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In mid-December, the White House released an executive order establishing the second Trump Administration’s space policy. In the order, the president outlines a policy to “secure the Nation’s vital economic and security interests” and “unleash commercial development” in the stars.

The EO follows on the Department of Energy’s “first-ever government purchase of a natural resource from space” last May. If successful, the procurement of lunar helium-3 by 2029 promises to be the first nugget in a 21st-century gold rush. With the value of the isotope reaching $20 million per kilogram by some estimates, prospecting and settlement of the final frontier—a goal of President Trump’s order—might soon follow.

Withdrawing from the Outer Space Treaty (OST) might help secure that frontier for Americans. Ratified by the Senate in 1967, the treaty was born of the Cold War. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the global community focused on how to prevent preexisting terrestrial tensions from spilling over into space.

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis

You didn’t have to be a political savant to see what was going to happen this week from the moment Sussan Ley decided to open the door to negotiations with Anthony Albanese on the hate group bill almost no one wanted.

One of the first rules of politics is if the other side are knocking on your door asking you to negotiate with them, then what you’re negotiating is only ever going to benefit those knocking.

It was the worst of politics – civil liberties used as bait to hoist the Liberal leader by her own political petard. Ley’s lack of principle, experience and political instinct saw her rush to politicise the antisemitic Bondi attack, demanding a royal commission, for parliament to be recalled and a suite of hate speech legislation to be rushed through. After a united media and political class frenzy, Albanese gave Ley everything she wanted. She was, in every sense, the architect of her own downfall, egged on every step of the way by a rightwing media apparatus that has sent the Coalition backwards for the last two elections.

Last year’s Hottest 100 featured just 27 Australian songs, the lowest number since 1994.

This contrasts with the years 2014 to 2022 when Australian artists produced more than half of the songs in the Hottest 100.

The analysis shows that the decline in Australian songs in the Hottest 100 is mirrored in data from streaming services – the number of Australian songs and artists featuring in global streaming services like Spotify is declining rapidly.

This is because Australian artists are crowded out by other English-speaking acts, particularly those from the USA.

The analysis concludes that Australian music can be rejuvenated with policy support focused on increased funding and better regulation of streaming services.

“The decline of Australian songs in the Triple J Hottest 100 is caused by lack of funding and governments’ failure to regulate streaming services,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

“When it comes to Australian music, streaming has changed everything.

“Whereas once the main source of music for Australian listeners was Australian radio stations, audiences are now listening through global streaming services. These work on algorithms that filter for language but not for geography, so Australian artists are competing against American artists, which the streaming services are biased towards.

National housing campaign Everybody’s Home is urging the federal government to make 2026 the year it significantly stumps up funding to plug the social housing shortfall, as an affordable housing scheme comes to an end.

The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), designed to provide affordable rentals to people earning low and middle incomes, has been winding down since 2018 and is set to end in June 2026.

The latest federal figures reveal more than 4,500 affordable homes will exit NRAS this year – the final lot of the more than 36,000 affordable homes that have phased out of the scheme over the past decade.

The NRAS rentals will take years to be replaced by the 40,000 social and affordable homes set to be built under the federal government’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).

According to Housing Australia, as of November 2025, 889 homes under the HAFF had been completed, with a further 9,501 described as under construction. 

We are accustomed to thinking of political power as a binary: you either have it or you don’t. But in his 1945 masterpiece On Power, Bertrand de Jouvenel imagined it as an organism. Power is like a creature in a nature documentary, adapting, sensing opportunity, and slipping into the cracks. And it grows not because tyrants seize it but because people invite it. “Power is continually being summoned by the weak to save them from the strong who are close at hand,” de Jouvenel wrote. It expands not through violence but through promises. If one has heard the phrase “high-low vs. the middle,” this is how power operates. A higher power uses the low, whether for bodies, justifications, or clients, to attack the middle.

Here is where de Jouvenel’s argument becomes truly interesting. Power does not grow randomly: it grows toward legitimacy, toward righteousness, toward whatever moral vocabulary the age supplies. In medieval France, that vocabulary was justice. In the 20th century, it was security. But in the 21st century, the moral vocabulary of legitimacy is something different. Today’s most potent political ideal is anti-majoritarianism.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

Palestinian professor and activist Amin Husain knows what Western settler colonialism looks, sounds and feels like. Growing up in Palestine, Husain experienced the iron grip of Israeli force and came to understand how important it was to struggle against such a powerful imperial entity, even in the face of defeat.

