Gentlefolk,
This post describes our main activities during the month of February 2025.
The contents of this post are in the following sequence:
Photos of our activities during February 2025.
News items which caught my eye in February 2025.
A summary of actions by President Trump in his first three weeks in the White House (frightening but fascinating!).
International Trade (this section survives, for now).
Herewith photos of some of our activities in February 2025:
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| Lunch with Bron & Daz Hensley at "The Black House" in Maleny (about 40 minutes from Nirimba). As part of ongoing renovations, they recently painted their house black (and changed all the windows to louvre windows to enahnce air flow). We met them on the tour of India in Feb/March 2020, lovely couple. |
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| A group from our Village went on a cruise of the Mooloolaba canals. Our captain/guide was exceptional. |
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| We passed 'One Croc', Steve Irwin's boat before his tragic death from a Sting Ray. |
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| We went with Glenys and Ken from our Village. Dinner first and then the show. |
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| The Credence Clearwater night at the Banana Benders Pub - dancing - good fun. |
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| We went to dinner and the show with Glenys and Ken from our Village. Ken knew the band so we got to meet them during an intermission. |
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| My former student in Qingdao, Charles Yu and his partner Nikki visited us for a weekend. We tried go-karting near us. Exciting! Charles did engineering and finished his degree at the University of Wollongong. He liked the lifestyle here and decided to stay. Worked in Sydney. Nikki and he moved to Brisbane about 18 months ago. They bought a lovely house and are doing very well. |
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| A view of the 1.2km Go Kart track - super fun. |
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| Jen & tom & Kurt came up for a weekend. Always good to see them, they are just so clever with digital stuff and also gardening. We had dinner at Kings Beach Surf Lifesaving Club. Tom & Kurt found some good waves for a surf. |
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| The Roberts leaving to return home to Brisbane (just over an hour from Nirimba to The Gap). |
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| Vera and I have joined two U3A classes - "Brain Health" on Monday mornings at Caloundra Library, and "Travel Chats" on Tuesday afternoons. It's good to do some activities outside the Village. Vera also participates in a Mandarin Chinese language class (by zoom) on Wednesday mornings. This photo shows part of the Brain Health group. We haven't done crosswords before and are finding it a challenge (which is the idea!). |
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| We had lunch with Sismanie Urbanchik in Nambour, about 30 mins from us. Vera and Sismanie were classmates at Teacher's College in Jogjakarta back in the 1960s. Sismanie and her husband moved from Canberra to Nambour about 15 years ago; unfortunately he has since passed away. . |
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| Barry Ditchburn from our Village organised a visit to the Queensaland Air Museum in Caloundra. |
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| The Museum is run completely by volunteers, two of whom, Casey and Ray, showed us around. They said it has the largest collection in Australia of non-flying aircraft. They have a DC3 built in 1937 for KLM (used to take 10 days to fly from The Netherlands to Indonesia). It was in serivce until 1983. The Museum also features an F18; Ventura A59; Ganet X331; Drover YH-FDS (ex Royal Flying Doctor Service); Caribou A4-173; Canberra bomber; Sea Vixen; Meteor; etc. |
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| Good neighbours Margaret and Gary invited me to join them at the Sunshine Cost Turf Club races on Sunday 23 February 2025. There were 8 races, between 1,200 and 1,400 meters. We picked one winner. |
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| The horses being paraded before a race. |
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| .....and the winner was #5, by a nose from #11 (we had picked #11 for the win!). |
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| I'm starting to enjoy lawn bowls at the Village. Some proper coaching is being arranged for beginners like me. |
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| The topic at this week's U3A Travel Chats group was "Auroras" also known as Northern Lights. It is a natural light display in the sky that occurs when electrically chagerd particles from the sund collide with the earth;s atmosphere. Amazing, spectacular scenes. |
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| Laura Sandmeier visited Caloundra. We had coffee at Kings Beach. Perfect day. |
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| Vera & Laura. We had lunch in a Thai restaurant, then coffee at Kings Beach. Drove aling Golden Beach. Then home to show Laura our house and the Village. Swim in the pool. Then Bingo, followed by dinner in a Japanese restaurant before dropping Laura off. |
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News items which caught my eye in February 2025.
