Donald Trump may be revelling in his ‘victory’ in Venezuela but the American public, according to the latest polls, were and are strongly opposed to his war. When pollsters specified the goal of military action (removing Maduro), the numbers barely improved.

The opposition is not new. Data for Progress found back in December that 60% of likely voters opposed “sending American troops into Venezuela to remove President Maduro from power” versus 33% in favour. September YouGov polling on using military force “to overthrow Maduro” found 53% opposed and just 18% in favour. Independents strongly or somewhat opposed and 64% of Republicans were either not sure or opposed. read more

Foreign Ministers of eight countries – Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden – have issued a statement about conditions in Gaza.

They said: “As winter draws in civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping. 1.3 million people still require urgent shelter support. More than half of health facilities are only partially functional and face shortages of essential medical equipment and supplies. The total collapse of sanitation infrastructure has left 740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding.” read more

The poets of the world often capture realities which are unseen by others. For instance-First Nations poet Evelyn Araluen – who writes in her recent poetry collection:

“You will never be who you were before Gaza”

“In Gaza girls bleed on tent scraps sliced by bunker busters”

“Six days and 75 years into the genocide a library in Gaza writing to a sister library in Barcelona – we don’t know if we’ll be able to keep in contact from now on, so please tell the following generations about us. read more

The religiosity of the US is a bit off-putting to most Australians. The growing impact of Christian Nationalist authoritarians is as puzzling to us as it would have been for the US Founding Fathers who wrote the wrote the Constitution.

The First Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1791, in one of the 10 the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or, prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” read more

US attitudes to the Supreme Court are at an all-time 39 year low according to recent research by the Pew Research Centre.  The Court’s favourable rating is now 22% lower than it was in 2020 when 70% of Americans had a positive view.

Just 26% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents view the Court favourably – the lowest rating from either party in the more than 30 years the question has been asked. read more

When people are asked to reflect on the events of the past year they almost inevitably focus on the things that happen – whether they be wars, floods, pandemics and, in Australia, sporting events.

Yet it is arguable that what often matters is not what happened – but what didn’t happen.

For instance, Donald Trump promised that Americans would get sick of winning from his policies. Instead, they are rating him the most unpopular President in history. He was going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. No sign of that unless – as is distinctly probable – he forces Ukraine to submit to Putin demands. read more

The Save Albert Park group continues to expose the rank stupidity, secrecy and the outright lies used to justify the presence of the Grand Prix.

Their latest analysis – Victoria’s hidden story: F1 GP races to another record loss- comes at a time when the Government claims to be reducing debt but continues to pile it on with the cost of the Grand Prix. read more

There are a couple of certainties about many attitudes to Indigenous policies and programs. The first is the tendency to highlight problems and ignore successes and what works. The second is that a key lens for analysis is often welfare-based rather than business- based.

A new report from the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership at the University of Melbourne paints a dramatically different – and very encouraging picture. In their latest report they find that “The Indigenous business and corporation ecosystem is a major employer of Aboriginal and Torres Straite Islander people nationally. In 2021-22 it is estimated to employ 135,733 people nationally, 46,718 are Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders. This represents around 13% of the working age (25-64) Aboriginal and Torres Strait population, or 20% of the employed population on the 2012 Census night.” read more

The Trump administration has done some breathtakingly appalling things. But its latest effort is gobsmacking.

The US Coast Guard has ruled that it will no longer classify swastikas, nooses and the Confederate Flag as hate symbols believing them to be “potentially divisive”.

Apparently, an emblem of the genocidal murder of six million Jews along with other groups and the deaths of more than 400,000 US troops who died fighting in the WWII is not definitively divisive. When the Washington Post queried the Coast Guard about the policy Coast Guard spokeswoman Jennifer Plozai said she disagreed with the Post’s reporting but that “we will be reviewing the language.” read more

What will it take for the Australian War Memorial to fully recognise the reality of Australia’s Frontier Wars (the Australian Wars)?

It’s not as if the evidence for what happened in what is Australia’s longest and most deadly war isn’t overwhelming. Ironically the latest book – The Australian Wars edited by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray and Henry Reynolds was recently launched at the AWM following another promotion at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre. read more