NUCLEAR WAIT
A large-scale nuclear reactor would take 15 years to build and cost twice as much as renewable energy options like wind and solar, a CSIRO report has revealed via the ABC. The report is the first to directly compare the cost of nuclear against other power options, concluding that nuclear would end up roughly as expensive as coal-fired power. The 15 year wait would also mean nuclear would not be part of our commitment to a 43% reduction in emissions by 2030 — and brutal heatwaves in Mexico and India, and a rise in extreme weather events threatening coastal areas show just how important that commitment is.
Speaking of extreme weather, a Singapore Airlines flight has ended in tragedy with one passenger killed and 30 injured following a bout of severe turbulence, the SMH reports. A British man died of a suspected heart attack after the plane dropped 6,000 feet in just three minutes, and several other passengers obtained serious head injuries after being flung into the aircraft’s ceiling. One Singapore Airlines crew member said it was “by far the worst” turbulence she had experienced in 30 years of flying.
WARRANTED?
The Australian has come out swinging against the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes. Greg Sheridan, writing for the national broadsheet, argues that the warrants prove a “whole toxic, obsessive anti-Israel culture of the UN” and slams Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not taking a stance on the issue. He says Peter Dutton has offered “much clearer moral leadership” by “lining up with Biden, Britain and other Australian allies”.
It comes as the chief of the World Health Organization says Israeli forces attacked a hospital four times in one day, Al Jazeera reports. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the intensive care unit, the reception, administration areas and the roof of Kamal Adwan Hospital were hit in separate attacks. Meanwhile, Norway has become the first country to pledge that it would arrest the Israeli PM following the ICC’s warrant, with Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide saying “If he or one of the Hamas leaders who are also indicted should appear in Norway, then we are obliged by international law to do so.”
SAY WHAT
I’m an old bloke; she’s a young attractive woman offering sex for money. I was excited.
Glen Coleman
A 57-year-old former sex crimes detective is accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in a police station. His defence barrister Joel Brook reportedly told a jury: “You’re not here to decide whether you like Mr Coleman… this is not a court of morals”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“In Australia, our low population, continued economic expansion and labour ‘need’ — more on that in a moment — have served as a relief valve for any serious confrontation on the issue. Indeed it has allowed us to duck the larger issue behind it: what kind of Australia do we want?
We had a definite answer to that for more than a century, though the answer changed. We were to be a continent of the British, white, Anglo-Celtic family for more than a century, then we were to be a steadily expanding multicultural society within the Commonwealth. In the middle of that, the question of settler-Indigenous relations — largely about Anglo-Celtic and Indigenous relations — went live, and has run in parallel.”
“Implementing new mandatory requirements compelling producers to retain a greater percentage of natural gas from existing projects for the domestic market would resolve pricing and supply concerns. Such a strategy would not undermine economic development or interfere with our reputation with trade partners. Rather, it would compel multinational gas producers to give appropriate regard to our national interest — incorporating both energy and climate security concerns — when extracting a public resource with a potent capacity to contribute to global warming.
Rather than risking our pathway towards net zero and our international climate commitments with unnecessary and unconscionable plans for fossil fuel expansion, the Australian government must reassess its priorities. Reserving supply from existing gas projects would be a good start.”
“Its current campaign, Let Them Be Kids, complete with petition and a parade of stories about the evils of social media, claims ‘A generation of children is being lost to the billion-dollar social media giants because they are putting profits before people. In Australia, youth suicide and mental health rates are skyrocketing … Experts say that is because of a fundamental change in the lives of children in the last 10 years — the utter explosion of social media use.’ News Corp claims there’s a ‘need to increase the age for social media access in Australia to 16.’
In fact, youth suicide has fallen sharply since 2020, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (as it has for young adults too). And some experts — the ‘experts’ quoted by News Corp are nearly all conservative activists, not academics — connect social media use and suicide and other mental illnesses. But they do so mainly on gut feel — the hard evidence is mixed around links between social media and youth suicide. And if social media is so central to youth suicide, it’s peculiar that suicide rates of 15 to 24-year-olds were more than twice as high in the internet-less 1980s and 1990s compared to the worst year of recent times, 2020.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
The US was resettling Guantánamo prisoners. The Hamas Attack halted those plans (The New York Times) ($)
Elvis’ granddaughter fights Graceland auction (BCC)
Calamity or conspiracy? Which European leaders have died in plane crashes? (Euronews)
Rudy Giuliani pleads not guilty to charges in Arizona fake electors case (The Guardian)
We tracked secret Russian missile launchers in Ukraine using public satellite data (The Conversation)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Something truly strange is happening when Dutton wants to slash immigration — Ross Gittins (The Age): “You know strange things are happening when the leader of the Liberal Party says he wants to slash immigration. The Libs are, and have always been, the party of high migration. But they’ve fallen on hard times with the loss of so many heartland seats to the teals, and Dutton figures his best hope of winning is to pick up seats in the outer suburbs, where their social class says people should vote Labor, but their social values give them greater affinity with the conservatives.
The economists do have one sensible point to make. Many people fear the migrants will take all the jobs. But the dismal scientists refute this. The newcomers and their families add about as much to the demand for labour to produce more goods and services as they add to the supply of workers.”
Arrest warrants huge blow for Israel and massive gamble by ICC — Gideon Rachman (Australian Financial Review): “An ICC indictment would also have severe practical implications on Netanyahu’s ability to do his job. International travel would certainly become more difficult, since he would be at risk of arrest in the 124 countries that are parties to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC. (These do not include the US, Russia or China.)
Optimists will hope that, in the long run, action by the ICC will convince Israel that its Gaza strategy is ‘taking Israel into a wall’ — as [senior minister Benny] Gantz has put it. That might persuade the next cohort of leaders to take the idea of a two-state solution with Palestine more seriously. The Israelis now know that the path back to international acceptance must involve a new peace process — and the marginalisation of Netanyahu.”
