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The beatings will continue until social cohesion improves

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Saturday 14th February 2026

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit was always going to deepen divisions within Australia, not heal them. Social cohesion can’t be built on a bedrock of police violence, criminalising protest, silencing dissent and ignoring international law.

Australia’s Jewish community needs comfort and support while they grieve the fifteen innocent lives lost in the Bondi massacre. But why not invite a religious leader to provide comfort instead of a deeply controversial political leader? The grief of the Palestinian community in Australia, who are mourning the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians at the hands of Israel, was extended no such comfort or consideration by the Prime Minister or the NSW Premier in recent weeks.

Israel’s crimes in Gaza are monstrous and well-documented. The UN commission of inquiry found evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal intent by Israeli leaders and has recommended they be prosecuted.

Lightweight Libs have Labor laughing all the way to an early election

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Saturday 14th February 2026

He will equal Scott Morrison’s record of 1368 days on Thursday. On Friday, he’ll surpass him, leapfrogging both John Curtin and Morrison, to sit behind Paul Keating as the 12th longest-serving prime minister.

Short of his party moving against him, Albanese is almost certain to win another term as Prime Minister.

The Coalition is 28 seats behind. Even if there was a “thruplition” with One Nation, the Liberals, Nationals and Barnson would have to hold their existing 43 seats and win another 27 to take government.

And don’t expect that election to be held in 2028. New deputy leader Jane Hume was right last week when she said expected Albanese to take advantage of the Liberal Party’s decline and call an early election.

Labor is already eyeing off Forrest, La Trobe, Longman and Goldstein as potential seat gains. Bowman will be on the list.

The Liberals, or Nationals (depending on who wins that fight), will have a tough time holding on to Sussan Ley’s seat of Farrer, with One Nation on the march and a community independent having already shorn 10 points off Ley’s margin at the last election. It is very doubtful the Liberals or Nationals will run another woman in Farrer, which will leave the Coalition with just enough women in the lower house to fill a 2016 Honda Civic. That’ll be sure to arrest the number of women turning their back on the party!

02/13/2026 Market Update

— Organisation: Applied MMT — Friday 13th February 2026

How to Conceive of Conception

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Friday 13th February 2026

The desire to bring new life into the world runs deep in human nature. We know instinctively that children are worthy of the greatest care, and that the mission of parents is among the noblest in life. If our natures did not tell us this so strongly, the pain of childbirth—with all the toil, trials, and heartbreak that follow—would never seem worth it.

The pain of unfulfilled desire for children runs equally and correspondingly deep. In Jewish and Christian Scripture, infertility is almost a byword for anguish, much as having children is a byword for joy, chief among the blessings of God (“Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine…” “The barren wife shall bear seven sons….”). From the beginning of our species to its present, the importance of raising and forming the next generation has been self-evident to all generations.

Appointment to the Monetary Policy Board

— Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — Friday 13th February 2026

Media Release Number 2026-04: The Reserve Bank of Australia welcomes the announcement by the Treasurer appointing Professor Bruce Preston to the Monetary Policy Board.

My friend Ethan

— Author: Heidi Li Feldman — Friday 13th February 2026

This is not a post about politics or law. It is personal, a remembrance of a friend who died last night.

Ethan Posner and I went to law school together, at the University of Michigan. We started in the fall of 1986. Ethan was an east coast guy who found himself in the midwest for law school. Ethan was a big person, physically and personality-wise. He was smart, articulate, and willing to speak up right from the get go. He stood out.

I got to know Ethan especially well when a classmate of ours enlisted him, our friend Jonathan Foot, and me for a study group in the first semester. We would come with our outlines prepared, and spend hours debating hypotheticals, continuing discussions from class and from meals in the dining hall. Ethan would sometime resort to picking me up and turning me upside down. As I told him, I took this as conclusive proof that my arguments had defeated him.

Who Is Paying for the 2025 U.S. Tariffs?

— Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — Thursday 12th February 2026

Mary Amiti, Chris Flanagan, Sebastian Heise, and David E. Weinstein

AI generated image of an Asian man in a warehouse with several shelves of cardboard boxes behind him as he scans two boxes in front of him getting ready to ship. Boxes say made in Vietnam.

