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What is geopolitical risk, you ask, and the Saudis answer:

Saudi Arabia warned it could sell off some European debt holdings in retaliation to a move by the G-7 to seize almost $300bn in frozen Russian assets, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The veiled threat was passed along from Saudi Arabia’s finance ministry earlier this year to some G-7 counterparts, as the group weighed seizing Russian assets designed to support Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia specifically signalled out the euro debt issued by France, according to Bloomberg.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

On this episode of State of Play we speak with Maryam Hassanein, a Biden political appointee who recently resigned over the administration’s Gaza policy.

The post Biden Appointee Maryam Hassanein Reveals Reasons for Resignation Over Gaza Policy appeared first on MintPress News.

More: On Monday afternoon, a few blocks from the White House, conservative legal scholars discussed how to strike back against Donald Trump’s enemies. These subversives, they said, had waged “lawfare” against the Republican nominee, thrown out 2020 election challenges, and blocked scrutiny of a Biden administration that might be gone in six months. What could conservatives do about that, if they won back power? “We’ve got to start impeaching these judges for acting in such an unbelievably partisan way from the bench,” said John Eastman, a California attorney who was disbarred last year over working with Trump to challenge the 2020 election. “People who have used this tool against people like John or President Trump have to be prosecuted by Republican or conservative DAs in exactly the same way, for exactly the same kinds of things, until they stop,” said Berkeley Law professor John Yoo. “I don’t say that we should be the mafia,” said Will Chamberlain, a senior counsel at the Article III Project who’d formerly worked for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Low rating ”news” station, Sky News Australia, has dedicated the week to trying to convince Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, to stop pandering to the centre and move the party to the extremely hard right. ”Peter needs to look at what... Read More ›

From the LA Times: Democrats are in crisis at the moment, divided over whether President Biden should stay in the race after his disastrous debate last month or clear the way for another, younger candidate. Biden’s shaky performance raised concerns about whether he can win in November, and prompted calls from prominent Democrats, columnists and others for him to step aside. It’s up to the Democratic Party to sort this out. But it’s time to refocus attention on the only candidate in the race who is patently unfit for office — any office — and an imminent threat to democracy: Donald Trump. It’s unbelievable that the nation is spending so much time on the question of Biden’s verbal acuity, when the greatest concern ought to be that his challenger is a self-aggrandizing felon and twice-impeached election-denier. Trump fomented the Jan. 6 insurrection, shows contempt for the rule of law and shamelessly lies in pursuit of more power.

The eminent historian Rick Perlstein weighs in on the media pack: The NYT detailing 90 reporters onto the Biden deathwatch reveals yet another American civic institition in its glaring failure to stand up to the stress test of imminent fascism. Alas, it falls into agenda-setting elite political journalists’ narcissicism sweet spot: it makes themselves the center of the universe, while denying they have any political agency at all…  …Also, lets them preen in their version of virtue, which is “balancing” all the bad stuff they had to say about the GOP. Akin to how they puffed up and domesticated the Tea Party, to “balance” the way they puffed up Obama. #infernaltriangle  …oh, and, bottom line, they’re all so jacked up over the prospect of a ten-way contest of Boar on the Floor. (The Peter Bakers are, yes, the Logan Roy in this scenario.)  If you are unfamiliar with Boar on the Floor it’s from the show Succession.

The U.S. undermines its criticism of Russia’s abuses in Ukraine by making excuses for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The post Russia Attacks Hospitals in Ukraine. Israel Does the Same in Gaza. The U.S. Response Couldn’t Be More Different. appeared first on The Intercept.

With their astounding sense of smell, dogs are helping to sniff out ecological trouble.

The post The Conservationist’s New Best Friend appeared first on Nautilus.

Something very dangerous happened when the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) held its meeting in Brussels. In its communique after the meeting on June 14, 2021, it identified China as a “systemic challenge” to areas “relevant to Alliance security”. A repost from July 4, 2021 The implicit message was clear: Nato would like to expand its Continue reading »

The experience of recent injuries to the pro-integrity culture in the federal public service are rather like sensations, in dream or reality, of rodents scurrying up the legs of one’s pyjama pants. Disconcerting, unwelcome and potentially eye-watering. Against the dreary background of the Anti-Corruption Commission’s refusal to deal with cases referred to it by the Continue reading »

It’s easy to turn a blind eye when the victims are Other, but what if the victims are us? What does it mean to ‘face away from what it means to be human’? I’m at the optometrist, trying on Ralph Lauren frames and deciding between tortoiseshell and pink. I notice a poster on the wall Continue reading »

A robust, well-functioning media ecosystem across the Pacific is an essential pillar of democracy and vital to good governance. If Australia is genuine about partnering with the region, it must advocate for the role of public interest media and why citizens should demand and support it. The media plays a crucial role in the Pacific Continue reading »

The Australian Labor Party’s solidarity pledge is being widely sledged in the wake of Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman’s resignation from caucus. But it’s worth stepping back and reconsidering this core element of Labor’s culture and history against contemporary culture and practices. 1. Pledge-style solidarity is not old hat Critics shouldn’t be so fast to dismiss the Continue reading »

Victories by the left in France and Britain offer powerful examples for U.S. progressives.

The post Supporting Palestine Helped the Left Win in France and Britain. Will Democrats Learn From It? appeared first on The Intercept.

It turns out that building a humongous casino in a small city next to a mid-sized river, nowhere near a big city, the ocean, the desert, or good weather, excludes you from the “destination” designation. This means not many people want to come to lose their money in your oversized sucker palace.

Clearly, we were overly optimistic with our revenue projections. While we averaged twenty-two bajillion dollars per month, we just couldn’t move the needle to our target of thirty-two wadzillion per month. The forty-two flabillion we’ve extracted from this community in five years (even with a pandemic) just isn’t satisfying our stockholders. They’re complaining that they’re not making enough in stock buybacks to purchase a second yacht, private jet, or Supreme Court justice.

It looks like even though we told everyone there’d be three thousand jobs for the locals, we’ve only managed to hire less than half that amount. Who knew blackjack dealers wanted decently funded schools for their kids?