Pearlcasts
As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.
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5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Australia is one trade deal away from backing authoritarians, says Taiwan
In the grand tradition of diplomatic overreach, Taiwan's deputy foreign minister recently offered some sweet and spicy talking points to our media: semiconductors are tanks, China is akin to WWII Germany, and if Australia doesn't fast-track Taiwan into the CPTPP, we might all wake up speaking Mandarin under a fascist AI regime, as reported by News Corp and 7 News.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Chasing a chimera: The political dream of AUKUS that consumes reality
For the sake of taxpayers, let's hope that the Audit Office is inspecting the AUKUS books closely.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Malign AI could change Australian election results, says judge
Justice David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court has issued a call to arms for lawyers generally, and the High Court in particular, to prepare for palpable threats to “a small, naive democracy like Australia”.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Taking a win from Alaska
On 15 August, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska, the first head-of-state meeting between the two countries since the Ukraine War began.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - The ABC's public comment guidelines: A 'crackdown' on management, not workers
The ABC’s new public comment guidelines, which replace its existing “personal use of social media” policy and follow the debacle of the Antoinette Lattouf affair, have been portrayed by rival media organisations as a crackdown”, “a gag order”, “a hit” on ABC employees, and other such alarming epithets.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - John Menadue in conversation with David Marr
In a wide-ranging discussion, P&I editor-in-chief John Menadue discusses a life full of achievement driven by conviction, and nominates seeing off the White Australia policy and establishing P&I as highlights. He is speaking with David Marr on ABC Radio National's Late Night Live.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Australia and Taiwan caught between Trump and Xi’s great-man fantasies
If there was any doubt in Canberra that the traditional political alignment with the US is in turmoil, the past week or so confirms it irrefutably.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Australia must defend International Criminal Court
If it were China or Russia, the imposition of sanctions and threats of harm to prosecutors and judges of the International Criminal Court would be front page news in Australia.
30 December 2025
Between identity and politics: Unpacking the systematic conflation of “Antisemitism” and criticism of Israel
Whenever Jews anywhere in the world are subjected to an attack or a threat, Israel, along with a wide network of political and media supporters, is quick to frame the incident as a direct extension of historical antisemitism.
27 December 2025
‘Australians for Humanity’ demand the invitation to Israel’s President be withdrawn immediately
The Israel President cannot be welcomed in Australia. The government he represents has been found by the International Court of Justice to have breached international law: the Netanyahu regime has committed a range of international crimes against humanity including war crimes, apartheid, illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing.
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.
Read our series
Latest on Palestine and Israel
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Australia must defend International Criminal Court
If it were China or Russia, the imposition of sanctions and threats of harm to prosecutors and judges of the International Criminal Court would be front page news in Australia.
27 December 2025
‘Australians for Humanity’ demand the invitation to Israel’s President be withdrawn immediately
The Israel President cannot be welcomed in Australia. The government he represents has been found by the International Court of Justice to have breached international law: the Netanyahu regime has committed a range of international crimes against humanity including war crimes, apartheid, illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing.
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.
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
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Australia is one trade deal away from backing authoritarians, says Taiwan
In the grand tradition of diplomatic overreach, Taiwan's deputy foreign minister recently offered some sweet and spicy talking points to our media: semiconductors are tanks, China is akin to WWII Germany, and if Australia doesn't fast-track Taiwan into the CPTPP, we might all wake up speaking Mandarin under a fascist AI regime, as reported by News Corp and 7 News.
5 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Australia and Taiwan caught between Trump and Xi’s great-man fantasies
If there was any doubt in Canberra that the traditional political alignment with the US is in turmoil, the past week or so confirms it irrefutably.
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.
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22 December 2025
What Australia’s teen social media ban could mean for reading
22 December 2025
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