Extreme endurance events may look pointless from the outside, but they reveal a deeper cultural drive towards discipline, self-denial and achievement for its own sake. (more…)
Category: Politics
-
Not really like us – a new view of Trump’s America
Kieran Kelly’s Not Really Like Us traces a lifelong fascination with America that gives way to a more cautious view of the US as powerful, vital to Australia – and fundamentally different. (more…)
-
The AI arms race is putting safety last
The US and China are racing to build ever more powerful AI, but speed without safeguards risks catastrophic failure, political instability and dangers no country can contain. (more…)
-
“Very concerned” is not a foreign policy
While Gaza and the West Bank remain under siege, settlement and violence, Australia’s repeated support for a two-state solution sounds increasingly hollow without action. (more…)
-
How East Asia’s internet cafes became a cheap urban refuge
Across East Asia, internet cafes are no longer just places to get online. They have become cheap accommodation, workspaces and informal safety nets for people caught between jobs, homes and futures. (more…)
-
Victorian Labor’s collapse isn’t about debt. It’s about 2020
Victorian Labor’s collapse is not only about debt, crime or infrastructure blowouts, but a delayed reckoning from communities that felt broken by lockdowns and ignored by the recovery. (more…)
-
Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan win is a blow to AIPAC
Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary marks a major defeat for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and pro-Israel spending, and could signal a wider shift in Democratic politics over Gaza. (more…)
-
Plug-in solar could bring renters into the renewables boom
New Zealand has recommended legalising plug-in solar, potentially opening rooftop-style savings to renters, apartment dwellers and others previously locked out of renewables. (more…)
-
Voters are not abandoning democracy – they are waiting for it to work
Australians are not tuning out of democracy; they are losing faith in a political system that produces constant conflict but too little capacity to solve the problems it contests. (more…)
-
Climate action starts with clearer language
Many Australians are concerned about climate change but do not know how petrol, diesel and gas drive it, because climate language has become too technical, opaque and disconnected from daily life. (more…)
-
Can juries stay impartial in the opinion age?
Trial by jury remains fundamental to criminal justice, but high-profile cases, media saturation and jurors’ exposure to outside commentary are testing old assumptions about impartiality. (more…)
-
The program that quietly evaluated me
An Aboriginal-developed program revealed that lasting social change depends not only on structural reform, but on people discovering and using the agency they already possess.
-
What I saw in the West Bank
Former Irish president and UN human rights chief Mary Robinson says Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land is unfolding in plain sight, enabled by impunity and a lack of international political will.
-
Australia’s federation has survived 125 years of economic shocks
Australia’s economic history shows that major shocks often come from overseas, but better policy settings over the past three decades have helped keep unemployment, inflation and debt under greater control.
-
Israel accused of erasing evidence in Gaza
A new human rights report accuses Israeli forces and contractors of removing and crushing Gaza’s rubble before investigators can examine possible evidence of genocide, mass graves and unlawful killings. (more…)
-
India’s students reject the compliance machine
India’s student protests exposed a deeper crisis: an education system built around high-stakes exams, compliance and fear is no longer delivering secure futures or good jobs. (more…)
-
University racism definitions won’t dismantle racism
The government’s push for universities to adopt racism definitions risks turning anti-racism into compliance policy while leaving structural racism untouched and constraining speech on Palestine.
-
Need, not visa status, should determine how we treat the homeless
People seeking asylum and other non-residents face a double invisibility in Australia’s homelessness crisis, excluded from support systems just when they most need help.
-
Trump’s vanity battleship exposes AUKUS reactor problem
The planned nuclear-powered Trump-class battleship could place further pressure on already stretched US naval reactor supply chains, adding to doubts about Australia’s chances of receiving Virginia-class submarines. (more…)
-
The hounding of Tony Fauci shows Trump’s ugly America
The attacks on Tony Fauci over COVID-19 advice, masks, gain-of-function research and rejected treatments are vindictive politics dressed up as accountability.
-
Terrorism and the deliberate corruption of language and meaning
The word “terrorism” is applied selectively to enemies of the US and its allies, turning a legal and moral category into propaganda that obscures state violence and normalises genocide. (more…)
-
Israel is losing America – and endangering Jews
Israel’s war in Gaza has eroded support across the US political spectrum, while Netanyahu’s claim to act for all Jews risks fuelling the very anti-Jewish hostility Israel says it opposes. (more…)
-
IDF closes investigation into brutal 2023 settler attack on Palestinians without charges
The closure of an investigation into alleged torture by Israeli settlers and soldiers highlights the near-total impunity surrounding escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
-
Construction corruption: does not stop at the bottom so follow it to the top
Victoria’s construction royal commission must investigate crime, intimidation and labour abuse on building sites – but also the political, financial and procurement systems that allow corruption to flourish. (more…)
-
The lessons from 1914 and the great-power mistake we keep repeating
The build-up of deterrence, alliances and enemy thinking helped drive the catastrophe of 1914, and today’s great-power rivalry risks repeating the same dangerous cycle.
-
Disability statistics hide the burden public schools carry
Aggregate disability statistics suggest the schooling sectors share responsibility, but they can conceal where the most complex support needs actually land – and what public schools are expected to absorb. (more…)
-
Has China won the South China Sea?
The weakly supported anniversary statement on the Hague ruling showed how isolated the US and Australia have become on the South China Sea, with ASEAN preferring diplomacy over confrontation. (more…)
-
Pine Gap protest exposes Australia’s Indigenous rights hypocrisy
Australia champions Indigenous rights internationally, yet the militarisation of northern Australia raises urgent questions about consultation, consent and the use of Indigenous lands for defence purposes. (more…)
-
The truth, forced out, is more damaging than coming clean
A new round of royal commissions and public inquiries may expose not only corruption and mismanagement, but the deeper erosion of public trust in politics, parties and institutions. (more…)
-
The Hormuz crisis has become a test of state capacity
The Hormuz crisis shows that food security now depends not only on harvests and markets, but on whether governments have the fiscal, industrial and administrative capacity to secure fertiliser supplies. (more…)