ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS
The news that emerged yesterday that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had informed national cabinet it was investigating whether overseas actors paid local criminals to carry out antisemitic attacks led most of the domestic coverage overnight.
The ABC says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a snap meeting on Tuesday after antisemitic graffiti was sprayed and arson attempted at a childcare centre in Maroubra, NSW.
9News reports AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw said later that evening: “We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs. We are looking at if — or how — they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.
“We are looking into whether any young people are involved in carrying out some of these crimes, and if they have been radicalised online and encouraged to commit antisemitic acts. Regardless, it all points to the same motivation: demonising and intimidating the Jewish community.”
In a written statement from the AFP, Kershaw said the organisation was “regularly talking to our Five Eyes [Canada, New Zealand, UK, and US] and trusted international partners about these issues”.
The ABC points out Albanese had previously resisted calls from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and federal antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal to hold a national meeting to respond to the attacks, instead meeting with the premiers of NSW and Victoria.
The Age says: “On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yielded to Coalition demands for an antisemitism crisis meeting of all state and territory leaders after a childcare centre neighbouring a synagogue was set on fire, the latest of a dozen such anti-Jewish attacks in Melbourne and Sydney.”
The paper reports Dutton said the prime minister had been “dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting” to focus on what he called a campaign of “domestic terrorism”. Elsewhere, The Sydney Morning Herald highlights Coalition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson calling on the AFP and Albanese to provide more details on the suggestion foreign actors might have been involved in the attacks.
Albanese on Tuesday called the childcare centre attack “reprehensible”, the ABC reports.
“The idea of targeting a childcare centre. Childcare centres are places of joy. Our young Australians don’t see race or religion or anything else, they just engage with each other. It is beyond belief that it occurred,” Albanese told Seven News.
The Australian Financial Review quotes NSW Premier Chris Minns as saying: “These bastards will be rounded up by NSW Police”, denying authorities had lost control in the wake of the attacks.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me and I can’t promise the end of this kind of violence,” he said. “It breaks your heart that we have animals in this city that are prepared to burn down a childcare centre to make this point, but what I can promise is that the resources of the NSW Police and government and the Commonwealth government are directed at this, today and tomorrow, and as long as it takes to catch the people who are responsible.”
Kershaw said Special Operation Avalite, which was established “to target high-harm antisemitism”, was investigating 15 serious allegations and had received 166 reports of crime, although some were duplicates and others did not meet the threshold of a crime.
The ABC adds in its report that a joint statement from leaders following the national cabinet said “a new national database would track antisemitic crimes, incidents and behaviours ‘to better inform and coordinate responses’.”
DONALD SETTLES BACK IN
The question we all face now is: how much of the minute-by-minute breaking news emanating from the White House do we want to focus on for the next four years? Most people, probably (like in 2017), will claim they won’t follow and endlessly post on social media everything Donald Trump says and does and then in fact do the opposite.
For now, let’s try to navigate a path through the absolutely whirlwind first few hours as the second Trump administration got underway.
First, there was the absolute flurry of executive orders the 78-year-old signed once he got his feet back under the Oval Office desk.
The BBC has a very handy list of every order he has so far signed, with the added caveat that “Executive orders carry the weight of law, but can be overturned by subsequent presidents or the courts. Several of those planned by Trump face legal challenges.” Assistant Professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, Sharece Thrower, has also written about their limitations for us here.
The orders included all the expected “greatest hits”, such as… withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, declaring a “national energy emergency”, halting the Green New Deal, pulling out of the UN’s health body the World Health Organization (WHO), declaring a “national emergency” at the Mexico border, ordering officials to deny the right to citizenship to the children of migrants either in the US illegally or on temporary visas (which was immediately challenged in the Federal Court), declaring that the US will only recognise “two sexes, male and female”, halting all “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) programmes within the federal government, postponing the TikTok ban, issuing pardons for nearly 1,600 people arrested over the 2021 US Capitol riot, commuting the sentences of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members, renaming the Gulf Mexico, and more and more and more.
Oh, and he signed “a directive creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a new advisory body on cutting government costs”.
Although, did he really?
As The New Republic points out “the executive order Donald Trump signed Monday night officially actualising the executive branch division is a simple rebrand of something that already exists: the US Digital Service [USDS], which has little to do with budget cuts.”
The Verge says “USDS was founded under president Barack Obama to revamp healthcare.gov and do other White House tech consulting work.” The New Republic adds of the newly renamed body “In reality, it appears that more bureaucracy will be on the agenda for the memeified division: The executive order requires the hiring of four-person ‘DOGE teams’ for each agency (very efficient, much cost-cutting). They will include an agency-related team lead, an engineer, a human resources specialist, and an attorney, per the order, all in an effort to further advance Trump’s vague and unclear DOGE agenda.”
