Saturday 27th of April 2024
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volcanic friends and families...

friends...friends...

Over several decades the ABC’s international service has built an enviable reputation in Asia and the Pacific as a trusted provider of quality, independent public media. Radio Australia, launched in 1939 as “Australia Calling”, grew into a world-renowned institution, and an international TV service broadcasting to 50 countries was added in 1993, with online services following a few years later. Through its international development arm (ABCID), the ABC has also fostered enduring relationships, especially in the Pacific where it has been highly valued as the main provider of support for local public interest media, including the building of effective media infrastructure and the provision of emergency information services.

 

In 2013 this expertise was harnessed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT). Concerned about growing political instability in the region, DFAT saw a value in media “soft power” as an effective strategy in influencing affairs in the region and awarded a $223 million, 10-year contract to the ABC to expand its broadcasting and online content service for Asia and the Pacific.

 

The decision was applauded by consumers, broadcasting professionals and heads of government, particularly in the Pacific.

 

Then inexplicably, less than a year later, the newly elected Abbott government decided the DFAT allocation was a waste of money. There was a view in the Coalition cabinet, reportedly, that there was no need for a strong Australian voice in the region and that if people wanted international coverage they could go to the BBC or CNN. Perhaps the cut was also motivated by an ideological preference for privatisation and, as many believe, by the fact that the previous Labor government had awarded the contract to the ABC over a rival Sky News bid, in controversial circumstances.

 

Read more:

https://johnmenadue.com/when-politics-fail-the-folly-in-under-funding-the-abcs-international-services/

 

In relation to Maryse Payne and friends/families in the cartoon see: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-17/foreign-affairs-min-marise-payne-raaf-assessing-tonga-damage/13707776

memories...

Tony Abbott has defended his government’s decision to cut Australia’s foreign aid budget by $11bn at a joint press conference with the Vietnamese prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung.

Dung and Abbott addressed the media after a formal ceremony, where the former signed a “declaration on enhancing the comprehensive partnership” between the two countries with the foreign minister, Julie Bishop.

 

Asked if he was embarrassed to explain Australia’s reduced aid budget to Dung, Abbott said Australia had made “modest reductions” but that remaining aid would focus on countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam.

“Look, obviously it’s important for all countries to ensure that their own domestic economic house is in order, because if you don’t have your domestic economic house in order, it’s very difficult to be a good friend and neighbour abroad,” Abbott said.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/18/tony-abbott-defends-11bn-cut-foreign-aid-vietnamese-pm-visit

 

Of course the Holden-driving Tonio Abboott is short on historical knowledge — apart that "before the English (like himself) came to Orstraya, the place was a desert with no-one living on it".... The only memory he has of bombing Vietnam is his grand plan to increase the size of the War Memorial in Kanbra, with sporsorship from the Warmongers suppliers.

 

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nearly vanished....

volcanovolcano

Roscosmos reveals carnage of Tonga eruption in before & after photos

 

A Russian satellite captured the scale of the devastation from space, showing an island completely obliterated 

Located 65km (40 miles) south of Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu, Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haʻapai were two separate islands connected by land that formed when a powerful submarine volcano erupted in 2015. However, following last week’s explosive eruption, Roscosmos’ imagery shows only a fraction of both islands remains, with significant chunks of both isles, plus the volcanic land in between, wiped out.

NASA said the eruption, which devastated Tonga and sent tsunami waves as far as California, was “hundreds of times” more powerful than the atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima in 1945.

READ MORE: ‘Worst ecological disaster’ triggered by Hunga Tonga volcano off Peru coast

“This is a preliminary estimate, but we think the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to somewhere between 4 to 18 megatons of TNT,” the chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Jim Garvin, said in a post on the agency’s website.

Such an explosion is “hundreds of times the equivalent mechanical energy of the Hiroshima nuclear explosion,” NASA stated.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/547213-tonga-eruption-damage-roscosmos-nasa/

 

 

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full trust ahead...

