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GYPSY Art Group members will again exhibit their unique arts and crafts at the Coffs Regional Botanic Garden from Monday July 10 until Friday July 14, from 10am until 3 pm, daily. The exhibition will feature the group’s wide range of pieces for viewing and sale including, painting, printing making, journals, collectables, fibre works, eco-printed...

The post Free Workshops At The Gypsy Art Group Exhibition appeared first on News Of The Area.

COFFS Harbour, Bellingen, Kempsey and Sawtell all had visits from NSW Governor Her Excellency Margaret Beazley and Mr Dennis Wilson last week, from Wednesday until Saturday. In Coffs Harbour, the Governor and Mr Wilson visited Coffs Harbour Uniting Church Soup Place before a meeting with Coffs Harbour City Council and a tour of the City’s...

The post NSW Governor Impressed With Coffs Coast Community Spirit appeared first on News Of The Area.

GLENREAGH Giant Garage Sale is back on Saturday 8 July at 7am, after its last appearance in 2017. Local resident at the time, Chris Gooley came up with the concept of having a massive garage sale for the entire community on one day and creating a monster attraction. Advertise with News of The Area today....

The post One man’s trash? Come and find the treasures at Glenreagh Giant Garage Sale appeared first on News Of The Area.

COFFEE catch-ups is one way to go for a social fix during Dry July, the annual challenge encouraging Aussies to give up alcohol and raise funds towards improving the comfort, care and wellbeing of people affected by cancer, says Dry July participant Michelle Aubert, who lives in Emerald Beach. “Or taking mineral water if I’m...

The post Plenty of reasons why Michelle Aubert is going dry this July appeared first on News Of The Area.

A MOBILE community information van staffed by Transport for NSW personnel is popping up in various venues around Coffs city sharing the latest information about the Coffs Harbour bypass project and answering people’s questions. Anyone can drop in and have a chat. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business....

The post Coffs Harbour Bypass mobile information van is popping up around the city appeared first on News Of The Area.

CHILLY it might have been at first, but the 24th Sawtell Chilli Festival took place in glorious winter weather, a far cry from the rain of last year. More than 5,000 patrons happily parted with the $5 entrance fee to wander First Avenue, along with as many as 3,000 children, teenagers and others to browse...

The post Chilli Festival A Hot Success appeared first on News Of The Area.

THE Jam Jar, the Coffs Harbour winners of Boom Clash Rockstar Battle of the Bands, are off to Sydney for the NSW final at Paddington RSL on August 13. They won their Coffs region semi final playing at the Hoey Moey in June. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your...

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To celebrate my new-found determination to do the right thing and blog I’m going to blog. Specifically, I’m going to blog about something I’m dumb about and don’t understand – because that should be possible, among friends. We’re all friends here on the internet? That’s kind of the point. This semester I am going to […]

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Here’s my bold statement for 2023: Social media companies in the United States need to be regulated. Before you start agreeing and explain why it’ll never happen… you should know Meta didn’t launch Threads in the EU. Because of the EU’s REGULATION. It would have led to massive NEW fines and Meta doesn’t want MORE massive fines. It was recently hit with an order to stop sending EU users data to the US for processing and was fined almost $1.3BN for breaching the GDPR’s requirements on data export. When companies’ actions or inactions harm the public, the public demands something be done. In the EU they’ve recognized the harm being done by social media companies and enacted regulation. Short term, companies pay the fine and change their behavior to stop new fines. This is what we want, what the public deserves. Protection from harm. Here’s a good piece by Natasha Lomas’ in Tech Cruch that spells out Meta’s current privacy problems and reminds us of the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

Last Friday (July 7, 2023), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – June 2023 – which revealed that the the US labour market has probably reached a turning point but is certainly not contracting at a rate consistent with an imminent recession. There was…

It was one of the fabled rivers of history and the Marines needed to cross it. In early April 2003, as American forces sought to wrap up their conquest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and take strongholds to its north, the Marine Corps formed “Task Force Tripoli.” It was commanded by General John F. Kelly (who would later serve as Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff). His force was charged with capturing the city of Tikrit, the birthplace of dictator Saddam Hussein. The obvious eastern approach to it was blocked because a bridge over the Tigris River had been damaged. Since the Marines assembled the Task Force in northeastern Baghdad, its personnel needed to cross the treacherous, hard-flowing Tigris... Read more

Source: Iraq’s Climate Crisis appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Seriously??? Trump is honest and trustworthy enough to run the most powerful country in the world but you couldn’t trust him or his people to do business with your software company. Is this guy for real? These people are so far gone it’s beyond all reason. Luckily, this cipher isn’t going to be in the race very long but it’s instructive to hear him speak anyway. They are all so tribal that they are willing to twist themselves into pretzels to stay in the GOP fold for Dear Leader but grasp at these straws to show that they are somehow different. It’s pathetic. I hope you enjoy looking in the mirror Bergum. If it looks a little bit distorted, check your conscience.

And yes, I’m talking about Chris Christie He may not try to overturn an election but if you think this guy wouldn’t use his power to go after his enemies you are mistaken. He hasn’t changed: GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie weighed in on the investigation of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the plea deal reached in the case, calling the probe as well as the U.S. attorney who oversaw it not truthful or incompetent. “U.S. Attorney [David] Weiss has to explain himself and he has to explain himself in public,” Christie told Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday. “You know, the fact is that this investigation of Hunter Biden in Delaware is either a lie or it’s incompetent.

President Macron of France is right to warn NATO away from any expansion into Asia, reminding all and sundry of NATO’s Atlantic design and focus. NATO’s continued existence after and at the end of the Cold War has already denied peaceful unity to the broader Europe, the promise of which the end of the Cold Continue reading »

India has an economy that is growing faster than China’s – six per cent versus four per cent – and it has a population that is expanding while that of its Asian neighbour is shrinking. Put these two facts together, and the implication is that India will surpass China in any race to become the Continue reading »

The U.S. public has been conned, once again, into pouring billions into another endless war. The playbook the pimps of war use to lure us into one military fiasco after another, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, does not change. Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must Continue reading »

It is as certain as any future event can be that the British Labour Party will win the next UK election, which is likely to be held in the latter part of 2024. It is technically possible that the election could be delayed until January 2025 but it is hard to imagine the government choosing Continue reading »

Why the new ALP government’s new Child Care funds should restore its social benefits and stop funding the failing profit/market model. It has been 50 plus years since the McMahon Liberal government included preschool funding, the first since WW2. In 1972 the new Whitlam ALP Government promised the funding of Children’s services programs to meet Continue reading »

This week, a new report revealed First Nations people, as well as people of African or Middle Eastern appearance, were disproportionately targeted by police in issuing COVID-19 fines. Despite the Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton acknowledging structural racism when appearing before the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria, Victoria Police have denied racial profiling in response Continue reading »

While unification with Taiwan and building a strong economy are the twin pillars of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, it’s dangerous to assume, as Washington does, that a faltering economy makes Beijing more aggressive towards the island. This is the final in a two-column series. It’s hardly worth mentioning that China and the United Continue reading »

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – July 9, 2023

by Tony Wikrent

Climate and environmental crises

World Registers Hottest Day Ever Recorded on July 3 

[Reuters, via Naked Capitalism 7-5-2023]

6 southern Colorado counties, facing drought and thirsty neighbors, move to block water exports 

[Colorado Sun, via Naked Capitalism 7-4-2023]

 

Dan Pfeiffer with the bad news: Why Threads Won’t Solve the News Crisis Like more than 70 million other refugees from Twitter, I downloaded Threads — Meta’s new Twitter clone — and immediately started “threading.” This wasn’t an easy decision. I generally believe that through a toxic combination of avarice and incompetence, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have done tremendous damage to the world. My most recent book was subtitled “How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media are Destroying America.” So, it’s safe to say that I am not exactly a Zuck stan. But despite my trepidation, I started using Threads. Compared to other erstwhile Twitter replacements — Mastodon, Bluesky, Post, etc. — Threads was a huge success. It was easy to set up and even though I joined only a few hours after it launched, many people and media outlets were already posting on the app. The utility of a Twitter-like product is dependent on two interconnected questions — one, will enough interesting people share interesting content; and two, is the audience large and engaging enough to make sharing feel worth it?

By Carlos García Hernández Originally published in Spanish on 1/7/23.       Definition of a State: a territory with fixed borders under a central authority with the capacity to …

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