DOGE is not off the best of starts anyway, with one of its co-leaders leaving already. The Guardian reports Vivek Ramaswamy stepped away from the department hours after Trump took office. He is reportedly planning to run for Ohio governor. This of course leaves a certain billionaire in sole charge of whatever DOGE turns out to be.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will begin raids targeting undocumented immigrants on Tuesday and Trump is expected to make an unspecified announcement about infrastructure later. The AFR says the announcement is set to happen at 4pm local time (8am AEDT), with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying in an interview with Fox & Friends: “It’s going to be a massive announcement and it’s going to prove that the world knows that America is back.”
Many, many, many articles have already been written about the guest list at Monday’s inauguration, in particular the tech leaders who basically already control our lives. This piece by Damon Beres in The Atlantic “Billions of people in the palm of Trump’s hand” is pretty succinct: “These business leaders directly control the tools that billions of people around the world use to communicate, to receive information, to be entertained, to navigate and understand the world. Even an incomplete list of products overseen by these people is striking: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, X, Gmail, Google Search, Google Docs, Android, iPhones, iPads, Macs, iMessage, Starlink, ChatGPT, TikTok — the world’s foremost technology platforms, in line behind Donald Trump.
“The tech industry has officially placed itself in the palm of Trump’s hand. What will happen the next time the FBI wants to get into a Facebook account or an encrypted iPhone — when the definition of a political threat has changed based on the president’s whims? What will happen if Google Search delivers search results that are at odds with Trump’s agenda?”
Another of the high profile guests at the inauguration was a certain Rupert Murdoch, whose lawyers for his British newspaper group News Group Newspapers have been in London’s High Court for a legal battle with Prince Harry.
Reuters reports the lawsuit, brought by Harry in 2019 over alleged unlawful information gathering, “was delayed on Tuesday amid chaos over last-minute discussions on a possible settlement”.
Finally, given Crikey readers are clearly fans of tennis, at the Australian Open Novak Djokovic has paid tribute to his coach Andy Murray (yes that Andy Murray) after his victory over Carlos Alcaraz yesterday. Next up Australia’s Alex de Minaur takes on world number 1 Jannik Sinner at Rod Laver Arena tonight for a place in the semi-finals.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Last month Air France pilot Daniel Harding flew a rather special flight.
On the 49-year-old’s flight was the esteemed Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Italy’s unofficial national symphony, flying from Rome to Paris for the start of its European tour.
What made the flight even more special is that Harding was not only the pilot but had recently started as the symphony’s new music director. You see, the British-born pilot doesn’t just fly planes, he also happens to be one of the world’s leading conductors.
“Over the past few years, the British-born Harding has led dual, and often duelling, careers: conducting Mozart and Mahler symphonies one day, piloting commercial flights to Paris, Milan, Stockholm and Tunis the next,” The New York Times, which travelled on the flight, writes of the pilot/conductor.
The renowned conductor Simon Rattle has said of Harding: “Flying has given him a centre, a balance to his music. It has made him a better musician and a much calmer person.”
At one point during the Rome to Paris flight Harding mentioned to the NYT his concern over delivering a smooth landing for his passengers.
“If I bang the plane down hard today,” he said, “they’re going to talk about it for the next 20 years.”
Say What?
We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.
The World Health Organization
The WHO on Tuesday released a statement saying it “regrets the announcement” from the US after Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing America from the organisation.
CRIKEY RECAP
Australia has to design a regulatory and licensing framework from scratch — one good enough to address extensive public concern about nuclear safety. A coalition government could license a design (via a regulator that doesn’t yet exist and for which there is no skilled workforce) and guarantee no regulatory changes for the build’s life. But what to do if a major safety flaw is revealed in another nuclear or terrorism incident? Worse, ignoring the advice to use “the same reactor design on several sites”, the Coalition has committed to two different kinds of reactors: traditional large-scale reactors and SMRs. Despite the hype, SMRs remain experimental and aren’t commercially viable — they are not the “mature designs that don’t need to be changed during the construction process” that is the only bulwark against cost blowouts.
Worse is our disadvantage on workforce. “Building nuclear plants cost effectively requires developing and maintaining an experienced nuclear workforce,” one report concluded, noting “the lack of project management experience for nuclear plant construction (one of the most complex and expensive capital projects in existence) hinders delivering new plants on time and on budget.” Australia has no such skills and would have to import them all — at a time when the world’s nuclear workforce is approaching retirement and countries with established nuclear power industries are struggling to find workers for their own projects. EDF in France has only been able to repair major corrosion problems at its reactors by flying in American workers; the UK industry is struggling to attract young workers.