In the United States, Husain applied his learned experience to organize and educate about how colonialism and imperialism not only exists in the modern world, but is intertwined in the economy and culture of the global capitalist world order. Husain joins host Chris Hedges to chronicle his story and his approach to fighting settler colonialism, which, after October 7th, led to his firing from New York University.

Listen to the full conversation on the Perspectives Journal podcast, available to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and all other major podcast platforms.

Stay tuned for future episodes with other candidates in the 2026 NDP leadership race.

Avi Lewis is a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and candidate running to be the next leader of the federal NDP. Born in Toronto, he built a career telling stories about movements for economic and social justice, from worker-run enterprises to global climate campaigns.

The debate over IVF has revealed a deep fissure inside the pro-life movement—not over whether life is sacred, but over whether we trust human beings to act in accord with that truth.

When President Trump announced a suite of policies to subsidize and support some forms of IVF, the fiercest criticism didn’t come from the Left. It came from those who consider themselves the most devout defenders of life. They denounced IVF as inherently immoral, condemned those who use it as selfish, and warned that creating embryos outside the womb violates the natural order.

This reaction was characterized more by moral discomfort than by moral clarity. Though the modern pro-life movement has done inestimable good, there are some among its number who conflate the misuse of fertility technology with the immorality of all fertility technology per se. It’s a reactionary posture that treats human innovation as a threat rather than a tool—one that, if guided rightly, can aid nature in its sacred purpose of bringing new life into the world.

I know this because I’ve lived it.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has attempted to hold Pax Americana together with a simple, deeply flawed strategy: pay everyone off and hope they behave. Allies, adversaries, neutrals—it didn’t matter. Subsidies, aid, trade asymmetries, security guarantees, sanctions waivers, and diplomatic indulgences were handed out on the assumption that gratitude would follow. It didn’t—entitlement did.

Bribery diplomacy rests on a childlike premise: if you keep paying, people will stay in line. In reality, when money flows freely and consequences never arrive, it stops being leverage and becomes reverse tribute. Nations don’t become loyal. They become resentful, arrogant, and defiant. And the moment you threaten to turn off the spigot, the outrage begins. “How dare you?” “You’re betraying us.” “You’re imperialist.” “You’re fascist.” The language is predictable because the psychology is.

Europe is the archetype. After World War II, the United States rebuilt the continent and underwrote its security. That made sense at the time. What didn’t make sense was continuing to subsidize Europe indefinitely while tolerating trade imbalances, defense freeloading, and open hostility toward American interests. When Trump demanded NATO countries pay their share, it was treated as the end of the “world order.” When he demanded reciprocal trade instead of one-way free trade, elites panicked. The system wasn’t collapsing; the subsidy was.

UPDATE, Thursday, 8:00 AM CST: I’m closing questions because there are a lot! Thank you all for your interest. I’ll be back as soon as I can with the answers in a separate article!

UPDATE, Friday 4 PM: The answers are up! Check your mail or here.

Hello subscribers (and future subscribers!) Are you clinging to the cliffs of insanity? Finding our new world order inconceivable? Then it’s time to drop a question in the Q & A! For those new to this feature, here’s how it works:

1) To ask a question, join as a paying subscriber, and post your question in the comments section below:

Kaleidoscope: Branding Iron

 — Author: Zoe "Doc Impossible" Wendler — Monday 19th January 2026

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The Age of Democracy Promotion Is Over

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Monday 19th January 2026

In 1983, under the guidance of Ronald Reagan, Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to “foster the infrastructure of democracy.” Reagan had used the phrase a year before in an address to Parliament to describe the building blocks of liberty: a free press, unions, political parties, and universities. The president’s stated aim was noble, even high-minded—to advance democratic norms without the blunt instruments that had characterized earlier Cold War interventions.

The institutional form chosen to achieve this aim, however, was peculiar from the start. The NED was conceived as a government-organized non-government organization—a GONGO—deliberately positioned at arm’s length from formal diplomacy while remaining entirely dependent on congressional appropriations. This structure allowed U.S. officials to exert political influence abroad while maintaining a veneer of non-intervention and plausible deniability. The result was not independence, but ambiguity: foreign policy without clear accountability to either Congress or the president.

