The earth has moved under our feet, and our massive security gamble is crumbling, but the government pretends nothing has happened, writes Michael Pascoe.

Tits on a bull, the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, all same same. The former committee is a random mix of odds and sods – even Ralph Babet – as could be assembled, the latter stacked with fans of last century’s security stories, devotees of Pax Americana, fed and watered by the local and American security establishment to think no further than their outdated Anglosphere prejudices.

Australia’s security abandoned to the folly of declining US empire

by Michael Pascoe

Donald Trump’s latest National Security Strategy memorandum treats the freedom to coerce others as the essence of US sovereignty. It is an ominous document that will – if allowed to stand – come back to haunt the United States.

The 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) recently released by President Donald Trump presents itself as a blueprint for renewed American strength. It is dangerously misconceived in four ways.

Jeffrey D. Sachs

In Botticelli’s masterpiece Pallas and the Centaur (1482-83), to be seen at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, the Firenze-Athena parallel is unmistakable, with Florence depicted as the new Athens.

Pallas Athena (or Minerva), after all is the Goddess of Knowledge. Here a flowery Firenze – or Firenze Flora, to remind us of another Botticelli masterpiece, the Primavera – is shown as the quintessential emblem of civilitas.

If Western Europe is to be saved from oblivion, this is where it will happen
If the current, fragmented collective West would ever have a chance to be rescued from the Centaur of oblivion, that task must be carried out by the definitive, Western civilization-state: Pallas Athena Itali

BY Pepe Escobar

UPDATE: At least 16 people have been killed and more than 35 injured — many in critical conditions — in a shooting near a Jewish gathering at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

One shooter was killed, while another is in custody. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-15/bondi-attack-could-change-australia-like-port-arthur-massacre/106142102

Warning: This story contains details which may distress some audience members.

[This is the fourth part of a series on Syria and the effects of CIA intervention there, tied for the one year anniversary of the Syrian “revolution.” See Part I, Part II, and Part III.—Editors]

How do you sell the idea of a moderate rebellion without alienating the extremists who will do the actual fighting? 

[INTERESTINGLY, GUS RECENTLY HAD A SIMILAR DISCUSSION — ALBEIT MUCH SHORTER — WITH SOMEONE WHO "DIDN'T KNOW" THE INFLUENCE OF THE JEWS ON THE 1917 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION....] 

A correspondent who goes by the moniker “Gennadiy Gessen” emailed me three years ago with a litany of questions. He sought to challenge me on a number of issues. What follows is our exchange, which is rather lengthy.

Debating Jewish Involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution

JONAS E. ALEXIS

The famed Liberal Party powerbroker Walter Villatora is a former campaign manager for Mike Baird and Tony Abbott. Believing the “Liberal Party is finished”, he resigned his membership last week to start his own conservative party, Reform Australia.

Ex-Liberal Party powerbroker says ‘the party is over’

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has been lobbying senior figures in the US to supply Australia with retiring nuclear submarines to give the nation strike power if conflict over Taiwan breaks out before its AUKUS submarines are delivered.

‘Need more firepower now’: US should give Australia retired nuclear subs, says Abbott

By Paul Sakkal and Jacqueline Maley

Speaking on this masthead’s Inside Politics podcast days after meeting with US Vice-President JD Vance, Abbott revealed his concern that US President Donald Trump’s stance toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine would encourage Chinese expansionism if it led to Vladimir Putin’s success.

While the Coalition and Murdoch media ramp up their campaign against renewable energy, renewables set yet another record – more than half the grid for the first time. What’s the scam?

The scam is the Coalition campaign to blame renewables for rising electricity prices has just gone into overdrive with Murdoch mastheads splashing today on energy bill scaremongering.

The lastest data from the National Electricity Market however shows that renewable energy now accounts, for the first time in November, for more than half of Australia’s grid. That’s wind and solar, whose wholesale prices, also according to the latest data, are far below fossil fuel prices. Rooftop solar just $9.28 per megawatt hour.

China, Iran, and Russia denounce the lies of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom regarding Iran’s nuclear program

by Amir Saeid Iravani , Fu Cong , Vasily Nebenzya

We write in response to the joint letter dated 20 November 2025 from the Permanent Representatives of France, Germany and the United Kingdom (the E3) (S/2025/759), and wish to recall the joint letter by the Foreign Ministers of the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation circulated on 2 September 2025 (A/79/1004–S/2025/546), which explicitly set out our positions in regard to the “snapback” mechanism as follows:

GUS: It was 100 years ago in December 1925 that Heisenberg finally formulated his UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE... HE PUBLISHED IT IN 1927....

THEREAFTER:....

US Sen. John Fetterman recently asked Israel’s president to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is on trial in his country for alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust—Talking Points Memo revealed on Thursday.

BY Brett Wilkins

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is suggesting the idea of holding elections as a ploy to secure a ceasefire, top Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told RT. Moscow has insisted that Kiev would use the pause in fighting to rearm and regroup.

The Kremlin’s response comes as Zelensky, whose presidential term expired over a year ago, has demanded security guarantees from Western backers in order to hold the vote.

Kiev suspended elections following the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, citing the imposition of martial law.

Commenting on Zelensky’s U-turn on the issue, Ushakov said: “He will see this as a chance to secure a temporary ceasefire, that’s all.”

The world’s leading genocide prevention group this week accused former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of “outright genocide denial” for comments last week attributing young Americans’ opposition to Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza to social media.