News update for Thurs 23 May 2024
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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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
UK election called for 4 July – what happens next? - The Conversation
On a rainy afternoon in London, an increasingly damp Rishi Sunak confirmed what many had been speculating for most of the day in a speech outside 10 Downing Street – that the UK is heading for an election earlier than anticipated. Here’s what to expect in the weeks ahead.
Also >
SUNAK CALLS GENERAL ELECTION - The Rest Is Politics Podcast
The Guardian view on the general election: countdown to a reckoning that is overdue
Billionaire Rishi calls “Independence Day” UK election - Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
The nuclear option: Dutton’s power four times the price - The Klaxon
Small scale nuclear reactors — being heavily pushed by Peter Dutton’s Federal Coalition — cost over four times as much as solar and wind, even after accounting for “firming” the renewables, new analysis reveals.
The annual review of electricity costs by the CSIRO and Australian Energy Market Operator (AMEO) has found renewables are currently by far the cheapest “new build” technology, even cheaper than coal and gas — and before considering the environment.
The seventh annual GenCost report has found small modular nuclear reactors (SMR’s) currently cost around 4.3 times more than solar and wind.
Read more from Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
Gas beyond 2050: A Labor revolt or sanctioned dissent? - 7am Podcast
The members of this federal Labor government have been pretty disciplined on not publicly criticising party policy. So it raised a few eyebrows when MPs from inner-city seats took aim at the government’s Future Gas Strategy. The plan pumps up gas as a vital part of the energy transition through to 2050 and beyond, which is at odds with moves to get households off gas as quickly as possible. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccombe, on what’s behind the gas plan and why a little “sanctioned dissent” might be part of a broader electoral strategy
Listen to Mike Seccombe for the 7am Podcast
Also read >
What is ‘Net Zero’, anyway? A short history of a monumental concept - The Conversation
Labor's backward Future Gas Strategy is a disgrace - Independent Australia
Corporate welfare may keep the lights on. But backing Eraring power station will have other costs for the NSW government - Peter Hannam for The Guardian
Paul Bongiorno: Dutton’s bullhorn, rather than a dog whistle, drowns out the budget roadshow - The New Daily
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is determined not to die wondering when the election is held some time in the next 12 months.
He has embarked on a divisive and dangerous strategy of making migrants scapegoats for the cost-of-living crisis, leveraging deep-seated prejudices in the community.
Read more from Paul Bongiorno for The New Daily
Also read >
Peter Dutton wants to cut migration for the sake of housing. Here’s why that’s not a good idea - The Conversation
Something truly strange is happening when Dutton wants to slash immigration - Ross Gittins for SMH/Age
Budget reveals small progress towards meeting UN anti-torture obligations - The Justice Map
While there was no fanfare around it, buried in last week’s federal budget was a revelation that there has been some progress towards Australia finally meeting its obligations under a United Nations anti-torture convention.
Australia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) in 2017, which requires signatories to establish independent inspection bodies to monitor places of detention, known as National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs).
Read more from Denham Sadler for The Justice Map
Today’s cartoon by Glen Le Lievre
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Student protests echo Vietnam as pro-war lobby cracks down on peaceful protests - Michael West Media
Australian university students channelled their peers around the world with encampments protesting the Gaza genocide. Will university leaders cow to pressure from the Zionist lobby and shut down free speech?
While the extreme right wing Australian Jewish Association claims ‘Hitler youth rallies’, the Australian university protests over Israel’s war crimes in Gaza are more like student protests against the Vietnam War in the Sixties and early Seventies which led to riots and students being shot by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in 1970.
Read more in Michael West Media
Also read > The ICC will consider arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders. How has Australia responded? - The Guardian
What’s wrong with carbon capture? - Pearls and Irritations
It sounds wonderful. Politicians and fossil fuel companies love it. But more often than not carbon capture and storage (CCS) is raised as a smokescreen for something that will harm the world.
What do Anthony Albanese, Angus Taylor, David Littleproud, Barack Obama, West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and Joe Biden have in common? All are enthusiasts for carbon capture and storage and have advocated sloshing loads of public money into it.
The trouble is, it’s expensive and it doesn’t work very well.
Read more in Pearls and Irritations
Also read > The claim of a $600bn carbon capture windfall for Australia is based on heroic assumptions and selective analysis - Graham Readfearn for The Guardian
The Minister for Women on why violence is increasing - The Daily Aus Podcast
Over the last month, we have brought you a number of episodes about the rising rate of men’s violence against women in Australia. We have spoken about specific cases, about new statistics and about roundtables being convened to discuss the issue. For today’s podcast, we wanted to go straight to the person responsible for making sure this rate comes down, the Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher.
Listen to The Daily Aus Podcast
Australian politicians think 15-year-olds are old enough to go to jail but not go on Facebook. They’re kidding themselves - The Guardian
Imagine: you’re 15 years old. You’re old enough to get a job. You’re old enough to go to jail. But you’re not old enough to go on Facebook.
That seems to be the vision championed by almost every state premier and now the prime minister, who are calling to bar children under 16 from social media.
What initially seemed like a shortsighted idea floated by Coalition MP David Coleman appears to have gripped the political imagination. It’s not just harmful online content that spreads, it’s also bad policy ideas.
Peter Dutton vs. International Justice - The Politics
There’s disingenuousness, and then there’s Peter Dutton.
In the first category fall the leadership of Israel, the United States and numerous Western countries, along with the Murdoch media. Their reaction to the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor’s announcement that he is seeking arrest warrants against leaders of Hamas, as well as Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, follows a script: “there is no equivalence between Hamas and Israel”.
That is absolutely true; one is a terrorist organisation, the other a sovereign nation. It’s also intentionally beside the point.
Read more from Michael Bradley for The Politics
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News Corp’s Rebekah Brooks joins Lachlan Murdoch in Sydney ahead of major Australian newspaper restructure - The Guardian
Craig Foster quits Republican movement over Israel-Gaza split - The ABC
Political prisoners - Democracy Sausage podcast with Mark Kenny
Telstra says slashing almost a tenth of its workforce will help save $350 million. Why is the business under pressure? - Crikey (paywall)
Raising jobseeker is not ‘fiscally sustainable’? Sorry, but that is flat out wrong - Greg Jericho for The Guardian
Eraring coal closure delayed two years, possibly four, “to keep the lights on” - Renew Economy
Australia’s emergency air fleet set to exceed RAAF aircraft numbers - The Mandarin
Labor’s international student cap an ‘unprecedented’ overreach and ‘recipe for chaos’, experts warn - The Guardian
Coal mining super tax may be here to stay as QLD govt enshrines levies into law - InQLD
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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You’re up to date for Thursday the 23rd of May. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here