23 May 2025
Why isn’t the UN doing more than talking about Gaza?
You’re not the only one wondering why the United Nations keeps releasing statements while people in Gaza — and other conflict zones — are being killed, starved or displaced. It’s easy to feel like all the UN does is express concern, make speeches and hold meetings….but shouldn’t it be doing something tangible by now?
22 May 2025
Starvation of Gaza a continuation of a decades-old plan
Israel's plan to push out all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip has been contemplated as long back as 1967, soon after the Six-Day War ended.
22 May 2025
David Littleproud cites nuclear energy disagreement as major factor in Coalition split
Nationals’ leader David Littleproud has singled out nuclear energy as a key reason for his party’s spectacular split from the Liberals, as both parties seek to rebuild following the Coalition’s devastating election loss.
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.
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22 May 2025
The band is breaking up: has the Coalition stopped making sense?
I remember seeing footage, several years ago, of a jubilant Malcolm Turnbull, then prime minister and Liberal leader, speaking in Tamworth to loyal members of the National Party.
22 May 2025
UN warns 14,000 Gaza babies could die in 48 hours unless Israeli blockade lifted
Aid allowed into besieged area described as a trickle among a sea of need.
22 May 2025
There’s no country more important to Australia than Indonesia. Trouble is, the feeling isn’t mutual
Making Jakarta the first overseas visit has become a set piece for newly elected Australian prime ministers dating back to John Howard in 1996.
22 May 2025
Factional comfort gazumps innovation courage
Sandy Plunkett’s lament in the Australian Financial Review (15/5) over Ed Husic’s sacking as federal industry minister captures a familiar truth: innovation ministries in Canberra are often burial grounds for political ambition. Husic’s fall may have been sealed by factional headwinds, but the deeper problem is that “innovation” in Australia is rarely allowed to mean what it should.
21 May 2025
Time to change Australia’s grand strategies
As global power dynamics shift and traditional alliances fray, Australia’s current grand strategies are reaching their limits.
21 May 2025
RCEP can aid in battle against global protectionism
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, created to promote open trade and regional integration, offers a powerful platform to resist rising global protectionism.
21 May 2025
The Russians are not coming to Indonesia
In Jakarta for his first overseas visit after the election, the prime minister was displaying his elevated obfuscation skills.
Latest on Palestine and Israel
22 May 2025
Starvation of Gaza a continuation of a decades-old plan
Israel's plan to push out all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip has been contemplated as long back as 1967, soon after the Six-Day War ended.
22 May 2025
UN warns 14,000 Gaza babies could die in 48 hours unless Israeli blockade lifted
Aid allowed into besieged area described as a trickle among a sea of need.
21 May 2025
How should Australia respond to the starvation of Gaza?
It has now been more than two months since Israel began to block the entry of food and medicine to Gaza. According to the World Food Program, about 1.94 million people across the Gaza Strip experienced high levels of acute food insecurity between 1 April and 10 May 2025, including nearly 244,000 people facing catastrophic food insecurity.
21 May 2025
False balance persists in ABC Palestine coverage
In December 2024, I presented an analysis of more than 450 interviews concerning Palestine and Israel on ABC Radio National Breakfast, since 7 October 2023. During this period, the host was Patricia Karvelas. Her last show was on Friday, 13 December.
20 May 2025
Yes, it's a genocide
Building on Monday's piece outlining a shift in scholarly opinions on Palestine globally, we bring you a very powerful short video, narrated by Israeli professor of holocaust studies, Amos Goldberg. He says: A radical atmosphere of dehumanisation of Palestinians prevails in Israeli society to an extent that I cannot remember in my 58 years of living here.
20 May 2025
Time for Catholic Bishops to speak up for Palestine
An open letter to Catholic Bishops. Please speak up.
20 May 2025
Israel's new Gaza operation should be called 'Chariots of Genocide'
About 70 people from dawn to noon on Wednesday. Almost twice the number of those killed in the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Twenty-two of them were children, and 15 were women. The previous evening, 23 were killed in a hospital.
19 May 2025
Vale Ali Kazak
On Sunday afternoon, we received the very sad news that Ali Kazak has died in Thailand, en route to Palestine. An extraordinary campaigner and shaper of the Palestinian cause for all his almost 80 years, his loss will be sorely felt. Stuart Rees wrote this tribute to Ali for Pearls and Irritations last November. More will follow in coming days.
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21 May 2025
Beijing’s global vision takes shape in Africa
Mao Zedong once famously declared that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. But almost a century later, China realises that triumphing in an increasingly multipolar world also requires shaping public opinion. Accordingly, Beijing is rearranging its foreign policy outlook – especially in Africa.
16 May 2025
China and renewable energy: Dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
China’s deployment of renewable energy technologies is spectacular and globally dominant, but is not its primary focus.
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Unsustainable nuclear policies
Fiona Colin — Melbourne
Silent lies
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The cost of everything and the value of nothing
Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA
Let's rank the threats to human survival
Jenny Goldie — Cooma NSW