Over the course of 2025, the average tariff rate on U.S. imports increased from 2.6 to 13 percent. In this blog post, we ask how much of the tariffs were paid by the U.S., using import data through November 2025. We find that nearly 90 percent of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers.

INTERVIEW: Corrupt, Filthy, Degenerates (MOATS w/ George Galloway)

— Author: Chris Hedges — Thursday 12th February 2026

The Left’s Long Game in Latin America

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Thursday 12th February 2026

January 3, 2026. Caracas. 2:47 AM.

The helicopters had come in low over the Caribbean, running dark. The Delta Force operators on board were well-rehearsed. By 3:29 AM, it was over. Thirty-two Cuban bodyguards lay dead in the compound. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were in flex cuffs, hustled onto a transport aircraft bound for New York. At Mar-a-Lago, President Trump watched the operation unfold in real time with his national security team. It was January 3—exactly 36 years to the day since American forces had extracted military dictator Manuel Noriega from Panama City.

To the general public, the operation in Caracas may have seemed to come out of the blue. But in fact it was only the latest episode—the most dramatic one yet—in a 60-year war that most Americans have never known about. Our adversary in that war has been the Castro regime, which has been pursuing a project far more ambitious than the survival of Cuban socialism. Its goal has always been the revolutionary transformation of the entire Western Hemisphere—including the United States itself.

“We Shall Be Victorious”

AnnouncementCall for Papers: Law, Political Economy and the Legal Geography of Money

— Organisation: Just Money — Thursday 12th February 2026

International Conference in Paris - June 25 & 26, 2026

More “Announcement
Call for Papers: Law, Political Economy and the Legal Geography of Money”

Did a Local Civil Rights Leader Play the FBI for Fools?

— Author: Betsy Phillips — Monday 9th February 2026

It turns out local legend the Rev. Kelly Miller Smith served as an FBI 'informant.' But signs indicate that he knew exactly what he was doing.

Are record property prices on the way (again)?

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 12th February 2026

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the persistent rumours of changes to the capital gains tax discount, why government spending isn’t to blame for the latest inflation increase, and the impact of the federal government’s five per cent deposit scheme on lending figures (and don’t discuss wages as promised last week, cus Greg can’t read a calendar).

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 12 February 2026.

What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo, is available now for just $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

You can also subscribe to the Vantage Point series to get four essays a year on some of the most pressing issues facing Australia and the world.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

Speech: Defining Full Employment and its Intertwined Relationship with Inflation

— Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — Thursday 12th February 2026

Speech by Sarah Hunter, Assistant Governor (Economic), at the CEDA: In Conversation series, Perth

The Last Election - Read by Eunice Wong

— Author: Chris Hedges — Wednesday 11th February 2026

This article is read by Eunice Wong. You can find her work at www.eunicewong.actor.

Text originally published January 19, 2026.

The American Mind Podcast: The Roundtable Episode 304

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 11th February 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.

Bad Bunny, Worse Politics | The Roundtable Ep. 304

The Battle for VMI

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 11th February 2026

Last month, Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn in as the 75th governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. With Democrats now in control of the General Assembly and the governor’s mansion, Virginia has become the parade ground for the Left’s most radical, destructive, and aggressive ambitions: constitutional amendments for abortion, landmark gun-grabbing legislation, and an outrageous gerrymandering scheme that would make Illinois blush.

Spanberger also wants to reshape Virginia’s institutions of higher education. Two more odious bills have slinked their way before the House and into committee: HB1374 and HB1377. The former dissolves the Virginia Military Institute’s Board of Visitors and transfers its governance to Virginia State University. The latter, and more pernicious, creates the VMI Advisory Task Force “to determine whether [VMI] should continue to be a state-sponsored institution of higher education.”

The Left’s assault on VMI is nothing new. Cries of racism, sexism, and Confederate sympathies brought reporters to the small campus in Lexington, Virginia, during the woke wave of 2020, where they conjured stories to fit the cultural narrative. The upheaval resulted in the renaming of VMI buildings and the removal of Stonewall Jackson’s statue that had dominated the campus for decades.

This is not ‘social cohesion’ – it’s just a tighter net to trap us all

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Tuesday 10th February 2026

Isaac Herzog has been credibly accused of incitement to commit genocide and, while his is largely a ceremonial role, he is the head of state of a nation credibly accused of genocide, whose leaders are wanted on war crime charges.

