When covering the Los Angeles riots, Channel 9 reporter Lauren Tomasi became part of the news, this time not just reporting the news. What we were witnessing was the authoritarian rise in US politics, the LA riots are the manifestation of . A survey of over 500 political scientists believe the United States is sliding from a liberal democracy to authoritarianism.

This was clearly a reporter covering the riots, she had a Channel 9 microphone in her hand and a cameraman filming her. There was no mistaking this, the ICE officer turned and took a shot a Lauran whilst she was covering the story. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was shocked at the footage, raised the issue with US authorities, the function of a free and open press is vital for a regulatory apparatus of an operating democracy. LA Police immediately launched an investigation into the incident, we will likely see this go nowhere.

Whilst Lauren was shot by what was claimed to be a rubber bullet, the LA Police claim this was not rubber and instead a condensed foam projectile similar to a Nerf ball. Apparently the LA Police use a 37 mm multiple foam baton and 40 mm foam baton kinetic energy projectile with the 40 mm the most common munition. When I checked the technical specifications, the manufacturer called this a pain compliance round for crowd control.

Whilst reading the technical specifications, the optimal range is 15 to 30 feet, when used past 30 feet the projectile may bounce off the target and lose the majority of its energy. What we clearly saw was this was a direct hit, not a bounce deflection to absorb the energy. Using the technical terms, the 40 mm may be direct fired or skip fired at the discretion of the operator. So what we have witnessed is these Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agents who are not well trained, they are not elite, they are not disciplined and are not professional in action.

The Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meeting was a concern for every Ukrainian, most Europeans, and any of us around the world outraged by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We all know how Trump idolises Vladimir Putin, I could not believe he rolled out the red carpet for a war criminal.

Whilst Trump sees himself as the deal maker, according to him, that’s what he does. However, he is more likely to cave into Russian demands. To say Trump is easily manipulated under statement, Trump is under-prepared and acts on instinct, unfortunately his instincts are scattered to say the least. Trump likes to be flattered, Putin flatters Trump at will and this flattery leads to manipulation.

Already, his statements fail to inspire anyone except for Russians and hard-core MAGA supporters. Trump has been doing his usual TACO turn around, he really does not offer any inspiration or stability. Trump’s scattered approach does not paint a compelling narrative, he provides no direction. You get the feeling his attitude is shaped by the last person who briefed him. 

The Trump circus rolls on, even the most hardened MAGA supporters are starting to question the competency of the Trump Administration. Donald Trump told the voters he would release the Epstein files, but as we know, Donald Trump told the American public he would release his taxes, that never happened and his loyal supporter base did not bat an eyelid.

The whole QAnon conspiracy theory movement is centered around the heroic Donald Trump fighting a secretive war against the pedophile cabal and the Deep State. The leader of this conspiracy movement is the anonymous Q, a self described high level government official leaking highly sensitive government documents. Of course this is all rubbish, this is a scam for the gullible, this is just a big lie and people fall for it.

Billionaire political kingmaker Elon Musk, the man behind Donald Trump’s election victory has turned on Trump after a public fallout and hinted Trump is on the Epstein list. Naturally, President Trump, who has never acted in a Presidential manner publicly called former President Barack Obama out for treason for trying to influence the 2016 election, the two term Obama Administration already had two terms.

Trump publicly called for Russian hackers to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email accounts to expose her. I am no fan of Hillary Clinton, but even mouth frothing Trump supporters should have seen this was a step too far. Then there is January 6 in Washington, Trump calling Obama treason, yet fails to prevent the insurrection in the capital. Now that Trump has sent the National Guard into Washington, he did have the power, he just never acted.

What a win for the former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, after a year long wait, the Western Australian Supreme Court ruled in favour of Linda Reynolds. The social media posts by both Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz were misleading and untrue, and now they are being held accountable.

During the Bruce Lehermann defamation trial, Justice Michael Lee found no evidence of a cover up by Linda Reynolds or Scott Morrisson and the Liberal Party. Lisa Wilkinson in pursuit of her Gold Logie straight out stated Linda Reynolds was lying and Brittany Higgins was telling the truth. Justice Michael Lee found both Bruce Lehermann and Brittany Higgins lied under oath, with one being more believable. Sure, Bruce Lehermann is appealing the Justice Michael Lee decision, I suspect this appeal will fail.

