News update for Fri 20 June 2025

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

Jun 20, 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 the news and views you need to know today…

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 STREAMED - this Sunday morning at 9am - with Jo Dyer, Dave Milner, Bruce Wolpe, Dr Emma Shortis and Antony Lowenstein. Subscribe to The Sunday Shot’s Youtube channel for a notification as the panel goes live.

Speaking out from within: Jewish voices confront Israeli aggression - Pearls and Irritations

As Israel’s military campaign in Gaza reaches unprecedented levels of destruction, a global wave of protest has emerged.

Among the most striking are the voices coming from within Jewish communities themselves. From Melbourne to New York, London to Tel Aviv, Jewish intellectuals, artists, and community leaders are speaking out – many under the powerful refrain: “Not in my name.”

The dissent voiced by Jewish intellectuals is not limited to Gaza. Increasingly, their criticism extends to Israel’s broader regional strategy –particularly its aggressive posture toward Iran.

The consequences of the Israel-Iran war - Full Story Podcast

The world is hanging on to Donald Trump’s every word, waiting to see if or how the US will intervene in the Israel-Iran conflict. While Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, warns of risks to global stability and urges dialogue, questions remain about the appetite for diplomacy. Bridie Jabour speaks to Guardian Australia’s international editor, Bonnie Malkin, and deputy editor, Patrick Keneally, about how the Israel-Iran war erupted and what could happen next.

Listen to The Full Story Podcast

Also >

Netanyahu: World’s most dangerous man and his enabler - Pearls and Irritations
America’s huge bunker-busting bomb is not sure to work in Iran - The Economist
How the four tempers of Trump-era news media are hurting Australia - Crikey (paywall)
‘Unique moment in MAGA history’: America’s right is split as Trump contemplates strike on Iran - Crikey (paywall)
Unlawful build of Project Caymus US military fuel tanks in Darwin not realised for almost two years - ABC News
Cross your fingers, Australia, and hope the AUKUS deal collapses - Gareth Evans for The Japan Times
Middle East violence, Gaza genocide, no one safe in USA...BUT Trump 'snubs' Albo - Michelle Pini for Independent Australia
Why Richard Marles Backs the U.S. War Machine - AIMN

Friday essay: ‘my heart is full of sparks’ – as war escalates, can I hope for Iran’s liberation from a tyrannical regime? - The Conversation

Since the launch of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion against Iran last week, there has been a voice sometimes missing in the mainstream coverage – that of the Iranian people themselves.

“Israel is not our enemy, the regime is our enemy,” chant many Iranians in Tehran and in the diaspora, a common sentiment in our community. They cite the regime that they have endured for 46 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution: a government most of them oppose and reject, with the vast majority of Iranians preferring democratic, if not secular, reform.

As current events unfold, I find myself deeply sceptical of all the political actors, whether Iranian, Israeli, American, Arab or Russian.

Not Trump’s Decision to Make - Dan Rather

The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.

How did we go from zero to the brink of war in one week?

Wasn’t Trump the candidate who promised to make America great again by ending “endless wars?” Yes, he was. And didn’t he claim he would settle the Russia-Ukraine war in “24-hours” upon assuming office. Yes, again. Just yesterday a Russian missile attack flattened a civilian apartment block in Kyiv, 150 days after Trump was sworn in.

So why is the president now strongly considering bombing Iran? There is no way to give a definitive answer to that question.

Can American democracy withstand the dark enlightenment? - Big Ideas Podcast

Knowledge lies at the heart of a healthy democracy, and its many custodians include libraries, universities, cultural institutions, and a free and independent media. So what happens when these institutions are intimidated, dismantled or destroyed, as is happening in America right now, under the government of President Donald Trump?

Listen to the Big Ideas Podcast

Also >

‘He’s moving at a truly alarming speed’: Trump propels US into authoritarianism - The Guardian
‘Abducted by Ice’: the haunting missing-person posters plastered across LA - The Guardian
I was deported by the U.S. for reporting on the Columbia University student protests - Alistair Kitchen

Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding

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

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How Australia’s CANDU Conservatives Fell in Love with Canadian Nuclear - Drilled

If there is a Holy Land for nuclear energy, Australian Shadow Climate Change and Energy Minister, Ted O’Brien, seems to think it's Ontario, Canada.

