James Mattis, the US defense secretary, has said Washington is still looking for evidence on who carried out Saturday’s chemical weapons attack in Damascus and said his main concern about a military response was how to stop it “escalating out of control”.

The Western liberal order is not in crisis because of Russian disinformation campaigns and electoral interference. Western democracies must take responsibility for a crisis that, ultimately, is homegrown – nurtured by its leaders’ own failure to confront effectively the challenges of globalization.

A Chinese embassy spokesman has said the idea that China is planning to establish a military base in Vanuatu is “ridiculous”.

Barnaby Joyce, a National, hasn't a vote for the Liberal leadership. But he's a man of opinions and now he's on the backbench there are no restraints on his expressing them.

Seven years ago, on 19 March 2011, the war against Libya began. It was led by the United States first through the Africa Command, then through NATO under US command.

This large Australian wasp, Cryptocheilus bicolor, more than 35 millimetres in length, is a predator of the large huntsman spiders (Sparassidae) and wolf spiders (Lycosidae). It stings the spider it in its soft belly in a powerful fight "for the death" which the wasp always win, though the wasp does not kill the spider, just paralyses it. The spider is then dragged to a burrow. The wasp lays an egg on the spider, and conceals the nesting chamber at the end of the burrow. When the grub hatches it feeds on the "alive" spider before pupating in a thin silky cocoon in the cell. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocheilus_bicolor)