Trump’s shadow is all over this election
James Curran

Trump’s shadow is all over this election

politics,  usa,  world

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.

AUKUS is more than nuclear submarines and that's a problem
David Shoebridge

AUKUS is more than nuclear submarines and that's a problem

When we think of AUKUS, most people picture the dangerous $368 billion gamble on a handful of nuclear submarines. The truth is AUKUS is a lot more, and a lot more dangerous, than these submarines.

Censorship is getting louder: Meta’s fine is just the echo
Besjana Hajdarmataj

Censorship is getting louder: Meta’s fine is just the echo

When Turkey fined Meta for refusing to comply with content takedown orders following protests in March 2025, it wasn’t just a response to a tech company. It was a calculated move in a larger global playbook, one that’s being followed by governments far beyond Ankara.

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
Memory shapes China's response to Trump’s tariffs
Daryl Guppy

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.

Yes, we do need a population plan
Jenny Goldie

Yes, we do need a population plan

Abul Rizvi rightly argues that “we desperately need a population plan to enable better planning for our future by governments at all levels, and businesses”.

The uniform public utterances of our days
Sawsan Madina

The uniform public utterances of our days

British scholar Leonard Schapiro, writing on Stalinism, observed that “the true object of propaganda is neither to convince nor even to persuade. But to produce a uniform pattern of public utterances in which the first trace of unorthodox thought reveals itself as a jarring dissonance. And it seems that in the current sanctioned discourse, the jarring dissonance is speaking up against a genocide streamed live on our phones.

Feeding the beast: The use of private consultants by public universities and its implications for tertiary education
Adam Lucas,  James Guthrie

Feeding the beast: The use of private consultants by public universities and its implications for tertiary education

Global consulting partnerships are not only reshaping public sector organisations along corporate lines and hollowing out government expertise in the process, but they have also been responsible for a significant decline in tertiary education quality and standards, including billions of dollars in wasteful expenditure on non-core business.

China's two 'secret weapons' in the tariff war
Ying Xue

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%.

Pope Francis dies at 88 after final appeal for Gaza ceasefire
Common Dreams

Pope Francis dies at 88 after final appeal for Gaza ceasefire

Will the millions who will mourn his death these coming days respect this wish of his? Will they care for Gazans and Palestinians the way he did?

If I were the minister assisting the PM on the public service …
Andrew Podger

If I were the minister assisting the PM on the public service …

Before any new ministry is announced, the current minister, Katy Gallagher, or the shadow minister, Jane Hume, should provide early advice to the prime minister-elect on the structure of his ministry and the machinery of government.

Jeffrey Sachs on the source of the Syrian tragedy
Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Antalya Diplomacy Forum

Jeffrey Sachs on the source of the Syrian tragedy

Jeffrey Sachs on the role of the US and the CIA in the tragic events in Syria, direct from the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Türkiye earlier this month.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

The uniform public utterances of our days
Sawsan Madina

The uniform public utterances of our days

British scholar Leonard Schapiro, writing on Stalinism, observed that “the true object of propaganda is neither to convince nor even to persuade. But to produce a uniform pattern of public utterances in which the first trace of unorthodox thought reveals itself as a jarring dissonance. And it seems that in the current sanctioned discourse, the jarring dissonance is speaking up against a genocide streamed live on our phones.

Pope Francis dies at 88 after final appeal for Gaza ceasefire
Common Dreams

Pope Francis dies at 88 after final appeal for Gaza ceasefire

Will the millions who will mourn his death these coming days respect this wish of his? Will they care for Gazans and Palestinians the way he did?

Beyond fear and false choices: Why loyalty to the major parties is no longer tenable
Fadlullah Wilmot

Beyond fear and false choices: Why loyalty to the major parties is no longer tenable

It's time for Muslims and allies to vote with principle, not fear.

Silence is no response to slaughter, so at least recognise Palestine
Stuart Rees,  Shamikh Badra

Silence is no response to slaughter, so at least recognise Palestine

Death, destruction and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and on the West Bank continues. Israeli savagery, lying, and disdain for international law display the depths of inhumanity, but when challenged to show courage by supporting life for Palestinians, the Australian Government remains silent.

Israel is about to empty Gaza
Chris Hedges

Israel is about to empty Gaza

As Israel prepares to ethnically cleanse the whole of Gaza, it is also setting the stage for a regional crisis.

Gaza's trees now bear a strange fruit
Jepke Goudsmit

Gaza's trees now bear a strange fruit

Nobody following the real news, and aware of the long history of colonial occupation, ever believed that Zionist Israel would proceed into the second phase of the ceasefire as agreed.

Zionist Federation lodges Federal Court complaint against journalist Mary Kostakidis
Paul Gregoire

Zionist Federation lodges Federal Court complaint against journalist Mary Kostakidis

The Zionist Federation of Australia has filed a legal action with the Federal Court of Australia against renowned Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis relating to a complaint it first raised with the Australian Human Rights Commission in July 2024, claiming posts she made on social media platform X were antisemitic in nature.

