Monday 06-04-2026 4:20am

Faithfuls attend a prayer service in the Church of All Nations held by Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Pic: AFP

Keeping the lights on for the punters

NSW’s top Catholic leader has called for more street decorations celebrating Easter and Christmas, warning Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage risks fading away. Certainly there is a sad need for the morality of the church’s 10 commandments even if the hymns and lecturn speeches aren't. Research in the 1960s endeavoured to pinpoint the dwindling of followers citing sports, citizen groups and TV. In other words distractions for youth’s attention. However, it really boiled down to the work of the individual local church priest. If he was out and about then religion prospered. Religion has diminished from the painful and hysterical 50s and 60s and the Catholic/Protestant rages. Today’s lethargy is blamed on the internet and the clositness and allegiance to its carrier, the mobile phone. There is also an analogy with the local and its leaders involvement in its community. How many times do Murrurundians see their local mayor or the council’s general manager? You could count on one hand the number of people who know either. It even filters down to the positioning of the information centres and their role in the local community. Upper Hunter Council dumped it’s centre out to the airport and now closed its centres throughout the region at the height of a holiday weekend — just when tourists are looking to find out what and where to go! Lucky the museum left the Pioneer Cottage lights on just to show there was a village here because the council didn't do anything to collar the punters.


 SPORT:

The old mighties dumped but not Sally

Don't want to know!!!! Sydney sent the West Coast home in the AFL 163-35 and Port Adelaide surfaced to beat Richmond 90-48. In the NRL the Dragons continued their lackluster performance going down 0-32 to the Cowboys while the Broncos made hard work of the Titans 25-12. [click to continue reading]

Meanwhile, our girl Sal has got WILL SWANTON’s ATTENTION IN THE writing, Sally Fitzgibbons is feeling the good stuff. The good, good stuff.

Like, paddling out in the dark, reliving all my grom days, they clear the line-up for us and there’s a perfect sunrise. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, she says ahead of today, Easter Sunday’s blockbuster heat against world champion Molly Picklum at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.

I love trying. The feelings are constantly rising. It’s the real deal here. I love working on my surfing and when I'm in these line-ups, being around the best surfers in the world, I'm learning so much. There’s such a good energy around at Bells, with the people, and the community, and it feels like they're rallying around me.

Fitzgibbons herself is good, good stuff. Forever friendly. Engaging. Joyful. Diligent. Optimistic. Trying her heart and soul and blood and guts out for a world title. Yet again she’s requalified for the World Surf League. Yet again she’s just about the first surfer in the water every morning. Yet again the 35-year-old is frothing like a teenager. An eternal grom. A good, good grom.


 NEWS:

🌋 Iran looking
towards a
week of HELL

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel yesterday stepped up pressure on Iran to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway or face attacks on its energy infrastructure, while Iranian and U.S. forces searched for a missing U.S. crew member from one of two downed warplanes, reports Reuters today. [click to read more]

Trump, who has sent mixed messages since the conflict began with a joint U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Iran on February 28, told Tehran that his latest deadline for a deal to end the war was fast approaching.

Remember when I gave Iran 10 days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them. Glory be to GOD! he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Trump’s messaging about the war has veered between hinting at diplomatic progress and making threats to bomb the Islamic Republic back to the Stone Ages.

In an apparent move to heap further pressure on Tehran following Trump’s latest ultimatum, a senior Israeli defence official said Israel was preparing to attack Iranian energy facilities and was awaiting the green light from the U.S.

The timeframe for such attacks would be within the next week, the official said. Trump has previously threatened to hit Iranian power plants if his demands were not met.

Washington faced heightened stakes as the conflict entered its sixth week, with the prospect of a U.S. service member alive and on the run in Iran, slim chances for peace talks and polls showing low public support for the war.

With Iran’s leadership defiant since the start of the conflict, its foreign minister left the door open in principle for peace talks with the U.S. via mediation from Pakistan but gave no sign of Tehran’s willingness to bow to Trump’s demands.

We are deeply grateful to Pakistan for its efforts and have never refused to go to Islamabad. What we care about are the terms of a conclusive and lasting END to the illegal war that is imposed on us, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X.

The war has killed thousands, sparked an energy crisis and threatened lasting damage to the world economy. Iran has virtually shut the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.

Iran has rained drones and missiles down on Israel and also taken aim at Gulf countries allied to the U.S., which have so far held back from joining the war directly for fear of further escalation.