The Western Australian Supreme Court Justice Paul Tottle found after a year of deliberation that Linda Reynolds had indeed been defamed by Brittany Higgins and awarded $315,000 in damages and $26,000 in interest to be paid by Brittany Higgins. Brittany Higgins’ interviews with Samantha Maiden from The Australian and Lisa Wilkinson from The Project were “objectively untrue and misleading” according to Justice Michael Lee. Then there will be legal costs that look like that will be paid by Brittany Higgins, they appear to be in the vicinity of around $1 million.

What I have learned is former Chief of Staff Fiona Brown is not lodging defamation action against Brittany Higgins, Lisa Wilkinson or Samantha Maiden. Instead Fiona Brown has lodged a claim against the Commonwealth of Australia for breaching the Fair Work Act. The commonwealth came to an extraordinary quick decision to award $2.4 million in favour of Brittany Higgins,but appears to be manifestly slower to award damages to Fiona Brown.

What has to happen in what will now be the final action of this sorry saga is Fiona Brown has to be compensated by the Commonwealth of Australia, how this plays out is uncertain but I guess the Albanese Government will come out of this poorly. It would appear they are stringing this out, so this will be another televised trial that will unearth some extraordinary missteps by Gallagher, Wong and Albanese that will damage the current government.

This trail will be compelling viewing, we will find out how Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese weaponised a rape for purely political purposes. This was aided by Brittany Higgins’ now husband David Sharaz through his connections with Katy Gallagher. When this case goes to the Federal Court, we will see this case untangled just as we witnessed with the Bruce Lehermann defamation trial and the Linda Reynolds defamation trial.

The change in United States President Donald Trump I am seeing after his trips to Europe are profound, Trump is viewing how Ukrainian President Zelensky is treated as a hero by European leaders.

Trump is a populist, the former reality television host seeks adoration and clearly sees his is being treated with disdain. Trump craves the limelight, Trump craves attention, and Trump craves popularity. After his failed White House meeting with Zelensky, Trump knows his missteps earned him ridicule and disdain by the international community. Trump knows he was the laughing stock of the world, only hard core MAGA voters supported him.

It is interesting to watch, during international conferences the President of the United States should be held in high esteem. Instead, Trump is treated with indifference by European politicians and mimicked by European royalty. This will not bode well for Trump’s fragile ego, he knows he is treated as a dope whilst Zelensky is treated as a hero. I suggest Trump will seek to establish a degree of popularity and begin to shun Putin and support Ukraine.

They were the two biggest names in the AFL in 2015, Fremantle travelled down to Adelaide to play the Adelaide Crows with Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe lining up on Adelaide’s Patrick Dangerfield. With the retirement of Nat Fyfe, this classic match up saw Fyfe and Dangerfield go head to head for seventy eight minutes in a classic midfield encounter in front of 45,518 fans.

Fremantle were sitting on top of the ladder, Adelaide was seventh so this was going to be a tussle, and it did not disappoint. It was a wet night in Adelaide, so this tussle was going to be tight, it was a battle of two very good teams. At this point, Fremantle were unbeaten with eight wins, Adelaide sported a five/four record but had the home ground advantage.

The stats were Fyfe forty possessions to Dangerfield’s twenty eight, Fyfe had fourteen clearances and three contested marks whilst Dangerfield had nine clearances and three contested marks. Both Fyfe and Dangerfield kicked a goal each with Fyfe getting three Brownlow votes and Dangerfield receiving two Brownlow votes, Fremantle’s Michael Barlow received one vote.

Fremantle ended up winning the game by 11 points with a score of 10.8 [68] to 7.15 [57]. With Adelaide winning most of the stats with 238 to 204 kicks, 128 to 137 handballs, 67 to 64 marks, 366 to 341 disposals, and 88 to 72 tackles, just poor conversion in front of goals cost Adelaide the game. However, Fremantle were better in the important moments and ended up getting over the line for what was a very good match where Nat Fyfe just got over Patrick Dangerfield in a classic midfield encounter that is still talked about.

The NATO border argument put forward by pro-Russian commentators, Russian bot factories and the easily influenced does not stand up to scrutiny. The case for the Russian invasion of Ukraine is far simpler, Russian President Vladimir Putin has never been held to account and has been allowed to get away with so much military aggression.

