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There is a curious Chinese saying that cautions against “calling a stag, a horse”. As the Qin empire disintegrated, the wily Prime Minister Zhao Gao fed the second Qin dynasty Emperor (221-206 BC) false reports of imperial military victories. Lining up all the ministers at court, Zhao showed them a stag and demanded that they Continue reading »

More than 180 human rights and legal experts, social justice organisations and First Nations community groups have signed the open letter below condemning the Queensland Government for overriding the state’s Human Rights Act to lock children in the state’s police watch houses indefinitely. The letter is addressed to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark Ryan, Minister Continue reading »

The Statement from the Heart’s affirmation of the spiritual sovereignty of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their ancestral ties with the land is welcomed with gratitude by the Religion and Social Policy Network of the University of Divinity. RASP is humbled by the audacious generosity extended to the non-Indigenous Australian people through Continue reading »

Like it or not, the structure of global trade in green technologies and the raw materials required for their manufacture is being decided in an era when geopolitics trump markets, and the WTO’s credibility to check the abuse of national security exceptions is near rock bottom. The upshot, as Mari Pangestu explains in this week’s lead Continue reading »

Hong Kong can do nothing right, it seems. But it’s not the community’s fault: it lives on a fault line, trying to balance between two much larger, more powerful entities. Richard Cullen recalls a different occasion when two big powers, the US and the UK, had a difference of opinion. Often, much smaller communities end Continue reading »

Big Finish's Doctor Who - Once and Future: Time Lord Immemorial sees Christopher Eccleston & the late David Warner in a new audio adventure.

More trouble on the way? Rudy has been drunk for the past several years so it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that he was compromised by Russia in his quest to get Trump re-elected and make big bucks in the process. This bombshell report from Mother Jones suggests it happened: It was big news when Rudy Giuliani, once hailed as America’s Mayor, was indicted last month by a district attorney in Atlanta for allegedly being part of a criminal enterprise led by Donald Trump that sought to overturn the 2020 election results. Giuliani was back in headlines this week when he lost a defamation suit filed against him by two Georgia election workers whom he had falsely accused of ballot stuffing. Giuliani’s apparent impoverishment, caused by his massive legal bills, and even his alleged drinking have been fodder for reporters. But another major Giuliani development has drawn less attention: An FBI whistleblower filed a statement asserting that Giuliani “may have been compromised” by Russian intelligence while working as a lawyer and adviser to Trump during the 2020 campaign.

Cooking time: 45 mins.Preparation time: 15 mins.Main cooking utensil: shallow casserole, pan for waterOven temperature: 350-375°F.Oven position: center for 4-5 people you need:6 tablespoons margarine6 tablespoons sugar3 eggs¾ cup all-purpose flour sifted with 1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powdergenerous 1¼ cups milk Decoration:little sugar TO SERVE: Hot or cold with cream or […]

1. Check the receipt for your new inflatable standup paddleboard. It’s been six months since you ordered it after drunkenly scrolling your ex-coworker Brittney’s Instagram feed, which is full of majestic outdoor photos. You are way past the return window, so you might as well actually try it at this point.

2. Open the box that has been gathering dust in your garage. All of the components are included in a handy carrying case. You should find your board, a paddle, and a flimsy pump that looks like it couldn’t even handle a balloon.

3. Watch a quick tutorial on how to inflate your board and learn to paddle. It’s easy and fun.

4. Attempt to put everything back into the carrying case only to find that it magically shrank. Throw everything loose in the back of your vehicle.

5. Drive ninety minutes to a county park you found in a paddlesports Facebook group. Discover that there is no restroom facility.

6. Notice a sign posted at the boat launch. All watercraft must have an “invasive species waterway protection permit,” whatever the hell that is, or risk a two-hundred-dollar fine. You should have also purchased a life vest.

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on the former twitter on Wednesday that the Democrats are going to drag the country into a full-scale war to “unite the country behind Biden.” She said it would “be horrific”and would infuriate the country “but make no mistake, they want war.” Donald Trump was so pleased he actually re-posted her comment on his own social media platform Truth Social. Greene trying to portray herself as some sort of peacenik is possibly even more hilarious than Trump doing it but they both l like to position themselves as “anti-war” by calling Joe Biden a warmonger for supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. They claim to be “America First” or at the very least, “non-interventionist” as if they just want to give peace a chance but they don’t seem to realize this just doesn’t scan as their faux pacifism is belied by their extreme bellicosity. Take for example this on from Greene just a few months ago: As you can see, they’ve actually introduced legislation to “declare war” on the Mexican cartels.

Disney looks for PR help after Bob Iger, who earns $31 million a year, derided strikers as “not realistic.”

The post Disney Lists $330,000 Crisis PR Job After CEO Insults Striking Actors and Writers appeared first on The Intercept.

Ministers' claims that the school building scandal only emerged 'over the summer' is contradicted by evidence of warnings going back years

Or just when conservatives find it convenient? Fourteenth Amendment challenges (and counterchallenges) to Donald Trump’s disqualification for any public office in these United States are beginning to multiply. On its face, the post-Civil War constitutional amendment disqualifies Trump from running again for president over his involvement in the Jan. 6 attempted coup. Multiple conservative legal experts agree. Activists have already challenged Trump’s eligibility in North Carolina and Florida. And so? (CNN): New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, said earlier this week that he asked the state’s attorney general to examine the matter and advise him on the “provision’s potential applicability to the upcoming presidential election cycle.” The attorney general’s office said it was “carefully reviewing the legal issues.” In the statement, Scanlan said he wasn’t taking a position on the disqualification question and was not “seeking to take certain action” but was going to study the matter in anticipation of lawsuits.

The man picked by the Conservative Party to stand in Nadine Dorries' Mid Bedfordshire seat already has a string of controversies under his belt

Jan. 6 was just a warm-up Change can be threatening. It can be uncomfortable. What it means to an uncomfortably large number of white men who can’t get over themselves is an occasion for violence, even murder. In Jesus’s name. Spouses, children, and neighbors beware. Behold the righteous Christian soldier (and sometime bounty hunter) preaching death to MAGA enemies: Right Wing Watch elaborates: Stew Peters is a far-right virulently anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly “The Stew Peters Show” program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalists and antisemites and to spread wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and calls for violence. Lately, those calls for violence have become increasingly explicit, as just last week Peters used his program to urge Americans to begin exploring “extra-legal options” to remove “enemy combatants” like Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs from office.

Alex Lawson and Ryan Grim discuss the decadeslong struggle against Big Pharma to lower drug prices.

The post Medicare Drug Pricing Negotiations Advance appeared first on The Intercept.

Doctor Who: Doom's Day - Extraction Point is part of the 60th Anniversary multimedia event, a BBC novel from MG Harris that really works.

You ask me what all idiosyncrasy is in philosophers? … For instance their lack of the historical sense, their hatred even of the idea of Becoming, their Egyptianism. They imagine that they do honour to a thing by divorcing it from history sub specie æterni—when they make a mummy of it. Friedrich Nietzsche Nowadays there […]