Sanctions are sold as a peaceful alternative to war, but their effects often fall hardest on civilians – through poverty, shortages, damaged health systems and preventable deaths.
Category: Top 5
Used for weekly email
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Annie Lennox, “eurhythmics”, ADHD and the power of repetition
From Annie Lennox and David Byrne to ritual, childhood listening and Sweet Dreams, repetition in music can regulate, absorb and transform us in ways modern culture often underestimates. (more…)
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Anti-Modi protesters join forces, Japan leads ICC defence, toxic wildfire haze returns – Asian Media Report
Rahul Gandhi backs ‘Cockroach’ demonstrations, Trump’s world court attack seen as illegal, AI producing have and have-not countries, and China’s unique ancient art replica.
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The thirty years that were never normal
The post-war decades created an extraordinary period of rising wages, affordable homes and economic security. Those conditions are gone. Politics must stop promising their return and start deciding how prosperity is shared in a slower-growth world. (more…)
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Cutting migration won’t fix Australia’s housing problem
Australia’s housing crisis is the result of failing to build enough well-located homes, not excessive migration. Cutting migration instead risks weakening the economy while leaving the real problem untouched. (more…)
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Wall of Tears: 18,457 names for the children killed in Gaza
A vast public artwork naming 18,457 children killed in Gaza has arrived in Sydney, confronting viewers with individual lives too easily reduced to statistics. (more…)
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The great credit card surcharge swindle
The new card rules do not stop businesses passing on transaction costs. They simply require the advertised price to be the price customers actually pay. (more…)
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A year after the ‘ceasefire’, Gaza’s healthcare is still collapsing
A year after the ceasefire was announced, Gaza’s health system remains devastated, medical evacuations are stalled and thousands of patients face preventable death as treatment, equipment and supplies remain out of reach. (more…)
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Serving through conserving
Political conservatism increasingly trades in grievance and division, while neglecting the environment, equality, democracy, intergenerational responsibility and the social bonds that genuinely deserve conserving. (more…)
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Not the place for a cathedral of sport
Canberra needs better health, education, debt management and city planning long before it needs a new stadium, especially on one of the national capital’s most valuable public sites. (more…)
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Coalition immigration policy: unbalanced, unachievable, unworthy
The Coalition’s migration plan promises dramatic cuts to net overseas migration and the temporary visa population, but key measures are inconsistent, administratively weak and in some cases beyond government control. (more…)
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Labor should not take Green preferences for granted
Labor’s primary vote is weakening while Green preferences remain crucial in close contests. Albanese’s hostility to the Greens may become increasingly difficult to sustain. (more…)
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How much aid is the Australian government giving to Palestine?
As wealthy countries cut aid, Australia remains far below the UN target for development assistance. Its support for Palestinian statehood is not matched by an adequate humanitarian response to Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. (more…)
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Aged care is turning the family home into an entry fee
Scarce aged care places increasingly favour families able to pay large accommodation deposits, drawing on housing wealth that may be the only debt-free asset shared across three generations. (more…)
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There is no ‘debate’: them is us – Message from the Editor
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The growing gap between Australia’s policies on nicotine and reality
Australia’s tobacco and vaping policies have helped create a vast illicit market while governments continue to pour money into enforcement and neglect cheaper, more effective harm reduction. (more…)
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Five myths behind the Coalition’s migration crackdown
The Coalition promises the biggest migration cut in Australian history, but its policy confuses arrivals with net migration, oversimplifies housing pressures and mistakes political symbolism for serious integration policy. (more…)
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What of those who truly own football?
Manchester City may face severe punishment if its financial breaches are upheld on appeal. But the people who will live with the consequences had no say in the decisions that brought the club here. (more…)
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Lula can still win – but Brazil’s right has staged a formidable comeback
Lula trails Flávio Bolsonaro heading into Brazil’s presidential runoff, after a campaign shaped by voter fatigue, hostile media coverage and sustained intervention from Trump’s political network. (more…)
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Trump has hollowed out the State Department
Donald Trump has sidelined professional diplomats, left embassies vacant and elevated ideological loyalists, weakening the State Department and making US foreign policy more coercive, erratic and dangerous for allies. (more…)
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New India-US clash, why Xi mentions the war, China’s marriage revolution – Asian Media Report
India is speaking more openly against Washington as the US and China settle into an enduring rivalry. Elsewhere, Thailand reels from deadly floods and Malaysia presses ahead with Myanmar deportations. (more…)
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The One Nation vote is a map of government neglect
One Nation’s rise is often treated as cultural anger. New data point to something more concrete: poor health, financial insecurity and communities left without the services that make life work. (more…)
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Three leaders, one reminder: moral courage is not dead in politics – Message from the Editor
When I wrote my very first editor’s message 19 months ago, I said that P&I expected leaders to display the moral courage required if we are to tackle existential threats.
I have been reminded how true this is every week. You expect courage and intelligence in those who purport to lead, and you make that crystal clear in the letters and articles we publish daily, and increasingly in the social media discussions they prompt. (more…)
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Inflation and interest rates up. Who’s to blame?
The RBA has lifted rates to 4.6 per cent, concentrating much of the pain of fighting inflation on younger households with mortgages. A tighter budget could spread the burden more fairly, but serious spending cuts would mean poorer services. (more…)
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Why Britain cannot deliver SSN-AUKUS on schedule
Britain says SSN-AUKUS remains on track. But its shipyards are already stretched while new reactor and workforce capacity is still being built. Australia is betting heavily on that gap being closed in time. (more…)
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An eagle for Xi, pandas for America and a changing world order
Trump gave Xi a bald eagle. Xi promised America two pandas. Behind the diplomatic symbolism sits a larger shift: China’s international standing is improving as trust in the United States declines. (more…)
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Australia preaches the rules-based order. Its record tells another story
Australia is campaigning for a UN Security Council seat on a promise to uphold international law and defend middle powers. Its record on Gaza, Indigenous rights, military alliances and international rulings tells a far less consistent story. (more…)
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Storming the ramparts of legacy media
James Chessell’s move from the AFR to Joe Aston’s Rampart is another sign of a media landscape being remade. Smaller outlets, subscription models, podcasts, and independent publishers are challenging the power once held by newspapers, radio and television. (more…)
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A new Washington-Beijing compact
Xi Jinping’s Washington visit was more than ceremony and trade deals. The US and China are building a more stable relationship around regular summitry, negotiated differences and mutual recognition of power. Australia needs to understand what has changed. (more…)
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Australia shouldn’t get a seat at the UN security council
Australia is campaigning for a Security Council seat on a promise to defend international law. Yet Albanese condemned Russia by name while saying nothing comparable about US actions – even after Trump threatened from the same UN stage to “annihilate” Iran. (more…)