News update for Fri 28 Feb 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
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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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
BREAKING NEWS: Follow the Lattouf/ABC final hearing - The Guardian
Watch The Sunday Shot - LIVE STREAMED - this Sunday morning at 9am here
Rex Patrick: Chinese warships sailing the Tasman Sea expose AUKUS folly - Michael West Media
China exposes a fundamental flaw in Australia’s nuclear submarine project. While their navy operates off our coast, AUKUS is sapping funds from capabilities needed today.
Many Australians have been disturbed, indeed angered, by Chinese warships operating in our exclusive economic zone over the past weeks. How dare they! But the fact is that the Chinese vessels – a destroyer, a frigate and a replenishment ship – are operating in accordance with international law and simply doing to us what we’ve done to them for decades.
Read more from Rex Patrick for Michael West Media
Also read >
AUKUS ‘impact assessment’ report ignores nuclear sub risks in SA - Pearls and Irritations
The Chinese invasion begins: Anti-China Media Watch - Pearls and Irritations
"Nothing to worry about" over NACC and Robodebt, says donations stitch-up architect... - The Klaxon
The Albanese Government says it has no concerns about the top brass of the National Anti-Corruption Commission conducting the Robodebt investigation — despite them earlier refusing to do so.
In remarkable appearance before Senate Estimates, Special Minister of State Don Farrell has given the officials the green light to run the investigation, which the NACC is now being forced to undertake in a humiliating rebuff.
“I don’t believe we have any concerns about the appropriateness of these individuals hearing this case,” Farrell told Senate Estimates.
Read more from Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
Trump’s war on climate science is pushing us into a dystopian future - The Conversation
US President Donald Trump’s latest war on the climate includes withdrawing support for any research that mentions the word.
He has also launched a purge on government websites hosting climate data, in an apparent attempt to make the evidence disappear.
Yes, it’s bad, especially for US-based scientists. It also affects scientists in Australia and the rest of the world. But there are ways to get around the problem. There might even be a silver lining to this dark cloud.
Trump cannot stop global climate action, although he might slow it.
Also read >
New report slaps an official price tag on Australia’s precious natural assets - The Conversation
Three billionaires: America’s oligarchy is now fully exposed - Robert Reich for The Guardian
Dave Milner: Nazi oligarchs have seized treasury control of an authoritarian White House and everyone seems kinda chill about it - The Shot
Capitalism and democracy, despite what you’ve been led to believe, are not the same thing. Capitalism eats democracy if it is allowed to fester unsupervised – the Western world’s predominant ideology, with a quasi-religious fervour, for the last 50 odd years – and eventually all you’re left with are genocidal shakedown cartels, private schools with multiple polo fields, and a circus to make ordinary people feel empowered while they’re exploited at ever increasing rates.
Dangerous parts of this slide into authoritarian hatred have already seeped into Australian politics, media, and mainstream society.
Read more from Dave Milner for The Shot
Watch The Sunday Shot - LIVE STREAMED - this Sunday morning at 9am here
Geraldine Brooks on Anthony Albanese's legacy - 7am Podcast
It was just before Christmas when Geraldine Brooks sat down for the first in a series of conversations with Anthony Albanese – and his popularity was plummeting. The prime minister's net approval rating had dropped to minus 17, while Peter Dutton’s had ticked up to zero. Since then, the polls haven’t improved for Albanese. His critics have painted him as weak and ineffective – a narrative reinforced by the failure of the Voice referendum and a perception of inaction on climate change. This portrayal is in stark contrast to his background as a passionate activist, who was once arrested at an anti-logging protest. Today, author and contributor to The Monthly Geraldine Brooks on the public’s perception of Anthony Albanese – and, win or lose, what will be his legacy.
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
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
What can one now say about Israel without being smeared as an antisemite? - Pearls and Irritations
I read the definition of antisemitism adopted by Australian universities and my first thought was “we need a list”, not of what is considered antisemitic, but of what is not considered antisemetic. Now it would be helpful to have a prescriptive list of what one can say about Israel without being smeared as an antisemite. And I am not being facetious. Perhaps those who developed this definition could provide such a list. It would be a very short list. Nevertheless, it would be greatly appreciated by all those who are morally caught between the need to speak up against a genocide and the fear of losing their livelihoods and reputations.
“Criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions and when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel or all Jews or when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions.”