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US extorts Europe in effort to acquire Greenland

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 19th January 2026

On this episode of After America, Matt Duss joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the Trump administration’s new tariffs against Europe, what if anything it might do in Iran, and its threats to prosecute political opponents.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 16 January (AEDT) 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off – offer available for a limited time only.

Guest: Matt Duss, Executive Vice President, Center for International Policy // @mattduss

Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis

Show notes:

‘Shorter America this week: everything is gender’ by Emma Shortis, The Point (January 2026)

‘How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler’ by Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker (January 2026)

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The Last Election

 — Author: Chris Hedges — Monday 19th January 2026

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Briefing: Inequality and the Child Poverty Strategy

 — Organisation: The Equality Trust — Monday 19th January 2026

On 13 January 2026, our Co-Executive Director Priya Sahni-Nicholas spoke at Public Policy Exchange’s event to discuss the recently published Child Poverty Strategy, Tackling Child Poverty: Improving Welfare, Security and Future Prospects. Inequality and child poverty are deeply linked. Her analysis of the strategy found that, although there’s evidence of a welcome shift in beliefs […]

The post Briefing: Inequality and the Child Poverty Strategy appeared first on Equality Trust.

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American Civil War II and its aftermath

 — Author: Heidi Li Feldman — Monday 19th January 2026

Historians will, I predict, deem the current situation in the United States the American Civil War II.

This is a civil war instigated by the federal government when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. I date the start to the weekend of October 4, 2025 when Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth secretly ordered U.S. military troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, to aid and abet violence by federal agents against peaceful civilian populations. The militaristic federal invasion and occupation of Minneapolis is a continuation of this war.

Civil wars do not follow a template. Secession is not a necessary condition for an American civil war. In the current one, the American Democracy side and the Republican Fascist side are in existential disagreement over the following constitutional questions.

• Whether the executive branch of the federal government is constrained by the U.S. Constitution, laws passed by Congress, and judicial branch reiterations of either or both.
• Whether the executive branch may ignore the Constitutionally-defined sovereignty of states.

These are now live issues. The Trump regime has made them live by adopting the view that the federal executive branch is not constrained by the Constitution and relevant federal laws and using militaristic force against Americans in states whose voters have rejected this position and whose governors side with American Democracy.

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What’s On Jan 19-25 2026

 — Organisation: Free Palestine Melbourne — Monday 19th January 2026

What’s On around Naarm/Melbourne & Regional Victoria: Jan 19-25, 2026.

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The Way In: Representation in our Parliament – Wesa Chau

 — Organisation: Per Capita — Monday 19th January 2026

“Everyone gets a fair go” is one of Australia’s most cherished values. We often pride ourselves on being a country where diversity is a strength and where anyone — with enough passion, hard work and persistence — can rise to leadership. But The Way In, Per Capita’s latest analysis of the 48th Parliament, reveals a more complicated truth. While we have taken meaningful steps forward, the pathways into federal politics remain narrow, elite, and far from reflective of the nation our parliamentarians are elected to serve.

Before diving into the findings, I’m reminded of a moment that crystallised the power of assumptions. When I was invited to speak at a leadership conference, I arrived at a venue hosting two events: one on leadership and the other on childcare. Other participants were asked which event they were attending – I wasn’t, staff directed me straight to childcare. It showed how assumptions about who looks like a leader still shape how people are seen and treated.

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How can a NEW Transit Line be THIS BAD!? (Finch West LRT)

 — Publication: Not Just Bikes — Sunday 18th January 2026

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No signs of heat going out of Coalition’s summer of discontent

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Friday 16th January 2026

Ley, and others in her increasingly small circle, mistook Josh Frydenberg’s win in forcing the Albanese government to call a royal commission into the events that led to Bondi as a personal victory.

It became obvious that was a mistake almost as soon as it happened. The Liberals may have found brief unity in a feverish lust of blaming the government, and anti-genocide protesters, for the actions of deranged terrorists, but that unity was never going to hold.

After losing the summer, Anthony Albanese is playing the long game. In throwing together a little of what everyone wanted into a bill no one wanted, he got to say he tried.