Iranian state TV said its military had launched drones at U.S. radar installations and a U.S.-linked aluminium plant in the United Arab Emirates and U.S. military headquarters in Kuwait in retaliation for deadly attacks on Iranian industrial centres.

Iran earlier attacked an Israel-affiliated vessel with a drone in the strait, setting the ship on fire, state media said, citing the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' navy.

[click the intro to return to front page]



🕭 Building
projections
flummoxed

Surging oil prices, a shortage of critical materials and extended build times are pushing construction companies to the brink, with industry bodies warning the cost of an average new build is set to rise, Marcus de Blonk Smith writes on The Australian today's website.

A protracted conflict in Iran would not only derail the government’s plans to build 1.2 million new homes but could lead to a cocktail of trouble for the country’s residential building sector, Housing Industry Association managing director Jocelyn Martin said.

Once you extend build times, once you extend cost of materials ∼ and the industry has nowhere to go because the contracts are fixed price ∼ you've got a cocktail of trouble, Ms Martin said.

Civil Contractors Federation CEO Nicholas Proud agrees. He warned some businesses would likely encounter trouble in the weeks to come if the conflict continued unabated.

If contracts are operating at below cost and there’s no recovery, some businesses will have some troubles, he said.

Mr Proud said the soaring cost of fuel was hitting his members had. He said the industry — which consumes 3.4 billion litres of diesel each year, equating to 10% of the total diesel usage in Australia, was suffering at the bowser.

We use significant volumes (of diesel) so the costs are hitting us through the bowser, through the tankers that we receive, he said.

Mr Proud said that for about a billion dollars worth of activity, an extra $70m would likely be added to the cost of a project if the price of fuel was sustained for the next two years.

Accessing materials such as piping and plastics was also proving challenging, he said. But through positive conversations, he added alternative supply routes were opening up in China, India and the US.

And while sourcing materials from the likes of India and China came with added costs, it meant the industry was able to get on with building. If we can get the materials and we get the petrol, we're in the chance of building what we've got to build, we've got the contracts now, Mr Proud said.

The Iran war was having an impact on fuel and diesel supplies, particularly in regional areas, Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia CEO Michael Kilgariff said. He called on the government to recognise construction as a critical and essential industry.

The cement concrete and aggregates industry is about a $20m contribution (to the Australian economy each year); the construction sector is about $175bln, Mr Kilgariff said. We need to ensure that this industry is regarded as essential, and that customers have confidence that all of those contracts can be supplied.

The industry at this stage was concerned but not alarmed, Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn said. She said there were several key issues the industry was very mindful of, including the supply of diesel and PVC piping due to the war in Iran.

Of particular concern, Ms Wawn said, was the fact that many builders on fixed-price contracts would be forced to weather those additional costs.

She also warned that project delays due to supply interruptions may tip a viable contract into a loss-making contract, which could have a devastating impact on the industry.

That can then be exacerbated by strict completion dates and the potential impact of liquidated damages, whereby a builder is forced to pay a fee every day the project is completed past the agreed date, she said.

Ms Wawn said the industry was watching the impact of liquidated damages closely but at this stage, there was no direct evidence that it was impacting outcomes.

We have forewarned governments and private clients that is something that will need to be addressed if this conflict extends any further, she added.

She did, however, stress that shortages of critical building materials such as PVC piping would ∼ if the war in the Middle East continued ∼ likely lead to a further downturn in building approvals.

Last week, Master Builders revealed that Labor’s ambitious plan to build 1.2 million new homes by the end of the decade was drifting further away, with a 204,000-home shortfall now predicted.


 CHATTER:

Jella has also agreed to extend the opening of his Man Mountain painting exhibition in God's Waiting Room alongside the museum today and tomorrow and on 'till the end of the month.
♦♦♦♦
Dooleys and the Royal Hotel are open along with The Gelato shop while the museum and the Pioneer cottage are both open this morning.
♦♦♦♦
Remember, double demerit points until Tuesday and did you turn the clocks back one hour?????.
♦♦♦♦



🎉 Fantasy
spectacular
and its just
down the road

One of the biggest Easter Holidays events near Sydney has massively expanded this year and its right on our doorstep reports news.com.au website today. [click to read more]

Mega Creatures has returned to the Hunter Valley Gardens from March 28 to April 26, bringing an adventure for families, explorers and fantasy lovers of all ages.

Back for another epic year, visitors will journey through a captivating landscape where prehistoric giants meet legendary beasts, creating a magical fusion of ancient history and storytelling.

Mega Creatures continues to grow each year, and 2026 is our most exciting event yet. We're thrilled to introduce new immersive experiences like the Unicorn Garden and expanded Land of the Legends, creating even more magical moments for families to explore, discover and enjoy together, says Julie Pettit from Hunter Valley Gardens.

This year, the Hunter Valley Gardens introduces 45 new installations to the event. Exciting new highlights include an enchanting Unicorn Garden, where whimsical toadstools, vibrant rainbows, graceful Pegasus figures and a herd of unicorns create the perfect setting to pause, play and capture memorable moments.

In the expanded Land of the Legends, guests will encounter a spectacular new centrepiece, with a giant dragon perched atop a crumbling castle, alongside six other new mythical creatures.

Towering dinosaurs will once again roam the grounds, transforming the Gardens into a living storybook world designed to spark curiosity and imagination. As the sun sets, visitors can return for the immersive Night Safari, where the creatures come alive in a whole new light.

Beyond the installations, Mega Creatures offers a full day of adventure, as families can enjoy roaming entertainment, hands-on excavation dig pits for budding palaeontologists, and a fun-filled Easter Egg Hunt.

Thrill-seekers can add even more excitement to their visit with daily amusement rides operating throughout the event. Ride tickets are available on site, offering flexible options for guests wanting to enhance their experience.

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💲 Australia's
debt economy
runs wild

A teenager born in Australia’s last debt-free year 20 years ago now watches $1 trillion in government debt pile up, while three-month-old Charles inherits an unprecedented monetary burden as Australia’s economic decline over a generation is laid bare, Charles Chadwick and Evelyne Dowsett report in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper today. [click to read more]

As our federal government’s gross debt creeps towards the $1 trillion mark, these two faces capture the staggering change in Australia’s shifting budget fortunes.

On one hand is Rachel Depadua, now 19, who was born in 2006 — the last year Australia was officially debt-free.

On the other is three-month-old Charles, blissfully unaware he was born into a situation where every Australian taxpayer effectively carries some of the burden of that trillion-dollar liability.

On April 20, 2006, then treasurer Peter Costello announced Debt-Free Day to celebrate the federal government’s clearing of $96 billion in debt, but now ∼ after the global financial crisis and Covid ∼ it is predicted we will hit $1 trillion in debt by May.

Economist Saul Eslake told The Sunday Telegraph the federal government will have incurred budget deficits totalling $1.01 trillion between July 1, 2008 and June 30 this year.

He questioned why young people were out protesting about the Israel-Hamas conflict when debt was a more pressing issue at home.

If we as a nation really want more spending on health, age care, disability care and child care along European lines, then we have to think about having European-style taxes or we're going to keep adding to the amount of debt we have, Mr Eslake said.

It genuinely surprises me that younger Australians aren't more agitated about this … they march on the streets about Palestine and sometimes they march on the streets about climate change.

I understand why they do that but there’s nothing the Australian government can do about either of those things, really.

Next to the NDIS, health and aged care, interest on debt is one of the fastest growing areas of spending for the federal government, with gross interest set to rise to $50.5 billion by 2028-29.

Ms Depadua, of Northmead, said she was surprised how much debt has ballooned in her short lifespan.

It’s kind of crazy the government has racked up that amount of money within this span of time, she said.

Ms Depadua, who is living with her parents while she studies at Macquarie University to become a primary school teacher, said it was thought for her generation to go through Covid then have to deal with the cost of living.

I feel like I'm not moving out of my parents house for a long time, she said.

Charles’s mother, Georgina Smith, 34, said she worried about what kind of world her baby was being born into.

Like any mother I worry about my child’s future, I haven't been able to buy my own home yet, if I can't buy a home in the current economy, it makes me worried what he could afford when he’s my age, she said.

Gross debt was on track to exceed $1 trillion by 2023-24 under the Coalition, a spokesman for Treasurer Jim Chalmers said

Our responsible approach, including finding $114 billion in savings and re-prioritisations since coming back to office has delayed that by at least two years, the spokesman said. [click the intro to return to front page]



🌳 Bilby takes
over area

Bilby boom: breeding trial to reintroduce species to Mallee Cliffs national park shows signs of success. 50 'founder' bilbies were released in fenced breeding area in 2019 with the aim of establishing first wild population there in a century, Lisa Cox reports on the The Guardian website. [click to read more].

