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.
Mourners attend the funeral of five Palestinians, who were killed in an Israeli strike. (Reuters: Ramadan Abed)
In short:
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed eight people, according to medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry.
Five police officers were killed in Khan Yunis and three people died in Gaza City.
Local hospitals said they had received the bodies as well as several people wounded.
Israeli strikes killed at least eight Palestinians, including five police officers, in the Gaza Strip in two separate attacks on Sunday, local time, according to medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry.
Medics said three people were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.
The interior ministry said the five police officers were killed in another strike in western Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave.
The Israeli military said it struck several militants in Khan Younis, without giving further information. It did not immediately comment on the Gaza City strike.
Israel, which says the Hamas militant group has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of a year-old ceasefire, has stepped up strikes on the group in recent weeks.
Hamas has denied trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal and accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza peace deal.
Last year's US-brokered ceasefire calls for eventual reconstruction of the territory.
But little progress has been made as negotiators have failed to agree on terms for Hamas to disarm or Israel to withdraw its troops, who control about two-thirds of the territory where they have ordered residents out.
Nearly all of the more than 2 million residents live in the remaining third of the enclave among war ruins, mostly in makeshift tents and damaged buildings, still under effective control of Hamas.
At least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire, according to the territory's health officials, while Israel says four soldiers have been killed.
Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Phar Lap, with jockey Jim Pike, won the 1930 Melbourne Cup by three lengths. (Supplied: Hinchliffe family)
In the days and weeks before his historic win in the Melbourne Cup, champion racehorse Phar Lap spent a few lazy days in the border town of Albury, walking the streets without a care.
It was October, 1930, and the Harry Telford-trained galloper had Australia enamoured ahead of a tilt at that year's Spring Carnival riches.
But instead of preparing to race in the Caulfield Cup — the first of three major events in Victoria's carnival — Phar Lap and his strapper Tommy Woodcock were bunking down at a pub on the Victorian-NSW border preparing to change trains en route to Melbourne.
The horse known as "Big Red" travelled Sydney to Melbourne by rail, getting off at Albury Railway Station due to the change of rail gauge between NSW and Victoria.
On arrival in Albury, passengers (both human and equine) were required to get off a train, walk across the platform, and hop onto another train to continue their journey between the states.
This happened for more than 100 years until the standard-gauge connection to Melbourne was completed in 1962.
From 1883 and until 1962 travellers between Melbourne and Sydney would have to swap trains at the Albury Railway Station because of a change in gauge size. (ABC Goulburn Murray: Allison Jess)
When Phar Lap and Tommy Woodcock stopped in Albury they stayed at Sodens Hotel, a centrally located pub, well-known to racing circles at the time.
It was an experience that Woodcock would later share with family friend and fellow horseman Wayne Hinchliffe.
"In those days all the stables had beds above the horses where all the hay and straw were kept," Mr Hinchcliffe said.
"That's where Tommy slept, he would always sleep very close to the horse."
Tommy Woodcock spent the last couple of years of his life at Wayne Hinchliffe's farm at Yarrawonga. (Supplied: Hinchliffe family)
While it wasn’t unusual to see horses on the streets in those days, Mr Woodcock did tell Mr Hinchcliffe during the stopover in Albury, the most famous horse in Australia was not noticed.
"Not one person ever pulled him up and asked him what the name of his horse was," Mr Hinchcliffe said.
"He did say they walked so much he wore out a pair of boots and two shirts from where the horse used to push him on the right-hand shoulder."
Tommy Woodock and Phar Lap circa early 1930s. (Supplied: Hinchliffe family)
In Albury, Woodcock received a telegram from Phar Lap’s connections saying to stay in Albury until further notice.
Mr Hinchliffe said the extended stay made sure Phar Lap was a late withdrawal from the Caulfield Cup, so another horse, Amounis, could win that race with better odds.
"They made him stay in Albury long enough... Just about everyone had backed Phar Lap as a double in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup."
The secret to cup success
Phar Lap was not the only Melbourne Cup-winning horse that would stay at Sodens Hotel.
At least eight other cup winners made the stop, including Prince Foote (1909), Piastri (1912), Windbag (1925), Statesman (1928), Peter Pan in (1932 and 1934) Hiraji (1947), Foxzami (1949) and Delta (1951).
