Michael Pascoe

Well done @gbearup & @Maxepmason on the intriguing Sam Arnaout's ability to generate massive pokies profits. (I'd only add that Arnaout's push into the NT seemed to coincide with the threat of cashless gambling in NSW - but of course Minns stopped that) afr.com/companies/game…

Babble, meaningless blabber from Hogsbreth. The ignorance and stupidity is mind blowing.

The moment Israel targeted British journalist Steve Sweeney in southern Lebanon.

*IRAN ATTACKS DAMAGE 17% OF QATAR LNG CAPACITY FOR 3-5 YRS: RTRS

@AJEnglish LOL

BREAKING: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says strikes on Iran’s military capabilities on Kharg Island give the US control over the fate of the country, at a press briefing at the Pentagon. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.news/7atc5n

@kuke Given the choice between a conspiracy or a fuckup, it's usually the latter

@MichaelPascoe01 It's beyond incompetence that the #PRRT hasn't been fixed - so what "fix" is in? Jobs after politics? American blackmail/bribery? Japanese threats?

Something that seems to be missed in all the domestic disaster chatter - including by the Treasurer and RBA - is that we are a net energy exporter, benefitting from higher prices. Of course if we taxed gas exports properly, especially if we had a windfall profits tax...I dream.

@ZedZoran Supported the second iteration and taxing carbon. Simply dumb not to.

@MichaelPascoe01 Out of curiosity, did you support Rudd’s Super Profits Tax? Your post suggests yes. My recollection is that most of our media generally supported the LNP scare campaign. Sadly, it was also a poor ALP campaign to win the public over, second only to the one they ran for The Voice

Today Germany announces it has stopped its support for Israel's defence against the accusation of genocide at the ICJ in order to defend itself in the case brought against it for support of genocide by Nicaragua. One of my articles was mentioned in the hearing:

No action on Australian charities breaking international law funding illegal Israel settlements, IDF - Katy Gallagher tells Senate @sstephanietrann #auspol michaelwest.com.au/charities-fund…

So let me get this straight: Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz is ,unfair’ but blocking oil shipments to Cuba in order to collapse their whole country is what? Fair?

This is probably the most important article of the month: an op-ed by Oman's Foreign Minister, who mediated the talks between the U.S. and Iran, in which he writes that the U.S. "has lost control of its foreign policy" to Israel. He repeats that a deal was possible as an outcome of the talks (something confirmed by the UK's National Security Advisor, who also attended: x.com/i/status/20341…) and that the military strike by the U.S. and Israel was "a shock." Interestingly, given he is one of Iran's neighbors and given that Oman has been struck multiple times by Iran since the war began (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran…), he writes that "Iran’s retaliation against what it claims are American targets on the territory of its neighbours was an inevitable result" of the U.S.-Israeli attack. He describes it as "probably the only rational option available to the Iranian leadership." He says the war "endangers" the region's entire "economic model in which global sport, tourism, aviation and technology were to play an important role." He adds that "if this had not been anticipated by the architects of this war, that was surely a grave miscalculation." But, he adds, the "greatest miscalculation" of all for the U.S. "was allowing itself to be drawn into this war in the first place." In his view this was the doing of "Israel’s leadership" who "persuaded America that Iran had been so weakened by sanctions, internal divisions and the American-Israeli bombings of its nuclear sites last June, that an unconditional surrender would swiftly follow the initial assault and the assassination of the supreme leader." Obviously, this proved completely wrong, and the U.S. is now in a quagmire. He says that, given this, "America’s friends have a responsibility to tell the truth," which is that "there are two parties to this war who have nothing to gain from it," namely "Iran and America." He says that all of the U.S. interests in the region (end to nuclear proliferation, secure energy supply chains, investment opportunities) are "best achieved with Iran at peace." As he writes, "this is an uncomfortable truth to tell, because it involves indicating the extent to which America has lost control of its own foreign policy. But it must be told." He then proposes a couple of paths to get back to the negotiating table, although he recognizes how difficult it would be for Iran "to return to dialogue with an administration that twice switched abruptly from talks to bombing and assassination." That's perhaps the most profound damage Trump did during this entire episode: the complete discrediting of diplomacy. If Iran was taught anything, it is: don't negotiate with the U.S., it's a trap that will literally kill you. The great irony of the man who sold himself as a dealmaker is that he taught the world one thing: don't make deals with my country. Link to the article: economist.com/by-invitation/…

@BernardKeane Albo provided the opportunity to make Hastie look good - and Hastie has not missed the opportunity to look like leadership material. Clock ticking on Angus.

Andrew Hastie states obvious truths about Trump that Albanese and his cronies are too gutless to say

@RnaudBertrand @MichaelPascoe01 Curios how every time there’s an opportunity to negotiate, Israel kills the negotiators.

Is it "how to shoot kids"?

It's now unarguable that the war on Iran is one of the most blatant crimes of aggression in history. You now have not 1 but 2 external participants of the US-Iran talks (Oman’s foreign minister and the UK's National Security Advisor) who confirm that the US and Israel attacked despite Iran effectively meeting US conditions for a deal - ensuring it could never build a nuclear weapon, permanently. As per The Guardian article (theguardian.com/world/2026/mar…), Jonathan Powell "believed the path remained open to a negotiated solution to the long-running issue of how Iran could reassure the US that it was not seeking a nuclear weapon," and "UK officials [...] were impressed that Iran was prepared for the deal to be permanent." Concretely, this means the war wasn't a failure of diplomacy but a deliberate destruction of it. And it also means that the US and Israel have irresponsibly plunged the entire world in an unprecedented energy crisis, affecting the livelihoods of billions of people worldwide, when it was completely avoidable. It's beyond me how you can look at this and not conclude that the real threat all along wasn't Iran but the US-Israeli axis - they're the only parties at the table who wanted war and are making every person on the planet pay the price for it. Extraordinarily, even the UK National Security Advisor is now basically saying this.

BREAKING: After Cuba's electrical grid suffered a complete and total collapse when Trump shut off the flow of oil, doctors say at least 3000 people who rely on dialysis will die. Isn’t that murder?