshima. Yoon Suk-yeol is the fourth South Korean leader to attend the G7 leaders meeting; this time, he was invited to the summit along with the leaders of Australia, Brazil, the Comoros, the Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Upon his return home, Yoon Suk-yeol met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on May 21 and with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel on May 22. On the sidelines of the G7 summit, the president of South Korea held summit meetings with 11 foreign counterparts, including the EU leadership.

Yoon had to exert a lot of diplomatic effort on the following fronts during this busy week:

• Strengthen relations with Japan without looking like unilateral concessions
• Show up to a summit of international leaders and engage in conversation with all or nearly all of the attendees on issues that are crucial to the Republic of Korea, such as the North Korean threat or economic cooperation.
• Once more, to evade Ukraines demands for lethal weapons from the Republic of Korea, particularly in light of Volodymyr Zelenskyys unexpected arrival at the meeting with well-defined objectives.

This is how he did it, and we shall look into it. And since there is a lot of material, the analysis will follow in three parts.

The Japanese direction

On May 19, Yoon became the first president of South Korea to meet with the Korean victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (about 20 victims and their descendants), and said, albeit standard, important words. When our compatriots fell victim to the bombing, we were a colony, and after liberation, our country was weak and subject to a communist invasion, and in a very difficult state And so when our compatriots were under such hardship and pain in a foreign land, the Republic of Korea government, the state, were not by your side.

I came here as the president representing the gov...

Fourteen-year-old Kamilah Sword overdosed and died last August after becoming addicted to hydromorphone, a drug which her friends say they often acquired through drug users who were defrauding Vancouver's safer supply programs. Her father, who wants answers for his daughter's death, feels "brushed aside" by the government and worries about how the investigation of his daughter's death is being handled. Last week, he shared his story and introduced me to Kamilah's closest friends, and their parents, who explained how hydromorphone abuse has ravaged their families and contributed to a new generation of opioid addicts in Port Coquitlam, B.C. Collectively, they painted a disturbing portrait of a community where the abuse of "dillies" (the slang term for Dilaudid, a brand of hydromorphone) is ubiquitous among teenagers, thanks, in part, they say to the wide-scale defraudment of "safer supply" programs. As I reported in an investigative story, published earlier this month by the National...

Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG defamation action - full judgement by Michael Smith on Scribd

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The post Ticketing Woes in Australia: The Patchy Record of Myki appeared first on Global Research.

Eds Desk is an occasional column in New Matilda where we sub-edit a story that has already been published, but probably shouldnt have been. This edition, we look at Sky News comedian/bestiality warrior Cory Bernardi, and his man-love for Chicken Strangler turned War Criminal, Ben Roberts-Smith.

Hi Cory,
Ive been asked to cast an eye over your script for tomorrow, re Ben Roberts-Smith being found by a judge to have committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Please see notes below. Cheers Ed.

[HEADLINE] Ben Roberts-Smiths courage under fire can never be disputed
EDS DESK: Cory, no-one is disputing Robert-Smiths courage under fire, any more than people questioned Ted Bundys sense of calm while he was chopping up young women. You may as well suggest Robert-Smiths capacity to wipe his arse and pull up his pants is above reproach because its about as relevant. Also, Roberts-Smith is a psychopath, so obviously he loves being under fire. Headline will need to change.

[BODY COPY] The news this week has been dominated by the defamation verdict of war hero Ben Roberts-Smith.
Right. When you say war hero Cory, did you mean war criminal? I understand how the two terms might be confusing for you both have the word war in them. But theyre quite different things. Please amend.

I have to admit the trial was a victory for the Nine Media Group, which the judge ruled had satisfied the grounds for their accusations that they levelled against the Victoria Cross winner.
You dont have to admit anything Cory, because youre not accused of a crime. Yet. But it is true that Nine won the defamation action, so just say that, rather than trying to appear fair and balanced by acknowledging the existence of facts you dont like.

