Comms & Digital Media Freelancer | Sci & Water | Full Time Student M.Ed. | BA Journalism & GC Int Studies | Ex Gov | Find me: LinkedIn & Bsky: lmdigitalmedia
Australia
Joined March 2016
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Laura McDonald retweeted
(New from me, 👇👇👇, including a pic of an ancient part of the Great Wall)
As global climate talks begin at COP31 in Turkiye – and as climate disinformation ramps up in Australia – pollution from the world’s biggest emitter falls, again
reneweconomy.com.au/cop-this…
Laura McDonald retweeted
Wrote about Leonard Cohen in Israel, the debate over whether or not he was a Zionist, his love of women and of sex, and what it has meant to lose one of the great protean minds of the postwar world in the @NewStatesman
In the days preceding the Yom Kippur War, Leonard Cohen was at war with his girlfriend, Suzanne Elrod. It was October 1973 on the cockerel-crowing Greek island of Hydra, and Suzanne and Leonard were quarrelling over their child, their greed, their unkindness, their bitter tongues and their ancestors, as he would later write in the unpublished prose work The Final Revision of My Life in Art. His shoulder ached. He grit his teeth too much. He was nervous.
In the early Seventies, Cohen had become an internationally recognised singer-songwriter, on the strength of such releases as “Suzanne”, “So Long, Marianne”, “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” and “Famous Blue Raincoat”. The vanity of his profession made him sick. He was disgusted with the music business, repeatedly and publicly announcing his intention to retire. “It’s over,” he told an interviewer in March 1973, in his histrionic, petulant way. “I wish everybody well on ‘the rock scene’… But I don’t want to be in it. I have songs in the air but I don’t know how to put them down. Anyway, I’m going.”
newstatesman.com/culture/mus…
Laura McDonald retweeted
A reminder that this viral post made by Foundation for Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow, Miad Maleki, on April 12th which runs 567 words in a 10-part thread post chock full of data and calculations, was published within 97 MINUTES of the initial CENTCOM announcement of the first blockade of Iran.
How is it remotely reasonable to believe that this was sourced, drafted, and posted with in 97 MINUTES without inside classified information and an active hand in its recommendation and implementation?
Laura McDonald retweeted
NYC schools’ standoff with Google over AI raises prospect of no search in class
gothamist.com/news/nyc-schoo…
Laura McDonald retweeted
NEWS: Three years after Maui's deadliest wildfires, survivors still battling mental health crises, displacement and loss of community, as a key health study faces funding cuts. (via Inside Climate News)
Disaster recovery takes longer than the news cycle lets us remember.
Laura McDonald retweeted
Lonnie Thompson went to the ends of the Earth and above the clouds to document and understand the effects of the climate crisis on our planet. Across the highest mountain ranges, from the Andes to the Himalaya, his physically arduous and heroic research revealed the rapid decline of the world’s highest glaciers. And his meticulously documented findings from the ice cores he carried back down the mountains had an impact far beyond the scientific community. His lifelong determination to communicate what he discovered about the global impact of the climate crisis with policymakers and the public was extraordinary. For more than three decades, Lonnie and his wife and scientific collaborator Ellen Mosley-Thompson were trusted advisors to me and many others on climate science. Lonnie was an invaluable ally in the global movement to solve the climate crisis and was a cherished friend I will miss dearly. nytimes.com/2026/11/06/scien…
Laura McDonald retweeted
In the days preceding the Yom Kippur War, Leonard Cohen was at war with his girlfriend, Suzanne Elrod. It was October 1973 on the cockerel-crowing Greek island of Hydra, and Suzanne and Leonard were quarrelling over their child, their greed, their unkindness, their bitter tongues and their ancestors, as he would later write in the unpublished prose work The Final Revision of My Life in Art. His shoulder ached. He grit his teeth too much. He was nervous.
In the early Seventies, Cohen had become an internationally recognised singer-songwriter, on the strength of such releases as “Suzanne”, “So Long, Marianne”, “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” and “Famous Blue Raincoat”. The vanity of his profession made him sick. He was disgusted with the music business, repeatedly and publicly announcing his intention to retire. “It’s over,” he told an interviewer in March 1973, in his histrionic, petulant way. “I wish everybody well on ‘the rock scene’… But I don’t want to be in it. I have songs in the air but I don’t know how to put them down. Anyway, I’m going.”
newstatesman.com/culture/mus…
We do know better #fiveeyes @joekent16jan19 but the country we placed in the ME after WW2.
#RemembranceSunday 🌺
22 years ago the fight for Fallujah began. My ODA & the Iraqi Special Forces helped secure the 1st objective on the west side of the Euphrates.
In this battle we lost 95 Americans. In the Iraq war we lost 4,418 Americans. All of them were patriots who gave their lives for our nation.
Tragically our leaders abused their patriotism & got our best men & women killed in a war based on lies that was not in our national interest.
22 years later we have a choice to make, do we finally learn from our past mistakes & chart a new course, or do we allow our leaders to keep us in this destructive cycle?
We know better, it’s time to chart a new course.
