A delivery of second-hand Australian Abrams tanks to Ukraine faces possible complications after US President Donald Trump's recent temporary freeze on military assistance to the war-torn nation.
The decline in religion is something that interests me greatly, as anyone who reads this blog can attest. I originally wrote about in in 2019, with an essay on the decline of religion in the Anglophone world, wherein I tracked the proportion of the population who, according to the census, had no religious affiliation. In 1966, only 0.8% of the population reportedly had no religious affiliation whereas, at the time the last census for which data was available (i.e. that of 2016), indicated that 30.1% of the population had no religious affiliation1.
Australia must take up the challenge presented by its rift with the United States over trade and foreign policy to strengthen bilateral relationships with other countries in these critical areas. We should also move to capitalise on the opportunities President Donald Trump has created by pulling back on climate commitments and USAID.
John HewsonRoad map to a US reset
A New York Times report on Thursday is either fake or people at the FBI or CIA ran to the paper to undermine their boss, though there’s no real reason both can’t be true.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid the asking price for Itamar Ben-Gvir’s return to the government in advance. Not out of his own pocket, of course, but with the blood of the 59 hostages whose fate could be sealed by the resumption of the war, which has already sealed the fate of hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children.
Russia’s diplomacy chief, Sergey Lavrov has had to deal with eight US secretaries of state, impressing almost all of them. Let’s have a glimpse at his track record with US diplomats.
DXY is back and EUR flamed out. AUD is getting kicked in the teeth. And the shorts have piled back in. Lead boots tripped. Trump will regret damaging Iranian oil output. Commodities were hammered. Big miners are in a big bear market. EM yawn. Junk stressed a bit. Need more. Yields flat. Stocks flat. AUD
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WHEN SVANTE ARRHENIUS DID HIS CALCULATIONS IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY, HE PREDICTED THAT THE AMOUNT OF CO2 RELEASED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE BY THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION STARTED 50 YEARS EARLIER WAS ENOUGH TO RAISE GLOBAL TEMPERATURES BY ABOUT 2 (TWO) DEGREES CELSIUS.
WAS HE CORRECT?
Yesterday I read the following lines on the Internet – unfortunately without an author’s reference: This has never happened before: a man who has not even been elected chancellor yet negotiates the biggest borrowing in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany with parties that lost the election, in a Bundestag that has long since been dissolved.
Retired Royal Navy Rear Admiral Chris Parry stated that Russia would not be able to defend itself against a massive ICBM strike.
"One Trident submarine has the ability to incinerate 40 Russian cities very quickly. That is a lot of food for thought for Putin and that should make any world leader fearful," he told The Telegraph.
The big news on house insurance this week was the response of the insurance industry’s peak body to a parliamentary committee’s extensive criticisms of its treatment of people claiming on their policies after the massive floods of 2022.
Former US President Joe Biden has offered to raise funds, campaign, and do whatever is needed to help Democrats regain ground lost to the Republicans during his tenure, NBC News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.