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The Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN) is urging the government to use its mandate from Saturday’s election to replace climate rhetoric with real climate action.

The network has released its analysis of the election result, concluding that the return of the government “is largely a better outcome than a Dutton-led coalition, where climate change action may have seen significant roll-backs and weakening.”

But the report paints a bleak picture of the Albanese government’s first-term record on climate action.

It highlights the gaping divide between what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at events like the Pacific Island Forum and what his government actually did to help the “Pacific Family”.

PICAN is urging real action on several key climate areas, including:

Stopping Australia’s expansion of – and reliance on – fossil fuels.

Resolving the significant discrepancies between Australia’s climate commitments and climate actions.

Improving Australia’s grossly inadequate pledges on climate change loss and damage.

Reducing Australia’s reliance on questionable and ineffective carbon offset schemes.

This article expands upon observations the writer, Neil Heller, made on LinkedIn. Click here to view the original post.

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.

Crowd Funding and Mob Rule | The Roundtable Ep. 266

To cap off the first 100 days of his administration, Trump sparred at length with Kristen Welker of NBC’s Meet the Press over his record so far—from immigration successes to choppy economic waters. Alarmed by Trump’s use of emergency powers in rolling out this agenda, David Linker at the New York Times draws some loose connections—to say the least—between Trump, Claremont, and Carl Schmitt. Meanwhile, Shiloh Hendricks has raised over $700 thousand from supporters after a video of her using the n-word prompted threats of retaliation. The guys discuss Trump’s first months, midterm prospects, and our climate of race politics. Plus: media recommendations!

Recommended reading:

President Trump’s barrage of tariffs has produced in response a barrage of criticisms. Some take the form of an appeal to expert authority: economists, we are told, agree that tariffs are bad policy, and thus the administration’s recent “Liberation Day” tariffs are prima facie irrational.

Such claims are, of course, exaggerations. At least some economists—even if unorthodox ones—have supported the use of tariffs in certain situations. Indeed, it is hard to see how economists can claim to reject tariffs in principle since they as a class do not reject all government interventions in the market. We rarely hear that economists agree in condemning the income tax or social assistance to the poor even though these policies are market interventions.

Nevertheless, suppose all economists actually agree that tariffs should be rejected in principle. What then? It does not follow that tariffs are necessarily bad public policy. Economists specialize in the conditions that make for an efficient and prosperous economy—but that is not the sole aim of government policy. A strong economy is not the same thing as a strong and secure political community. The latter is the aim of the statesman, who must take a more comprehensive view of things than the scholar who specializes in economics.

The revolutionary online publication in which this note appears calls itself “The American Mind.” That memorable phrase was introduced into the American political tradition 200 years ago today, in a letter Thomas Jefferson sent to his Virginia neighbor, Henry Lee, on May 8, 1825.

Jefferson was at the time on the board of visitors of the University of Virginia, which he had founded just a few years earlier. Lee had written as one interested “in the renown of our ancestors, and the history of the Country” to call Jefferson’s attention to certain historical documents in Lee’s possession. “These papers,” Lee wrote, “might have formed the materials, out of which the fine propositions of the Declaration of Independence arose.”

Jefferson was already one of those ancestors in whose renown Lee was interested. He responded with a historic reflection that deserved to be remembered through the ages, explaining the purposes of the Declaration:

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Hayden discuss the election result, Trump’s Hollywood tariffs, and what retail spending figures reveal about the state of economy.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 8 May 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order ‘After America: Australia and the new world order’ or become a foundation subscriber to Vantage Point at australiainstitute.org.au/store.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @grogsgamut

Host: Hayden Starr, Digital Media Manager, the Australia Institute // @haydenstarr

Show notes:

‘The Reserve Bank played it safe and didn’t cut interest rates in April – and households suffer’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (May 2025)

Megyn Kelly recently appealed to conservative men to stop preferring women who will not work. Young conservative men “are telling young, amazing conservative women that they are not attractive if they also work,” she said. We would be losing lots of talent, Kelly continued, if we tell young ladies they are only valuable if they give up work and “go into the home and only raise a family.”

The popular podcaster was thinking about recent polling showing a conservative vibe shift about “traditional gender roles.” Nearly 50% of Republican men and 37% of Republican women think “women should return to their traditional gender roles in society,” a 23% increase among men and a 14% increase among women since 2022. Support for “traditional gender roles” among Democrats unsurprisingly remains very low.

Conservatives should greet the rising popularity of tradmoms as a boon, not a crisis, so long as we avoid too narrow an understanding of tradmoms.