($ are US dollars unless otherwise shown)
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Global
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UK: 5th
anniversary of Brexit; many people now regret that decision. A jury found
soccer star Sam Kerr not guilty of causing racially aggravated harassment for
calling a Police Officer “stupid & white”. Israel: Netanyahu was
the first foreign leader to meet Trump at the White House, followed by Modi. Sweden: ten people
killed in shooting at an Adult Education Centre. Japan: 1.2 metres of
snow fell in 12 hours in Obihiro, Hokkaido. Argentina: pulled out of
the World Health Organisation (followed US example). Malaysia: received 25M
foreign visitors in 2024: main sources 9M from Singapore, 4M from Indonesia,
3M from China, 2M Thailand. Artificial Intelligence (AI): at a
conference in Paris, 60 countries signed the AI Action Statement to make AI
open, inclusive and ethical (signatories included China, India, France etc
but not the USA or UK). Singapore: will invest
$750M in a new R&D semiconductor facility. Vatican: Pope Francis is
seriously ill with pneumonia in both lungs. Egypt: Tomb of Pharoah
Thutmose 2 (1493-1479) discovered (first major tomb since Tutankhamun in
1922). Spain: ex-Football
boss Luis Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault for kissing Jenni
Hermoso after winning the World Cup. G20 Foreign
Ministers meeting held in South Africa – US absent. Ice Hockey:
Canada beat USA 3-2 in overtime in final of the 4 Nations Championship (USA,
Canada, Finland & Sweden). Germany: Elections held on 23 February top 3 parties: conservative CDU got 29% of vote; right wing AfD got 21% (up from10% in 2021); and social democrats SPD got 16% (down from 26% in 2021). CDU leader Friedrich Merz (69) will seek to form a coalition government and replace Olof Scholz as Germany’s Chancellor.
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Israel –
Hamas & Hezbollah |
Israel and Hamas
agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, and an exchange of hostages for Palestinians
in Israeli jails. Gaza casualties since 7 October 2024: estimated at least 48K killed (mainly women & children) and 112K injured; most buildings and infrastructure destroyed. Israel's PM Netanyahyu was obviously very pleased at President Trump's suggestion that Gaza Palestinians be relocated to neighbouring countries. Trump said that the USA would assume control of Gaza, which would be redeveloped as a "new Riviera". Reports that Israel's IDF is increasing operations in the West Bank. |
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Russian
invasion of Ukraine |
3rd
anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (24 Feb 2022). American and
Russian officials, including Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov, met in Saudi
Arabia to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Zelensky and Europe angry at not
being included. European leaders,
and UK, held emergency meetings in Paris and London to decide future support for
Ukraine.
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USA
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President Trump –
many, many initiatives in first few weeks in the White House, see summary below (after this News section). Trump fired General Charles Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and five other senior Pentagon officers. Trump banned
Associated Press (AP) from White House briefings until it accepts the new
name for Gulf of America. Elon Musk spent $290M
supporting Republicans during the 2024 election campaign. His DOGE is targeting many federal departments and agencies. He initiated an email from
the Office of Personnel Management to all Federal employees asking them to
list their contributions/achievements to justify their positions. NFL Super Bowl
59: Played in New Orleans. Philadelphia Eagles 40 beat Kansas City Chiefs
22. MVP Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. Jordan
Mailata is the first Australian to win a Super Bowl. He was born in Sydney of
Samoan parents. He plays Offensive Linesman for the Eagles. He is 27 years
old, 2.03 metres tall and weighs 166 kg. President Trump attended the Super
Bowl. The US Mint
loses $85M pa on producing pennies – will stop. Following Trump
Executive Order, Google Maps changed the name of Gulf of Mexico to
Gulf of America. Mexico not happy. 50th
anniversary of “Saturday Night Live”. Berkshire
Hathaway reported an operating profit of $47B in 2024. CEO Warren Buffett is
94 and hinting of retiring. Roberta Flack
died aged 88; famous for hits such as “Killing me Softly” and “The First
time I saw your Face”.
