MR ZELENSKYY GOES TO WASHINGTON
As we crawl in the direction of the weekend (I recognize it’s solely Thursday), world affairs nonetheless cleared the path in most locations this morning.
Within the final couple of hours, US President Donald Trump has stated his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy will journey to Washington on Friday to signal the much-discussed minerals deal his administration is demanding in alternate for earlier support and probably future help.
Within the opening remarks of his first cupboard assembly on Wednesday, Trump stated he and Zelenskyy are “going to be signing an settlement, which will likely be a really huge settlement”, the BBC stories. The deal has been the highest story in a whole lot of locations for many of Wednesday after Zelenskyy earlier within the day stated no American safety ensures had been agreed upon and that he hoped the minerals settlement would “result in additional offers”.
The New York Instances says it has obtained a duplicate of the settlement calling for Ukraine at hand over income from pure sources to the US and stories it solely makes a obscure reference to Ukrainian safety. The draft apparently says America “helps Ukraine’s effort to acquire safety ensures wanted to determine lasting peace”.
The paper says earlier drafts didn’t have the phrase on safety ensures, nevertheless it was unclear which might be the ultimate copy of the settlement. Zelenskyy, for his half, instructed a information convention on Wednesday: “This deal could possibly be an ideal success or it might move quietly. And the large success will depend on our dialog with President Trump,” Reuters stories.
Requested by a reporter what kind of safety assure he was going to make as a part of the deal, Trump stated throughout his cupboard assembly: “We will likely be on the land and that manner there may be going to be automated safety as a result of no one goes to be messing round with our folks once we are there.”
On the proposed deal (the BBC has a really useful explainer), Trump additionally stated the US was “going to get our a refund [for helping a country invaded by Russia] and we’re going to get some huge cash sooner or later”.
The British broadcaster highlights that the US president stated a ceasefire deal was shut, claiming: “We’re going to make a cope with Russia and Ukraine to cease killing folks.” The 78-year-old additionally known as Russian President Vladimir Putin “a really sensible man” and “crafty”, saying Moscow must make some concessions in a deal to finish the conflict.
In the meantime, there are not any prizes for guessing who was additionally current on the cupboard assembly, regardless of not being a member of the cupboard. In scenes that will have as soon as appeared unbelievable however are actually a every day incidence, Elon Musk stood up and instructed Trump’s cupboard that with out his controversial cost-cutting measures “America will turn out to be de facto bankrupt”.
The Guardian stories Trump stated Musk’s DOGE company had “minimize billions and billions and billions of {dollars}” with out proof. The paper goes on to spotlight how “DODE has stealthily expunged the entire 5 largest objects on the ‘wall of receipts’ after the much-vaunted ‘financial savings’ had been revealed to be a lot sizzling air”.
Musk additionally instructed the cupboard assembly DOGE “gained’t be good” however “once we make a mistake, we’ll repair it in a short time”, highlighting how his staff had unintentionally cancelled Ebola prevention, however “restored it instantly”. Which is massively reassuring.
There are one million different issues Trump stated through the assembly — such because the European Union being shaped “with a purpose to screw the USA”, extra threats of tariffs on nations, repeating how he desires Canada to be the 51st state of America, and his proposed “gold card” visa which would offer everlasting residency for these keen to pay a price of round $5 million — however we actually don’t have the time.
In associated information, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is because of meet with Trump on Thursday, having acquired reward from US Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth after saying this week he was slicing the UK’s overseas support finances to fund a 2.5% improve within the nation’s defence spending.
Hegseth stated on X it was a “sturdy step from an everlasting accomplice”. It stays to be seen if different nations will observe swimsuit in makes an attempt to get on Trump’s good aspect.
Lastly, Trump has been criticised for an AI video posted on his Reality Social account which is seemingly consultant of his imaginative and prescient for Gaza. The Guardian stories the video reveals Trump “sipping cocktails with a topless Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, in a future imagining of the Palestinian territory devastated by Israel’s conflict”. Sky Information has shared the video right here.
