Step one in ensuring that any peace deal has a chance: restrain Israel.
Right now, Israel’s ability to conduct consistent strikes into Iran is heavily dependent on U.S. assistance.
As Israel’s own defense minister spells out below, Israel has different objectives than we do, and it’s clear they will not be inclined to adhere to a peace agreement.
The stated intent runs wholly counter to U.S. objectives, yet Israel cannot sustain wars on multiple fronts without financial and military support from the U.S.
Until they are able to do so, their actions will continue to interfere with our strategic goals and drag the U.S. into conflicts that don’t serve us.
Make no mistake—this is a threat to sabotage our deal. But we can remove the leverage:
Take away the military support we are providing Israel, immediately, to preserve the potential of ending this foolish war.
Penny Wong Explodes Over Palestine Questions in Senate Estimates | Micha...
yes Minister, the UK and France have recognised the Palestinian Embassies in their countries. Why not Australia? Thank you @DavidShoebridge
https://t.co/LrCAVmvpXv via @YouTube
Some thoughts on the new Epstein Files revelations:
I’ve now read everything that’s come out from the new Haberman and Swan book, and the thing I keep coming back to is the Situation Room. They held multiple meetings in the Situation Room about the Epstein files. That room is for war. It’s for national security emergencies. It is not for figuring out how to spin a scandal you’re telling the country is a hoax.
While the President was deflecting or calling this old news, his own Vice President and Chief of Staff were huddled in the most leak-proof room in America because they knew how bad it really was.
You don’t take a nothingburger to the Situation Room.
And I have to be honest, reading all this brings back a lot of frustration about what happened in the House of Representatives. I sat there and watched Mike Johnson send the House home early to dodge a vote on releasing these files. I watched him refuse to swear in a duly elected colleague for months just to stall the discharge petition. Month after month of excuses, arm twisting, and procedural games, all to keep this information from the public. We only got the files because survivors, families, and a handful of members in both parties simply refused to let it go.
So when people ask me why I talk so much about transparency and accountability, this is why. The truth eventually comes out. It always does.
The only question is whether your leaders helped reveal it or helped bury it.
Everyone who voted to keep these files hidden should have to answer for that.
Finally, notice what’s missing from all of this is any sign that Trump’s DOJ will actually investigate the powerful men named in these files.
Draw your own conclusions about why a Justice Department run by the President’s former defense lawyers might not be eager to pull that thread.
@liamgdaily@NoelGallagher These lyrics are just stunning every single time. "You're the only God that I will ever need." Nobody writes raw, beautiful devotion quite like Noel Gallagher. 🩵 #NoelGallagher#NGHFB#Oasis
⛽ Daily Bulletin - Wed 10 June
Today: The US struck southern Iran after it said an Iranian drone hit a US Army Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, reopening direct US-Iran fire at the chokepoint even as Trump says a deal to reopen it is days away.
📊 Reserves (effective): diesel ~33d (30-35) | petrol ~41d (39-43) | jet ~25d (24-28)
🚢 23 AU-bound tankers en route, ~1,081 ML. Wider tracking: 3,169 vessels, ~77,938 ML.
📰 Today's signals
• GEOPOLITICAL: US Central Command said it had begun proportional self-defense strikes on Iran on Tuesday, after the US said an Iranian drone hit a US Army Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. A US official told Axios the strikes hit Iranian air-defence and radar systems; Iranian media reported explosions across Hormozgan, including Qeshm, Bandar Abbas and Sirik. The crew were rescued safely; whether the collision was intentional is under investigation. Trump said Iran shot the aircraft down; Iran did not claim it and called on US forces to withdraw. Reuters, AP, Axios.
• MARKET: Brent crude settled at $91.45 on Tuesday, down about 3 per cent, after US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was rising "very meaningfully" and the Iran-Israel halt held. The US strikes then pushed crude higher in early Asian trade. CNBC, FT.
• POLICY: Australia secured another 50 million litres of diesel, sourced through BP and bound for Perth, plus 31,000 tonnes of urea via Summit Fertilizers, under the $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility. That brings the facility's support to about 740 million litres of diesel and 150 million litres of jet across 18 shipments. Trade Minister Don Farrell.
