Stark contrasts in health of returning hostages
Peter Slezak

Stark contrasts in health of returning hostages

Peter Slezak has been keeping a watching brief on the both harrowing and joyous scenes as prisoners and hostages from Palestine and Israel were freed this week. He has gathered sources for P&I readers and readers and observes the following.

Denial and amnesia: Is the global community ready to welcome Israel back?
Simon Speakman Cordall

Denial and amnesia: Is the global community ready to welcome Israel back?

Analysts express concern over the rehabilitation of Israel, even as it says it has done no wrong.

Blame and frame: How Chinese Australians are counted when blamed, discounted when needed
Fred Zhang

ANTI-CHINA MEDIA WATCH

Blame and frame: How Chinese Australians are counted when blamed, discounted when needed

We say we want to understand China. Then we glance past a million Chinese speakers at home and start counting somewhere else.


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Climate change causing oceans to decline at alarming rate
Julian Cribb

Climate change causing oceans to decline at alarming rate

Climate change and human activity are causing the health of the world’s oceans to decline at an alarming rate, the UN has warned.

What’s constraining ‘frank and fearless’ advice? <embargo until published in mandarin>
Andrew Podger

What’s constraining ‘frank and fearless’ advice? <embargo until published in mandarin>

A central argument for the government’s proposed widening of exemptions under the FOI Act is the claim that the current provisions constrain the provision of frank and fearless advice by the public service.

Family violence and migrant women - a better way
Nashita Pasha

YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS

Family violence and migrant women - a better way

Nashita Pasha is one of six talented young Australians who will travel to the UN General Assembly in New York next week as part of the Global Voices project.

Inspired by Gaza, Trump offers some hope on Thai-Cambodian border
Luke Hunt

Inspired by Gaza, Trump offers some hope on Thai-Cambodian border

US president tells Malaysia he intends to end the conflict at the ASEAN Summit.

Grieving for the US
Patricia Edgar

Grieving for the US

I recently viewed the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting. The final shot is a widescreen view of an old car driven through a verdant landscape, as the hero, who happens to be a mathematical genius (Matt Damon), drives into his future, having resolved his issues, seeking new opportunities in California.

Fortescue cuts hundreds of jobs in UK and Australia; EV motor making sent to China
Giles Parkinson

Fortescue cuts hundreds of jobs in UK and Australia; EV motor making sent to China

Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals is cutting several hundred jobs in the UK and Australia following a decision to send manufacturing activities to China, including for the motors and power trains of its planned giant electric haul trucks.

War without end, peace without justice
Stewart Sweeney

War without end, peace without justice

The Gaza war has become the most searing mirror of our century’s political and moral contradictions.

‘You cease, I fire’: Israel kills at least 9 in Gaza, says it will break truce aid terms
Brett Wilkins

‘You cease, I fire’: Israel kills at least 9 in Gaza, says it will break truce aid terms

“Israel is working extremely hard to blow up this ceasefire,” said one observer after IDF troops shot dead Palestinians trying to return to their homes in the largely flattened strip.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Stark contrasts in health of returning hostages
Peter Slezak

Stark contrasts in health of returning hostages

Peter Slezak has been keeping a watching brief on the both harrowing and joyous scenes as prisoners and hostages from Palestine and Israel were freed this week. He has gathered sources for P&I readers and readers and observes the following.

Denial and amnesia: Is the global community ready to welcome Israel back?
Simon Speakman Cordall

Denial and amnesia: Is the global community ready to welcome Israel back?

Analysts express concern over the rehabilitation of Israel, even as it says it has done no wrong.

War without end, peace without justice
Stewart Sweeney

War without end, peace without justice

The Gaza war has become the most searing mirror of our century’s political and moral contradictions.

‘You cease, I fire’: Israel kills at least 9 in Gaza, says it will break truce aid terms
Brett Wilkins

‘You cease, I fire’: Israel kills at least 9 in Gaza, says it will break truce aid terms

“Israel is working extremely hard to blow up this ceasefire,” said one observer after IDF troops shot dead Palestinians trying to return to their homes in the largely flattened strip.

Gaza: The peace of the genocide alliance
David Goessmann

Gaza: The peace of the genocide alliance

The great war may be coming to an end, but the violence of occupation, apartheid, and territorial expansion is not.

Remembering my Palestinian father
Joseph Harfouch

Remembering my Palestinian father

In these awful times of genocide and massacre, I particularly remember my late Palestinian father.

Ceasefire sparks fresh calls for global media access to Gaza
Jessica Corbett

Ceasefire sparks fresh calls for global media access to Gaza

Press groups are also demanding justice for the more than 200 journalists slaughtered in Palestinian territory over the past two years.

Shameful distortion that lies at the heart of US conservative politics
George Browning

Shameful distortion that lies at the heart of US conservative politics

The news of ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza is cause for great rejoicing and for giving credit where it is due. But the big questions remain: where to from here, and how did the world allow this to happen in the first place?


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

The West’s crucial strategic failures
Les MacDonald

The West’s crucial strategic failures

The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires that once believed they were eternal. Camille Paglia.

Lack of China capability can only do harm to society: Our current situation is a disgrace
Colin Mackerras

Lack of China capability can only do harm to society: Our current situation is a disgrace

In March 2023, the Australian Academy of the Humanities sounded the alarm on the decline in our understanding and knowledge of China through a report on “Australia’s China Knowledge Capability”.

How anti-China witch hunts in Canada and the UK ruin lives
Alex Lo

How anti-China witch hunts in Canada and the UK ruin lives

Security services such as London’s MI5 and Ottawa’s RCMP appear to be going after individuals and organisations out of pure antagonism and distrust against Beijing rather than having actual evidence.


John Menadue

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More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

No 'just peace' without due diligence

Richard Llewellyn — Colo Vale

Peter Slezak demands sincere attention and a fair, just and strong response from our flaccid government leaders, Albanese and Wong. It has taken — what? — little more than 48 hours from the signing of the Trump Peace Plan (TPP) for the Netanyahu Government and the IDF to resume killing Palestinians with the same gratuitously offensive excuses that have been such a predominant feature of their entire genocidal campaign. We wait for Albanese and Wong to change from calling on Hamas to abide by the terms of the TPP and apply the same pressure on the Zionists' genocidal...
Will we out Advance?

Fiona Colin — Melbourne

We are indebted to investigative writers like John Queripel, Anthony Klan and Michael West Media, to name a few, who provide forensic exposes of elite-funded Advance. As in the US, the funders of Advance are far from household names but are nevertheless deeply invested in policy areas, especially climate action. They, and members of the Coalition, claim they are fighting a “woke elite”. They attempt — sometimes successfully — to divide and distract by igniting spot fires around which bathroom to use or what books children should or shouldn’t read. Donor Gina Rinehart claimed earlier this year that...
No more killing in Palestine

Geoff Taylor — Borlu (Perth)

I note Ramzy Baroud’s article. I hope our faith in the ability of the Palestinian people to govern wisely is not dimmed by more reports of extrajudicial killings in Gaza, channelling Donald Trump in the Caribbean.
The big con from a lame government

Margaret Callinan — Hawthorn VIC 3122

Take the backdown on super after the approval of NW Shelf gas drilling out to 2070, throw in tightening of FOI for good measure, and community Independents have been handed a gift to mobilise for 2028. The only, but major, problem they'll have is disabusing aspirants that they will ever have $3 million, let alone $10 million in super. It will also be an uphill battle getting them to realise that, without tax reform, they will forever be stuck with crumbling public health, education, transport and privatised child and aged care where costs go up as quality goes down....



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