Raising any of these legitimate issues brought more lectures from political leaders about needing to “bring down the temperature” and a reminder that Herzog is here to comfort members of Australia’s grief-stricken and traumatised Jewish communities after the horrific Bondi terror attack.

But two things can be true at the same time. In this case, while there were Australian Jewish people who sought comfort from “their head of state”, there were also Australian Jewish people who found no comfort in Herzog’s visit, who found community in people protesting the invitation while Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces.

Herzog himself ended his public meeting with Anthony Albanese by referencing the “next phase in Gaza”. But raising what that means – which includes Americans and Israelis seeking to establish beachfront resorts on Palestinian territory, built on the bones of mass graves – is raising the temperature, according to Australian leaders.

‘Disunity is death’ – but Labor’s cowed caucus has a cost too

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Friday 6th February 2026

It was 13 years from the formation of the Australian Labor Party to when then-leader Chris Watson was invited to form government.

His four months as prime minister was spent at the helm of the first democratic socialist government in the world. But his impact on modern Labor looms large, having helped establish the solidarity pledge for Labor caucus members, which ultimately forced his own exit during the 1916 conscription split.

Since then, caucus solidarity – the rule that once Labor’s political arm has made a decision, all caucus members are bound to it regardless of personal views – has been treated as both a threat and novelty by party outsiders. It has always been thus.

Another future Labor “rat” Hector Lamond, wrote of the caucus system in 1914:

“Most electoral contests are determined by that large body of more or less intelligent voters who do not attach themselves permanently to any political party. For the most part they are patriotic citizens, striving earnestly to approve what is best in the programs of rival candidates for their electoral favours.

“A large body of these electors has naturally been attracted by the progressive and national character of the Labor platform, and in increasing numbers have given the Labor Party a qualified support.

Australia’s climate crossroads

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Wednesday 11th February 2026

On this episode of Follow the Money, Kumi Naidoo, South African human rights and climate advocate, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss the need for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, why it’s past time for the Australia government to stop coal and gas expansion, and his new Vantage Point essay, What We Owe the Water.

This episode was recorded on Monday 9 February 2026.

What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo is available now for just $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

You can also subscribe to the Vantage Point series to get four essays a year on some of the most pressing issues facing Australia and the world.

Guest: Kumi Naidoo, President, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative // @kuminaidoo

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Show notes:

Activists Make History: Winning for Working People with Rob Ashton

— Publication: Perspectives Journal — Tuesday 10th February 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.

SUBSCRIBE to the Perspectives Journal Podcast and Activists Make History for previous interviews with the 2026 NDP leadership race candidates.

The Fossil Fuel Propaganda I Couldn't Find

— Organisation: Climate Town — Tuesday 10th February 2026

Where Are Mortgage Delinquencies Rising the Most?

— Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — Tuesday 10th February 2026

Andrew F. Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, Daniel Mangrum, Joelle W. Scally, and Wilbert van der Klaauw

Real Classical Education

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Tuesday 10th February 2026

When the history of the Christian Classical Education movement is written, the central figure will surely be Pastor Douglas Wilson. The Association of Classical Christian Schools, which he founded, includes even more member schools than Pastor Wilson has written books—and that is saying something. Over the past half-century, through the institutions and associations he has created, the essays, articles, and polemics he has written, and the sheer force of his personality, Pastor Wilson has helped guide the educations of tens of thousands of Americans.

In 1991, Pastor Wilson published Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education. This book remains the blueprint for Christian Classical Education across America. Its title was inspired by “The Lost Tools of Learning,” a 1947 lecture by Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). Outside Pastor Wilson’s movement, Sayers is mostly known, if at all, as the author of some moderately entertaining detective stories. Her translations of Dante for Penguin Classics are still in print, but so dated as to seem older than the medieval original.

US military invasion of Venezuela: How did we get here?

— Publication: Progress in Political Economy — Tuesday 10th February 2026

Firstly, what has happened?

In the early hours of January 3, 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores were kidnapped and flown to the US through a US military operation which involved attacks on the Venezuelan military bases in Fuerte Tiuna in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and four other key strategic bases. According to the Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab, 100 people, security personnel, soldiers and civilians, were killed by US forces in the operation. No US lives were reported to be lost. Delcy Rodríguez, formerly Venezuelan oil minister and vice-president, has since been sworn in as interim president.

Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein and the Politics of Betrayal - Read by Eunice Wong

— Author: Chris Hedges — Tuesday 10th February 2026

This article is read by Eunice Wong. You can find her work at www.eunicewong.actor.

Text originally published February 8, 2026.

Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein and the Politics of Betrayal - Read by Eunice Wong

— Author: Chris Hedges — Tuesday 10th February 2026

This article is read by Eunice Wong. You can find her work at www.eunicewong.actor.

Text originally published February 8, 2026.

Current ScholarshipMoney and the Making of the American Revolution

— Organisation: Just Money — Monday 9th February 2026

Andrew David Edwards

Lopsided labour scheme a “modern slavery risk” – new analysis

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 9th February 2026

The report, part of a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry, has found the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM)) scheme is so lopsided it could damage diplomatic and economic relationships, rather than enhance them.

Similarly, the expansion of the scheme to fill shortages in the health and aged care sectors is luring medical professionals away from the health systems of workers’ home nations, leaving them desperately under-resourced.

The scheme generates around a billion dollars a year, yet just $184 million makes it back to the homelands of workers.

The report makes three recommendations:

Ensuring a fair share of money makes it back to workers and their families.
Improving the rights and conditions of workers, to ensure they’re not at risk of modern slavery.
Re-examining the expansion of the scheme – originally designed to fill seasonal agricultural roles, like fruit picking – into Australia’s care sectors.

“When the PALM scheme was established, it was lauded as a win-win for Australia and its participating neighbours,” said Morgan Harrington, Research Manager at The Australia Institute.

“But more than three quarters of the money earned in Australia stays in Australia. This is desperately unfair and not in the spirit of what the scheme was set up to do.

“These workers are now a vital part of our economy, particularly in rural Australia. Without them, our meat processing, fruit picking, aged and health care sectors would be in trouble.

Democracy “dies in darkness” and Trump is trying to turn out the lights

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 9th February 2026

On this episode of After America, Ben Doherty, Guardian Australia senior reporter covering international affairs, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the mass layoffs at the Washington Post, the lack of transparency around the AUKUS submarine deal, and why the Australian government still has its head in the sand over Trump.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 6 February 2026.

The latest Vantage Point essay, What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo, is available now for $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

Guest: Ben Doherty, Senior Reporter, Guardian Australia

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

Show notes:

‘Possibility of US ever selling Australia nuclear submarines is increasingly remote, Aukus critics say’ by Ben Doherty, Guardian Australia (February 2026)

The Swifties Face a Reckoning

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Monday 9th February 2026

Taylor Swift’s recent hit album The Life of a Showgirl was characteristically catchy yet ideologically confusing. It’s a picture of a woman being torn between the life of a girlboss and the life of a wife—and possibly mother.

Deeply in love with her fiancé, Travis Kelce, Swift’s album unsurprisingly features her most sexual song to date, while other tracks reflect on her time in show business, with a mix of triumph and tragedy. Recorded during the European leg of her wildly successful Eras Tour, the album is in many ways an ode to the career she loves. But it is also a love letter filled with lyrics that are equal parts profound and a little corny, pointing toward a life in which Swift could leave the showgirl era behind altogether.

Take this set of stanzas from Wi$h Li$t, a song that mocks the soulless hustle of Hollywood and the music industry, contrasting it with the quiet happiness of family life in the suburbs.

They want that yacht life, under chopper blades

They want those bright lights and Balenci’ shades

And a fat a*s with a baby face

They want it all

They want that complex female character

They want that critical smash Palme d’Or

And an Oscar on their bathroom floor

Members event: February

— Organisation: Prosper Australia — Monday 9th February 2026

Kicking off the year, members are invited to hear from Rayna Fahey who has stepped into the role of Executive Director at Prosper Australia. As a long term advocate for housing, land policy, and making our cities fairer, Rayna will share a bit about our priorities for the year — from land value capture to […]

The post Members event: February first appeared on Prosper Australia.

