Chris Wallace

‘A bellwether of change’: speed of glacier shrinking on remote Heard Island sounds alarm Glacial retreat on pristine world heritage-listed island as temperatures warm could endanger unique plant life

“‘A bellwether of change’: speed of glacier shrinking on remote Heard Island sounds alarm.”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Many Jewish Voters Back Mamdani. And Many Agree With Him on Gaza.

“I think this campaign has really shown us something we have known for a while,” said Mr. Sadoff, who is Jewish and works as a bike mechanic in Manhattan. “There are a million Jewish New Yorkers who have wide-ranging opinions on all kinds of issues.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/n...

Trump’s Demand to Trading Partners: Pledge Money or Get Higher Tariffs

“This is no doubt a global shakedown of sorts,” said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the right-leaning Cato Institute. “The fact is that Trump is using US tariff policy to effectively force these terms upon less-than-willing participants.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/u...

Crikey article headline Never mind company tax — reform proposal reveals Australia’s real inflation cause A big rise in large corporations raking in profits by abusing their market power is impacting inflation, as shown by modelling buried in the Productivity Commission’s tax reform proposal.

Back in 2023, quite a few self-aggrandising economist types, desperate to get attention from the AFR, plus the RBA & Treasury tried to tell @australiainstitute.org.au that our work showing rising excess profits were causing inflation was wrong.

Last week, the Productivity Commission ...

Concerns protest could ‘impede Sydney drivers’ solved by getting basically the whole city at the protest

"Turns out roughly a hundred thousand people wanted to cross the bridge at the time of the march" said one organiser

Read more: chaser.com.au/general-news...

@chriswallace.bsky.social posted this excellent piece on the dead bird place

Attacks on the humanities at Australian universities are not new – but they are now more lethal | Julianne Schultz Punishing fees for arts degrees must be ended if the country seriously wants to take part in the information age and give students the opportunities we need them to have

🔥🔥🔥’Australia’s long-term success & global influence is due more to its educated people than the resources beneath the soil.

‘(R)outines of corporate logic have been instrumentalised by university managements keen to squeeze (out) the last penny’.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #highered

The 109-Year-Old Pact That Looms Over European Moves to Recognize a Palestinian State

“The history is so relevant,” said Eugene L. Rogan, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford. “It shows there’s always a chance for historical actors who screwed up in the past to make up for their mistakes.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/w...

Like IKEA but for houses: Could Sweden's housing revolution come to Australia? The country that brought us IKEA and flatpack furniture is now building flatpack homes in less than a week. Could Sweden’s prefabricated houses be the answer to Australia’s housing supply crisis?

Sweden showcases how much benefit modern high quality prefab brings.

Meaghan Scanlon of the Miles was going heavily into it and I hope Claire O'Neill does the same.

www.sbs.com.au/news/datelin...

Only public ownership of the water system will solve its crisis - British Politics and Policy at LSE The recent report by the Independent Water Commission led by Sir John Cunliffe recommends the abolition of Ofwat and deeper regulatory reforms. But further regulation won't resolve the fundamental ten...

‘Only public ownership of the water system will solve its crisis’

Strong agree.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Mark Latham’s history of bad behaviour and abusiveness As the NSW parliament prepares a motion to censure Mark Latham, it is impossible to escape the former Labor leader’s long history of abusiveness.

Tanya Plibersek recently recalled that “the only time I remember going home and having a little cry after work was the day that Mark Latham was elected as leader of the Australian Labor Party”. She was a good judge of character. http://satpa.pe/CkAGHOg

The Real Demon Inside ChatGPT AI chatbots strip language of its historical and cultural context. Sometimes what looks like a satanic bloodletting ritual may actually be lifted from Warhammer 40,000.

ChatGPT and similar programs weren’t just trained on the internet—they were trained on specific pieces of information presented in specific contexts.

When stripped of that context, the bots can confuse and alarm users, or even dangerously mislead them.

Silence over Marinus Link deal defended, but it could cost Liberals government The Tasmanian government has released a summary of the business case for Marinus Link, a second undersea electricity interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria. The summary, released a day after the...

