A personal view of Australian and International Politics
Contemporary politics,local and international current affairs, science, music and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
A cold moon is seen over Istanbul in 2022. (AP: File)
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The final supermoon of the year will appear tonight and will cast some extremely bright light.
The cold moon will be the final in a trio of supermoons seen in 2025.
Here's how to spot it.
When will the cold moon appear?
The supermoon will appear on Friday, December 5.
The best time to see the cold moon in Australia will be shortly after the sun sets.
The time will depend on where you are.
The best time to view it in each state will be:
Sydney – 8:35pm
Melbourne – 9:16pm
Brisbane – 7:07pm
Perth – 7:57pm
Canberra – 8:49pm
Adelaide – 9:02pm
Darwin – 7:31pm
Hobart – 9:28pm
What is a supermoon?
A supermoon is when a full moon is closer to the Earth than usual.
This happens because the Moon doesn't orbit around the Earth in a perfect circle — it's more of an oval-shaped orbit.
And
this means there are times in the Moon's orbit when it's closer to
Earth — called a perigee — and when it's further away — called an
apogee.
Why is it called the cold moon?
This
moon is called the cold moon because in the northern hemisphere it
marks the beginning of winter and is close to the winter solstice — the
shortest day of the year.
It has also been known as the long night moon and the moon before Yule.
Each full moon has a name, which is a practice that dates back to ancient traditions long before the Gregorian calendar existed.
When is the next supermoon?
There will be a chance to see another supermoon in a month when the wolf moon appears on January 3.
There will be two more chances after that to see one in 2026.
This cartoon by Glen Le Lievre is one of 130 cartoons featured in the exhibition. (Supplied: MoAD)
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For political cartoonists, a federal election feels a little like Christmas — the fodder is endless.
And
it really shows in this year's Behind the Lines exhibition, the annual
celebration of the year's best political cartoons at the Museum of
Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra.
The landslide win of Anthony Albanese is front and centre but so too is the fallout that followed polling day on May 3.
This cartoon by The Canberra Times's David Pope features in the show. (Supplied: MoAD)
Peter Dutton joins John Howard in the 'Australian Party Leaders Who Lost Their Own Seats Club'.
Former Greens leader Adam Bandt becomes DJ Bandt with the slogan "Out of Power" looming above his head.
And the Coalition break-up and make-up is transformed into a Mills and Boon rip-off.
DJ Bandt by Mark Knight for The Herald Sun. (Supplied: MoAD)
Barrie
Cassidy, chair of the Old Parliament House board, said this year's
exhibition was considerably more light-hearted than previous years.
"There's a lot more fun, a lot more joy this year than last year,"
Mr Cassidy said.
"There
was something about last year — the terrible events internationally
really dominated. They're still there in most cases but not in quite the
same way.
Barrie Cassidy says political cartoonists have had a lot to poke fun at this year. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
"It was an election year in Australia and that's when political cartoonists come into the fore.
"They love elections and so there's so much focus on domestic politics this year and they've had a lot to poke fun at."
The Guardian's cartoonist Fiona Katauskas captured the 'Australian Party Leaders Who Lost Their Own Seats Club'. (Supplied: MoAD)
International
affairs are also in sharp focus, particularly US President Donald
Trump's second term in office and the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Housing, climate change and the challenges created by artificial intelligence are also key topics.
"The
key to cartooning that journalists can't do is to take a really complex
political issue and make it really crystal clear and simple," Mr
Cassidy said.
"That's what they do and that's what we love about it."
Coalition Split by Chris Downes for The Hobart Mercury. (Supplied: MoAD)
A year of surprising plot twists
This year's theme is 'Are We Rolling?', which is a nod to the fact that 2025 brought a mix of tragedy, drama and comedy.
Curator Matthew Jones said narrowing the entries down to just 130 political cartoons was both a difficult but enjoyable task.
"It
was a lot of fun because you spend your whole day laughing but we had
more than 1,000 cartoon submissions so that was the hard thing, cutting
everything down,"
he said.
"It
seemed like a very crazy year — there were a lot of thrills and spills,
romance and heartbreak and strange and surprising plot twists so that's
why we thought cinema might be a pretty good idea for a theme."
Gaza by David Pope for The Canberra Times. (Supplied: MoAD)
Mr Jones said this year's exhibition boasted several works that are guaranteed to prompt visitors to laugh out loud.
"That is a tough thing to achieve, and I think the cartoonists do it in different ways," he said.