Now, Ive gotta say, I dont know Ben Roberts-Smith, although I do know some people who do. Accordingly, I am not equipped to make judgement as to whether hes a good bloke or not, and nor do I know first-hand what sort of soldier he was.
Okay, perfect. That was quick. Lets leave it at then. Cheers Ed.

However, what I do know is that...

My interview with the LA-based radio program, Background Briefing, on my new book, The Palestine Laboratory, the ongoing US persecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and a major win for truthful journalism last week in a case about war crimes in Afghanistan:

The post Background Briefing interview on Palestine, Wikileaks and war crimes appeared first on Antony Loewenstein.

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After two decades inside, Kathleen Folbigg is set to be pardoned following a decision by the NSW Attorney General Michael Daley to grant her a release from prison ahead of the handing down of the full report from the inquiry into her convictions that has taken place over the last 12 months.

The decision follows mounting community and media pressure and a motion that passed the NSW Upper House last week introduced by Greens MP, solicitor and spokesperson for Justice, Sue Higginson.

A huge moment for justice

This is a huge moment for justice in this state, said Ms Higginson. Kathleen Folbiggs friends, supporters and legal team have stood by her and fought for justice for years and years and finally we are seeing justice be delivered. It is with the deepest gratitude that I thank the Attorney General for showing the necessary courage to make this decision.

The Attorney General has listened to the community, the Parliament and most importantly the evidence and made a decision that I think we can all agree is the right one.

Ms Folbigg should not have been in prison for even a day longer after the inquiry showed there was reasonable doubt about her guilt, but now we are finally seeing the necessary steps being taken to ensure she is released from prison and that is a decision that we welcome.

The power that ongoing campaigning for justice can have

Ms Higginson said this moment demonstrates the power that ongoing campaigning for justice can have. Last week the Attorney General appeared steadfast in his position to delay the release of Ms Folbigg until after the report from the inquiry had been handed down, but we brought the fight for justice to his doorstep and he has responded to the pressure in the only acceptable way and made the decision to release Ms Folbigg.

Weve received confirmation that Ms Folbigg has walked free this morning and that she is in the sunlight, shes now free from prison.

It is a massive relief for all of those who have stood by Ms Folbigg. This decision is in the best interests of Ms Folbigg and the NSW Community.

The post Kathleen Folbigg set to be pardoned appeared first on The Echo.

Here are some of the colony's police force's manuals for the equipment used to measure a driver's velocity.

If a device has been used to ascertain your vehicle's speed, where you are contesting this, then in the full brief*, the manual to the device must be included.

See:

Gatsometer MRS Type 24 Slant Radar: 

Gatsometer Radar 24-GS11 (Sep 2013) v3.0:

NSW Silver Eagle Radar:

Pro Laser 3:

Stalker DSR 2X :

TruCam (By Laser Technology, Inc):

Victronic PoliScan:

The proposed locations of overdose prevention centres aren't chosen at random. They are based on evidence and careful consideration. For the site to be effective, it needs to be pinpointed, in what experts call a 'honeypot'.

The post Where to build an overdose prevention centre appeared first on Overland literary journal.

If there is one thing that Northern Rivers communities loves, its a good busker and after a successful pilot program in 2022, Busking For Change is launching nationally were in!

Primary schools across the country are being invited to be Busking For Change changemakers  in a simple and joyful fundraiser.

Students commit to learn to sing, play an instrument or dance to a given song, and seek donations from family and friends.

Money raised supports the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) and the access and
creation of books for children in remote Communities across Australia, where resources are
limited.

The charity event was initiated by five-time ARIA award-winner and ILF Lifetime
Ambassador, Josh Pyke in 2009, and subsequently raised over $50,000. I always thought it could be more than just a pub gig, says Josh.

Music is a joyful celebration

Its World Environment Day and this year the spotlight is on finding solutions to plastic pollution #BeatPlasticPollution.

United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres says we can beat plastic pollution  if we act now.  This World Environment Day is a call to beat plastic pollution. Every year over 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide, one third of which is used just once.

