News update for Tue 24 June 2025

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

Jun 24, 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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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

BREAKING NEWS: Israel-Iran war live: Israeli government confirms it has agreed to ceasefire deal brokered by US - The Guardian

Neocolonialism, media propaganda, never-ending wars: Served with ketchup and fries - Pearls and Irritations

In the 20th-century the American empire realised it could no longer rely solely on military might despite its need to grow the Military Industrial Complex, which remains central to its economy and its political hegemony.

Thus, it started to leverage the power of its economic might to promote its so-called culture and “soft power” on others: drive-ins, junk food, B-movies with blondes, trash-talk shows, crude pop music, and streaming platforms as weapons of cultural domination. As the US deployed aircraft carriers and Marine divisions ( having allocated nearly a third of its 1990s defence budget specifically for military intervention within the developing world), it also sent McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and its pop icons to the frontlines (remember “Golden Arches” theory?). Going even further, it embedded journalists from media groups in its forever wars to tell us who the good guys are and scare us about our freedom-fighters, their version of “terrorists".

These corporations and media groups function as agents of soft-power neocolonialism by aggressively marketing an American way of life, view of the world, that simplifies good and bad, distorts history, prioritises convenience over quality, consumption over community, excess over moderation, profits over wellness or health and crassness over class. This is now all distilled into the Trump administration.

US strikes Iran: the breakdown of the rules-based order - Full Story Podcast

Just over a week ago, Iranian and American officials were set to meet for a fresh round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Now the region is on the brink after the US joined Israeli attacks on Iran, striking three key uranium enrichment sites. And Iran has vowed to retaliate. Professor Ben Saul, the Challis chair of international law at the University of Sydney, tells Nour Haydar why he thinks the weekend’s events signal the breakdown of the rules-based order

Listen to the Full Story Podcast

Also >

A 'rathole of retaliation': Trump, Iran and what happens next - 7am Podcast
The U.S. strikes on Iran, explained - The Daily Aus Podcast
Will MAGA Republicans split over Iran strikes? And does Israel have its own nuclear weapons? - Late Night Live Podcast
Trump’s bombing proves ‘the global order’ was just power politics all along. Now? Welcome to the jungle - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Have Israel and the US made the case for pre-emptive self-defence? - Michael Bradley for Crikey (paywall)

US joins Israel bombing Iran, genocide proceeds, Australia debates antisemitism - Michael West Media

Twenty-one months into its genocide of the Palestinian people, Israel has extended its attacks to Iran, with the USA collaborating. Back in Oz, governments look away. Emma Thomas with the latest from the NSW antisemitism inquiry.

One of those pretending there’s nothing to see is the Minns government refusing to cooperate with a parliamentary inquiry into its introduction earlier this year of draconian anti-protest laws designed to suppress advocacy for Palestine.

Meanwhile, the NSW Antisemitism Inquiry continued with another hearing last week, but there is still no clear agreement on what actually constitutes antisemitism.

Is AI a con? A new book punctures the hype and proposes some ways to resist - The Conversation

Is AI going to take over the world? Have scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Is it going to replace all our jobs, even creative ones, like doctors, teachers and care workers? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything?

The answers, as the authors of The AI Con stress, are “no”, “they wish”, “LOL” and “definitely not”.

Artificial intelligence is a marketing term as much as a distinct set of computational architectures and techniques. AI has become a magic word for entrepreneurs to attract startup capital for dubious schemes, an incantation deployed by managers to instantly achieve the status of future-forward leaders.

Sandy Plunkett: Australia’s Digital Dissonance: Why the Productivity Conversation Needs a Reset - RealPolitech

Do our leaders and decision-makers have a deep and pragmatic understanding of what is really driving unprecedented 21^st century global change?

The short answer is software, data and AI systems. But, if that is well understood among the nation’s decision-makers, it is barely communicated to Australians beyond the catch-all - technologically driven change.

In 2011, as Australia’s productivity, a measure of a country’s living standards, hit a wall, American venture capitalist Marc Andreessen wrote “Software is eating the World”.

Today, AI and smart algorithmic agents and systems are eating software. It is the most profound and disruptive driver of change across global economies, culture and geopolitics.

Today’s cartoon by First Dog on the Moon

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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Get ready for a Chalmers offensive: Reform will be a big win for Australia - Independent Australia

Jim Chalmers has cracked open the reform vault, now comes the hard part — getting Australians to buy what’s inside.

TREASURER Jim Chalmers has opened the debate on what sorts of reforms are needed to keep the Australian economy strong and prosperous.

His Press Club speech was a masterclass in setting the scene for what will be an exciting time for economic policy in the months and years ahead.

Done well, Chalmers can set in train a strategy that permanently boosts the rate of economic growth, supports the growth in real wages and returns the budget to structural balance.

Also read > Is there any hope for a fairer carve-up of GST between the states? - Saul Eslake for Pearls and Irritations

Woodside’s North West Shelf gas extension is being challenged in the courts. Could it be stopped? - The Conversation

The controversial extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project off Western Australia faces two legal challenges. Both raise significant concerns about the validity of government approvals. One could even seek an injunction, preventing federal environment minister Murray Watt from making a final decision.

The first battle is being fought along climate lines. Enormous amounts of greenhouse gases will be released when gas from the project is exported and burned overseas. The Friends of Australian Rock Art group now argues the then WA environment minister Reece Whitby should have taken this pollution into account when approving the extension in December.

The second concerns ancient Aboriginal rock art in the Murujuga National Park on the Burrup Peninsula.

Tasmanian leaders struggle with a basic fact: environment laws should protect the environment - The Guardian

Nature in Australia’s smallest state is in poor health, but this has been largely ignored by both major parties in the lead-up to the early state election.

Tasmania has a complicated relationship with its natural beauty. Australia’s smallest state is marketed for its “clean and green” environment and produce, and the government runs tourism campaigns with the tagline “come down for air” that lean heavily on its stunning landscapes, coastlines and wildlife.

But it also has a reputation for backing environmentally damaging industries that grab national, and sometimes international, attention: hydroelectric dam expansion, logging of old-growth forests and, most recently, salmon farming.

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Kylie Moore Gilbert: What happens to Iran when the bombs stop falling? - Crikey

Civilians inside Iran have expressed grave fears that their government will severely punish them when no longer preoccupied by external enemies.

Following the United States’ surprise attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday, the world waited to see whether, and how, Iran would respond. Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance had indicated they would prefer America’s entry into Israel’s ongoing conflict with Iran be more “special military operation”, less active participation in yet another protracted Middle Eastern war.

Balancing the isolationist wing of his party, and his own declared instincts, Trump has repeatedly emphasised the need for a diplomatic solution, and urged Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to return to the negotiating table.

Hastie in a hurry: times a’wasting for this Lib - The Politics

Last month his children were too young for him to consider leadership. This month he's Mr Media. Those crazy kids. They've grown up so fast!

Seizing the moment is a pretty good tactic in warfare and politics. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, the opposition’s most talked-about leadership contender-in-waiting, is proficient in both.

The former SAS commando is on a media mission. His moment has been provided by Israel, Iran and US President Donald Trump’s nuclear bunker-busting megabombs. Just yesterday he was on Radio National Breakfast with Sally Sara, Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas, ABC Radio Perth, Sky News Australia’s AM Agenda with Laura Jayes, and 2GB. A media tour de force!

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