"Some
are very good joke tellers, they use words very well, and some are able
to just distil everything into a few lines and colours.
"And I think some of the cartoons we've picked are timeless — the jokes will still hit in a year or more."
Melbourne-based cartoonist Matt Golding is named this year's political cartoonist of the year. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
The 2025 winner is Matt Golding, a Melbourne-based cartoonist who draws for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
"To actually be paid to do a job you love, that is a prize," Mr Golding said.
"Every morning you wake up and you get one.
"So, when this win was sort of rung through, it's just like the cherry on top."
Mr Golding said he was spoilt for choice when it came to inspiration this year.
"It was a fast-moving year, everything was turned upside-down," he said.
Winning cartoonist Matt Golding drew this image for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. (Supplied: MoAD)
"We
started with Donald Trump, before we knew it we had Elon Musk and
chainsaws on stage, the Federal election campaign, the Coalition car
crash, and then leaders losing their seats.
"The conflicts and challenges facing Australia and the world — everything moved really fast."
Nicknamed
the master of the pocket cartoon, Mr Golding said he spends 99 per cent
of his day absorbing the news and formulating ideas.
The other one per cent was spent illustrating the 5cm x 5cm artwork.
"Cartoons are about ideas so the longer you have to think the better," he said.
"Then within about two or three minutes you can draw up a small, pocket cartoon — that's the beauty of them."
Entry to Behind the Lines is free, with the exhibition to run until November next year.
The New York Times is suing the Pentagon. (AP: Mark Lennihan)
In short:
The
New York Times has failed a lawsuit against the US Department of
Defense in an effort to force the Pentagon to abandon a restrictive new
press policy.
The policy
requires journalists to sign a pledge to refrain from reporting
information not authorised for release by the Pentagon.
The Times alleged the policy violates the rights to free speech and due process.
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The
New York Times is suing the US Department of Defense and Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth in an effort to force the Pentagon to abandon its
restrictive new press policy.
The
policy, enacted last month, requires journalists to acknowledge they
could be branded security risks and have their Pentagon press badges
revoked if they ask department employees to disclose classified and some
unclassified information.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, also names chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.
At least 30 news organisations chose to give up their press badges
rather than sign the new policy, citing a threat to press freedoms and
their ability to conduct independent news-gathering on the world's most
powerful military.
In its
complaint, the Times alleged the policy violated the rights to free
speech and due process and that, if allowed to stand, it will "deprive
the public of vital information about the United States military and its
leadership".
"The policy is an
attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, in
violation of a free press' right to seek information under their First
and Fifth Amendment rights protected by the Constitution," New York
Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement.
New York Times reporter Julian Barnes is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The New York Times is suing Pentagon. (Reuters: Joshua Roberts)
Representatives for the Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The
policy enacted under Mr Hegseth states that receiving or publishing
sensitive information "is generally protected by the First Amendment".
However,
it adds that soliciting the disclosure of such information "may weigh
in the consideration of whether you pose a security or safety risk".
Credentialed
reporters have traditionally been limited to unclassified spaces in the
Pentagon and have worked across the hallway from the Pentagon press
office, which has allowed them access to department spokespeople.
Press badges signify that they have gone through a background check.
Laura Loomer is part of the Pentagon's new press corps. (AP: Matt Rourke)
New press corps assembling at Pentagon
Since
the exodus of traditional media outlets last month, the Pentagon has
assembled a new press corps consisting largely of pro-Trump outlets and
individuals.
They include
activist Laura Loomer, LindellTV — a digital news site run by election
conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell — and James O'Keefe, who founded the
right-wing group Project Veritas and now runs O'Keefe Media Group.
On
Tuesday, the Pentagon hosted its first news briefing for the group,
during which Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson took aim at the traditional
press corps.
"The American people don't trust these propagandists because they stopped telling the truth," Ms Wilson told attendees.
Pentagon journalists exited en masse in October over the reporting restrictions. (AP: Kevin Wolf)
NYT action follows lawsuit by AP
The
New York Times's action follows a February lawsuit by the Associated
Press, which sued three senior Trump aides after the White House limited
the AP's access to press gatherings.
It
did so in response to the AP's decision to continue using the Gulf of
Mexico's established name, while acknowledging Mr Trump's executive
order renaming it the Gulf of America.
The
AP alleges that the restrictions are an attempt to coerce the press
into using the administration's preferred language in violation of
constitutional protections for both free speech and due process.
