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Book was removed for review earlier this month following complaint but reinstated after petition and State Library letter to Waverley councilFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA Sydney library has returned to its borrowing shelves a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide following a public campaign and an intervention from the State Library of New South Wales.Waverley library removed the book “for review” earlier this month after the Jewish news outlet JWire reported it had approached the council. Continue reading...

Other governments could seek similar concessions, while separate legal action is pending in places ranging from Kenya to the NetherlandsIn October 2021, Abrham Meareg’s father, a professor of chemistry in Ethiopia’s northern town of Bahir Dar, was shot at close range and died outside his family home. This was in the middle of the country’s civil war.For weeks, Facebook’s algorithm had actively promoted posts calling for the academic to be murdered, according to Meareg and Foxglove, a nonprofit organisation supporting Meareg’s lawsuit against the company in Kenya. These posts included photos of his father and his home address. Continue reading...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe's secret trip to Russia came at the personal direction of President Donald Trump while senior White House aides were kept in the dark.According to a Thursday report by the Wall Street Journal, the covert diplomatic mission to Moscow was tightly held as Trump dispatched his top spy to carry a message to top Kremlin figures. Trump's move bypassed aides and military brass who would ordinarily be looped in beforehand, The Journal noted.The choice to send Ratcliffe as an envoy also marked a shift, The Journal pointed out. Earlier rounds of talks were led by other Trump confidants but failed to halt the fighting in Ukraine. Trump then turned to Ratcliffe, according to anonymous U.S. officials who talked to The Journal.Ratcliffe reportedly also took a secretive route into Russia as he flew into Moscow aboard an unmarked U.S. C-17 military cargo plane out of Latvia, according to The Journal. European officials told The Journal that the move sent them scrambling to figure out what had happened once word got out about Ratcliffe's mission.Two European officials told The Journal that they were briefed on the meeting. Ratcliffe used the sit-down to stress Washington's continued backing of NATO's mutual-defense pledge and to warn Russia off any strike on alliance members, they told The Journal and later reporting revealed.Trump brushed off worries about Russian aggression when reporters asked him about Ratcliffe's mission on Thursday, The Journal noted. Putin "won't attack NATO territory," Trump told reporters.He also downplayed Ratcliffe's trip when he told conservative radio host Glenn Beck in an interview that the mission was "semi-routine," The Journal noted.Officials along NATO's eastern edge struck a similarly calm tone, according to The Journal. Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs addressed the matter in a video posted to social media, The Journal reported."There is currently no reason for concern," Kulbergs said. "Latvia's level of military threat hasn't changed. The risk of direct military invasion threats to Latvia is currently low."Former senior U.S. intelligence official J.C. Lintzenich, now at the German Marshall Fund, struck a graver tone when talking to The Journal, however."Putin has a tolerance for extraordinary risk and is even potentially willing to escalate to compel de-escalation," Lintzenich said. "But he is unlikely to roll the dice on actions that could threaten the Russian state."

A Wall Street Journal piece is warning that GOP candidates are "running scared" from President Donald Trump as voter frustration grows in Iowa.A Thursday opinion piece published by The Journal highlighted the growing frustration among Iowa voters, which it tied to the hits to farmers caused by tariffs and the war in Iran, and how it's causing GOP candidates to create some separation with Trump."So many people are just so angry," Terry Arbogast, an Iowa nurse, told The Journal. "Things are hitting us more negatively," Dave Struthers, an Iowa farmer, added. "It's frustrating when you don't get your stuff going," southern Iowa limestone miner Brian Schaer said. "Iowans are frustrated, discontented, and downhearted," The Journal piece summed up. "That bodes ill for Republicans in November, and many GOP candidates are running scared—ducking interviews, avoiding issues, seeking a MAGA stance that doesn't involve praising Donald Trump. They're trying to be as generically Republican as they can."According to the Journal, Iowans say that they're downbeat because they've seen a 53 percent decline in net farm income between 2022 and 2024, and rural voters aren't convinced that the GOP has done enough to help them recover."Tariffs, wars, corporations taking advantage, lack of competition," Struthers, the farmer, told The Journal. "Those kinds of things that are on Iowa farmers' minds.""Right at the onset of the Iran war, fertilizer prices increased sharply due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz," economist Christopher Pudenz told The Journal. "The longer that conflict drags out, the more likely that it's going to impact fall fertilizer needs and then spring 2027 fertilizer needs."Trump won Iowa three times, and the entire congressional delegation is Republican, The Journal noted. However, the state has a couple of "competitive" races that have attracted national political figures, including Barack Obama, who filmed a video of him playing basketball with Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek, the Journal noted.Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn told The Journal that "the first polling that came out pre-primary had me down about 10 points," and although he closed the gap somewhat, the Cook Political Report determined his race "leans Democratic." An August Emerson poll has Lahn's Democratic opponent, State Auditor Rob Sand, up 48 percent to Lahn's 43 percent. Sand is the only elected statewide Democrat in Iowa.