Every day the equivalent of over 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic dumped

Every day, the equivalent of over 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic is dumped into our oceans, rivers and lakes. The consequences are catastrophic....

By Graham Hryce | RT | June 2, 2023

Yesterday Justice Anthony Besanko handed down his ruling in Afghanistan war hero Ben Roberts-Smiths defamation case in the Federal Court in Sydney.

Justice Besanko released a summary of the judgment, agreeing to delay releasing his full reasons until next week, so that it could be vetted by the federal government to ensure that it did not contain any sensitive national security material.

Justice Besanko dismissed Roberts-Smiths case against Australian media on the basis that the most serious defamatory allegations made by the press, namely that the soldier was a war criminal and murderer, were substantially true.

The trial dubbed the defamation case of the century  ran for over 100 days, and the legal costs are thought to exceed $15 million for each side. Roberts-Smith will now have to pay the costs of both parties. This was an absolutely disastrous result for the war hero or, perhaps more accurately, former war hero.

Roberts-Smith, an SAS soldier who won a Victoria Cross fighting in Afghanistan, sued The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, and three journalists, over articles published in 2018 alleging that he was a war criminal and complicit in the murder of six innocent Afghan civilians.

The newspapers and journalists raised a defense of truth, and Roberts-Smith and witnesses called by the defendants, including three Afghan villagers and some of Roberts-Smiths fellow soldiers, gave conflicting evidence about what happened on various combat missions involving Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan. The trial judge disbelieved Roberts-Smith and accepted the evidence of the witnesses called by the newspapers, which will make it very difficult for any appeal that may be brought by Roberts-Smith to succeed.

Roberts-Smiths comprehensive loss in his defamation action will have dire consequences for him personally, the Australian Defence Force (ADF), and the military top brass.

A judge, albeit in civil proceedings, has now effectively ruled that Roberts-Smith is a war criminal. Civil cases require a lower standard of proof than criminal ones, but in the circumstances, it appears inevitable that he will face criminal charges in respect to his conduct in Afghanistan and in accordance with the protracted inquiry process into Afghanistan war crimes established by the former Morrison government some years ago. Roberts-Smith will no doubt be stripped of his Victoria Cross and other medals.

Besankos branding of Roberts-Smith as a war criminal and murderer makes it virtually impossible now to credibly maintain that Australian soldiers did not commit war crimes in Afghanistan. After all, if Australias most decorated war hero in Afghanistan was mur...

The following was written by Joe Montero in his capacity as the Victorian President of Fair Go For Pensioners. and it puts a view on the action needed than that practiced by a succession of Australian governments and was repeated in the May federal budget. The resulting debate has unleashed a rise in the debate about what is needed, and this provides a good opportunity to raise alternatives to the obsession of reliance on the market.

Being able to afford a home to provide for housing needs is an important part of living a quality life. In fact, a decent home to live in should be treated as  fundamental human right. If was to be treated this way in Australia, the government would act to ensure this right was met, and what it had to do to achieve this end would be a no brainer.

It would means investing enough to ensure affordable housing is in reach for everyone. This would be the only acceptable minimum.

But Australia has not yet reached this understanding. Governments, whether Coalition or Labor, remain wedded to the dogma that only the market can legitimately provide the answer. Neither believed this once. Now they both do. This is the hold that the ideology has on them. Government intervention must be kept to a minimum according to them, and what there is must only be contemplated if it takes the form of giving assistance to the major players in the industry.

Neither really regards adequate housing as a basic human right. Housing is seen as a commodity to be bought and sold by those who can afford to be players.

The high price of housing is the result of market failure and the associated raise of a housing speculation bubble, aided by government handouts to developers and big landlords. Behind the market failure is the high degree of monopoly that enables developers and corporate landlords to take advantage and profit in excess of what a properly functioning market would allow.  The outrageous cost of housing is not a market price. The mechanism to achieve the high price has been the deliberate creation of excessive debt.

