Mark Whalan

These post truth statements keep bumping up against reality and reality tends to win.

One of Orwell's nightmares materialised would be this: potential war criminals and arm manufacturers implicated in a genocide allowed to roam and operate freely, while citizens get arrested for opposing a genocide.

BREAKING: Mass arrests under the Terrorism Act in Trafalgar Square, as hundreds defy the ban on Palestine Action. The police are knowingly unlawfully arresting peaceful protestors for holding placards which say: "I oppose genocide - I support Palestine Action"

Leo XIV will become the first pope to visit Algeria on Monday, taking a message of dialogue with Islam on a trip that also represents a personal pilgrimage for the American pontiff. u.afp.com/SE58

Newcastle really showing off this morning. Celebrating that connection with the waters that surround Awabakal and Worimi land.

For years, Canada sent 70 cents of every defence dollar straight to the United States. Mark Carney just told Parliament that stops now. The room gave him a standing ovation. It is a striking thing to get a standing ovation for announcing that your country will stop subsidising someone else’s arms industry. But that is where Canada is in 2025. Carney’s case is blunt: the United States is “beginning to monetize its hegemony, charging for access to its markets and reducing its relative contributions to collective security.”   And MAGA is celebrating. Winning. Always winning. USA, USA. Somewhere a man in a red hat is pumping his fist. Let me explain what is actually happening, because clearly no one has bothered. In ten months, the United States has torched eighty years of alliance architecture that its own soldiers, diplomats and taxpayers built from the rubble of the Second World War. Eighty years. Gone. Detonated, with a smile, by people who genuinely believe this is genius. Canada is not drifting away. Canada is leaving. Europe is not hedging. Europe is building a defence industry specifically designed to cut Washington out. Allies are not quietly grumbling over dinner. They are signing contracts with other people. And the MAGA faithful are cheering every single step of it, because someone told them this is what dominance looks like. It is not dominance. It is a man burning down his own house and whooping at the flames. The saddest part is not that America is losing its allies. The saddest part is that half the country thinks that is the point.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Stay connected, Follow Gandalv @Microinteracti1

<끊임없는 반인권적 반국제법적 행동으로 고통받고 힘들어하는 전 세계인들의 지적을 한번쯤은 되돌아볼 만도 한데 실망입니다. 내가 아프면 타인도 그만큼 아픕니다. 나의 필요 때문에 누군가 고통받으면 미안한 것이 인지상정입니다. 아닌 밤중에 홍두깨라고 아무 잘못없는 우리 국민들께서 뜬금없이 겪고 있는 이 엄청난 고통과 국가적 어려움을 지켜보는 마음이 매우 불편합니다. 보편적 인권과 대한민국의 국익을 위해 할 수 있는 일을 더 열심히 찾아봐야겠습니다.> 이스라엘, ‘전시 살해=유대인 학살’ 李대통령 발언에 “용납 못해” v.daum.net/v/202604110641…

Wow, that's extremely rare for a U.S. treaty ally. South Korea's president, addressing Israel: "It’s disappointing that you don’t even once reflect on the criticisms from people around the world who are suffering and struggling due to your relentless anti-human rights and anti-international law actions." He said this after posting this yesterday (x.com/Jaemyung_Lee/s…), a video of IDF soldiers throwing a young Palestinian off a rooftop and commenting that "there is no difference between this and the Japanese wartime sexual slavery issue we raise, the massacre of Jews, or wartime killings." Israel's Foreign Ministry responded that his post was "unacceptable" but President Lee obviously - and courageously - chose to double down 👇 Also probably says a lot about where U.S.-South Korea relations are at right now.

@Aussie242486989 @AntonyGreenElec @MWhalan Here’s the analysis: leakage to PHON is around 3:1 from Coalition over ALP. But YouGov polling notes that PHON is narrowly preferred over Labor in households earning $100k or less - the traditional ALP base. So yes, it is also a threat to Labor, just hasn’t really shown up yet.

