Ben Eltham
@beneltham.bsky.social
Writer, journalist, researcher, trade unionist
Pinned
Axed literary magazine Meanjin finds a new home after its axing
Melbourne University Press closed the much-loved literary magazine last year, saying it was losing too much money.
www.smh.com.au
QUT will take over famous literary magazine Meanjin, after the journal was closed by Melbourne Uni Publishing last year.
This is a win for all who campaigned to save the masthead, but hardly makes up for the damage done last year www.smh.com.au/culture/book...
This is a win for all who campaigned to save the masthead, but hardly makes up for the damage done last year www.smh.com.au/culture/book...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Sora 2 apparently cost something like $5 billion to run every year and so far made OpenAI around $1.4 million.
February 10, 2026 at 10:49 PM
Sora 2 apparently cost something like $5 billion to run every year and so far made OpenAI around $1.4 million.
Reposted by Ben Eltham
More reports of Gmail turning over email content to ICE are coming out now.
techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/g...
techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/g...
Google sent personal and financial information of student journalist to ICE | TechCrunch
The tech giant handed over the personal information of a journalist and student who attended a pro-Palestinian protest in 2024. This is the latest example of ICE using its controversial subpoena power...
techcrunch.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:46 AM
More reports of Gmail turning over email content to ICE are coming out now.
techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/g...
techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/g...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Professor Ben Saul, UN SR Human Rights & Counterterror—
February 11, 2026 at 4:43 AM
Professor Ben Saul, UN SR Human Rights & Counterterror—
If only we could build submarines with the efficiency of the retired generals revolving door
I asked Defence where Major General King now works having recently left his job in the Department overseeing billions in contracts for companies like Lockheed Martin... can you guess where he went too?
February 11, 2026 at 3:33 AM
If only we could build submarines with the efficiency of the retired generals revolving door
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Wednesday's cartoon in The Mercury Newspaper: Jon Kudelka helped me get my first cartooning job at The Mercury. He also showed me how to be quick-witted and fearless. I was in a constant state of joke-envy over his cartoons. I'm gonna miss that feeling, but more than that, I'm gonna miss my friend.
February 10, 2026 at 10:01 AM
Wednesday's cartoon in The Mercury Newspaper: Jon Kudelka helped me get my first cartooning job at The Mercury. He also showed me how to be quick-witted and fearless. I was in a constant state of joke-envy over his cartoons. I'm gonna miss that feeling, but more than that, I'm gonna miss my friend.
Reposted by Ben Eltham
When I got the contract to write a history of concentration camps in 2014, I hoped to keep the US from ending up here. That didn't work out! But now it's critical to understand how much is already in process and the enormity of what's coming. The sooner we act to stop it, the more people we'll save.
Building the camps
The warehouseification of detention and initial thoughts on stopping it.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:24 AM
When I got the contract to write a history of concentration camps in 2014, I hoped to keep the US from ending up here. That didn't work out! But now it's critical to understand how much is already in process and the enormity of what's coming. The sooner we act to stop it, the more people we'll save.
QUT will take over famous literary magazine Meanjin, after the journal was closed by Melbourne Uni Publishing last year.
This is a win for all who campaigned to save the masthead, but hardly makes up for the damage done last year www.smh.com.au/culture/book...
This is a win for all who campaigned to save the masthead, but hardly makes up for the damage done last year www.smh.com.au/culture/book...
Axed literary magazine Meanjin finds a new home after its axing
Melbourne University Press closed the much-loved literary magazine last year, saying it was losing too much money.
www.smh.com.au
February 11, 2026 at 2:40 AM
QUT will take over famous literary magazine Meanjin, after the journal was closed by Melbourne Uni Publishing last year.
This is a win for all who campaigned to save the masthead, but hardly makes up for the damage done last year www.smh.com.au/culture/book...
This is a win for all who campaigned to save the masthead, but hardly makes up for the damage done last year www.smh.com.au/culture/book...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Reposted by Ben Eltham
"The Police chose violence". Veteran journo and sports broadcaster Peter Lalor was at the Sydney Herzog protest, got pepper sprayed. His account
#auspol
michaelwest.com.au/peter-lalor-...