The graph below reveals the ongoing rise of finance approval, which means a continuing expansion of debt, which imposed a huge burden on mortgage owner occupier homes of $28.8 billion by mid 2022.

This brings us to the claim that the problem is a shortage in the supply of housing. Where...

Migrant Justice Institute and the Human Rights Law Centre today welcome the Albanese Government's commitment to introducing visa-based protections for migrant workers who address exploitation at work.

The Minister of Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles committed today to introducing 3 important protections for migrant workers: protection against visa cancellation, flexible visa requirements for future sponsorship visas, and a short-term visa to bring claims for wages they are owed and hold exploitative employers to account.

The Human Rights Law Centre, Migrant Justice Institute and academics at UNSW and UTS have led a coalition of 40 organisations across the country - including trade unions, migrant rights and faith-based groups - to develop a blueprint for visa protections for migrant workers. Todays announcement reflects the commitment of migrant workers and their allies.

Migrant Justice Institute and the Human Rights Law Centre also welcome the governments announcement of two further protections for migrant workers, for which they and other migrant worker allies have campaigned for many years: regulations to enable sponsored migrants to leave a dodgy employer and work to support themselves for up to 6 months while they find a new sponsor, and a commitment to changing the Migration Act to ensure all workers are protected by Australian workplace laws regardless of immigration status.

The coalition warned, however, that in order to be effective, visa-based protections must be robust and reflect the realities of migrants lives at work. The co-design of those protections by the Department of Home Affairs must centre migrant workers, their representatives in the union movement and allies.

Inderjit Kaur, a temporary visa holder and advocate with the Migrant Workers Centre, said:  

I had my wages stolen by two employers, because they knew my visa could be cancelled if I stood up to them, and they took advantage of that. Because I had no security with my visa, I could not take action until it was too late. I never got back any of the money that was stolen from me and my visa is now uncertain. This should not have happened to my family, and it should not happen to migrants who are coming to Australia now.  

Sanmati Verma, Managing Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said: 

The Albanese Government has finally heeded the call from migrant workers and their allies to introduce visa protections for migrant workers. It has a critical opportunity over the coming months to design out some of the levers for exploitation in the migration regime. If it is serious about achieving that, it will put migrant workers and their allies at the centre of co-designing these critical protections. 

Associate Professor Ba......

The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to repatriate all Australian people still held in detention camps in Syria, after Save the Children were today forced to commence legal action because the Government has failed to act.  

Many Australians have remained trapped in the camps for four years, away from their homes and relatives in Australia, despite other countries taking steps to repatriate their nationals from Syria.   

The United Nations has reported that young boys in the camps are at risk of being removed from their families and placed in mens or adult prisons, as 17-year-old Yusuf Zahab was before he died in a Syrian camp. Before his death, he and his family had begged the Australian Government to bring him home.      

All Australian people have the right to return to Australia. The rights and protections of citizenship cannot depend on the whims of governments. The Albanese Governments failure to act earlier has cost lives and put other lives at risk.  

Save the Children has commenced legal action to secure the safe repatriation of the remaining women and children in the Federal Court. The case argues the Australian Government is ultimately responsible for their ongoing and unlawful detention. 

Josephine Langbien, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:    

The Australians trapped in Syrian camps have been held for years in dire and dangerous conditions. The Australian Governments refusal to repatriate them is the only reason they remain there. Every person involved in this case has a right to come home, and they should not have to resort to litigation to force their own government to bring them back.  

The Albanese Government is prolonging the trauma these Australians have endured and the separation from their loved ones at home. The Albanese Government must take responsibility for the safety of its citizens and ensure that no more lives are lost. All of these people, children and adults alike, deserve a future. They must be brought home to their families and communities in Australia. 

Image credit: Orlok on Shutterstock

Media contact:
Thomas Feng
Media and Communications Manager
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au

Michelle Bennett
Engagement Director
0419 100 519
michelle.bennett@hrlc.org.au

People in government departments commit criminal actions every single day where most if not all go unnoticed.

The ADF is on organisation that commits criminal activities, not only within the colony but also abroad.