On the face of it, Ontario is an odd part of the world on which to model Australia’s energy future. Privatization in both places has evolved messy, complicated energy grids, but that’s about all they have in common. One is a province on the sprawling North American landmass, and the other is a nation that spans a continent. Ontario has half the population of Australia and spends five months a year under ice. Its energy system has traditionally relied on hydro power and nuclear, where Australia is famously the driest inhabited continent on the planet that used to depend on coal but now boasts nearly 40% renewable electricity as of 2024.

None of this has stopped the province from becoming O’Brien’s touchstone for the marvels of nuclear energy.

Also read >

Three years until we reach 1.5 °C global warming, scientists warn - Cosmos Magazine
Labor’s new environment laws won’t be ‘credible’ unless new projects consider climate change, advocates warn - The Guardian
Australian net-zero projects to be rated to prevent greenwashing - Pearls and Irritations
Bribe or community benefit? Sweeteners smoothing the way for renewables projects need to be done right - The Conversation
NT abandons 2030 greenhouse target as it goes all in on fracking - Renew Economy
Australia has a home insurance crisis and climate change is going to make it worse - The New Daily
A climate crisis, a ballot, and a chance at a new life for the people of Tuvalu in Australia - The Guardian

A three-day working week or higher pay: what a more productive economy could buy Australians - The Guardian

Jim Chalmers has kickstarted a conversation about productivity. If we lift it, what would we do with the dividends of our success: work more or spend more?

Australians would have a three-day working week if we had collectively decided in 1980 to spend all the productivity gains of the following decades on leisure time instead of buying more stuff, according to the Productivity Commission.

Jim Chalmers has kickstarted a national conversation about reforming the economy to make Australia more productive to underpin the next generation of prosperity. There are plenty of disagreements about how this can be done but there is general consensus that we should try.

An uneasy contradiction: Australia climbs gender equality ranks—but gender-based violence gets worse - Women’s Agenda

Australia’s rise to 13th in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report is a remarkable achievement our highest ranking to date. It reflects decades of work to improve women’s political representation, economic participation, and access to education.

But this progress sits uneasily alongside a national crisis: gender-based violence is not falling — it is escalating. The number of women killed is rising, and the severity of harm experienced by victim-survivors is worsening.

This contradiction demands urgent attention.

Rachel Withers: Whither the Greens in the wake of the Cox defection? - Crikey

Many voters still approve of the party’s approach, but it’s been a dispiriting few years for the Greens. Where next?

After a disappointing showing in the federal election — in which the Greens lost three out of four of their lower house MPs, including leader Adam Bandt — the minor party this month lost its sole federal Indigenous representative, with WA Senator Dorinda Cox decamping, saying her “values and priorities are more aligned with Labor”.

There’s been no shortage of questions about Cox’s motives. The senator, previously a Labor Party member, faced multiple bullying allegations within the Greens — allegations that hadn’t been resolved, despite the prime minister’s attempts to sweep them under the rug.

Also read > The spiralling death of Australian opposition. Part 2: The consequences - Crikey (paywall)

Dave Milner: WMD 2.0 is so half-arsed, be embarrassed for people falling for it - The Shot

We kept being told that journalism was a bulwark against fascism, a ‘fourth estate’. This is the liberal frame for perceiving the industry’s worth. But the reality is the polar opposite: fascism and all its genocidal, authoritarian trappings has been allowed to thrive, and could not have done so, without journalism. (The problem, as ever, is who owns journalism. And because of its narrative shaping powers, it is inherently the richest people that own it. And those people are inherently out for themselves and they don’t give a fuck about your democracy, having sold us all out long ago.) The single token hanging of Nazi propagandist journalist Julian Stricther at Nuremberg was clearly not enough of a discouragement for posterity.