Another COP has concluded in Brazil, with petrostates and their corporate allies ripping up the global road map leading us away from fossil fuels, encouraged by the absence of the USA and with China failing to take the opportunity to step into the vacuum. President Lula's hope that the nearby presence of the lungs of the world (otherwise known as the Amazon) might focus the minds of attendees proved forlorn. The fire which broke out in the final days of negotiations said it all.

A legal advocacy group has raised concerns over a proposed bill by federal Labor, that if it were to become law, would arm a government department with ‘extraordinary coercive powers’ to monitor and enforce an ‘industry standard’ of misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms.