Might take a low profile for the next day or so here!

Today is D-Day and at the American cemetery in Normandy, French caretakers will have collected sand from Omaha Beach and rubbed it into the gravestones to highlight the names of the departed. They do this for all 9,388 soldiers who lay there.#DDay79 pic.twitter.com/dRrjG9MWQK Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) June 6, 2023

Contributed by Joe Montero

The Reserve Bank raised the interest rate yet again yesterday, and in doing so raised the ire of just about everyone. Yesterday its cash rate went up by another 25 basis points, taking the cumulative total to 4.1 percent.

According to the economic theory that has long been taken as gospel in countries like Australia, central banks shift the interest rate to maintain a balance in the economy between demand and supply. If this did work in real life, there would be no argument. Problems would quickly be fixed.

Those who persist with the above view, argue that the problem is that there is too much demand and real incomes must therefore be pushed down. This has been the approach taken by the reserve Bank, and the ongoing interest rate hikes have not overcome the persistent inflation.

Australia has seen a succession of interest rate rises since early 2022

What it has done, is to provide plenty of scope for the blame game. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor says it is the fault of the budget. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry blames it on wages being too high.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has countered by using findings from research by the Australia Institutes Centre for Future Work blames the interest rate rises on profit gouging by corporations. They are using monopoly power to raise prices above what the market would otherwise allow. Petrol and supermarket prices are two good examples of this practice.

This does translate into inflation. There is good reason to call it out.

Its not the budget, because it was fairly neutral in terms of spending and will not have much effect either way. Wages continue to be almost stagnant, wit...

Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830 Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023

J.G. Olsen / Financial Expositor

Children are now allegedly dying of the flu. The proposed solution is more injectables.

I would suggest some children and people in general may be suffering from Vitamin D deficiency, much as the sailors used to die of Vitamin C deficiency, ie. scurvy.

From the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI):

very low risk of severe COVID-19 (e.g. hospitalisation due to COVID-19) in healthy children aged 6 months to <5 years. This age group is one of the least likely age groups to require hospitalisation due to COVID-19. Among the small number who are hosp...

IN THIS No Fibs episode I talk with Phil Haines and Lesley Howard, two of the 12 authors of the recently published book, THE INDI WAY. THE INDI WAY is a revealing account of a community using values-based, respectful processes to rewrite the political playbook. Featuring contributions by @helenhainesindi, @latingle, @barriecassidy, @Indigocathy, and more. Scribe []

Late last year, Renters United and I joined together to make a renters. I had been aware of Renters United for about four years when the book came out and I loved what they were up to. Whenever the weird logic of property speculation got air time, Renters United would be there talking about the real impact on people. We were faced with two challenges: where to get the funds to make a few thousand copies, and how to make sure the copies didnt just sit in our garages getting damp.

The post Taking the Rat King on tour appeared first on Overland literary journal.

Introduction by DM,

This has been brewing for years.

Now a UFO whistleblower who has been given permission to be a whistleblower says that the U.S. is in possession of non-human made otherworldly craft and that it is being illegally held from Congress.

Is this legitimate? Clayton and Natalie Morris question why this is being presented to us now. They look into this disclosure and obviously have many questions!

The post Alien Aircraft Exposure Why Now, Are We Being Played? appeared first on Gumshoe News.

Military cooperation with the United States is ruinously expensive without any guarantees.

The United States has recently increased its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. For instance, in March of this year, plans were made for the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra via the AUKUS bloc established in 2021. In February, the US and Philippine authorities agreed that the US military would have access to four more bases in the country (increasing their number to nine). Also, on April 12, representatives from Washington and Manila agreed to strengthen defense cooperation. On May 22, the US and Papua New Guinea signed a defense cooperation treaty giving the Pentagon unlimited access to a number of ports and airfields of the Pacific nation.

Experts say Australia will have to pay about $350 billion over the next 20 years to bring its ambitious militaristic plans into action. It is not yet known exactly how these funds will be allocated by item of expenditure (purchase of submarines, construction of production and service infrastructure, training of personnel, etc.). However, it is already clear that this project will not be an easy ride for Canberras public financial system and, consequently, for the Australian population, which is highly dependent on mineral exports. Canberra has not yet begun transactions in execution of contracts with its AUKUS partners (laws to make this possible have just been submitted to the US Congress for approval) yet it has already encountered economic difficulties. And the crisis, it appears, is so severe that the Australian government has to resort to anti-capitalist methods of direct regulation of the most important export industry production and trade of natural gas, namely, to administratively set a ceiling on domestic gas prices and limit exports, coming into conflict with the largest foreign hydrocarbon-produ...

Turkish President Erdogan is holding on to power effectively shoring-up his New Turkey Islamic State project.

