Pearlcasts
As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.
Go to Pearlcasts
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.
7 March 2026
For 27 years, the Kyle and Jackie O Show indulged Australia’s most vulgar, sexist impulses
The collapse of the Kyle and Jackie O radio partnership highlights a contradiction in Australian media culture – a society that condemns misogyny yet rewarded a program built on vulgarity, sexism and humiliation.
7 March 2026
Where are Iran’s allies? Why Moscow and Beijing are keeping their distance
Russia and China have condemned the US–Israeli attack on Iran as illegal, but both powers have drawn clear limits on their support, stopping well short of military intervention.
6 March 2026
'Rude, arrogant and entitled’: ex-Prince Andrew’s arrest is the inevitable conclusion to a sordid royal tale of privilege and protection
The arrest of ex-Prince Andrew over alleged misconduct is not an isolated scandal but the product of a system that shields the royal family from scrutiny. Without transparency and accountability, privilege can become a pathway to abuse of power.
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
International law or ‘might is right’? Australia’s choice on Iran
The US and Israeli strikes on Iran have not been legally justified under international law. As the Trump administration pushes an increasingly unilateral approach to global power, Australia faces a choice – defend the UN Charter or remain silent.
Read our series
Latest on Palestine and Israel
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.
3 March 2026
If Iran resists, the global economy will pay
Western governments, including Australia and New Zealand, have backed US and Israeli strikes on Iran. But the decision risks economic catastrophe, regional escalation and the further erosion of international law.
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
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.
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