Morning. ☕️

"The Police chose violence". Veteran journo and sports broadcaster Peter Lalor was at the Sydney Herzog protest, got pepper sprayed. His account #auspol michaelwest.com.au/peter-lalor-...

Fake and AI generated 'experts' are being quoted in articles in the UK press. "Out of a sample of 250 expert-quoting articles published in The Sun, Daily Express, Mirror, Daily Mail and Daily Star in 2025 and late 2024, 28 experts do not exist". pressgazette.co.uk/news/faces-o...

NEW Three reasons why the Mandelson disclosure exercise will be a shock for the government Ministers and officials usually are in control of disclosure exercises - but here they will not be - and why that matters A detailed post by me: emptycity.substack.com/p/three-reas...

Melville: I hope you enjoyed that bloody action-packed chapter! But now, a moment to consider obscure technicalities about where everyone sits in the boat, how the boat is constructed, and my personal critique of current assigned seating practices.

Plans to invade Greenland have just been cancelled after this

Just a reminder, the “I” stands for intelligence

"I helped a young girl who had been pepper sprayed in the face and collapsed into a seizure on the pavement. She was convulsing, incapacitated. As she lay there on the ground, police sprayed her again in the face." Eyewitness account by Andrew Brown michaelwest.com.au/this-was-pla...

Chris Minns and the NSW Police running lines about "the crowd really took part in some type of contagion of groupthink" and "small videos being put up ... out of context"; but somehow despite the "rolling melee of violence" there were no injuries to police www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

“Collection of Handwritten Letters from Children in Detention Center” sounds like an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum.

I was looking at the TV feed of Herzog’s media conference today and I thought, “good work by the bodyguard to hold an umbrella up.” It was Chris Minns

NEW: A Queensland software engineer has been in a four-and-a-half year long battle with Services Australia to get a look at a MyGov app's source code. He says we should be able to scrutinise it to make sure it's secure. Services Australia says it's a national security risk. www.crikey.com.au/20...

Guardian Australia reporter Jordyn Beazley filmed this video not long ago of police moving towards protesters down Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD following the rally at Town Hall.

NSW Cops 🎶 🎵

sOcIaL coHEsiON

My explainer on today's NSW protest challenge 'Isaac Herzog visit: protesters lose challenge to sweeping special police powers. What now?' #protest #auslaw theconversation.com/isaac-herzog...

Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

the police presence at Town Hall is unfuckingbelievable. They are deep inside the station, stopping and searching people at the top of the stairs from the platform. Absolutely off the charts I have never seen anything like it and I have protested for over 40 years.

I have many, many favourite Kudelka cartoons but this, from 2011, is possibly one of the best Aus pol cartoons ever drawn.

2021

Kudelka from when Gillard's portrait was unveiled (sorry, no alt text.)

Kudelka 2024

Vale Jon Kudelka (1972-2026). He was one of the sharpest political cartoonists this country has ever produced. He saw through the folly and cant but never let it dim his own warmth or decency. Thoughts are with his family. You can read his essay on cartooning here: satpa.pe/fZGzqRE

You’ll hear it said that Jon Kudelka was a genuinely wonderful and generous man, this was undeniable, and the interactions I had with him bore that out, he was also a fucking punisher of hypocrites, he adored fighting bad people, and he had picked some quality enemies

Kudelka on 18c from 2017

Kudelka 2013

I can’t express how outrageous this whole thing is, but I’ve given it a go! #auspol For shame @albomp.bsky.social @chrisminnsmp.bsky.social

Vale to an amazing man and legendary, brilliant cartoonist. The cartooning community is in mourning today.

One of the best people

Here, on the ABC, is an entire article on Victorian bushfires ... with not a single mention of climate change www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

“The research pointed to the former Morrison government’s job-ready graduate scheme as directly relating to the decline. Implemented in 2021, that scheme substantially increased the cost of arts & creative courses to cheapen Stem courses” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

My theory that AI maximalists don’t know how to use a computer remains undefeated so far

'Under the new legislation, public use of the controversial phrases "globalise the intifada" and "from the river to the sea" to cause menace, harassment or offence will be banned, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison.' www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

When I say I won’t read your Substack this is what I mean:

I enjoy the way that in this photo our cats look like a hip-hop duo quite a lot of people quite liked in 1996 who have made a comeback record, done an interview with a broadsheet newspaper and are attempting to prove they are still serious and relevant.

Apart from anything else, Craven saying this stuff out loud is really handy for students who might decide to fight against dubious disciplinary proceedings in court

Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries. One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home. Abolish the billionaire class:

Jeff Bezos is more responsible than anyone—even Will Lewis—for the job cuts at the Washington Post. The billionaire’s decisions led the paper to its current predicament (one he could pay for in perpetuity for a fraction of his wealth).

Fascinating story by Charlotte Grieve about the persecution of a country doctor with a history of treating substance abuse, pursued without evidence by rogue medical regulator AHPRA www.theage.com.au/national/thi...

We are the warrior elite, and as such we are required to watch two hours of a woman trying on dresses www.businessinsider.com/us-military-...

US elite institutions be as ethical as Burning Man challenge via @henryburke.bsky.social

An observation I've been thinking about: Around 2020, we were told that US political & corporate elites had been gripped by "wokeness" & thus become obsessed with climate change & diversity. This wokeness was alleged to be so severe & monomaniacal that it threatened the entire culture & economy.

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

This week at Group Threat, I spoke with @grundrza.bsky.social about Florida's censorship regime, teaching under authoritarianism, and how folks are coping (or not).

What has got rather lost in all this: Disobedience by Randa Abdel-Fattah is by all accounts a great novel. Here, @peterdonoughue.bsky.social calls it "brilliant and profound". No wonder she gets programmed for writers festivals... notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2026/02/rand...

This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.

Solar farms with big batteries that feed in to the grid in the evening peak are coming online. This is really, really bad news for fossil fuel generators reneweconomy.com.au/first-solar-...

Beautiful capsule history of storied LA small press Black Sparrow Press, in the LARB. lareviewofbooks.org/article/blac...

Lots of time spent on “is Trump fascist” and “is Trump racist” debates that have now been settled quite conclusively.

☕ #Art by Hook Hope