Religious nationalism is increasingly entangled with political and military power in the United States and elsewhere. Australia should ask what that means for an alliance on which it continues to rely.

The reason for Pete Hegseth, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump’s Iranian conflict, which seems without end, and in the process wreaking untold global damage, has not been properly documented. Its primary cause is not military threat but religious nationalism – in Hegseth’s case, Christian nationalism; in Netanyahu’s case, Zionistic nationalism.

George Browning

For over a decade, scientists have warned the world must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) to avoid the most severe consequences of climate change.

That goal is no longer within reach.

Russia is ready to resume three-way negotiations with the US and Ukraine to discuss security arrangements for when the conflict has ended, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.

The announcement followed nearly three hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff at Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Jared Kushner joined by video link after illness prevented him from traveling.

Ushakov said Putin told Witkoff that Moscow was “in principle, ready to resume” trilateral negotiations in mid-November, with the main topic being a post-conflict security system for Russia and Ukraine. Witkoff indicated that Trump would welcome the proposal, the aide added.

Residents of New South Wales, Australia could soon have the option to make a final contribution to their garden upon death, after the state’s parliament approved turning human remains into compost as an alternative to burial and cremation.

The bill, introduced by Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, cleared the upper house on Wednesday after passing the lower house unanimously last week. It now awaits assent, with a minimum two-year wait before going into force.

Known as ‘terramation’ or natural organic reduction, a body is placed in a vessel with wood chips, straw, and other plant material. Microbes break down the remains, producing material that can eventually nourish trees and gardens.

US operator Recompose says its process takes 8-12 weeks, including a curing period. Remaining bones are mechanically ground down and mixed back in, and artificial implants are removed.

The images of French and Italian cities gripped by unrest are shocking, while Albania is in turmoil, police are dispersing demonstrators in Argentina, and India’s protests show no sign of abating. Add the upheavals across the Global South, and the parallels with 1968 become difficult to ignore.

That year, political and social unrest swept across much of the world almost simultaneously. It was a less interconnected age, divided by the Cold War, yet similar movements erupted in countries with vastly different political systems as a remarkable synchronization of discontent took place. 

Direct comparisons are inevitably imperfect, but many of the underlying grievances are familiar, such as inequality, problems in education, wars without clear objectives, and growing frustration with political elites unwilling or unable to adapt.

The US arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raul Castro is political revenge, Russia has said, warning that escalating pressure on Havana could destabilize Latin America and the Caribbean.

A Florida judge issued the warrant on Monday against Castro, 95, on a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder over the 1996 downing of two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue – a Miami-based Cuban exile group led by CIA operative Jose Basulto, who has long pressed for charges against Castro. Four men were killed in the shootdown.

The US authorities accuse Castro of ordering the attack. Havana maintains it acted in self-defense against aircraft violating its airspace. The Cuban Embassy in Washington accused the group of committing more than 25 airspace violations from 1994 to 1996, despite repeated warnings from Havana.

The U.S. and Japan kicked off their biennial Keen Sword military exercise on Monday, one of the largest joint drills between the two countries. This year, the exercise will focus on Japan’s southwestern islands, including its westernmost island, Yonaguni, just 68 miles east of Taiwan.

We have explore psychopathy and sociopathy in depth somewhere on this site with the caveats that about four per cent of men are psychopaths and one per cent of women are psychos as well…

Meanwhile social-sociopathy should be defined differently as sociopathy…

THIS ANALYSIS IS A SIMPLISTIC SHORT CUT TO A COMPLEX PROBLEM….

By Gus leonisky

Psychopaths are usually born with the symptoms and are difficult for a social construct to deal with them when they become dangerous. They usually are “uneducated” and end up in prison or an asylum for “mad” people, more often than not. 

These cases are usually self-contained individual vessels who interfere ALONE with their relationships — be with their family, neighbours or social networks.

The worm is turning in the populist race to the bottom on migration, overlooking the reality of its success and its humanity, Michael Pascoe writes.

It took Angus Taylor a little less than six months to develop – or devolve – his Australian Values Migration Plan dog whistle into the Coalition’s full One Hanson-slightly-lite Australia-First Migration Plan announced two weeks ago. Over that period, the political competition to be seen as the most anti-immigration party dominated media, successfully “flooding the zone” the way populists seek to do.

Politicians’ immigration race to the bottom ignores its success

by Michael Pascoe

Josh Frydenberg may be entertaining a return to federal politics, but finding a seat is only the beginning. His record, Liberal Party divisions and the rise of One Nation make the path back considerably harder.

Only three of the past 10 federal treasurers made it through to being prime ministers. John Howard, who was Malcolm Fraser’s last treasurer, had to wait 13 years between these jobs, and his succession was far from automatic.

Jack Waterford

Washington Tried to Isolate Russia. Now It Needs Russian Oil

Salman Rafi Sheikh, October 19, 2026

Four years after Washington set out to cripple Russia’s energy economy, America’s war with Iran has forced it to seek relief from the very country it tried to isolate, encircle, and defeat. [GUSNOTE: WASHINGTON HAS VOWED TO DESTROY RUSSIA, SINCE 1917]...

During a speech at the Las Vegas Sphere on Saturday, Metallica frontman James Hetfield took aim at artists like Macklemore for making political statements about the genocide in Gaza during their concerts.

“I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit, okay?” said Hetfield, adding, “We’re here to forget about all the outside shit, okay? Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!”

A Florida judge has issued an arrest warrant for former Cuban President Raul Castro, 95, the state’s attorney general announced on Monday. The move marks another escalation in Washington’s months-long pressure campaign against Havana.

The warrant pertains to the 1996 shooting down of two American planes operated by anti-communist Cuban exiles off Cuba’s coast. US authorities accuse Castro of ordering the attack.

“Today, we are announcing state charges against Raul Castro with an arrest warrant for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said at a press conference in Miami. Prosecutors had gathered evidence and witness testimony linking a Cuban spy network to the operation that allegedly led Castro to order the planes shot down, he said.

Democracy must extend beyond the ballot box, with meaningful public participation, greater accountability and genuine power in the hands of citizens, writes David Higginbottom.

PARTY MACHINES decide who stands.

Democracy belongs to the people, not the political machine

By David Higginbottom

Wealth accumulates faster than wages. Lobbyists and donors obtain access unavailable to most citizens. Governments make major decisions with little public involvement. Well-funded institutions seek to shape public debate while claiming to defend it.

These are major concerns — however, diagnosis is useful only if it leads to change.