The recent Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing may not have resolved major geopolitical disputes, but renewed dialogue between the United States and China represents an important step toward reducing tensions and strategic misunderstanding.
Category: Politics
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UN report details systemic torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees
A United Nations special rapporteur has documented extensive allegations of torture, sexual violence and abuse against Palestinian detainees held in Israeli custody since October 2023.
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Chance for a fresh start in patching up the Commonwealth Public Service
The appointment of a new Commonwealth Public Service Commissioner highlights deeper structural problems inside the Public Service Commission, from flawed remuneration policies to weak accountability and confused reform priorities.
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The aid budget ignored a deepening global crisis
Despite the economic and humanitarian shock triggered by the Iran war, Australia’s latest foreign aid budget failed to deliver the kind of substantial regional response the country mounted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Elon Musk lost his case against OpenAI – but the bigger questions remain
A US jury dismissed Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI on procedural grounds, leaving unresolved deeper questions about whether the company has abandoned its original nonprofit mission in pursuit of commercial dominance.
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Lady Justice: the scales, the blindfold and …. the social media post
The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions’ increasingly emotive and promotional social media presence raises broader questions about whether prosecutorial offices should market themselves like modern corporate workplaces.
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What Nakba Day feels like for a Palestinian in Australia
A personal reflection on Nakba Day, intergenerational trauma, exile and the experience of carrying Palestinian identity and grief while living in the Australian diaspora. (more…)
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Cutting tobacco tax will not stop Australia’s illegal cigarette trade
Proposals to slash Australia’s tobacco excise ignore the basic economics of the illegal cigarette market, where untaxed products would remain dramatically cheaper even if tobacco taxes were heavily reduced. (more…)
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The American mis-imagination of China
In a speech to a colloquium on John Hay’s Open Door Policy, former US diplomat Chas Freeman argues that America’s current approach to China is strategically self-defeating and increasingly detached from geopolitical reality. (more…)
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Why the next Trump-Xi summit could be in Australia’s backyard
As Washington and Beijing reshape the Indo-Pacific order through direct negotiation, Australia risks remaining strategically reactive instead of positioning itself as a trusted diplomatic bridge between the two powers. (more…)
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A Hungarian playbook for defeating populists?
Advocates of liberal democracy everywhere are celebrating Péter Magyar’s triumph over Viktor Orbán. But among the lessons to draw from the Hungarian experience, the most important may be that toppling an illiberal populist is not as straightforward as much of the press coverage has made it seem. (more…)
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Australia keeps feeding a housing system that cannot deliver
Australia’s housing crisis reflects not just a shortage of homes but the structural limits of a system that relies overwhelmingly on private developers and speculative market incentives to deliver essential social infrastructure. (more…)
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The prison system is failing at the point that matters most
Australia’s correctional system remains heavily focused on incarceration and punishment while failing to build a coordinated national framework to support people transitioning back into society after release.
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The Nakba did not end in 1948: how the bet on erasing Palestinian memory failed
The Nakba is not simply an historical event but an ongoing system of displacement, erasure and resistance that continues to shape Palestinian identity and political life generations later. (more…)
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How credible is the Liberal’s economic strategy?
Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech may appeal to One Nation supporters, but it doesn’t provide credible answers to the nation’s problems.
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A small but definite step for a timid prime minister, a tiny jump for Labor
The 2026 Budget marks a rare moment where Labor showed some willingness to confront inequality and tax reform, but the government still shrank from the scale of change the moment demanded. (more…)
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WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a global health emergency
The World Health Organization has declared the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda a global health emergency after the virus spread across borders and killed nearly 90 people.
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Trump’s aid cuts are pushing more Americans to food banks
Food banks across the United States are reporting surging demand as cuts to food assistance, rising prices and inflation leave millions of vulnerable Americans struggling to afford groceries.
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India is no longer resisting globalisation – it is shaping it
India has shifted from decades of economic protectionism to an outward-looking strategy built on trade, investment and global integration, transforming its role in the world economy. (more…)
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A man-made comet is striking the Earth
From climate change and extinction to groundwater depletion and chemical pollution, human activity is now transforming the Earth on a geological scale with potentially catastrophic consequences for civilisation and life itself.
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The weaponisation of antisemitism by the Zionist lobby hides the genocide
In a personal submission to the Antisemitism Royal Commission, P&I founder John Menadue argues that it is impossible to separate increasing rates of antisemitism from the way Israel has conducted its genocide in Gaza. (more…)
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Support for impeaching Trump is now firmly mainstream
Polling suggests support for impeaching Donald Trump has returned to levels seen during Watergate and Trump’s first presidency, even as the US political system still makes removal from office highly unlikely.
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What is a healthy forest?
Many proposals to create so-called ‘healthy forests’ through thinning and repeated burning risk further damaging Australian ecosystems already degraded by logging, clearing and over-management. (more…)
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The US and Iran are trapped in a dangerous cycle of escalation
The war between the US and Iran is increasingly being driven by the self-reinforcing dynamics of escalation, retaliation and mistrust that make de-escalation politically and strategically difficult.
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Labor has backed away from meaningful gambling reform
The government’s long-awaited response to the Murphy inquiry into online wagering falls short of the reforms needed to reduce gambling harm, particularly among young Australians.
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New Zealand PM ignores a terrorist attack on his own citizens
The Israeli assault on the Gaza-bound Global Sumud flotilla has sparked accusations that New Zealand’s government abandoned its own citizens and failed its most basic obligations under international law. (more…)
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America’s suicide pact
Donald Trump is not an aberration but the culmination of decades of political decay, elite corruption, corporate power and democratic collapse within the United States. (more…)
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The battle for human attention is becoming a battle for democracy
After US courts found Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately addicting young users, attention is increasingly being recognised not as a private commodity, but as a strategic resource shaping democracy, public debate and social stability. (more…)
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Renewables have won the electricity battle but not the climate war
Renewable electricity is taking over. But this does not mean the end of global warming. We may need a shock to take the climate problem seriously and strive for negative greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)
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Siri Hustvedt’s Ghost Stories will make you cry
Siri Hustvedt’s memoir ‘Ghost Stories’ chronicles the illness and death of her husband Paul Auster while exploring grief, memory, selfhood and the emotional architecture of long relationships.
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