choran

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The Norwegian army released a video showing them performing the Viking celebration after Norway eliminated Brazil in the World Cup

[Dr Tracy Westerman AM @TracyWesterman]

The Sanewashing of Hanson Is at Its Peak.
This is how Trump came to power: platform the lies, skip the follow-up, let the headlines call it “proving her critics wrong.”
We are all watching it happen in real time.
At the National Press Club, Pauline Hanson said the following. Not one claim was challenged by the so called journalists in attendance and she continues to be unchallenged on the facts in every interview she sits.
-1. Unlike the Prime Minister, I welcome scrutiny.” Hypocritical. In the same speech she announced she refuses ABC interviews, will scrap the SBS, & will make the ABC subscription-only. The event allowed 2 hours; standard format gives 25–30 mins for the address. She spoke for 50-halving the time left for questions. When Guardian journalist Sarah Martin used that remaining time to ask about her daughter's $150,000 taxpayer-funded advisor role, Hanson called her “a trashy journalist” and banned her from all future press conferences.
• “Babies are aborted the day before birth.” Fabricated. Late-term abortion is highly restricted, requires medical approval, and occurs only in genuine medical emergencies.
• “Interest rates are heading towards 10%.” False. RBA cash rate: 4.35%. Forecast to fall, not rise.
• “There’s no gender pay gap — just women taking time off.” False. WGEA confirms the gap exists at equal hours, equal roles, regardless of career breaks.
• “$30B a year on Indigenous programs.” False. Only 18% (~$5.6B) is Indigenous-specific. The rest is the Indigenous share of mainstream services every Australian uses.
• Transgender people were compared to “militant Islam.” False and dangerous. ABS data: transgender and gender-diverse Australians make up 1% of the pop’n. There’s no body of research showing transgender ppl commit crime at elevated rates-in fact it shows transgender people are dramatically more likely to be victims of violence— assault, sexual violence, and homicide rates against trans people are well above general population rates in most studies (US, UK, and Aust data all show this pattern)
• “23% of Australians can’t speak English.” False. That 23% speak another language at home — most are bilingual. Limited English proficiency: just 3.2%.
• “The CEFC has had $200 billion.” False by a factor of six. Actual legislated capacity: $33 billion.
• “I care about the homeless and hungry.” Hypocritical. In the same speech, she backed cuts to Indigenous-specific funding — despite Aboriginal homelessness running up to 10 times higher than the non-Indigenous rate.
• $90 billion in cuts, no plan. ~$35 billion of it remains unaccounted for. No modelling.
• “I support worker rights.” False. Voted against minimum wage increases, penalty rates, criminalising wage theft, casual conversion rights, same job same pay, and the right to disconnect. Took a $100,000 pay rise while voting against a tax break for low-paid workers
• Called Australian workers “lazy.” She has attended just 12% of Senate estimates since 2016 & 53% of parliamentary votes. Paid over $200k a year
• Labor have let immigration get out of control.” False. Net overseas migration has fallen every year since the post-COVID peak in 2022-23 — 538,000 → 446,000 → 306,000 in 2024-25. She also recycled a 26-year-old ABS pop’n projection as a fresh “next 50 years” forecast

Said: This beautiful country belongs to all Australians born here and those who have joined us”- in her opening line; then spent the next 50 minutes demanding a monocultural society, comparing transgender Australians to militant Islam, inflating migration and language figures, denying the gender pay gap, and repeating the debunked $30 billion Indigenous funding myth. Welcomed everyone in the first sentence. Spent the rest of the speech defining most of them out — and offered no plan to fix anything she raised, only $90 billion in cuts.
Not one follow-up question. No source data on a single figure in the entire speech. This is what unchallenged looks like.
/2 sources

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

Pope Leo XIV, Donald Trump and JD Vance. Fear not!

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon https://t.co/bKteFZ3iWE

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

"In some cases, it would be better for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality." In other words, exactly what Pope Leo is doing: speaking out on matters of morality, like war and peace, and care for the poor, the hungry and the migrant. These are fundamentally moral matters.

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

Absolute bombshell. Pope Leo directly rebukes Pete Hegseth for trying to frame the Iran war as a Christian holy crusade. The Pope declares God will not listen to their prayers because their hands are full of blood. A devastating moral condemnation of the Pentagon.

[Steve Colbran @NarblocBS]

Cathy Wilcox…. completely nails Angus Taylor and the Australian Liberal Party
👏👏👏 👍😎

[The Obama Foundation @ObamaFoundation]

From one natural-born US citizen to another, have a great Benito Bowl!

[Jon Attenborough @JonAttenborough]

It’s #SuperBowl Sunday! 🏈

Did you know the famous Huddle was invented by deaf teams in 1894 so the opposition couldn’t see them signing to each other?

It then became a tradition adopted by all teams, still used to this day

An example of where accessibility inspired innovation

[TVP World @TVPWorld_com]

“The Board of Peace really should not proceed. This is not a legitimate way to run international affairs,” said Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ), Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, in the latest episode of Between the Lines, criticizing the idea as a challenge to the United Nations.

[Mark Humphries @markhumphries]

We couldn’t possibly change the date. It’s just not something we do.

[Tony Windsor @TonyHWindsor]

I know enough people in the current Federal Government and many in the Opposition that would despise trump and his idiotic and dangerous activities. It’s time to stop the appeasement and turn our backs on him or we become complicit in his crimes.

[Peter Murphy @PeterWMurphy1]

Where It All Went Wrong: The Case Against John Howard"
by @AmyRemeikis
On the thirtieth anniversary of John Howard coming to power, a searing analysis of the untouchable prime minister: how the ‘great economic manager’ sold our future. 26Feb2026 #auspol #AusHistory #politics

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

WATCH: Native Americans are protesting after ICE detained 4 Oglala Sioux tribal members in Minneapolis.

Three are still unaccounted for.

Let that sink in.

The original Americans are getting treated like “illegal aliens” by masked federal agents.

[La femme merveilleuse invisible @larwoolf]

"By the age of 70, he who doesn’t read will have lived only one life. He who reads will have lived 5000 years. Reading is immortality backwards."

Umberto Eco,
January 5, 1932 – February 19, 2016.

[Quentin Dempster @QuentinDempster]

Trump has taken the US and the world into extremely dangerous lawlessness with his usurpation of Venezuelan sovereignty. Venezuela’s oil and its exploitation by US vested interests via a local Trump puppet regime is the criminal objective. Xi, Putin will be emboldened by this.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

For those following at home, the capture and removal of a foreign head of state is presumed unlawful unless sanctioned by the UN Security Council, or - under strict conditions - if the aggressor state (the US) can claim self-defence. #Venezuela

[Richard Angwin @RichardAngwin]

ain't that the truth

[Carl Woodward @mrcarl_woodward]

RIP Diane Keaton - a cultural moment x