Oceania
Juukan Gorge: how could they not have known? (And how can we be sure they will in future?)
How could they not have known? That was the question on everyone’s lips after leaders of the Australian defence force claimed not to have known about the atrocities committed by special forces in Afghanistan. It is now being asked about the leadership of Rio Tinto after that company ignored the wishes… »
New Zealand Prime Minister appoints Maori woman as Chancellor
This Monday, the news was released that Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister, elected as her new Chancellor Nanaia Mahuta, a Maori woman – a people originally from New Zealand. Four years ago, she became the first parliamentarian in the country to wear a moko kauae, a traditional tattoo that… »
Losing paradise
Atomic racism decimated Kiribati and the Marshall Islands; now climate change is sinking them This is an extract from the Don’t Bank on the Bomb Scotland report “Nuclear Weapons, the Climate and Our Environment”. Kiribati In 1954, the government of Winston Churchill decided that the UK needed… »
Tuvalu ratifies UN nuclear weapon ban treaty
The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 13 October 2020, becoming the 47th nation in the world to do so. Only three more ratifications are now needed to bring this crucial treaty into force. The treaty will establish a comprehensive ban on the… »
Death in paradise: the aftermath of nuclear testing in Australia and Oceania
by Aleksandar Novaković The United States of America is the first nuclear power — and the only one to have used its weapons for a military purpose. During World War 2 in 1945, two Japanese cities were bombed by US nuclear bombs (Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki August… »
Secret trials threaten open justice in Australia
Whistleblowers, lawyers and journalists face prosecutions without proper public scrutiny A government illegally bugs the office of a foreign country’s Prime Minister during treaty negotiations. The spy in charge who turned whistleblower and his lawyer face secret trials. Connections are exposed between government politicians and a big oil company that… »
Fiji ratifies UN nuclear weapon ban treaty
The Pacific island state of Fiji has become the 39th nation to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Fijian ambassador to the United Nations, Satyendra Prasad, announced the ratification at an event on 7 July to mark the third anniversary of the adoption of the landmark… »
More Than One Billion Animals Killed in Australia Wildfires Called a ‘Very Conservative’ Estimate
Chris Dickman of the University of Sydney said “without any doubt at all” the animal death toll has exceeded one billion. By Jake Johnson, staff writer – Common Dreams As Australia’s catastrophic wildfires rage on with no end in sight, University of Sydney ecologist Chris Dickman said the number of… »
Australia’s Voters Betray Themselves, Their Homeland & Mother Earth Herself
By Jerome Irwin By re-electing their current right-wing Liberal Party government and its Prime Minister leader Scott Morrison, Australian’s have, in one fell swoop, simultaneously betrayed humanity’s higher nature that constantly seeks to heal and constantly grow beyond whatever the more limited, baser, tendencies among human… »
Assange Arrest Sparks Interest in Gore Vidal Book
…The American empire is not good for the American people. The way it’s sold to the American people is that this is good for all Americans… but it’s quite the opposite: it’s good for an elite, especially arms manufacturers and the fossil fuel industry… by Brandon Soderberg, originally published on… »