"Don’t hand Australia’s critical minerals to Washington" by David Richardson @thepointau.bsky.social thepoint.com.au/news/260127-...

The Trump administration may have killed what remained of the international order, but last week Canadian PM Carney delivered its eulogy. Allan Behm & @emmashortis.bsky.social discuss this global “rupture” & why Trump’s apparent climbdown over Greenland may not save NATO. 🎧 theaus.in/45Snuz5

As tomorrow beckons in all its heat, anger and frustration. Remember we are charge of the course we chart. We know where we’re going, because we know where we’ve been. This from the Yoorrook Justice Commission. 🖤💛❤️

to be fair it wasn’t difficult at all to see where this would go, you just had to take people at their word and think seriously about what they were proposing

Hmmm. A defence person rather than a DFAT person, or a business person, or a political person.

Pretty compelling argument for an international boycott

We have been told for nearly 30 years that America needed to tolerate mass shootings because the broad availability of guns would help us defend ourselves from an overreaching federal government. That day has come. The people who said this are supporting the federal agents. Many have joined them.

If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.

Shorter America this week: Trust is rust; It’s the white supremacy, stupid; Five Eyes goes cross-eyed @emmashortis.bsky.social for @thepointau.bsky.social thepoint.com.au/news/260124-...

Triple J Hottest 100 out tomorrow! Last year just 27 Aus songs made it. Lowest since 1994!! Why? – Streaming favours the USA Thankfully, DJ Albo is in the house and can turn this around! Thread on how.

"This is the violent world Trump wants to create – a world divided into fiefdoms run by Mafia-style bosses paid simpering tributes by their weaker supplicants."

Here’s my attempt to dredge some meaning from the wreckage Trump leaves behind. theconversation.com/trump-sows-c...

"Trump sows ‘chaotic cruelty’ while Canadian PM Carney reminds the world it doesn’t have to play along" by @emmashortis.bsky.social theconversation.com/trump-sows-c...

when you realize that the American unipolar global order was suppressing long-forgotten levels of public Frenchness

European Council President Antonio Costa at European Parliament plenary just now "We stand ready to defend ourselves, our Member States, our citizens, our companies, against any form of coercion. And the European Union has the power and the tools to do so."

Damn, that Mark Carney speech. I’m not saying he’s right about everything. But oh to have a PM prepared to speak like that! Our domestic politics simply would not allow it. Even Rudd wouldn’t name-check Thucydides…

I would feel very stressed as an Australian if, five years ago, I had pivoted my entire professional expertise towards AUKUS

"I don't think the government knows what the consequences of this legislation are, let alone the rest of us." @browne90.bsky.social, @amyremeikis.bsky.social & @ebonybennett.bsky.social discuss Australia's new hate laws & this week's emergency sitting of parliament. #auspol 🎧 theaus.in/4qVYWx4

"It’s very clear from the language of the administration, it appears to want to provoke more violence" International & Security Affairs Director Dr Emma Shortis unpacks the recent Minnesota shooting by an ICE agent on ABC 7.30. @emmashortis.bsky.social

So, yikes. Lucky to have @mattduss.bsky.social back on After America this week.

Time for the Australian govt to give serious reconsideration to the alliance with the US, including #AUKUS, says @emmashortis.bsky.social. #auspol

"You have to take it seriously. "Just like you have to take the threats against Canada seriously." @profsaunders.bsky.social tells @emmashortis.bsky.social that after Venezuela, nothing would surprise her when it comes to Trump's actions in Greenland. 🎧 theaus.in/4qlvnoy

I don't know if "enjoyed" is the right word but this was certainly an interesting conversation with @emmashortis.bsky.social at @australiainstitute.org.au, a few months after we last spoke. A lot has happened. A lot of chaotic cruelty.

Several 2026 space missions aim to map the universe at its largest scales, revealing how planets, galaxies and cosmic structures evolved. Anticipation across the global space science community is “electric,” an astrophysicist says. buff.ly/KGuoZye

When there are no longer any constraints on Trump's foreign policy, what does that mean for the world? This week on After America, @profsaunders.bsky.social and I talk about the "chaotic cruelty" of the Trump administration's violent imperialism. australiainstitute.org.au/post/chaotic...

The absence of any public pushback from the Republican Party on a situation as insane as Trump is rapidly reaching on Greenland is itself a huge sign of how far gone the US already is.

The Trump administration is bulldozing guardrails meant to protect human life & dignity. @profsaunders.bsky.social joins @emmashortis.bsky.social to discuss the “chaotic cruelty” of the administration & its escalation of hostilities with Europe over Greenland. 🎧 theaus.in/4qlvnoy

The Australia Institute has long called for an end to new coal and gas mines. The extreme temperatures of 2023, 2024 and 2025 reinforce how urgently action is needed. Read the full piece on The Point: thepoint.com.au/off-the-char...

Never thought I'd be rushing to get a show out before the US invades Greenland, but here we are. Great to have @profsaunders.bsky.social back on After America, even if little else feels great rn. @emmashortis.bsky.social @australiainstitute.org.au

“What makes the travel expenses media pile-on particularly unjust is that Minister Wells was in the United States explaining and promoting a policy that the media campaigned for." - Bill Browne, The Australia Institute Read Bill Browne’s full piece on The Point: thepoint.com.au/opinions/lab...

This. Constraint and accountability for using military force start closest to home. Advisers and members of the president’s party. Doesn’t have to be a vote, doesn’t have to be public. But there’s no constraining without it. War is an Insiders’ Game.

i think i’m fully in on “the white house is run by thirtysomething chuds who think grand strategy games are real life”

I’m just a person but maybe making your own decisions and not being driven by bad faith right-wing media campaigns might make it easier to avoid such stunning situations idk

This is the Foreign Minister of Denmark and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Greenland sharing a cigarette after meeting JD Vance

US attacks on Iran could have disastrous consequences for the Iranian people and security in the region. Trump does not have the required authorization for the use of military force in Iran. An attack would be illegal under both US and international law. CIP's @mattduss.bsky.social

the US’s transgression here is so extreme that these diplomats sort of have to talk about the US’s security concerns as though they’re consequential because the alternative is having to concede shared norms about territorial sovereignty and aggression are dead

Words cannot describe how insane it is that we might strike Iran, that Europe moved troops into Greenland while Danish & Greenlandish FMs stood grim-faced after DC meeting, & that the Pentagon is sending lawyers to Minneapolis. Brought to you by the party of national security & law and order.

I am so very tired. Here’s more on the debacle that tanked Adelaide Writers Week, and the staggering racism involved. sakr.substack.com/p/resignatio...

Director of International & Security Affairs at The Australia Institute, Dr Emma Shortis, said Washington’s “traditional allies are all grappling with how best to deal with the chaos of the Trump administration”. Read more from Dr Shortis: australiainstitute.org.au/store/after-...

“In a functioning international order—one that took international law seriously and treated civilian protection as more than rhetoric—we would not be trapped in today’s absurd and dangerous choice between a government killing its citizens and U.S. military action...” newrepublic.com/article/2051...

Trump's followers aren't abandoning him, so why do people keep saying they are? I wrote about the mythical crack-up of the MAGA base, and why media outlets and liberal pundits keep falling for this narrative, even though the polls show the opposite. Gift link:

"Writers perform a crucial national service. For this service they are underpaid and undervalued. The Adelaide Festival has just made them pay the price for a problem they didn’t create." Great piece by @leanneminshull.bsky.social, @thepointau.bsky.social thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...

The 2026 Adelaide Writers' Week has officially been cancelled. Well done to the Board of the Festival and the Premier of South Australia for this devastating outcome.

"They're manoeuvering Trump into a position where not taking Greenland...will make the US look weak." "And we know he hates that." Administration officials seem to be "warming Trump up" to the idea of further interventions beyond Venezuela, @emmashortis.bsky.social says. 🎧 theaus.in/4pvdvql

As we get into 2026, it is worth remembering that we now have only 2 months until we are at war with China.

Took a little to find him a new gig - but Kevin Rudd will finish up as the US ambassador in March and return to the Asia Society as it's president. So Australia has given in to America in all forms.

Trump says he "doesn't need" international law & that he's constrained only by his own morality. "What a terrifying thought." The Trump administration are "clearly now convinced that they're invincible," says @emmashortis.bsky.social on the After America podcast. #auspol

“The vision of the world here is the vision of a rapist”. Such good analysis. Subtext is for cowards!