@SenatorWong@YvetteCooperMP@AnitaAnandMP The two-state solution is a smokescreen and you know it. Nothing you do will erase the appalling way you've conducted yourself. No one believes you care about Palestinians, peace, or international law. You should resign in disgrace but you won't.
@strong_side_24@NSheikh084@ggreenwald@grok I had no idea that Christian MAGAts cared so much about gay people. Could it be an excuse for why they're conducting an illegal war on the other side of the world?
*** Update
Todayโs mediation - the second - has again failed to bring vexatious legal action against me to a close. This is not a fight Iโll shy away from as there is far too much at stake.
As an Australian and as a journalist I have a responsibility to stand up for our right to criticise a govt engaged in what the UN, most major human rights organisations around the world including in Israel & most genocide scholars, have deemed is a genocide.
Strong criticism of a country being investigated by the ICJ for plausible genocide, whose leaders are wanted by the ICC, is not only warranted, it is necessary.
I have been cognisant of the complexity of geopolitical issues my entire life and cannot resile from the very thing that propels my enquiry - wanting to understand both what is happening and why, including the historical context.
No one should presume they are entitled to hijack our deliberations and conclusions made in good faith, to the best of our ability, and after taking into account the views of all parties to a conflict and stakeholders.ย
I will not be told what to think, and whether you agree or not with conclusions I have reached on specific issues, Iโm sure you wouldnโt stand for it either.ย
Our government should stand on the right side of history and impose sanctions on Israel, as we did against South Africa. Israel should not be held to a different standard.
@arcadeuk@but_cyclists Your statistics are bullshit. "A trained and licensed motorist" is a generalisation which generally holds true. Driving a car brings out the worst in people who are otherwise fairly normal, I see it every day as a cyclist and a motorist.
๐จ BREAKING: Israeli forces just killed Palestinian child Mustafa Rami in an attack on the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, Gaza.
I am so sick of this fucking world. Repost this.
Brilliant piece from Pearls and Irritations. Finally, someone in Australia is saying out loud what the rest of us have been watching for the past five years
Let's be clear about what AUKUS actually is: the greatest military protection racket in modern history. Washington looked at its own crippled submarine industrial baseโ17 boats short, yards choking, Congress screamingโand found the perfect mark. A wealthy, eager, insecure middle power with a bipartisan fetish for great-power relevance and a defense minister who treats strategic questions like a classified state secret
The deal? Australia pays half a trillion dollars. In return, it gets used Virginia-class hand-me-downsโBlock IV boats with a decade of wear already on the hulls, probably smelling faintly of its previous crew
Even more intriguing, the article confirms for what this overpriced second-hand Australian "sovereign" nuclear submarine fleet is actually for:
Hunting Chinese Jin-class and Type 096 SSBNs. Not to protect Sydney Harbour. Not to secure Australia's trade routes. To find, track, and if ordered, destroy the Chinese nuclear submarines that threaten continental America!
That's the job. That's the whole job. Australia just committed A$368 billion to be the US Navy's underwater security guard!
The comedy of "sovereign capability" is almost too rich. Sovereign? The reactors are American. The combat system is American. The weapons are American. The fuel is American. The intelligence feed is American. The maintenance schedule is American. Permanently tethering Australia to U.S. software, maintenance, and logistics, effectively ending any "sovereign" capability. The only thing Australian is the taxpayerโand the Prime Minister standing in front of a camera calling this independence
Australia is not buying a submarine; it is buying a node in a U.S. sensor network. The acquisition deeply integrates Australia into the U.S. military command structure, making Australia a tool for U.S. strategic objectives in the Indo-Pacific โ while a massive amount of Australian wealth is transferred into the U.S. military-industrial complex
And the timing is exquisite. Washington just added another half-trillion to its own defense budget while Australia is told to hit 3.5% of GDP. America gets the money, the boats, the basing rights at HMAS Stirling, and a Pacific ASW auxiliary. Australia gets the bill, the dependency, and the warm fuzzy feeling of being taken seriously by the adults.
The U.S. 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) emphasizes "burden-sharing among allies" and "realist diplomacy." This submarine deal is the perfect execution of that strategy: the U.S. maintains its military overmatch against China by essentially "outsourcing" the financial cost of undersea surveillance to Australia ๐คก
Paul Keating called this three years ago. He was mocked, of course. The press club gasped. The security establishment rolled its eyes. But he was right then, and this article proves he's right now. It is worse than he thought. It's not that AUKUS is of little military benefit to Australia. It's that AUKUS is of negative military benefit to Australiaโactively diverting resources from actual defense needs toward a capability designed for someone else's homeland
https://t.co/f7lYAMf3JY
Israel executed Theodosia today in Qlayaa, South Lebanon.
She was on her way to take her exams.
Israel dropped a bomb on her car, killing her and her parents.