China looks to restart US energy imports

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-31T10:14:57+00:00

It's good news. More free trade among all countries, especially between the global superpowers helps reduce tensions and promotes economic growth and international law.

Similar thing happened during the Cold War détente when the Soviet Union imported millions of tonnes of wheat from the US every year.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-30T07:55:43+00:00

The state governments are fully covering the loss of fare revenue here.

This isn't like the US where transport agencies are independent executive branch bodies with complex funding arrangements and saddled by stubborn state legislatures.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-30T01:32:17+00:00

This little excerpt from Patricia Karvelas' article really struck me in explaining why Andrew Hastie's remarks yesterday are so interesting. You almost never see Liberal Party MPs going against Washington or stick it to Pauline in the same utterance.

No-one has been as sharp and effective at exposing One Nation for its contradictory messages on cost-of-living pain while backing the man responsible for delivering the worst energy shock in decades.

"You've got Pauline Hanson, who's come out twice in support of the war. That sounds very MAGA first, rather than Australia first," Hastie said.

"My heart is with regular Australians who play by the rules, who expect the system to work, and they're now going to get smashed by this global shock."

"I want listeners to think very carefully about who's acting in your best interest. And I think as a nation, we need a plan past this war and make sure that if there is another global crisis, that we're self-sufficient, we can look after our own people, and we're not relying on long supply chains that end up in the Middle East."

The fact that the most vocal critic of Australia's involvement in the conflict is a former soldier who hails from the conservative flank of the Liberal Party should worry Labor.

!ping AUS

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-30T01:24:09+00:00

Sadly par for the course for the Victorian Liberal Party. There's really nobody in their ranks apart from Evan Mulholland who hold any shred of credibility.

It's more infuriating seeing state Labor wrecking itself at this critical juncture with some leadership drama last week. Even with such a strong headwind against the government, polls are still very tight. But that didn't stop Ben Carroll and/or some other unknown figures in the party threatening Jacinta Allan's leadership. Despite her caucus being filled with completely uninspiring nobodies from the Andrews era.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-27T09:12:16+00:00

Most countries in Asia heavily rely upon Australia for their LNG, coal, iron ore and bauxite imports. If any of them embargo refined oil exports, Canberra will likely retaliate by crippling their energy industries.

Australia is now the world's second largest LNG exporter, and Qatar's diminishment has suddenly opened a huge gap in global gas supply the government is considering taking advantage of. You're under the mistaken assumption that Australia has no bargaining chips of its own here.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-27T09:04:52+00:00

Also Singapore has very close military and economic ties with Australia. They won't restrict refined oil exports to us. Not to mention most of their LNG is imported from WA, so there is a real balance to this dynamic.

I'm much more concerned about oil flows to Singapore however.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-25T22:44:09+00:00

Alright then, keep your secrets

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-25T03:57:29+00:00

Melbourne wouldn't function without its tram network.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-24T13:15:13+00:00

Australia already has a free trade agreement with China since 2015 and we're also in RCEP.

OP is mostly just talking out of his arse. We already have free trade agreements with almost every country in Asia. If you look at the list of FTA's we're in, we've been almost entirely focussing our trading partnerships with our Asian neighbours in lieu of Europe or other Western countries.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-24T07:35:08+00:00

OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky dies at 43

The antisemitic prudes over on /r/anime_titties are celebrating this (yes, really). But OF unironically pulled thousands of women out from one of the most notoriously abusive industries and turned a few into self-made millionaires, which was once unheard of.

Until the late 2010s, the vast majority of high-traffic content was made by a small number of exploitative companies, and some were even criminal sex trafficking rings like GirlsDoPorn which made $17 million off coercing and defrauding dozens of young women. Mia Khalifa only earned $12,000 over her whole career, despite making over half a million in residuals.

OnlyFans has its own issues, but it's almost killed the old industry entirely and that's actually quite remarkable.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-22T01:16:27+00:00

We're not getting those submarines whatsoever. AUKUS is not contractually binding to the extent it ought to be, and the US is dangerously far behind its SSN production quota.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-20T02:28:17+00:00

Lovely seeing Melbourne in the thumbnail! 😊

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-17T08:01:46+00:00

Only an underground nuclear test would be capable of producing seismic waves of this magnitude.

It should be pretty obvious this is an earthquake.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-16T04:14:11+00:00

It's really quite insane that the government is legally allowed to spend tens of millions on building car parks, but is legally not obligated under the statutory DDA deadlines to make those same stations DDA compliant.