Today, the pub pays homage to its Melbourne Cup connection; the old stables have since been turned into a bar brimming with photographs and memories.
At one stage Sodens had 30 large "loose boxes" (sleeping areas) to accommodate horses overnight. (ABC Goulburn Murray: Allison Jess)
A board in the bar says Sodens was popular in racing circles because it was the first pub in the area to put electric lights in stables.
Prior to that, open flames were used, something considered dangerous to horses and a distraction at night time.
A friendship for life
Mr Hinchliffe, who's now based in Victoria's Raymond Island in the Gippsland Lakes district, said Mr Woodcock taught him many things including how to prepare a harness and other horse skills.
"He and my dad were best mates, they used to go hunting, shooting and fishing together," he said.
"When I was old enough to hold a horse, I would go to the races and lead in horses and muck out the stables at night and on weekends.
"I was always around him and he used to say I was always under his horses - meaning I was in the road all the time."
Phar Lap pictured with jockey Jim Pike in about 1930. (Charles Pratt, courtesy State Library of Victoria)
Mr Woodcock ended up living the last years of his life on Mr Hinchliffe's family farm in Yarrawonga, in north-east Victoria, before he died in 1985.
"He was crook and he asked if he could come live with us on the farm so I nursed him," he said.
"Before the farm, we never got to talk [with him] about Phar Lap because it was busy, there were owners and people around and we'd be going to the races, to trials.
"[But] at the farm he told us all these lovely stories about Phar Lap."
Wayne Hinchliffe nursed Tommy Woodcock before he died in 1985. (Supplied: Hinchliffe family)
Phar Lap won the 1930 Melbourne Cup before becoming a horse that would define the ambition and hope of a generation.
That year, the horse with the big heart — almost double the size of a normal horse — won 19 of 21 races and famously avoided an assassination attempt on the streets of Caulfield.
Over his four-year career, he won 37 of 51 races, including North America's richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap in 1932.
He became sick a fortnight after that victory overseas and died from a massive dose of arsenic.
Donald Trump could take unprecedented action to interfere in the United States’ midterm elections, warn former US intelligence chiefs and Trump administration insiders.
As Americans prepare to head to the polls this week, Four Corners spoke to a former CIA boss, a former FBI director, and four senior advisors from Trump’s first administration.
They fear the president’s persistent criticisms of the electoral process may be a precursor to him meddling in the midterms or rejecting the results.
Former CIA director John Brennan says in Trump’s America, nothing is off limits.
“He has defiled the office of the presidency,” he says.
Trump’s homeland security chief has even suggested federal immigration agents could be deployed to polling booths.
Fears of meddling from the White House
Former US intelligence chiefs Brennan and James Comey both sounded the alarm over Russian interference in the 2016 election that swept Trump to power.
Now, they say the risk of election meddling is coming from Trump himself.
“I do worry about what he could do in the run-up to the election [and] what he might do on the day of, as well as in the aftermath,” says Brennan, who was CIA director when Trump took office in 2017.
Although Trump’s name is not on the ballot paper, Americans are expected to use the midterms as a referendum on Trump’s second term in office.
Polls suggest the Democrats are poised to win the House of Representatives and possibly snatch control of the Senate.
Brennan says the president is trying to sow doubt in the elections, and warns nothing is off limits.
“Donald Trump’s attitude, as evidenced by his actions, is he’s willing to go beyond limits and then dare people to pull him back, or to challenge the courts and others to stop him from doing it,” Brennan says.
Comey, who served as FBI director between 2013 and 2017, shares Brennan’s concerns.
“These midterm elections … are the most important, certainly in my lifetime, and maybe ever in the United States because we have an out-of-control presidency,” Comey says.
“One branch of our government that’s supposed to be constraining [Trump] is missing in action.
“To replace that with a group of representatives who will work to constrain this president is the most important mission of my lifetime.”
Just before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, Comey briefed the president-elect about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Four months later, he was sacked after refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to the president during a private dinner at the White House.
Since Trump’s return to power, both Comey and Brennan have been targeted by the Department of Justice.
Comey was recently charged with criminal offences for the third time.
“We, as a country, made an enormous mistake returning Donald Trump to power,” Comey says.
“And we’ve seen the consequences of that mistake.”
Risk of ICE agents confronting voters at polling booths
The president’s Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has flagged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could be deployed if there was a threat to a polling place or if they were serving a warrant.
