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As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.

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Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion
Sawsan Madina

Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion

After Bondi, New South Wales politicians want to ban words and slogans. But rushed laws could punish political speech, not protect the public.

Iran in the vortex: what's really happening
Eugene Doyle

Iran in the vortex: what's really happening

As protests unfold in Iran, Israeli and US figures openly talk of regime collapse. Foreign interference risks worsening violence and derailing change from within.

Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism
Judith Treanor

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism

For two years, we’ve been told Australia is drowning in antisemitism. Every protest for Palestinian human rights, every mural, every chant criticising Israel has been hauled up as “evidence.”



Best of 2025 - Rising electricity prices have nothing to do with renewables
Ian McAuley

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - Rising electricity prices have nothing to do with renewables

Electricity prices are elevated, but anyone who claims renewable energy has driven the rise is either uninformed or is deliberately lying.

Best of 2025 - Another RSL dope wants to draw us into a major war
Paul Keating

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - Another RSL dope wants to draw us into a major war

It beggars belief that the outgoing head of the RSL, Greg Melick, has abused the quiet solemnity of Remembrance Day to lecture and berate the Albanese government on its defence policy.

Best of 2025 - ASIO's Mike Burgess and a lust for the limelight
Paddy Gourley

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - ASIO's Mike Burgess and a lust for the limelight

In succumbing to a lust for the limelight, the ASIO director, Mike Burgess, is not making it easier for the government and citizens to retain confidence in him and the organisation he’s trying to run.

Best of 2025 - Burn it all down movements
Kosmos Samaras

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - Burn it all down movements

When a 34-year-old democratic socialist defeats a political dynasty in the nation's largest city, we're witnessing more than another electoral upset.

Best of 2025 - What Washington really thought of Whitlam before the dismissal
James Curran

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - What Washington really thought of Whitlam before the dismissal

The cloud of American involvement in the events of November 1975 is unlikely to ever clear. Especially while US presidential libraries continue to block access to critical documents that might shed light on the shenanigans.

Best of 2025 - The debate about net zero ignores the evidence
Michael Keating

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - The debate about net zero ignores the evidence

Those in the Coalition who are opposed to targeting net zero carbon emissions, argue that it will cost too much. But that claim is false and not supported by the evidence. How can they get away with it?

Best of 2025 - How the Dismissal ripples reached Beijing: Some personal recollections
Jocelyn Chey

Best of 2025 - How the Dismissal ripples reached Beijing: Some personal recollections

Life in Beijing in 1975 was not easy and the events leading up to the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government in November piled on the pressure.

Best of 2025 - After Trump goes home
Geoff Raby

Best of 2025 - After Trump goes home

If anyone had any lingering doubts about the change in the world order, the sight of President Trump pumping his fist into the air at the doorway of Air Force One, before turning his back on Asia to fly home, they should be put to bed now.



Latest on Palestine and Israel

Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion
Sawsan Madina

Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion

After Bondi, New South Wales politicians want to ban words and slogans. But rushed laws could punish political speech, not protect the public.

Iran in the vortex: what's really happening
Eugene Doyle

Iran in the vortex: what's really happening

As protests unfold in Iran, Israeli and US figures openly talk of regime collapse. Foreign interference risks worsening violence and derailing change from within.

Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism
Judith Treanor

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism

For two years, we’ve been told Australia is drowning in antisemitism. Every protest for Palestinian human rights, every mural, every chant criticising Israel has been hauled up as “evidence.”

Australians for Humanity – Demand that the invitation to the President of Israel to visit this country be immediately withdrawn
Australians for Humanity

Australians for Humanity – Demand that the invitation to the President of Israel to visit this country be immediately withdrawn

A call to withdraw President Herzog’s invitation, uphold international law, and defend free speech and the right to protest.

Best of 2025 - OFFICIAL – Israel’s proposed death-penalty law is a war crime
Greg Barns

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - OFFICIAL – Israel’s proposed death-penalty law is a war crime

Not satisfied it seems with the continued genocide of Palestinians, Israel is now looking to execute Palestinian prisoners by introducing a death penalty law.

Best of 2025 - Gaza under siege: The continuation of Zionist demographic cleansing policies since the 19th century
Refaat Ibrahim

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - Gaza under siege: The continuation of Zionist demographic cleansing policies since the 19th century

Israeli propaganda tries to present the war on Gaza as a “defensive reaction.” Yet the historical record tells a very different story: systematic genocide, the destruction of civilian life and deliberate attempts to uproot entire populations. All of this is a direct continuation of Zionist colonial policies that began in the late 19th century.

