For the last two years, my social media algorithm has been relentlessly dominated by Gaza, particularly by the voices of ordinary Gazans, displaying a blend of emotions that centres on two core principles: grief and defiance. (more…)
Category: Politics
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From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine
Real peace demands Palestinian statehood, Ukrainian neutrality and the courage to defy the war lobby. (more…)
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Is the Great Barrier Reef collapsing?
It’s the largest living structure on Earth, 3000 individual reefs, 900 islands, 1430 miles, and it may be collapsing. (more…)
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Is Gen-Z the transformative generation?
There is an epochal divide opening up between Gen-Z voters (born between 1997 and 2012) and previous generations that are beginning to struggle for relevance. (more…)
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Five charts that show how young Australians are getting screwed
Australia is becoming increasingly unequal. The story is unmissably generational: young Australians today face a tougher reality than their parents and grandparents. (more…)
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The three core myths driving Israel’s war on Palestine
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, one of the most outspoken moral critics within Israel itself, once summarised what he called the “three core values of Israeli society”: the belief that Jews are the chosen people; that they are the world’s ultimate victims; and that Palestinians are not equal human beings. (more…)
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Raise the double standard high
There is a famous quote with many attributions but no firm source – “Sincerity is the most important thing in politics: once you can fake that, you’ve got it made!” (more…)
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Albo brings peace in our time
The prospect of a military confrontation between the US and China is receding, as is the prospect of a conflict over Taiwan, according to a relaxed Donald Trump talking to Australian journalists and politicians during Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington. But even if conflict were to occur, America might not be calling on Australia, or Britain, to fight alongside it. (more…)
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It’s no longer possible to be a Palestinian in the West Bank
In the West Bank, no one has heard about the ceasefire in Gaza: not the army, not the settlers, not the Civil Administration and, of course, not the three million Palestinians who live under their tyranny. They do not feel the end of the war in the slightest. (more…)
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Trump’s rare earths deal to counter China was a badly needed ‘Sputnik moment’
The other day US President Donald Trump said: “With a communist in charge? Look, you just go back a thousand years, it’s been done many times, a thousand years, it’s never worked once.” (more…)
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More defence spending, please – just not on the military
Donald Trump has pushed the Australian and other governments to increase defence spending. Defending society from threats is important, but there’s more to it than soldiers and weapons. (more…)
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A circus and a summit: Trump and Xi visit Lee
It’s now in all the media. Lee Jae-myung will meet Donald Trump and Xi Jinping next week. (more…)
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Failure to cover: A week of collective omission by the Australian media
It’s worth restating at the outset what should be taken as read by everybody: genocides matter a lot. (more…)
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The future of Palestine – What must the Australian Government do?
What must the Australian Government do to play our proper part in rebuilding Gaza and responding to the urgent needs of the Palestinian people? The Australians for Humanity webinar will pose and try and answer these questions. (more…)
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Randa Abdel-Fattah’s latest book outlines the battles others face
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is an author with great experience having written nearly 20 books over two decades. Most are for young readers, beginning with Does My Head Look Big In This? (more…)
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As Nobel laureates show, the US can’t take tech lead over China for granted
It’s hard to tell who will ultimately win the tech race, but this year’s Nobel economics prize gives us some clues. (more…)
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Message from the editor
As I look out of my window this morning, I can see a very small proportion of the 34 million people who live in Delhi, 6.5 million more than inhabit the whole of Australia. (more…)
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The key to social cohesion
It’s often said that . Whether or not that’s true is moot – but being under financial stress is definitely bad news. (more…)
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The future of Palestine: What Australia must do
Responding to continuing slaughter in Gaza is a test of Australian politicians and the government’s courage. (more…)
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After OpenAI’s new ‘buy it in ChatGPT’ trial, how soon will AI be shopping online for us?
Buying and selling online with e-commerce is old news. We’re entering the age of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly able to shop for us. (more…)
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Australia’s role in the F-35 supply chain – what a tangled web we weave!
The government’s ducking and weaving about military exports to Israel went up a whole new notch this month, arguing in Senate estimates that just because something was shipped from Australia, doesn’t mean it was exported from Australia. (more…)
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On No Kings day, a new America came to life
This is who we are. And this is what our country must be: people with a soul-deep love for Planet Earth and all who inhabit it. (more…)
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Boosting equity and safety for Australia’s children
In Australia, 37% of students aged between about 5 or 6 and 18 years go to private schools which charge fees – but while those schools are private, they are not run for profit. (more…)
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If you write, you must also act: Reflections on the limitations of writing
I’ve been thinking about failure a lot recently in the shadow of Gaza. About the failure of humans to prevent — yet again — the most serious of crimes. About the failure of politics. About the failure of international law. And about the failure of writing. (more…)
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The politics of democracy’s decline
A report on voter pessimism casts more light on why Australian democracy is failing. The answer is to deepen political debate. (more…)
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New Australian national intelligence chief faces a people challenge
At a time in our history when the US tells us that Australia is valued mainly for the sacrifice we are expected to make in joining its strategy against China, our Prime Minister is undermined by intelligence that is incapable of dealing with the bifurcated risk now emerging starkly. (more…)
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Bad debt ‘cockroaches’ signal new threats to the global economy
The world appears to have forgotten a key lesson of the global financial crisis: some problems were spotted earlier, but sidelined. (more…)
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Realism and optimism on energy transition
On the subject of energy decarbonisation, there are moonfaced optimists who insistently claim that net-zero emissions can easily be achieved by 2050, and “realists” like Vaclav Smil and Mark Mills, who warn that a transition away from society’s dependence on hydrocarbons, in Mills’s words, “is not feasible in any meaningful time frame”. (more…)
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‘Another unlawful extrajudicial killing’ as Trump expands boat-bombing spree to Pacific
“This is illegal and endangers America,” said one critic of Trump’s boat-bombing campaign. (more…)
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Chris Sidoti on the International Court of Justice Gaza ruling
Yuji Iwasawa, president of the UN’s highest court, says international law prohibits the use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare. (more…)