It is a well-worn Australian political tactic – wielding power through failure: “We tried to do something, and just couldn’t and that’s someone else’s fault” becomes the narrative, with the focus then shifting to who is not letting the government do as it wishes, rather than the government’s failure to find the support it needs to get it through.

In this case, Labor itself didn’t want the “something” it was attempting to do. It played a high stakes game with liberties to own the right, aided by the Greens, who saw the lay of the land and made the smart choice.

Now Ley must own the Coalition walking away from legislation it said it wanted, while the government gets to pretend it tried to meet its expectations.

In more crass terms, Ley f–ked around. Now she’s finding out.

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Burning homes and rising premiums: why fossil fuel companies must pay the bill

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Friday 16th January 2026

Just days after hundreds of homes were destroyed and tens of thousands of livestock died in Victoria’s bushfires, across the state hundreds more people were evacuated and multiple cars washed out to sea due to flash flooding following an intense storm.

Fossil fuel companies cause the climate change that turbocharges extreme weather events, but ordinary Australians are paying the price. It’s time that changed.

Global warming means extreme weather events like storms, floods, and bushfires are more frequent and more intense. But these disasters are still too often framed as tragic but unavoidable acts of nature, rather than the inevitable consequence of Australia being the third largest exporter of fossil fuels on Earth.

Gas, oil, and coal companies are let off the hook, while the true costs of climate-fueled disasters keep landing on the wrong people, again and again. It’s well past time Australia implemented a climate disaster levy on fossil fuel companies.

Because the costs of climate-fueled disasters are enormous. Homes and properties are destroyed. Businesses shut down. Cattle dead. Farms damaged. Local infrastructure – roads, power, water – wiped out in a matter of hours.

Following a string of major floods across the east coast of Australia in 2022, Australians claimed more than seven billion dollars on their home insurance – almost double the previous record.

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What is a Woman?

 — Author: Sonja Black — Saturday 17th January 2026

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What Trump Should Learn from Old Hickory’s Succession Plan

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Saturday 17th January 2026

Almost immediately after he came down the golden escalator in 2015, Donald Trump was being compared to Andrew Jackson. From his anti-establishment tenor to his breaking of norms to his raucous times in office, media observers and even the president himself have highlighted their similarities. “It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite. Does that sound familiar to you?” Trump asked in 2017 during a speech marking Jackson’s 250th birthday.

But less discussed is the comparison between Jackson’s own revolution and Trump’s, particularly the endings. While this is understandable—Trump has in many respects served as America’s past, present, and political future for the last decade, and an ending to his time at the center of American life is difficult to fathom—as 2028 draws near, those who wish for Trump’s revolution to extend past his presidencies should look to how Jackson handled his own movement after he exited the White House.

Though Jackson left office in 1837, he did not leave the political scene. In fact, his political revolution was only half over. In managing the second half, Jackson would go on to become the most powerful former president in American history—and would see his revolution through to its conclusion.

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Media Release: Free Palestine Melbourne rejects Labor’s draconian bill

 — Organisation: Free Palestine Melbourne — Saturday 17th January 2026

16 January 2026: Free Palestine Melbourne rejects Labor’s proposed hate speech bill as a dangerous and anti-democratic measure that will stifle free speech and Palestine activism.

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Senior Digital Engagement Officer

 — Organisation: The Equality Trust — Friday 16th January 2026

Title: Senior Digital Engagement OfficerHours: Full time (35 hours a week) – we are open to job shares and part time workSalary: £42,064.78  (3.1% inflationary pay increase from 1st April 2026)Location: London (Vauxhall) – we are open to hybrid working with at least 2 days per week working in personBenefits: closure between Christmas and New […]

The post Senior Digital Engagement Officer appeared first on Equality Trust.

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Grand Illusion - Read by Eunice Wong

 — Author: Chris Hedges — Friday 16th January 2026

This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible’s list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor

Text originally published January 8, 2026.

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Trump, IVF, and the New Politics of Fertility

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Friday 16th January 2026

In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision on in vitro fertilization (IVF) reshaped the national debate around fertility and pushed both Democrats and Republicans to present themselves as champions of reproductive health. As President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris fought for the White House, IVF shifted from a niche medical issue to a test of how each side understood family, women’s health, and how far the “right” to have a child goes.

