Even on the very rustic Greek island of Zakynthos, it was impossible to remain isolated from world events such as the airstrikes by Israel and the US on Iran.

While much of the commentary has split along the usual lines of conservatives around the world standing with the US, it is far from unclear how close Iran was to producing a nuclear weapon - Israel has been calling wolf on this for the last 20 years.

What was the motivation of President Donald Trump? Apparently he was encouraged by the positive Fox News coverage of Israel's earlier strikes.

As for Australia, there's a very important issue in all of this that no one wants to talk about, namely why are we still blindly following an increasingly erratic Washington administration.

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We bring you a special edition podcast from the Greek island of Zakinthos to discuss the current US administration’s review of AUKUS. It’s rather ominously worded to see if it fits President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda. Why do we always need to find out about these things from the Americans? Why can’t our own Defence Minister Richard Marles ever come clean about things such as how much we are giving to the US, and why they want us to lift Defence expenditure to 3.5% of GDP? As for the review itself, why would the US want to end the deal when there are still billions more dollars to be extracted from Australian taxpayers and gullible politicians?

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After the previous podcast, many people might have been hoping for a description of the TKMS bid for SEA 3000. Sorry to disappoint, but the rules imposed by Defence block that, and we have figured out who is to blame. It's the probity lawyers - what a surprise.

The media visit to Germany focused entirely on the parent yard build of the first three ships, and there is no doubt that TKMS and partner companies will be able to do that without working up a sweat. Then, some personal thoughts on strategic partnerships. Many people believe the relationship with Japan is so important that the Mogami should be automatically selected. But does it make sense to base partnerships on the purchase of equipment? Wouldn't it be better for that to be the domain of treaties and security guarantees? And shouldn't buying stuff work both ways if it's so important? Also, Ukraine is using drones to revolutionise warfare. We told you so.

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