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UNDER the auspices of the National Advance Care Planning Week (18-24 March), Dr Max Brinsmead is heading up a full morning of information sessions around planning for one’s passing. Taking place on Wednesday 20 March from 9:30am to 12:00 noon in the CWA rooms at 3 Dalley St Coffs Harbour, everyone is welcome to the...

The post Information sessions offered for end-of-life planning in Coffs Harbour appeared first on News Of The Area.

RETIRED NSW Police officer Sue Anne Bytheway was guest speaker at Korora VIEW Club’s International Women’s Day celebration on Tuesday 5 March. The VIEW (Voice, Interests and Education of Women) Club proved the perfect audience for Sue Anne’s stories of her time spent on the force, which spanned more than 30 years, beginning in the...

The post Retired female police officer speaks at Korora VIEW International Women’s Day event appeared first on News Of The Area.

FLICKERFEST 2024 lands in Sawtell on Saturday evening 23 March, presenting its hilarious Short Laughs Comedy program. “This year’s smorgasbord of incredible comedy short films are handpicked from a record 3,400 entries received for Flickerfest’s Academy,” Festival Director Bronwyn Kidd told News Of The Area. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it...

The post It’s all about the laughs at Flickerfest Sawtell appeared first on News Of The Area.

THE COFFS Harbour Eisteddfod Society has proudly announced an important new partnership with the Coffs Harbour Education Campus (CHEC) for 2024. The CHEC consists of the Coffs Harbour Senior College, Southern Cross University and TAFE NSW. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02)...

The post Education Campus steps up to partner Coffs Eisteddfod for 2024 performances appeared first on News Of The Area.

At the Woman’s National Democratic Club in Washington DC on March 7, 2024, The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal discussed the crisis within the Democratic Party as the party grassroots revolts against President Joe Biden’s vehement support for Israel’s rampage in the besieged Gaza Strip, where at least 30,000 have been killed to date – mostly women and children. Blumenthal pointed the finger directly at the Democratic Party establishment for crushing any and all iterations of antiwar politics, and illustrates how its […]

The post The Genocide Democrats: watch Max Blumenthal speak at WNDC first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post The Genocide Democrats: watch Max Blumenthal speak at WNDC appeared first on The Grayzone.

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal interviews Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, who led the first independent investigation to the site of the Nordstream pipelines blast sites, on the Swedish government’s sudden closing of the investigation into the terror attack on the eve of joining NATO. Andersson also addresses US meddling in Swedish politics, and the potential consequences of Stockholm surrendering its traditional neutrality to the anti-Russian alliance.

The post Sweden closing Nordsteam investigation a shocking coverup -investigator first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Sweden closing Nordsteam investigation a shocking coverup -investigator appeared first on The Grayzone.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

The sloth: This made my day!❤️ pic.twitter.com/4vwuuGmtGA — Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 15, 2024 Just snoozing… Mama sloth holding on to a tree with her legs for a nap pic.twitter.com/ByLxS3dDk3 — Apurv Anand (@apurv_anand) March 15, 2024 Sloths—the sluggish tree-dwellers of Central and South America—spend their lives in the tropical rain forests. They move through the canopy at a rate of about 40 yards per day, munching on leaves, twigs and buds. Sloths have an exceptionally low metabolic rate and spend 15 to 20 hours per day sleeping. And surprisingly enough, the long-armed animals are excellent swimmers. They occasionally drop from their treetop perches into water for a paddle. It is my spirit animal.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser watched Trump’s rally last weekend and her mind was blown. If only we could get everyone to do this at least once: [L]ike so much about Trump’s 2024 campaign, this insane oration was largely overlooked and under-covered, the flood of lies and B.S. seen as old news from a candidate whose greatest political success has been to acclimate a large swath of the population to his ever more dangerous alternate reality. No wonder Biden, trapped in a real world of real problems that defy easy solutions, is struggling to defeat him. This is partly a category error. Though we persist in treating the 2024 election as a race between an incumbent and a challenger, it is not that so much as a contest between two incumbents: Biden, the actual President, and Trump, the forever-President of Red America’s fever dreams. But Trump, while he presents himself as the country’s rightful leader, gets nothing like the intense scrutiny for his speeches that is now focussed on the current occupant of the Oval Office. The norms and traditions that Trump is intent on smashing are, once again, benefitting him.

Neoconservatives only hate “interference” in Israel when it means anything other than blank-check support for apartheid and slaughtering Palestinians.

The post Outrage at Chuck Schumer’s Speech: The Pro-Israel Right Wants to Eat Its Cake Too appeared first on The Intercept.

Practiced mostly by women, this fishing tradition is thousands of years old. Can it survive?

The post The Plight of Japan’s Ama Divers appeared first on Nautilus.