There is no ousting of this criminal activity nor any real court time for the age old excuse of national security, which can almost be alleged to anything.

Persons within the ADF have committed the crime of tampering with evidence with regards to Ben Roberts Smiths killing of civilians overseas in Afghantistan.

They have altered photos to suit a false agenda.

Sudan Rejects Perthess Continued Leadership of UNITAMS

Sudan's Ambassador to the UN Alharith Idris speaks to reporters on May 12, 2023

June 3, 2023 (KHARTOUM) Sudans ambassador to the United Nations emphasized Sudans refusal to allow Volker Perthes to continue heading the UNITAMS mission following a request by the military-led government for his replacement.

On June 2, the Security Council extended the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission mandate in Sudan (UNITAMS) for an additional six months until December 3. However, the Council remained silent on Perthess status, despite reports suggesting the UN secretary-general supported his continuation.

In an interview with Al Jazeera TV on Saturday, Sudans Ambassador to the United Nations, Alharith Idris, stated that the establishment and termination of the political mission, guided by the non-legally binding force of Chapter VI of the UN Charter, is solely the sovereign right of the host country.

The Security Council cannot impose an envoy on Sudan. The United Nations is founded on the principle of respecting the national sovereignty of member states. Furthermore, the agreement between the Government of Sudan and the United Nations regarding UNITAMS establishment emphasizes the ownership and sovereignty of the Sudanese State, along with the supremacy of its local laws, he said.

I, therefore, believe that the decision to retain Volker Perthes as the head of the mission after the Sudanese governments request for his replacement should be considered a sovereign decision made by the host country, he emphasized.

Following a closed-door briefing to the UN Security Council on May 31, the UN Secretary-General informed reporters that he reaffirmed his complete confidence in Volker Perthes as the Secretary-Generals Special Representative.

The Security Council has the authority to decide whether to support the continuation of the Mission for another period or determine that it is time to conclude it, he stated.

On June 1, UN Spokesman Stphane Dujarric in...

A man who was a close associate of the ultra-nationalist pro-Putin supporter Simeon Boikov - known as the 'Aussie Cossack' - has been found dead by police. Comment: For the legacy media 'ultra-nationalist' and 'far-right' are mostly used to smear people, rather than to be used as accurate descriptions, and they're particularly used against people with regards to issues like Russia's special operation in Ukraine, or vaccine mandates and lockdowns. James Walters, 42, was found on May 23 by police in Sydney's northern suburbs, some 10 days after he was reported missing on May 13. NSW Police told Daily Mail Australia police were satisfied the body was that of Mr Walters, who had last been seen in the north-west Sydney suburb of Chatswood. 'We had concerns for the man's welfare,' a police spokesperson said, adding officers had seen nothing to suggest the death was suspicious.

Against the backdrop of failed attempts to draw Asian countries into its orbit, Washington decided to enlist the support of old European friends.

The French Navy frigate Prairial paid a courtesy visit to Japan from April 20 to April 27. The ship took part in a joint drill to repress unlawful activity at sea before taking the place of honor in the self-defense fleet, headquartered at Yokosuka. The entry was a kind of announcement of a number of other more substantial joint military maneuvers.

Rear Admiral Geoffroy dAndign, who oversees the campaign, enthusiastically said at the events press conference that the current year of 2023 should be unparalleled in terms of strengthening collaboration between the two countries in the military field. The newest frigate Lorraine, commissioned last year, will visit Japan in May to engage in anti-submarine exercises, after which a group of Rafale fighter jets will be dispatched to the islands, and the countries will arrange ground forces maneuvers in French New Caledonia at the end of the year. All these actions are said to be aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation and maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

What is the source of Paris renewed interest in the distant region? Following its defeat in Indochina, France has permanently abandoned its colonial ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region, and the remaining Polynesian islands under its control are so remote from the sources of tension that the appearance of any threats to them is in the realm of science fiction. Consider for a moment that the military expansion is motivated by concern for the overseas territories, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand would make more sense as allies than Japan, which is constrained by limitations on action outside of its islands. Not to mention the challenging economic climate in France, which is made worse by the necessity of making monthly financial and armament donations to sustain the Ukrainian government. With these considerations in mind, planning military drills on the other side...

