David Hall

“I have a strong belief that criticism is the soul of democracy.” —Narendra Modi

Amid the Middle East conflict, @Dr_M_Davis spoke to @SBSNews on the strategic significance of Kharg Island, why a potential US operation to seize it would be “a significant gamble”, and how such a move could open a new chapter in the war. 🗞️ Read more ⤵️ sbs.com.au/news/article/a…

“Iran is winning.”

The Head of the Ugandan Armed Forces has announced that “any talk of destroying or defeating Israel” would bring Uganda to the side of Israel in the Iran War. “If Israel needs help, it only need ask,” said Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Attacks in the Middle East. AFP Infographic with a map of the Middle East showing drone and missile strikes attributed to Iran or Hezbollah, and to Israel or the United States, including intercepted attacks. Based on non-exhaustive data from the NGO Acled from February 28 to March 26 at 0900 GMT

friedberg cooked on this one

BREAKING: David @friedberg says "California is functionally bankrupt" "People don't realize how screwed California is, & I worry that if California falls, so does the union. "$250 billion to $1 trillion short." "This is because for California to get rescued would be a big cost to red states, & I think it creates in the years ahead a lot of tension." "California's functional bankruptcy is a major risk to the country. & I think we need to figure out what we can change to fix it." How we got here: "California has a public pension system, & that public pension system retirees have paid into it & they get some benefits out, & the amount that they're owed back out is somewhere between $250 billion - $1 trillion dollars more than has been paid in. $250 billion to $1 trillion short. If it was the federal government, it would be like, okay, we'll just print more money. California doesn't have the ability to print money, so California has to pay this out, and you can't restructure retirement benefits. There is a Supreme Court case in California that said that once an employee has been offered retirement benefits, even if they're currently an employee, you can never restructure their retirement benefits. It has to stay forever, and the state cannot declare bankruptcy. There's no way for the state to functionally declare bankruptcy. There's no law to allow it. No state has ever declared bankruptcy, and the retirement benefits sit senior to the bonds in California. So you have to pay out the retirement benefits before you pay out all the bond holders that have loaned California the money that they use to run all their programs and services." Hill & Valley Forum 2026 (@HillValleyForum)

‘Since taking office four years ago, the Albanese government has set a disappointing precedent by further entrenching corporate rent-seeking behaviour, interventionism and picking “losers” in the global market.’ afr.com/politics/feder…

Today in international relations history—47 BCE: Cleopatra VII is considered to have been restored to the Egyptian throne with the backing of Julius Caesar, marking a decisive moment in Roman influence over Egypt. Generated by ChatGPT

AI content will vastly exceed all human content

Where do the stars end?

“Even the guys building AI don’t really know what the long-term results will be.” afr.com/technology/tim…

“And now that Iran has tested its capacity to close the strait — and understood how potent a weapon this can be — it may be tempted to do the same again should new tensions arise.” ft.com/content/de9ada…

Today in international relations history—2000: Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia for the first time, beginning an era that would significantly shape global politics. Generated by ChatGPT

Today, a jury in L.A. found Meta and Google liable for the depression and anxiety of a young woman who started using Instagram at 9. In 2017, when I first connected the increase in teen depression to the rise of social media, social media companies were considered untouchable. No more. This will be the first of many trials holding social media companies to account for platforms designed to use as much time and attention as possible, a strategy that had a particularly negative impact on children and teens, including those 12 and under who weren't supposed to be using them in the first place. Hoping this will, at the very least, push social media companies to verify that their users are at least 13. 16 or 18 would be even better. npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-…

BREAKING: Israel's government approves calling of up to 400,000 reservists

I had a strange dream. I woke up as the boss of a large Australian university and went straight to work fixing it. I capped international students, made degrees harder, forced students back onto campus, and rebuilt the university around one simple idea: the real product isn’t the degree, it’s the trust that comes with it. Then I woke up. thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2026/0…

Today in international relations history—1965: Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activists completed the Selma to Montgomery march, a defining moment that helped secure voting rights and reshaped global perceptions of the United States. Generated by ChatGPT

“Globalisation has been pronounced dead several times, such as after the global financial crisis, the Brexit referendum, the election of Donald Trump and the COVID-19 pandemic. Such examples illustrate that the world is more fractured and the trading system is far from infallible. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of its demise are greatly exaggerated. Open trade remains a fundamental foundation of advanced economies and the primary engine of dynamism for emerging ones. It helps level the playing field, provides a forum for legal arbitration on trade disputes and favours stability over conflict because it raises the costs of waging war on a trading partner.” afr.com/politics/feder…