Antony Blinken megaphoned the United States’ complaints about China in advance of his visit this week. They included Beijing’s unfair economic and trade practices, ‘industrial over-capacity’, and ‘genocide and crimes against humanity’ against Uyghurs. Coming from the nation most complicit in Israel’s human rights violations and potential genocide against Palestinians, the Secretary of State’s hypocrisy Continue reading »
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On Sunday 28 April, Defence Minister Richard Marles announced $100 million in military aid to Ukraine. It was said to raise Australia’s support to $1 billion in support of Ukraine’s attempt to counter “Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion”. I have hitherto addressed the issue of the “morality”, at least, of Russia’s invasion: Ukraine: The other Continue reading »
Community trust in journalism is at an all-time low. Even politicians rate higher. Our media – journalists, publishers and broadcasters – should urgently get together and work out how best to rebuild public confidence in what is being presented as news. What lessons can be learnt from the recent high profile Ben Roberts-Smith and Bruce Continue reading »
Russian claims to Crimea based on historical ownership, language or the illegitimacy of past decisions are weak. They provide no justification for its invasion and annexation or continued possession of Crimea. Several myths about Ukraine and Russia’s invasion keep doing the rounds. One such zombie thesis is the idea that Crimea is historically and rightfully Continue reading »
The world would be a better place if US politicians exercised the same conscientiousness over Palestine as they have over the Chinese autonomous region. While American politicians have been busy sending weapons to Israel to slaughter Palestinians, they still find time to fret about freedom for Tibet. Just now, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Continue reading »
Kit Klarenberg explores the sudden vanishing act of Western media and political attention after new intelligence challenges the narrative surrounding Alexei Navalny's death.
The post Inside Job? Ominous New Questions Surround Navalny’s Death appeared first on MintPress News.
The good news about the Vatican’s recent document, “Dignitas Infinita: on Human Dignity” is that...
Georgian Dream's 'Russian-style' law has prompted strong statements of concern from the UK, US and EU with critics saying it is an attempt to muzzle the media and NGOs – it may also end Georgia's hopes of joining the EU
Dan Pfeiffer’s newsletter today answers one big question: The biggest divide in politics is not between Left and Right; it’s between political junkies and everyone else. There is a massive chasm between those who actively seek out political news and the vast majority of the country. The gap has been exacerbated by tectonic shifts in the media environment. I summarized the changes that led to this “News Gap” in a recent post: Readers (and the writer) of this newsletter have barely noticed the changesy. We watch cable news, we download podcasts, subscribe to newsletters, and (some of us) still use Twitter to track current events. We are junkies. We seek out political news at every opportunity. But for the vast majority of Americans, who do not actively engage with politics and the news, these changes significantly altered their media diets and what they know about politics and politicians. Pfeiffer says that 3 polls this week address that phenomenon and somewhat answer the question about why this race is so close.
Monday is your new Saturday morning, the start of the weekend. Once your kids are at school, you have a lazy morning of self-care (clearing your inbox) followed by brunch with friends (an all-hands meeting in the conference room with stale bagels). You round out the afternoon by spending time in nature (dozing off in a desk salad).
Tuesday is Saturday afternoon. After a slight interruption to your weekend (Monday evening with your kids), you’re ready to get back to the fun. You host a boozy book club (your colleague stops by your desk to comb through the latest all-company memo for hints that layoffs are coming). Tired, you decide to take in a matinee (mandatory webinar on cybersecurity).
Wednesday is spa day (pooping in the office bathroom stall with no interruptions). You deserve it!
Thursday, you have a sunny date in the park (meeting with HR to discuss an unfortunate misunderstanding of your office’s policy against filling the bathroom with lighted candles). Against a soundtrack of soft jazz music (buzzing fluorescent lightbulb and stern reprimands), you feel your stress melt away.
Plus, Boeing drops incriminating evidence on an attorney, gambling takes over old-fashioned arcade games, and that time Nixon almost fought climate change.
As everyone wrings their hands over campus protests let’s take a look at the leader of the Republican youth movement’s top leader: Yeah. I think we can all afford to take a deep breath and remember that campus protests are among America’s foremost liberal traditions and calm down about it. (I say that to myself as much as anyone.)
Reflections on a philosopher who believed we can solve the problem of consciousness.
The post I Never Stopped Learning from Daniel Dennett appeared first on Nautilus.
And we’re not yet over the PTSD from COVID-19 As if America needed another reason not to hand the White House again to Donald “88 Counts” Trump. Do we really want Dr. Bleach-and-Light Enemas recommending quack remedies and maskless Everydays should we face another deadly pandemic? NPR: Officially, there is only one documented case of bird flu spilling over from cows into humans during the current U.S. outbreak. But epidemiologist Gregory Gray suspects the true number is higher, based on what he heard from veterinarians, farm owners and the workers themselves as the virus hit their herds in his state. “We know that some of the workers sought medical care for influenza-like illness and conjunctivitis at the same time the H5N1 was ravaging the dairy farms,” says Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “I don’t have a way to measure that, but it seems biologically quite plausible that they too, are suffering from the virus,” he says. Dr. Irwin Redlener (remember him from 2020?) is concerned: NBC News: The U.S.
One ex-Army MP branded the situation "ludicrous" while even Conservatives seemed to despair
The housing emergency in London is bleak. Private renters in London now pay an average of 35 percent of their income on rent, around two and a half times the equivalent figure for 1980. Rough sleeping in the capital has risen by a massive 32 percent in the last year, the highest of any region […]