In
his April ruling, US District Judge Trevor McFadden said the AP was
entitled to a preliminary injunction in its favour, but the DC Circuit
in June paused that injunction while it considered the Trump
administration's appeal.
The 1920s may have been defined by Prohibition in the United States but many Americans still found a way around it. (Getty: Hulton Archive)
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America's roaring 20s were an era of flappers, frivolity, prosperity — and Prohibition.
Not
long after the ink was signed on the Armistice, officially ending World
War I, the United States went through a long dry spell thanks to the
18th amendment.
The sale,
transport and manufacture of alcohol for pleasure was banned, saloons
were shuttered, and mock funerals were held for a fictional character by
the name of John Barleycorn, a personification of the "demon drinks" of
whisky and beer.
Prohibition
represented the triumph of the "drys" over the "wets", the moral
teetotallers over the dishonourable men and women who fancied a tipple.
But by the end of the decade, America had turned its back on the "noble experiment".
Prohibition
had given rise to a seedy underground of corruption and debauchery.
This was the period of bootleggers, speak-easies and gangsters.
Violent
crime bosses like Al Capone ran the illegal trade of alcohol,
unchecked, through major city hubs until America's leadership finally
declared enough was enough.
Prohibition was officially repealed on December 5, 1933.
But the beginning of its end can be traced back years earlier — to a highly-publicised massacre by firing squad.
Al Capone was one of the most identifiable gangsters of the Prohibition era. (Wikimedia Commons: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections/FBI)
The 'drys' vs the 'wets'
When
the proverbial gates of Prohibition closed with a clamour in January
1920, locking out America's burgeoning alcohol industry along with its
many beer-making German-Americans, evangelists heralded it as the dawn
of a new age.
"Men will walk upright, women will smile, the children will laugh and hell will be forever for rent," one of them claimed.
For almost a century, this had been the dream of anti-alcohol groups across the country.
Since
1826, the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance had argued
the regular consumption of alcohol was bad for physical and mental
health — and a moral failing.
The "drys" linked alcohol and the places that sold liquor to fractured family dynamics, particularly the societal ills of domestic violence and child neglect.
The temperance movement's solution was a simple one: put a stop to it altogether.
The
first state to outlaw alcohol entirely was the protestant stronghold of
Maine, in New England, which introduced Prohibition in 1851.
But it was WWI that hastened the prospect of a nationwide ban.
The
Wartime Prohibition Act, which was passed by Congress in 1918, halted
the sale of most alcoholic beverages until after the war ended.
Giving
up booze was, at that time, seen as a patriotic act. The ingredients in
beer, such as grain, were conserved and diverted to nobler causes, like
feeding the troops and allies risking their lives on the front line.
When a ban on alcohol was considered at a federal level, however, it was not the army that stood to benefit the most.
It was gangsters.
Prohibition
didn't create these criminal syndicates, but once passed, a window of
opportunity was opened on a lucrative black market for booze.
And
one of the era's most famous figures, Al Capone, typified how America's
underworld swiftly moved to corner the market — and how authorities
were powerless to stop it.
How gangsters capitalised on Prohibition
The exuberance of the 1920s took on a darker edge as the end of the decade approached.
Americans
were still spending big on the assumption the good times would keep
rolling on, fuelled by post-war riches and the rise of easy credit.
But
the ban on alcohol was having a negligible effect, and turning the many
Americans still interested in a drink into criminals.
"I
find that people expect more [liquor] at a dinner party than before
Prohibition," one socialite noted according to author Daniel Okrent in
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.
What appeared to be an innocent truckload of lumber was in actual fact a bootlegger's vehicle loaded with prime scotch. (Getty: Bettman)
Bootleggers
adopted creative methods to smuggle foreign-made booze onto ships and
across American borders, using everything from hidden compartments to
false-bottomed shopping baskets, camouflaged flasks and hot water
bottles.
Closer to home, there was a thriving trade in bathtub distillery operations in major US states.
The alcohol it produced wasn't necessarily safe, with tens of thousands of Americans dying from tainted liquor during Prohibition.
But still they clambered into basement speak-easies to satisfy their taste for the forbidden spirits.
Police
officers and agents tasked with enforcing Prohibition could not keep up
with the level of illegal activity going on under their noses.
Courtrooms
and jails overflowed as a backlog of cases slowly built up while some
poorly paid agents succumbed to offers of bribes to look the other way.
Even the ban's toughest enforcers became disillusioned.
