Guardian Essential report:​​ can Labor live up to the expectations?

Post-election Albanese has seen a surge in popularity but what is the electorate expecting from a second term Labor government and can they deliver during challenging times? Guardian Australia's political reporter, Josh Butler sits down with chief political correspondent, Tom McIlroy and Essential Media's executive director, Peter Lewis.

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Telegraph

2 hours ago

• Telegraph

Australian senator who heckled King makes rude gesture at Buckingham Palace

An Australian senator who heckled the King has courted controversy again by making a rude gesture outside Buckingham Palace. Lidia Thorpe made headlines around the world last October when she interrupted a reception for the King and Queen during their visit to parliament house in Canberra, yelling 'f--- the colony', 'this is not your land' and 'you are not our King'. In London this week to attend a conference, the indigenous senator wore a 'blak sovereign movement' T-shirt and held up an Aboriginal flag outside the gates of the Palace. She posed for a photograph making a rude gesture with her middle finger, which she shared on social media with the caption: 'Dropped by to collect all the stuff this lot stole, but Charlie wasn't in.' The post sparked division among her followers, with some asking whether the UK visit was being funded as a work trip. One responded: 'Do you know you don't speak for Australia. We actually can't stand you – I personally look forward to your term ending in the Senate.' Ms Thorpe was censured by the Australian parliament last November, with a motion passed by 46 votes to 12. It condemned her actions as 'disruptive and disrespectful', but there were no further constitutional ramifications. The Senate said it no longer regarded it 'appropriate' for her to be a member of any delegation 'during the life of this parliament'. Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said Ms Thorpe's behaviour was not of the standard 'Australians rightly expect of parliamentarians'. But after the censure motion was passed, the senator said she did not 'give a damn' about it. She tore up the piece of paper while being interviewed by ABC TV, and said that she would use it 'as kindling'. She vowed to repeat her actions if the King and Queen ever returned to Australia, saying: 'If the colonising King were to come to my country again, our country, then I'll do it again. And I will keep doing it. I will resist colonisation in this country. 'I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands: First Peoples are the real sovereigns,' she said. Moments before her protest, the King had delivered a speech in which he paid his 'respects to the traditional owners' of Australia. He was said to be 'unruffled' and determined not to let it spoil a 'wonderful day'.

Scottish Sun

2 hours ago

• Scottish Sun

Humza Yousaf slammed after ‘inept & ill-informed' social media posts over Israel-Iran war

Former First Minister Yousaf has been condemned as "inept and ill-informed" Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Humza Yousaf has been condemned as "inept and ill-informed" after he dismissed mounting concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions. The former First Minister cast doubt on Sir Keir Starmer's warning that Iran's nuclear programme poses "a grave threat to global security". Sign up for the Politics newsletter Sign up 5 Former First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf addresses the crowd at national demonstration for Palestine, in London, in June Credit: EPA 5 Yousaf retweeted former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt 5 Writing on X, Yousaf criticised Mr Starmer 5 Scottish Conservative Deputy Leader Rachael Hamilton criticised Yusaf The Prime Minister said Iran "can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon" as he called on the country's leaders to return to negotiations after the US launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Writing on X, Yousaf said this was "an awful statement from the PM, which ignores our collective responsibility to uphold international law". Yousaf added: "Supporting illegal military action in Iran, and gas-lighting us about an imminent nuclear threat, is hauntingly reminiscent of the lies told in the run up to the Iraq war." Gas-lighting is a common shorthand for psychologically manipulating someone into doubting their own sanity or perception of reality. Yousaf also retweeted former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt's claim that US intelligence assessments have been "politicised" and "are now evidently doctored on orders from the White House". The SNP MSP said: "I am old enough to remember what happened the last time we went to war on the basis of a "sexed up dossier" based on dodgy intelligence." Scottish Conservative Deputy Leader Rachael Hamilton said Yousaf "is doing no one any favours with his interventions on matters totally outwith the SNP government's remit". She said: "His own mercifully brief stint as First Minister was notable for a string of embarrassing self-inflicted disasters. 'Rather than producing inept and ill-informed opinions on international affairs, he should be working for his constituents who are struggling as a result of the failed policies he presided over.' Patrick Harvie, the Green MSP who is stepping down as party leader after 17 years in the role, also condemned the Prime Minister's remarks as "deplorable but all too predictable" on X. Trump's shock Iran strikes take us to bring of global conflict and will strengthen Axis of Evil alliance, experts warn He said: "Israel expanding its war, by attacking Iran when negotiations were imminent, was an outrage. The US is now escalating the conflict. Instead of being a voice for de-escalation, the UK is siding with the aggressors." The Prime Minister has also seen dissent from within his own party with Carol Mochan, the Scottish Labour MSP, also downplaying the Iranian nuclear threat on X. She said: "Once again the US President is dragging the world into a conflict it does not want with no backing from his Congress, no backing from the UN, and no clear evidence Iran was developing nuclear weapons. We have been here before, the UK must not blindly join America's wars."

