International Women’s Day used to come with a certain esthetic. A celebration of past victories and a look ahead to new hopes and challenges. But this year, the vibe is women on social media, claiming Iranian heritage, dancing in celebration of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, even as reports circulate that bombs had killed roughly 160 schoolgirls.

Executive Director of the Jewish Council of Australia, Sarah Schwartz, has told the Bondi Royal Commission of sustained abuse by pro-Israel activists. Stephanie Tran reports.

Giving evidence on Thursday, Sarah Schwartz, a human rights lawyer, said attacks from pro-Israel groups sought to delegitimise Jewish people who criticise Israel.

“They rest on the idea that Jewish identity is inherently tied to Israel, and therefore Jewish people who don’t support Israel or who criticise Israel are not really Jewish and are traitors,” she told the Commission.

Democracies rarely become fragile because citizens disagree. They become fragile when citizens lose the capacity to question themselves. Conviction without curiosity eventually ceases to be wisdom.

                       Komla Tsey

What a letter from Accra can teach Australia about prejudice and why our convictions must be accompanied by curiosity.

I wrote to Ama after many years. We had not kept in close contact. Life had carried us into different countries, marriages, responsibilities, illnesses, funerals, children, disappointments and repairs. I did not know whether the letter would find her.

More than 30,000 people protested in Erfurt against the AfD party convention, which is taking place there this weekend. 

"Most of the protests were peaceful. It's colorful and loud—we can be satisfied," said Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier at the scene.

Germany news: AfD elects leaders amid massive protests

Nik Martin | Darko Janjevic with Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa

Party delegates of the far-right AfD are meeting in Erfurt as tens of thousands of people are protesting the event. Meanwhile, Jürgen Klopp said he was "ready" to jump in as Germany's head coach. DW has more.

Most governments remain hooked on oil instead of making the vital changes humans and the planet need for global energy transformation.

The self-destructive urge of humans to bring down our civilisation and destroy our children’s future grows stronger by the minute. Never has our addiction to oil looked more like the agonal ravings of a demented junkie.

Julian Cribb

Should the machines stop the useless human bickering — such as to what size a payola under the table for a building development application needs to be? Or stop us spending cash on warplanes that are obsolete two years before they come into service? Or promote Australian-built submarines that are automatically efficient at deciding where to go and dive? Should the machines decide to scuttle themselves before they and we make an arse of ourselves? And save humanity? This concept is not new... It has entered the recent folklore via the "Terminator" series... and countless movies with Transformers — in which our hero fights super machines armed with deadly ray-guns, with a matchstick — mechanical invaders and other "Toybots"... 

Gus Leonisky [3 Apr 2015]

On the 1000th day of the horrific genocide currently underway against the population of Gaza, what conclusions can be drawn?

They are numerous, obviously, and impossible to list them all here. But, first and foremost, and what directly concerns us, is the criminal silence of our authorities, which de facto and indelibly places them on the wrong side of history.

In response, there is growing opposition from citizens to the "values" to which our governments have resorted for years, values ​​that are nothing but hypocrisy to mask their duplicity.

On the 1000th day of the horrific genocide currently underway against the population of Gaza, what conclusions can be drawn?

BY Daniel VANHOVE

As promised, the full text of Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz's address during the extraordinary session of the National Assembly of People's Power, held on the afternoon of June 18, 2026, is provided below. In it, he reads and comments on all 176 proposed amendments, divided into 23 categories, that the Assembly is to approve. Since the deputies had the PowerPoint presentation with its numbering displayed on a giant screen, Marrero did not read the numbering aloud.

Manuel Marrero Cruz: Socialist planning does not exclude market rules: it must incorporate and regulate them.

Jacques-François Bonaldi 

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rejected US President Donald Trump’s demand for loyalty from other NATO members, insisting that no member state should impose its will on the others.

Pistorius made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with Der Spiegel, which was published on Thursday. He used the opportunity to play down tensions between Washington and Berlin, which were exacerbated by the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Pistorius was pressed on Trump’s remarks from last week, in which he said he is “disappointed with most” of the NATO members over their reluctance to take part in the Iran war. “I just want loyalty. You know, we’re so loyal to them. We are always fighting for them,” he said.

Right-wing podcasting in Australia is akin to a craft beer with a niche following. It is not a mass market.

Karl Stefanovic and Nine parted ways last week, immediately, rather than at the end of the year as originally agreed. The trigger was a podcast interview with Tommy Robinson, the British agitator and English Defence League founder whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Kos Samaras

The EU health authorities have linked Ukrainian-made instant noodles to a salmonella outbreak that has affected more than 100 people across Europe.

From November 2025 to June 2026, at least 106 infections were recorded in 13 EU member states and the UK, according to a joint statement released on Wednesday by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The outbreak has primarily affected children and young adults, with at least 49 people hospitalized.

Salmonella causes intestinal infection, typically resulting in diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal cramps. While most patients recover without specific treatment, the disease can be life-threatening for people with weakened immune systems. No deaths linked to the contaminated noodles have been reported.

One nation is popular like some people like farts in elevators... it's fun. It you run a poll about the effect and asked the question "did you think it was funny?..." about 55 per cent of elevator-travellers will say YES... If you ask the question "did you like it"... The poll comes close to a 99 per cent NO...

The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a Catholic priestly fraternity, has consecrated four new bishops without the papal approval, defying a last-ditch appeal by Pope Leo XIV to call the ceremony off. The move reignites an old row between the controversial ultra-traditionalist faction and the Vatican, as well as risks bringing a broader schism to the Catholic Church.

Hardline group triggers new schism in Catholic Church

The Society of Saint Pius X has consecrated bishops without papal approval, prompting the worst rift within the church in decades

The idea of a monoculture is repressive. What Australia needs is the opposite – a revived cosmopolitan version of multiculturism.

Pauline Hanson is insisting that Australia must be a monoculture and that any attempts to transform it into a multicultural society should be resisted. Angus Taylor seems to be tiptoeing around a similar proposal, insisting that ‘Australian values’ need to be ingrained in the minds of all Australians.

Allan Patience