Putin is a dictator, that is clear and he has controlled a reasonably large and arguably powerful military. Whilst that claim is now disputed by the Ukrainian military forces, the threat of the Russian nuclear arsenal is real. Every time the Russian forces are threatened by a strong Ukrainian military, Putin trots out the old nuclear threat to try to submit Europe to his will. They are less fearful now, but they can never be complacent, the threat is always there.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb has warned that Russia wants to prolong the war, they believe they can outlast Ukraine by wearing European support down. There are no signs Russia is seeking to negotiate an end to this war. Any talk of a ceasefire has failed, even Donald Trump is slowly starting to see that he is being played by Putin. Trump was too eager to make a deal and offered nothing.

With Finland’s accession to NATO, the border with NATO has been extended by 1340 km and is heavily fortified. The whole Russian NATO border argument has been exposed, they did not order an attack on Finland prior to joining NATO. Ukraine is different, so why won’t Putin negotiate an end to the war. I am reading that Russia is now entering a negative growth period now, we know inflation is high and a recession is just beginning. Russia is losing men, losing equipment and losing the wealth generated from the oil.

This war should have concluded by now as Hamas has been conclusively beaten by Israeli forces. Gaza has been turned to rubble and Palestinians have been displaced from their homes. Yet, the Hamas leadership still wants to battle Israel to the last Palestinian, their hatred is so consuming and irrational.

Just hand over the remaining hostages, that is the answer to this conflict. Hamas is unwilling to comply with the simplest instructions so Israel will not back down until the last Israeli is returned. It is really that simple, Israel will not concede until the last Israeli is returned. I view the destruction in Gaza as a travesty, the plight of the Palestinians is not lost on me. Whilst Hamas is interested in the social media battle, they are winning this fight, they have been defeated militarily.

When Hamas attacked Israel on the 7th of October I knew this was going to be big. I knew Gaza was going to be flattened in the fight against Hamas. This has been a long time coming, Israeli intelligence was aware of the Gaza tunnels and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. The Israeli military was caught unaware on the 7th of October 2023 and was humiliated by the sheer scale of the attack.

But why does Israel need to win this conflict? Really, Israel cannot afford to lose any conflict otherwise they face annihilation, but why is this more important? There was no way Israel was ever going to let Hamas get away with this attack on its sovereignty. We all know Iran is behind this conflict, their ideology has infected other nations and enslaved their populations.

So why is this important? This action is funded and coordinated by Tehran, they are funding and supplying Hamas with weapons, they are funding and supplying Hezbollah, and they support the Houthis as well. There are minimal water pipes in Gaza, they have been dug up to use as short-range missile casings.

All the construction funding was spent on tunnels and military infrastructure. We know tunnels are connected to hospitals, schools and mosques. The IDF has to eradicate the fighters in these tunnels, they will eventually flood these tunnels once the last hostages are recovered and fill them in. There will be no Palestinian state until this terrorist infrastructure is dismantled, why would Israel pull out now so the infrastructure can be resurrected and used to attack Israel again?

The Hamas leadership lived in Qatar and not in Gaza, that is pretty much right. This tells you something, they do not want to live with the same restrictions as the Palestinian people. Despite the pain they bring on the people of Gaza, they seem to be living well with their families. So I need to get up on the leadership of Hamas as coming from Australia, we are far away from all this fighting and I need to learn who is the real upper leadership of Hamas.

Ismail Haniyeh was the leader of Hamas, previously imprisoned by Israel in 1989 after a Palestinian uprising, After three years in prison, he was exiled to an area known as no-man’s land between Lebanon and Israel. What I have learnt about the leadership of Hamas is their hatred of Israel, they want the total annihilation of Israel and they are willing to sacrifice the lives of the Palestinians living in Gaza to achieve their means.

So when Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July 2024, this was no loss to anyone. Whilst Hamas blames an Israeli airstrike on his apartment, this claim is not proven. An explosive device may have been smuggled in and set in his guest room and detonated when they knew he was in the apartment is a likely scenario. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran claim Haniyeh was assassinated by a projectile fired from a short range launcher, what is known is Haniyeh is no longer the leader of Hamas

They are collateral damage to them, their lives mean so little to them. Instead of using the Iranian and other Islamic funding to build Gaza into a great city, instead they built tunnels, constructed fortifications and stockpiled weapons to attack Israel. The October 7 attacks left Israel no options, they were forced into battle to rescue their hostages, this left Israel with no option.

The liberation of Gaza and the rescue of the remaining hostages has not occurred yet, so Hamas will delay handing over the final hostages because they know when that happens, they lose their leverage and lose their control. They are happy to fight to the last Palestinian, the longer they hang on, the more they believe they are winning.