The Guardian

7 hours ago

• The Guardian

I study the history of Nazi resistance. Here's what the US left can learn from it

Around the end of 2022, I had an idea for a book about the history of resistance to Nazism. I wanted to show that Nazism has faced nonconformity, refusal and protest ever since it was born in 1920. I also wanted to explore beyond a handful of famous heroes and cast a spotlight on people who changed history without entering popular memory. When I began my research, Donald Trump had just announced his candidacy for the Republican ticket in 2024. When I gave the manuscript to the publisher a little over two years later, he was president-elect. His comeback, the darker version of Maga that came with him, and the Democratic party's collapse gave fresh relevance to the stories of resistance to far-right extremism that I was finding. Even as I was piecing them together, they began to intrude on the present. It was a haunting transformation – and it helped me to understand why the resistance to Trump has been flawed from the moment he stepped on to the political stage. We've never been shy about broadcasting our opinions. We've worn pussy hats, put up lawn signs, and trolled Trump and his supporters, both online and off. But while such acts may get attention, their capacity to create change is less certain. This can even be true for mass protests. Americans have sometimes underestimated the effectiveness of protest – recent demonstrations in Los Angeles and across the country are an important part of resistance. In the era of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, though, protests can risk becoming a spectacle. And when the government is given a chance to portray them as violent, their effectiveness is extinguished – because they end up benefiting the forces they mean to challenge. The resisters that I researched, by contrast, were laser-focused on creating change. Whether they were satirists drawing anti-Nazi cartoons in 1920s Germany or former neo-Nazis becoming peace advocates in the 21st-century US, they sought to improve life for themselves and others in the here and now, in any way that they could, no matter how small. The German activist Emmi Bonhoeffer is a powerful example. She built a support group for the Holocaust survivors who testified in the 1960s Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, where Nazis were tried for their roles at the death camp. In doing so, Bonhoeffer resisted the Nazis' desire for both their crimes and their victims to be forgotten. Her group – most of them homemakers – ultimately helped nearly 200 people as they took the stand. They inspired similar groups to form around other war crimes trials in Germany, too. But they didn't advertise. They didn't have a slogan or an outfit or a flag. They didn't even bother to give their group a name. Their first and only concern was to clear a path toward justice for at least some of the Nazis' victims. For Bonhoeffer, resistance wasn't about getting attention. It was about creating change. What's more, the resistance to Trump has always been stained by a judgmental streak. Whether we're denouncing them as a 'basket of deplorables' or mocking them on social media, we invariably devote too much energy to belittling his supporters. This has convinced us of our own moral rectitude. In turn, this has made us complacent, and complacency only deepens our inaction. The resisters that I learned about pulled no punches when it came to judging Adolf Hitler and his inner circle. But they spent more time judging themselves than his supporters. Consider the German émigré Sebastian Haffner. In the late 1930s, he wrote an extraordinary autobiographical book about his life as a so-called 'Aryan' in Hitler's Germany. It was only published in 2000, posthumously, after his son discovered it hidden in a desk drawer. For Haffner, publication didn't really matter. The book was, first and foremost, an imaginative space in which he subjected his own behavior and thinking and privilege to relentless scrutiny. Through this process of self-scrutiny, he grew into one of the Nazis' most effective critics in exile. The judgmental streak has also given some of our attempts to resist Trump a holier-than-thou quality that diminishes our capacity for empathy. We're too quick to believe that 77 million Americans voted for Trump out of stupidity, not desperation or disenfranchisement. By contrast, I was always struck by the sense of shared humanity among the resisters that I discovered – like the lower-level British intelligence officials who persuaded members of the German public to help them smoke out Nazi war criminals after 1945; or Leon Bass, the Black American soldier who drew on his own experiences of segregation to deepen his understanding of the suffering of the Jewish people he liberated from Buchenwald. Sign up to Fighting Back Big thinkers on what we can do to protect civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in a Trump presidency. From our opinion desk. after newsletter promotion Like every far-right leader in history, Donald Trump has intoxicated his supporters with nostalgia for a past that never existed in order to push a corrupt and hateful agenda of his own. Eventually, many will realize that he's lied to them. Perhaps they'll lose their jobs because of his economic policies, or see law-abiding friends and family deported because of his immigration policies. Perhaps their children will suffer from measles because of his health policies. Whatever the case, when their moment of realization comes, we must be ready to embrace them, and to weep with them for what they've lost. If there's one thing that I learned while writing my book, it's that effective resistance to the far right is never just about defeating the enemy. It's about creating a better future for everyone. Teachers and librarians are championing the written word as a tool of resistance. Colleagues in the field of Holocaust education are collaborating on free and innovative events to inform the public about the collapse of democracy in early 20th-century Europe – and to establish what we can learn from it today. And, as I argue in my book, the arts can connect us to our own humanity, and to the humanity in others. Supporting your local art museum, attending a concert or joining a book club should all be cause for hope – because in a divided, partisan society, such acts constitute resistance. Luke Berryman, PhD, is an educator and author of the forthcoming book Resisting Nazism, to be published by Bloomsbury in 2026