What’s On Feb 9-15 2026

— Organisation: Free Palestine Melbourne — Monday 9th February 2026

What’s On around Naarm/Melbourne & regional Victoria: Feb 9-15, 2026

Inclusionary Zoning: Four principles for a targeted, consistent, and balanced policy

— Organisation: Per Capita — Monday 9th February 2026

By Dr Kate Raynor and Lucas Lewit-Mendes

The Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Bill 2025 passed both houses of parliament last week. The amendment will streamline building approvals, including allowing low-risk building permits to be processed faster. Changes also include a provision that enables councils and state government to make the use or development of land conditional on the provision of an affordable housing contribution as long as:

the relevant planning scheme identifies a need for affordable housing and
the application exceeds a dwelling number or development value threshold.

This is a promising change that lays the groundwork for inclusionary zoning (IZ) – a land use planning intervention that either mandates or incentivises the delivery of social or affordable housing or in-lieu financial contributions as part of market rate housing development. This is something local councils, industry leaders, social housing and homelessness experts and researchers have been calling for for years.¹

With the correct policy settings, IZ has proven an extremely effective approach to delivering affordable housing. In England, inclusionary zoning delivered 27,400 affordable homes in 2023-2024, accounting for 44% of all affordable homes built in England that year.² Over 110,000 affordable homes have been produced in the US through IZ programs.³

Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein and the Politics of Betrayal

— Author: Chris Hedges — Monday 9th February 2026

The ghost of loss gets into you

— Author: Julia Doubleday — Sunday 8th February 2026

Most days I still think of calling my mother.

Today, for example, I imagine ringing her up, telling her I’m back at work on The Gauntlet, writing away. She always loved to hear that.

“Yes,” I’d tell her, “I’m writing about how devastated I’ve been since you died.”

My mom died on January 3, 2026.

A bunch of doctors gathered in the hallway outside her room to thank her for being an organ donor, reading a tribute written by my father. The doctors learned about her master’s degrees in math and music, and how she conducted our church choir for decades. They listened patiently as they learned she taught college and high school math classes for many years, how she took up painting after retirement, how she was a loving mother to two children: my brother Kevin, and me.

I was here in DC, still homebound, watching via Facetime on Kevin’s phone. A dear friend lay in bed with me while I sobbed, holding my hand. They removed all the life support. She breathed for one more hour.

Since January 3rd, I’ve read Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm, A Heart that Works by Robb Delaney, A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

Chris Hedges on Trump, Epstein and the Decline of American Democracy | UpFront

— Author: Chris Hedges — Sunday 8th February 2026

IVF Is Not the Answer to the Fertility Crisis

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Friday 6th February 2026

One year ago, President Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to develop policy recommendations to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), expand its availability, and lower its cost to patients. Then in October, the administration announced additional measures to lower costs for IVF and common fertility drugs and explore pathways like expanded employer benefits or excepted benefit categories for assisted reproductive technologies. While this included joint efforts across federal agencies to make this costly intervention more affordable, the administration stopped short of imposing broad new federal mandates for insurance coverage or direct government funding of IVF.

02/06/2026 Market Update

— Organisation: Applied MMT — Friday 6th February 2026

Why MAGA is here to stay | Between the Lines

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 5th February 2026

The Wrap: Australia doesn’t need a strong Opposition, but it does need a strong Parliament

“Australia is an ‘elective dictatorship’, an ominous term coined in the 1990s by David Hamer. Mr Hamer was a Liberal parliamentarian who served in both houses of Parliament (he was an MP and a senator). His point was that, between elections, the Government’s power is barely constrained by law or the Constitution.

“Instead, the Government is constrained by the Parliament. However benign or well-meaning a Government, democracy depends on the option for the Parliament to intervene to stop abuse of power,” writes Bill Browne.

Read more

Frontline services stretched to breaking point as housing crisis deepens

— Organisation: Everybody's Home — Thursday 5th February 2026

Frontline organisations responding to Australia’s housing crisis are operating at breaking point, reporting sustained increases in demand, escalating complexity, and diminishing capacity to help, according to Everybody’s Home.

The national housing campaign’s ‘No Way Out’ sector survey of dozens of frontline organisations found nine in ten (89%) reported increased workloads over the past year, while almost all (98%) expect demand for their services to rise further in 2026.

More than four in five (82%) organisations reported the housing crisis is either significantly affecting their daily operations or severely threatening the effectiveness of their programs.

The crisis is increasingly affecting the workforce itself, with seven in ten frontline organisations (71%) reporting increased stress or burnout among their workforce, while more than three quarters (78%) said housing insecurity is impacting their staff or volunteers.