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Australia |
YouGov Poll of 41,000 found
that if an election were held now the Coalition would win about 73 seats and
Labor 66 seats, Greens 1, and independents 10 (76 needed for a majority in
HoR). The Reserve
Bank cut interest rates by 0.25% to 4.1%; there were 13 rate hikes since
Nov 2020. Extensive flooding
around Townsville & Ingham in North Queensland, much damage, at least 2
dead. Aust Govt banned
Chinese AI company DeepSeek from govt devices. Australian
Parliament strengthened hate-crime laws: 6 years mandatory jail for
terrorist offences; 3 years for providing financial support; 1 year for Nazi
salute and symbols. SA Govt forced
the Whyalla Steelworks into receivership following payment delays by
owner. Prime Minister
Albanese announced additional funding of A$8.5B to Medicare to increase
bulk-billing rates.
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Donald John Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the USA on 21 January 2025.
He was much better prepared this time, and started to implement his program immediately, largely via Executive Orders (he signed 73 EOs in the first 100 days).
It's been a period of whirlwind action, which has completely dominated the media. He may be a rogue, but he certainly gets things done (eg Canada and Mexico making significant changes with threat of 25% tariffs).
To give a sense of what is happening, the following is a summary of Trump's key actions in the first three weeks of this administration.
Oliver Holmes, The Guardian, Sat 25 Jan 2025
Donald Trump has spent his first week back in the White
House introducing so many policy changes that it has been hard to keep up with
what has happened.
In less than a week, the new administration has abandoned
the world’s main health agency, ditched a global treaty on the climate crisis,
and told refugees already approved to fly to the US that they were not welcome
and could no longer come.
1. Issued
pardons for people involved in the January 6 attack
Trump issued presidential pardons for about 1,500 people who
were involved in the January 6 attack on Congress, including more than 250
people who were convicted of assault charges.
2. Left
the World Health Organization and suspended foreign aid
The US announced it would exit the World Health Organization
(WHO) and suspended all foreign aid for three months.
3. Backed
‘biblical’ Israeli claims to Palestinian land
Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations
endorsed Israeli claims of “biblical rights” to the entire occupied West Bank.
4.
Withdrew from the Paris climate agreement
On his first day back as president, Trump signed an
executive order in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC to quit the
Paris climate agreement for a second time. It will take about a year for the
withdrawal to be formalised.
The administration separately plans to fast-track permits
for new fossil fuel projects.
5.
Launched a war on migrants – and their children
Trump declared a “national emergency” related to migration. The
president also targeted people already in the country by seeking to cancel
automatic citizenship for US-born children, known as birthright.
6.
Cancelled travel for refugees, including those approved to resettle in US
One of Trump’s first actions as president was to suspend a
refugee admissions program for people who have fled war and persecution.
7.
Recommitted to the death penalty
Trump has committed to pursue federal death sentences and
pledged to ensure that states have sufficient supplies of lethal injection
drugs for executions.
8.
Ignited fear when Elon Musk appeared to make a fascist salute
Elon Musk, Trump’s closest billionaire backer, ignited
controversy when he gave back-to-back fascist-style salutes during inauguration
celebrations. Musk later responded to criticisms of his behaviour on X,
tweeting: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’
attack is soo tired.”
9. Warned
Joe Biden he should have pardoned himself
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said Joe Biden should
have pardoned himself – a lightly veiled threat that he would go after the
former president.