The military isn’t properly tracking what happens to the billions’ worth of weapons being sent to Ukraine, even though the country has a history of illicit arms diversions.

Forensics has reached the final frontier, and could be used to solve future space accidents—or crimes.

The post How Does Blood Splatter in Space? appeared first on Nautilus.

He claims that Trump isn’t planning to follow the “conservative agenda” he followed during their first term but that’s obviously nonsense. He’s gotten more fascist but he was fascist to begin with. But Pence not endorsing is a real rebuke to some of the other cowards like McConnell and Sununu who have decided to keep boot licking for no good reason. He was Trump’s adoring VP for four long years and he’s found the courage to just say no. Congratulations Mike. After much soul searching and attempts to rationalize helping with the coup attempt, you finally did the right thing. And I guess you liked how that felt. Or maybe you just understand that your political life as a MAGA cultist is over so you might as well let your normal flag fly. Either way, welcome to the Resistance, You may find that it feels good to be able to look yourself in the mirror every morning.

I just read Barb McQuade’s new book. Attack from Within. How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. I had planned to go see her in person at the Commonwealth Club and ask her some questions, but it was sold out, plus I knew what would happen, the first person at the mic would say, “I don’t have a question so much as a 3 part comment ” and talk for 5 minutes.” (I’m guilty of that myself, I even used that phrasing as a joke line with my friend Cory Doctorow and Annalee Newitz at his book reading for Red Team Blues. ) My goal when asking book authors questions is to help them amplify the parts I see as important in a memorable way. Especially for an audience that needs to hear it, but will likely never read the book. So when I heard Barb was going to be on the Nicole Sandler show I wrote Nicole and said, “I think the most important point Barb makes in the book is that with social media our old metaphors of speech & debate are out of date and they are being used against us. Please get Barb to repeat this, with examples!

New evidence uncovered in a Byline Times #MediaToo investigation questions the assault charge that led to the TV presenter's suicide

Here’s an interesting little insight into the workings of the FBI. You know, the agency that the Republicans want to de-fund? Maybe they need to rethink that seeing as it’s filled with MAGA insurrectionists: Hi, it’s Jason Leopold with the second installment of my new weekly newsletter, FOIA Files. If you haven’t yet, sign up now to get it delivered to your inbox every Friday. As news of the Mar-a-Lago raid unfolded on the morning of Aug. 8, 2022, it unsurprisingly drew fierce reaction from Trump, his biggest backers, and many Republican members of Congress. But a cache of documents I recently obtained from the FBI shows just how much the historic event roiled some of the bureau’s rank and file, forcing FBI Director Christopher Wray to engage in damage control. “Did this really just happen? Am I dreaming? The FBI served a Search Warrant on a former president?” wrote an incredulous bureau employee in an email that was sent to the FBI’s acting ombudsman, Chauncenette Morey, shortly after the Mar-a-Lago search. “If he took documents, give him a call and ask for them back. Like … Seriously? My own agency ….

The sweetest words in the English language: I told you so. French submarines, the first of which were scheduled for delivery in 2034 under a $90bn program with France’s Naval Group – before the contract was ripped up by the Morrison government – were lethal and affordable. Now we know that the US is very Continue reading »

Europe and Australia are facing a common existential threat: a creeping irrelevance caused, on the one hand, by our failure properly to invest and, on the other hand, by our ill-considered slide from a strategic dependence on the United States to a non-strategic, self-defeating servility to Washington’s policy agenda. Yanis Varoufakis’s address at the National Continue reading »

Since the 1980s I have been urged by my Labor Party colleagues to keep political messages simple and to listen to the local community. This practical advice was welcome and fairly accurate throughout my political career in and out of parliament. Nevertheless, I also discovered that it was wise to never underestimate my electorate which Continue reading »

Not unexpectedly, the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project has run into reality as Virginia class production slows down, leaving Australia with no Defence policy. A huge strategic failure, if endorsed government assessments are believed, which has left Australia vulnerable and dependent on America. The 2000 White Paper’s highest priority was to “be able to defend Australia Continue reading »

In Asian media this week: ‘Inexorable, predictable’ proceedings against Move Forward. Plus: South Korea’s new envoy at heart of political row; Xi revives Mao’s party-control dictum; Fukushima meltdown fuel still a mystery; China’s tai chi diplomatic culture; Singapore writer in long Taylor Swift gloat. In a slow-motion replay of the main contest in Thai politics Continue reading »

There has been significant media discussion (including P&I) of Defence Minister Marles’ recent announcement of the Surface Ship Review for the RAN – a step towards remedying the Defence procurement shambles inherited by the Albanese government and conducted by yet another retired US admiral! But there has been scant attention to the rabbit out of the Continue reading »