Politicians targeted by ads, ministers' multimedia handouts
Campaigns targeting politicians in the media are getting more intense - and politicians are getting more multimedia with their own messages for the press. Are these the same old tactics using new tech? Or a new push to dodge media scrutiny and shape the story?
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an hour ago
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NASA to fast-track plan to put nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030
By Audrey Courty A nuclear reactor would be useful for long-term stays on the Moon. Photo: 123RF Analysis - US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy has announced the US wants to be the first nation to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon after an internal directive showed he ordered the space agency NASA to fast-track the plan. "We're going to bring nuclear fission to the lunar surface to power our base," Duffy wrote on social media X on Thursday, local time. "If you lead in space, you lead on Earth." A directive written by Duffy - first reported by Politico and seen by Agence France Presse (AFP) - demands that NASA build a nuclear reactor that could be used to generate power on the Moon within five years. It is the first major policy change by Duffy since President Donald Trump appointed him as acting head of the space agency, and it comes just three months after China and Russia announced they were considering a joint effort to also put a nuclear power station on the Moon. But what would a nuclear reactor help achieve? And what is driving this new space race? Here's what to know. Nuclear reactors are the heart of a nuclear power plant. They create electricity by producing a carefully controlled nuclear chain reaction. Over the years, NASA has funded multiple nuclear reactor research projects. Photo: ABC Four Corners: Ryan Sheridan According to the New York Times , Duffy's directive calls for the agency to solicit proposals from commercial companies for a reactor that could generate 100 kilowatts of power and would be ready for launch in late 2029. That's enough electricity to power between 50 and 100 Australian households at once. As extraordinary as it sounds, this idea to use nuclear energy in space is not new. Since 2000, NASA has been investing in nuclear reactor research, including in 2022, when it awarded three US$5 million contracts to develop initial designs for the Moon. But those designs were smaller, producing 40 kilowatts, and were for demonstration purposes to show nuclear power "is a safe, clean, reliable option," NASA said at the time. A nuclear reactor would be useful for long-term stays on the Moon, as the Trump administration looks to revitalise space exploration. One lunar day lasts four weeks on Earth, with two weeks of continual sunshine followed by two weeks of cold darkness. This cycle makes it difficult for a spacecraft or a Moon base to survive with just solar panels and batteries. Having a source of power independent of the Sun would be key to a sustained human presence on the lunar surface for at least 10 years, NASA has previously said. In the internal directive, Duffy also cites China and Russia's plans to put a reactor on the moon by the mid-2030s. "The first country to do so could potentially declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first," he writes, according to AFP. Artemis is a reference to NASA's Moon exploration program, which aims to send four astronauts to the lunar surface in 2026 to establish a lasting presence near the south pole. Further, Duffy notes it would pave the way for Mars exploration efforts. "To properly advance this critical technology to be able to support a future lunar economy, high-power energy generation on Mars, and to strengthen our national security in space, it is imperative the agency move quickly," he reportedly says. Amid renewed competition for space dominance - more than 50 years after the Cold War spurred the first man to walk on the Moon - it is worth noting that a 1967 UN agreement says no nation can own the Moon. Duffy's comments about the potential for another country to declare a "keep-out zone" on its surface appear to be referring to an agreement called the Artemis Accords. In 2020, seven nations initially signed the agreement to establish principles on how countries should cooperate on the Moon. Since then, 49 more have done so, including Australia, but China is noticeably absent from the list. These principles include so-called "safety zones" to be established around operations and assets that countries build on the Moon to prevent interference. The race to the Moon is driven by scientific knowledge and technological advances, as well as the prospect of accessing valuable resources. In a 2015 article published on its website, NASA explains why it plans to mine the Moon and how the "lunar gold rush" could work. Citing data from geological surveys, the space agency says the Moon contains three crucial elements: water, helium and rare earth metals. The water reserves frozen inside shadowed craters could be used for drinking, and could even be converted into rocket fuel to support future missions to Mars, according to NASA. The agency says helium would support developments in the energy sector, like nuclear fusion. As for rare earth metals, it says they would boost the supplies needed for emerging technologies, like smartphones, computers and medical equipment. China has also tapped the Moon's potential and made giant leaps in space exploration and technology in recent years. It has built a space station that is manned by taikonauts, landed a rover on Mars, and became the first nation to touch down on the far side of the Moon. China, too, wants to set up a lunar base and send people to Mars, adding a layer of political rivalry to the race. - ABC
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Trump's relentless tariff strategy finally crashes into delicate geopolitical reality
