The huge nationwide protests that rocked Vietnam last week have highlighted Hanoi’s headaches in dealing with China, both as a hostile power in the South China Sea and as a key trading partner and economic investor. (more…)
John Menadue
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DENNIS ALTMAN. Australia’s dangerous obsession with the Anglosphere
Australia’s cultural obsession with the US and the UK has real impacts on our politics. (more…)
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SAM BATEMAN. Reflections on the United States Navy
The U.S. Navy had a horror year in 2017 with tragic accidents and a major corruption scandal. Rather than the cause mainly being a budgetary one with inadequate resources allowed the Navy, deeper cultural issues might also be involved. (more…)
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ROSS DOUTHAT. ‘#Me Too’ comes for the Cardinal (New York Times)
The first time I ever heard the truth about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., finally exposed as a sexual predator years into his retirement, I thought I was listening to a paranoiac rant. (more…)
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DORINA POJANI, IDERLINA MATEO-BABIANO, JONATHAN CORCORAN, NEIL SIPE. Freeing up the huge areas set aside for parking can transform our cities.
Parking may seem like a “pedestrian” topic (pun intended). However, parking is of increasing importance in metropolitan areas worldwide. On average, motor vehicles are parked 95% of the time. Yet most transport analysis focuses on vehicles when they are moving. (more…)
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PETER DAY. Beware the Push-Me-Pull-You Syndrome in our Universities.
Thanks to Isaac Newton we know that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
And while Newton’s 3rd Law specifically relates to objects and motion; it can equally apply to the spheres of culture and politics. (more…)
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JAMES FERNYHOUGH. This is how the biggest tax cut in history will affect you. (New Daily 21/6/2018)
Australia’s wealthiest 5 per cent of taxpayers are set to receive a $7000 tax cut, after the Turnbull government’s income tax bill passed through the Senate with the help of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
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ROBERT KAGAN. Trump’s America does not care.
Since the end of the Cold War, it has widely been assumed that U.S. foreign policy would follow one of two courses: Either the United States would continue as primary defender of the international order it created after World War II, or it would pull back from overseas commitments, shed global responsibilities, turn inward and begin transitioning to a post- American world. The second approach was where U.S. foreign policy seemed headed under President Barack Obama, and most saw the election of Donald Trump as another step toward withdrawal. (more…)
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JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Telstra’s bombshell announcement is ‘huge’ news for consumers.
Telstra’s bombshell announcement that it will split in two is “huge” news for consumers, resulting in cheaper, faster internet. But experts say it comes 15 years and $40 billion too late. (more…)
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SAM HURLEY AND KATE MACKENZIE. Climate horizons.
Companies are still lagging on modelling and disclosing impacts of climate change – more business, government and regulatory action is required. (more…)
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Vietnam: Investigate Police Response to Mass Protests.
Hundreds Detained in Sweeping Crackdown (more…)
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BHIM BHURTEL. Nepal looks toward China as a measure of last resort
After an exchange of high-level trips between Nepal and India, Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli is to land in Beijing on Tuesday for a five-day state visit. It will be his second state visit since his accession to the Prime Minister’s Office after his party’s landslide victory in the general election in November. (more…)
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CHRISTINA HO, EDGAR LIU, HAZEL EASTHOPE. Higher density and diversity: apartments are Australia at its most multicultural.
Increasing numbers of city dwellers live in apartments. This is particularly the case for migrants. And that makes apartment buildings important hubs of multiculturalism in our cities. (more…)
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JOANNE McCARTHY. Bishop breaks ranks on church report into child abuse royal commission (SMH 21/6/2018)
Bishop of Parramatta Vincent Long Van Nguyen has broken ranks with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to join reform groups and politicians calling for public release of a church report responding to the child abuse royal commission. (more…)
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DAVID JAMES. Academics tangle with managerial oppressors.
The imposition of what is termed ‘managerialism’ or ‘marketisation’ on universities is almost entirely disastrous. (more…)
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PETER RODGERS. Israel-Palestine – Vale the two-state solution; where to now?
