@earleyedition
Audience Editor @australia.theguardian.com. Previously digital editor Quest Newspapers, engagement editor Courier Mail, online news editor 7News Brisbane and more. Social media, journalism, analytics, audience engagement, etc. All the digital news things
In 2021, when Joe Biden was caught on camera checking his watch at the end of a dignified transfer ceremony for troops killed in Afghanistan, the moment went viral online and was shown repeatedly on Fox News – including with an angry commentary from then Fox host Pete Hegseth
Rather than show him wearing his golf hat throughout the ceremony while he saluted cases carrying the remains of the first six US troops to die in his war on Iran, Fox News hid it from viewers by using old video footage of Donald Trump
“This video is beyond irony […] It’s a piece of supremely nasty mischief from very humourless and naive people.”
Paul Bradshaw on the White House’s “embarrassing”, “chilling” war propaganda video. “Why didn’t Franklin D Roosevelt think of this before D-day?”
“Hegseth’s puerile displays on TV are aimed at sating Trump’s desire for a warmonger worthy of the manosphere. This was reinforced by a lurid social media video that intersperses clips from Hollywood blockbusters […] with Hegseth and real kill-shot footage” from Iran
Iran’s new supreme leader has been selected, says deciding body. Israel has warned it would target any figure chosen to replace Ali Khamenei
Israel warns it will pursue Iran’s next supreme leader The Israeli military warned it would continue pursuing every successor of Iran’s next supreme leader. In a post on X in Farsi, the Israeli military said it would also pursue every person who seeks to appoint a successor for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referring to the clerical body charged with selecting Iran’s next supreme leader. The comments came after Iranian news agency Mehr news reported that he clerical body that will choose Iran’s next supreme leader has more or less reached a majority consensus.
Isn’t this just forever war?
Israel warns it will pursue Iran’s next supreme leader, continue pursuing every successor, and target every person who seeks to appoint a successor. www.theguardian.com/...
You hate to see it. Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin are all fighting about the war in Iran. Sean Hannity says he’s staying out of it
Here’s a timeline of Trump’s ever-changing rationale for starting a war on Iran.
Regime change, nuclear threat – or something else? US officials can’t come up with a coherent reason for war.
Actual propaganda, but not even propaganda done well — “ham-fisted and bloodthirsty aesthetics”
“The strategy behind the propaganda campaign – to the extent that there is a coherent strategy – is revealing in what it seems to say about the Trump administration’s priorities”
That said, I’ve reviewed the evidence and, while Craig Emerson holds a better tune, his #WhyallaWipeout was more cringe than this. But you can assess the evidence for yourself, and make up your own mind www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
this is objectively bad. Listen to Tim Wilson (Australia’s shadow treasurer) attempt to channel piano man Billy Joel and sing to the tune of We Didn’t Start the Fire… something about fuelling inflation?
#auspol #canberra
I can’t quite put my finger on what you call it when war is being waged across the world but, in case it needs pointing out to the geographically challenged, Sri Lanka is well over 2,500 km (1,500 miles) away from the closest point of Iran
BREAKING: The US has carried out a submarine torpedo strike that sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka, according to the US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth.
International rules based order for thee but not for me.
Who knows how many more thousands of people will be regime changed to death. The lies will continue until the truth improves.
Tabled document reveals Liberal party’s secret election review of its ‘worst campaign’: from ‘grim’ Dutton to ‘weird’ nuclear policy
Three US fighter jets were mistakenly shot down over Kuwait early Monday in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, military officials said. All six crew members ejected safely. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
Australia just experienced its wettest summer in nearly a decade – and the eighth-hottest on record
shorter Rubio: Israel made us attack Iran!
"We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them […] we would suffer higher casualties."
Like six-year-old Layla, one of a number of young children at the camp who the Guardian spoke with last week. Layla is an Australian girl born in the camp who imagined Australia as a place with “an ice-cream shop” and where Bluey and Bingo live.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor has suggested the Australian children remaining in a Syrian detention camp are “Isis sympathisers”.
Or the “so-called children”, as his shadow home affairs minister described the under-18 cohort.
The US says Iran’s “indiscriminate and reckless attacks” across the region “represent a dangerous escalation that violates the sovereignty of multiple states and threatens regional stability”. 🤔🫠🙃
All unaccompanied immigrant children who are pregnant, many by rape, are being moved to a single facility in Texas in order to avoid providing abortion services, critics say.
“It’s a choice to ensure zero abortions,” a former top official said.
That’s just the way it is, folks. What can you do? “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is likely to be more.”
Trump vies for Bush’s crown for worst foreign policy decision in history www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Quick, to the super secure tent fort SCIF!
“If Kamala wins, only death and destruction await because she is the candidate of endless wars. I am the candidate of peace. I am peace.” - Trump, 11/1/24
“I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars.” - Trump, 11/5/24
For people who still care about this sort of thing, here's James Madison writing from 1793 (6 years after the delegates in Philadelphia signed the Constitution) about why the power to make war was vested in the legislature.
press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/doc...
