
8 June 2025
Glenn Diesen and Jeffrey Sachs - NATO & Russia on the brink of nuclear war
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, an advisor to political leaders around the world, a bestselling author, and a global leader in sustainable development. Prof. Sachs discusses the decline of diplomacy, rationality and self-preservation in the West. As Russia's nuclear forces were attacked, Western political leaders and media reacted with glee.

8 June 2025
‘Strategic clarity’ over Taiwan is just so much American bombast
Ally or not, no one with a decent sense of self-preservation can afford to take a security guarantee by the United States at face value nowadays.

8 June 2025
Gaza conditions 'worse than hell on Earth': Red Cross chief
We cannot continue to watch what is happening, said Mirjana Spoljaric. It's surpassing any acceptable legal, moral, and humane standard.

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8 June 2025
Friday essay: let’s rethink Australia’s national security – and focus on fairness and climate action, not blind fealty to the US
The change in the US after Donald Trump returned to power should make us think deeply whether Washington's aims and policies will offer us the security we need.

8 June 2025
Environment: 5% of animal species currently threatened by climate change
An Australian rodent was the first mammal to be driven to extinction by climate change. Renewables will supply almost all of global electricity’s 4% per year growth. Four personal behaviour changes could remove much of the average person’s carbon footprint.

8 June 2025
Grounds for optimism over bilateral ties with China
As living in another country shows, mutual understanding is built on respect and openness.

7 June 2025
Warren Report: Musk leveraged government access for personal gain
Since Election Day, Musk's staggering net worth has increased by over $100 billion, the report states.

7 June 2025
Build-up to the ultimate surveillance state has just begun
While most of us are transfixed daily by more horrific atrocities, potentially deadlier operations are likely to far outlast the genocide in Gaza.

7 June 2025
Albanese should remember his childhood – and the rhymes he learnt
There is much wisdom to be had in what was learnt in the first years of life,

7 June 2025
Ukraine attack will have no effect on outcome of war
The black eye given Russian security services will eventually heal while the artful destruction of a handful of bombers — like earlier high-profile, but misguided operations — will have zero effect on the war in Ukraine.

7 June 2025
US military waste contractor with flawed safety record backing Australian N-waste dump
A US military mega-contractor assisting an Australian company to develop a proposal for a nuclear waste dump in Central Australia has a flawed safety record in handling nuclear waste storage.
Latest on Palestine and Israel

8 June 2025
Gaza conditions 'worse than hell on Earth': Red Cross chief
We cannot continue to watch what is happening, said Mirjana Spoljaric. It's surpassing any acceptable legal, moral, and humane standard.

7 June 2025
Talk of a two-state solution may not go much further
A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem has not been mentioned for ages, but was revived recently. However, it may end with just that – talk.

6 June 2025
Media shortcomings in covering terrorist Netanyahu’s daily Gaza mass murders
Opposition by former high officials in Israeli’s military and national security establishment and Israeli allies – France, England, and Germany – to the aimless killing of civilian families in Gaza is increasing.

6 June 2025
Ali Kazak and the transformation of the politics of Palestine in Australia
It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing on 17 May of Ali Kazak, at the age of 78. Over five decades, Ali dedicated his enormous energy to building understanding and support for Palestine, the land of his birth.

6 June 2025
Bogus charges of antisemitism are the new McCarthyism
The word antisemitism has become so debased that depending on who is using it, I might well take it as a sign that the accused is worth listening to.

5 June 2025
'These could be our children': Israeli women opposing the war, an interview
Not only abroad, but also within his own country, Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is finally facing growing and substantial protests against his war in Gaza.

5 June 2025
When education funds genocide: students raise their voices in defiance
For more than a year, the world has been witnessing the genocidal massacres committed by Israel against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed, including university students and teachers, and academic institutions have been completely destroyed.

5 June 2025
We must confound the Zionist Lobby
The recent article by John Menadue recounts how far the Zionist Lobby has managed to exercise the leverage — and it is undeniably powerful leverage — of the malignant scourge of antisemitism to further its geopolitical strategy of creating Eretz Israel and thus grasping the rewards that would flow from it.

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

8 June 2025
‘Strategic clarity’ over Taiwan is just so much American bombast
Ally or not, no one with a decent sense of self-preservation can afford to take a security guarantee by the United States at face value nowadays.

8 June 2025
Grounds for optimism over bilateral ties with China
As living in another country shows, mutual understanding is built on respect and openness.

7 June 2025
Build-up to the ultimate surveillance state has just begun
While most of us are transfixed daily by more horrific atrocities, potentially deadlier operations are likely to far outlast the genocide in Gaza.

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Latest letters to the editor
When critique sounds suspiciously like conspiracy
Adam Slonim — St Kilda East
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Geoff Taylor — Perth
Pre-1978 progress in China
Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041
One month in, the honeymoon is over
Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA