The Western MSM are all a flutter: Russia are pulling out of Syria (sort of). They can’t quite decide if it’s a victory, or a defeat. They don’t know if it’s because they ran out of money, are giving up, or it’s all a big lie – but they all agree on two things: 1) Russia has not achieved anything and 2) This is a massive a surprise.

The chances of a July 2 federal election have shortened dramatically with the passage of Senate voting reforms after a marathon 40-hour debate.

The Coalition, with the support of the Greens and independent Senator Nick Xenophon, pushed through the bill shortly after 1.30pm on Friday by 36 votes to 23.

The debate was one of the longest considerations of a single bill in the past 26 years.

A Donald Trump surrogate said during a campaign event Monday morning that Bernie Sanders needs to find Jesus. Sanders, of course, is Jewish.  Many of his Polish relatives on his father's side were killed during the Holocaust.

Newly minted ambassador to the United States, former treasurer Joe Hockey, has taken the time to publicly defend Australia's climate change efforts after The New York Times published an editorial criticising changes at the CSIRO.

Two weeks ago, the revered American newspaper argued the decision to shift focus from climate change research and monitoring to mitigation and adaption stunned the scientific community and undermined commitments made at the November summit in Paris.

In the 21st century Americans have been distracted by the hyper-expensive “war on terror.” Trillions of dollars have been added to the taxpayers’ burden and many billions of dollars in profits to the military/security complex in order to combat insignificant foreign “threats,” such as the Taliban, that remain undefeated after 15 years. All this time the financial system, working hand-in-hand with policymakers, has done more damage to Americans than terrorists could possibly inflict.

My name is Anne Kennedy, and I’m a farmer from Coonamble, in north-west NSW.

New laws proposed by the NSW Government this week would mean a possible seven year jail term for farmers like me if we try to stop coal seam gas mining from destroying our groundwater.

ACTU Secretary, Dave Oliver said: "Unions are deeply concerned about the timing of the Liberal/Green proposals to reform Senate voting and have been voicing our concerns over their potential to open the door to a raft of anti-worker legislation since they became public."

"Malcolm Turnbull is using this deal to try and railroad crossbench Senators into supporting anti-worker legislation - such as the return of the ABCC - by directly threatening their seats in Parliament.

"Not to mention the potential damage that could be inflicted by a post double-dissolution joint sitting giving the Liberals the opportunity to radically attack workers' rights.