With the two-state solution in the morgue, governments around the globe will need to consider anew the unpalatable realities of this long-running conflict. (more…)
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FERGUS PEACE. Australia’s pitiless migrant policy is no model for Europe.
Italy’s refusal to let a migrant rescue ship dock feels alarmingly familiar to many. (more…)
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RICHARD GLOVER. Move over, Emmanuel Macron. Australia has the true Trump whisperer. (Washington Post 19/6/2018)
Australia is the last U.S. ally standing. We’ve escaped America’s new tariffs, our leader has yet to be labeled weak or a liar, and the United States has even agreed to accept some of Australia’s unwanted refugees. President Trump called that refugee arrangement “the worst deal ever,” but he has allowed it to be implemented.
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2018 Lowy Institute Poll – Climate change, renewables and coal.
Despite the debate and political rhetoric, most Australians have not been persuaded to support coal over renewables for the nation’s energy security. Almost all Australians remain in favour of renewables, rather than coal, as an energy source. In 2018, 84% (up three points since 2017) say ‘the government should focus on renewables, even if this means we may need to invest more in infrastructure to make the system more reliable’. (more…)
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SOPHIE VORRATH. Coal to be kaput in Australia by 2050, as renewables, batteries take over
Australia’s coal-fired generation capacity could be little more than a twinkle in Tony Abbott’s eye by as early as 2050, when it will have been all but snuffed out by cheap renewables and battery storage, and household energy investments. (more…)
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DER SPIEGEL Italy Sends a Jolt Through Europe.
Euro-skeptic Italian populists are posing a serious threat to the European Union. Following the drama over Greece and Brexit, the political situation in Rome could throw Europe into its next major existential crisis. (more…)
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LEE JEON-HO. China adds to nuclear arsenal amid military modernisation drive
China now has 280 warheads, according to think tank, which calls nuclear states’ renewed focus on deterrence and capacity ‘a very worrying trend’ (more…)
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LOWY SURVEY-Donald Trump a ‘critical threat’ to Australia’s interests as trust in US hits record low.
Australians’ trust in the United States as a world leader has dropped to a record low as two out of five people consider President Donald Trump a “critical threat” to Australia’s interests, according to the latest Lowy Institute poll. 43 percent of those surveyed thought that Chinese President Xi Jinping would act responsibly compared with only 30 percent for President Trump. (more…)
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CAROL GLATZ. Dictatorships begin with taking over media, warns pope
Individuals are tempted to destroy by spreading scandalous news, Pope Francis said during Mass. Media outlets are also put in the hands of unscrupulous people. (more…)
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GARRY EVERETT. The Catholic Church at the crossroads.
The cross has long been a radical and confronting symbol among religious groups. In a similar way, at the crossroads of life, we are challenged by choices which will lead us to either good or ill. The Catholic Church in Australia has reached the crossroads and there is an urgency to the choices that must be made. The old ways have run their course and new ways must be found. (more…)
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ATUL ANEJA. India rebalancing ties with Pakistan to open path to Eurasia
In a significant gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain shook hands and exchanged pleasantries after a press conference by the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here on Sunday. (more…)
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ISHAAN THAROOR. Is Trump gaslighting the world on North Korea.
Critics of President Trump routinely accuse him of “gaslighting” — that is, of deliberately repeating misinformation to the extent that the public starts doubting verifiable facts and believing in Trump’s self-serving talking points. Trump told us after the Singapore Summit that ‘I may stand before you in six months and say “hey, I was wrong”. I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that,but I’ll find some kind of an excuse’ (more…)
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German chancellor’s tense standoff with hardline interior minister “endangers existence of gvernment as substantially as the stability of the country”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing strong pressure to tighten her country’s refugee policies to avoid the collapse of her coalition government as the heated row over the handling of migration intensifies. (more…)
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KEN MOAK. US-led naval operation will not change China’s posture.
At the 2018 Shangri-La Dialogue, the defense ministers of France and the UK announced that their governments will send warships to join those of the US in challenging China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea (Naval Today, April 6). However, they did not specify how many ships the two European powers will commit to the US-led FNOPs (freedom of navigation operations) or whether they will sail within the 19-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ), suggesting that neither country wants to irk China. (more…)