Sadly I think it’s most likely that the Opposition will politicise the Royal Commission. Sussan Ley has already said she wants to see Ministers ‘in the dock’. www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

behold Project Matador, a 6,000 acre datacenter being built in the Texas panhandle by a billionaire who once attempted to create an "anti-woke bank" that went belly up

If Trump is only constrained by his own morality there are no constraints www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

🇺🇸 MINNEAPOLIS VETERAN: "They are terrorizing the population, in Afghanistan we never wore masks.” (From @statuscoupnews.bsky.social )

As a climate scientist, I know heatwaves in Australia will only get worse. We need to start preparing now | Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick #Climate

Just seen Grok putting the body of the victim of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis into a bikini. Digital corpse desecration now available to the public.

For those keeping score, Bellingcat, The New York Times Visual Investigation Team, & Washington Post's Visual Forensic team have all published analysis showing the ICE shooter wasn't in the path of Renee Nicole Good’s vehicle when he shot her, contradicting statements by the President & his cronies

checking in on elon musk, the guy who absolutely did not give a nazi salute last year

If a website appeared overnight that gave hundreds of millions of users the opportunity to create CSAM you'd expect governments to shut it down quickly, so the question is why X gets a pass when it's done just that? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

This is too good NOT to be true

This is absolutely what happened and why we're withdrawing from the ILC. Half of the policymaking is based on keyword searches that don't differentiate between nuanced meanings of words.

This is exactly what happened and you’re exactly right. It’s just so stupid and absurd. One would have thought the ILC was too nerdy and under the radar for the average Trump Admin official to notice. But of course they have to strike everything that says “international law” and progressive.

Whatever Albanese does, whoever is appointed, whatever the terms of reference are — it will never been good enough. It's going to be a terrible couple of years. www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

Withdrawing from the special rep on Violence against Children is galling (though perhaps it meets the cannot-release-Epstein-file moment). Also note withdrawal from International Law Commission, which also seems fitting as 2026 is apparently the year to destroy all remnants of it.

People, amongst the UN entities that the US is withdrawing from is: The International Law Commission I don't know why, but that one seems particularly egregious.

We’re withdrawing from the International Law Commission??? This whole list is absolutely insane. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Oh look, the administration pulled out of the International Law Commission. What you do when you are definitely a law respecting superpower.

Trump is also withdrawing the US from the International Law Commission. The US had a proud history on this UN body, which is charged with the codification and progressive development of intl. law. The US is now indisputably a rogue state. #internationallaw www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

If Josh Frydenberg wants to talk about bad appointments for Royal Commissioner, he should start with his party’s appointment of Dyson Heydon, who was later found to have sexually harassed multiple women. I don’t recall Josh raising any objections?

So this is how they’ve chosen to mark the one year anniversary of the Los Angeles fires.

Just gonna draw everyone's attention to these three:

Most of the targets are U.N.-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labor and other issues that the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and "woke" initiatives. n.pr/3N7LJmg

Objections to former High Court judge Virginia Bell seemingly raise her judgment in Brown v Tasmania concerning the right to protest but neglect to mention her upholding the constitutional validity of the criminal laws used against Lindt siege gunman Man Haron Monis www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/c... Oof, this is a big, bad step. Unlike the Paris Agreement, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is a treaty requiring ratification by 2/3 of the US Senate to enter. It was remarkable the US passed that threshold decades ago; hard to see it happening again.

The US withdraw from @ipcc.bsky.social makes the US government a real outlier among peteostates — Saudi Arabia and Russia, among others, are both active participants, and indeed Saudi is hosting the next meeting of the mitigation working group (for better or worse) 1/5

Unsurprisingly I see it’s Rob Harris publishing inaccurate descriptions of Virginia Bell’s High Court decisions

I wrote about the potential withdraw of the US from the United Nations Framework Convention last year in a piece for Great Decisions. utexas.box.com/s/7qom40ts8y...

My operating assumption was that rejoining the UNFCCC would require another vote of the Senate, requiring 2/3 support, but @monicadean.bsky.social suggests legal precedent based on the UNESCO example would allow President Pritzker or President AOC to do so unilaterally.

President Trump has direct all executive departments and agencies to take "immediate steps" to withdraw the US from organizations "that are contrary to the interests of the United States," including the UNFCCC and the IPCC. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Confirmed that US is withdrawing from: -UNFCCC -IPCC -Int’l Renewable Energy Agency -Int’l Union for Conservation of Nature -UN Oceans and many more

The US is withdrawing from the UNFCCC and 65 other international other organizations. apnews.com/article/unit...

This is the institutional equivalent of carpet-bombing. They're pulling the U.S. out of the UNFCCC, the IPCC, IRENA and the IUCN. How long till they learn the OECD and IEA are also unsuitably "woke," believing in physics and such? www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Trump moves to pull the US from bedrock climate treaty, UN IPCC and other int'l orgs & UN agencies. In doing so, the US becomes the only country to withdraw from this particular climate agreement dating back to 1992 (UNFCCC). www.cnn.com/2026/01/07/c...

It doesn’t get much more nuts than this.

“The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the UN’s population agency and the UN treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the US further retreats from global cooperation.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Virginia Bell AC would be an exceptional appointment and attempts to traduce her reputation are unseemly. Who would the opposition prefer? Dyson Haydon? www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

If the United States Constitution doesn’t protect you from a federal agent shooting you in the face for the “crime” of turning your car around, it doesn’t exist. ICE has become a paramilitary force with zero oversight and a Secretary in Kristi Noem who encourages the chaos. ENOUGH.

It has been an obvious, sometimes even almost stated project of Trump 2.0 to engineer a redo of the post George Floyd protests of 2020, this time with much more state violence. And now a federal agent has shot and killed a woman in a car at point blank range a mile from where Floyd was murdered.

Mike Johnson: Rubio was kidding about Trump wanting to buy Greenland. Rubio: No, I wasn’t. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

“Australia’s online safety watchdog is investigating sexualised deepfake images posted on X by its AI chatbot, Grok.” Good. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The 'Tone Deaf' award this week goes to the Victorian National & Liberal parties, who have launched a pro fossil gas ad campaign during a heatwave which has the potential for catastrophic fire conditions. Well done, team. www.miragenews.com/libs-nationa...

"The Big Thaw: Who Governs Antarctica's Ice?" Pleased to see my 2024 Royal Society of NSW Ideas at the House Lecture has now been published in the proceedings of the society. #antarctica #internationallaw #climatecrisis www.royalsoc.org.au/wp-content/u...

Even if Trump invades Greenland, which now seems likely, few if any states will recognise US sovereignty over territory acquired by conquest. There is a doctrine for this - it's called the Stimson Doctrine, named after US Secretary of State Harry L Stimson. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Reposting to catch European working hours (and to say, @lroorda.bsky.social, I might have cited your work a few times in this chapter ...).

France at the UN Security Council: "The military operation which led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro runs counter to the principle of peaceful dispute resolution and the principle of non use of force. Violations of the UN Charter... chips away at the very foundation of the international order."

“More than half of Australia is set to swelter in blistering temperatures in what is expected to be the worst heatwave since the devastating black summer bushfires.” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Completely agree with my learned friend here.

"The Big Thaw: Who Governs Antarctica's Ice?" Pleased to see my 2024 Royal Society of NSW Ideas at the House Lecture has now been published in the proceedings of the society. #antarctica #internationallaw #climatecrisis www.royalsoc.org.au/wp-content/u...

And the point of the original cartoon was that the doctrines purpose was keeping Europe out of the Americas and ending colonisation