U.S.-Israel war on Iran reverberates into Africa, analysis says

• The United States has paused its participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, the long-running U.S.-Canada military consultation forum, according to a CSIS analysis published this week. • CSIS says the pause comes about six weeks before the mandatory USMCA joint review, which makes the timing politically sensitive for both countries.

Managing director Hugh Marks says Stevens made ‘incredible commitment’ to broadcaster over 19 years Justin Stevens has resigned as ABC director of news after four years in the role, citing personal and professional reasons.‌ABC managing director Hugh Marks said Stevens had made an “incredible commitment” to the ABC over 19 years, including ensuring ABC News is the number one digital news provider. Continue reading...

Officers were ‘placed at significant risk, being in a gunfight armed with 9mm Glocks against long-arms’, NSW police deputy commissioner saysPolice were outgunned at the Bondi massacre on 14 December, armed with 9mm Glock pistols in a gun battle against rifles, the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion has heard.New South Wales police deputy commissioner David Hudson gave evidence to the commission that police officers put themselves in danger to shoot and neutralise the attackers. Continue reading...

The Park Slope Food Coop boycott vote follows tensions and rifts among members and larger communityMembers of a storied food co-operative in Brooklyn have voted to boycott about a dozen products from Israel and Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine – capping years of contentious debate over a conflict half a world away that has threatened to rip apart a landmark institution for liberal New Yorkers.The Park Slope Food Coop vote, which took place Tuesday night during a three-hour virtual meeting attended by about 7,000 of the co-operative’s 17,000 members, follows months of dueling campaigning that one local rabbi opposed to the boycott described as a “proxy war”. The boycott is supposed to impact some brands of tahini, peppers and persimmons as well as other products. Sixty-seven percent of participants voted in favor of the boycott. Continue reading...

Christian Menefee wins 18th district race after Republican gerrymandering carved up Green’s reliably Democratic seatChristian Menefee, a freshman Democratic US representative, beat veteran congressman Al Green on Tuesday in a fierce runoff that was the product of Republican gerrymandering.Last year, the Republican-dominated Texas legislature unveiled a congressional map designed to flip seats in the GOP’s favor. Donald Trump had urged the state’s lawmakers to safeguard the party’s congressional majority. Continue reading...

Nearly 200 people killed in Trump administration’s deadly campaign as strikes draw widespread condemnationThe US military launched another strike Tuesday on a vessel suspected of transporting drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one man and leaving two survivors.Video posted on social media by US Southern Command shows a boat speeding through water before exploding into flames. Southern Command said it “immediately notified the US Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: former PM says the changes to tax rates are ‘so marginal that no entrepreneurial initiative is likely to be thwarted’Paul Keating has urged Labor to stick to its guns on controversial changes to capital gains tax, warning exempting commercial assets from the changes would further “distort” the economy.Small business and the start-up sector are fighting the Albanese government over its plans to shift the 50% capital gains tax discount to an inflation-based model, part of a suite of tax reforms announced in this month’s federal budget. Continue reading...

President says federal government must retain regulatory authority as concerns grow over ‘addictive’ platformsDonald Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday it was “critically important” that the federal government retain control over the multibillion-dollar prediction market industry, as he cast a critical eye on state attempts to impose new restrictions.The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should retain “exclusive authority” over prediction markets, Trump said. Continue reading...

While approval is due soon for $14bn deal, actual deliveries to Taiwan are years away – making ‘Operation Epic Fury’ in the Gulf an unlikely causeThe Trump administration’s war against Iran should have no impact on arms sales to Taiwan, experts have said, after a US official suggested a pause in the delivery of a key weapons package was due to the Gulf conflict.Analysts told the Guardian that a $14bn arms package left in limbo after Donald Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping could take up to six years to process, and there was a “low likelihood” of any true connection between events in Iran and weapons delivery to Taiwan. Continue reading...

Race had wide implications for Trump’s strength heading into midterms, where Paxton will face Democratic candidate James TalaricoKen Paxton, the Donald Trump-backed Texas attorney general, triumphed over incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff for senator. His victory signals that even a scandal-plagued candidate can win over the deep red state with the support of the president.The race had wide implications for Trump’s strength heading into November’s midterm elections, where Paxtonwill now face James Talarico, a Democratic pastor and state legislator whose message of peace and populism has attracted much attention. If he wins, Talarico would become the first Democrat in more than 30 years to win statewide office in Texas. Continue reading...

Anne Keast-Butler will also warn of narrowing window to stay ahead of China in ‘new era of radical uncertainty’Russia is relentlessly targeting Britain’s infrastructure and democracy while there is only a narrowing technological window to stay ahead of a fast-developing China, the head of the spy agency GCHQ will warn in a lecture on Wednesday.Anne Keast-Butler, giving an inaugural annual lecture, will say that the UK is caught in a “new era of radical uncertainty” and that “the risk of miscalculation” is as high as she has ever seen it as hacker attacks from the two states continue. Continue reading...