Judge
John F McGee had been a vigorous pursuer of Prohibition, earning the
moniker "The Bootleggers' Terror", but five years into the alcohol ban,
he claimed "the end not in sight" as the list of cases mounted.
"I started, in March 1923, to rush that branch of the litigation and thought I would end it, but it ended me," he wrote.
Detroit police inspecting equipment found in a clandestine underground brewery during the Prohibition era. (Supplied: Archival Research Catalog of the US National Archives and Records Administration)
Law-abiding citizens were suffering but the gangsters overseeing the trade of booze, and their many patrons, thrived.
No-one attracted more attention than a street brawler from Brooklyn known as "Scarface Al".
"I'm just a businessman," Capone once said.
"Giving the public what they want."
The "business" was a big one, with bootleg liquor sales in 1926 alone amounting to $US3.6 billion.
Cash
payoffs to corrupt police officers, judges and politicians kept
Capone's illegal activities away from prying eyes, while he dazzled the
public with appearances at soup kitchens and sporting games.
But
his desire to be the top dog in Chicago, along with the violence that
followed wherever he went, eventually caught up with him — and ushered
in the end of Prohibition.
The Valentine's Massacre
On
Valentine's Day, 1929, four men toting machine guns and shotguns
entered a shed in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighbourhood and surprised a
group of men from a rival bootlegging outfit.
The
armed men, some dressed as police officers, lined the unarmed group
against a wall and shot them all at point-blank range during a deadly
turf war in the Windy City.
Capone's Chicago Outfit was widely suspected of ordering the hit to take out his competition, though no-one was ever prosecuted.
The slaying did, however, make front page news and elicit public anger.
Americans could no longer ignore the link between Prohibition, gangsters and rising violence on their streets.
Months later, when the Great Depression hit and brought the good times to an end, support for a ban on alcohol nosedived.
More than 1,500 union men marched against Prohibition in New Jersey on October 30, 1931. (Wikicommons)
The
tide had turned against the "noble experiment" and when 1932 rolled
around, debate over its end became a key issue in the presidential
election campaign.
Franklin D
Roosevelt won by a landslide and pushed for the immediate legalisation
of beer and wine, which went into effect on April 7, 1933.
A
cascading list of states ratified the agreement over the next few
months until the gates of Prohibition were officially thrown open on
December 5, 1933.
Was Prohibition a failure?
Despite
the hopes of the Temperance movement, the bizarre episode that was
America's Prohibition has gone down in the history books as a failed
experiment.
Bartenders at Sloppy Joe's were among countless bars pouring a round of drinks as the 18th amendment was repealed. (Getty: American Stock)
The
very thing it hoped to achieve, the stamping out of liquor and vice,
did not result in any lasting drop in alcohol consumption.
Drinking
levels returned to their pre-Prohibition rates in the years after it
ended, and the repeal of the 18th amendment remains the only
constitutional amendment in US history to ever be rescinded.
But that is not to say America's decade-long dry period didn't have an enduring impact.
Almost
100 years later, the lingering effects of the US's alcohol-free fling
are evident in the homes of many modern-day Americans.
Before
the ban on alcohol, social drinking mostly took place in saloons, clubs
and bars, places that were, in large part, hostile to women.
Once
the 18th amendment was in effect, however, many places that sold
alcohol were forced to close and Americans who were so inclined had to
find somewhere else to drink.
A
loophole in the law meant folks could consume alcohol at home, giving
rise to special dinner parties and other domestic gatherings, a
tradition that grew throughout the latter half of the 19th century.
"Prohibition
helped to bring about this major change in American drinking patterns
by killing the saloon," researcher Jack S Blocker wrote in an article for the American Journal of Public Health.
While
likely unintended, drinking became normalised in the decades after
Prohibition ended, especially among women and "polite society", a
phenomenon that continues to this day.
Sydney is set to scorch over the next couple of days. (ABC News: Abbey Haberecht)
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Just days into summer and a broad heatwave is already spreading across the country.
Throughout
southern states, the burst of heat is short and sharp, sending
temperatures more than 10 degrees Celsius above average and raising fire
dangers to extreme.
For the northern outback though, the heat will linger well into next week, with oppressive daily temperatures well above 40C.
And
according to the Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) latest modelling, the
current heatwave is just the beginning of what should transpire into one
of Australia's hottest summers on record.
A
hot northwesterly airstream will send temperatures above 40C in a band
from the northwest to eastern NSW during Friday and Saturday.
Wave of heat travelling coast to coast
A
broad mass of hot air started the week along the west coast, bringing
Perth's hottest start to summer on record with a Monday high of 39C.
