Trump's diesel deal with Putin is more than a commercial transaction. By easing sanctions to allow Russian diesel imports, Trump provides Moscow with revenue while weakening pressure imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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At the same time, Trump has blamed Ukraine for the war and said it should get a new leader who can make a deal. The implication is clear: Washington is pressuring the country that was invaded to change its leadership while offering economic relief to the power that invaded it.

How, then, can the pseudo-left keep describing the conflict simply as a US proxy war? That argument treats Ukraine as a pawn without independent agency.

Trump's actions point in the opposite direction: his administration is accommodating Putin, easing sanctions and publicly undermining Zelenskyy.

Decisive action needed

Anthony Albanese just keeps digging holes for himself with his inability to make decisive decisions. Despite widespread support he caved to the gambling industry.

With artificial intelligence (AI) glasses he has vacillated and they are looking (no pun intended) at doing something where he should have simply banned them outright. Now with the abhorrent livestream of the execution in the US he is looking at what can be done to stop it, which is an admirable sentiment but not actual action.

For what it is worth, Mr Albanese, ban it, tell the telecommunications companies and other providers that they must not allow it into Australia. Sure people with VPNs will find ways around it but surely the Prime Minister can make a stand on this matter with a simple clear-cut decision.

Dr Ross Hudson, Mount Martha, Vic

An alternative use of the current site of the Catholic Archbishop's House might be to build a centre acknowledging the contributions made by many faiths to fostering a spiritual soul for the nation of Australia. It would remember the generous services given by generations and their role in helping forge national Australian values.

As the capital of the nation, Canberra needs to publicly mark their contributions, past and ongoing. The multiple mountain domes of Kata Tjuta / the Olgas might well be suggested to architects as an image that models their contributions.

"Faith Mountain" might be an appropriate name for such a centre. The building would be financed by members of multifaith groups across Australia.

The Catholic Church might start by contributing the value of the lease of the Archbishop's House. Faith Mountain would be visited by residents and tourists every day. This contrasts with the intermittent use of the proposed stadium.

Rev Dr Charles Rue, Forrest

Barbarism of executions

David Ellery has, in his "Echidna" column, performed a valuable service, both for me and for others. He has described in graphic terms the barbarism and cruelty of the death penalty.

Practitioners of medicine, tasked with the preservation of human life, no longer associate themselves with this evil. It is left to the unskilled, uncaring, to carry out this fiendish act. Hence the recent Christa Pike debacle.

Your writer quite rightly points to the central issue: is Pike to be restored to health only to face execution once more? It has all the features of a comic opera, except that a life is at stake.

One does not have to be a religious zealot to take exception to this charade, it suffices to be a human being.

Then that master of bad........

© Canberra Times