Pro-nuclear advocates are also clear about the extent to which governments — and thus taxpayers — will be on the hook when costs inevitably blow out. “In countries that successfully implement new-build projects, the government is highly involved in the nuclear construction programme. It absorbs the residual risks and provides the positive, long-standing policy signals and timely decision-making necessary for effective industrial planning and optimisation,” one nuclear lobby group concluded.
“Absorbing residual risk” is unsubtle code for the grim truth about nuclear power: not merely is it expensive, but it will always get more expensive. And it’s taxpayers who will always pay.
Christian megachurch Hillsong’s teaching arm has been slapped with new rules by Australia’s charity watchdog after an investigation into allegations of financial fraud.
Just before Christmas last year, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) published a list of enforceable undertakings for Hillsong College Limited and stated it was considering further agreements for other Hillsong Church charities. Christian Post first reported on the ACNC’s decision.
This came following a rare public statement from the ACNC in 2023 that it was looking into claims of “fraud, money laundering and tax evasion” made by independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie in Parliament. Hillsong Church denied these allegations, saying they “are in many respects wrong”.
I got up at 3am so you didn’t have to: Everything you need to know about Trump’s second inauguration
Then, after seeing Joe and Jill Biden off, Trump returned to address the supporters that had filled the overflow room, and that’s when we got Trump proper. A great ribbon of sound, it was conspiratorial, rambling, paranoid, circular and repetitive, almost impossible to follow in parts and, yes, genuinely funny at times.
It was interesting to note that whatever he was offering the faithful in this speech, it wasn’t quite the “one really violent day” purge politics he had played to on the campaign trail. Instead, what he offered those gathered for his extra speech was himself, which is all any cult really wants. He’s always been prone to this, drifting off into little reveries about how badly treated he is — but this speech was nearly entirely that, all stemming back to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol: the “hostages” who were arrested for their involvement, his oft-debunked lie that Nancy Pelosi turned down his offer of ten thousand troops to quell the attack, the committee that investigated Trump’s role, who are “very, very guilty of very bad crimes”. Maybe it was my own fatigue, but it felt like he circled through this stuff over and over again.
On top of that, he couldn’t stop himself from undermining the electoral system that had just delivered him a stonking victory. Had it not been for “cheating” he claimed, “I think I would have won California”. Speaker Mike Johnson nodded behind him. Later, Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who most explicitly glommed on to Trump, used his speech to twice perform a gesture that was indistinguishable from a Nazi salute.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Eight Palestinians killed as Israeli forces launch major operation in Jenin (BBC)
Death toll in Turkey’s Kartalkaya ski resort fire rises to 76 (euronews)
Experts alarmed by Trump’s crypto meme coins: ‘America voted for corruption’ (The Guardian)
Trump does not swear on Bible during inauguration, no impact on oath (Reuters)
Le Monde, French newspaper of record, quits Elon Musk’s X (Politico)
‘Terrorism has changed’: Southport attack a sign the country faces a new threat, PM says (Sky News UK)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Donald Trump crowns a political comeback for the ages with his second inauguration — Cameron Stewart (The Australian): “Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback but as you see today, here I am. The American people have spoken,” Trump said as those inside the Capitol building cheered.
Among those cheering were the President’s new best friends, the tech titans Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos plus the CEOs of Apple and Google.
Trump placed these entrepreneurs just behind him during the ceremony because he sees them as today’s version of the industrial giants of America’s gilded age like John Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Henry Ford. He wants these tech titans to give the world a virtual front-row seat to the second Trump presidency as he seeks to re-make America into his own vision of being “prosperous, proud and strong”.
We saw four Donalds in one day, but there’s a fifth we need to watch — Michael Koziol (The Sydney Morning Herald): In his reflective mood, he spoke at length about why he wants to save the Chinese-owned app TikTok from its legislated ban. He seemed to suggest security concerns were overblown. “Remember, they make telephones in China, they make all sorts of things in China, nobody ever complains about that. The only one they complain about is TikTok.”
He went on: “TikTok is largely about kids. If China’s gonna get information about young kids… I don’t know. To be honest, I think we have bigger problems than that.”
The app’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, was one of many tech types present at Trump’s inauguration, seated right next to Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for the post of director of national intelligence. We don’t know what was said between them, nor the other conversations Trump had at the Capitol, nor the thousands of similar interactions that have taken place at the balls and luncheons and breakfasts and after-parties where the powerful and the wealthy have rubbed shoulders these past few nights.
We saw four public faces of Trump on inauguration day — the statesman, the comedian, the demagogue and the brooder — but it’s the fifth, the dealmaker behind closed doors, that we need to watch.