Federal election: Time to hold MPs accountable for stance on genocide
Greg Barns

Federal election: Time to hold MPs accountable for stance on genocide

Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, and now its seizing of their land is the worst example of genocide since the horrors of the genocides of Darfur in Sudan in 2003 and Rwanda in the 1990s.

John Menadue

Support our independent media with your donation

Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.

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Latest on China

Memory shapes China's response to Trump’s tariffs
Daryl Guppy

Memory shapes China's response to Trump’s tariffs

china,  politics,  usa

To asses China's reaction to Donald Trump's tariffs we have to go back around 165 years.

China's two 'secret weapons' in the tariff war
Ying Xue

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%.

Xi pushes for fair trade after Trump tariffs land
BA Hamzah

Xi pushes for fair trade after Trump tariffs land

After President Donald Trump’s decision to exempt selected electronic goods from tariffs, the gloves are temporarily off between Washington and Beijing. However, though some sanity has returned to the White House, the damage has already been done.

More from Pearls and Irritations

Crossbench pressure will lift and improve Albo’s game
Jack Waterford

Crossbench pressure will lift and improve Albo’s game

Explainer | What happens after Pope Francis’ death?
SCMP Editorial

Explainer | What happens after Pope Francis’ death?

Surreptitious Victorian native forest logging
Reese Halter

Surreptitious Victorian native forest logging

Health and the election: Band-aids when surgery is needed
Tim Woodruff

Health and the election: Band-aids when surgery is needed

Trump: the canker that cures?
Howard Debenham

Trump: the canker that cures?

Trump: the canker that cures?
Howard Debenham

Trump: the canker that cures?

Trajectory of a murderous regime: Fifty years since the Khmer Rouge
Peg LeVine

Trajectory of a murderous regime: Fifty years since the Khmer Rouge

Beyond fear and false choices: Why loyalty to the major parties is no longer tenable
Fadlullah Wilmot

Beyond fear and false choices: Why loyalty to the major parties is no longer tenable

If I were minister for school education…
Lyndsay Connors

If I were minister for school education…

Message from the editor
Catriona Jackson

Message from the editor

Home truths: Housing policies are for show, but one side at least gets the problem
Ross Gittins

Home truths: Housing policies are for show, but one side at least gets the problem

Trump versus a young man on a mission
Andrew Fraser

Trump versus a young man on a mission

Latest letters to the editor

The right to protest is gone

Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA

As we sit back and watch our right to protest being eroded by both parties, only our vote is left. In this farce of an election, where most independents are preference-gathering, disgruntled, ex-members of the big two (really one), it is difficult to find out the policies/leanings of the rest. What will it take to motivate apathetic voters to get up and vote for change? An informal vote is not an answer and should not be encouraged. Once again, as in times of crisis, the right has resurrected the ever-present suggestion of conscription. Maybe that will be enough...
Desperation, thy name is...

Wes Mason — Gisborne

An excellent article. Hits the nail on the head. Too timid and too worried about shadows rather than being bold. The events of the last few days, with Peter Dutton now practically mounting a scare that China is going to blockade us with its military, are getting so extreme it put me in mind of a bolder Labor leader heading into the 1983 election. When Malcolm Fraser stated, If Labor wins this election, your money will be safer under the bed, Hawke, to great laughter, responded: Under the bed? But there's no room, isn't that where all the communists...
Vance’s mental mindloops

Geoff Taylor — Perth

One can only wonder at J.D. Vance’s mental mindloops in arranging an audience with the late Pope Francis. He seems unaware of the monstrous behaviour of his regime in consigning his fellow human beings to CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo or Terrorism Confinement Centre) in El Salvador, a country named, ironically, after Jesus Among the prisoners deported (with Protestant US politician Kristi Noem in front of them, seemingly approving their incarceration without trial), were many of his fellow Roman Catholics. Pope Francis also, like so many of us including the US Conference of [Catholic] Bishops, cared deeply about...
Appeasing Israel is a Faustian bargain

Richard Llewellyn — Colo Vale

The article referred to is a direct, powerful exposition of the situation to which we have devolved in the face of the relentless Israeli destruction of Palestinians. Human decency has been supplanted by the lust for electoral success. While this is less than surprising for the LNP — despite the actual humanity displayed back in the days of Fraser et al — it is a massive abandonment of the basic principles that once were a part of the Labor credo. We have a mountain of irrefutable evidence in the history of Germany post-World War II that a state...

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Employment 30 Finance 2 Health 1461 History 44 Immigration 941 Indigenous Affairs 364 Israel Palestine 1007
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The Human Future 38 Our Top Five Each Week 1921 USA 363 World 1068

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