👁 Watching: whether Iran retaliates. Its IRGC-linked Tasnim outlet says Iran will respond decisively to the US strikes, so the next 24 to 72 hours turn on whether this stays a one-night exchange or a wider round.
My read: the contradiction is sitting in plain sight. Trump is still saying a deal is two or three days away, with Hormuz reopening the moment it is signed, even as he orders strikes on Iran at that same chokepoint. For two days the signals pointed toward calm: the Iran-Israel halt held, oil was sliding, the Energy Secretary said Hormuz traffic was rising "very meaningfully". But that calm was on the Iran-Israel track, and his claim runs against IMF PortWatch data still showing Hormuz depressed. The track that feeds Australia is the US-Iran fight at the strait, and that is the one that just reignited - the blockade, the Iranian tolls, the nuclear file and the frozen funds all still in place. Direct fire has reopened at the chokepoint the deal is supposed to stabilise.
FOI to die? Albanese’s nuclear strike on transparency and why we should all be worried. Thanks to @MrRexPatrick for pressing in here https://t.co/iZMB8N4GIa via @MichaelWestBiz
🚨 Iran Fires Missiles at Israel as Sirens Sound Across the Country
Iran has launched missiles toward central and southern Israel, according to Tasnim News, with air raid sirens triggered across Israel and the occupied territories including the Jerusalem area. Hebrew-language sources reported the sound of an explosion near Jerusalem and impact in the West Bank. The alert map showed a dense spread of warnings stretching from northern to southern Israel.
BREAKING: Iran's IRGC is now ready to execute "Operation True Promise 5" against Israel tonight, with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei having authorized the full-scale resumption of war and Iran's Supreme National Security Council convening an emergency session, saying a "painful and decisive response" will come in response to Beirut strikes, per Iranian state TV.
Iran has issued an evacuation warning to all residents in northern Israeli territory to immediately leave, with coordinates of Israeli targets now transferred to missile units.
London Bridge walk in the Googong Foreshores reserve just outside Canberra was pretty magical late this afternoon with wombats, parrots and kangaroos. The arch itself was delightful. Nature sure is centring.
@awkwardgoogle Lol 😆 🤣 No. I don't think it's opaque
2. Does it have a ⏲️ ⏳️ ⏰️ timer on it, like a siren 🚨 or something to alert said user time's up?
3. Why the glass in the first place? Will it not draw more attention 🤔 😂
The President of the United States is asleep at his desk. Again.
Behind him stand seven grown adults in expensive suits, and not one of them is doing anything about it. One is mid-sentence. Another is gazing sideways with the haunted look of a man whose pension depends on never acknowledging what he can see in his peripheral vision.
The rest of the world is watching, and the rest of the world has noticed something. Americans are terrified of authority. That fear has settled over this administration like a fog, and it turns otherwise functional adults into warm furniture. Nobody moves. Nobody speaks. The paralysis is total.
In any European parliament, in any boardroom from Oslo to Ljubljana, someone would have leaned over by now. Tapped a shoulder. Said, quietly but clearly, that perhaps this isn’t the moment. Somebody would have done something, because the alternative, pretending a sleeping man is running a meeting, would have been too absurd to sustain.
Not here. Here, seven men have collectively decided that the correct professional response to the President losing consciousness in the Oval Office is to carry on as though he were a particularly demanding houseplant.
A clear admission here from the Department that Labor is rationing - i.e. denying - aged care from older Australians. And they're using an untested algorithm that is consistently under-assessing care to do their dirty work for them.
For years those who have survived sexual violence in Defence have been legally silenced by NDAs they were essentially coerced into signing. The government has now confirmed those gag orders won't be enforced for the purposes of the current inquiry, which is an important win.
The hearing into the Government's secrecy bill has also been scheduled for today - will be doing our best to cover this and Senate Estimates simultaneously! These laws create a big new secrecy offence that doesn't require proof of harm, we have pretty serious concerns about this
The US Secretary of War said he was going to disregard rules of engagement in war saying, "Who cares what other countries think." I asked if the Albanese Government cares.
Turns out they care a lot about AUKUS.