Almost three-quarters (72%) said the increased workload has contributed to staff turnover in the past year, and more than one quarter of respondents (27%) said they’d considered leaving their role due to workload or housing-related pressures.

Speech: Opening Statement to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics

— Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — Thursday 5th February 2026

Governor Michele Bullock provides an update on the Bank’s operations and activities, before she and senior colleagues answer questions from the Committee members.

Stopping the European Censorship Machine

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Thursday 5th February 2026

Shortly before Christmas, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers made a dramatic announcement: the U.S. was placing five individuals described as “agents of the global censorship-industrial complex” on a visa sanctions list in an effort to curb foreign suppression of Americans. The undoubted headliner of the group is Thierry Breton, the former E.U. Internal Market Commissioner who spearheaded efforts to enforce the E.U.’s Digital Services Act (DSA) during the last years of his tenure in the European Commission. The list also includes the two managing directors of the hitherto relatively obscure German organization HateAid, which serves as a so-called “trusted flagger” under the DSA.

Does the Phillips Curve Steepen When Costs Surge?

— Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — Thursday 5th February 2026

Simone Lenzu

The American Mind Podcast: The Roundtable Episode 303

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Friday 6th February 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.

The Mini-Bus, the Short Bus, and the Clown Car | The Roundtable Ep. 303

What Will the Future Look Like in the ‘New World Order?’ (w/ John Mearsheimer) | The Chris Hedges Report

— Author: Chris Hedges — Thursday 5th February 2026

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

Karl Marx, in his essay “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” said that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Donald Trump’s actions in the first year of his second term have spelled out to many that tragedies of history are beginning to repeat themselves, this time certainly as farces.

John Mearsheimer, the renowned scholar, author and R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to contextualize what Trump’s political missions mean through the lens of history.

OAA welcomes new Open Science Policy from NHMRC & MRFF

— Organisation: Open Access Australasia — Thursday 5th February 2026

How Australian high schools became the most expensive in the developed world

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 5th February 2026

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the Reserve Bank’s decision to raise interest rates and the absurdity of elite private schools receiving substantial public funding.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 5 February 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 the regular price – offer available for a limited time only.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

Australian high schools the most expensive in the world – new research, the Australia Institute (February 2026)

What are the odds? The RBA has raised interest rates – for no real reason other than to meet the desires of speculators by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (February 2026)

Anatomy (not Autopsy) of the Phillips Curve

— Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — Wednesday 4th February 2026

Simone Lenzu

Immigration and the Moral Limits of Federalism

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 4th February 2026

If Hayek taught us to inquire about who ought to decide and Lincoln taught us to ask to what end, then the question of immigration compels us toward a third and inescapable question: Where is the line drawn?

The principles of subsidiarity and federalism demand that matters should be resolved at the lowest level of authority competent to manage them. Much of what the national government has usurped would be more wisely and justly managed by the states, local communities, families, and institutions of civil society. The Constitution itself was framed to embody this division of powers, preserving the vitality of local self-government against the dangers of centralized tyranny.

Hillary Clinton’s Failure of Empathy

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 4th February 2026

Reading Hillary Clinton’s most recent article, “MAGA’s War on Empathy,” it’s hard not to have at least some sympathy, and perhaps even empathy, for her.

Yes, Clinton was one of the most ruthless political operators of the last century, a woman who would seemingly do almost anything in pursuit of power. She was extremely close to becoming president, the prize she had always wanted, before being thwarted by Donald Trump of all people, a figure she treated as little more than an absurdity during much of her 2015-16 campaign.

It would be easy to dismiss anything Clinton writes as simple, cynical political posturing. And to be sure, there is plenty of politicized misrepresentation of facts in her latest article. And yet her recent piece attacking the Trump GOP for its supposed lack of empathy, using Minneapolis as a backdrop, is revealing, for it lays bare the moral core of today’s Democratic Party.

If her piece were just political and not reflective to some degree of her sincere belief, she could have done it as an X post or a short op-ed—she certainly didn’t need 6,000 words in The Atlantic to make her case. In this respect I differ somewhat from Pastor Joe Rigney, one of the targets of Clinton’s ire, who wrote his own excellent response. Clinton wrote this essay because, to a certain extent, she means it.