News update for Tue 17 June 2025

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

Jun 17, 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

Hugh White: Why the AUKUS ‘dream’ was never realistic and is likely to die - The New Daily

The first clear sign the Trump administration was taking a long hard look at AUKUS came two weeks ago, when US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth gave his first major speech on US strategic policy in Asia at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

In a long presentation that catalogued a host of initiatives with America’s Asian allies, AUKUS was not mentioned once.

This was noteworthy, because under the Biden administration, AUKUS was the poster-child for US military engagement in the region, name-checked at every opportunity. Now we understand why.

Also >

Nuclear subs taking on water - Jack Waterford for Pearls and Irritations
Tarla Lambert: Albanese won’t “pre-empt” conversations with Donald Trump. But isn’t that exactly what we need him to do? - Women’s Agenda
Australia isn’t the only country that has sought US nuclear subs (and no, it’s never gone well) - Crikey (paywall)
Submerged - ABC’s 4 Corners
In view of Trump’s review of AUKUS, should Australia cancel the subs deal? We asked 5 experts - The Conversation
Hawks whip up the awks in AUKUS talks - David Hardaker for The Politics
ABC investigates defence correspondent for allegedly not disclosing trip paid for by German ship builder - The Guardian

Why Israel attacked Iran in the middle of US-Iran talks - 7am Podcast

On Friday, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, sending roughly 200 fighter jets to hit more than a hundred sites across Iran – including parts of its nuclear program. Israel says the attack was “pre-emptive”, meant to address an immediate and inevitable threat on Iran’s part to construct a nuclear bomb. As attacks from both countries continue, scheduled talks between Iran and the US over the future of Iran’s nuclear program have been cancelled. Today, Middle East correspondent for The Economist, Gregg Carlstrom, on why Israel chose this moment to strike, how it’s angling for regime change in Iran and what it will take to de-escalate the conflict.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Israel, Iran and the US: why 2025 is a turning point for the international order - The Conversation
Why are Israel and Iran fighting? - The Daily Aus Podcast
Dr. Scott Burchill on the Iran-Israel Crisis and Global Implications - Bogan Intelligentsia Podcast
Nova Peris found sharing anti-Muslim content on social media - NT Independent

Warmongering Marles commits Australia to US war against China amid Middle East mayhem - Michael West Media

The craven appeasement of Benjamin Netanyahu by Western media and political elites has brought the world to the brink of war. Now Richard Marles says Australia’s part in a US war against China is a fait accompli.

The closest Deputy PM Richard Marles has come to war may well be a debating battle at Geelong Grammar School but here he is today, on page 1 of Rupert Murdoch’s warmongering The Australian, committing young Australians to war against China. Should it transpire.

Our major trading partner, which has posed us no threat but buys 40% of our exports and has delivered nothing but prosperity to The Lucky Country.

A century later: a renewed open letter against the return of fascism - Pearls and Irritations

On May 1st 1925, with Mussolini already in power, a group of Italian intellectuals publicly denounced Mussolini’s fascist regime in an open letter.

The signatories — scientists, philosophers, writers and artists — took a stand in support of the essential tenets of a free society: the rule of law, personal liberty, and independent thinking, culture, art, and science. Their open defiance to the brutal imposition of the fascist ideology — at great personal risk — proved that opposition was not only possible, but necessary.

Today, a hundred years later, the threat of fascism is back – and so we must summon that courage and defy it again.

Dr Victoria Fielding: Journalists normalising Trump's racism are failing democracy - Independent Australia

Even once in power, as journalists watched with their own eyes how Trump has acted on this anti-immigrant agenda, ignoring the rule of law and due process, using masked untrained men to disappear innocent immigrant families – including children – indefinitely to El Salvador prisons and who knows where else, sending in the military to try to squash protests against this agenda, journalists still won’t say it.

In their silence, they misunderstand that neutrality in journalism was never meant to result in their ignoring reality.

Also read > How Political Reporting Works - Jonathan Green

Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

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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Patrick Dodson condemns decades of inaction on suicide hanging points in Australian prisons - The Guardian

Aboriginal deaths in custody royal commissioner says ‘people need to be empowered and take action against those agencies’.

The former Labor senator and Aboriginal deaths in custody royal commissioner Patrick Dodson has condemned inaction on known hanging points as “totally unacceptable” and joined calls for national leadership on justice reform.

Guardian Australia revealed last week that 57 Australians had died using hanging points that prison authorities knew about but failed to remove, often despite their use in repeated suicides and explicit warnings from coroners.

Opinion: The Failed State Part I – The NT ruled like a town council and the missing $800 million - NT Independent

The Finocchiaro Government is in a rolling series of crises, a situation which has afflicted NT governments that preceded it, with the central public concern around the failure of Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and her ministers to clean up the perception of ongoing graft, corruption and nepotism in the public service, which is part of the wider dysfunction in the Territory.

One of the most serious recent illustrations involve Ms Finocchiaro ignoring documented evidence of serious improper conduct at the taxpayer-funded Darwin Waterfront Corporation, which is where her husband Sam Burke works, evidence that showed he benefitted from $400,000 of taxpayer money through higher duties allowances over six years for made-up jobs in other agencies that was all paid through the Waterfront Corporation, approved by colleagues with no oversight and contrary to recruitment rules.

“Cakes of coal, volumes of gas:” Australia accused of being climate wrecker as it seeks to host COP31 - Renew Economy

Australia has been “two-faced” by pushing to host the UN-backed COP31 climate conference in 2026 even as it has been approving massive new oil, gas and coal projects, an international climate group says.

The country has been described as a “planet wrecker” alongside the US, Norway and Canada by climate advocacy group Oil Change International (OCI) over the contradiction between pledges to address climate change and failure to take actual steps towards addressing the problem.

Romain Ioualalen, OCI Global Policy lead, said that if Australia wanted to “be a credible COP host”, it needed to stop opening fossil fuel developments and extending the working life of existing assets such as the North West Shelf gas processing facility.

Cam Wilson: Conspiracy theorists are building AI chatbots to spread their beliefs - Crikey (paywall)

People are using custom versions of major AI chatbots — or even training their own — to spread lies about vaccines and the Australian legal system.

Conspiracy theorists are creating and training their own artificial intelligence models to create chatbots that help spread their extreme beliefs, as tech companies grapple with fears that the new technology is prompting delusions in some users.

Once created, these chatbots will tell users about disproven links between vaccines and autism, and even assist them in trying to convince others by writing social media posts and letters for them.

New research shows Australians see influencers as major sources of misinformation - The Conversation

Deciding what is true or fake online is a complex issue. This was highlighted during the political debate over the federal government’s controversial Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill, which was eventually withdrawn late last year.

Much hinged on questions around who gets to decide what the truth is, and who might be responsible for tackling it. Is it the job of digital platforms to remove harmful and misleading content? Or do audiences need more media literacy education? Or both?