Over the last decade for which data is available, salmon industry revenue has doubled from $543 million in 2013-14 to $1,352 million in 2022-23. Total revenue over the decade was $8,779 million.

Meanwhile, tax paid by the three largest salmon farms has been near-zero. The total combined reported tax payments by Tassal, Huon and SeaLord (owners of Petuna) over this period was $51 million. While obviously tax is paid on profits not revenue, that the total tax paid over 11 years by the salmon industry is just 0.6% of revenue suggests either a deeply unprofitable industry or (more clearly) one where Australians are clearly not getting a fair return.

But wait, there’s less.

As we’ve explained before, the $6m paid since 2019 is all from SeaLord, which also has non-salmon farming activities. Following its takeover of Petuna, SeaLord’s revenue increased, but tax payments decreased. This suggests that Petuna’s salmon operations don’t contribute to SeaLord’s tax payments, but actually reduce them.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

On this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Chris Hedges speaks with filmmaker Alex Gibney about Gibney’s documentary series The Dark Money Game, which examines the “labyrinth of mirrors” that facilitates untraceable corruption through the American political system. Although both the Democratic and Republican parties have served the interests of the billionaire class since well before the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling in 2010, the removal of restrictions on political spending created a system by which corporations could route millions of dollars in bribes through an intricate, opaque network of nonprofit organizations and super PACs.

This election result was anything but a vote for the foreign-owned commercial salmon industry.

Independent MP for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, attributes Labor’s success in Braddon – where Anne Urquhart won the seat off the Liberals – to “enormous pork-barrelling” by the ALP.

Braddon takes in Macquarie Harbour, where huge commercial salmon farms are putting the world-renowned Maugean Skate at serious risk of extinction.

Intensive salmon farming in the harbour remains under review.

In Franklin, the epicentre of the state’s salmon industry, first-time candidate, Independent Peter George, achieved a swing of around 6 percent against Labor.

Mr George focused strongly on fixing the salmon industry’s problems and – while he did not win the seat – he did win the vast majority of votes at booths immediately adjacent to where the industry operates.

“The fact that an independent got over 20 percent of the primary vote. That was a very strong anti-salmon vote,” said Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie.

“Around 80% of the salmon industry is in southeast Tasmania. People living along the coast of the Franklin electorate live with the daily impact of this industry, including dead and decaying chunks of fish washing up on their beaches,” said Eloise Carr, Director, The Australia Institute Tasmania

“That’s where Peter George won the most votes. He also won a 6% swing away from Labor.”

We at Per Capita are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Race Mathews, a dear friend of Per Capita. We offer our heartfelt condolences to Iola and family.  

Race was truly a giant of Australian politics. His contributions to public policy in this country have been enormous, and his wisdom, advice and experience are weaved into the fabric of Per Capita. 

Race was a politician, an academic, an author and a reformer. He served at all three levels of government, including Croydon Shire Council, the Whitlam Government and the Victorian Cain and Kirner Governments. He was a stalwart of the Australian Fabian Society for over four decades.  

His legislative reforms span education, Medicare, gun control, police, disaster management, the arts and child protection. 

Race was driven by a passion for fairness and justice. He was a genuinely inclusive, intelligent, kind and welcoming man; the very best kind of politician that we have ever had in this country. 

On this episode of Follow the Money, Chief Political Analyst Amy Remeikis and Chief Economist Greg Jericho join Ebony Bennett to discuss the election result, the legislative priorities of the new parliament and the future of the conservative side of politics.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 6 May 2025 and things may have changed.

Pre-order ‘After America: Australia and the new world order’ or become a foundation subscriber to our Vantage Point series on the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst, the Australia Institute // @amyremeikis

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

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

Show notes:

There is no such thing as a safe seat | Fact sheet, the Australia Institute (October 2024)

To better understand the relationship between privacy and safety in addressing online harms, Digital Rights Watch has commissioned a research report featuring polling conducted by Essential Media. It covers some topical technologies like facial recognition and age assurance tech, client-side scanning in CSAEM detection, and methods of improving safety without impacting privacy.

We do not believe that a safer internet requires giving up our privacy. There is strong support for privacy reforms in Australia, more so than indiscriminately banning children from social media. We are more sceptical about the idea of using AI to police web safety, unconvinced that these techno-centric approaches will create safer online environments.

This polling research should reinforce the need to carefully think through approaches to improving online safety and ensuring that any form of age or identity verification includes appropriate safeguards and protections.

