Launching Pearlcasts
The 50th Anniversary of the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government
We kick off with a topic close to our hearts, the 50th anniversary of the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government. We have three of the best sources in the nation taking part: our editor-in-chief John Menadue – the living link to the scandal and the nation’s top public servant at the time; Jenny Hocking, author of The Palace Letters and Australia’s pre-eminent Dismissal historian; and Brian Toohey, the journalist who has dug deepest into the darkest elements of the events.
Go to Pearlcasts
1 December 2025
Australia's strategic choices in a fragmenting global order
With Trump 2.0, the global order is changing and changing rapidly.
1 December 2025
Message from the Editor
I was lucky to speak with a room full of young people at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering this week, at an ‘ask me anything’ session. So many of them were worried that the university system was not delivering, and that, for students, fear of debt was making them think twice about further education and distorting subject choices.
1 December 2025
Corruption isn’t just a moral failure – it’s built into our political system
Corruption in politics is not an accident or an exception. It is a predictable outcome of a system that rewards loyalty, access and survival over accountability, transparency and the public interest.
This month, support Pearls and Irritations with your tax deductible donation
We continue to see powerful interests shape the headlines and spread misinformation faster than facts in current times. This year, Pearls and Irritations has again proven that independent media has never been more essential. We have continued to push the issues ignored by mainstream media, building our voice as a trusted source for local and global issues. We ask you to support our plans for 2026.
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1 December 2025
‘Genocide is not over,’ Amnesty leader says as Israel keeps bombing Gaza
“So far, there is no indication that Israel is taking serious measures to reverse the deadly impact of its crimes and no evidence that its intent has changed.”
1 December 2025
Trump wants Australian data on migrant crime
Donald Trump’s demand for Australian data on migrant crime risks reviving discredited narratives that stigmatise migrants, distort evidence and do real harm to vulnerable communities.
1 December 2025
Trade and tariffs: how reciprocity turned into retaliation
Tariff powers once tightly constrained by Congress have steadily migrated to the US presidency. That shift is reshaping global trade – and exposing countries like Australia to greater economic coercion.
1 December 2025
How soybeans became a fault line in China’s food security
China now buys 60 per cent of the world’s soybeans. That dependency shapes its food security strategy – and its trade battles with the United States.
1 December 2025
Uncertainties trail behind Japanese PM's strong start
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s early popularity rests on speculative public expectations, a fragile LDP–Ishin arrangement and her dependence on party heavyweight Taro Aso, leaving her authority vulnerable despite high initial approval ratings.
1 December 2025
How one death in Papua should shame a republic into action
A pregnant woman’s preventable death after being refused treatment exposes the deadly gap between health coverage and real access to care in Indonesia’s most marginalised regions.
1 December 2025
The great failure of the property industry
In every era, certain industries become so large, so politically embedded, and so culturally unexamined that their performance ceases to matter.
30 November 2025
New architecture, old assumptions: Australia and the China question
Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks of balance, equality and a new regional order – yet Australia’s China policy still carries Cold War assumptions that risk strategy, prosperity and peace.
Latest on Palestine and Israel
1 December 2025
‘Genocide is not over,’ Amnesty leader says as Israel keeps bombing Gaza
“So far, there is no indication that Israel is taking serious measures to reverse the deadly impact of its crimes and no evidence that its intent has changed.”
29 November 2025
Gaza’s true death toll could be 126,000 or even higher
New research suggests Gaza’s death toll may be far higher than widely reported, with devastating implications for life expectancy, poverty and accountability.
25 November 2025
The ceasefire that isn’t: 400 violations in 40 days
Israel has violated the ceasefire in Gaza hundreds of times since October, using vague or unverified justifications to carry out strike in a recurring pattern of escalation and impunity.
23 November 2025
The UN embraces colonialism: the Security Council and the US Gaza plan
The Security Council's backing of the Trump plan for Gaza ignores international law, punishes the Palestinians, and rewards those responsible for genocide.
21 November 2025
UN Members complicit in genocide
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese discusses why, in her most recent report, she called out more than 60 nations for their collective-crime roles in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
20 November 2025
UN approval of Gaza ‘Stabilisation Force’ slammed as ‘Denial of Palestinian self-determination’
CodePink said the plan “will leave Palestine in the hands of a puppet administration, assigning the United States, which shares complicity in the genocide, as the new manager of the open-air prison.”
18 November 2025
Gaza winter catastrophe repeating in tents that resist neither wind nor rain
The seasons change, but for those fighting for survival through wet winters and baking summers in Gaza's tents, the suffering remains.
17 November 2025
Israeli settler attack on West Bank mosque draws international condemnation
Calls for justice grow as Israeli settlers set Hajja Hamida Mosque ablaze in latest attack on Palestinians in West Bank.
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
1 December 2025
How soybeans became a fault line in China’s food security
China now buys 60 per cent of the world’s soybeans. That dependency shapes its food security strategy – and its trade battles with the United States.
30 November 2025
New architecture, old assumptions: Australia and the China question
Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks of balance, equality and a new regional order – yet Australia’s China policy still carries Cold War assumptions that risk strategy, prosperity and peace.
29 November 2025
A Chinese visit, a security panic, and a silent media
The visit of China’s third-ranking leader should have prompted serious discussion about diplomacy and economic relations. Instead, Australia’s media fixated on security theatrics and fed a familiar cycle of fear.
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