The time has arrived for a comprehensive Middle East peace
Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Sybil Fares

The time has arrived for a comprehensive Middle East peace

The attack by Israel and the US on Iran had two significant effects.

So... calling for peace isn’t enough, but dropping bombs gets a free pass?
Fred Zhang

Anti-China Media Watch

So... calling for peace isn’t enough, but dropping bombs gets a free pass?

media politics usa world

When China submitted a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the response wasn't debate or discussion. It was suspicion.

From globalisation to AI: Why history is about to repeat itself
Kos Samaras

From globalisation to AI: Why history is about to repeat itself

When globalisation loomed on the horizon in the late 20th century, governments around the world faced a choice: open the economy fully or manage the transition strategically.


Donate

Support our  independent media

Pearls and Irritations is funded by our readers through flexible payment options. Choose to make a monthly or one off payment to support our informed commentary

Donate

UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’. Who are they?
Federica Marsi

UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’. Who are they?

The United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) has released a new report mapping the corporations aiding Israel in the displacement of Palestinians and its genocidal war on Gaza, in breach of international law.

The devil's dance with Iran
Peter Blunt

The devil's dance with Iran

Iran has been on a hit list of seven countries in a geostrategic plan for the reconfiguration of the Middle East first drawn up by the US in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks.

Trump’s worldview is causing a global shift of alliances – what does this mean for nations in the middle?
Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva

Trump’s worldview is causing a global shift of alliances – what does this mean for nations in the middle?

Since US President Donald Trump took office this year, one theme has come up time and again: his rule is a threat to the US-led international order.

India’s state and central governments still aren’t speaking the same language
Alexander Titus,  Rojan Joshi

India’s state and central governments still aren’t speaking the same language

The first rule of discussing language policy in India is to leave any expectations of a calm conversation at the door.

I'd rather a bloodied shark than AI
Robert Macklin

I'd rather a bloodied shark than AI

Until recently, I regarded AI as just another technical assist, a natural enhancement of Google where one finds the perfect word to complete a sentence, or to expand on the broad brush of Wikipedia info.

Israel’s genocide and German Staatsräson: Thwarting a youth’s political sensibilities
Norman Saadi Nikro

Israel’s genocide and German Staatsräson: Thwarting a youth’s political sensibilities

It was the third month of Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza, just before the Christmas break in 2023, when my daughter Lelia came home one day and mentioned an unhappy confrontation with one of the directors of her school, the Freie Waldorfschule Berlin Mitte.

Australia, the UN and the future of humanity
Bob Douglas

Australia, the UN and the future of humanity

The Albanese Government is now very well placed to encourage and assist the United Nations, to prevent human extinction, and make our planet habitable for future generations. It has also, now become very urgent that we take comprehensive action on the issues discussed below.

How spending more on defence harms the nation
Brian Toohey

Australia in Our Region

How spending more on defence harms the nation

Anthony Albanese is taking a battering from ill-informed commentators for thinking Australia can be defended by spending a little over 2% of GDP on its military forces.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’. Who are they?
Federica Marsi

UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’. Who are they?

The United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) has released a new report mapping the corporations aiding Israel in the displacement of Palestinians and its genocidal war on Gaza, in breach of international law.

Israel’s genocide and German Staatsräson: Thwarting a youth’s political sensibilities
Norman Saadi Nikro

Israel’s genocide and German Staatsräson: Thwarting a youth’s political sensibilities

It was the third month of Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza, just before the Christmas break in 2023, when my daughter Lelia came home one day and mentioned an unhappy confrontation with one of the directors of her school, the Freie Waldorfschule Berlin Mitte.

Gaza’s Hunger Games
Chris Hedges

Gaza’s Hunger Games

Israel is weaponising starvation. The objective is to dismantle all remnants of civil society and reduce Palestinians to herds of desperate scavengers who can be driven from historic Palestine.

Flour instead of homeland: manufacturing the crisis and the end of the Palestinian dream
Refaat Ibrahim

Flour instead of homeland: manufacturing the crisis and the end of the Palestinian dream

Since 4:00 p.m. on 14 May 1948, the Palestinian cause has been one of a homeland seized by force, a land torn from its people by Zionism through weapons and terror.

Courage needs to be shown in politics – Israel is no longer above the law
Stuart Rees

Courage needs to be shown in politics – Israel is no longer above the law

In the past weeks, an estimated 500 more Gazans have been killed, bombed out of existence by the IDF or killed while queuing for food.

Lattouf’s victory, our fight: Standing firm against intimidation
Sue Barrett

Lattouf’s victory, our fight: Standing firm against intimidation

In April 2025, I posted a comment in The Age, sharing how, after 40 years in my Goldstein neighbourhood, I’d never felt unsafe until I was wrongly accused of antisemitism.