Efforts to reintroduce bilbies in the far south-west of New South Wales are showing signs of success, with numbers climbing to almost 2000, seven years after the first breeding trial at Mallee Cliffs national park.

Fifty founder bilbies, including 30 from Thistle Island off the coast of South Australia, were released in a fenced breeding area in 2019 with the aim of establishing a wild population in the Mallee Cliffs habitat for the first time in a century.

Between 2021 and 2023, 107 bilbies were released from the breeding area into 9570 hectares of fenced, predator-free habitat in the park. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), which manages the conservation project with the state government, has conducted the first surveys and estimates the total population has now reached 1840 bilbies

Excluding bilbies from feral cat and fox impacts does really allow them to do well and breed up in numbers and persist in the environment, said Rachel Ladd, an AWC wildlife ecologist.

She said the project team definitely knew a population boom was possible and it had been wonderful to see bilbies running around and turning soil over in the park.

Ladd said motion-sensor cameras showed the animals had dispersed through the wider fenced area and dug burrows to the point they were now occupying most of the predator-free habitat.

We are picking them up on 95% of our cameras, which alone is a strong indicator that the population has spread across the safe haven and [is] utilising the full extent of the protected habitat, she said.

The greater bilby is listed as vulnerable under Australia’s nature laws and is found in only about 20% of its former range in arid and semi-arid parts of the country.

The Mallee Cliffs project is one of six large predator-free areas with bilby populations managed by the AWC. [click the intro to return to front page]


 COMMENT:

Murrurundi Times news site with items covering national news and Upper Hunter region including the township of Murrurundi
Bob Hawke famously challenged the federal Liberal Party in the 1980s: If you can't govern yourselves you can't govern the country. The Victorian Liberal Party is in much the same position. writes Peta Credlin, in The Australian today. [click to read more]

Its internal inadequacies mean the worst state Labor government in the country may be re-elected for a fourth term, not because it commands any real voter support but because the alternative has even less.

That the Liberal Party failed to win the last state election, in 2022, against a government that had turned Melbourne into the most locked-down city in the world showed almost epic ineptitude.

But intimidated by premier Daniel Andrews and plagued by factional wars, the Liberals thought their best plan was to out-Labor Labor with a leader, in Matthew Guy, whom voters had already comprehensively rejected in 2019.

Predictably, offered a choice between an oppressive and incompetent Labor government and a Liberal opposition aping it, voters stuck with the devil they knew.

If anything, since then it has got even worse. The Liberals have had a further three leaders in the past 12 months.

Plus almost no policy other than the no-brainers to repeal the emergency services levy, which taxes farmers for the volunteer firefighting they mostly do themselves, and to repeal the Victorian version of the voice — the federal version of which Victorian voters rejected 54-46 at the 2023 referendum (but which, earlier, state Liberals had supported).

Despite this, the Labor government’s travails - the latest being its complicity in CFMEU corruption claims that have added perhaps $15bn to the cost of its much-hyped Big Build - mean the Libs are now just marginally ahead in the polls.

Not by enough to be confident of the 7%-plus two-party-preferred swing needed to win, yet by enough to know that if only they could avoid making themselves the issue they might finally fall over the line.

But that was then, this is now, and two things have hit them hard: the inexorable rise of One Nation and the Moira Deeming preselection debacle which, given the fight they have to win 16 seats, is an extraordinary act of self-harm.

Deeming is the upper house Liberal MP who helped to organise a women’s rights rally in 2023 that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis; who was accused by her then leader, John Pesutto, of herself being a neo-Nazi sympathiser; who was subsequently expelled from the Liberal partyroom, only successfully to sue Pesutto for defamation; and who was then readmitted to the partyroom and promoted — only to be beaten last weekend for preselection by a serial candidate accused of ethnic branch-stacking.

Who was then dumped as the endorsed candidate himself for giving a convicted pedophile a glowing pre-sentence personal reference despite knowing what it was for and subsequently denying that he'd done so.

You cannot make this stuff up, can you?

There are recent precedents where head office has simply endorsed candidates, but instead of doing this with Deeming ∼beaten by someone who should never have been allowed to run ∼ the Victorian Liberal Party has now called for a fresh preselection with nominations to close at noon on Thursday.