The weaponization of the vaccine industry and how our basic rights were dismantled during the global pandemic.

In this episode of the Patrick Henningsen Show on TNT Radio which aired on June 1, 2023, broadcasted LIVE at the Better Way Conference in Bath, UK. Patrick talks with Dr. Meryl Nass who works with Childrens Health Defense, about the challenges facing Western civilization after the realization of how our basic rights were dismantled during the global pandemic crissi. Dr. Nass also talks about the weaponization of the vaccine industry, specifically the horrific effects questionable pharmaceutical products have had on members of the military. All this and more. Listen:

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There is so much to say about this one, in my view it has been counterproductive for all those worried about AI safety.  Here is one excerpt from my latest Bloomberg column:

Sometimes publicity stunts backfire. A case in point may be the one-sentence warning issued this week by the Center for AI Safety: Mitigating  the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

The first problem is the word extinction. Whether or not you think the current trajectory of AI systems poses an extinction risk and I do not  the more you use that term, the more likely the matter will fall under the purview of the national security establishment. And its priority is to defeat foreign adversaries. The bureaucrats who staff the more mundane regulatory agencies will be shoved aside.

US national security experts are properly skeptical about the idea of an international agreement to limit AI systems, as they doubt anyone would be monitoring and sanctioning China, Russia or other states (even the UAE has a potentially powerful system on the way). So the more people say that AI systems can be super-powerful, the more national-security advisers will insist that US technology must always be superior. I happen to agree about the need for US dominance but realize that this is an argument for accelerating AI research, not slowing it down.

A second problem with the statement is that many of the signers are important players in AI developments. So a common-sense objection might go like this: If youre so concerned, why dont you just stop working on AI? There is a perfectly legitimate response you want to stay involved because you fear that if you leave, someone less responsible will be put in charge but I am under no illusions that this argument would carr...

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There is an increasing focus in academic and policy circles on research-policy partnerships. These partnerships are often achieved through co-creation, or the joint production of innovation between combinations of industry, research, government and civil society. Co-creation is central to innovation in the hard sciences and technology, but its role in international relations scholarship and aid policy remains underdeveloped.

As scholars of international aid practice, we believe that co-creation can help us design and conduct more relevant, rigorous, and impactful research. It is also a core mission of the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL), whose co-creation process engages policymakers and practitioners in: 1) the generation of important, policy-relevant research questions; 2) research on these questions, through regular validation and consultation; and 3) the development and dissemination of findings and their policy implications, which often leads to the identification of important new research questions and opportunities.

In this piece, we focus on the first phase: the co-creation of research questions. This is one of the trickiest phases of the co-creation process because it requires researchers and policymakers to find a common question and research design that aligns with academics incentive to publish rigorous research and policymakers incentive to feed evidence into the policy process. Future blog posts will discuss how to implement co-created research and disseminate co-created findings.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we initiated a collaboration intended to generate policy-relevant research questions on the changing nature of international aid. Our aim was to get a sense of whether the combined shocks of COVID-19, growing calls to decolonize aid, and the rise of populism and popular protest had changed the underlying power dynamics in aid. 

Importantly, in this project, we did not just want to learn from practitioners based in Western Europe or North America. We wanted insights from key thinkers and actors from the context where aid dependency has been most acute: the African continent. We wanted to understand how these thought leaders viewed aid-related power dynamics and how research could help answer their most puzzling questions.

Between 2020 and 2022, we conducted one-on-one interviews, organized virtual focus groups, and hosted a high-level roundtable in Geneva with donor governments and international non-government organizations (INGOs) on power in aid, all to better understand the changing nature of aid and the research questions that matter to policymakers, practitioners, and key African thinkers.

A synthes...