10. Put
anti-discrimination government staff on leave
US federal employees working to halt discrimination were put
on paid leave this week. Under the order, the White House said it would scrap
all Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility offices, positions, plans,
actions, initiatives or programs within 60 days.
11.
Denied transgender rights (and banned flags)
Government agencies issuing passports, visas and other
official documents have been ordered to only allow male and female as options.
12.
Changed a couple of names
In his inaugural speech, Trump repeated his intention to
rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. He also said he would revert
the name of Alaska’s 20,000ft mountain Denali, the highest peak in North
America, to Mount McKinley – its name before Barack Obama changed it in 2015.
Trump's key actions in Week 2.
Feb. 5, 2025 By Ryan Teague Beckwith MSNBC.
Here's a not-entirely exhaustive rundown of actions by the
Trump administration in his second week in office:
• Signed the Laken Riley Act, which allows federal
immigration officers to detain and deport undocumented people charged with
crimes, instead of just those who have been convicted.
• Ordered a widespread freeze on trillions of
dollars in federal grants and loans. Rescinded a memo about the
freeze after a judge blocked it.
• Paused a U.S. foreign aid agency's spending, placed
top officials on leave, ordered workers to stay home and locked them out of
their email.
• Purged multiple government websites of
references to climate change and LGBTQ+ Americans, including the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Census.
• Signed an executive order that would make it
possible to detain migrants at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay.
Promised to send 30,000, although it held only 680 prisoners at its
peak.
• Sent 2 million federal workers an email offering
to keep paying them through September if they resign now, a move that appears
to run afoul of federal employment rules.
• Revoked a security detail and clearance for
former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, who once called Trump "fascist." Ordered
a review to see if Milley, who is retired, should be demoted.
• Launched a review of federal prosecutors' use of
an obstruction of justice charge against some Jan. 6 defendants which the
Supreme Court said was used too broadly.
• Ordered public K-12 schools to stop teaching
"radical gender ideology and critical race theory," although it's
unclear exactly how the federal government will pursue this.
• Ordered a 10% tariff on all Chinese products,
leading Beijing to announce tariffs on U.S. coal, gas and other goods,
restrictions on exports of minerals and an investigation into Google.
• Ordered 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada,
leading fans at an NBA game in Toronto to boo the U.S. national anthem,
then announced both would be paused for a month.
• Blamed, without evidence, Federal Aviation
Administration efforts to hire a more diverse staff for an air crash near
Washington, D.C.
• Suggested Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations accept
more Palestinian refugees in order to “just clean out” the war-torn
Gaza Strip, wording criticized for sounding like "ethnic cleansing."
• Joked about serving a third term, which would be
unconstitutional, while speaking with House Republicans holding a retreat at
the Trump National Doral Golf Club, which he owns.
Trump’s key actions in Week 3.
The third week of Donald Trump's second term has been marked
by more major action from the US president and his team.
1.
Proposed the US 'take over' Gaza
At a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the US would
"take over" and "own" Gaza, resettling its Palestinian
population in the process (he mentioned Egypt and Jordan as possible
destinations). Trump proposed developing the territory into the "Riviera
of the Middle East".
2.
Planned to put thousands of USAID staff on leave
Thousands of employees at the US Agency for International
Development (USAID), the government's main foreign aid agency, were expected to
be placed on leave at midnight on Friday. The proposed cuts will affect the
vast majority of the agency's workforce, leaving only a few hundred essential
staff out of a total of about 10,000 employees globally.
3.
Imposed tariffs on China and pulled back threats on neighbours
Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese imports on Tuesday,
but held off on his threat of implementing 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and
Mexico for 30 days, after those countries' leaders pledged to beef up border
security and help combat drugs.
4.
Pressed ahead with plan to incentivise federal workers to resign
The Trump administration had offered incentives to federal
workers to voluntarily resign by a Thursday midnight deadline - part of an
effort to slash the size of the government.
5.