#auspol
michaelwest.com.au/peter-lalor-...
Peter Lalor, pepper-sprayed, debunks the Herzog propaganda - Michael West
Sports journalist Peter Lalor was pepper-sprayed by NSW Police at the Herzog protest in Sydney. He debunks the propaganda.
michaelwest.com.au
February 10, 2026 at 10:07 PM
"The Police chose violence". Veteran journo and sports broadcaster Peter Lalor was at the Sydney Herzog protest, got pepper sprayed. His account
#auspol
michaelwest.com.au/peter-lalor-...
#auspol
michaelwest.com.au/peter-lalor-...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Fake and AI generated 'experts' are being quoted in articles in the UK press. "Out of a sample of 250 expert-quoting articles published in The Sun, Daily Express, Mirror, Daily Mail and Daily Star in 2025 and late 2024, 28 experts do not exist".
pressgazette.co.uk/news/faces-o...
pressgazette.co.uk/news/faces-o...
Faces of fakery: More fake and AI generated experts con their way into media
New research from Press Gazette has uncovered a fresh tranche of likely fake and AI-generated experts making their way into UK publications.
pressgazette.co.uk
February 10, 2026 at 12:08 PM
Fake and AI generated 'experts' are being quoted in articles in the UK press. "Out of a sample of 250 expert-quoting articles published in The Sun, Daily Express, Mirror, Daily Mail and Daily Star in 2025 and late 2024, 28 experts do not exist".
pressgazette.co.uk/news/faces-o...
pressgazette.co.uk/news/faces-o...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
NEW
Three reasons why the Mandelson disclosure exercise will be a shock for the government
Ministers and officials usually are in control of disclosure exercises - but here they will not be - and why that matters
A detailed post by me:
emptycity.substack.com/p/three-reas...
Three reasons why the Mandelson disclosure exercise will be a shock for the government
Ministers and officials usually are in control of disclosure exercises - but here they will not be - and why that matters
A detailed post by me:
emptycity.substack.com/p/three-reas...
February 10, 2026 at 10:56 AM
NEW
Three reasons why the Mandelson disclosure exercise will be a shock for the government
Ministers and officials usually are in control of disclosure exercises - but here they will not be - and why that matters
A detailed post by me:
emptycity.substack.com/p/three-reas...
Three reasons why the Mandelson disclosure exercise will be a shock for the government
Ministers and officials usually are in control of disclosure exercises - but here they will not be - and why that matters
A detailed post by me:
emptycity.substack.com/p/three-reas...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Melville: I hope you enjoyed that bloody action-packed chapter! But now, a moment to consider obscure technicalities about where everyone sits in the boat, how the boat is constructed, and my personal critique of current assigned seating practices.
February 10, 2026 at 1:02 AM
Melville: I hope you enjoyed that bloody action-packed chapter! But now, a moment to consider obscure technicalities about where everyone sits in the boat, how the boat is constructed, and my personal critique of current assigned seating practices.
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Plans to invade Greenland have just been cancelled after this
February 9, 2026 at 6:42 AM
Plans to invade Greenland have just been cancelled after this
Just a reminder, the “I” stands for intelligence
Estimates has just revealed that ASIO got the ABC's managing director wrong when seeking to email him about details in a recent Four Corners report. 10/10
February 10, 2026 at 6:14 AM
Just a reminder, the “I” stands for intelligence
"I helped a young girl who had been pepper sprayed in the face and collapsed into a seizure on the pavement. She was convulsing, incapacitated. As she lay there on the ground, police sprayed her again in the face." Eyewitness account by Andrew Brown michaelwest.com.au/this-was-pla...