16
Laura McDonald retweeted
Research shows a severe lack of impartiality in BBC reports defending Israel.
newscord.org/editorials/bbc-…
Laura McDonald retweeted
Thanks for the call out Peter.
Tomorrow is TrueNorth’s 650th 4pm weekday newsletter - where I share all the independent news of the day that matters.
Aust’s independent news publishers are doing the heavy lifting in needed public interest journalism.
Please sign up! #auspol
Make your algorithms comply to your wishes — add these links from the independent media feed.
‘TrueNorth News’ is a daily dose of Australia’s best articles from around the Independent Media scene.
All the stories the MSM forgot to tell you.
@TrueNorthNewsAU
@deniseshrivell
truenorthnews.substack.com/
Laura McDonald retweeted
Article forgets to mention it’s the closest town to Adani’s mine and work camp 🙄
couriermail.com.au/news/quee…
Laura McDonald retweeted
It is critical that everyone understand this: the issue of highly enriched uranium is a goalpost that the neocon & Israeli lobby echo chamber will keep moving until we physically go into Iran to “take it”. The actual goal is to force a ground invasion and/or never-ending air strikes.
Even when we bomb & obliterate all of Iran’s HEU, as we did w/Op midnight hammer, the lobby insists we have to go get the “nuclear dust,” creating the circumstances for more strikes and/or that prized boots-on-the-ground op.
The U.S. intelligence community assessed that Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon. The entire premise of chasing “nuclear dust” was—and remains—bait to draw us into Israel’s war.
Fuck, we have a new problem. The Neocons have a new pitch to Trump: 'The only way to fix the damage the Iran war has done to your legacy is to force them to give up their highly enriched uranium.'
They're spamming him with this stupid new idea, undermining Vance's efforts to reach a diplomatic solution
What they leave out of their pitch is that Iran will NEVER give up their uranium to Trump, as it's their only bargaining chip, and giving it up is an irreversible step, while Trump's conscessions (lifting the blockade and sanctions) are easily reversible
And needless to say, the Iranians do not trust Trump, or the U.S.
Laura McDonald retweeted
The pattern of recommended strategies from The Foundation for Defense of Democracy that were immediately implemented during the Iran War raises serious questions about their intentions given their documented ties to the Israeli Government.
Laura McDonald retweeted
Why does the ABC reporter not put their name to this story?
An un-bylined wire copy rip-and-read — clearly with lots of added extras from @ABCnews — credited coyly to ‘Wires/ABC’.
Because somehow the story was crafted to make no mention of the pivotal fact of who actually started this war of aggression against Iran which is illegal under international law.
Instead: “The president also said Iran - which he stressed has had its economy and military severely damaged over eight months of war - was eager to end the conflict.”
The text could easily have been written to read: “…over eight months since the US and Israel started the illegal war”.
But the choice seems to have been made to bury it, to leave out that fundamentally crucial fact.
As well, ABC accuses Iran of "lack of compliance with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on safeguards obligations" — but that is quite misleading as it was the US who tore up the ‘Iran nuclear treaty’, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018.
Must have just forgotten to mention that pivotal fact, too.
Oh, and don’t get me started on how ABC ignores the only Middle East nation that actually is bristling with nuclear weapons and who is repeatedly ignoring the IAEA rules. (Tip: It’s Israel.)
abc.net.au/news/2026-11-07/u…
1. What's missing here @abcnews?
"In its statement about the reward, the State Department said 🇮🇷 "lack of compliance with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on safeguards obligations"
abc.net.au/news/2026-11-07/u…
In short, Erickson finds a clue for who influences the Trump administration’s operational conduct in Iran.
The motive: the petro dollar
The Foundation for Defense of Democracy continues to publicly expose their undue influence over the United States during the Iran War, particularly in the context of economic warfare. The announcement of Task Force Iron Gate made this even more clear.
23
Data centres by passing local planning laws?
Proposed new laws would allow the Australian Defence Force to build projects across the nation without having to comply with state or territory rules. #sydneycriminallawyers #adf #AustralianDefenceForce
sydneycriminallawyers.com.au…
5
Laura McDonald retweeted
1. @SusanDirgham has completed an analysis of my recent interview with @PLottaz
Quite interesting to see someone elses, quite detailed, review.
Thanks Susan 🙏
abcdissent.substack.com/p/fo…
Laura McDonald retweeted
🗓️ 9 December | Investments for Lives and Livelihoods Mobilising finance and partnerships to close the water infrastructure gap and scale solutions.
🗓️ 10 December | Resilient Futures Together Accelerating innovation and collaboration to build resilient water systems for generations to come. (2/3)
Laura McDonald retweeted
BREAKING: The Saudi Aramco tower in the financial district of Riyadh was attacked this morning.
Saudi authorities describe the damage as "minor," although videos circulating on social media show a 2-floor hole in the facade of the skyscraper. Riyadh says none was injured.
Laura McDonald retweeted
A scientist skied into remote areas of the Sierra Nevada to take samples of freshly fallen snow. Everywhere she looked, she found microplastics. @susrust
latimes.com/environment/stor…