In this episode of the Patrick Henningsen Show on TNT Radio which aired on May 31, 2023, Patrick talks with Middle East scholar Dr. Can Erimtan about the results of Turkeys recent run-off election, with President Erdogan holding on to power and with that his New Turkey Islamic State project. Listen:

Read Dr. Erimtans latest article Turkeys Election Re-Run: Back to the Future Redux here

More from Dr. Erimtan:
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It's the only honourable course open to him. Remember honour?

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the authors name.

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The post Diluted Sovereignty: A Very Australian Example appeared first on Global Research.

The million-dollar question for 2024 contenders is: How will you win the general election under the present voting system?

Diagram to become modern art in Museum of Technical Wonders

From an Article by Lauren Craft, Energy Intelligence News, June 5, 2023

US DOE of President Joe Bidens administration has rolled out a national clean hydrogen strategy that acts as an important signal for the emerging industry, but leaves unanswered questions about which types of hydrogen would be promoted.

The 99-page strategy aims to set a unified vision around scaling up US clean hydrogen production to 50 million metric tons by 2050, which would in turn cut 10% of US greenhouse gas emissions between now and then.

That 10% reduction would see decreases from multiple sectors of the economy particularly hard-to-decarbonize industries where hydrogen is increasingly eyed as a replacement for fossil fuels.

In the industrial sector, this includes segments like cement and steel, and in transportation, this includes heavy-duty trucking, maritime vessels and aviation, explained White House Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi in a call with reporters. The plan also eyes clean hydrogen uptake in agricultural sectors and energy use within buildings, Zaidi added.

Despite the broad appeal of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, (IRA) the US has faced criticism for mixed messages on the energy transition, with investors finding it difficult to reconcile sometimes-conflicting signals from various agencies, lawmakers and states. The new strategy marks an attempt to deliver more clarity on the clean hydrogen front while rallying the government around a unified goal and earning consensus and mutual trust from the private sector.

Biden administration officials said they canvassed views of industry and other stakeholders beforehand and used those to shape the strategy.

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said a major objective of the new strategy is to provide certainty across the different points in the clean hydrogen value chain.

When youre creating an entirely new sector which is what the clean hydrogen economy will be you have to do everything, everywhere all at once, she said in a call with reporters. That means looking at supply-side strategy, the workforce, the offtake strategy to make sure there.........

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

Australian concepts of sovereignty have always been qualified. First came the British settlers and invaders in 1788. They are pregnant with the sovereignty of the British Crown, bringing convicts, the sadistic screws, and forced labour to a garrison of penal experiments and brutality. The native populations are treated as nothing more than spares, opportunistic chances, and fluff of the land, a legal nonsense. In a land deemed empty, sovereignty is eviscerated.

Then comes the next stage of Australias development. Imperial outpost, dominion, federation, a commonwealth of anxious creation. But through this, there is never a sense of being totally free, aware, cognisant of sovereignty. Eyes remain fastened on Britain. Just as the sovereignty of the First Nations peoples came to be destroyed internally, the concept of Australian sovereignty externally was never realised in any true sense. If it was not stuck in the bosom of the British Empire, then it was focused on the enormity of the United States, its calorific terrors and nuclear protections.

The testament to Australias infantile, and contingent sovereignty, is symbolised by the US Pine Gap facility, which is called, for reasons of domestic courtesy, a joint facility. In truth, Australian politicians can never walk onto its premises and have no say as to its running. The public, to this day, can only have guesses, some admittedly well educated, about what it actually does as an intelligence facility.

Australias Defence Minister, Richard Marles, whose views should never be taken at face value, insists that the facility ensures that Australia and our Five-Eyes partners maintain an intelligence advantage while being truly joint in nature, integrating both Australian and US operations under shard command and control by Australian and US personnel which I have had an opportunity to see firsthand. Hardly.

Another example is the annual rotation of US Marines in the Northern Territory. To date, there have been twelve such rotations, carefully worded to give the impression that Australia lacks a US military garrison to the countrys north. In March, Marles claimed that such rotations served to enhance the capabilities, interoperability, and readiness of the ADF and the United States Marine Corps and is a significant part of the United States Force Posture Initiatives, a hallmark of Australias Alliance with the US.

To therefore have an Australian Prime Minister now talk about sovereign capabilities is irksome, even intellectually belittling. Under Anthony Albaneses stewardship, and before him Scott Morrisons, the trilateral security pact known as AUKUS has done more to militarise the Austr...

"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......

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Converter

Russia Considers Retaliatory Steps After Japan Introduces New Package of Sanctions MFA

Japan also decided to impose export restrictions on 80 Russian entities

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. Moscow is considering retaliatory steps to the fresh batch of anti-Russian sanctions by Tokyo, and will not let them pass without a reaction, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said on Monday.