What began as a legal question—whether embryos created through IVF are considered human persons—quickly widened into a debate about rising infertility rates and whether the country should move beyond IVF to treat the root causes of infertility itself. During President Trump’s second term, he has unexpectedly found himself at the center of these debates.

The Ruling Heard Around the World

In many ways, the United States had been building toward this moment for decades. President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics (2001–2009) was one of the first political efforts to think seriously about the rights of and responsibilities owed to human embryos.

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Stephanie Kelton interview with Steven Hail Jan 2026

 — Organisation: Modern Money Lab, YouTube — Friday 16th January 2026

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Operation of the Capital Gains Tax Discount inquiry submission

 — Organisation: Prosper Australia — Friday 16th January 2026

Submission to the Select Committee on the Operation of the Capital Gains Tax Discount Submitted by Prosper Australia, December 19, 2025. Prosper Australia advocates for a fairer and more efficient tax system that recognises the economic distinction between land, labour, and capital. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to this inquiry, particularly on the implications […]

The post Operation of the Capital Gains Tax Discount inquiry submission first appeared on Prosper Australia.

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Social Democrats of the North: William Irvine

 — Publication: Perspectives Journal — Thursday 15th January 2026

Listen to the full conversation on the Perspectives Journal podcast, available to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and all other major podcast platforms.

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A Shining Mausoleum on a Hill

 — Author: Sarah Kendzior — Thursday 15th January 2026

America is buried near a shining mausoleum on a hill.

Her grave is simple and white. She is surrounded by veterans of every war from the American Revolution to the Black Hawk Revolt to Vietnam. America lived in Illinois, which became a state when she was two. She died aged 53 in 1873, eight years after the Civil War ended. I wonder what she thought was coming.

Sarah Kendzior’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The headstones surrounding America Myers are battered and worn. Some bear the scars of repair: patchwork tombs of broken remembrances. Others were long rendered indecipherable.

America is buried in Waterloo on a cliff overlooking the American Bottom.

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The American Mind Podcast: The Roundtable Episode 300

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Thursday 15th January 2026

The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

Minnesota ICE (ft. Kyle Schideler) | The Roundtable Ep. 300

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Executive Power Could Be Making a Comeback

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Thursday 15th January 2026

One of the core executive powers is that of prosecuting criminals. Article II of the Constitution assigns “the executive power”—all of it—to the president of the United States. In practice, the power to execute the laws against those who have violated them is delegated from the president to the attorney general, the Department of Justice which she heads, and the 93 U.S. attorneys spread across the country.

Yet since he took office for the second time last January, President Trump and his attorney general, Pam Bondi, have had a heck of a time getting their people in place. Of the roughly 50 U.S. attorney nominations the president has sent to the Senate, fewer than half—just 19—had been confirmed by December 15, and all of those but three were confirmed en masse in October, some 10 months after Trump took office. Although another 13 were confirmed en masse on December 18, 14 are still awaiting confirmation as we approach the one-year mark of Trump’s second term.

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Event: Good Society Book Launch

 — Organisation: The Equality Trust — Thursday 15th January 2026

Launching Professor Kate Pickett’s new book The Good Society with George Monbiot, Caroline Lucas and Baroness Ruth Lister Hear more about the barriers that hold our society back from achieving a good society and some thoughts on what can changes can be put in place to reduce inequality and increase standards of living. In her […]

The post Event: Good Society Book Launch appeared first on Equality Trust.

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The Flotillas to Gaza Are the World’s Conscience

 — Author: Chris Hedges — Thursday 15th January 2026

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Deconstructing Trump's Gaza 'Peace' Plan (w/ Norman Finkelstein) | The Chris Hedges Report

 — Author: Chris Hedges — Thursday 15th January 2026

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

Order Norm’s book, Gaza’s Gravediggers, now.

Lawlessness has been a common theme characterizing the events of the first weeks of the year. The kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the murder of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, the threat of bombing Iran by the Trump administration. Perhaps one of the worst violations of the law has slipped under the radar amidst the chaos — the continued genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the United Nations’ abetting of Israel and the U.S.’s efforts to ethnically cleanse the region.

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