He also warned local and state election officials they could face arrest — and possibly jail — if they fail to comply with the Trump administration’s election demands.
Anthony Scaramucci served as Trump’s White House communications director for a turbulent 11 days in 2017.
Even though a Civil War-era law from 1865 means it is a crime to bring armed personnel to a polling place, Scaramucci says he fears ICE agents could be deployed during the midterms to intimidate people into staying away.
“Just the notion that you could go to the polling booth, get arrested and/or deported even if you’re voting eligible,” Scaramucci says.
“These people are crazy, so they’re capable of doing something like that.”
Republicans fear Trump could ‘undermine confidence’ in elections
In the lead-up to the midterms, Trump has accused his Democratic rivals of cheating and stealing votes, and criticised US elections as “corrupt”, “crooked” and “rigged”.
His administration has already filed a lawsuit to block certification of the Senate race in Alaska if Republican senator Dan Sullivan loses narrowly.
The lawsuit argues the presence of a second candidate with the same name, who is running as an independent, could confuse voters and siphon away votes from the incumbent.
Republican Marc Short says he is disturbed by the president’s aggressive language about the midterms and the prospect of federal officers appearing at polling booths.
Short served as Trump’s legislative affairs director, and as the chief of staff for then-vice president Mike Pence.
Marc Short.(Four Corners: Ryan Sheridan/Nick Wiggins)
“I don’t think it’s healthy to undermine faith and confidence in our elections,” Short says.
“And if we’re doing that ourselves, then we’re kind of doing the work of our greatest enemies.”
Comey says he believes Trump wants to “be the bogeyman, to cast doubt on the elections, to be a shadow in the corner”.
“It’s all part of trying to freak people out about elections … to frighten us into thinking that our elections are vulnerable,” he says.
A Gallup poll in July found nearly two-in-three US adults were worried about election officials being pressured by politicians to change the results.
A Daily Mail/YouGov poll last month (October) revealed just over half of respondents feared Trump would refuse to accept the outcome of the midterms if the Democrats won.
John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security advisor from 2018 to 2019, says it’s a real possibility.
“For Trump, the world is divided into winners and losers,” Bolton says.
“He is a winner. Therefore, if he loses, he didn’t lose, he was cheated.
“He’s making excuses now, laying the groundwork to try and create a lack of confidence in the outcome, whatever it may be.”
Democrats to pursue corruption allegations against Trump family
If the Democrats win one or both houses of Congress, Trump faces a potentially bumpy final two years in office amid investigations into his and his family’s business dealings.
“Trump’s corruption is so palpable that corruption, for the first time in a long time, is a significant issue and it does register with voters,” Cobb says.
“They all recognise that during the time that he’s been in office, they have suffered, but he has enriched himself.”
In his first year back in office, Trump reaped a stunning $US1.4 billion ($2 billion) from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses.
In total, the president made $US2.2 billion in 2025. That is $42.3 million a week.
There have also been reports that his wife and children have made millions in questionable deals since Trump returned to the presidency.
The combined net worth of his two eldest sons reportedly grew by more than half-a-billion dollars, largely driven by crypto ventures and other investments.
Luke Ball, a Republican strategist who worked on Trump’s successful 2024 re-election campaign, denies the president has engaged in any corruption.
Luke Ball.(Four Corners: Ryan Sheridan/Nick Wiggins)
“The president and his family are entrepreneurs,” he says.
“They’re going to have their hands in many different businesses, and the whole family doesn’t have to cease operations just because one of them becomes president.”
Short says he expects impeachment proceedings will eventually restart in Congress if the Democrats win one or both houses.
“I’m not saying the president will get convicted, but I think you’re going to see more of that unfortunate cycle in American politics the next two years,” he says.
Even diehard Trump supporters such as Ball acknowledge the Democrats will go after the president and the first family if they win at the midterms.
“If they come back into power, it’s going to be nothing but investigations,” he says.
“They’ll impeach him a third time.”
Bennie Thompson, a Democratic congressman from Mississippi, confirmed the Democrats would likely investigate Trump and his family’s fortunes if they win.
“[Trump] made a ton of money, and brags about it,” he says.
“When we see grifting in plain sight, we can’t ignore it.”
Watch Four Corners: Endgame on Monday, November 2 at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
