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Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 04:57
After meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last April, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, sa­id that the two countries had pledged “to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests.” In recent moves exemplifying this support, New Zealand has deployed a targeting team to a United States-led Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 04:57
As the Ukrainian war appears to be nearing its conclusion, the question is what a peace could look like. 1.The Worsening Situation. The window to a compromise peace with Russia is fast closing. Western hardliners are urging Ukraine to expend its remaining military resources in the vain hope of stopping and reversing Russia’s most recent advances, Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 04:56
The Communist Party of China has said the upcoming Third Plenary Session of its current 20th Central Committee will focus on “deepening comprehensive reform to advance Chinese modernisation.” Based on past practice and some recent public reports, Beijing is drafting its agenda now, but details are hard to come by. To piece together potential changes, Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 04:54
What is it about the Australian Jewish community, Australian Jewish ‘faith’ schools and Israel? Israel is another country, with its own raison d’être, decidedly blood-soaked. The young Israel had been created out of settler colonialism and terrorism in a country with a majority indigenous non-Jewish population. Australian Jewish families are Australian with a long history. Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 04:53
Why is opposition leader Peter Dutton campaigning on nuclear energy for Australia at this time? Michael Lester discuss with Professor Ian Lowe, Griffith University, with decades of experience in the nuclear industry and in academia, author of the benchmark book ‘long half life: the nuclear industry in Australia (Monash University Publishing). Lester and Lowe talk Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 04:52
Noel Turnbull correctly writes that media coverage of the federal opposition’s nuclear power proposal is superficial. There is a very wide range of as yet unanswered issues. First, who will build and operate the proposed nuclear power stations. Many years ago, when the Commonwealth proposed establishment of a nuclear power station, it settled on Jervis Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 04:27
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – June 16 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – June 16 2024

by Tony Wikrent

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Strategic Political Economy

‘The whole supply chain is subsidised’: inside the EU’s blockbuster Chinese EV probe 

[South China Morning Post, via Naked Capitalism 06-13-2024]

…the tariff percentages the EU would slap on electric vehicle imports from China landed with a bang.

Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 03:30
The only thing Trump gets in return is destruction of America’s alliances a nuclear arms race and possibly Europe. Win-win for both parties I guess: Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday blasted the scale of U.S. support for Ukraine and said that if he is reelected in November he would immediately “have that settled.” At a campaign rally in Detroit, Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him “the greatest salesman of all time” for Kyiv’s push to secure U.S. support in its effort to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression more than three years after Moscow’s all-out invasion. “He just left four days ago with $60 billion, and he gets home, and he announces that he needs another $60 billion. It never ends,” Trump said. “I will have that settled prior to taking the White House as president-elect,” said Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in the U.S. election. Trump said again the other day that he would also have secured the release of Evan Gerskovich as president-elect.
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 02:30
“imagine if Biden did it” That wasn’t all. He did his weird schtick about shower heads too: At least he doesn’t have a stiff gait because that would be a deal breaker.
Created
Mon, 17/06/2024 - 00:30
The kitchen table is on fire Lewis Rothschild : People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.  Donald Trump steps up to the microphone a lot. But to Americans too busy to listen, too overworked to devote their precious free time to political news, they hear only the loudest voices and feel how the world feels. To them. They’ll be asked this fall to hire leaders. From the president on down to the local school board. What they want in their leaders are people who will fight for them. It’s not just what you say. Words are cheap. It’s what you do. And voters need to see you doing it. Anat Shenker-Osorio had a long essay in Rolling Stone yesterday, not so much about messaging (her specialty) but about voter attitudes she sees in her focus groups: If my colleagues and I took a shot everytime someone in these groups decried the Democrats as doing nothing on the fascism front, we’d have cirrhosis. As one disaffected Democratic white woman from Arizona said in April, “I don’t think any of them care really.
Created
Sun, 16/06/2024 - 11:15
New York City’s 2024 Tribeca Film Festival is running through June 16th. The festival (co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001) features a variety of media platforms, including film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games, and XR. I’m doing virtual coverage; as much as I’d love to be skipping down the streets of my birth city (well…technically Queens), physical mobility issues have made travel too uncomfortable. At any rate, I’ll be sharing reviews over the next couple weeks. The good news is that you can virtually attend as well-the festival is offering select titles via the “Tribeca at Home” online portal. Check out the website for more info. Let’s dive in! Brats (U.S.) *** – Linndrums,  teen angst, and synths…oh my! If you are of a certain age, you may recall a distinctive sub-genre of of films that propagated in the early-to-mid 80s.