Australia has voted ‘yes’ to a UN resolution mandating the establishment of a research panel on the effects of nuclear war. The L39 resolution has been adopted by a massive majority in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, with 144 governments voting in favour, 30 abstentions (including the US India, Ukraine and Israel), and 3 governments – France, Russia, and the UK – voting against it. Interestingly, China has voted ‘yes’ to the resolution.
Tag: World Affairs
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The United States empire is almost always at war
The US empire is addicted to a belief in its exceptionalism, grounded in aggression both at home and abroad, and finding it hard to admit mistakes. (more…)
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The BRICS Summit should mark the end of neocon delusions
Simply put, the majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony, and is prepared to face it down rather than submit to its dictates. (more…)
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The alpha and omega of tyranny
The U.S. and Israel are the alpha and omega of tyranny and destabilisation throughout much of the Middle East – arguably, the world. Who will stop them? (more…)
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“Reshaping the world through internal progress”: Public advice for China’s foreign policy
Leading international relations scholar Wang Jisi from Peking University, who just met Kurt Campbell, urges Beijing not to make new enemies, focus on domestic affairs, & maintain confidence in peaceful reunification. (more…)
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Ending Apartheid: Think local, act global
Boycotts, divestments and sanctions are back. Students are urging universities to reveal their investments and connections with Israel, and to end them. Local councils in Victoria and New South Wales have been quick to do the same. (more…)
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A new global order has arrived
When justifying vast increases in defence expenditure, subsidies for so-called critical industries, foreign aid as an increasingly important element in the securitisation of foreign policy, governments and conservative think tanks never tire of telling the public that they live in the most dangerous of times. (more…)
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The world at 90 seconds to midnight
What further evidence do apes with apps, the inhabitants of planet Earth, need to have before the liveable climate, the lungs of the Earth, overheat and the mere failure of a computer chip or a brain neuron triggers the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of planet Earth? (more…)
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When the White House goes to war
Michael Hirsh, a prominent columnist for Foreign Policy has just published an instructive review in that journal (partial paywall) of Bob Woodward’s forceful new book “War”. The review is entitled: “What a New Book’s Explosive Revelations Tell Us About Biden, Trump, and Putin”. Curiously, the Hirsh book review rounds out to its Biden-elevating, JFK-comparison without referring to John Mearsheimer’s directly relevant seminal article “Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault”.
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A five-minute scroll
The onslaught of Israeli horror continues on Northern Gaza. Learn about the victim in the images shared across the world, Shaban al-Dalu, a 19-year-old university student. Israel has dropped the equivalent of six atomic bombs on Gaza, three times smaller than Hiroshima. We see horror in the aftermath as women and children are found in the debris, and the landscape in Lebanon resembling that of Gaza. There is no safe place for children, says UNICEF. Francesca Albanese is investigating private sector complicity, while Senator Wong sends more empty messages. Our five-minute scroll on X, telling the news and views you don’t see in mainstream media. (more…)
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Han Kang’s Nobel prize award is a cry for Palestine
South Korean novelist Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, beating short-listed literary heavyweights like Thomas Pynchon, Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie, Gerald Murnane, and the all-odds-favourite, Chinese author Can Xue. Han Kang was as shocked as anyone else after receiving the call notifying her that she had won. When asked what she would do next, she said she would quietly “have tea with her son”. (more…)
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Modi’s party suffers another setback in Kashmir polls
It is unlikely that even the biggest supporter of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected his BJP party to win the recent election in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) after the reverse Modi suffered in the national elections held earlier in the year. (more…)
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Under the shadow of a NATO-Russia nuclear war, Hibakusha awarded Nobel Peace Prize
As Vladimir Putin deploys mobile missile launchers throughout the Siberian Taiga armed with Yars heavy duty ICBMs, while making nuclear threats and claiming that these forces have been placed on a higher level of alert (though this isn’t necessarily so), NATO seems intent on compounding what seems already threatening and dangerous enough with the performance of the annual Steadfast Noon nuclear exercises, in which NATO literally rehearses for the apocalypse. It seems that this year the exercise is more ‘real’ than previously. (more…)
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Never ending war on terror keeps us anxious, fearful, committed
President Bush declared the War on Terror in 2001. Dr Alison Broinowski AM, Australians for War Power Reforms (AWPR), former diplomat and Author, argues that America and its Western Allies including Australia have been involved in multiple ‘never ending’ foreign wars with no declaration in sight of victory. (more…)
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East Timor is not Palestine
Peter Job’s article in P&I, ‘Palestine – The Lessons of East Timor’, is an interesting foray into the link between international law and moral condemnation as offering a possible insight into the future of Palestine. As Job argues, one generally does need international law to be on one’s side if a just resolution is to be possible. (more…)
