Genocide in Gaza: History repeats itself
Refaat Ibrahim

Genocide in Gaza: History repeats itself

For the past 21 months, I have endured the painful experience of displacement, moving between tents under relentless bombardment in Gaza.

Creative Australia’s backflip on Venice Biennale representatives exposes deep governance failures
Samuel Cairnduff

Creative Australia’s backflip on Venice Biennale representatives exposes deep governance failures

The reinstatement of artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives for the 2026 Venice Biennale closes a bruising recent cultural episode and exposes the fragility of the systems meant to protect artistic freedom in Australia.

Saving the NDIS doesn’t need to cost more money
Sam Bennett

Saving the NDIS doesn’t need to cost more money

The Albanese Government has a lot hinging on the successful delivery of savings earmarked from the National Disability Insurance Scheme.


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Food aid or firing squads?
Jamal Kanj

Food aid or firing squads?

In Gaza today, hunger has a price – and for far too many civilians, that price has been death.

China’s rapid adoption of AI demands greater scrutiny of the social impact
Zhou Xin

China’s rapid adoption of AI demands greater scrutiny of the social impact

In contrast to the perception that Beijing has placed a lot of guardrails on AI, China’s AI regulation so far has been limited.

What are police allowed to do at protests and who keeps them in check?
Kelly Hine,  Dominique Moritz,  Hena Prince

What are police allowed to do at protests and who keeps them in check?

Earlier this week, former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas was hospitalised with serious injuries after being arrested at a protest in Sydney.

The Western allies of the US as vassal states
Iyanatul Islam

The Western allies of the US as vassal states

A vassal state is one that retains some autonomy at home but is effectively dominated by another power in its foreign affairs.

Iran: The things it won’t do to say
Kevin Young

Iran: The things it won’t do to say

media politics usa world

If Thomas Friedman’s fairytale world of light-versus-darkness were to evaporate, less noble motives for US and Israeli actions might be revealed.

'Watershed moment': Big battery storage prices hit record low in huge China auction
Giles Parkinson

'Watershed moment': Big battery storage prices hit record low in huge China auction

The price for big battery storage modules have hit a record low in the latest giant auction in China, where more than 70 bidders competed for 25 gigawatt hours of capacity in what is being described as a “watershed moment” for the industry.

Dangers of renewed civil war in Syria
As`ad AbuKhalil

Dangers of renewed civil war in Syria

With 150 armed groups in Syria, the ruling HTS (al-Qa`idah) doesn’t control the country, while Israeli bombing intends to expose the weaknesses of the so-called central government in Damascus.

The time has arrived for a comprehensive Middle East peace
Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Sybil Fares

The time has arrived for a comprehensive Middle East peace

The attack by Israel and the US on Iran had two significant effects.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Genocide in Gaza: History repeats itself
Refaat Ibrahim

Genocide in Gaza: History repeats itself

For the past 21 months, I have endured the painful experience of displacement, moving between tents under relentless bombardment in Gaza.

Food aid or firing squads?
Jamal Kanj

Food aid or firing squads?

In Gaza today, hunger has a price – and for far too many civilians, that price has been death.

UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’. Who are they?
Federica Marsi

UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’. Who are they?

The United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) has released a new report mapping the corporations aiding Israel in the displacement of Palestinians and its genocidal war on Gaza, in breach of international law.

Israel’s genocide and German Staatsräson: Thwarting a youth’s political sensibilities
Norman Saadi Nikro

Israel’s genocide and German Staatsräson: Thwarting a youth’s political sensibilities

It was the third month of Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza, just before the Christmas break in 2023, when my daughter Lelia came home one day and mentioned an unhappy confrontation with one of the directors of her school, the Freie Waldorfschule Berlin Mitte.

Gaza’s Hunger Games
Chris Hedges

Gaza’s Hunger Games

Israel is weaponising starvation. The objective is to dismantle all remnants of civil society and reduce Palestinians to herds of desperate scavengers who can be driven from historic Palestine.

Flour instead of homeland: manufacturing the crisis and the end of the Palestinian dream
Refaat Ibrahim

Flour instead of homeland: manufacturing the crisis and the end of the Palestinian dream

Since 4:00 p.m. on 14 May 1948, the Palestinian cause has been one of a homeland seized by force, a land torn from its people by Zionism through weapons and terror.