So corrupt.
The Rockliff govt signs a deal for Tasmania’s largest ever infrastructure project, in secret, while in caretaker mode.
The public should treat any details and explanations with extreme skepticism.

Australia’s house of the year goes to a prefab beach shack trio on Stradbroke Island Built in a factory in Brisbane and transported to the island in modules, Blok Three Sisters is a shining example of ‘stealth density’, Houses award judge says. The owners say it’s ‘magical’

“It shows it’s possible to make multi-storey, multi-residential housing in a factory at a very high standard that could be applied to other models, like social housing”…

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Over at the Victorian Labor State Conference, this and an urgency resolution calling for an inquiry into Aukus just passed overwhelmingly. Seems like it could be a big deal.

Google Will Use AI to Guess People’s Ages Based on Search History Plus: A former top US cyber official loses her new job due to political backlash, Congress is rushing through a bill to censor lawmakers’ personal information online, and more.

Plus: A former top US cyber official loses her new job due to political backlash, Congress is rushing through a bill to censor lawmakers’ personal information online, and more. www.wired.com/story/securi...

Thoughtful students deserve fair assessment. Hand-written exams and free form research projects offer these. But they can't be marked by computers so don't suit those who run unis by sacking teachers & researchers. #AIisntFair

Battle stations: The former PM, ministers, and military brass cashing in on Australia’s defence spending bonanza With billions of dollars in AUKUS spending looming, the rush to join defence industry contractors and advisory firms has never been greater.

The revolving door between government jobs and the defence industry is especially problematic when we see massive contracts awarded without due process.

My CleanUp Politics Act would close that door & stop senior public servants & politicians using insider knowledge in their post-politics careers.

“tens of thousands of people who will march across the Harbour Bridge tomorrow are crying out for moral leadership. It is a time for all of us, including those in positions of power, to do everything they can to halt an active genocide and stand with the people of Gaza." @sarahschwartz.bsky.social

I’ll be on Insiders tomorrow morning talking about proposals we will take to the economic roundtable

One (smart, ethical, farsighted) student’s view of AI in the academy right now.

A must read from @GraceLagan #AFR

www.afr.com/policy/healt... #highered #highereducation #AI #auspol

My family lost a baby at Auschwitz. I can’t see how our child is any different from those being killed in Gaza.

One of the most personal things I’ve ever written — about grief, conscience, and complicity.

Read: thebigsmoke.com.au/2025/08/01/g...

Opinion | ‘South Park’ Skewers a New Kind of Sanctimony

‘“South Park” viewers know that the show had a subplot about Satan’s affair with Saddam Hussein. Now the devil is sleeping with Trump, though he finds the president exasperating: “You remind me more & more of this other guy I used to date. Like, a lot.”’

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/o... #trumperica

Opinion | ‘South Park’ Skewers a New Kind of Sanctimony

‘At a time when much of the media is bowing to Trump, the opening of the show’s new season ridiculed his megalomania, his intimidation of the media and his manhood.’

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/o... #trumperica

Watching Hannah Beazley on ABC TV News tonight I thought how impressive she is in her Local Government ministry. She would make a great premier, I reckon.

Petty cheating at golf is a window into his rotted soul.

No Return: Australia's Missing Billions Four Corners is the home of Australian investigative journalism.

In this major Four Corners investigation, award-winning financial journalists Neil Chenoweth and Angus Grigg reveal how inaction and flawed systems have allowed more than $50 billion in tax to go uncollected.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

#BREAKING 🚨 Four major global news outlets – AFP, AP, BBC and Reuters – have released a joint statement, saying they are “desperately concerned” for journalists in Gaza

The UN says the situation is a “horror show” as more people, including many children, starve to death

In an Age of Climate Change, How Do We Cope with Floods? The deaths in the Texas Hill Country are a tragic testament to the force of a raging river. Flood-stricken Vermont has a radical plan to counter the threat it faces.

A recent national study concluded that floods previously considered to be hundred-year events have become, on average, 62-year events, as a result of human-caused climate change.