If you do a Google search for the US federal health department (Health and Human Services) site, as I did this week, a big red banner pops up (over a homepage filled with happy snaps of Trump and Kennedy, and the Make America Healthy Again slogan).

The banner reads:

“Mission-critical activities of the HHS will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown. Please use this site as a resource as the Trump Administration works to reopen the government for the American people.”

So much is happening across the US that “little” things are still shocking. The note, trying to handball blame for the shutdown and its impact, is propaganda, pure and simple.

Make sure you caught Brad Reed on the impact of the shutdown, and how progressives are explaining it to the American people.

Former US Labor secretary Robert Reich addressed the elephant in the room: does Trump have dementia, and why is no-one talking about it?

Today, Ben Manksi tells of the bravery of regular citizens in the face of “an American tragedy”, and Joey McFadden profiles some of the malignant personalities destroying science-based healthcare.

We have had a very positive reaction to Chris Sidoti and Ben Saul’s National Press Club speeches on Palestine last week, transcribed here and available to view. Both men made an irresistible case for comprehensive further action from our Government, in practical and achievable terms.

My sincere thanks to readers who have been in touch, keen to hear more regarding my eye-opening week in China. I will write more in coming weeks, but in the meantime John Frew brings us his observations of rapid changes in Chinese youth culture. On the streets of Beijing, and further afield, young Chinese now hang out in KFCs and McDonald’s, and show individualism and consumer-driven values.

This week, as we approach the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attack, Eugene Doyle takes us through exactly what happened, and Peter Rodgers digs into the long lead-up to the day, in his review of Road to October 7 – a brief history of Palestinian Islamism, by Erik Skare.

 Until next week.