Restrictive visa policies, rhetoric targeting academic institutions and proposed budget cuts to scientific agencies mark the start of US retreat. (more…)
Category: USA
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Judge orders release of Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri from ICE detention
“My only ‘crimes’ making me a ‘national security threat’ are my marriage to a United States citizen of Palestinian origin and my support for the Palestinian cause,” wrote Badar Khan Suri in an op-ed published on 13 May. (more…)
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As costs rise, poll shows most Americans blame Trump
“Working families are seeing their grocery bills and other prices skyrocketing thanks to President Trump’s erratic trade policies, and they know full well who is to blame,” said one critic. (more…)
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‘A brazen, unprecedented power grab’: Trump fires copyright office head
The reported firing of Register of Copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter comes on the heels of Trump’s dismissal of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. (more…)
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The first-ever historic agreement between the US and Hamas – with Netanyahu in a secondary role
The direct talks between the United States and Hamas took Israel by surprise and led to an agreement that resulted in the release of the Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander. (more…)
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Trump’s USAID cuts only accelerate the West’s miserly convergence with China
Critics of the Trump administration’s assault on foreign aid warn that it will undermine the United States’ capacity to compete with China. (more…)
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Can Albanese resist the temptation to fall for Trump’s flattery?
Without wishing to rain on the Australian Labor Party’s victory parade, when our prime minister was congratulated and praised by Donald Trump the day after Labor won the 2025 federal election, alarm bells should have been ringing to alert his advisers. (more…)
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Danger: Global security is now in the hands of Trump, Rubio and Hegseth
The United States is a national security state. Over the past half-century, it has unnecessarily conducted “forever wars” in Vietnam (1960s-1970s), Iraq (2000s-the present), Afghanistan (2000s-2020), and now possibly in Yemen. (more…)
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After its landslide win, Labor should have courage and confidence on security – and our alliance with the US
The re-election of the Albanese Labor Government by such a wide margin should not mean “business as usual” for Australia’s security policy. (more…)
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Thanks to Trump, China has the cards it needs to win the trade war
Trump’s actions have left nations feeling betrayed while accelerating China’s self-sufficiency. These, plus Beijing’s rare earth dominance, could spell victory. (more…)
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Trump is the symptom of a deeper American malaise
The US president’s disruptive policies reveal a superpower unsettled by its waning dominance. (more…)
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When the centre cannot hold: US polarisation is driving the word away
Once admired for its democratic institutions, cultural dynamism, and global leadership, the United States now finds itself in a different spotlight. (more…)
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The American Dream
“That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.” George Carlin. American humourist (more…)
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Just not in time
Donald Trump’s tariffs and before-the-border barriers are a de facto self-imposed naval blockade of America that undermines the modern just-in-time economy. (more…)
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‘I am not afraid of you,’ freed Mohsen Mahdawi tells Donald Trump
A court’s order for the release of a detained student protest leader, said one lawyer, “is a victory for all people in this country invested in their ability to dissent and speak and protest”. (more…)
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The US has never been a reliable ally of Australia
The US is not, and has never been, a reliable ally of Australia. (more…)
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The fall of Saigon: From triumph to Trump (Part 3)
On 30 April 1975, Saigon fell, Vietnam rose. The story of Vietnam after the US fled the country is not a fairy tale, it is not a one-dimensional parable of resurrection, of liberation from oppression, of joy for all, but there is a great deal to celebrate. (more…)
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The key lesson from the US: ‘Merit’ really is the most important public service value
Perhaps the most repeated message at the recent ASPA national conference, in the face of attacks on the civil service by the Trump administration, was the importance of merit-based employment. (more…)
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Who holds the better cards – China or the US?
The mainstream Western media and global, alternative media outlets have been delivering a remarkable converging stream of blistering commentary since 2 April on what is now widely called, even by The Economist, Trump’s tariff tantrum. (more…)
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Beyond a consumer boycott: We need to divest US brands from our language
The other day, I asked my ride-share driver which platform offered him the best deal. He told me Didi gives more back to the driver, but he has to use the Uber app because “everyone knows Uber. It’s the first thing they think of”. (more…)
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The Fall of Saigon 1975: Quiet mutiny – the US Army falls apart – Part 2
Vietnam is a conflict from which we should have learnt – but never did – about the immorality, folly and counter-productivity of imperial war. (more…)
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The Palestine election
Why has an election 6000 miles from the Dome of the Rock become about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? (more…)
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A hillbilly White House and the wisdom of peasants
In 2016, US Vice-President J.D. Vance published a best-selling memoir titled Hillbilly Elegy. Curiously, he explained on the Fox News network recently that China’s pivotal influence on American consumption was due to the US borrowing “money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture” (YouTube link here). Let’s consider the sort of individuals in question. (more…)
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How is the US civil service responding to the Trump administration?
There is a perennial debate in all democracies about how responsive the civil service should be to the elected government and about the degree of independence implied by merit-based employment, professional competence, non-partisanship and impartiality. (more…)
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The myth of the US good cop
As Donald Trump destroys the old world order a new myth is taking hold: before Trump, it is said, America benevolently provided the defence for the Western world, policing rogue states and promoting international free trade. (more…)
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Close the US military bases in Asia
The best strategy for the superpowers is to stay out of each other’s lanes. (more…)
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Trump’s shadow is all over this election
The president is bringing out the differences between political cultures and traditions in Australia and the US, especially in attitudes towards what government can and should do. (more…)
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Memory shapes China’s response to Trump’s tariffs
To asses China’s reaction to Donald Trump’s tariffs we have to go back around 165 years. (more…)
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China’s two ‘secret weapons’ in the tariff war
As of 15 April, the White House indicated on its website that tariffs on products imported from China could rise as high as 245%. (more…)
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Trump: the canker that cures?
A strong dose of home-grown fascism, of a uniquely American kind that no one else can be blamed for, may be just what the world needs to bump the US off the destructive path down which it has so often steered so many of its ever so sycophantic friends since World WarII. (more…)