"Don't tell us the truth. Tell us what we want to hear!"
Trump, Gabbard fired top CIA Russia expert days after Alaska summit CIA officer was due to take up a prestigious assignment in Europe approved by Director Ratcliffe. Instead, her security clearance was summarily revokedBob Carr says he 'would have avoided' Beijing photocall
Bob Carr, the former Labor foreign minister, has defended his attendance at Xi Jinping’s carefully staged gathering of world leaders this week, but said he “would have avoided” the controversial photocall that included Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.
Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has been heavily criticised for appearing in the lineup with the dictators and alleged war ciminals after a huge military parade in Beijing coinciding with China’s 80th anniversary commemorations of the defeat of Japan in the second world war.
Speaking on ABC’s 7.30, Carr said he was in Beijing for the commemorations rather than the military parade, and while he did not attend the parade he would have avoided the group shot.
I certainly would have avoided them, if there were the remotest possibility [of being photographed with Putin].
When I accepted the invitation to come to the commemoration of China’s enormously historically significant victory over the Japanese aggressor … the idea of the parade grew up separate from that.
I made it clear to the Chinese ambassador that I wasn’t here for the parade. I was here for the terrific meetings I’ve been able to hold with countries that are like-minded, not aggressors and oppressors.
Pressed on whether Daniel Andrews had been “naive” in allowing himself to be photographed with leaders such as Putin and Kim, Carr replied:
Dan Andrews can speak for himself. He is someone who has been battered to death by media hostility in his own state, and gone on to win big majorities … he can defend himself.
Carr said he did not watch the military parade and agreed with former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who was also at the 80th anniversary commemorations, that “you and I wouldn’t have picked this guest list”.
Carr said his attendance meant he had been able to engage with China, he had met the Japanese prime minister about a possible peace between China and Japan, and had had his first ever meeting with the current Indonesian foreign minister.
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2026 CPR House Race Ratings
The Cook Political Report: “About CPR House Race Ratings – The CPR House Race Ratings assess the competitiveness of all 435 House elections. Competitiveness is determined by several factors, including the district’s political makeup, the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, the political environment in the state and nationally, and interviews with candidates and campaign professionals.
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The White House Is Its Own Media Outlet
Columbia Journalism Review – The Trump administration is publishing articles that are top-ranked on Google News. ” A few days ago, we searched for the latest news from Washington, DC, on behalf of visitors who had traveled to the US from abroad.
They were considering canceling their trip to the nation’s capital after hearing about President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard.
So we asked Google whether DC was safe. To our surprise, the first article that appeared in the “news” tab was not from a news source—it was from the US Department of Defense. The article, titled “Guard Assisting Law Enforcement in Making DC Safe,” does not take the form of a press release or an official announcement.
Instead, it is written in the style of a news piece. It says that the president has “declared a crime emergency” in DC and “vowed to make streets there safe again.” It depicts a photo of a civilian family smiling at National Guardsmen, and quotes an Air Force staff sergeant saying “we’re just here to help.”
The article did not mention that, according to the statistics, crime in the city has fallen over the past two years. The Trump administration is adept at capturing and holding public attention. Since January, it has filmed Teslas on the White House lawn, posted ASMR-style videos on Instagram, and used AI to make cartoon images of deportations.
Publishing propaganda content that looks like news is just another of its tactics to reach audiences directly—and it seems to be working. Our analysis of a Google News dataset posted on Kaggle found a jump in the frequency of articles from the whitehouse.gov domain after President Trump’s second inauguration, and readers have noticed.