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The extraordinary warring states history of the global West
History confirms how the present, destructive militaristic culture of the US-led Atlantic alliance stands on the shoulders of well over a thousand years of Western immersion in extraordinary levels of horrific warfare. (more…)
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Life in Gaza and on the West Bank: Political leaders invited to interpret humanity
In the current global turmoil of revenge and war, Australians want to see political leaders speaking about humanity and negotiation, not the old rhetoric which chooses winners and losers. In the following letter to party leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate, we urge all parliamentarians to support their leaders by making their own “Personal Statements of Humanity” in their communities as well as in the Parliament or on their websites. (more…)
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The hierarchy of death
When Israel Defence Forces shelled the home of Quama, an eight-year-old Palestinian girl, and her family, the little girl was seriously injured. Because the IDF has been systematically devastating Gaza’s hospitals, her parents were unable to access a hospital with the necessary medical services. Quama was admitted to a maternity hospital which lacked both the services required to treat her injury, and the antibiotics to stop her leg becoming infected. So Quama’s leg was amputated. (more…)
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Resilience amongst ruin: 12 months of genocide and resistance in Gaza
Just weeks into Israel’s current genocide in Gaza, I spoke with my cousin as she watched the violence unfold from her home in Khan Yunis. She declared, “We are used to this; it is temporary and will pass.” (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Al Jazeera has produced a documentary of graphic war crimes, academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi receives death threats after setting Sky News straight, reports that Hezbollah had agreed to a ceasefire before Nasrallah assassination, Jayson Gillham takes a stand against the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and more war crimes. Our five-minute scroll on X. (more…)
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On nuclear weapons, how long will Australia continue to be out of step with its nearest neighbours?
Last week, Indonesia, our biggest and closest neighbour, deposited its instrument of ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the UN. This was a major international and regional development, a good-news story with a very positive impact on international security, but we’ve heard virtually nothing about it from our government and very little in the media. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
In our five-minute scroll on X: Julian Assange recognised as a political prisoner; shameful, divisive western media commentary; Iran strikes Israel’s most secure air base; Russian carpet bombs in Volchansk; Malcolm Turnbull speaks his mind on Peter Dutton, and Hong Kong anti-China groups awash with mystery cash. (more…)
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High noon on the Korean Peninsula
As a return visitor to the beautiful, lively and fascinating city of Seoul, I am beginning to learn something about the way South Korean people think about their future and their complex relationships with both neighbours and allies. (more…)
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Who’s next on Israel’s destruction list?
If Israel invades and destroys Lebanon, which is already on its knees, what’s to stop it from moving into Syria or Jordan or any other country that does not bend to its will? Apparently nothing. (more…)
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The challenge of nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council: Adapt or Die
The United Nations is the biggest incubator of global norms to govern the world and the vital core of the rules-based global multilateral order. Four parts of the UN system have complementary roles in efforts to regulate and eliminate nuclear weapons. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Five minutes on X reveals the outrage toward the Australian government for its response to weekend protests while Israel is bombing Beirut. The Malaysian PM calls for western leaders to put the narrative right, while Craig Mokhiber calls for the arrest warrant of Netanyahu and Netanyahu offers the people of Iran a better future. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
We start the week with British journalist James Oliver giving his views on Rupert Murdoch, Jim Chalmers brings a back-to-back surplus and a picture of media reporting in the Middle East. Jordan’s Foreign minister speaks about a peace plan supported by 57 Arab and Muslim countries, Australia takes to the streets in our capital cities, while in Iran protests have broken out against the President. Dilma Rousseff, receives China’s highest honour for non-citizens. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
A five-minute scroll of X uncovers abhorrent settler behaviour, questions about Peter Dutton’s nuclear platform, South Africa speaking out for Palestine in the UN, Chris Sidoti on the Israeli Army, Genocide Tourism and news of Julian Assange. (more…)
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Never forget the Sabra and Shatila massacre 16 September 1982
“The killers were often not satisfied with killing; in many cases, the attackers cut off the limbs of their victims before finishing them off. They smash the heads of children and infants on the walls. Women and girls were raped before being killed with axes. Men are sometimes taken out of their homes in groups to be killed in masse in the street with axes and knives. Militias spread terror and killed men, women, children and the elderly without discrimination. They would not distinguish between Christians and Muslims, Lebanese and Palestinians. Some have been hanged, and others have had their stomachs cut out.” (more…)
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United Nations General Assembly votes to demand Israel end Palestinian occupation, Australia abstains
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year. (more…)