Single frame. Trump at whiteboard with pointer. A line of backs of heads of various world leaders. (Macron Carney Albo Starmer Merz Von der Leyen). Written on whiteboard: “INTERNATIONAL RULES-BASED ORDER. 1. I RULE. 2. I ORDER THE REST OF THE WORLD AROUND.
Rules-based order.
My @smh cartoon.
Guardian live blog extract: Headline: "US attacked Iran 'pre-emptively' after learning Israel was going to launch strikes - Rubio" Text: "The US attacked Iran “pre-emptively” on Saturday to protect US forces from retaliation after learning that Israel was going to strike, Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday. The US secretary of state said: “There absolutely was an imminent threat. And the imminent threat was, that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed that they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded.” He added: “We knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.” Six US service members have been killed since Saturday."
This justification of an "imminent" threat is extraordinary. The US's position is that it had to strike because it knew that its ally Israel was going to attack and induce Iran to respond
Politico: Exclusive White House officials believe ‘the politics are a lot better’ if Israel strikes Iran first As the administration mulls military action in Iran, officials argue it’d be best ifIsrael makes the first move.
Extract from Politico story: "The calculus is a political one — that more Americans would stomach a war with Iran if the United States or an ally were attacked first. Recent polling shows that Americans, and Republicans in particular, support regime change in Iran, but are unwilling to risk any U.S. casualties to achieve it. That means Trump’s team is considering the optics of how an attack is conducted in addition to other justifications — such as Iran’s nuclear program. “There’s thinking in and around the administration that the politics are a lot better if the Israelis go first and alone and the Iranians retaliate against us, and give us more reason to take action,” said one of the people familiar with discussions. Both individuals were granted anonymity to describe private conversations. With hopes dimming in Washington for a diplomatic resolution to the standoff with Iran, the primary question is becoming when and how the U.S. attacks."
It’s pretty clear this was all agreed in advance. Here is a Politico story from 25 Feb stating Trump admin officials “are privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a U.S. strike” www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
Guardian live blog extract: Headline: "US attacked Iran 'pre-emptively' after learning Israel was going to launch strikes - Rubio" Text: "The US attacked Iran “pre-emptively” on Saturday to protect US forces from retaliation after learning that Israel was going to strike, Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday. The US secretary of state said: “There absolutely was an imminent threat. And the imminent threat was, that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed that they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded.” He added: “We knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.” Six US service members have been killed since Saturday."
This justification of an "imminent" threat is extraordinary. The US's position is that it had to strike because it knew that its ally Israel was going to attack and induce Iran to respond
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth: "The United States did not start this conflict, but we will finish it."
10 October 2023: Israel didn't start this war but will finish it: Benjamin Netanyahu
This line sounds familiar
![Extract from Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong's press conference on 1 March 2026:
Journalist: Israel described this as a pre-emptive strike, so was there an imminent threat? Was there talk of that? Is that why this was [indistinct]?
Foreign Minister: I'll leave it for the United States and Israel to speak of the basis, the legal basis for the attacks. What I would say to Australians is that Iran has been a destabilising force in the region for decades. It has orchestrated attacks on Australia, and I think we all understand that this issue did not start yesterday.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c4bgbkzeobr3gayf2e7wrqgr/bafkreicl2blcu32rp22td53prjhusxup4lvu34xfnfpvsxzcoxpk25ufgi@jpeg)
Extract from Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong's press conference on 1 March 2026: Journalist: Israel described this as a pre-emptive strike, so was there an imminent threat? Was there talk of that? Is that why this was [indistinct]? Foreign Minister: I'll leave it for the United States and Israel to speak of the basis, the legal basis for the attacks. What I would say to Australians is that Iran has been a destabilising force in the region for decades. It has orchestrated attacks on Australia, and I think we all understand that this issue did not start yesterday.