Sanctioned the International Criminal Court
On Thursday, Trump signed an order to impose sanctions on
some staff of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The sanctions place
financial and visa restrictions on individuals and their families who assist in
ICC investigations of American citizens or allies.
More than 120 countries, including the UK, are members of
the ICC, though the US and Israel are not.
6.
Ordered strikes against the Islamic State group in Somalia
Trump said he ordered military air strikes on a senior
attack planner and others from the Islamic State (IS) group in north-east
Somalia on 1 February.
7.
Withdrew from United Nations institutions
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the
US from the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, of which Israel
has been highly critical.
The same order said the US would no longer participate in
the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and the US would conduct a review of its
membership in the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) within 90 days.
8. Sent
first plane of deportees to Guantanamo
The US sent the first group of migrants to Guantanamo Bay on
Tuesday, after Trump announced plans to expand migrant detention at the US Navy
base in Cuba to 30,000.
9.
Demanded Ukraine provide rare earth resources
On Monday, Trump said he wanted Ukraine to guarantee the
supply of more rare earth metals in exchange for $300bn (£240bn) to support its
fight against Russia.
10.
Banned transgender competitors from women's sports
Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that prevents
transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.
11.
Released water from dams in California
Trump on Monday ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to
release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in California's
Central Valley after deadly wildfires in Los Angeles in January. Trump had
claimed California withheld water supplies that could have made a difference in
fighting the fires, which the state's Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials
disputed.
12.
Announced taskforce to tackle 'anti-Christian bias'
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that aimed
"to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian
weaponization of government". He appointed newly confirmed Attorney
General Pam Bond to lead a task force to eradicate what he called
"anti-Christian bias" in the federal government.
13.
Intervened in a dispute in the golf world
Trump, an avid golf player who owns courses around the
world, reportedly intervened in a dispute between championship organiser PGA
Tour and its rival series LIV Golf.
14.
Removed climate change mentions from government websites
Starting last week, the Trump administration reportedly
ordered departments of transportation, defence, state and agriculture to remove
references to climate change from their websites. Some climate content remained
on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Nasa and energy department's
sites.
15.
Increased access for Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)
President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had directed
Musk's Doge, a cost-cutting initiative to shrink the federal government, to
"check out" spending at the defence department among other agencies.
16. Joe
Biden's security clearance revoked
Trump revoked Joe Biden's security clearance and access to
daily intelligence briefings on Friday - something Biden did to Trump four
years ago.
17.
Scraps task force that seized assets of Russian oligarchs
Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi this week disbanded a
force designed to combat foreign interference in elections, as well as another
initiative which targeted Russian oligarchs. Bondi also disbanded the FBI's
Foreign Influence Task Force - which aimed to prevent foreign meddling in US
elections - to reassign its staff to focus instead on drug cartels and
transnational criminal organisations.
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We have been in Halcyon Nirimba for 4.5 months and are starting to feel more settled now. Ironically, one of the reasons was Vera's fall back in November. In late-January she started twice-a-week Balance Classes at Caloundra Hospital, which has meant that we have had to become much more comfortable driving into Caloundra.
Typically, I drop her off at the Hospital, and then go for a swim at Kings Beach, before picking her up again. I love spending even just 15 minutes battling the strong waves and undertoe.
Also this month our U3A classes started: Monday morning "Brain Health" at Caloundra Library, and Tuesday afternoon "Travel Chats" at the CWA hall. Both locations are in Caloundra city which, again, has forced us to come to terms with driving in this area.
The Piriformis muscle in my left buttock continues to give me grief (started in December), despite daily stretching. Had a CT scan - the doctor confirmed that I have arthritis in my lower back and lower spine. She said there is no cure, but can manage the pain with anti-inflamatories. I am trying an acupuncturist, David Pentland, but little relief so far.
The last 2 weeks we have noticed the weather become less humid, and the mornings a little cooler. Maximum temperatures are still around 30C. The weather is very variable: clear blue skies can turn into showers within an hour.
That's it for this post.
