Pearlcasts
As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.
Go to Pearlcasts
8 March 2026
When is an illegal war morally defensible?
Some illegal uses of force have been judged morally defensible, as in Kosovo in 1999. But the US–Israel war on Iran fails that test – lacking lawful authority, credible motives and a plausible path to a better outcome.
8 March 2026
China waits and watches as the US fights all its tigers at once
The US–Israeli war with Iran has shattered Washington’s hope of concentrating its power on containing China. Instead, the United States is entangled in multiple conflicts while Beijing gains strategic time.
8 March 2026
Environment: warming oceans, sinking coasts and Covid’s impact on birds
New research shows oceans warming to depths of 2,000 metres, human-driven land subsidence intensifying sea level risks in China, and pandemic lockdowns altering bird evolution in Los Angeles.
8 March 2026
Jimpa lovingly follows in the tradition of artwork about fathers who came out of the closet
Sophie Hyde’s film Jimpa explores the personal and generational impact of a father coming out, situating one family’s story within the wider history of gay liberation and changing identities.
8 March 2026
Taking back the Southern Cross
Once a symbol of unity, equality and democratic rights, the Eureka flag is increasingly being appropriated by extremist groups seeking to legitimise racism and exclusion. Reclaiming its precious original meaning may now require protecting it from misuse.
7 March 2026
Canada and Australia: working together – without the US
Mark Carney’s blunt declaration that the rules-based international order has ruptured challenges countries like Australia to rethink their alliances and consider new coalitions among middle powers.
7 March 2026
Message from the Editor
When I stared in newspapers it was often said that today’s paper is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper. It is a relief to know that some are not so casual about the press. John Menadue and Paul Keating both have long memories, and mark a special anniversary today. It is exactly three years to the day since The Age and SMH ran a series called 'Red Alert – warning war with China would come within three years, making that deadline today.
7 March 2026
Three years on, where is the China war we were warned of?
Three years after dire warnings that Australia must prepare for war with China, no such conflict has eventuated. Instead, the United States has continued its long pattern of military interventions.
7 March 2026
Herald, Age news abuse shamefully exposed
Three years ago today, the editorial leadership of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age wilfully and dangerously misled the communities of Sydney and Melbourne into believing that at or by today, 7 March 2026, Australia would face the prospect of a direct attack by China and its military on the mainland of Australia.
7 March 2026
Why Albert Camus still matters in an age of authoritarianism
Albert Camus wrote in the shadow of fascism, war and ideological violence. His defence of truth, democratic dialogue and human limits remains strikingly relevant in today’s era of authoritarian politics and “post-truth” public debate.
7 March 2026
The $175 billion question: will the US Supreme Court stop the war fund?
A US court order forcing the refund of $175 billion in tariff taxes has triggered a constitutional confrontation over whether a president can bypass Congress to fund global conflict.
Read our series
Latest on Palestine and Israel
8 March 2026
When is an illegal war morally defensible?
Some illegal uses of force have been judged morally defensible, as in Kosovo in 1999. But the US–Israel war on Iran fails that test – lacking lawful authority, credible motives and a plausible path to a better outcome.
6 March 2026
How long can Israel sustain a military conflict with Iran?
Public support for Israel’s war effort contrasts with doubts over its long-term military and economic sustainability.
6 March 2026
Australia’s politics of consensus is stifling dissent and compassion
Governments sustain power by repeating stories about themselves. In Australia’s federal parliament, a narrow political consensus – marked by conformity, cruelty and evasion – is weakening democratic debate and eroding the principles of human rights and international law.
5 March 2026
You don’t have to like Iran’s government to oppose this war
After the killing of more than 150 schoolchildren in southern Iran, memories of a visit to Isfahan in 2018 return with painful clarity for Eugene Doyle. Beyond governments and geopolitics are ordinary families, whose children now bear the cost of escalating war.
4 March 2026
The US-Israeli attack on Iran is also an assault on the United Nations
The US–Israel war on Iran is a direct breach of the UN Charter and a blow to international law. But the attempt to impose global hegemony and hollow out the UN will ultimately fail in a multipolar world determined to resist domination.
4 March 2026
Another poor US intelligence call?
As the US strikes Iran while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, questions grow about selective enforcement of international law and a long record of flawed intelligence assessments.
4 March 2026
War is the opiate of the Israeli masses
Israel has once again entered war to solve its “existential problems once and for all”. History suggests those promises of total victory rarely survive contact with reality.
4 March 2026
Royal Commission gets off on the wrong foot
The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has begun by adopting the IHRA definition as uncontroversial. Yet that definition – and its application to criticism of Israel – remains hotly disputed and politically charged.
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 PDFLatest on China
8 March 2026
China waits and watches as the US fights all its tigers at once
The US–Israeli war with Iran has shattered Washington’s hope of concentrating its power on containing China. Instead, the United States is entangled in multiple conflicts while Beijing gains strategic time.
7 March 2026
Message from the Editor
When I stared in newspapers it was often said that today’s paper is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper. It is a relief to know that some are not so casual about the press. John Menadue and Paul Keating both have long memories, and mark a special anniversary today. It is exactly three years to the day since The Age and SMH ran a series called 'Red Alert – warning war with China would come within three years, making that deadline today.
7 March 2026
Three years on, where is the China war we were warned of?
Three years after dire warnings that Australia must prepare for war with China, no such conflict has eventuated. Instead, the United States has continued its long pattern of military interventions.
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