"Indeed, at the end of May, a new package of sanctions was published, which we took very negatively, of course. We are currently considering retaliatory steps, this will not remain without a reaction," the deputy minister said, answering a relevant question from TASS.

The Japanese government has expanded sanctions against Russia due to the situation in Ukraine. According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, 24 individuals and 78 entities have been added to the sanctions list. The sanctions in particular stipulate that if any assets from these individuals are found in Japan, they will be seized. Among those affected by the sanctions are representatives of the command of the Russian Armed Forces, general director of the Almaz-Antey concern Yan Novikov, journalist Olga Skabeeva, the National Wealth Fund, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and the Gorky Automobile Plant.

Japan also decided to impose export restrictions on 80 Russian entities, including the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, the Lavochkin scientific development and production center, PJSC KamAZ, MegaFon, the Skolkovo Foundation and Skoltech.

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.

The Australian and Queensland governments have introduced a more than $160 million package to phase out the commercial gill net fishing that damages the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world, as well as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Area. It comprises more than 900 islands and 2,900 individual reefs, and is home to 400 types of coral, 4,000 species of mollusc and 1,500 types of fish, according to UNESCO.

This announcement is shaping up as a globally significant moment for ocean conservation, fisheries management and the Great Barrier Reef one of the natural wonders of the world, said Dermot OGorman, CEO of WWF-Australia, in a press release from WWF Australia. If all goes to plan, by June 2027 well have a Net-Free Reef where dugongs, turtles, dolphins and other threatened species can swim without the threat of becoming entangled and drowning in a gill net, and thats a cause for global celebration.

The government package will provide the funds for a gill net licenses buyout and mandate independent data validation for commercial fishing boats.

...

PMID:  Am J Transl Res. 2023 ;15(2):729-744. Epub 2023 Feb 15. PMID: 36915782 Abstract Title:  Berberine inhibits the growth of osteosarcoma through modulating MMP/NM-23 and MAPK/JNK signal pathways. Abstract:  OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects and mechanisms of berberine (BBR) on the migration, invasion, proliferation and apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells in vitro.METHODS: Proliferation of MG-63 and U2OS cells was measured by the CCK-8 assay. Cells migration was examined by wound-healing assay. The invasion and metastasis of cells were evaluated by transwell invasion assay. Cells apoptosis was determined by the flow cytometry. Caspase-3 activity in MG-63 and U2OS cells was measured, and Western blot was used to measure the levels of Bax, Bcl-2, MMP-2 and MMP-9 in cells. In addition, the osteosarcoma graft tumor model of mice was established. The tumorigenesis of MG-63 cells in nude mice was compared among three groups. Immunohistochemistry assay was used to measure the levels of MMP-2, MMP-9 and NM-23 in tumor tissue.RESULTS: It was showed that BBR inhibited the proliferation of MG-63 and U2OS cells in vitro in time- and concentration-dependent manners. Moreover, BBR reduced the cells migration and invasion, also down-regulated the expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-9. BBR also inhibited the cells apoptosis by down-regulating the expression of Bcl-2 and up-regulating the expression of Bax. In nude mice, BBR obviously inhibited the tumorigenesis of MG-63 cells. Compared with the negative group, BBR decreased the levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 and increased the level of NM-23. The molecular mechanism was associated with activation of the MAPK/JNK signal transduction pathway.CONCLUSIONS: BBR significantly regulates the biological behaviors of osteosarcoma cells and inhibits the growth of osteosarcoma. The molecular mechanism may be associated with the modulation of MMP/NM-23 and MAPK/JNK signals. BBR may be a potential drug for the treatment of osteosarcoma.

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N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a precursor for glutathione biosynthesis, is a common dietary supplement that could hold a secret to treating tumors resistant to conventional cancer drugs. Researchers with the Department of Biomedicine of the University of Basel in Switzerland, found NAC restores the sensitivity of breast cancer cells to treatment.¹

NAC is already valued in the medical field for helping increase glutathione in the body, which prevents liver damage in cases of acetaminophen (Tylenol) overdose. It also reduces acetaldehyde toxicity,² which causes many hangover symptoms. But, it seems, NAC is living up to its reputation as an old drug with new tricks, as the featured study suggests it may significantly improve treatment of advanced breast cancer.