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
Also read >
Australian universities’ new antisemitism definition has some academics worried. Here’s why - The Guardian
ARC suspends $870,000 grant to pro-Palestine academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, senators told - The Guardian
Western Sydney support officer returns to school after student protest over response to posts - The Guardian
Antisemitism definition will be devastating for academic freedom, and equality itself - Michael Bradley for Crikey (paywall)
The Murdoch monarchy: Who will take the crown? - Media Confidential
One of the world's biggest media dynasties is in crisis. Last December, in a Nevada court, the Murdoch family battled to decide who would take control of its media empire. Alan and Lionel are joined by Jim Rutenberg, writer-at-large for the New York Times, who was one of two journalists who obtained copies of sealed court documents and published details of the case. He shares the story of reporting on Murdoch’s secret trial—and uncovers the Succession-style drama behind it all. Jim, Alan and Lionel also discuss the effects of the Trump administration cherry-picking its press pool.
Listen to the Media Confidential Podcast
Also >
Newsroom edition: Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump and their attacks on the media - Full Story Podcast
The Murdoch blight on media and politics - Noel Turnbull
Daily Telegraph takes action after ‘mind-blowingly stupid’ stunt … by tracking down leaker - The Guardian
Will Australia’s media do better at cracking down on lies this election? The signs aren’t good - The Conversation
Populism uses the freedoms of democracy against democracy. In particular, populists use freedom of speech to promote hate, incite prejudice, intensify social division and spread lies.
At the same time, freedom of speech is indispensable to the functioning of democracy. Among other things, it is the means by which the institution of the media is expected to inform people, provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, and hold the powerful to account.
This places the media at the centre of any test of democratic institutional capacity and resilience. The test is most acute at election time.
So, will the Australian professional mass media pass this test at the forthcoming election?
Read more from Denis Muller for The Conversation
Also read > Third-party groups join election fray with accusations Greens and teals threaten Australia’s ‘stability’ - The Guardian
Bernard Keane: Team Trump want to MAGAfy the world. Our leaders need a plan, fast - Crikey
Donald Trump 2.0 is a very different beast. What are our leaders going to do about it?
It’s already clear that Donald Trump 2.0 is very different from the first iteration. He now has a much clearer agenda compared to 2017, a team of committed loyalists to implement it, and a supine Republican-controlled Congress willing to forfeit its constitutional role to back him. In Elon Musk, Trump has an energetic Reichsleiter determined to lay waste to their perceived enemies while pursuing his own ideological obsessions.
And this is now an imperial Trump. The isolationist of his first term has been replaced with an overtly aggressive expansionist.
Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Smoke but no fire: Dutton dodges a bullet - The Politics
The opposition leader's canny investment skills have made him a very, very, very rich man. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Labor took a big swipe at Peter Dutton this week, but it feels like a swing and a miss.
The attack came on two fronts: Labor raised questions about the opposition leaders’s share trades from 16 years ago, and Nine newspapers published details his multimillion-dollar property portfolio built over 35 years. It smelt like a strategy cooked up by Labor HQ over a Manuka Chinese lunch. Nine, though, insists otherwise and has produced evidence of its independent efforts.
Either way, it reeked of an old-fashioned Canberra bubble way of doing business.
All well and good. But what’s the strategy?
Read more from David Hardaker for The Politics
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Quick Links…
Dutton hints he’ll sack 36,000 public servants. Voters deserve to know what services will be affected - The Conversation
Being deaf in prison - The Justice Map
What is Andrew Tate accused of and why has he travelled to the US? - The Guardian
What does Donald Trump see in Andrew Tate? - The News Agents Podcast
Virgin Australia’s deal with Qatar has been given the green light. Travellers should be the winners - The Conversation
Australia’s main grid ends summer with a new big solar output record - Renew Economy
Podcast #139: Where will WA swing? - The Tally Room
Even if the Liberals could win in WA, it wouldn’t change who really runs the place - Crikey (paywall)
Senior doctor urges colleagues to make addressing poverty an election issue - Croakey
Crossbenchers say hung parliament would have to negotiate bill by bill - The ABC
Revealed: the profound economic impact on women who experience domestic violence - The Conversation
Queensland council moves to evict homeless people from parks with public camping ban - The Guardian
The Qld church group jailed for a child's death - The Daily Aus Podcast
Politics and property – how our leaders are among the privileged using legal loopholes to build their wealth - The Conversation
“Last ditch:” Australia’s richest woman takes on local environment laws in Canada coal power play - Renew Economy
I’m not old enough to vote but for as long as I can remember Antony Green has been the only one to watch on election night - Leo Puglisi for The Guardian
Global gas lobby tries to hamper Victoria's electrification efforts by stoking fear, researchers say - The ABC
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Share your views on Australia’s media landscape through TrueNorth’s short survey
You’re up to date for Friday the 28th of February. See you on Monday!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
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