I negotiated to ensure the Housing Australia Future Fund had an extra $6.2bn to spend & with xbench colleagues to ensure a minimum annual spend of $500m per year + 1200 homes for the ACT. But is needs to be bigger if supply of social & affordable housing is going to keep up with demand. We need a plan for population and immigration alongside greater investment & policies that treat housing has a human right. canberratimes.com.au/story/9215908/…

You can't leave loopholes otherwise the predatory gambling industry will just exploit them. That's what happened the last time the Coalition Govt tinkered like Labor is doing now and why the Murphy Report recommended a full phased-in ban on all gambling advertising. The government’s own analysis found that this partial ban will cost more to enforce and will deliver less benefits to the nation. theguardian.com/australia-news…

Sweden condemns the recent Israeli decision to establish over 30 new settlements in the West Bank. The settlements are a flagrant violation of international law and undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region. We call on the Government of Israel to reverse them immediately and to respect its international obligations. eeas.europa.eu/eeas/israelpal…

Our crew on the @Space_Station caught a glimpse of the @NASAArtemis II crew as they re-entered the atmosphere from their journey to the Moon! We first saw a bright light and a trail as the service module burned up. We didn’t see the Orion capsule itself as it re-entered, but we saw the wispy trail it left behind in the upper atmosphere. Overjoyed that our friends are safely back on Earth after their awe-inspiring mission!

Do you have ideas on how to brighten up Kiama once the sun goes down? Would you like to see longer trading hours, night-time activations and more pop up events, or something else entirely? Here's your chance to have your say regionillawarra.com.au/call-for-commu…

🦔A researcher invented a fake eye condition called bixonimania, uploaded two obviously fraudulent papers about it to an academic server, and watched major AI systems present it as real medicine within weeks. The fake papers thanked Starfleet Academy, cited funding from the Professor Sideshow Bob Foundation and the University of Fellowship of the Ring, and stated mid-paper that the entire thing was made up. Google's Gemini told users it was caused by blue light. Perplexity cited its prevalence at one in 90,000 people. ChatGPT advised users whether their symptoms matched. The fake research was then cited in a peer-reviewed journal that only retracted it after Nature contacted the publisher. My Take The researcher made the papers as obviously fake as possible on purpose. The AI systems didn't catch it. Neither did the human researchers who cited it in real journals, which means people are feeding AI-generated references into their work without reading what they're actually citing. I've covered the FDA using AI for drug review, the NYC hospital CEO ready to replace radiologists, and ChatGPT Health launching this year. All of that is happening in the same environment where a condition funded by a Simpsons character and endorsed by the crew of the Enterprise was being presented as emerging medical consensus. The people making these deployment decisions seem to believe the pipeline from research to AI to patient is more supervised than it actually is. This experiment suggests it isn't supervised much at all. Hedgie🤗 nature.com/articles/d4158…

Israel says it hit 100 targets across Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon in less than 10 minutes, marking one of the deadliest single bombing campaigns in the history of a country wracked by decades of war and destruction. ft.trib.al/2w8UCYM

@CuriosityonX Mars is the only planet we know entirely populated by robots

BREAKING🚨: On the same day four humans were flying around the Moon for the first time in 54 years, a nuclear-powered rover took this photo on the surface of Mars. 212 million miles away from us. That's what NASA does!

@hughriminton @AntonyGreenElec Be interesting to identify the demographics that switched to One Nation, obviously the firehoses of money from Gina and Advance have switched to Hanson, who are they? Generally though to be male and self employed?

@AntonyGreenElec @MWhalan Similar, I think, to the 1990 general election. Peacock’s Libs pulled big swings except where it mattered. Voters are smart. Where they can safely register disapproval they do, knowing they won’t change govt (same with by-elections). Still, a warning to Labor everywhere.

Amazingly in South Australia, the safer the Labor seat, the bigger the swing against Labor. Not an artifact of preferences but more reflecting a switch in first preference support from Labor to One Nation in safe seats. Not that it cost Labor any seats.

Saint Jean-Paul II aux côtés de celui qui deviendra le pape Léon XIV, encore diacre à l’époque.