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A 2007 Defense Department study found glaring problems with America’s Horn of Africa campaign plan. The U.S. military plunged ahead anyway.

The post Who Could Have Predicted the U.S. War in Somalia Would Fail? The Pentagon. appeared first on The Intercept.

Everyone has lots of advice for Joe Biden about the State of the Union speech tonight. I suspect it will be like most of them — forgettable. The wing nuts can make it a little bit more memorable by acting like juvenile delinquents and maybe Biden can get off a few memorable lines. Generally, these things just engender a lot of breathless anticipation only to land with a whimper not a bang. However, we are in the middle of the most high stakes presidential campaign in my lifetime so it would be very good if Biden did well tonight and begin to change the trajectory of this race. There are as many ideas about what he should do about that as there are talking heads. But I like this from Brian Beutler: I like to point out that Donald Trump is a shitty person along multiple axes, and I believe his shittiness, which makes him unlikable, is his biggest political liability.  There are others liberals who believe complaining about corruption and poor character falls flat if it seems disconnected from regular workaday concerns. Donald Trump accepted millions of dollars in payments from China while he was president?

WITH Coffs Coast students to undergo NAPLAN assessments this month, a local school principal has backed the tests as one key provider of data on a child’s academic development. The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual, nationwide assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Advertise with News...

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BPW COFFS COAST hosted their International Dinner and Candle Lighting Ceremony at the CWA Meeting Rooms in Coffs Harbour last Wednesday. Members and supporters of BPW were joined by women representing many nations that make up the varied multicultural community on the Coffs Coast. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for...

The post Multicultural community enjoys International Dinner and Candle Lighting ceremony in Coffs Harbour appeared first on News Of The Area.

The nine justices of the United States Supreme Court sit in their conference room around a grand table fashioned out of old-growth mahogany trees stolen from a Honduran rainforest.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Okay, then, that’s settled. The vote is six to three to make it legal to hurl diseased cow carcasses into Lake Tahoe. What’s next on the agenda?

JUSTICE ALITO: Can we consider that case about whether women should have the right to drive?

JUSTICE GORSUCH (under his breath): Women. Right to drive. Ha.

JUSTICE KAGAN (sighing): How about if we took a short break? I’m so tired. So very, very tired.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I think we could spare a few minutes, sure.

JUSTICE THOMAS: Who wants to talk about guns?

Making the news in the mainstream western media around the world, but not in Australia which is hosting the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit 2024, was the forthright response from Malaysia PM Anwar Ibrahim during his press conference to a question from Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) journalist Stephen Dziedzic. The transcript of this conversation is reproduced here Continue reading »

It is the once-a-year day when the media wants content on how women are fairing. That is not a spelling error but my description of the limited ‘equality’ that women have gained over the last half century. The following is my perception, now in my mid 80’s, as I have been actively involved in feminist Continue reading »

“Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think.” Hannah Arendt You might want to argue with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ view expressed in November 2023 that the Gaza Strip was even then a “graveyard for children”. An unimaginably small area (365 square kilometres; Greater Sydney is 34 times its size), Continue reading »

George Galloway is a British MP again, and it’s the moment he’s been waiting for. His victory in a Rochdale by-election, he told Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer, ‘is for Gaza’. Galloway has been an advocate for Palestine ever since he visited Beirut in 1977 and decided to ‘devote the rest of [his] life to Continue reading »

Picture a courtroom scenario, the accused and his family members have eyes on the jury foreman who is about to announce the verdict. The accused knows he is guilty, but is hoping for luck to come his way through the jury’s decision. The foreman speaks: “Guilty”. A word? No, a sentence. Not just for the Continue reading »

The liberal international order has been responsible for a great many deaths. If the “anti-liberal internationale” becomes ascendant, however, we will see those numbers multiplied exponentially. It is not a stretch to say that the Liberal Party’s campaign in the Dunkley by-election places them firmly in the illiberal category. This is hardly surprising since several Continue reading »

The conclusion of a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” by two states leads few observers to experience frissons of excitement. However, the Partnership agreed yesterday between Anthony Albanese and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Minh Chinh is more than an announceable wrought by officials to garner a headline or two for their principals. For many countries -including Vietnam- Continue reading »

I see in the persecution of Julian Assange, a parallel with a technique put together by the United States in the destruction of Iraq that they called shock and awe, wherein all of the institutions of state were destroyed and plundered, with the exception of the department concerning itself with the production of oil. Now Continue reading »

Sen. Tom Cotton demands the Pentagon root out leftist extremism.

The post Will Aaron Bushnell’s Death Trigger Anarchism Witch Hunt? appeared first on The Intercept.

BOOKFEST is back. The annual bookie bonanza run by the Rotary Club of Coffs Harbour opens on Saturday 9 March, running daily until Saturday 16 March 2024 at the Norm Jordan Pavilion at Coffs Harbour Showground. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02)...

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With almost no options for escape, people in Gaza are increasingly paying thousands of dollars to fixers connected to the Egyptian government.

The post Desperate To Escape Gaza Carnage, Palestinians Are Forced to Pay Exorbitant Fees to Enter Egypt appeared first on The Intercept.

MINISTER for the North Coast Rose Jackson visited Coffs Harbour on Tuesday 5 March to attend meetings with key community and stakeholder representatives. Ms Jackson holds a diverse portfolio of ministerial responsibilities, also serving as the Minister for Water, Housing, Homelessness, Mental Health and Youth. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it...

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ONE hundred basketballs have been donated to eight local schools through the Rotary Club of Sawtell’s Youth Program. The bag-fulls of basketballs have been distributed between Boambee Primary, Sawtell Primary, Bonville Primary, Bayldon Primary, Toormina Primary, Toormina High, Coffs Harbour Christian Community School as well as the Coffs Harbour PCYC. Advertise with News of The...

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In the mid-80s, the UK was witnessing a surge in anti-apartheid sentiment. The cultural boycott had broad support from The Rolling Stones to Dusty Springfield, and the Specials’ 1983 anthem ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ was a rallying cry from UK marches to South African townships. Simultaneous political shifts were taking place within British councils, as several […]