CHINESE WARSHIPS
In home information, The Australian has led in a single day on Defence officers telling Senate estimates a joint surveillance operation monitoring Chinese language warships off Australia’s coast solely reported the stay weapons drill an hour and a half after it began, which the paper says contradicts Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s model of occasions.
Opposition Chief Peter Dutton has been fast to counsel the PM ought to clarify why the federal government was apparently stored at the hours of darkness for therefore lengthy. “If there was an incursion throughout into our waters and Defence didn’t find out about it, or the Defence minister didn’t find out about it, we have to ask these questions and they need to be answered,” he stated.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Richard Marles stated China was but to supply a “passable reply” for the dearth of discover concerning the drill however defended the federal government’s response to the incident, The Australian provides.
The Sydney Morning Herald has additionally led in a single day on the confusion over when everybody was notified of the drill, stating: “Our defences have been examined, and so they’ve failed” (see The Commentariat under).
In the meantime, The Australian Monetary Evaluation stories Overseas Affairs Minister Penny Wong will warn Australia is confronting a “scale of worldwide challenges unprecedented since World Conflict II” when she releases a “snapshot” of Labor’s overseas coverage achievements over the previous three years and plans for a second time period.
Wong is seemingly considering growing a brand new overseas coverage white paper, which might be Australia’s first since 2017, the AFR says.
In her foreword of the overseas coverage replace immediately, Wong writes: “Every single day, Australians face confronting indicators that assumptions we’ve relied on for generations are much less assured, with worldwide safety more and more fragile.
“We stay in a world of accelerating strategic shock — ever extra unsure and unpredictable. Bullies are threatening to make use of nuclear weapons. Authoritarianism is spreading. Some international locations are shifting alignment. Establishments we constructed are being eroded, and guidelines we wrote are being challenged.”
Elsewhere, the AAP highlights Reserve Financial institution of Australia officers will seem in entrance of estimates this morning because the central financial institution continues to subject questions on its determination to chop rates of interest, inflation and the energy of the labour market.
Lastly, I’m off once more tomorrow so one among my good colleagues will likely be masking the Worm in my absence. I will likely be again in your inboxes on Monday morning although, so see you then.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Final week it was reported a staff of archaeologists had discovered the final undiscovered royal tomb of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, that of a sure Tutankhamun.
The BBC stories the staff discovered King Thutmose II‘s tomb within the western valleys of the Theban Necropolis close to the town of Luxor.
Piers Litherland, subject director of the mission, instructed the British broadcaster: “The emotion of moving into this stuff is only one of extraordinary bewilderment as a result of if you come throughout one thing you’re not anticipating to seek out, it’s emotionally extraordinarily turbulent actually.
“And after I got here out, my spouse was ready exterior and the one factor I might do was burst into tears.”
Thutmose II‘s mummified stays had been discovered two centuries in the past however the unique burial web site had by no means been positioned till now.
The BBC says Thutmose II’s reign is believed to have been from about 1493 BC to 1479 BC and the pharaoh was an ancestor of Tutankhamun.
Say What?
Many play a season too many, a mistake I don’t intend to make.
Antony Inexperienced
The ABC’s election guru on his determination to name it a day as an on-air analyst after the 2025 federal election.
CRIKEY RECAP
A fumbling look at Senate estimates reveals panic at Artistic Australia
In direction of the top of final night time’s session, Senator Chandler moved on from Sabsabi and Venice to ask questions on Music Australia advisory board member, Fred Leone. Leone had painted a watermelon on his chest when showing on the 2024 Eurovision Track Contest, and a subsequent Instagram publish made reference to genocide in Gaza, saying “Zionism doesn’t characterize all Jewish folks”.
Labor’s Tim Ayres, showing for Minister Burke, known as Leone’s publish “reprehensible” and agreed it was antisemitic. Chandler pressed to ask why Burke hadn’t eliminated him from his position. Ayres defined that Artistic Australia’s laws didn’t enable for the minister to terminate advisory board members.