 

The Lithuanian foreign minister says he has full trust in Australia to take action against Russia in the event of conflict along the Ukrainian border.

Gabrielius Landsbergis said any action against Russia would need to be the strongest action yet from Western nations with any incursion being its third such act of aggression following Georgia in 2008 [NOTE: GEORGIA WAS MASSACRING RUSSIANS IN GEORGIA] and Crimea in 2014. [NOTE: CRIMEA VOTED TO JOIN RUSSIA].

 

“We have all the trust in Australia,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

 

“Recent events show that all the like-minded countries have a similar reaction towards what’s happening on the Ukrainian border.” [NOTE: UKRAINE IS RUN BY US-APPROVED NAZIS] 

Mr Landsbergis is in Australia for the establishment of his country’s embassy, signalling the country’s growing footprint in the Indo-Pacific region.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says Australia continues to have sanctions in place against Russia following its annexation of Crimea, urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate the situation.

But Senator Payne would not be drawn on what red lines needed to be crossed before any sanctions would be put in place.

“I’m not going to speculate on what red lines are — I would prefer to deal in the reality of events and I hope that they are not right,” she said alongside her Lithuanian counterpart.

“I hope that the diplomatic efforts which are being made by a number of leaders, in engaging with President Putin and the Russian administration, are able to persuade Russia that this is not a step that they should take.”

Senator Payne defended the government’s handling of the Myanmar coup over a year ago – where sanctions are yet to be laid against any member of the junta – when asked whether this reflects on Australia’s willingness to act.

“Conflating circumstances in Myanmar with the discussion we’re having in Ukraine and Russia is not comparing like with like,” she said.

 

“Australia has been very clear that we keep our sanctions policy in relation to Myanmar under review. We have focused very closely with ASEAN on an ASEAN-led response to the regime in Myanmar.”

Senator Payne is due to meet with foreign ministers from the United States, India and Japan in Melbourne on Friday, with tensions in Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific set to dominate discussions.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will touch down in Melbourne on Wednesday night ahead of the meetings.

Senator Payne said the situation in Ukraine was deeply concerning and reiterated support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

She also endorsed a unified European and NATO response.

The foreign minister said travel advice was being regularly updated for Australians living in the country, with an estimated 1400 Australian citizens living in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a significant diplomatic move aimed at de-escalating tensions in Eastern Europe.

Mr Macron was the first leader of a major western power to meet with Mr Putin since Russia massed troops on the Ukrainian border.

Mr Putin said he wouldn’t escalate the situation, while the US has warned an invasion was imminent.

Senator Payne said the “no-limits friendship” sealed between the Russian and Chinese presidents was at odds with Australia and its Quad partners.

“We do see daily examples of coercion from authoritarian states that, as a strong liberal democracy, Australia is not prepared to tolerate or condone,” she told the ABC.

– AAP

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2022/02/09/trust-australia-act-on-russia/

 

 

THE FUDGE FROM PAYNE IS PAINFUL TO WATCH… Australia used to be a strong free-ish democracy…. Under the successive governments of Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison, Australia has become a political one-sided nightmare, where idiots and psychos run the show of fudge, porkies and deceit…   

 

ON ALL ISSUES, the ScoMo government is sadly lacking integrity and foresight. ScoMo runs around — seeking attention like an escaped baboon from Taronga Zoo. ScoMo seems to have not an ounce of integrity. Nor a microgram of it. A chimp has better moral fibres… 

 

"Lithuania’s growing footprint in the Indo-Pacific region"? You’re kidding, aren’t you? 2.795 million (2020 census) people? About half the bludgers in Syderney, Orstraya?

 

I stand corrected, Lithuania is bigger than an Ikea flat-pack:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Lithuania

 

It looks like Lithuania is rolling in gold… Thank you EU!!!...

 

Poor Ruskies…

 

 

Meanwhile, some Aussie journalists should be shot, as an example for mistreating the truth...

 

 

 

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