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Scott Morrison’s momentous national security announcement last week should have been a turning point for him and the government. Instead, because he delayed making one tough call, leaving himself open to accusations of backstabbing and deception from a great friend and ally, he robbed himself of a much-needed reset.

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Labor has fired a warning shot at the Morrison government over its nuclear-powered submarine plans, demanding assurances that Australia will maintain its freedom to make different decisions from the US on military engagements.

The senior opposition frontbencher Penny Wong will pose the question in a speech on Thursday, saying maintaining autonomy is important for Australia’s sovereignty as the country becomes more technologically dependent on the US.

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US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron will meet next month as the countries work to repair relations following a diplomatic brouhaha that broke out over a security pact with Australia.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, France and the United States said the two leaders spoke by phone and agreed to meet in Europe at the end of October.

The French ambassador to the US will also return to Washington next week, the countries said, after Paris recalled its envoy in anger about the security partnership between the US, UK and Australia.

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In 2016, the Turnbull government agreed to purchase a dozen Shortfin Barracuda class submarines to replace Australia’s six ageing Collins class submarines1. The Collins class were launched between 1993 and 2001 and were commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy between July, 1996, and March, 20032. The Shortfin Barracuda beat Germany’s Type 216 and Japan’s Soryu class offerings, and it was Australia’s biggest ever defence procurement deal. The Shortfin Barracuda submarines for Australia are a diesel-electric derivative of the French Barracuda class nuclear attack submarine3.

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New York: US President Joe Biden has declared Australia is America’s closest and most reliable ally during his first one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Biden and Morrison sat down in New York for their much-anticipated meeting as European leaders intensified their criticisms of Australia and the US for breaking the $90 billion contract with France to build a fleet of submarines.

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Ten days after Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana as a Category 4 storm, Wilkie Declouet, a former law enforcement officer, and lifelong resident of Ironton, posted photos to social media of coffins and tombs scattered around his neighborhood. 

Earlier that day, local officials were telling residents that the town was still inaccessible, but Declouet knew better than to take what they said on face value and checked for himself — and found a way back in. Like the rest of the community, he evacuated before the storm hit. 

Read more:

https://www.desmog.com/2021/09/14/hurricane-ida-ironton-louisiana-scattered-coffins-floodwaters-environmental-justice/

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Media organisations, including News Corporation and Nine Newspapers, have been blocked from publishing any of the ABC's un-redacted defence in its defamation battle with former federal attorney-general Christian Porter.

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Australian officials have stood by their decision to turn to the new AUKUS deal to build submarines, citing documents going back several years that highlighted Canberra’s concerns about delays, cost overruns and suitability of the vessels made by France.

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Christian Porter should be given “another chance” at being a minister in future, according to acting prime minister Barnaby Joyce, because there was “nothing illegal” about his blind trust donations scandal.

But Mr Joyce has conceded a federal parliament oversight committee may further probe Mr Porter’s anonymous benefactors, as Labor and the Greens demand further answers on where the money came from.

“He has had a bad day at the wicket, no doubt about that, and that issue has been dealt with,” Mr Joyce told a Canberra press conference on Monday.

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Australia has defended its decision to scrap a multi-billion dollar submarine purchase from France in favour of a new security pact with the US and UK. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejected accusations that Australia had lied, saying France should have been aware it was prepared to break the deal. 

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A bizarre war of words has erupted in recent days in the pages of financial media between billionaire hedge fund and color revolution specialist, George Soros, and the gigantic BlackRock investment group. The issue is a decision by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to open the first foreign-owned mutual fund in China presumably to attract the savings of China’s new (and fast disappearing) middle income population. In a recent newspaper interview Soros called the BlackRock decision a threat to BlackRock investors and to US national security. 

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Never trust the Americans: Europe feels cheated, humiliated, betrayed

When Joe Biden became President, he reassured Europe that he is going to reverse Trump's policy of tilting toward Asia-Pacific, and will revive the traditional American policy of considering Europe as the most important ally of America.

However, the recent American actions completely belie America's assertions. America has just announced a trilateral security alliance, AUKUS, with the UK and Australia. The first action taken by this group is the shocking betrayal of France. Australia is scrapping a 43-billion-dollar nuclear submarine deal with France, and the US will now share its nuclear-powered submarine technology with Australia. Senior officials in Paris were outraged and accused the US of betrayal.

britannica...

In 1965 Hubert Horace Lamb published his study on "The early medieval warm epoch and its sequel", based on "data from the realms of botany, historical document research and meteorology". His view was that "Evidence has been accumulating in many fields of investigation pointing to a notably warm climate in many parts of the world, that lasted a few centuries around A.D. 1000–1200, and was followed by a decline of temperature levels till between 1500 and 1700 the coldest phase since the last ice age occurred."

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The War on Terror Gave Us Donald Trump

In an interview, Reign of Terror author Spencer Ackerman explains how the brutal legacy of America’s post-9/11 wars has reshaped U.S. society and led to our era of authoritarian demagoguery.