Courage needs to be shown in politics – Israel is no longer above the law
Stuart Rees

Courage needs to be shown in politics – Israel is no longer above the law

In the past weeks, an estimated 500 more Gazans have been killed, bombed out of existence by the IDF or killed while queuing for food.

Lattouf’s victory, our fight: Standing firm against intimidation
Sue Barrett

Lattouf’s victory, our fight: Standing firm against intimidation

In April 2025, I posted a comment in The Age, sharing how, after 40 years in my Goldstein neighbourhood, I’d never felt unsafe until I was wrongly accused of antisemitism.


John Menadue's book on Israel's war against Gaza

Israel's war against Gaza

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.

Download the PDF

Latest on China

China’s rapid adoption of AI demands greater scrutiny of the social impact
Zhou Xin

China’s rapid adoption of AI demands greater scrutiny of the social impact

In contrast to the perception that Beijing has placed a lot of guardrails on AI, China’s AI regulation so far has been limited.

China is taking Silicon Valley’s market ‘hacks’ to a whole new level
Karman Lucero

China is taking Silicon Valley’s market ‘hacks’ to a whole new level

From blitzscaling to leveraging network effects, China is using the same methods to dominate supply chain and disrupt markets.

No time to dye: ABC’s China bias is licensed to kill credibility
Fred Zhang

Anti-China Media Watch

No time to dye: ABC’s China bias is licensed to kill credibility

The ABC has long held a reputation as Australia’s sober, publicly-funded bulwark against tabloid sensationalism – the broadcaster you turn to when you want analysis, not alarmism.


John Menadue

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More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

No mention of lobbyists?

Glenda Jones — Carlton 3053

How can one write an article criticising full-scale institutional failure inside Australia’s peak cultural agency, Creative Australia, without mentioning the trigger for the turmoil that unfolded? The Zionist lobbyists complained about the selection of artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives for the 2026 Venice Biennale. Just like at the ABC, there must have been initial letters of complaint. Julian Leeser, that well-known Liberal Party Zionist, stirred the pot, but who provided the initial complaint?
Globalisation, AI, nothing changes. Capitalism reigns

Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA

Unfortunately, the area where governments have been least effective is the one where they are now most needed. The area where they have failed time and time again – regulation. Under globalisation they have let Australia and Australians down. While governments have been snuggling up to their capitalist masters, untaxed profits have been rising and disappearing overseas. Services have been becoming more and more substandard due to a lack of funding and little or no regulation. The few regulators left are ineffectual and constantly under threat from the media and government. Puppets of governments are reliant on capitalist...
Is it ‘if’, not ‘when’?

Alyssa Aleksanian — Hazelbrook

Fred Zhang, among many of the excellent points made in his article, makes the call that the ABC, as our national broadcaster, has fallen well short of its job to be impartial — displaying obvious bias — and has failed at its job to state the facts of both sides of a conflict. With such obvious failures in the ABC’s journalistic duties and severe self-inflicted damage to its integrity, it would be easy to imagine that our ABC has been bought by Disney; but no, that’s America’s ABC. Are we at the point where nothing will surprise us...
It’s a huge challenge, but we can’t avoid it

Chris Young — Surrey Hills, Vic

It’s a long-established truth that, in any situation, if you want resolution and progress you are well-advised to present people with solutions rather than problems. So thanks to Bob Douglas for offering potential solutions for global action to address the existential threats that he and his colleagues in the Council for the Human Future have been alerting us about. Quoting from Julian Cribb’s How to fix a broken planet, he presents 10 initiatives which, if undertaken on a global scale, could pull the world back from its current existential precipice. Cribb is under no illusion about the magnitude...



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Fact-checking Trump’s immigration and One Big Beautiful Bill claims
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Iran says it is committed to NPT, slams Germany’s support for Israel
Top Iranian diplomat Abbas Araghchi rebukes Germany for criticising Tehran over suspending nuclear cooperation with IAEA
After backing Israel, Iran’s self-styled crown prince loses support
Critics argue Reza Pahlavi's monarchical ambitions and ties to Israel undermine his claims of advocating for democracy.