Read the rest of the report below:

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft strategy. Prosper Australia is an economic think tank working in the Georgist tradition, with a long history of research into property taxation. We wish to raise one major point: the draft strategy lacks an infrastructure funding strategy. The draft recommendations cover several governance and […]

Last week, Ronald Dodson wrote in The American Mind that “acceptance of a limited Iranian nuclear capability could, paradoxically, enhance long-term regional stability and better serve the security interests of both the United States and Israel.” Dodson claims he premised this astonishing conclusion on decision theory courses he took while in college. He also supports his conclusion with inaccurate assessments of geopolitics generally—and the Middle East specifically.

Because Dodson favors Iran obtaining a nuclear bomb, he views a military strike as “unnecessary.” He believes military action would fail and would “destabilize” the region. Given his objective, he never discusses non-military alternatives or explains how to induce Iran to “limit” its nuclear capability.

In the context of Dodson’s core thesis and his other writings, the question of whether to attack Iran is a red herring: his goal is not to avoid kinetic action, but to facilitate Iran’s development of a nuclear capability that “restrains” Israel.

In his American Mind essay, Dodson observes that when a state sacrifices stability for “abstract moral clarity or the illusion of control, it erodes its own foundations…. In Iran’s case, only strategic patience—not a theology of war—can cultivate such space.”

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 March 11, 2025

This California City is Doing the Math

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — Tuesday 6th May 2025

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Pedestrian Deaths Are Still Way Too High—Here's What Needs to Change

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — Tuesday 6th May 2025

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America Should Sprawl? Not If We Want Strong Towns

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — Monday 5th May 2025

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A Big Win for Small Homes in Arkansas

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — Monday 5th May 2025

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The Week Observed, May 2, 2025

 — Publication: City Observatory — Monday 5th May 2025

What City Observatory Did This Week

ODOT’s Deceptive Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion. For six years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has systematically concealed plans to build a massive 160-foot-wide freeway through Portland’s Rose Quarter—not the modest “auxiliary lane” project they’ve publicly claimed.

Documents obtained through public records requests reveal ODOT knew since at least 2016 that they planned a roadway wide enough for 8-10 lanes, yet repeatedly refused to answer direct questions about the project’s width. When pressed by City Observatory and others, ODOT officials provided misleading information, non-answers, or demanded formal records requests for basic project dimensions.

The agency published deceptive, not-to-scale illustrations in their Environmental Assessment while hiding detailed engineering drawings that showed the true scope. Metro has called ODOT’s claim that this isn’t a freeway expansion “not objectively true and potentially misleading.”

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Property Taxes and Nashville's Uneven Housing Crisis

 — Author: Betsy Phillips — Monday 5th May 2025

If you want to appeal your home's appraised value, you need to do it before May 9

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A Future of Bold Reform

 — Organisation: Per Capita — Monday 5th May 2025

Australians have decisively given the Labor government a second term, emphatically demonstrating that they want a future of action defined by equality, fairness, social justice and evidence-based policy. 

In their first term, Labor achieved a lot: reforming the stage three tax cuts, introducing tax evasion laws for multi-national corporations, investing more in social housing than any federal government in 30 years, criminalising wage theft, fixing a broken industrial relations system to get wages moving again, record investment in Medicare, revising HECS/HELP indexation, creating the Future Made in Australia plan, and much more.  

Having been handed a second term, Labor must view this resounding victory as a mandate for bold reform: to tackle the housing crisis head on, to spearhead meaningful action on climate change, to reorient the economic future of Australia’s younger generations, and to restore Australia as the land of the Fair Go 

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Andor: Trump, Global Repression, and the Political Economy of Fascism

 — Publication: Progress in Political Economy — Monday 5th May 2025

Season two of the acclaimed Star Wars series Andor has begun. The first season of the franchise came amid backlash, critique, and frustration against Disney’s general handling of the galaxy’s most sought-after intellectual property, with major titles underperforming at the box office and other releases plagued by poor writing and underwhelming plots. Andor was a sudden flash of brilliance (a coruscation, if you will), which was surprising as it seemingly served as nothing more than background filler for the acclaimed (but underappreciated) Rogue One.

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The Trump effect

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 5th May 2025

On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis joins Angus Blackman to discuss whether Anthony Albanese’s massive election victory is part of a global “repudiation” of Trumpism and what new Australia Institute polling reveals about Australians’ views on Trump and the alliance.

This discussion was recorded on Monday 5 May 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order ‘After America: Australia and the new world order’ or become a foundation subscriber to Vantage Point at australiainstitute.org.au/store.

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

Host: Angus Blackman, Podcast Producer, the Australia Institute // @angusrb

Show notes:

Polling: Australia-US relations, the Australia Institute (May 2025)

US independence day? Poll shows Australians’ radical shift over Trump, economy, ABC News (April 2025)

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Open letter calls on newly elected Parliament to introduce Whistleblower Protection Authority, sustained funding for integrity agencies to protect from government pressure.