NAC May Help Fight Resistant Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with more than 2.2 million cases developing annually.³ Among women with recurring disease, survival rates have barely improved in the last two decades. Most recurring metastatic cancers are either drug resistant or will become resistant to therapy, researchers wrote in Cell Reports Medicine. Thus, drug resistance is a substantial hurdle in the long-lasting cure of patients.⁴

About 70% of breast cancers have mutations in genes that affect the PI3K signaling pathway.⁵ The overactivation of PI3K promotes tumor development, which is why the drug alpelisib (brand name Piqray) a PI3K-selective inhibitor is often used to treat it. Resistance to the drug, however, is a serious problem.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the success of the medication is severely limited by resistance, researcher Mohamed Bentires-Alj said in a University of Basel news release. Hence, we urgently need to find out more about how resistance arises.⁶

The team found mutations that turn off production of a protein called NF1, which suppresses tumor growth, were involved in cancers resistant to alpelisib. The absence of NF1 is the elephant in the room; it throws everything into disarray within the cell and hinders successful treatment, Bentires-Alj said.⁷

With NF1 lost, the team found cells produce less energy via their mitochondria and rely more on other energy production pathways. NAC, an antioxidant, affects energy metabolism similarly, so the researchers expected it would have similar effects in...

Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (6/5/23).
As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant.
(https://www.rokfin.com/TLAVagabond)(https://www.bitchute.com/channel/24yVcta8zEjY/)

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Video Source Links (In Chronological Order)



(22) Craig Pasta Jardula on Twitter: "I was able to ask #RFK why he deleted the tweets supporting Roger Waters and also his position on Israel and Palestine. @theconvocouch @dondebar https://t.co/BQg1AVgOk1" / Twitter
(23) Rabbi Shmuley on Twitter: "So grateful that my friend and great friend of Israel @RobertKennedyJr marched with me today with an Israeli flag at the #CelebrateIsrael75 parade on fifth Avenue in New York City. https://t.co/7rGFuyvJP8" / Twitter
(37) The Silencing of Kennedy's Most Notable Critic
Slow start to New York's legal pot market leaves farmers holding the bag | AP News
New Drug Based On FDA-Approved Synthetic THC And CannAmide Shows Promise In Treating Agitation In Alzhemier's - SciSparc (NASDAQ:SPRC) - Benzinga
(24) Denis Rancourt on Twitter: "More proof, if you need it, that "gluten diseases" are actually toxicity from the food-industry pois...

Organic farming methods mean less pesticides in our soil and food. They ensure agricultural runoff wont contain toxic chemicals that can make their way into our waterways, polluting the water supply and potentially harming wildlife and ecosystems. They also consider animal welfare.

So why do farmers continue to use synthetic pesticides? The answer is simple: yield. They worry giving up the pesticides will mean sacrificing the health and productivity of crops.

The same philosophy applies to the management of honey bee colonies. But a new study has shown beekeepers who employ organic methods can have honey bee colonies that are as productive and healthy as those managed using synthetic pesticides.

According to new research led by entomologists from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), organically managed colonies can achieve similar results to those that are managed using conventional methods, but without the use of synthetic pesticides to keep pathogens and pests under control, a press release from Penn State said.

The study, A longitudinal experiment demonstrates that honey bee colonies managed organically are as healthy and productive as those managed conventionally, was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

For the study, the researchers compared honey bee performance in three management systems, and was the first to demonstrate that the organic management of h...

The UK terrorism squad detains independent journalist after he embarrasses government by exposing deep state corruption.

In this episode of the Patrick Henningsen Show on TNT Radio which aired on May 31, 2023, Patrick discusses the recent detention by the UK Terrorism Squad of independent journalist Kit Klarenberg. The precedent for Britains arbitrary detention of journalists and publishers was set by the seizure and imprisonment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on behalf of the United Statesseeking his extradition under the Espionage Act. All this and more. Listen:

TUNE-IN LIVE to TNT RADIO for the Patrick Henningsen Show every MON-FRI at 12PM-2PM (NEW YORK) | 5PM-7PM (LONDON) | 2AM-4AM (BRISBANE):
https://tntradio.live

READ MORE PROPAGANDA NEWS AT: 21st CENTURY WIRE PROPAGANDA FILES

ALSO JOIN OUR TELEGRAM CHANNEL

SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM  BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

• YouTube announced that it will no longer remove content featuring false claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
• The decision, which comes ahead of the 2024 presidential races, undoes a policy implemented in December 2020 after President Joe Biden allegedly won the election, citing the need to balance its twin goals of protecting our community and providing a home for open discussion and debate.
• YouTube said there are still aspects of its election misinformation policy that remain, including highlighting authoritative sources in search and recommendations and prohibiting posts that aim to mislead voters on where and how to vote.

Indeed, YouTube may be making a half-hearted move to appear fair and objective, but free speech advocates are not convinced this move is genuine.

Arjun Singh from the Daily Caller News Foundation reports

YouTube reversed its misinformation policy regarding content about elections on Friday and will now permit content that questions the veracity of the 2020 presidential election results, according to the companys website.

YouTubes parent company Google has a policy that prohibits content advancing false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in certain past elections to determine heads of government, and Youtube...

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...

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 government and the state, and deeply...

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...

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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...

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...

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...