As Hanson-Younger lamented, it seems to be as if Coalition senators and Information Corp journalists will now be routinely scrutinising the again catalogues of artists for ideological weaknesses. “You’ve opened the door to such a behaviour now for Australian artists,” she put to Collette. “Have you ever thought of what this determination has truly carried out to the inventive group and humanities coverage?”
“I don’t underestimate what you say, senator,” Collette answered.
The rise of “darkish promoting” — personalised ads more and more powered by synthetic intelligence that evade public scrutiny — means Australians face a murky info panorama going into the federal election.
It’s already occurring and, mixed with Australia’s failure to enact truth-in-advertising laws and large tech’s backtracking on fact-checking, means voters are left weak to ad-powered misinformation campaigns. And that’s not good for democracy.
Tackling misinformation requires legislative motion, worldwide collaboration and continued stress on platforms to open their techniques to scrutiny.
The failures of US tech platforms throughout their very own elections ought to function a transparent warning to Australia that trade self-regulation will not be an choice.
Senators from each main events have voiced considerations over Elon Musk’s rising involvement in Australia’s telecommunications community because the Greens take intention on the billionaire’s affect as a possible overseas interference menace.
Yesterday, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland introduced that Labor would search to increase common protection obligations to incorporate cell phone protection, requiring telcos to serve Australians regardless of their location by 2027.
Rowland cited the proliferation of low-Earth-orbit satellites as making it attainable to increase cell protection to distant places.
Whereas the minister cited a lot of satellite tv for pc suppliers coming into the market as potential companions, RMIT College of Engineering Affiliate Professor Mark Gregory instructed Crikey that solely two companies, OneWeb and Elon Musk’s Starlink, might supply this protection at current.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Jeff Bezos focuses Washington Submit opinion pages on ‘private liberties’ and ‘free markets’ (The Monetary Instances)
‘Buffy’ and ‘Gossip Woman’ actress Michelle Trachtenberg lifeless at 39 (ABC Information)
Apple AI software transcribed the phrase ‘racist’ as ‘Trump’ (BBC)
‘It wasn’t good’: Australian couple sat subsequent to corpse on long-haul flight (Guardian Australia)
The Duttons’ empty belief fund might have minimize their tax invoice. Right here’s the way it labored (The Sydney Morning Herald)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Our defences have been examined, and so they’ve failed — Matthew Knott (The Age): Australia and New Zealand have confronted an necessary check over the previous three weeks, and the outcomes to this point appear to be a failure.
A flotilla of Chinese language ships from the Folks’s Liberation Military has been prowling the waters off the Australian east coast, conducting shock back-to-back live-fire workouts in busy air site visitors area within the Tasman Sea. We are able to count on extra of this because the Chinese language army seeks to challenge its energy removed from its shores. How a lot religion can we’ve that the related authorities will know what’s happening and maintain the general public precisely knowledgeable concerning the threats on the excessive seas?
Little or no, primarily based on what we’ve seen to this point.
Ukraine pays the worth for Trump’s need for headlines — Jennifer Hewett (AFR): This doesn’t embrace the kind of US safety ensures Ukraine wished or the $US500 billion fee Trump had demanded. But it surely supposedly presents monetary “payback” for the army support and different help the US offered since Russia invaded three years in the past. Messy particulars of this “financial partnership” to return, after all — together with the understanding of extra disagreements and US threats.
But it surely offers Trump the fast headline he craves by declaring {dollars} will come again to the US. For Zelenskyy, it presents a private assembly with Trump and at the very least an opportunity to affect the US president’s headlong rush into Vladimir Putin’s icy embrace.
That makes the lure of Ukrainian cash a mandatory diversion. It’s the kind of trade-off Trump’s narcissistic character celebrates as a private triumph.
Zelenskyy gained’t wish to be the one to warn the president how laborious will probably be and the way lengthy it’s going to take for the US to get the returns the White Home is banking on.