By Phil Mattingley , CNN US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2025. Photo: AFP / Brendan Smialowski Analysis : President Donald Trump's relentless use of tariffs to coerce foreign counterparts into favourable deals is about to run headlong into the limits of geopolitical reality. Trump's willingness to dramatically escalate the long-running US economic warfare in response to Russia's war on Ukraine is real, advisors say. His threat to accelerate sweeping tariffs on India is certain to come to fruition, they insist. But he also faces the backdrop of a looming deadline to extend a trade truce with the world's second-largest economy that requires a degree of caution as White House deliberations come to a head. "He's pissed," one person close to Trump said of his rapidly deteriorating view of Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks. "But he's also aware of the competing priorities here." Trump faces a unique challenge balancing all of his simultaneous demands: He is threatening punishing sanctions on the Russian energy production that serves as the financial linchpin of Putin's war machine at the same moment he is seeking leverage in trade talks with India while maintaining a fragile trade détente with China. The convergence of conflicting priorities has driven intensive discussions inside the West Wing about the range and scope of the options Trump could trigger as soon as today - and put a significant amount of weight on the meeting between Putin and Steve Witkoff, his trusted foreign envoy , underway in Moscow. Trump has threatened sweeping secondary sanctions on Russian energy that would primarily hit China and India, the two largest purchasers of Russian energy . But he's also considering more tailored options, including sanctions that target specific tankers - known inside the government as the "shadow fleet" - that are utilised to skirt the existing Western sanctions regime in the transport of Russian oil, two US officials with the knowledge of the matter said. Russia's President Vladimir Putin Photo: AFP The Biden administration's evolving sanctions actions found success in blacklisting the vessels critical to Putin's sanctions evasion efforts. Secondary sanctions tailored specifically to India in some form have also been discussed, the officials said. Trump feels empowered to trigger those secondary sanctions that were long weighed by his predecessor, but never deployed due to soaring inflation and concerns about a significant increase in domestic gas prices. That is a problem Trump simply doesn't have right now, as waning global demand and a steady increase in output by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies have mitigated the concern about the energy price spikes that bedevilled the Biden administration. For the Trump administration, that has created leverage as frustration with Putin's refusal to come to the table has dashed Trump's envisioned quick end to the three-plus year conflict. Those dynamics also played directly into the recent breakdown in long running and intense trade negotiations between the US and India, advisors say. While there is obvious overlap between Trump's escalating threats targeting Russia and his explicit warnings about India's energy purchases , the dispute with the world's fifth-largest economy is specific to the trade talks, the officials say. "We consider a wide range of options, but this is a situation more of convenient coincidence than overarching strategic long-game," one of the officials said. Donald Trump and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has soured compared with this warm embrace in February 2020. Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP Trump has acknowledged as much. "The sticking point with India is that tariffs are too high," Trump said in an interview on Tuesday with CNBC. Peter Navarro, Trump's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, has called India as "the Maharaja of tariffs," underscoring a long-running view that India's expansive protection of its domestic markets has been a significant frustration for Trump and his trade team. As the clock ticked toward Trump's 1 August "reciprocal" tariff deadline and foreign partners offered significant concessions on US market access, India was a notable exception, officials said. "The president wanted deals that substantially opened markets - everything or near everything," a senior administration official said. "They were interested in opening some of their markets, but not nearly ambitious enough to meet the president's view of what would constitute a good deal." So while India's purchases of Russian energy and Russian military equipment was well known on the periphery, Trump elevated those friction points to the forefront as he sought to pressure Indian negotiators, the official said. Any large-scale effort to trigger secondary sanctions, however, would crash directly into the delicate maintenance of US-China trade talks which have seen both countries utilise economic statecraft, sanctions and export controls to exert or ease pressure on the bilateral relationship over the course of months. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned his Chinese counterparts directly, during the third round of face-to-face talks last week, that Trump was serious about secondary sanctions and it was something Chinese officials needed to prepare for in the weeks ahead. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the White House. Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP But as US and Chinese officials have quietly continued discussions over the technical details of an agreement to extend their existing trade truce, the concern about the impact secondary sanctions would have on those dynamics has been a factor inside the administration, officials say. Trump has yet to officially sign off on an extension, even as his top advisors made clear it was only a matter of time before Trump blesses it. For Trump, who has operated throughout his second term in a perpetual state of running deadlines, that clock is ticking concurrently with his deadline for Putin. The decision on the latter now weighs heavily on the status of the former. -CNN