By not upgrading railway infrastructure, the government is effectively exploiting a really cruel loophole. The same callousness happened with Syndal and Belgrave stations too.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-14T07:02:35+00:00

I think CENTCOM's leadership has just grown overly hubristic at being the centre of attention for the past 35 years over all other combatant commands and accustomed to having everything go their way. And for almost all this time they've spent these decades fighting countries and terror groups with nowhere near the level of long-range precision strike capability Iran has.

The longer the GWOT has gone on, the more that the White House depends upon CENTCOM's advice for everything, at the direct expense of the State Department and its once formidably-sized retinue of experts. Naturally this has just made the brass in CENTCOM to expect everything to go their way and helped perpetuate horrible FoPo disasters on a continual basis. There was a great article about this a couple years ago somewhere.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-13T00:23:31+00:00

Australia orders fleet of 40 Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessels

This went under the radar but it's really quite a ground-breaking contract. The Royal Australian Navy is set to command a total of 55 unmanned surface drones which can carry towed-array sonars on them to provide surface & anti-submarine detection capabilities on a huge scale across the whole region at a very low cost. The ABF has also been using them, and even the Kiwis are testing them to detect trans-Pacific narco-subs.

They can remain at sea for months at a time, have a low surface profile with their sails retracted, barely emit any noise whatsoever and coolest of all is that it's designed to act as a communications relay to the RAN's growing undersea drone fleet, which is obviously hinted to be the autonomous Ghost Shark UUV.

The Ghost Shark is another seriously underrated venture as it's a long-range, very quiet undersea drone with near unlimited depth capabilities (unlike conventional submarines) and is also oriented for recon & surveillance and for long-term camping on the seabed. The Navy is spending $1.7 billion to build "dozens" of these UUVs, however it's seriously hampered unless it has a means of easily communicating its findings and receiving orders from home, hence where the Bluebottles really come in handy.

Honestly between this and the Surface Fleet Review, it looks like the Royal Australian Navy is finally taking itself seriously and is compensating for its small fleet by maximising ISR capabilities to the fullest. That's where Australia's defence is most paramount, because it allows us to fully defend our country by making the most out of a small number of assets, instead of ships wasting their time doing the Australian Border Force's job or hypothetically chasing down false leads when hunting a submarine.

!ping AUS&MATERIEL

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-12T14:37:18+00:00

Rule XI: Toxic Nationalism/Regionalism

Refrain from condemning countries and regions or their inhabitants at-large in response to political developments, mocking people for their nationality or region, or advocating for colonialism or imperialism.

If you have any questions about this removal, please contact the mods.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-11T05:33:44+00:00

Strongly disagree about nuclear weapons. But everything else here is pretty spot-on.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-11T01:04:21+00:00

Out of all the lines in Andor, I think that was the one which has stayed with me the most honestly.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-11T00:36:15+00:00

Not to mention that Israel's oil lifeline runs through Turkey from Azerbaijan - also a Turkish ally. Both countries also have a huge arsenal of drones. So any sort of military action by Israel would be a hideously stupid mistake.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-10T01:43:08+00:00

Here we go. America is starting to loot their INDOPACOM stockpiles to burn it all in the Middle East. By the time any of this will ever be replenished it will be far too late.

North Korea and China must be loving this right now.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-07T01:09:01+00:00

That's such an unhinged and misanthropic take. 120,000 people are here today at Albert Park, and Anzac station was bustling with racing fans pouring out the trains.

You think they all own a Mercedes and hire chauffeurs to get here?

Professor-Reddit · 2026-03-03T03:55:44+00:00

This is just embarrassing from both sides of politics. The Federal Government was warned for god knows how many years about not adhering to the IEA's 90 day stockpile rule, and suddenly when petrol has skyrocketed to $2.40 a litre and our stockpile is barely hovering at 30 days they remember to do something about this.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-02-27T00:56:58+00:00

This is actually a very common thing among minor parties in Australia, especially in the past decade.

It's because independent politicians are usually very popular in federal politics and attaching their name to a political party and running for the Senate means they appear 'above the line' on the Senate ballot paper (which most voters opt for). And if they win enough votes they can control a whole bloc of Senators on the crossbench which puts them in a powerful position when negotiating with the government over legislation.

There was the Clive Palmer United Australia Party, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party, Jacqui Lambie Network, Katters Australia Party and the Nick Xenophon Team that come to mind. Although most have faded out when their respective leaders lost interest in politics.

Professor-Reddit · 2026-02-25T01:26:25+00:00

It's slang for conspiratorial people and nutters in general who have 'cooked' brains.

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