A day before the agreement would have come into force, Kiev pulled out, sources told Reuters Russia and Ukraine had almost reached a new Black Sea shipping deal in March after two months of negotiations, only for Kiev to abruptly walk away, Reuters reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The freight route has been without an official agreement since July 2023, when Moscow declined to renew the original Türkiye- and UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative. Russia said that the US and EU had not kept their part of the deal, blocking exports of Russian food ..read more

Mike Johnson has reportedly unveiled a plan to pass the legislation after months of impasse US House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised to finally advance the long-stalled Ukraine aid bill sought by President Joe Biden, multiple news outlets reported on Monday. The proposed legislation has been stuck in Congress for months due to the bitter in-fighting between Democrats and Republicans. According to reports, Johnson told Republican colleagues at a closed-door meeting that he intends to allow the House to vote on a standalone bill this week that would ensure additional military aid to Kiev.  ..read more

A long ongoing case has both caused and revealed corruption in all areas of public life In Greek mythology Heracles (Hercules in Latin) was tasked with cleaning out the Augean stables in a single day. Augeas was a Greek king who owned large herds of animals that resided in his palatial stables. They produced extraordinary amounts of dung, and the stables had not been cleaned for years. Heracles completed his allotted task in a day – but King Augeas refused to pay him. Heracles killed the king, and went into exile.  The Brittany Higgins #MeToo case in Australia still awaits its Heracles ..read more

The counterstrike needs to be acceptable to the US, local media have said The war cabinet in West Jerusalem has decided on “clear and decisive” action following Tehran’s mass missile and drone attack on Saturday. The response will have to comply with the will of the US, however, according to Israeli media. Iran launched a barrage of cruise and ballistic missiles, and drones, in retaliation for the bombing of its consulate in Damascus, Syria earlier this month that killed several senior officers of the Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.  The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sa ..read more

The Scranton Army Munitions Plant has produced artillery shells for Ukraine The US Army factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania that specializes in artillery ammunition caught fire on Monday afternoon, according to local media reports and eyewitnesses. The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant started spewing black smoke shortly before 3pm local time. Local emergency services were summoned to deal with what was described as a “structure fire.” No further details were available.  The Joint Munitions Command (JMC) facility is owned by the US military but operated by General Dynamics-Ordnance and Tactica ..read more

The collapse of the middle class is driving the abandonment of a system we believed was here to stay We can already see that modern states are facing such serious challenges that foreign policy is being subordinated to domestic considerations everywhere. This is true of Western countries, Russia, China, India, and everyone else. Indeed, it highlights what existing academic theories are unable to understand simply because of their methodology. One of the curious effects of the two world wars of the last century, and in particular of the emergence of incredibly power weapons in the possession of ..read more

A royal source in Riyadh has criticized Tehran for “terrorism” Saudi Arabia took part in downing some Iranian UAVs during Saturday’s strike on Israel, a source in the royal family has admitted in response to a report by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Tehran’s attack involved 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. The strikes came in retaliation for the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, that left several senior Iranian military officers dead earlier this month. The US, UK, France and Jo ..read more

Critics argue the ruling sets a dangerous precedent threatening free speech and right to assembly A Louisiana police officer will be allowed to press charges against BLM organizer DeRay McKesson after losing several teeth and suffering brain damage during a civil rights protest, the US Supreme Court has ruled. In July 2016, McKesson led a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Baton Rouge over the fatal police shooting of an armed black man named Alton Sterling. During the protest, Officer John Ford was injured by a rock or piece of concrete thrown by one of the activists, who has remained uniden ..read more

Since it evacuated its settlements in 2005, the Jewish state has had no presence in the enclave. Twenty years later, it seems ready to permanently return “It will happen – there’s a date,” reassured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, referring to the Rafah offensive that’s aimed at eliminating the remaining battalions of Hamas, the Islamic movement responsible for the massacre on October 7, 2023 that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis. The international community is objecting to the planned assault, fearing it will lead to a high death toll. The area  ..read more

An unidentified man attacked an Assyrian Orthodox bishop during a service on Monday Clashes have broken out between members of the Assyrian Orthodox community and police in Sydney, Australia after a knife-wielding man attacked and stabbed a prominent cleric on Monday. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, hundreds of people gathered outside the church, presumably believing that the perpetrator was still inside. A police riot squad and a helicopter were quickly deployed to the area in an effort to contain the crowd. As tensions rose, the mob began throwing projectiles at the officers, with au ..read more