Vance calls out Democrats over Epstein files, reignites push for transparency
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The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
I lived in Washington, DC. The last thing it needs is a Trump ‘rescue'
If you're wondering what in the hell Donald Trump was going on about regarding the nation's capital this week, it's because Washington, DC, is another one of those long-time fixations of the unhinged American right. In the world of Fox News, right-wing radio and Republican political conventions, San Francisco is synonymous with gay people while DC is a dog whistle that signifies blacks, crime and corruption. When Trump announced a federal takeover of the city this week, putting its local police force under his control, he said he was rescuing it from 'crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor – and worse!' 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals,' claimed the Republican president. But he was lying. The Democratic mayor of the overwhelmingly Democratic city, Muriel Bowser, pointed out that violent crime in DC was at its lowest level in more than three decades last year. Yet Trump is sending in the National Guard to crack down on crime and clear the city of homelessness. It's all a bit absurd. But, really, this is just Trump singing a very old tune that most Republicans can hum along to. Why? It's just another volley in his time-tested tactic of throwing red meat to his base to distract them from thinking twice about, say, his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein or his on-and-off bromance with Vladimir Putin. Loading The bad news is that his move is probably legal. DC is a political anomaly. It's not a state, but it's not inside a state, either. It was created by land taken from Maryland; Congress gave itself the power of governance over the area and has a standing committee to control its budget. DC has always been the butt of jokes. JFK famously quipped that it was a city of 'southern efficiency and northern charm'. But DC has grown and is now at the centre of one of the largest (and wealthiest) metropolises in the US. It has a population bigger than several states; campaigners for statehood are quick to point out that, with the full federal workforce on hand on a typical weekday, it's bigger than several more. Yet DC was given no senators; Congress grudgingly gave it three presidential electoral votes in 1961, and a single member of the House of Representatives in 1971, but only as a 'non-voting delegate'.

Sky News AU
2 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Trump-Putin meeting will be a ‘listening exercise' amid ongoing Ukraine war
The White House announced US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Anchorage, Alaska to discuss the war in Ukraine. The Trump Administration called the meeting a 'listening exercise', which the American President hopes will help bring an end to the war. The meeting will take place without Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is highly sceptical about what it can achieve.

The Age
3 hours ago
- The Age
A Trump-Putin ‘deal' won't bring peace, just more Russification of our stolen children
When we see news about the meeting in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, we should think about a specific group of innocent young people who could be strongly affected by appeasing the Russian dictator and global bully. Namely, there are as many as 20,000 Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory who have been seized by Moscow into an elaborate system of relocation to Russia and so-called 're-education' there. As confirmed by independent international human rights organisations, these children have been forcibly separated from their families, language, culture and communities, and are now being artificially assimilated and brainwashed. In fact, while Putin is guilty of many atrocities, such as bombing Ukrainian schools, hospitals and residential suburbs, the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children is the only war crime that he has been formally charged with by the International Criminal Court to date. He is the first leader in the history of a UN Security Council permanent member country to have been issued an international arrest warrant. Indeed, some have suggested that Putin should be arrested immediately upon touching down on American soil. That would be just. At a minimum, the captive children of Ukraine should hope that their situation is not worsened by discussions and decisions taken in Alaska – potentially without the presence or participation of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. If, however, it is wrongly decided in some 'deal' that Ukraine should cede sovereign territory to the Russian Federation, such as further sections of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, then the missing children's further detention is legitimised. Moreover, it opens the door to thousands more Ukrainian children being abducted from any further territory that Russia occupies. Ukrainians cannot abide some form of recognition of Russian-occupied territory as somehow Russian; they certainly will not agree to any more territory being given away to Russia. This is because – whether it's the example of the kidnapped children or otherwise – Ukrainians acutely know the horrific implications of being occupied by Putin and his henchmen. The price of peace cannot be the persecution of millions of innocent people. Current occupation and any further occupation have the following features: erasure of Ukrainian language, culture and religions; removal of freedom of speech and assembly and other human rights; no independent media; incarceration of those who dissent; deterioration of social services and economic conditions, and skyrocketing rates of addiction and medical illnesses as drug traffickers exploit instability and corruption among occupational authorities.