Pearlcasts
As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.
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13 January 2026
There must be an accounting when the music stops
After Bondi, public anxiety, political pressure and rising criticism of Israel have collided. As definitions of antisemitism are contested, government judgement, media influence and social cohesion are under strain.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Chris Sidoti on the International Court of Justice Gaza ruling
Yuji Iwasawa, president of the UN's highest court, says international law prohibits the use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare.
13 January 2026
Another pristine new year, another human write-off
Each New Year arrives full of promise, and each is steadily dismantled by human folly. History suggests 2026 will be no exception.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Modi cancels ASEAN trip, avoids meeting Trump – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Trump says he spoke to Modi but India denies call took place. Plus: Japan’s new coalition a shift to the right; Timor Leste finally gets seat at regional table; Life worse than death on Myanmar scam farm; Prabowo – control, populism and diminished accountability; Sri Lanka suffers from world’s worst plastics spill.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Albo, Trump and China: No one likes a loser
The first obvious takeaway is that our prime minister has been wise not to heed the Austral Americans urging him to get to Washington as soon as possible.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - China, US or us? Australia’s Upper Path in the global minerals race
The headlines are breathless: “China versus the world,” proclaimed The Australian, quoting some very important people from the sheriff's office urging allies to decouple from Beijing and unite against China's takeover of global rare earth supply chains.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Albanese and Rudd sold out freedom of the press this week
Many Australian journalists think Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ambassador Kevin Rudd did a wonderful job this week in handling the corrupt narcissist who runs the United States, Donald Trump.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Superannuation and the Canberra Press Gallery's fantasies
The Canberra Press Gallery was completely absorbed with the supposed politics of last week’s superannuation changes and completely failed to consider their merits and why the changes were therefore made.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Muted response to Trump's appropriation of Christianity
“…and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert…” (Acts 20:29–31).
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - On Israel, Zionism and being Jewish
No political conflict contains as many journalistic minefields as that between Israel and Palestine.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Palestinian Mandela beaten unconscious. Our leaders yawned and looked away
Israel and the West pretend they want a real peace in Israel-Palestine yet the Israelis just beat unconscious the man most likely to help realise a sustainable end to the conflict: Marwan Barghouti.
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Latest on Palestine and Israel
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Chris Sidoti on the International Court of Justice Gaza ruling
Yuji Iwasawa, president of the UN's highest court, says international law prohibits the use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare.
13 January 2026
Best of 2025 - On Israel, Zionism and being Jewish
No political conflict contains as many journalistic minefields as that between Israel and Palestine.
12 January 2026
Best of 2025 - 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?
12 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Israel’s response to the International Court of Justice
The ceasefire plan in Gaza has dominated our news in recent days and weeks. One aspect of the plan is the obligation of Israel in the first phase to release a number — a large number — of Palestinian prisoners.
11 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Between two wounds: Gaza confronts Trump's plan to end the war
On a cold morning in central Gaza City, Nevin Al-Barbari, 35, sat in what remained of her family home, watching her two-year-old daughter, Reem, explore the rooms she had only recently come to know.
11 January 2026
Best of 2025 - 7 October not a day to abuse protesters
When it comes to the domestic political fallout from the Gaza conflict, there are no more reliable and uncritical friends of Israel than Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan and her New South Wales counterpart Chris Minns.
11 January 2026
Best of 2025 - 7 October 2023: What really happened? Part 1
At dawn, on 7 October 2023, Hamas fighters blast over 100 holes in the walls and fences that separate the Gaza Strip from Israel.
10 January 2026
Francesca Albanese and the lonely road of defiance
The UN special rapporteur investigating Gaza is sanctioned, blacklisted and treated as a criminal. The response reveals how power reacts when accountability is applied to the powerful.
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
12 January 2026
Best of 2025 - 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”.
11 January 2026
Best of 2025 - A masterclass in agency: What Singapore can teach Australia about China
Singapore’s new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sat down with the ABC on 2 October and offered something rare in Australia’s China debate: clarity, confidence, and a middle-power strategy that doesn’t involve shouting or submission.
7 January 2026
Best of 2025 - If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything
A 9 September editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled China and Australia in a high-speed race to win control of the Pacific, offered a vivid picture of the daily contest for influence in the region.
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