A very illuminating moment in Penny Wong's press conference today. The Australian foreign minister won't claim the attacks were legal #auspol
Reminder: you can oppose oppressive rulers AND be aware that illegal regime-change wars rarely end well
Re-upping this analysis from three years ago:
John Howard’s 2003 march to war with Iraq appears to have taught our current parliament little
www.theguardian.com/world/2023/m...
Honestly - this book/fever was so easy to spot as being fraudulent from the start. This sort of pretend progressivism only ever benefits the worst people
australiainstitute.org.au/post/gripped...
Nicely done. And only you are rigorous enough to include a caveat about event inflation!
Incredible how much the media has spent talking about hate speech laws and yet none of the thousands of articles on Hanson mention she recently was found by a federal court of breaching hate speech laws.
QUT will take over famous literary magazine Meanjin, after the journal was closed by Melbourne Uni Publishing last year.
This is a win for all who campaigned to save the masthead, but hardly makes up for the damage done last year www.smh.com.au/culture/book...
The scenes out of Sydney have police acting in a way that if and when it happens in other countries in the region, we consider it a frightening sign of democracy backsliding. And then the impunity that comes with it, which I'm sure we'll see plenty of!, further compounds that
This is no time for hiding behind "unfounded" or "said without evidence" media euphemisms. Clear language is more important than ever
"Boards composed of individuals with little experience in the arts, & blind to the moral implications of abandoning the principle of freedom of expression, hv bn unnerved by the pressure exerted by politicians calculating their electoral prospects & relentless, coordinated letter-writing campaigns"
This is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember.
I have been helping out with The Guardian's coverage of the Victorian bushfires and the Tropical Cyclone in Queensland. As extreme weather grows stronger and more frequent in the climate crisis, this is a reminder to check out my Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship With Big Oil for a primer:
This will be one to watch. International justice and accountability is important across the board, no exceptions
One of the regular complaints about rooftop solar subsidy schemes is that it only assists those who can afford to invest in rooftop solar - but as this is demonstrating, those subsidies protect the grid for those who can't afford the investment. Rooftop solar has benefit of the commons effects.
Stopped tweeting over at The Bad Place back in Dec 2022 shortly after a bunch of hateful accounts were reinstated post-ownership change. Never ever regretted it
Randa Abdel-Fattah uninvited from Adelaide Writers’ Week, because of Bondi, even though they "do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi." She just can't come anymore. Because Bondi.
www.adelaidefestival.com.au/news/2025/ad...
From the story: The ruling found that the implied freedom of political communication “protects the free expression of political opinion, including peaceful protest, which is indispensable to the exercise of political sovereignty by the people of the Commonwealth”.
Intriguing reporting from Nine here - the objection to former High Court justice Virginia Bell to lead the royal commission apparently relates to a previous decision where she upheld the democratic right to protest www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...
Just checking in on this
When weighing the credibility of comments from a certain former PM at the current time, it might be worth reading the entire transcript of his hands-off, no-underlying-racism-problem, don't-rush-to-judgment response the day after the Cronulla riots pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/tran...
This is the way #Meanjin ends — not with a bang but a whimper.
New FOI story from me for @crikey.com.au:
www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/17/m...
Just hours after the Bondi shooting, we saw a near-instant generation of closed loop of AI misinformation:
It appears that AI was used to generate a lie, which was then absorbed by AI, then regurgitated to others in a breaking news situation.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
My heart aches for Australia's Jewish community after the horrific and despicable Bondi attacks. No to dehumanisation, no to othering, yes to embracing shared humanity
If you are posting on or engaging with content on X, you are working as a volunteer laborer helping this specific man earn money and political influence.
Any person, group or organisation that is still there and helping keep you there: you have to make them get out, not give them reason to stay
a chart showing microsoft missing its targets
There is probably plenty going on inside Bill Gates' head, but I reckon one of the most parsimonious explanations of why he's sagely pronouncing that climate groups need to stop worrying about short-term emissions targets can be found in the sustainability reports of the company he founded.