Efforts to rebuild domestic food production face severe challenges and have come at deadly costAs Gaza’s population of 2.1 million has been hemmed into an ever smaller slice of the territory, farmers are using every last remaining patch of unspoiled earth, no matter how tiny, in their struggle to survive.With severe shortages of water, fertiliser and pesticide, and with more than 80% of greenhouses ruined, it has taken inventiveness and determination to clear land of debris and coax new seedlings into life. Moreover, venturing out into the open to tend to plants can be deadly. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump has submitted a nuclear agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Congress for approval, a move that has the potential to radically reshape the balance of power in the Middle East, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing "an administration official," that the agreement includes a stipulation that Saudi Arabia recognize the State of Israel and sign the Abraham Accords. The Kingdom has not signed the accords because of Israel's resistance to Palestinian statehood. The Journal added that the agreement is expected to set off "intense debate" on Capitol Hill. "When Trump officials announced the 30-year accord last month, they said then that it would give U.S. companies a central role in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear infrastructure while excluding foreign competition," the report reads in part."But the deal has proved to be controversial because it would potentially open the door for uranium enrichment to take place on Saudi territory," it added. The deal was submitted at a time when Trump appears to be looking for a way out of the war against Iran. Trump has threatened to increase hostilities with the regime if it does not relent, but those threats have thus far yielded no returns. Meanwhile, public polling shows that more than three-quarters of Americans are against the war. Economic data has also pointed to the conflict for the ongoing economic challenges, which are also weighing on Trump's approval rating.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly slipped into Moscow on a secret trip Tuesday, marking the highest-level visit by a Trump administration official to Russia since January — even as the Kremlin insists no such meeting is happening at all.CBS News and Axios both reported Ratcliffe's presence in the Russian capital, citing sources familiar with the situation, though neither outlet identified who he was meeting or what was discussed. Meanwhile, according to Al Jazeera, flight-tracking data showed a U.S. military C-17 departing Riga, Latvia early Tuesday morning and landing in Moscow roughly 74 minutes later, before departing again later in the day.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov flatly denied anything was underway, saying, "No, there are no such plans." When pressed specifically about reports of the U.S. military plane landing in Moscow, Peskov claimed he had "no such information."But Axios reported that Washington gave Ukraine advance notice of the senior delegation's trip and asked Kyiv to hold off on strikes until the group left Russian territory.The visit comes as U.S.-brokered talks to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine remain stalled, though Moscow did free a former U.S. Marine detained since 2022 earlier this month, reportedly over health concerns.Ratcliffe has quietly played a central role in several high-profile prisoner swaps between Washington and Moscow since President Trump returned to office in January 2025, including the release of dual national Ksenia Karelina last year. If confirmed, his reported Moscow trip would be the first by a sitting CIA director since William Burns traveled there in 2021.The CIA declined to comment on the reports.

President Donald Trump spent Tuesday morning threatening Canada online while Ottawa put a nearly 100-page tariff schedule on the calendar he cannot stop.Four Canadian cabinet ministers announced the retaliatory tariffs in Ottawa on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. The duties cover about 700 American products and take effect Sept. 8.The rates range from 15 to 50 percent, matching the level Washington set for each product, according to CNBC. Prime Minister Mark Carney had promised a "dollar for dollar" response after talks collapsed Friday night, the Times reported.The schedule runs nearly 100 pages, Global News senior journalist Mackenzie Gray reported on X. It taxes fish, stoves, carpets, men's suits and fishing rods."Our preference was to find a deal that benefits both countries," Canadian trade minister Dominic LeBlanc told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday. "We still believe that's possible. But in the meantime, we're not waiting by the phone."Trump answered on Truth Social, where he suggested halting business with Ontario and repeatedly floated renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America," CNBC reported."I deal with many countries, and Canada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable," Trump wrote in one post.Trump warned Monday that he would double tariffs on Canadian cars and auto parts to 50 percent, but not until Jan. 1, 2027, Global News reported. Canada's deadline is two weeks away.Canada doubled its own tariffs on American steel and aluminum to 50 percent, the Times reported. Ottawa added $7.5 billion for businesses and workers harmed by the trade war, according to CNBC.Senior Canadian officials said the list was not built to punish particular American businesses or states, but to help Canadian industry, Gray reported.Trump has also complained that the United States runs a trade deficit with Canada. That gap exists largely because Americans buy Canadian crude oil, CNBC reported.His tariffs have excluded oil, natural gas, potash and many minerals, according to the Times.Polls taken before the tariffs took effect Saturday showed broad Canadian support for retaliation, the Times noted. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has pressed for it, while Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has urged restraint.Canada's economy is about one-twelfth the size of the American economy, according to the Times, and economists say the resulting price increases will hurt Canadian companies, too.