Should the machines stop the useless human bickering — such as to what size a payola under the table for a building development application needs to be? Or stop us spending cash on warplanes that are obsolete two years before they come into service? Or promote Australian-built submarines that are automatically efficient at deciding where to go and dive? Should the machines decide to scuttle themselves before they and we make an arse of ourselves? And save humanity? This concept is not new... It has entered the recent folklore via the "Terminator" series... and countless movies with Transformers — in which our hero fights super machines armed with deadly ray-guns, with a matchstick — mechanical invaders and other "Toybots"... 

Gus Leonisky [3 Apr 2015]

On the 1000th day of the horrific genocide currently underway against the population of Gaza, what conclusions can be drawn?

They are numerous, obviously, and impossible to list them all here. But, first and foremost, and what directly concerns us, is the criminal silence of our authorities, which de facto and indelibly places them on the wrong side of history.

In response, there is growing opposition from citizens to the "values" to which our governments have resorted for years, values ​​that are nothing but hypocrisy to mask their duplicity.

On the 1000th day of the horrific genocide currently underway against the population of Gaza, what conclusions can be drawn?

BY Daniel VANHOVE

As promised, the full text of Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz's address during the extraordinary session of the National Assembly of People's Power, held on the afternoon of June 18, 2026, is provided below. In it, he reads and comments on all 176 proposed amendments, divided into 23 categories, that the Assembly is to approve. Since the deputies had the PowerPoint presentation with its numbering displayed on a giant screen, Marrero did not read the numbering aloud.

Manuel Marrero Cruz: Socialist planning does not exclude market rules: it must incorporate and regulate them.

Jacques-François Bonaldi 

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rejected US President Donald Trump’s demand for loyalty from other NATO members, insisting that no member state should impose its will on the others.

Pistorius made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with Der Spiegel, which was published on Thursday. He used the opportunity to play down tensions between Washington and Berlin, which were exacerbated by the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Pistorius was pressed on Trump’s remarks from last week, in which he said he is “disappointed with most” of the NATO members over their reluctance to take part in the Iran war. “I just want loyalty. You know, we’re so loyal to them. We are always fighting for them,” he said.

Right-wing podcasting in Australia is akin to a craft beer with a niche following. It is not a mass market.

Karl Stefanovic and Nine parted ways last week, immediately, rather than at the end of the year as originally agreed. The trigger was a podcast interview with Tommy Robinson, the British agitator and English Defence League founder whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Kos Samaras

The EU health authorities have linked Ukrainian-made instant noodles to a salmonella outbreak that has affected more than 100 people across Europe.

From November 2025 to June 2026, at least 106 infections were recorded in 13 EU member states and the UK, according to a joint statement released on Wednesday by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The outbreak has primarily affected children and young adults, with at least 49 people hospitalized.

Salmonella causes intestinal infection, typically resulting in diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal cramps. While most patients recover without specific treatment, the disease can be life-threatening for people with weakened immune systems. No deaths linked to the contaminated noodles have been reported.

One nation is popular like some people like farts in elevators... it's fun. It you run a poll about the effect and asked the question "did you think it was funny?..." about 55 per cent of elevator-travellers will say YES... If you ask the question "did you like it"... The poll comes close to a 99 per cent NO...

The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a Catholic priestly fraternity, has consecrated four new bishops without the papal approval, defying a last-ditch appeal by Pope Leo XIV to call the ceremony off. The move reignites an old row between the controversial ultra-traditionalist faction and the Vatican, as well as risks bringing a broader schism to the Catholic Church.

Hardline group triggers new schism in Catholic Church

The Society of Saint Pius X has consecrated bishops without papal approval, prompting the worst rift within the church in decades

The idea of a monoculture is repressive. What Australia needs is the opposite – a revived cosmopolitan version of multiculturism.

Pauline Hanson is insisting that Australia must be a monoculture and that any attempts to transform it into a multicultural society should be resisted. Angus Taylor seems to be tiptoeing around a similar proposal, insisting that ‘Australian values’ need to be ingrained in the minds of all Australians.

Allan Patience

The European Union’s in-house pollsters have concluded that their citizens overwhelmingly support the decisions made in Brussels, and want more of what the EU is giving them. It doesn’t take much digging to discover that someone is cooking the books.

How the EU uses polls to manufacture consent

The Eurobarometer survey seems custom-designed to deliver the answers Brussels wants

The Israeli government’s decision to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide has become one of the most symbolic and politically sensitive steps in Israel’s relations with Türkiye. On the surface, it may look like Israel feels the need to restore historical justice: A state founded by a people who survived the horrific tragedy of the Holocaust proclaims a moral obligation to recognize the tragedies of other peoples and oppose the denial of crimes against humanity.

Israel just found Türkiye’s weak spot

West Jerusalem’s Armenian Genocide recognition exposes a deeper fight for influence in Washington

BY Farhad Ibragimov

But in world politics, moral arguments rarely exist in isolation; most often, they gain traction when they coincide with national interests.

2017 — Russophobia in America today is as intense as it was at the height of Cold War when terrified school kids had “Duck and Cover” drills and the public was obsessed with bomb shelters. However, all the drama about Russian hacking and collusion are a smokescreen. The real conflict is about geopolitical power struggle for world domination, which involves hundreds of trillions of dollars, massive egos of Machiavellian elites, and nations driven by memory of the past and visions of the future.

Why The West Hates Putin – It’s More Than What You’re Being Told

China's ambassador to Australia has attacked Australia's domestic spy agency over allegations of foreign interference, warning it risks harming Australia-China relations.

Ambassador Xiao Qian has pointed to a video aired before a speech delivered by ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess last week as "casting aspersions" on China, prompting a sharp rebuke from the spy agency.

Chinese ambassador and ASIO trade barbs over foreign interference allegations

By Tom Lowrey [ABC]

The Liberals, it seems, can’t resist returning to damaging infighting even in the one part of the country where things have been going quite encouragingly for them. 

Once again the Victorian Liberals are caught up in another chapter of that extraordinary saga, “Doings of Deeming”. 

View from The Hill: Even when they’re doing quite well, Liberals find a way to put their foot in it

BY Michelle Grattan