Pearlcasts
As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.
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22 December 2025
2025 in Review: The fading West, a cautious Labor win and an uncertain world
From the erosion of Western authority to Australia’s election result, 2025 exposed deep shifts in global power, alliance politics and the limits of domestic reform.
22 December 2025
Message from the Editor
I hope you have had time to read our offerings on the terrible shootings at Bondi this week. Amidst a thicket of coverage, here and overseas, many readers were struggling to process the tragic events.
22 December 2025
This one’s on Netanyahu, not Albanese
The Bondi massacre sits within a wider international context that has reshaped public attitudes to Israel, antisemitism and protest, complicating how grief, fear and responsibility are understood in Australia.
22 December 2025
New Year’s Day and the promise that does not last
New Year’s Day promises renewal, then lets it slip away. That fleeting openness may be the point – not a failure, but a reminder about how meaning actually appears in our lives.
22 December 2025
What Australia’s teen social media ban could mean for reading
As under-16s are locked out of major social media platforms, online book communities that helped many teens discover reading are disappearing too. What’s being lost, and what might replace it?
22 December 2025
Vulnerability at the heart of Christmas
Christmas begins with fragility rather than power. The story of Jesus’ birth places vulnerability, dependence and shared humanity at its centre.
22 December 2025
Ten threats, one emergency: how to become Earth Citizens
Humanity is facing a compounding crisis driven by population growth, consumption, pollution and power. These interconnected threats cannot be addressed one by one if civilisation is to endure.
22 December 2025
Australia’s roads are full of giant cars, and everyone pays the price
Australia’s growing love affair with SUVs and utes is reshaping road safety. Larger vehicles don’t just cause more harm in crashes – they may also change how drivers behave.
22 December 2025
Cost of wind and batteries fall as CSIRO finds new way to show renewables are cheapest
CSIRO’s latest GenCost report shows battery costs falling fast, wind costs stabilising and coal, gas and nuclear lagging well behind. For the seventh year running, firmed renewables remain the lowest-cost path for Australia’s electricity system.
21 December 2025
Holding on to hope – a Christmas reflection
In the shadow of the Bondi massacre, Christmas and Hanukkah sit side by side this year. Acts of courage and faith remind us how light is kept alive in dark times.
21 December 2025
A defence of 'doing nothing'
Public safety can be strengthened without turning fear into a political performance. When protection becomes theatre, institutions weaken and social division deepens.
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Latest on Palestine and Israel
22 December 2025
This one’s on Netanyahu, not Albanese
The Bondi massacre sits within a wider international context that has reshaped public attitudes to Israel, antisemitism and protest, complicating how grief, fear and responsibility are understood in Australia.
20 December 2025
What the Bondi Beach tragedy reveals about Australia’s political faultlines
In the aftermath of the Bondi Beach attack, grief was quickly accompanied by political demands that blurred the line between combating antisemitism and suppressing dissent, with troubling consequences for social cohesion and civil liberties.
20 December 2025
Bondi raises questions about ASIO’s community intelligence reach
The Bondi attack has renewed scrutiny of whether Australia’s domestic intelligence agencies have sufficient cultural reach and human intelligence within the communities they monitor.
19 December 2025
A better symbol
After the Bondi massacre, grief was swiftly overtaken by politics. Public mourning and the misuse of symbols raise hard questions about solidarity, power and what genuinely brings light.
19 December 2025
2025 in Review: Palestine, international law and Australia’s silence
In 2025, the crisis in Palestine brought international law to a breaking point. Australia’s response, marked by caution and inaction, raises hard questions about responsibility, principle and moral leadership.
19 December 2025
Storms expose Gaza’s humanitarian collapse
Heavy rains and gale-force winds have turned life-threatening for Palestinians in Gaza, where the destruction of housing and restrictions on aid have left millions without shelter.
19 December 2025
The Bondi Beach massacre: exploiting tragedy
The tragic massacre at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi was followed by a rush to assign blame, inflame fear and curtail dissent.
16 December 2025
Blame, grief and responsibility after Bondi
In the aftermath of a devastating attack on Sydney’s Jewish community, political leaders must resist the urge to weaponise grief or assign blame.
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
20 December 2025
Beijing makes domestic spending its top priority – Asian Media Report
From China’s new investing in people strategy to Thailand’s threat to continue border fighting, revelations about Korea’s martial law bid, South Asia’s climate emergencies, the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh, and Seoul’s imaginative food waste scheme, the latest Asian media coverage highlights our region’s pressures, problems and opportunities.
14 December 2025
Book extract: Understanding China: governance, socio-economics, global influence
China’s rise has reshaped global economics, lifted millions out of poverty, and challenged Western assumptions about governance. This extract from 'Understanding China, Governance, Socio-Economics Global Influence' argues that engagement, not confrontation, offers the only viable path forward.
7 December 2025
Ceding the future to China
Delivered as remarks to Brown University’s Watson School during its “China Chat” series, Chas Freeman reflects on China’s return to global prominence and the United States’ accelerating retreat from the international order it once led – and asks what coexistence looks like as power shifts in the 21st century.
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Latest letters to the editor
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Getting submarines, or funding the US to get them
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Vast educational inequality
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