Already, moderates are hitting the phones to marshal the ousted Dinesh Gourisetty’s bloc of votes against Deeming, so it is hard to see that she will face a fair fight. Gourisetty, it should be noted, donated to Pesutto’s legal defence, as disclosed in the latest parliamentary returns (as did Heath Williams and former MP Louise Staley, who both publicly abused Deeming online this week).

Right now, Deeming is considering her position, unsure whether to give the Libs one last chance to treat her fairly or to walk, perhaps to join One Nation, a party that would welcome her with open arms, as a conservative woman who has become a hero to everyone who thinks trans rights should not trump women’s rights.

But apart from the preselection, there’s another related but even more troubling issue arising from the whole Deeming saga; namely the Liberal Party’s decision to bankroll the legal costs awarded against Pesutto last year by the Federal Court, costs that he'd previously said would be covered by donors who are, as yet, anonymous but who are refusing to pony up for their mate.

It’s said by those senior Liberals challenging the party’s decision to lend Pesutto the $1.5m he owes Deeming (and thereby to stave off bankruptcy and expulsion from the parliament) that the state party president, Phil Davis, refused to provide state executive with details of the Pesutto loan agreement, any advice about its legality or the names of Pesutto’s supposed guarantors before ramming it through on factional numbers.

It’s thought that the discovery process in this case could expose more factional skulduggery, hence there’s an attempt to delay further hearings until after November’s state election.

Ponder this. The Liberal woman who won a court case over appalling treatment by a Liberal man is turfed out, whereas the Liberal man who lost is given millions out of party coffers to save his skin and gets preselected without a contest. And these clowns wonder why they have a problem with women?

It is no wonder there’s now a formal motion from state executive member Colleen Harkin calling on Davis and his state party vice-presidents to resign, as well as a Change.Org petition from rank-and-file Liberals demanding he go.

Add in the now serious demands for federal intervention and you can readily see that the Liberals have no chance of a November win unless this is resolved.

Under the Liberal Party’s federal constitution, the federal executive can intervene in the affairs of a state division if it is unable or unwilling to perform its functions or if its conduct is seriously detrimental to the interests of the party".

Although this threshold has surely been met, given factional divisions on the federal executive, talk that 80-year-old federal president John Olsen wants to retire and the relatively fragile positions of both the state and federal parliamentary leadership, the appetite for intervention is unclear.

What is clear, though, is that One Nation poll numbers in Victoria are surging and, as SA shows, that would mean a win for Labor.

If the Liberals don't remove the Allan government, on top of all their other recent failures, the party’s doom spiral would be cemented.

Without decisive action, what has been the most successful political party in Australian history, like its predecessors the Nationalist Party and the United Australia Party, could itself be passing into history.


Murrurundi Times news site with items covering national news and Upper Hunter region including the township of Murrurundi
It is not inherently wrong for governments to smooth shocks that consumers could not reasonably insure against. On the contrary, that has always been the governing principle in times of calamity — whether epidemics or war. Henry Ergas writes in the The Australian today. [click to read more]

There is no reason that principle should not apply to the current spike in oil prices. Unlike the shocks of 1973 and 1979, this surge is likely to prove temporary; if it does not, any measure the government adopts can be reversed, allowing price signals to reassert themselves.

In the meantime, shifting part of the immediate burden on to future taxpayers ∼ who may bear it in less turbulent conditions ∼ is defensible, just as it was during Covid.

But that does not let the government off the hook. While households could not have insured themselves against this shock, governments have no such excuse.

Governments repeatedly warned

The fragility of Australia’s fuel security is not a newly discovered risk. For decades, experts have warned ∼ repeatedly and in detail ∼ of the need to guard against supply disruptions: by building stockpiles, preserving access to refining capacity and supporting rather than strangling domestic production.

Against that background, the absence of preparation is not merely surprising; it is inexcusable. Nor is this a one-off failure.

Much the same was true of Covid, despite the efforts made during the Howard years ∼ notably by Tony Abbott ∼ to put epidemic preparedness on a surer footing. Faced with two such serious debacles in quick succession, one inevitably recalls Oscar Wilde: to fail once may be misfortune; to fail twice begins to look like carelessness.

