The German government recently arrested 25 members of a conspiratorial right-wing group plotting to overthrow the government. One of those arrested was a member of a defunct German royal family that the group hoped to install as Germany’s new leader. In the United States, the Republican Party did well enough in the mid-term elections to Continue reading »
Asia
From China’s socialist path to Latin America’s left turn and Asean’s neutral stance, more countries are quietly but firmly spurning the Western world order. Instead, they seek to favour national interests, a more democratic form of international politics and mutual respect. The global significance of 2022 has been grossly underestimated. Its importance to world history Continue reading »
In Asian media this week – Indonesia to be an active ASEAN chair. Plus – South Korea’s global aspirations; Western and Asian views of the West; Anwar pledges to crack down on corruption; Softer tones in Taiwan rhetoric; Kishida’s diminishing political capital. Indonesia this year is the chair of ASEAN and The Jakarta Post lists Continue reading »
In legal circles, outsiders who hold forth on legal issues without understanding the law or knowing the facts are held in particular contempt. They are known as “barrack-room lawyers”, a term that originally derived from military slang. According to the Collins Dictionary, a barrack-room lawyer is “a person who freely offers opinions, especially in legal Continue reading »
The rising tension over Taiwan is not the making of either of the two Chinese parties to the dispute. After all, the fundamental problem has been the same since its inception. It was an unfinished civil war between two political factions, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, over control of the country after Continue reading »
“I don’t know how they want to get undressed, above or below the waist, but I think it would be a disgusting sight in any case”, Volodya Pew-teen, as quoted by AP.
I’m just a low-income, sort-of white, ageing, male, semi-educated Aussie worker: a pleb. To rub shoulders with such VIPs is not one of my many privileges, so I have no direct, personal knowledge on those matters and it’s impossible for me to say either way.
Thank goodness!
What I can say with absolute certainty is that this is how people imagined the previous White House tenant:
Maybe my GP is right. I might be worrying too much. I shouldn’t follow the news so closely.
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What you see in green in the left-most image below was Pakistan’s Lake Manchar (June 25th): the largest freshwater reservoir in that country. After catastrophic monsoon rains and with increased meltwater inflow from the Himalayas, the swollen lake has suffered breaches (accidental and deliberate), resulting in the two images to the right (August 28th and September 5th).