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…)
Category: Top 5
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Modi cancels ASEAN trip, avoids meeting Trump – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Trump says he spoke to Modi but India denies call took place. Plus: Japan’s new coalition a shift to the right; Timor Leste finally gets seat at regional table; Life worse than death on Myanmar scam farm; Prabowo – control, populism and diminished accountability; Sri Lanka suffers from world’s worst plastics spill. (more…)
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Albo, Trump and China: No one likes a loser
The first obvious takeaway is that our prime minister has been wise not to heed the Austral Americans urging him to get to Washington as soon as possible. (more…)
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China, US or us? Australia’s Upper Path in the global minerals race
The headlines are breathless: “China versus the world,” proclaimed The Australian, quoting some very important people from the sheriff’s office urging allies to “decouple” from Beijing and unite against China’s “takeover of global rare earth supply chains”. (more…)
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Albanese and Rudd sold out freedom of the press this week
Many Australian journalists think Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ambassador Kevin Rudd did a wonderful job this week in handling the corrupt narcissist who runs the United States, Donald Trump. (more…)
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Superannuation and the Canberra Press Gallery’s fantasies
The Canberra Press Gallery was completely absorbed with the supposed politics of last week’s superannuation changes and completely failed to consider their merits and why the changes were therefore made. (more…)
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Muted response to Trump’s appropriation of Christianity
“…and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert…” (Acts 20:29–31). (more…)
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On Israel, Zionism and being Jewish
No political conflict contains as many journalistic minefields as that between Israel and Palestine. (more…)
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The Pope, the media and the ‘normalisation’ of Trump
As world media and leaders normalise US President Donald Trump’s erratic behaviour, Pope Leo XIV must resist and keep his distance. (more…)
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Palestinian Mandela beaten unconscious. Our leaders yawned and looked away
Israel and the West pretend they want a real peace in Israel-Palestine yet the Israelis just beat unconscious the man most likely to help realise a sustainable end to the conflict: Marwan Barghouti. (more…)
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Mr Albanese goes to Washington
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump in Washington on 20 October. (more…)
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Blame and frame: How Chinese Australians are counted when blamed, discounted when needed
We say we want to understand China. Then we glance past a million Chinese speakers at home and start counting somewhere else. (more…)
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A deserved defeat for Albanese on freedom of information
Thanks to Opposition leader Sussan Ley, the government’s disgraceful attempt to squeeze the life out of the Freedom of Information Act is as dead as a herring. (more…)
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Who are ‘Advance’ and what are they doing to our politics?
Launched in 2018 as a conservative answer to GetUp!, the group Advance likes to style itself as the voice of the average person against “the elite”. (more…)
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Shameful distortion that lies at the heart of US conservative politics
The news of ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza is cause for great rejoicing and for giving credit where it is due. But the big questions remain: where to from here, and how did the world allow this to happen in the first place? (more…)
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Israel’s response to the International Court of Justice
The ceasefire plan in Gaza has dominated our news in recent days and weeks. One aspect of the plan is the obligation of Israel in the first phase to release a number — a large number — of Palestinian prisoners. (more…)
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Disarming extremism in the algorithmic age
Amelie Szczecinski is one of six talented young Australians who will travel to the UN General Assembly in New York next week as part of the Global Voices project. (more…)
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Lack of China capability can only do harm to society: Our current situation is a disgrace
In March 2023, the Australian Academy of the Humanities sounded the alarm on the decline in our understanding and knowledge of China through a report on “Australia’s China Knowledge Capability”. (more…)
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These are fighting words
As political violence escalates in the United States, chaos is spreading and democracy itself is under threat. The words of anger, ill-considered and increasingly crude, are accelerant on the American bonfire. (more…)
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Ignorance is complicity: Australia must end its arms trade with those committing crimes
Rayana Ajam is one of six talented young Australians who will travel to the UN General Assembly in New York next week as part of the Global Voices project. (more…)
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A masterclass in agency: What Singapore can teach Australia about China
Singapore’s new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sat down with the ABC on 2 October and offered something rare in Australia’s China debate: clarity, confidence, and a middle-power strategy that doesn’t involve shouting or submission. (more…)
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Between two wounds: Gaza confronts Trump’s plan to end the war
On a cold morning in central Gaza City, Nevin Al-Barbari, 35, sat in what remained of her family home, watching her two-year-old daughter, Reem, explore the rooms she had only recently come to know. (more…)
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‘Disaster season’: What is that?
Anika Wells, in announcing a meeting with three telco giants to discuss Optus’s Triple Zero emergency call system catastrophe in September, referred to the need for Australians to have confidence in the system before the coming “disaster season”. By that she meant summer. Is there really such a season? (more…)
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Journos as heroes and villains – ‘The Hack’ reviewed – Part 1
In films and on the small screen, journalists are portrayed as heroes or villains. In The Hack they are both. Does this reflect the diminished, benighted standing journalists hold in society today or is it a step forward in showing the complexities of the work? (more…)
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7 October not a day to abuse protesters
When it comes to the domestic political fallout from the Gaza conflict, there are no more reliable and uncritical friends of Israel than Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan and her New South Wales counterpart Chris Minns. (more…)
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Inequality and the future of democracy
Rising inequality and declining living standards have posed a threat to democracy in several democracies, but so far not in Australia. However, the increasing inequality of wealth, driven by housing becoming unaffordable without rich parents, is a threat. (more…)
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Australia faces a looming crisis of older women retiring in poverty. Here’s what we can do
Australia faces a serious challenge. Despite important progress on gender equality over recent decades, a looming crisis now threatens the economic security of older women. Without urgent and bold action, we risk consigning further generations of women to poverty in retirement. (more…)
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7 October 2023: What really happened? Part 1
At dawn, on 7 October 2023, Hamas fighters blast over 100 holes in the walls and fences that separate the Gaza Strip from Israel. (more…)
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Dementia president: Could it be that Trump has truly lost his mind?
Given his behaviour, it could very well be that the president of the United States is going nuts. (more…)
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Hedges Report: NPC Australia caves to Israel Lobby, cancels talk on our betrayal of Palestinian journalists
The National Press Club of Australia cancelled my talk on how the media, by amplifying Israeli lies, have betrayed Palestinian journalists, 278 of whom have been assassinated by Israel. (more…)