Muslim voters: Don’t let rage cloud strategy politics
During our extended family gathering for dinner on Eid Day, Monday 31 March, hosted by my niece, Shakeeba Siddiqui, and her husband, Khalique Sajjad, in Edmondson Park, there was a robust discussion about the upcoming federal election with invited guests Nathan Hagarty MP, state member for Leppington and Charishma Kaliyanda MP, state member for Liverpool.
Making science great again – or not
In the US, the freshly installed administration of President Donald Trump is attempting to drastically reshape science. Here we focus on interventions that are relevant to epidemiology and public health.
AUKUS on track? No, Australia needs Plan B now
Last Monday’s AUKUS Security forum at the National Press Club heard arguments of those seeking to support the status quo. It was argued that criticism undermines AUKUS and risks turning the possibility that the US will not be able to spare Virginia class SSNs for sale to Australia from an ‘if’ to certainty.
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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9 April 2025
An arresting American Gaza challenge
Recent US commentary backing President Trump’s extraordinary American Gaza takeover project has regularly stressed how critics should come up with a better plan.
9 April 2025
The stock market: an instantaneous referendum
Large movements in the stock market can cause unexpected events beyond it to happen very quickly.
9 April 2025
‘Selling a pup’: Is this election a populist contest after Trump?
In 2025, after nearly 50 years of global neoliberalism since Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the rich have got richer and inequalities have grown.
9 April 2025
Nuclear power: Fukushima’s lessons for Australia
In November 2011, eight months after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear disaster, I travelled with Japanese colleagues to Iitate, a village some 50 kilometres from the stricken power plant.
9 April 2025
Nuclear power is not safe, it’s more dangerous than ever
Media and campaign coverage of the rekindled pitch for Australia to embrace nuclear power has focused on the poor economics, the protracted timelines of implementation, and dubious real-world benefits as a climate strategy.
9 April 2025
Can our human species be rescued?
Our own human species is in grave danger of becoming extinct in the not-too-distant future, and there is no systemic global effort underway to minimise this threat. A series of “existential threats” have been highlighted by many scientists.
9 April 2025
Averting Iranian nuclear crisis calls for return to diplomacy
The Iranian nuclear crisis has reached a critical point. The JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement reached in 2015 to keep Iran’s nuclear program peaceful, will expire in October.
8 April 2025
If I were the minister for health...
When preparing for this, I did look back at what I had written in 2022 on the same topic and I’m sad to report, dear reader, that our current minister hasn’t implemented many of my innovative suggestions from last time, apart from some minor parts of my suggestions about workforce planning.
Latest on Palestine and Israel
9 April 2025
An arresting American Gaza challenge
Recent US commentary backing President Trump’s extraordinary American Gaza takeover project has regularly stressed how critics should come up with a better plan.
6 April 2025
Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?
The dreadful atrocities by Hamas on 7 October 2023 horrified the world and triggered the destruction of Gaza, the deaths of more than 50,000 Gazan men, women and children and the wounding of tens of thousands more.
5 April 2025
Palestine is the issue to consider when you enter the voting booth
On the day Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the election date, Jews Against the Occupation '48 issued an open statement addressing the current government in the hope that Labor would shift its policies on Israel/Palestine.
3 April 2025
Peter Slezak's speech to the University of Technology Sydney rally on 26 March
Remarks made by UNSW academic Peter Slezak at a rally at UTS on 26 March, have attracted considerable negative coverage in the Murdoch media. [The Australian and The Daily Telegraph] Pearls And Irritations is carrying the full text of the speech so that readers can make up their own minds.
3 April 2025
Israeli practices exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
The Gaza Strip has witnessed catastrophic humanitarian crises during the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation. The war has caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, leading to the near-total collapse of the healthcare system and essential services.
3 April 2025
The West and inconvenient memory: The destruction of history
“Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past and historians are the people who produce it.” – Eric Hobsbawm
2 April 2025
Australians for Humanity pushes for votes against Israeli genocide
Australians for Humanity is a coalition of interested parties seeking to have Australia and Australians respond to the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians and the declared Israeli intent to ethnically cleanse Palestine and proceed to the annexation of Gaza, the West Bank and parts of Lebanon and Syria.
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US LNG crippled as Australia seizes US$1.5b trade overnight china, economy, politics, usa
What happens when the world's second-largest economy suddenly pulls the plug on billions of dollars in US energy exports without warning, without negotiation and without a single public signal? You get a global energy market in shock and Washington scrambling for answers.
How Xi woos world business leaders as Trump intensifies trade war
On the morning of Friday, 28 March, Xi Jinping met representatives of the international business community at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
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