Amid revelations that some beauty pageants allegedly served as fronts for the exploitation of teenage girls, parents of former contestants are reassessing once-cherished memories. Thousands have joined a rapidly growing online support group to share accounts of judges’ disturbing comments, while many current contestants and their families remain undeterred, with entry numbers hitting record highs.

Rule O’Flaw is pioneering a new way for the public to understand, critique, and ultimately improve the legal and political institutions that shape their lives. Drawing on our original conceptual frame...

Across the country, many have organised large protests condemning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s invitation to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, despite UN findings that he incited genocide in Gaza. Yesterday, the NSW Supreme Court dismissed an urgent application brought by the Palestine Action Group challenging Premier Chris Minns’ use of “major event” legislation, which granted NSW Police sweeping powers to restrict protests across Sydney during President Herzog’s visit. The Court ruled that these restrictions were necessary to ensure that Australia meets its obligations to expose Herzog to nothing but “positive vibes” during his stay.

Steve Bannon, a prominent MAGA figure who appears extensively in the Epstein files—a fact he blithely dismisses as “the inevitable consequence of Jeffrey Epstein’s penchant for surrounding himself with the best and the brightest”—has urged MAGA faithful to take solace in the notion that “the highest echelons of our society, as reprobate as they may be in some respects, remain unsullied by trans and DEI ‘infestation,’ thus saving our children from exploitation by brutes.”

Leaked correspondence between NSW Premier Chris Minns and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reveals that Minns played a key role in orchestrating Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia, apparently to test sweeping new anti‑protest “emergency” laws passed in the wake of the Bondi massacre. These laws heavily restrict demonstrations, are being challenged in court, and, according to critics, allow the government to exploit fear and accusations of antisemitism to silence dissent.

Since his appointment as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been at the centre of mounting controversy. Under his leadership, HHS has experienced a steep decline in its ability to deliver critical public health programs, driven by an exodus of experts and their replacement with unqualified political appointees. Recently leaked correspondence between Kennedy and Satan allegedly sheds light on the decisions that many claim are responsible for the unravelling of HHS’ work.

A Minneapolis provocateur has exploited the recent tragic events in his community to seize the international spotlight and prove that he is every bit as deplorable as the most prominent figures in the MAGA world. His actions have caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has announced a new asylum program open exclusively to American women seeking to escape “the indignity of living under a Trump presidency.” Framing it as protection from U.S. oppression and cultural objectification, he defended Iran’s gender policies as religiously grounded and morally superior, while offering expedited citizenship to women with nuclear expertise.

United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem held a press conference in Minneapolis after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman, announcing that the killing complied with all departmental policy requirements, including the procurement of an appropriate doctor’s certificate.

U.S. President Donald Trump has set a one-time joining fee of “US$1 billion in small, unmarked bills” for a permanent seat on his newly conceived “Board of Peace,” stating that the sum is necessary to gauge permanent members’ “commitment to bearing the costs required to keep the organisation relevant” by ensuring that he is “properly incentivised.”

Journalist Don Lemon has been arrested in St. Paul for his role in filming a protest at a church connected to an ICE official. Lemon has publicly embraced the arrest, framing it as proof of both his Black identity and his political relevance, while emphasising that the horrors of the ordeal for a person of his distinction and refinement surpassed even the suffering of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Canada’s long-term relationship with the U.S. is on the rocks as Prime Minister Mark Carney openly flirts with new partners, from Beijing to European capitals. After a dramatic Taylor Swift–themed performance at the World Economic Forum in Davos—staged to “show the world what a jerk Donald Trump is”—and reports that Canada has relisted its Seeking Arrangements profile, Ottawa is signalling that it’s ready to “live in the moment” rather than work through a messy breakup.

At an Invasion Day rally in Perth, a foiled bombing attempt has left Australians shaken—and robbed washed-out progressive politicians of a rare chance to revive their careers with fiery speeches on Aboriginal rights and government failures.

Addressing U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats—intended to pressure European nations into dropping their opposition to the proposed U.S. annexation of Greenland—U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer outlined his government’s strategy for dealing with the Trump administration.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Palestinian criticism of Hitler, calling it a “heinous appropriation of Jewish grief” and an “act of war.” He vowed a devastating response to what he described as a “transparent Hitler‑bashing façade” intended to “curry favour with gullible liberal Jews.”

This article examines the “Folklore Effect” framework as a theoretical explanation for predictable patterns of institutional corruption and misconduct. Drawing on prospect theory and behavioural economics, the framework posits that officials engaged in wrongdoing undergo a four-step psychological cascade: initial misconduct, fear-driven loss aversion, narrative distortion, and truth suppression, which together perpetuate systemic corruption.

Australian sharks have denounced renewed calls for their culling following a spate of recent attacks, insisting that the proposed measures are “a severe overreaction to a simple misunderstanding” caused by mistaken identity and exacerbated by “Sussan Ley’s frequent and arbitrary shifts in position—even on core issues.”

After Kevin Rudd’s fiery tenure as Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has turned to a strikingly different figure: Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty. Moriarty, described as suffering from a “rare and peculiar affliction” that renders him “incapable of meaningful speech at work,” is, in the Prime Minister’s view, uniquely suited to safeguard Australia’s interests as the nation “confronts the nuanced complexities of dealing with the Trump administration.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced at a press conference in Canberra on Wednesday, 14 January 2026, that his government was taking the “ultimate step” to permanently eliminate “the scourge of hateful and divisive rhetoric in Australia.”

Following a damning review of Australia’s human rights record in relation to the criminal justice system, PM Albanese has unequivocally rejected a strong recommendation from U.N. member states to reintegrate criminally convicted minors into Australia’s social media ecosystem, stating that “allowing these young people back onto social media” with “confronting stories to share” is “unlikely to bode well.”

Amid the chaos unleashed upon the nation by Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. President, former president Joe Biden visited Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home to gloat over what he sees as the disastrous consequences of Democrats’ betrayal. Unable to meet with Pelosi, he held a press conference in which he declared that Trump’s presidency is the nation’s “penance” before it deserves him again.

FBI Director Kash Patel defended the Trump administration’s account of the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, arguing that Pretti “deserved to be executed on the spot the moment it was discovered that he was carrying a loaded gun while showing up to criticise ICE,” and claiming that Democrats are exploiting the Second Amendment for political gain.

In a nationally televised address on Friday, 9 January 2026, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dismissed the ongoing nationwide protests as merely a “passing fad,” brought on by an “infatuation with ‘bad boys’ among the infidel and the infirm within the Iranian populace.”

An indignant J.D. Vance chastised the White House press corps for what he described as overwhelmingly negative coverage of the Trump administration following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Vance also delivered stern criticism of Democratic officials in Minnesota, accusing them of “clearly exploiting the Trump administration’s monstrosity to score cheap points with their electorate.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that Russia’s recent escalation of drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities aims exclusively to eliminate the remaining barriers to achieving a comprehensive and peaceful resolution between the two warring nations.