Surrounded

The army gathered on the flanks of the valley.

The humans were active, annoyingly so.

But in that parallel realm, the army gathered, necessarily so, sentinel flags, the foot soldiers, the enemy realm, the fate of nations, the despicable carryons; oh how they mustered, how compromised they were.

He could be ill tempered, or of ill repute. None of it mattered; even these events, in this crime, in this day and age, were only signals in a greater rearrangement. 

He needed assistants. The greater task ahead. 

These remnant duties.

Why now, at this fulcrum point. "Groundhog day," they muttered in their own despair. 

He, like much of the population, could barely bear to watch the news; any of it; it all seemed so phony, so manipulated, so untrustworthy.

He was not about to interfere, although they thought he might. 

This one was free to take its course. 

The country was in election mode; preoccupying the legacy media in a two horse race.

It was of profound indifference which of the two old warhorses, those greying con artists fuelling spite, masquerading in a sham democracy, won the day.

Both had overseen or played their part in the serial abuses of the population over the previous two years; none of them had spoken out for decency, for respect, as they unleashed the soldiers and the police on their own people; and everywhere there were disastrous stories of vaccine injuries and the massive disruption imposed on the population; everywhere a lie.

So he just thought it through, and played dumb.

The foot soldiers gathered, the generals on horseback, the tents erected, the flags flying; for a war? For survival? To link to something else?

He would play dumb. He would go quiet. 

And their poisonous river; and their tedious stoushes, he would let them be.

Time would not be kind to either of them, or any of them. There was no need to add to their torment. The harm they did themselves was more than enough. 

Enough. 

MAINSTREAM NEWS

ABC

Anthony Albanese has stumbled on the first day of the election campaign, unable to recall key economic figures while trying to spruik Labor's credentials for government. 

Key points:

• The Opposition Leader was asked to name the unemployment and RBA cash rate

• Shadow Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was also asked the rates, which she knew

• The Prime Minister could not name the price of bread, milk and petrol when asked in February

The Opposition Leader was campaigning in Launceston, in the ultra-marginal Liberal electorate of Bass, when he was asked about the official Reserve Bank cash rate and the national jobless figure.

He was not able to provide an answer on either point, as journalists scrutinised the alternative prime minister on cost of living pressures facing Australians.

"We can do the old Q and A stuff over 50 different figures," he responded to a question on interest rates.

"The truth is that what they have said, the Reserve Bank, is that over the coming period… there will be multiple interest rate increases regardless of who is in government.

"We can do the 20 questions stuff through all of it."

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President Emmanuel Macron is taking his hunt for more re-election support to France’s former industrial heartland in the north, a blue-collar stronghold of far-right rival Marine Le Pen, who he will face in an April 24 run-off vote.

Mr Macron, 44, is vying to become the first president in two decades to win a second term, but faces a tough challenge from Ms Le Pen, who has tapped into anger over the cost of living and a perception that Mr Macron is disconnected from everyday hardships.

A Le Pen win would send shock waves across Europe and beyond, and deliver a similar jolt to the establishment as Britain’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union or Donald Trump’s 2017 entry into the White House.

Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen came out on top in Sunday’s first-round vote, setting up a repeat of the 2017 run-off between the pro-European economic liberal and the euro-sceptic nationalist.

Left-wing voters will be crucial to determining the outcome of the election.

Hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon, who came a close third on Sunday, told supporters not one single vote should go to the far right – but he stopped short of endorsing Mr Macron.

“Let’s make no mistake, nothing has been decided yet,” Mr Macron told his cheering supporters late on Sunday after partial results showed him qualifying for the run-off.

An interior ministry count showed that with 97 per cent of votes counted, Mr Macron had won 27.60 per cent of voters’ support. Ms Le Pen secured 23.41 per cent and Mr Melenchon 21.95 per cent.

Polls predict a close-fought second round with one survey projecting Mr Macron will win with just 51 per cent of the vote and 49 per cent for Ms Le Pen. The gap is so tight that victory either way is within the margin of error.

European neighbours are closely watching events in France, which together with Germany has driven Europe’s post-war integration.

The possibility of a Le Pen win was a worrying prospect for the EU and needed to be prevented by the French people, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

“It would not only be a break away from the core values of the EU, it would totally change its course,” Mr Asselborn said before a meeting with fellow European ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.

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