By
Thursday, a north-westerly airstream had carried the wave of heat to
south-east states — Adelaide and Melbourne both reached 35C, their
warmest days since March.
While
cooler onshore winds have now brought relief to Australia's southern
coastline, the north-westerlies will continue to increase temperatures
across the interior and NSW on Friday.
Maximums
will reach the low to mid 40s in a broad swathe of the outback from the
Pilbara and Kimberley to western NSW, including predicted tops of 45C
in Fitzroy Crossing, 44C at Oodnadatta and 42C in Ivanhoe.
The sun rises over Lake Macquarie where Thursday reached 33C and highs of 37C and 39C should follow Friday and Saturday. (Supplied: Beth Bunn)
However, the highest temperatures relative to average will impact eastern NSW, including highs near 40C in Western Sydney.
For
Sydney suburbs closer to the coast, the ever-reliable divergence to a
cooler north-easterly off the Tasman Sea should limit highs to the
mid-30s.
The highest fire
dangers on Friday at 'extreme' will impact the Riverina and Mallee,
where temperatures from 38C to 41C will combine with winds to 45
kilometres an hour and humidity down around 10 per cent.
Severe heatwave for NSW coast to peak Saturday
The
belt of fresh winds will shift north on Saturday and result in
temperatures peaking over northern and eastern NSW, with an extreme fire
danger from the state's north-west through parts of the central inland
to the Hunter, Sydney and Illawarra/Shoalhaven.
For
Sydney, the region of 40C heat will expand to within about 20
kilometres of the coast, while outer western suburbs peak at 41C, as
much as 12C above average.
Penrith
may record its first pair of successive 40C days since 2023, while the
city could record two consecutive days above 35C for the first time in
five years.
Away from Sydney,
much of the Hunter, Illawarra and Central West will also nudge 40C on
Saturday, while the state's north-west bakes in tops up to 43C in Bourke
and Brewarrina.
However, while the outback sweats through the highest temperatures, a heatwave warning is only in force near the coast.
A severe heatwave warning is current from the Hunter to the South Coast and Snowy Mountains, including Sydney.
The
BOM has assigned a 'severe' rating to the heatwave from the Hunter to
South Coast, which indicates challenging conditions for vulnerable
people if precautions are not taken to keep cool.
So why is the heatwave considered more intense near the coast?
The
BOM uses what's called the excess heat factor (EHF) to monitor and
forecast heatwaves, which includes a comparison of the temperatures for a
three-day period with a region's normal climate, and also the observed
temperatures over the past 30 days.
In
simple terms, according to the BOM, "the EHF measures how much of a
shock to the body the forecast temperatures will be, compared to the
weather over the past month".
This
method ensures a hot city like Darwin is not warned of a heatwave every
day, and a cooler city like Hobart is warned during spells of
relatively high temperatures, even though they may seem cool by mainland
standards.
The calculation for
a heatwave is also based off the minimum temperature and the maximum,
since cooler nights allow some recovery from each day's heat.
Around
Sydney, Saturday minimums will range from about 20 to 23C, up to 5C
above average, while Saturday night could remain above 30C until near
midnight.
Southerly buster ahead for NSW, but summer tipped for a scorcher
As
with most heatwaves over southern Australia, cool relief will arrive
quickly and Sydney can expect a 24-hour temperature drop close to 15C.
A
strong southerly change is forecast to sweep up the NSW coast from
Saturday night to Sunday and drop temperatures up to 15C in 24 hours.
A
southerly buster should reach the far South Coast during Saturday
evening, track to Sydney in the early hours of Sunday, and reach the Mid
North Coast on Sunday afternoon.
For
northern Australia, relief from a heatwave often requires cloud cover
and rain since southerlies in summer often fade well before reaching the
tropics.
With only isolated
showers and thunderstorms ahead during the coming days, a broad belt
from northern WA to north-west Queensland can expect highs above 40C to
persist well into next week.
Looking
further ahead, another burst of hot winds from the north should reach
southern states later next week — a pattern which could frequently
repeat this summer, according to the BOM's seasonal outlook.
This summer is likely to be warmer than normal across Australia and could even transpire into one of the warmest on record.
The
latest modelling released by the bureau yesterday indicates maximum
temperatures this summer should land at about 1C to 2C above the
long-term average across most of Australia.
At these levels, the season's mean temperature would land in the top five warmest on record comparing all summers since 1910.
