Mocking a prime minister for wishing Chinese Australians a happy new year says less about foreign policy than about how national identity is being weaponised in domestic politics.

When Sky News again mocked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for posting a Chinese New Year greeting, the segment carried the gravity usually reserved for interest rates or submarine contracts.

Fred Zhang

The US–Israel war on Iran is a direct breach of the UN Charter and a blow to international law. But the attempt to impose global hegemony and hollow out the UN will ultimately fail in a multipolar world determined to resist domination.

Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Sybil Fares

Multiple commanders across all branches of the US military have offered a fundamentalist Christian explanation for the attack on Iran, describing President Donald Trump as the harbinger of the Second Coming and the conflict itself as a “signal fire”for Armageddon, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has reported.

The MRFF, a US non-profit promoting the separation of church and state, as well as freedom of conscience within the military, said on Tuesday that it had received more than 200 complaints from active members of the US military over extremist Christian speeches delivered by commanding officers since the start of the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

Donald Trump and his national security team continue to push the narrative that the US is dominating Iran and that it is only a matter of time before Iran crumbles in the face of the might of the US military. Iran, apparently, has not received that memo and is pursuing its own course of action. We are now entering the fourth day of this unprovoked attack by Israel and the US and Iran shows no sign of weakening.

by Larry C. Johnson

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that there was an imminent threat from Iran.

"There absolutely was an imminent threat, and the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked [BY WHOM?], and we believed they would be attacked [BY WHOM?], that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded," Rubio told reporters. [SO AMERICA ATTACKED FIRST...]

US embassies are under attack as a result of Iran's retaliatory actions against US and Israeli strikes, the secretary added.

He said that the US focuses on destroying Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and responding to the alleged threat by Iran's navy to global shipping.

Within hours of the US launching ‘Operation Epic Fury’ against Iran, Tehran’s forces unleashed retaliatory strikes against American military bases in the Middle East, killing four US troops and destroying billions of dollars’ worth of equipment.

”We will make the Zionist criminals and the vile Americans regret [attacking Iran],” Iranian Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani said as the retaliatory strikes began on Saturday. “The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hell-bound oppressors of the international order.”

Welcome to our panel on media ethics – a topic with which probably all of us have dealt with at one time or another, be it as working journalists or as ombuds. As to codes of practice regarding standards and ethics, you may be familiar with the code of the US-Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). It states: ”Public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.

ONO-Session: Media ethics in the trenches: journalists should do no harm...

The Israel/US decapitation strike on Saturday hit the Ayatollah Khamenei when he was reportedly meeting with senior Iranian military officers. Was the Israeli hit a lucky coincidence or was this a deliberately planned trap? Did the US send a message to Khamenei for a meeting to discuss a US proposal in preparation for the planned Monday meeting — now cancelled — in Geneva?

Is Donald Trump Looking for an Exit Ramp?

by Larry C. Johnson

Rubio, Hegseth, Caine, Ratcliffe to Brief All Congress Members on Iran Tuesday - Speaker

US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that he arranged a classified briefing on March 3 for all members of Congress with senior administration officials amid the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

"I've arranged for a classified briefing for all members of Congress tomorrow at 5pm [22:00 GMT], and we're going to to have Secretary [Marco] Rubio, Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the CIA Director [John] Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General [Dan] Cain. They're all going to brief the House and Senate members, Republican and Democrat," Johnson told the KEEL radio station.

Rubio is also set to brief House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill later on Monday, according to the State Department's schedule.

Western governments, including Australia and New Zealand, have backed US and Israeli strikes on Iran. But the decision risks economic catastrophe, regional escalation and the further erosion of international law.

Western countries, including Australia and New Zealand, were quick to line up to support the US-Israeli blitzkrieg on the Islamic Republic of Iran launched this weekend. They were effectively throwing international law into a cauldron of blood and mayhem. These same Western powers – and the Gulf Arab states that stand with them – may soon come to regret it.

Eugene Doyle

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private phone calls to US President Donald Trump last month pushing for a strike on Iran despite favouring diplomacy publicly, the Washington Post reported.

In January the crown prince said that he would not allow his country's airspace or territory to be used for an attack on Iran. He said that Saudi Arabia would respect the sovereignty of Iran and urged Washington and Tehran to resolve issues through dialogue.

The US and Israel launched a joint military strike that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites on Saturday after stalled nuclear talks and claims that Iran had resumed its nuclear activities.

The US president vowed revenge after three US service members will killed by Iran, and called on Iranians to rise up. DW has the latest.

Trump on Iran: 'US will avenge the deaths of Americans'
by Timothy Jones | Mahima Kapoor | Karl Sexton with AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa | Felix Tamsut | Darko Janjevic editor | Wesley Dockery

Australia has declared its support for US action against Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and “to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security”.

But Australia’s department of foreign affairs (Dfat) has warned of the risk of “reprisal attacks and further escalation” across the Middle East after the attack.

In a statement issued on Saturday evening, Anthony Albanese said: “Australia stands with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression.”

Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election could not have come at a better time for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More than 13 months since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack, Israel finds itself on a roll. Since the beginning of the year, Israel has assassinated much of the senior leadership of both Hamas and Hezbollah, decimated their ranks, and conducted precision strikes in Iran. At home, after seeing his approval rating hit rock bottom following October 7, Netanyahu has watched his popularity start to rebound.

Now Netanyahu and his government see a rare opportunity for a comprehensive realignment .....