Starvation and profiteering in Gaza (with Francesca Albanese) | The Chris Hedges Report
Chris Hedges

Starvation and profiteering in Gaza (with Francesca Albanese) | The Chris Hedges Report

Francesca Albanese joins Chris Hedges to break down the current starvation campaign in Gaza, and her upcoming report detailing the profiteering corporations capitalising on the erasure of Palestinians.

Three blows against Zionism in a single day
Joe Lauria

Three blows against Zionism in a single day

A court ruling in Australia, an election result in New York and a military setback for Israel, all coming last week, signalled a serious turn of events for Zionism and its supporters, writes Joe Lauria.


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

China is taking Silicon Valley’s market ‘hacks’ to a whole new level
Karman Lucero

China is taking Silicon Valley’s market ‘hacks’ to a whole new level

From blitzscaling to leveraging network effects, China is using the same methods to dominate supply chain and disrupt markets.

No time to dye: ABC’s China bias is licensed to kill credibility
Fred Zhang

Anti-China Media Watch

No time to dye: ABC’s China bias is licensed to kill credibility

The ABC has long held a reputation as Australia’s sober, publicly-funded bulwark against tabloid sensationalism – the broadcaster you turn to when you want analysis, not alarmism.

China’s partnership with Muslim world is redrawing global landscape
AbdulWahed Jalal Nori

China’s partnership with Muslim world is redrawing global landscape

Once seen as unlikely partners, this axis is now grounded in respect, sovereignty and a shared aspiration for a post-Western world order.


John Menadue

Support our independent media with your donation

Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.

Donate

More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

Warfare post-globalisation

Dave Young — NQ

Thanks Brian Toohey, great article. As noted, during WW2, Australian industry supplied huge quantities of food, medicine, clothing, ammunition, explosives, rifles, guns, ships and 2000 combat aircraft. We also had a merchant navy, ships owned and crewed by Australians that were key to that effort. Now there are no ships and no crew. The technology is now radically different and changes at a phenomenal pace (evolving on a monthly and weekly basis in Ukraine) but the fundamental problem remains the lack of local manufacture and sustainment. Big bits of kit are vulnerable, not suited to our...
Our catastrophic superannuation system

Richard Barnes — Melbourne

Australia's compulsory superannuation system, a $4 trillion behemoth, is, in my opinion, a catastrophe. In its essence, it serves to effect massive transfers of wealth from the less well-off to the most well-off. It ensures that your socioeconomic status during your working years will continue inexorably into your retirement years – the antithesis of the Australian fair go. Think, just for a moment, of those who didn't actually work much or at all (in the paid sense) during those years — carers, disabled people, life's battlers — condemned to get by solely on the old age pension – whose...
How about a complete 21st century edit?

John Mosig — Kew, Victoria

With today’s knowledge of the physical world and what holds it together psychologically, that the Scriptures have been assembled into a politically focussed holy manual is indisputable. True, the instructions therein underwrote the evolutionary phase at a particular point in the human experiment, but beating ploughshares into swords took time and effort. We can now summon Armageddon at the press of a button. David O’Halloran’s plea to edit the Holy Book with a 21st century perspective, as essential as it is to humanity’s survival, may be falling on deaf ears. Manipulation and subjugation of people of faith has...
'Your winnings, sir'

Peter Sainsbury — Darling Point

The revelations by Warwick Anderson and Kerry Breen about medical research fraud and the ways in which it is covered up by vested interests are so shocking that I am reminded of the famous exchange in Casablanca when Captain Renault, chief of Police, closes Rick’s café and has to find a pretence for it when Rick asks him why: Captain Renault to Rick: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! Croupier, appearing at his shoulder: Your winnings, sir. Captain Renault:Oh, thank you very much.



Latest from Al Jazeera

At least eight people die in record-breaking heatwave across Europe
Scientists say heatwaves and storms are becoming more intense due to human-driven climate change.
Can the DRC-Rwanda deal deliver peace?
The US-brokered peace agreement comes after years of conflict, displacing 7 million people.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs convicted on two of five counts in sex abuse trial
US jury in New York clears music mogul of more serious charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering.
Hamas-run court gives Gaza gang leader Abu Shabab 10 days to surrender
Abu Shabab is the leader of the Popular Forces, a criminal group in southern Gaza thought to be backed by Israel.
Tesla global sales fall amid Musk backlash and pressure on EV market
Other carmakers including Volvo and Rivian reported a drop in sales on Wednesday.
Can Trump strip Musk and Mamdani of their US citizenship?
Trump threatened to arrest Zohran Mamdani if the latter did not cooperate with ICE deportation operations in New York.