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 5th May 2025

Integrity experts, including former judges, ombudsmen and leading academics, have signed an open letter, coordinated by The Australia Institute and Fairer Future and published today in The Canberra Times, calling on the newly elected Parliament of Australia to address weaknesses in Australian political integrity.

The open letter warns that a decade of decline in agencies tasked with securing good governance has led to an integrity deficit in Australian politics and made it harder for Parliament to hold the executive government to account.

The signatories, including former IBAC Commissioner The Hon Robert Redlich AM KC, former Commonwealth Ombudsman Philippa Smith AM, and Geoffrey Watson SC, Director of the Centre for Public Integrity, call on the Parliament of Australia to recognise that the integrity arm of government deserves independence, resourcing and recognition:

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Australia rejected the Dutton-Murdoch agenda, now we’ll see if Labor does the same

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 5th May 2025

The Coalition is done. As far as repudiations go, it doesn’t get much more brutal than what the nation delivered on Saturday night.

The worst result for the Liberal party since Menzies. Its leader turfed out of the Parliament along with most future leadership candidates. Swings against the party in every jurisdiction and most seats, including crucially, the outer suburbs that were supposed to be the new pathway to electoral relevancy.

There is no need to ask the Coalition, or its supporters in the political landscape such as News Corp, what it thinks needs to happen about anything in the future.

As the result became apparent, commentators from within the Coalition and its media arm were arguing that Dutton lost because he didn’t embrace Trump enough.

It’s hard to tell at this point whether this isn’t just some long term embedded espionage project coming to fruition. Voters didn’t just reject Dutton and his ilk, they consigned them to irrelevancy.

But will Labor? Because we are about to find out whether Labor has the bravery to govern without the approval of right-wingers.

This victory isn’t a thumping endorsement of Labor – it’s a rejection of mask-off, hard-right politics. But history tells us Labor won’t see it that way, and that’s not good for anyone.

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We need political courage, not caution

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 5th May 2025

On this episode, Paul Barclay talks with the Australia Institute’s climate and energy research director, Polly Hemming. There’s no chance of solving Australia’s biggest challenges—inequality and poverty, environmental destruction, climate change and political disillusionment—if leaders aren’t willing to make big decisions and, as Hemming puts it, ‘stop doing bad stuff’.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday, 18 February 2025, and things may have changed since the recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Polly Hemming, Director of Climate & Energy Program, the Australia Institute // @pollyjhemming

Host: Paul Barclay, Walkley Award winning journalist and broadcaster // @PaulBarclay

Show notes:

Offsetting Us Up To Fail: The myths of ‘nature markets’ explained by Richard Denniss and Polly Hemming, the Australia Institute (November 2022)

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The American Government Sides with the Party of German Neo-Nazis

 — Author: Thomas Zimmer — Sunday 4th May 2025

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The Absolute Best Transportation for Cities (trams)

 — Publication: Not Just Bikes — Sunday 4th May 2025

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Trumpland

 — Author: Chris Hedges — Saturday 3rd May 2025

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After a historic win, government must deliver on housing

 — Organisation: Everybody's Home — Saturday 3rd May 2025

The return of the Albanese government offers a chance to build on housing progress, with  millions of Australians expecting bolder action this term, according to Everybody’s Home.

The national housing campaign said a Labor win shows that Australians have overwhelmingly rejected the Coalition’s approach to Australia’s housing crisis. 

Everybody’s Home now looks forward to working with the Labor government, urging them to implement:

• A major expansion of social housing, aiming to deliver 940,000 new homes within the next two decades to meet demand 
• A phase out of unfair tax handouts to property investors that fuel property speculation
• Nationally consistent protections for renters
• A boost to income support to help keep people housed and out of poverty.

Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said: “Everybody’s Home joins the rest of the sector in congratulating the Labor government on its re-election. This victory offers an opportunity to build on the work the government has done in its first term, including on housing.

“Australians have rejected the Coalition’s housing agenda, which offered policies that would make affordability worse. Raiding your superannuation to buy a home, allowing first-time buyers to deduct mortgage interest payments from their taxable income, and scrapping the Housing Australia Future Fund designed to build more social homes are clearly not vote winners. 

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The first definitive invalidation of Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act

 — Author: Heidi Li Feldman — Saturday 3rd May 2025

Recall that the Supreme Court ruled that Venezuelans threatened with removal under Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act had to use habeas corpus proceedings to challenge threatened deportations. Because habeas petitions must be filed in the geographic locale where detainees are held, this has led to litigation all over the country. Much of it has involved emergency motions seeking temporary restraining orders to halt deportations while the underlying legal issues are litigated. Now, for the first time, a court fully briefed on the relevant issues has ruled that the entire Trump effort to use the AEA as a basis for removing purported members of TdA is unlawful.

Judge Fernando Rodriguez of the Southern District of Texas has entered a final judgement and permanent injunction granting habeas relief to the Venezuelans detained in that District and forbidding the Trump executive from detaining, transferring, or removing them on the basis of the AEA. That's the bottom line, but understanding how Rodriguez got there is more complex.

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How I Became a Strong Towns Member—and Why You Should Do the Same

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — Friday 2nd May 2025

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More senators for the ACT: Unity ticket, bar one

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Friday 2nd May 2025

This was a unity ticket, minus one.

Liberal ACT senate candidate Jacob Vadakkedathu opposed the move. He said that voters tell him, “we don’t need any more pollies”. It’s easy to offer an argument against more politicians in a cost-of-living crisis.

To be fair to Vadakkedathu, the Liberal Party historically had form on senate representation for the territories.

In the 1970s, Liberals opposed the creation of senate seats for the ACT and NT, arguing that the senate might one day be “swamped” by representatives from other territories like the Cocos Islands, and that it might lose its constitutional character as a “states’ house”. They fought against the measure at three successive elections (including one double dissolution) and forced the matter all the way to an historic, deadlock-resolving joint sitting of the two houses in August 1974.

The idea of “swamping the senate” was laughable then, and even more so now. The quota for ACT and NT Senate elections is extremely high. The Labor Party, the Greens and Independent Senator David Pocock all agree that the ACT’s senate representation should (at least) be doubled.

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Retail trade figures show RBA failed when it did not cut rates in April

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Friday 2nd May 2025

On April Fool’s Day, the Reserve Bank board decided not to cut interest rates, citing uncertainty about the economy.

At the time we criticised the decision arguing that not only were there enough signs that the economy was faltering and households were hurting, but that given the announcement of Donald Trump’s tariffs two days after the April RBA meeting, the board should have met again, rather than wait till the 20th of this month to make another decision.

Today’s retail trade figures highlight just how badly the RBA has misread the economy.

In the board’s statement in April, they noted:

“Household consumption growth had started to recover in the December quarter, underpinned by the ongoing pick-up in real household incomes. While some of this recovery in consumption appeared to reflect price-sensitive consumers concentrating spending in promotional periods during the December quarter, the pick-up in spending growth among components not affected by sales events suggested there had been a genuine improvement in underlying momentum. More recent indicators signalled that some of this pick-up had been sustained.” [our emphasis]

Well, today’s retail trade figures show the complete opposite. There was no genuine improvement, nor any sense of sustained pick-up in retail turnover.

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Knee-jerk anti-Chinese redbaiting in Australian elections

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Friday 2nd May 2025

The Hubei Association is an Australia-wide community association for those from the Hubei province, whose capital city is Wuhan… the very place where COVID-19 started. How deep does that rabbit hole go?! Somebody please get our best pundits on the case!

Neither campaign ultimately took up the Association’s offer of assistance.

The issue came up in during a regular segment featuring Liberal campaign spokesperson Jane Hume and O’Neil herself on the Seven network. Hume remarked to the minister that there “might be Chinese spies handing out” her how-to-vote cards, but the Liberals had “dozens, thousands, hundreds of young people” on the hustings.

The campaign, which appears to have run out of serious policy, seems to be resorting to a back catalogue of redbaiting and dog-whistling from Cold War-era electioneering. But the history of fearmongering about foreign interference in Australian elections runs deeper.

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The Spooklight

 — Author: Sarah Kendzior — Friday 2nd May 2025

I am standing on the Devil’s Promenade, waiting to see the light.

Folks have been flocking to this rural road since the early 20th century, when the apparition was first publicized. The Devil’s Promenade — also known as East 50 Road — borders Hornet, Missouri, so named because Route 66 commerce once made it buzz with activity. Now Hornet is a ghost town, and its ghost is the central attraction.

They call it the Spooklight. Stay past sundown, and a fiery orb the size of a basketball will float down the avenue, alive as an animal, chasing and taunting you. It has been spotted by everyone from Quapaw Nation elders to long-time locals in nearby Joplin to the US Army Corps of Engineers, which confirmed its existence as a “mysterious light of unknown origin” during World War II.

I had a list of things I wanted to see before America ended, fantastical things like accountability and prosperity and the Hornet Spooklight. I knew my odds were best with the Spooklight, so to the Devil’s Promenade I came.

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