This was planned. And Chris Minns owns it. - Michael West
NSW Police have assaulted dozens of peace protestors who gathered to protest the visit by Israeli president Isaac Herzog to Australia.
michaelwest.com.au
February 9, 2026 at 11:24 PM
"I helped a young girl who had been pepper sprayed in the face and collapsed into a seizure on the pavement. She was convulsing, incapacitated. As she lay there on the ground, police sprayed her again in the face." Eyewitness account by Andrew Brown michaelwest.com.au/this-was-pla...
Chris Minns and the NSW Police running lines about "the crowd really took part in some type of contagion of groupthink" and "small videos being put up ... out of context"; but somehow despite the "rolling melee of violence" there were no injuries to police www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Live: Minns admits clashes 'don't look good' but defends police after Herzog rally clashes
Twenty-seven people were arrested, including 10 for assaulting police, on Monday night at a demonstration against Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Australia.
www.abc.net.au
February 9, 2026 at 11:09 PM
Chris Minns and the NSW Police running lines about "the crowd really took part in some type of contagion of groupthink" and "small videos being put up ... out of context"; but somehow despite the "rolling melee of violence" there were no injuries to police www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
“Collection of Handwritten Letters from Children in Detention Center” sounds like an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum.
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 6:31 PM
“Collection of Handwritten Letters from Children in Detention Center” sounds like an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum.
I was looking at the TV feed of Herzog’s media conference today and I thought, “good work by the bodyguard to hold an umbrella up.”
It was Chris Minns
It was Chris Minns
One of the most pathetic pictures of anyone I've ever seen
February 9, 2026 at 10:24 AM
I was looking at the TV feed of Herzog’s media conference today and I thought, “good work by the bodyguard to hold an umbrella up.”
It was Chris Minns
It was Chris Minns
Reposted by Ben Eltham
NEW: A Queensland software engineer has been in a four-and-a-half year long battle with Services Australia to get a look at a MyGov app's source code.
He says we should be able to scrutinise it to make sure it's secure. Services Australia says it's a national security risk.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
He says we should be able to scrutinise it to make sure it's secure. Services Australia says it's a national security risk.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
February 9, 2026 at 4:49 AM
NEW: A Queensland software engineer has been in a four-and-a-half year long battle with Services Australia to get a look at a MyGov app's source code.
He says we should be able to scrutinise it to make sure it's secure. Services Australia says it's a national security risk.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
He says we should be able to scrutinise it to make sure it's secure. Services Australia says it's a national security risk.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Guardian Australia reporter Jordyn Beazley filmed this video not long ago of police moving towards protesters down Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD following the rally at Town Hall.
February 9, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Guardian Australia reporter Jordyn Beazley filmed this video not long ago of police moving towards protesters down Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD following the rally at Town Hall.
sOcIaL coHEsiON
Extraordinary footage. Police pulling off people engaged in peaceful prayer.
February 9, 2026 at 10:12 AM
sOcIaL coHEsiON
Reposted by Ben Eltham
My explainer on today's NSW protest challenge 'Isaac Herzog visit: protesters lose challenge to sweeping special police powers. What now?' #protest #auslaw
theconversation.com/isaac-herzog...
theconversation.com/isaac-herzog...
Isaac Herzog visit: protesters lose challenge to sweeping special police powers. What now?
NSW Supreme Court decision suggests a balance must be found between the right to protest and the need to protect public order.
theconversation.com
February 9, 2026 at 8:07 AM
My explainer on today's NSW protest challenge 'Isaac Herzog visit: protesters lose challenge to sweeping special police powers. What now?' #protest #auslaw
theconversation.com/isaac-herzog...
theconversation.com/isaac-herzog...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one.
Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
news.wisc.edu
February 9, 2026 at 4:46 AM
Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Reposted by Ben Eltham
the police presence at Town Hall is unfuckingbelievable. They are deep inside the station, stopping and searching people at the top of the stairs from the platform. Absolutely off the charts I have never seen anything like it and I have protested for over 40 years.
February 9, 2026 at 5:48 AM
the police presence at Town Hall is unfuckingbelievable. They are deep inside the station, stopping and searching people at the top of the stairs from the platform. Absolutely off the charts I have never seen anything like it and I have protested for over 40 years.