The coming NSW ICAC hearings are only part of a deeper problem. Entrenched factional power, gambling interests and political cowardice are corroding trust in Australia’s institutions.

I cannot pretend to be terribly surprised or shocked to learn that the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is soon to hold public hearings into NSW Liberal Party factional branch stacking, pre-selection rorts and receipt of prohibited donations, primarily from the real estate industry.

Jack Waterford

I received the following email and question from a friend, a man with extensive experience in the US defense realm, who is a solid analyst. His question is legitimate and I will attempt to answer it. He wrote:

Dear Larry 

I read your interesting message. I am at the hospital so I can is only use my phone. Here is my question. If your numbers are correct then how come the Russians seem to be unable to defeat the Ukrainians? They seem to find it difficult to make much territorial progress and now are under heavy pressure in Crimea. I also think they are having major problems defending critical infrastructure including refineries and ports and thus have serious fuel shortages. 

The world is in the midst of a climate backlash. But DeSmog isn’t backing down. We launched 20 years ago, and we’re taking this moment to invite you behind the scenes of our high-impact newsroom that investigates the companies, politicians, and science deniers blocking action to fix the climate emergency.

Join DeSmog editors – along with special guests Naomi Klein, Michael E. Mann, and Jim Hoggan – for a special online conversation as we look back on two decades of climate accountability wins and reflect on what we need to do to ensure that the next 20 years usher in the end of climate denial and obstruction.

On the night of June 21, 2026, as Colombia’s preliminary vote count rolled in showing far-right candidate Abelardo De La Espriella ahead of left-wing Iván Cepeda by less than one percentage point, the narrowest margin in any Colombian presidential runoff in recorded history, something happened that most international outlets buried under boilerplate electoral procedure.

Blue Wave: How Israel, Washington and a Guernsey Shell Company Stole Colombia’s Election

US President Donald Trump on Sunday thanked football's world governing body FIFA for suspending Falorin Balogun's ban that allows the US star striker to play against Belgium this week.

Balogun was given a straight red card during the Round of 32 match between the World Cup co-hosts and Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday for accidentally planting his studs high on a defender's ankle.

World Cup: Trump thanks FIFA for suspending Balogun's ban

IN THE MOVIE OPPENHEIMER, IT SEEMS ONE MISTAKE STANDS LIKE A PYRAMID IN THE DESERT... BY WHATEVER DEED OR FORGETFULNESS, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ATOMIC BOMB WAS LEFT UNMENTIONED...

Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin (Mark) Oliphant (1901–2000), physicist, machine-builder, and governor, was born on 8 October 1901 at Kent Town, Adelaide, eldest of five sons of South Australian-born parents Harold George Oliphant, public servant, and his wife Fanny Beatrice Edith, née Tucker.

Sir Marcus Laurence (Mark) Oliphant (1901–2000)

by R. W. Home and John Jenkin

It’s not every day that an EU member state has the opportunity to push back in favor of freedom. At least not without elections. But a German court did have that chance – and promptly blew it on behalf of European citizens everywhere.

Back in 2022 when the Ukraine war was ramping up, the European Commission made an executive order banning Russian media broadcasting in the EU. Meaning that you couldn’t – and still can’t – access RT from within the EU, either on TV or on the web, without a VPN.

How Germany blew the EU’s chance for information freedom

By prosecuting individuals for reposting RT content, European censors are trying to scare unwanted beliefs off their narrative

BY Rachel Marsden

A decorated US Air Force serviceman with no history of violence suddenly abducted, raped and murdered a three-year-old girl.

When a search party found Jimmy Shaver wandering near San Antonio, Texas, he appeared to be in a trance, unable to explain where he was or how he had gotten there. After his arrest, he reportedly failed to recognize his own wife when she visited him in jail. Until the moment he was executed four years later, Shaver insisted he had no memory of committing the crime for which he had been sentenced to death.

‘Crimes against humanity’: The CIA’s sickest secret may finally be exposed
New MKULTRA hearings have reopened questions about victims, destroyed files, and experiments America never answered for

The liberation of the city of Konstantinovka gives Russia an opportunity to envelop the last heavily fortified area under Ukrainian control in Donbass, former US Army officer and military commentator Stanislav Krapivnik has said.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday after weeks of intensive combat in the area. Konstantinovka is located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), which Ukrainian troops have turned into a single, heavily fortified fortress, riddled with a vast system of reinforced trenches, tunnels, and bunkers. The city lies some 15km southeast of Kramatorsk, with the small town of Druzhkovka located in between.

The nations of Europe have been degraded to the status of Third World countries due to their failed immigration policies, US President Donald Trump has said.

Trump took a step back from celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence to take another jab at Washington’s supposed allies in the EU and UK.

“Europe is learning that when you take in Third World criminals, you become a Third World Country. It happens quickly, in just a blink of the eye,” the president wrote in a post on X on Saturday, July 4.

Trump also implied that his tougher stance on immigration has spared America the same outcome. “I was elected just in time!!!” he said.

US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine conflict, the situation around Iran, and the prospects for restoring bilateral ties, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.

The conversation took place on Saturday, as the United States marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. According to Ushakov, Putin personally congratulated Trump and the American people on reaching the milestone, after sending a formal message to the White House a day earlier.

The call lasted one hour and 25 minutes, Ushakov said, describing it as “businesslike and highly constructive.”

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.