Police say at least 10 people have been killed in a shooting near a Jewish gathering at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

One shooter was killed, while another is in custody. 

Authorities say there is no longer an active threat but have urged people to avoid the area.

Warning: This story contains details which may distress some audience members.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-14/active-shooter-bondi-beach-sydney-nsw/106141580

[This is the fourth part of a series on Syria and the effects of CIA intervention there, tied for the one year anniversary of the Syrian “revolution.” See Part I, Part II, and Part III.—Editors]

How do you sell the idea of a moderate rebellion without alienating the extremists who will do the actual fighting? 

[INTERESTINGLY, GUS RECENTLY HAD A SIMILAR DISCUSSION — ALBEIT MUCH SHORTER — WITH SOMEONE WHO "DIDN'T KNOW" THE INFLUENCE OF THE JEWS ON THE 1917 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION....] 

A correspondent who goes by the moniker “Gennadiy Gessen” emailed me three years ago with a litany of questions. He sought to challenge me on a number of issues. What follows is our exchange, which is rather lengthy.

Debating Jewish Involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution

JONAS E. ALEXIS

From direct attacks on the press from a fascistic federal government to the explosion of AI and the closure and consolidation of news outlets around the country, truth itself is under direct, relentless assault, as are the journalists who have committed their lives to reporting the truth about what’s happening in and to our world. And the intended result of these attacks is to create a more atomized, alienated, ignorant, disempowered public that is easier to divide, control, and manipulate. In this podcast, recorded at Red Emma’s Cooperative Bookstore and Cafe in Baltimore on Nov.

The late Gore Vidal once recounted how Norman Podhoretz, the neoconservative intellectual and longtime editor of Commentary, was flummoxed by Vidal’s persistent interest in the American Civil War, which to Podhoretz was “as remote and as irrelevant as the War of the Roses.”

Vidal, who chronicled American history through his series of bestselling novels, was struck by this distant and alien sentiment, since “the Civil War was—and is—to the United States what the Trojan War was to the Greeks, the great single tragic event that continues to give resonance to our Republic.”

The Civil War’s Inglorious Last Chapter
An October conference examined the legacy of the Siege of Petersburg, a grim episode in America’s “great single tragic event.”

BY Hunter DeRensis

The famed Liberal Party powerbroker Walter Villatora is a former campaign manager for Mike Baird and Tony Abbott. Believing the “Liberal Party is finished”, he resigned his membership last week to start his own conservative party, Reform Australia.

Ex-Liberal Party powerbroker says ‘the party is over’

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has been lobbying senior figures in the US to supply Australia with retiring nuclear submarines to give the nation strike power if conflict over Taiwan breaks out before its AUKUS submarines are delivered.

‘Need more firepower now’: US should give Australia retired nuclear subs, says Abbott

By Paul Sakkal and Jacqueline Maley

Speaking on this masthead’s Inside Politics podcast days after meeting with US Vice-President JD Vance, Abbott revealed his concern that US President Donald Trump’s stance toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine would encourage Chinese expansionism if it led to Vladimir Putin’s success.

While the Coalition and Murdoch media ramp up their campaign against renewable energy, renewables set yet another record – more than half the grid for the first time. What’s the scam?

The scam is the Coalition campaign to blame renewables for rising electricity prices has just gone into overdrive with Murdoch mastheads splashing today on energy bill scaremongering.

The lastest data from the National Electricity Market however shows that renewable energy now accounts, for the first time in November, for more than half of Australia’s grid. That’s wind and solar, whose wholesale prices, also according to the latest data, are far below fossil fuel prices. Rooftop solar just $9.28 per megawatt hour.

China, Iran, and Russia denounce the lies of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom regarding Iran’s nuclear program

by Amir Saeid Iravani , Fu Cong , Vasily Nebenzya

We write in response to the joint letter dated 20 November 2025 from the Permanent Representatives of France, Germany and the United Kingdom (the E3) (S/2025/759), and wish to recall the joint letter by the Foreign Ministers of the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation circulated on 2 September 2025 (A/79/1004–S/2025/546), which explicitly set out our positions in regard to the “snapback” mechanism as follows:

GUS: It was 100 years ago in December 1925 that Heisenberg finally formulated his UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE... HE PUBLISHED IT IN 1927....

THEREAFTER:....

US Sen. John Fetterman recently asked Israel’s president to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is on trial in his country for alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust—Talking Points Memo revealed on Thursday.

BY Brett Wilkins

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is suggesting the idea of holding elections as a ploy to secure a ceasefire, top Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told RT. Moscow has insisted that Kiev would use the pause in fighting to rearm and regroup.

The Kremlin’s response comes as Zelensky, whose presidential term expired over a year ago, has demanded security guarantees from Western backers in order to hold the vote.

Kiev suspended elections following the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, citing the imposition of martial law.

Commenting on Zelensky’s U-turn on the issue, Ushakov said: “He will see this as a chance to secure a temporary ceasefire, that’s all.”

The world’s leading genocide prevention group this week accused former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of “outright genocide denial” for comments last week attributing young Americans’ opposition to Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza to social media.

Swiss singer Nemo announced on Thursday that he is returning his 2024 Eurovision Song Contest trophy in protest over Israel’s continued participation in the competition.

Nemo, who won last year’s contest with the song ‘The Code’, said on Thursday that the trophy “no longer belongs on my shelf.”

“Eurovision says it stands for unity, for inclusion and dignity for all people,”Nemo said in a social media post, adding that Israel’s participation during what the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry said is a genocide shows “a clear conflict” with those principles.

The singer said he would send the trophy back to the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) headquarters in Geneva and urged the organization to “live what you claim.”