Author: Mick Hartley

Yes, we know how this goes. The winner, of course, is a man. 

This year’s Sydney Local Woman of the Year has been announced, with MP Alex Greenwich presenting the award on Wednesday afternoon.

T Brianna Skinner has been working with Greenwich for more than a decade, first meeting with him in 2014 to discuss concerns about people in NSW being unable to change their gender on identification documents such as birth and marriage certificates.

“Brianna’s own experience of transitioning from male to female highlighted to her the discrimination and bureaucratic discrepancies that outdated NSW laws imposed on Trans and gender diverse people,” said Greenwich….

Chosen by members of parliament, The Local Woman of the Year Awards is an annual NSW Government award that gives parliamentarians the opportunity to recognise and celebrate the contributions of local women.

n with partners, concrete steps to strengthen Ukraine’s position, and ending the war with a just peace, along with… pic.twitter.com/IAwcPgbhYW

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 1, 2025

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During our talks, we discussed the challenges facing Ukraine and all of Europe, coordination with partners, concrete steps to strengthen Ukraine’s position, and ending the war with a just peace, along with robust security guarantees.

A principled statement of support from the Prime Minister and an important decision: today, in our presence, Ukraine and the United Kingdom signed a Loan Agreement. This loan will enhance Ukraine’s defense capabilities and will be repaid using revenues from frozen Russian assets. The funds will be directed toward weapons production in Ukraine. This is true justice – the one who started the war must be the one to pay.

I thank the people and government of the United Kingdom for their tremendous support from the very beginning of this war. We are happy to have such strategic partners and to share the same vision of what a secure future should look like for all.

nov’s return “a violation of the moral norms of society” and “revenge” for his erasure during the 1980s.

“Zhdanov is being raised on a shield,” wrote the columnist Andrei Kolesnikov. “And not just anywhere but in Mariupol, a city whose fate is tragic whichever side of the trenches you’re on. They want to underline that tragedy by re-mythologising a Stalinist hangman. Why such cynicism?”

Because Putin. And now, because Trump.

—the kind of thing that in Washington-speak used to be called a “frank and candid exchange.” But this meeting reeked of a planned attack, with Trump unloading Russian talking points on Zelensky (such as blaming Ukraine for risking global war), all of it designed to humiliate the Ukrainian leader on national television and give Trump the pretext to do what he has indicated repeatedly he wants to do: side with Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring the war to an end on Russia’s terms….

Vance’s presence at the White House also suggests that the meeting was a setup. Vance is usually an invisible backbencher in this administration, with few duties other than some occasional trolling of Trump’s critics. (The actual business of furthering Trump’s policies is apparently now Elon Musk’s job.) This time, however, he was brought in to troll not other Americans, but a foreign leader. 

Vance was the bully's sidekick, cheering on the humiliation and making sure he got in a few jabs himself to please the boss. A vile display.

Today’s meeting and America’s shameful vote in the United Nations on Monday confirmed that the United States is now aligned with Russia and against Ukraine, Europe, and most of the planet. I felt physically sick watching the president of the United States yell at a brave ally, fulminating in the Oval Office as if he were an addled old man shaking his fist at a television. Zelensky has endured tragedies, and risked his life, in ways that men such as Trump and Vance cannot imagine. (Vance served as a public-relations officer in the most powerful military in the world; he has never had to huddle in a bunker during a Russian bombardment.) I am ashamed for my nation; even if Congress acts to support and aid Ukraine, it cannot restore the American honor lost today.

But no matter how disgusted anyone might be at Trump and Vance’s behavior, the strategic reality is that this meeting is a catastrophe for the United States and the free world. America’s alliances are now in danger, and should be: Trump is openly, and gleefully, betraying everything America has tried to defend since the defeat of the Axis 80 years ago. The entire international order of peace and security is now in danger, as Russian autocrats, after slaughtering innocent people for three years, look forward to enjoying the spoils of their invasion instead of standing trial for their crimes. (Shortly after Trump dismissed Zelensky from the White House, Putin’s homunculus, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, posted on X: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.”)

“padding-left: 40px”>Recent data from GP records suggests the number of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria has increased 50-fold over ten years. That trend, however, bears all the hallmarks of a social contagion, one aided and abetted by social media. Confronting such developments, adults, not least doctors, have a responsibility to prevent, rather than collude in, the mistaken choices children are liable to make about their own best interest.

Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser 👇 pic.twitter.com/mU2gfUSI2m

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 28, 2025

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READ ⬇️@SenatorShaheen and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats condemn President Trump and Vice President Vance’s disgraceful Oval Office outburst during their meeting with @ZelenskyyUa.@SFRCdems stand united in our support of our ally, Ukraine. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/4Ffrvg5hPo

— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) February 28, 2025

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New York ca. 1907. "Plaza Hotel from Fifth Avenue at W. 58th Street."

[Photo: Shorpy/Detroit Publishing Company]

Just completed – A hotel of the same name was built from 1883 to 1890. The original hotel was replaced by the current structure from 1905 to 1907.

482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 27, 2025

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Story here:

A group of pro-Palestine students interrupted a talk hosted by the King’s Geopolitics Forum (KGF) at King’s College London (KCL) yesterday in protest of an Iranian speaker who, they claim, “promoted Zionist behaviour”.

The speaker, Iranian activist Faezeh Alavi, wrote on X before the event that a conversation about “Iran’s situation, people’s views on Israel & their vision for the region’s future” represented “an opportunity to reverse the course of history in Iran & the Middle East”.

Scheduled to start at 6 pm at the Nash Lecture Theatre, the talk with the title “From Conflict to Connection: Israelis and Iranians in Dialogue” was attended by some 40 people. Among them, there were about a dozen pro-Palestine protesters.

Twenty-five minutes into the event, one heckler stood up to question Alavi: “There has been a genocide happening for 15 months. How are you not going to talk about that?”

To question? She was heckling like a deranged idiot, stopping Alavi from speaking. She had no interest – as ever with the pro-Palestine crowd – in debate. Just shouting and chanting.

Security was called to the venue and Alavi exited the room….

After Alavi left, the pro-Palestine protestors started shouting “Shame!” and “Free Palestine,” causing all attendees to leave the venue mid-event….

Alavi has also voiced her support for Israel on X in the past.

She told Roar:

“I hope what happened at the event makes one thing clear: there are extremists who are silencing the voices of Muslims and do not want to see a prosperous Middle East. They once came after the Iranian nation in 1979, and now they are coming after Israel.”

The topics to be discussed at the event included the difficulty of living within the Islamic Republic of Iran, the treatment of women there, the line between safety and freedom of expression, and Iranians’ view of Israel.

The Pahlavi era flag with a Lion and Sun emblem, mentioned by Alavi, was replaced by an Islamic emblem with the Takbir written across the flag after the Revolution of 1979.

In their statement, KGF wrote: “In an event that is supposed to foster unity and conversation between two opposing sides – Israel and Iran – the instigators have shown their true colours through an aggressive form of silencing.”

Alavi recognised a bigger threat. She said: “Unfortunately, this destructive ideology has already reached the UK. I am frequently attacked by these people even here. This should alert the West to how dangerous it could become.”

How dangerous it already has become. The flag reference makes it clear: this was an Islamist silencing of debate. Which worked. In a UK university.

s always the same – deny, obfuscate, and then, when the evidence is overwhelming, reluctantly concede the bare minimum necessary to contain the scandal….

The damage to the BBC’s credibility is now undeniable. It is not just those who exposed this scandal who should be vindicated, but also those who dismissed, ignored, or even defended the documentary who must now face accountability. The signatories of that ill-judged letter calling for the film’s reinstatement should reflect on their actions and issue a public apology. What did they think they were defending? A programme that engaged in fakery, deception, and mistranslation? A film whose integrity collapsed under the weight of the facts?

The BBC’s reputation is in tatters, and rightly so. If it wants to rebuild public trust, it must not only own up to its failures but demonstrate that it has the courage to change. The days of brushing aside complaints, gaslighting critics, and hiding behind bureaucratic processes must end. This scandal should mark the beginning of a long-overdue reckoning with the BBC’s chronic bias against Israel and its failure to meet the most basic standards of journalistic integrity. Enough is enough.

Don't get fooled into thinking this is about one documentary.

That misses the point completely.

The Gaza documentary was the product of a systemic problem with @bbcnews

They have been producing Hamas propaganda for years.

The only difference this time is that we proved it.

— David Collier (@mishtal) February 28, 2025

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rans child, let’s be clear: there is only one thing with less prognostic reliability than an adult mental health diagnosis—a mental health diagnosis in children. Psychiatry isn’t like medicine. There is no schizococcus—no biological test to confirm a condition. There are only clusters of symptoms and illness behaviour.

After 46 years in psychiatry, I’ve seen every form of delusional thinking & manic denial employed by the profession. That’s why my first book was called Making Room for Madness in Mental Health. Rather than helping people understand & manage the difficulties that come with development, we promise to remove the pain associated with being human-playing god by denying the facts of life.