The Earth sizzled in March with the most unusually warm month in recorded history as average land surface temperatures easily exceeded levels deemed by scientists to constitute dangerous climate change.

The abnormal weather has continued into April as the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Indian Ocean dumped rain at rates reaching 300 mm an hour, and Australian scientists declared the worst coral bleaching event ever on the Great Barrier Reef.

Millions of Australians live in households without internet access, according to the World Economic Forum, who have awarded Australia the lowest scoring country in the category of affordability for internet access.

I hate the expression exactly correct... but I will go straight to the crux of the matter. Australia is about to loose its "rigourous" border protection system for exotic diseases and feral animals as the TPP will be enforced. As well as pointed out by Catalyst ABC/TV food import in this country is tested for antibiotics but not for bacterial content.

Attorney general plunges into climate controversy during debate on CSIRO funding, as Malcolm Turnbull confirms election is all but certain to be on 2 July. All the developments from Canberra

The glorious Uncle Rupe network is everywhere. Some of its branches are running at a loss. Such losses in any independent press outfits would lead to catastrophic bankruptcy. The Australian for example has not made a profit as I know of since its inception in 1964. 

Type 26 Global Combat Ship

Seeing as it's turned out, amid yesterday's shipbuilding announcements, that one of the three remaining contenders to construct the Future frigates in Adelaide is the one I wrote about in the Adelaide Advertiser's letters page (on Halloween) 18 months ago, I've thought to republish what was printed then.  Given that it's the one with its photo in this morning's Australian, you could guess it's chances are still high..

10:45am: Senator Parry is having none of it: "This is the last bastion of standing orders that we must defend."

Senator Conroy moves away from anything of a regal or vice-regal nature and confines himself to the government's motives (with space for a swipe at the Greens).

"Democracy" said satirist H. L. Mencken "is the art and science of running the circus cage".

So, to prepare myself for Monday's special sitting of Parliament, I went to the circus over the weekend. (Actually, friends with a wry sense of humour bought me a ticket.)

The great Moscow circus no less, in – appropriately - Canberra.

The multi-trick ponies, camels, alpacas, a buffalo and a Macaw did their routines on cue with a precision and timing that the whips of the major parties could only dream of.

Here we could be fooled. The picture in this Sydney "gloryfiorama" is an illustration, not a photograph. Some of the elements could be from photographs, apart from the left-hand corner stunning rendering of the Sydney Opera House, far from being finished when this glorification was rendered. I'd like to draw your particular attention to The Rocks. This is 1963. One would be at a loss to explain this "vision" of tall buildings, next to Circular Quay. 

A major bank will help foot the bill for a glitzy pre-election political fundraiser to be fronted by Treasurer Scott Morrison and his deputy Kelly O'Dwyer at the same time as they are resisting calls for a royal commission into the scandal-plagued banking sector.

The $1200 to $2500-a-table breakfast, scheduled for 10 days after Mr Morrison delivers his first budget, will be held under the banner of co-sponsor National Australia Bank.

NAB is one of two corporate sponsors for the May 13 event organised by the Higgins 200 Club, a fundraising body that supports Ms O'Dwyer, the federal member for Higgins.

Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump – neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative?