News update for Fri 14 Feb 2025

Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...

Feb 14, 2025

Welcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

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Scroll down for today’s news and views…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

WATCH THE SUNDAY SHOT - LIVE - THIS SUNDAY AT 9AM (AEDT) ON YOUTUBE OR FACEBOOK - Hosted by Jo Dyer and Dave Milner with guests Rachel Withers and Anthony Klan and an interview with Richard Denniss

Khaled Sabsabi dropped as Australia’s representative to Venice Biennale - The Guardian

Khaled Sabsabi, the western Sydney artist who fled Lebanon’s civil war as a child, has been dropped from representing Australia at the 61st Venice Biennale – just five days after being selected to do so.

Sabsabi selection for the 2026 showcase had caused controversy due to some of the artist’s previous works, including a 2007 depiction of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated last year, and a 2006 video rendering of the 9/11 attacks called Thank You Very Much. Shortly after the announcement, Sabsabi admitted to being shocked at being chosen, telling the Guardian: “I felt that, in this time and in this space, this wouldn’t happen because of who I am.”

Newsroom edition: how the hell do you deal with Trump? - The Full Story Podcast

This week, Anthony Albanese faced his first Trump test. The prime minister tried to carve out an exception for Australia from Trump’s promised 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. And while Trump is giving the request ‘great consideration’, it won’t be the last time the Albanese government will be subjected to the whims of what has already been a chaotic and volatile presidency.

Listen to The Full Story Podcast

Also >

The Weak Strongman - Impotence and Unfreedom, Together - Professor Tim Snyder
A Dangerous Bromance Is Back - It’s already a win-win for the Russian president - Dan Rather
Trump and RFK Jnr commit to Make America Sick Again - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
The need for Australia to act independently and be freed of the US alliance has never been greater - Pearls and Irritations

Lucy Hamilton: The Trumpist junktanks that turned the insurrection into a successful coup - Pearls and Irritations

In assessing which Trump appointment is more dangerous, Russell Vought freshly confirmed to helm the Office of Management and Budget is a contender for the worst. Vought wrote one of the chapters from Project 2025 (an “authoritarian incubator”), but his other revelations expand on the threat.

As director of the OMB, Vought has “total control over the budget and regulatory processes”. The role’s “power to oversee and manage the federal budget is sweeping”. It enables him to implement Project 2025’s steps from the top down. The Founders gave the “power of the purse” to Congress to operate as a check on the executive. It was meant to protect America against a monarchy. In 1974, the Impoundment Act reinforced this separation: Vought has declared war on it.

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Friday essay: some tech leaders think AI could outsmart us and wipe out humanity. I’m a professor of AI – and I’m not worried - The Conversation

In 1989, political scientist Francis Fukuyama predicted we were approaching the end of history. He meant that similar liberal democratic values were taking hold in societies around the world. How wrong could he have been? Democracy today is clearly on the decline. Despots and autocrats are on the rise.

You might, however, be thinking Fukuyama was right all along. But in a different way. Perhaps we really are approaching the end of history. As in, game over humanity.

Now there are many ways it could all end. A global pandemic. A giant meteor (something perhaps the dinosaurs would appreciate). Climate catastrophe. But one end that is increasingly talked about is artificial intelligence (AI).

Which companies have wound back their DEI commitments? Here’s a look - Women’s Agenda

Over the last few months, there’s been an acceleration of companies either scrapping or altering their DEI commitments. Huge corporations including Walmart, Disney, Meta and Amazon have released official statements, announcing their plans to abandon DEI commitments and cease programs designed to assist underrepresented groups.

Kim Wingerei: The American way. Electoral reform bill to entrench major parties' power - Michael West Media

The Electoral Reform Bill being rammed through Parliament by Labor and LNP is an attempt to cement the Labor/LNP duopoly and bring US-style ‘democracy’ to Australia.

Under the disguise of removing big money from politics, Labor and LNP have banded together to push through an Electoral Reform bill that is doing precisely the opposite.

It may make it more difficult for, say, Clive Palmer to spend $100 million+ to elect Ralph Babbitt to the Senate, and that is indeed a good thing. However, the bill will also make it a lot more difficult for independent candidates and smaller, less-resourced political parties to fund their campaigns while giving the major parties the upper hand in the funding stakes.

Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

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Daily Telegraph tries and fails to stage antisemitic incident - Independent Australia

THIS WEEK, Ita Buttrose, making a dramatic entrance wearing dark glasses and arriving in a wheelchair, was busily trying to justify in the Federal Court why journalist Antoinette Lattouf was promptly dismissed for sharing a Human Rights Watch post, which detailed facts about the war in Gaza.

The unfair dismissal case followed the sacking last week of cricket commentator Peter Lalor from his role with SEN for retweeting events in Gaza, which management said, 'made Jewish people in Melbourne feel unsafe'.

And the Federal Parliament enacted further hate speech laws, apparently in an attempt to curb an “antisemitism surge”.

Not content with all the above, however, The Daily Telegraph was on the ground hunting for more “antisemitic” action.

Setting the federal scene - The Tally Room Podcast

Ben was joined by Shaun Ratcliff from Accent Research to discuss the state of play as the federal election year kicks off. They discuss the state of polling, including the MRP polls conducted by Shaun in conjunction with Redbridge throughout 2024.

Listen to The Tally Room Podcast

Also > Despite the polls, this is why the upcoming election has plenty scope for surprises - The New Daily

Professor Lesley Hughes: Five reasons Australia needs to break up with gas - The New Daily

For too long Australia has been stuck in a toxic relationship with gas.

It’s expensive, polluting, and bad for our health. Yet, the fossil fuel industry – backed by billions in subsidies – keeps telling us we need more gas, even as our climate spirals into crisis.

As we head into a federal election campaign, it’s time to take a hard look at gas in Australia’s energy mix.

Here are five reasons why we need to break up with gas – once and for all.

Also read > Australian projects tackling climate change and poverty in Indo-Pacific ‘in limbo’ after Trump halts USAid - The Guardian

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A trail of panic: Three days of ABC correspondence about Antoinette Lattouf - Crikey

‘Has Antoinette been replaced. I am over getting emails about her.’ Read the emails between senior ABC staff in the lead-up to Lattouf’s dismissal.

Just as happened with the roiling scandal factory that was the Bruce Lehrmann saga, the unlawful dismissal case brought against the ABC by Antoinette Lattouf has allowed us to see the kind of internal media correspondence that is generally hidden from the public gaze.

In December 2023, Lattouf was hired as a casual fill-in for five days on ABC Radio Sydney’s Mornings program. The complaints, and the background discussions in response to those complaints, seem to have started almost immediately.

Dave Milner: Trump wants to turn Gaza into a casino resort. Ita Buttrose thinks only an ‘activist’ could object - The Shot

We have truly reached peak banality of evil: a Trump Hotel by the Mediterranean Sea built on Gaza’s corpses.

And even though the depraved morality of this moment should be bleedingly obvious to every sane, compassionate monkey, in the West this truth is obscured, mythologised into nothingness, twisted until up is down and offence is defence and all of a sudden: ‘iT’s CoMpLiCaTeD’.

At home, in the US imperial vassal state of Australia, we saw, in the case of Antoinette Lattouf vs the ABC, exactly how ethnic cleansing and genocide can be institutionally normalised and supported by mainstream media. Your consent is manufactured.

This week, in Sydney, Ita Buttrose, former chair of the ABC, in court implied that supporting Israel is neutral and natural and journalism but having sympathy for Palestine makes you an ‘activist’ that needs to be fired – maybe even catch Covid to save face. That’s where we’re at.