Best of 2025 - From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine
Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Sybil Fares

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine

Real peace demands Palestinian statehood, Ukrainian neutrality and the courage to defy the war lobby.

Best of 2025 - The three core myths driving Israel’s war on Palestine
Raghid Nahhas

Best of 2025 - The three core myths driving Israel’s war on Palestine

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, one of the most outspoken moral critics within Israel itself, once summarised what he called the “three core values of Israeli society”: the belief that Jews are the chosen people; that they are the world’s ultimate victims; and that Palestinians are not equal human beings.


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

Best of 2025 - After Trump goes home
Geoff Raby

Best of 2025 - After Trump goes home

If anyone had any lingering doubts about the change in the world order, the sight of President Trump pumping his fist into the air at the doorway of Air Force One, before turning his back on Asia to fly home, they should be put to bed now.

Best of 2025 - The ABC and News Corp finally agree on something: China panic
Fred Zhang

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - The ABC and News Corp finally agree on something: China panic

Last week, a friend asked if I was worried about Chinese “nuclear threats.

Best of 2025 - Taiwan as an integral part of China: A historical, legal and geopolitical analysis
James Wood

Best of 2025

Best of 2025 - Taiwan as an integral part of China: A historical, legal and geopolitical analysis

The status of Taiwan remains one of the most contested topics in modern geopolitics and one of the most misrepresented.


John Menadue

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Latest letters to the editor

The people and the common good

Chris Young — Surrey Hills, Vic

Today’s capitalism may have a more benign face than in past centuries, but there remain global corporations of great power and rapacious attitudes; major fossil fuel corporations exemplify this. For them ecocide – whether from environmental destruction, or from the poisonous prevalence of plastics – seems a necessary, if unfortunate, by-product if they are to continue powering the world with their gas, oil and coal. These corporations must know that they will not survive at scale without radically changing their outputs to fit a world centred on sustainability but, rather than urgently redirecting their substantial reserves to embrace the...
Can we discuss degrowth without the ideology?

Jenny Goldie — Cooma NSW

It may well be that imperialism, colonialism, racism and ecocide are the four horsemen of capitalism's apocalypse, but all this ideology is clouding the issue. What we need is degrowth, both of the economy (certainly in industrialised countries) and of population. If you degrow the economy but the population continues to grow, then people get poorer. We need degrowth because the world is in overshoot. We have consumed too many resources and produced too many wastes. This is reflected in climate change and plummeting biodiversity. We have to restore balance, though that might not be possible until the population...
Getting submarines, or funding the US to get them

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

US nuclear submarines are phenomenally complex machines. Their advanced technology (reactor plants, sonar arrays, combat systems) requires intensive and meticulous maintenance. The public shipyards responsible for major overhauls and refuelling (Norfolk, Portsmouth, Puget Sound, Pearl Harbor) have been plagued by ageing infrastructure and equipment, critical skilled labor shortages and a massive backlog of deferred maintenance. This has dramatically extended maintenance periods. It's not uncommon for planned availabilities to run years over schedule, drastically lowering the operational availability rate. In the last decade, this rate has been devastatingly low for attack submarines. Add to that new construction delays (Virginia...
Vast educational inequality

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

As the parent of a teacher in an underprivileged public school I could not agree more with Allan. One of the fundamental characteristics that distinguishes a civilised and vibrant society is the extent to which it prioritises the education of its children. On that metric Australia is one of the biggest dunces on the planet. We not only deliberately entrench a vast educational inequality by massive funding to private schools, but guarantee a low standard of educational achievement for the bulk of our population by vast under-funding of our most needy public schools. This has, and continues to create,...



Latest from Al Jazeera

Israel carries out raids and demolitions, arrests dozens across West Bank
One Palestinian man is shot and wounded, and at least 80 people are detained in mass overnight raids.
ICE officer shoots Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis: What we know
ICE-related shooting in Minnesota occurred one week after Renee Nicole Good was shot dead by federal officer.
Japan, Philippines sign new defence pacts amid surging China tensions
One deal allows the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel and other supplies when their forces stage joint training.
Russia unlikely to risk ‘reputation failure’ by intervening in Iran unrest
A former Russian diplomat and analysts decode Moscow's muted response to protests and political tension.
Trump suspends immigrant visas for 75 countries: Who’s affected?
The suspension will take effect on January 21 but does not apply to visitors or short-term visa holders.
Musk’s Grok to bar users from generating sexual images of real people
The billionaire's platform has been inundated with Grok-produced sexualised images, including of children.