Carelessness — and something worse. What, precisely, have Canberra’s energy experts been doing, other than producing glossy reports on the so-called energy transition — a transition that has now left us without energy? Having spent years denouncing fossil fuels, officials might now acquaint themselves with the elementary fact that they remain indispensable.

Intellectual failure

The failure here is not merely administrative; it is intellectual. As Dwight D. Eisenhower put it, plans are useless but planning is indispensable.

It forces one to confront how many things can go wrong and to identify those that matter most. Above all, it guards against a deeply ingrained error: the tendency to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable, to assume that what has not yet happened will not happen at all.

Of course, no system of foresight is perfect. As Cicero wryly noted, soothsayers can scarcely cross each other in the forum without winking — a warning against taking their claims too seriously. But that is no defence of the scale of failure we have witnessed. When dangers lurk, it is impossible to foresee everything; it takes a special talent to foresee nothing.

Albos reckless governing

Nor is the problem confined to planning. It extends to learning — and here, too, the record is dismal. The Albanese government’s politically convenient refusal to conduct a serious, independent reckoning with Covid is not merely disappointing: it is reckless.

Everyone errs; only fools refuse to learn from their mistakes. Whether this episode triggers a genuinely independent and public review ∼ one Australians can actually trust ∼ will be the clearest test of whether the lesson has been grasped.

This much is certain: there will be more epidemics, more wars, more supply shocks. In the face of that reality, we are entitled to expect at least one quality from those who govern us: what Aristotle called prudence, which is not caution but judgment, seeing danger coming and acting before it is too late. At present, we see it when it punches us in the jaw.

A medieval sage once asked: Who owns the unexpected? The answer, he thought, was an omniscient, omnipotent God. Nowadays, it seems to be Canberra, a fractious committee of trumped-up demigods, who turn out to be horribly inept mortals. Little wonder we end up paying the price.



 OVERSEAS:

Dozens of people were injured after a train derailed in the Ulyanovsk region on Friday

The surge in global oil prices amid the Iran war is bringing Russia billions in extra revenue. But getting that oil to market is becoming more difficult, limiting how much Moscow can actually cash in. Ukrainian drone strikes on key infrastructure and tanker seizures have disrupted export routes and reduced Russia's capacity to ship crude abroad. Oil exports plunged last week amid repeated drone strikes on key Baltic terminals. Reuters reported that producers may have to curb output if unsold oil continues to build up. In the domestic fuel market, attacks on refineries have dented Russia's ability to turn crude into gasoline, fueling shortages in some parts of the country just as demand is picking up for the agricultural planting season. At the same time, strong global fuel prices are creating an incentive to export gasoline rather than sell it domestically. This week, Moscow banned gasoline exports through July 31 in what it said was a move aimed at stabilizing domestic supply. What else happened this week ; ■ The Kremlin rejected Kyiv's call for a ceasefire over Orthodox Easter, saying the proposal was too vague and would not result in a lasting peace. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted the ceasefire because Russian troops were "advancing across the entire front line" ■ a claim at odds with recent analysis suggesting that Moscow made no territorial gains in March. ■ The Ryazan region ordered businesses to nominate a number of their employees for contracted military service, in a new effort to recruit soldiers for the war in Ukraine. ■ Russians lost the ability to top up their Apple ID accounts amid reports that Moscow is pressuring the U.S. tech giant to return Russian apps to its online store. ■ State news agency TASS teamed up with its North Korean counterpart to combat "disinformation" produced by their "many enemies." ■ Russia's Defense Ministry said for the third time that it has established full control over Ukraine's Luhansk region. The fate of the region is a sticking point in U.S.-mediated peace talks, with Moscow demanding that Kyiv fully withdraws from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. ■ Back in Russia, civilians living near the Ukrainian border were told to stop wearing camouflage or driving vehicles with military symbols to avoid being targeted by Ukrainian drones. ■ The Digital Development Ministry announced a crackdown on VPN use, reportedly on Putin's orders. Using a VPN itself isn't illegal, but they are routinely blacklisted for allowing Russians to get around internet surveillance and censorship.
News From Beyond Moscow:

In this week's guide to what's happening across Russia's diverse regions, MT's Leyla Latypova zooms in on the North Caucasus, where the republics of Chechnya and Dagestan are grappling with catastrophic flooding after facing their heaviest rainfall in nearly a century.






The Murrurundi Times is owned, compiled and written by Des Dugan. Email