South American migrants deported to DRC say facing pressure to return home Rights advocates have accused Trump administration of using third-country deportations to intimidate asylum seekers.

Rights advocates have accused Trump administration of using third-country deportations to intimidate asylum seekers.

Hung Cao, now Acting Secretary of the Navy, spoke at March Pentagon worship service (when Hegseth offered his most violent prayer). Cao praised Hegseth as "one of God's mightiest men" (publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/at-pentago...). Cao attends #ChristianNationalist pastor Gary Hamrick's church.

Worst knitter since Madame Defarge

Good that the RBA is so confident that the AI boom is delivering "excess demand"

The new FBI

Should churches be partisan? A familiar Phoenix megachurch is all-in for the GOP

Should churches be partisan?
open.substack.com/pub/ruthbrau...

Lebanese Journalist Amal Khalil Bombed and Left to Die by Israel After Khalil was apparently targeted by Israel, a commentator asserting a connection with the military said journalists "affiliated with Hezbollah" are "destined for death."

Lebanese Journalist Amal Khalil Bombed and Left to Die by Israel
open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...

Age AFL reporters have a degree of independence from the AFL that gives a fresh take on the overwheening ambition & self satisfaction of the corporate behemoth

Who was the secretary of the Navy? What did he do? Any corruption involved or did he just upset the Secretary for Crusades?

James Valentine, talented musician who elevated the art of talk on ABC Sydney radio – obituary Valentine, who announced on-air he had cancer in 2024, nurtured a deep connection with his audience as the voice of the afternoon program for more than 20 years James Valentine was a hugely popular talkback radio star on ABC Sydney, but adjectives often associated with that role did not fit him. Inclusive rather than combative, jovial rather than controversial, he became one of Australia’s favourite presenters for his thoughtful curiosity, his playful manner and the deep connections he nurtured with his guests and audience. Valentine, who has died aged 64, made his mark on Australia’s cultural landscape as a writer, television host and musician as well as a radio presenter. He was a passionate and talented saxophonist who played with the Models, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, Absent Friends and Pseudo Echo. Continue reading...

James Valentine, talented musician who elevated the art of talk on ABC Sydney radio – obituary

Trump vs. Earth On Earth Day — and every day — the carbon-pilled nihilist in the White House is rampaging against the environment

Trump vs. Earth
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Scammers are proving sharper than Trump

Wonder if this boat, like the last one Iran fired on, had paid the Iranian toll with crypto - but accidently paid it to scammers.

This world is such a stupid place at the moment.

I keep going with the Age for the AFL coverage - Canberra Times doesn't really do the AFL - Guardian does one article a week

Contents page 1

Contents page 2

I enjoyed the conversation with the other scholars in this book; we gave feedback on each other’s work at a seminar in late 2024. There’s some fantastic essays on many different aspects of the theme, from veteran activism to autonomous warfare. unsw.press/books/challe...
4/

Cover of book

In time for Anzac Day: a new book, Challenging Anzac: Stories That Don't Fit the Legend (NewSouth) edited by @miamh.bsky.social, Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beaumont. My chapter is 'Bolshevik Anzac: the politics, celebrity and mythology of Hugo Throssell VC'. 1/

This will be very interesting for theologians who can get down to D4 for it

Butler declaring the government has to take the ‘hard’ decisions on the NDIS. Oh FFS, this isn’t hard when you have the far right lining up to hit the disabled even harder in the name of fiscal rectitude. The legacy parties need to be smashed at the next election.

ALP too scared to take on the gas industry that strips billions from our country each year; but not shy about kicking the crutches out from under hundreds of thousands of disabled Australians. So gutsy Albo.

Trump's apparently indefinite extension of the ceasefire is simply kicking the issue down the road and into the long grass - leaving the option to renew the war in the hands of the Israeli Government - a very "stable genius" at work destabilising the world

Excellent analysis here from Tim Dunlop.

bsky.app/profile/marg...

The Court Prophet and the King: Franklin Graham, Donald Trump, and the Sociological Consequences of Unchecked Religious Flattery The costs of Trumpian messianism—eroding church giving, radicalized pews, widening gap between pastoral conviction and congregational tolerance—demand both Christian formation and prophetic distance.

The Court Prophet and the King: Franklin Graham, Donald Trump, and the Sociological Consequences of Unchecked Religious Flattery
open.substack.com/pub/gerardom...

Officially Announcing My New Book, BACKSLIDE A call to reclaim a faith and a nation after the Christian turn against democracy.

Officially Announcing My New Book, BACKSLIDE
open.substack.com/pub/robertpj...

The great and terrible meaning of war War is symbolic of humanity’s failure to live in the peaceable kingdom. Yet where there are humans there will always be a search for...

www.christiancentury.org/voices/great...

The Strange Death of Orbánism Franz Pokorny

Hungarian taxpayers paid American “post-liberal” Rod Dreher $105,000 last year to produce propaganda for Orban’s regime. www.jaccusepaper.co.uk/p/the-strang...

False prophets without clothes It's not pretty

Doug Wilson’s nonsense, theological and otherwise, is on full display. His bluster doesn’t work without yes men telling him he’s right.
The emperor has no clothes, and it’s not a pretty sight. It is pretty dang funny, though.
This is who he is. This is all he is.”

open.substack.com/pub/kristind...

A pied honeyeater in flight at Gluepot Reserve.
It was very challenging to get these shots.
He was really speedy and changed direction often.
But great to watch. He was calling the whole time.

Dunedin Railway station is very classy

If the US had honest negotiators . . .

Shane Rattenbury (GRN) to quit ACT politics, seat will be filled by former colleague Rebecca Vassarotti if she wants it #actpol