Search Results
-
The emerging spectre of American fragility: A reckoning
The United States, having learnt nothing from the 20th Century, is, quite characteristically, spoiling for a fight with one of the great success stories of our time, China, on the basis of nothing more than a doltishly unfounded fear of this success and an ever so faintly emerging spectre of American fragility. A fragility across Continue reading »
-
Australia and Japan should calm tensions in the South China Sea
Geopolitical tensions are rising again in the South China Sea. President Biden’s trilateral meeting with PM Kishida from Japan and President Marcos to discuss military strategy to contain China’s perceived “coercive policy” will not help calm the waters. Continue reading »
-
Australia’s leadership is destroying the very fabric of this country
Some days I wake up and don’t recognise the country we have become. It is not the country I grew up in. It is not a country I can be proud of. It is not a country that has a bright future under current leadership. Continue reading »
-
Responding to tragedy
Much has already been said and written about the recent tragic stabbings at Bondi Junction. Daily, we are also exposed to stories about the ravages of war, hopefully neither suppressing nor being overwhelmed by them. As a funeral celebrant, I am familiar with, but never complacent about death and suffering – indeed, it is a Continue reading »
-
Over Dutton now looms the spectre of a quick trip to Government House
By mid-May, Budget time, the Albanese government will be a week short of two years in power. Albanese is moving into the zone where he could confidently approach the Governor-General, new or old, for an early election, perhaps as early as July, unexceptionably in October or November. Continue reading »
-
Western powers never believed in a rules-based order
Liberal democracies remain shamefully complicit with Israel, despite its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. Continue reading »
-
How the left became cheerleaders for US imperialism
Figureheads like the Guardian’s George Monbiot have wrecked the left’s ability to think critically, encouraging an analysis of power politics more suited to the playground. Continue reading »
-
The fantasy of an Iranian bomb
Iran has never had a nuclear bomb—why does Israel insist that it’s an imminent threat? Continue reading »
-
Putin says he follows Israel’s Gaza example in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has in the past justified brutal Russian military actions – such as in Ukraine and Syria — by saying they are the same as the Israeli actions we now see in Gaza. Continue reading »
-
The United States leaves a mess in Ukraine, moves on to China
The US State Department’s No 2 now admits the AUKUS joint submarine project between three of the Five Eyes is tied to Taiwan and mainland China. Continue reading »
-
The crimson thread of racism festers in the darker interstices of Australian culture
In 1890 Henry Parkes spoke of “The crimson thread of kinship running through us all.” He believed this “crimson thread” – evocative of blood – united all white people in the Australian colonies and bound them to Britain. The federation he was advocating for Australia was to be exclusively white and eternally British. Continue reading »
-
Europe’s identity crisis
As European leaders continue to import a version of U.S. militarism, rearmament will cost the Continent its postwar social contract. Continue reading »
-
Unaligned – or undecided? Prabowo, China and US
This week Prabowo Subianto has been in Beijing at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. It’s the Indonesian president-elect’s first major overseas trip after winning the 14 February election. No come-soon card yet from Washington, so China’s getting in first. Should we be worried? Duncan Graham reports: Continue reading »
-
A graveyard of patients and staff
On Monday 1 April I am sending this letter which I had prepared late in the evening of the 31st, and which is now only testimony to Israel’s determination to destroy every civil structure and every possibility of life in Gaza. Tonight they totally destroyed the Shifa hospital so that it is unrecognisable. The hospital Continue reading »
-
Portents of a nuclear war on a burning planet
The 24 hours media news cycle clouds the minds of people, perpetrators and hapless victims alike, to the future dimension, whether that of future generations or of the natural world itself. Continue reading »
-
What’s next for China-Australia relations?
CGTN Radio host Liu Kun interviews Ambassador Tony Kevin, Ambassador Geoff Raby and Dr. Zhao Hai on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent trip to Australia and broader China-Australia relations. Continue reading »
-
Americans are starting to realise they’ve been lied to about Ukraine
It took some years for Americans to realize they’d been lied to about the war in Vietnam. Thanks to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and thanks to the antiwar movement, Americans eventually learned about the injustices and failures of that war. Likewise, it took several years after the starts of the wars in Iraq Continue reading »
-
It will take hope, inspiration and action to save the earth
I see humanity as at the mouth of a very long, very dark tunnel. And right at the end of that tunnel, there’s a little star that’s hope. And it’s no good sitting at the mouth of the tunnel folding our arms and hoping that the star will come. Continue reading »
-
Nuclear energy everywhere costs an arm and a leg
The contribution of nuclear power to electricity generation is the lowest for thirty years and its price twice that of renewables. Continue reading »
-
Egypt sells out Palestinians for $10 billion loan package
Despite public protestations, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is helping Israel transfer 1.4 million Palestinians from Rafah to tent cities in the Sinai Desert. Continue reading »
-
Stan Grant on Good Friday, Easter, and God’s absence in our suffering world
I never thought I’d see an inspiring Easter reflection in the usually secular, The Saturday Paper. But last Saturday (March 23) there was Stan Grant, writing on the Christian feast. Continue reading »
-
Is China an Imperialist nation?
I was recently sent a complete list of China’s invasions of other countries in the last 2,245 years to demonstrated that China is historically an imperial nation and hence dangerous. Continue reading »
-
The empire slowly suffocates Assange like it slowly suffocates all its enemies
The British High Court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may potentially get a final appeal against extradition to the United States, but only within a very limited scope and only if specific conditions are met. Continue reading »
-
Russia: A steel wall against the West
In 1942, a Finnish sound engineer Thor Damen, secretly recorded 11 minutes of a conversation between Finland’s Commander-in-Chief, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim and Adolf Hitler, without the latter’s knowledge. Continue reading »
-
China steals a march on a distracted world
For China these days it doesn’t get much easier to pursue it geostrategic objectives. With the US distracted on two fronts in Europe and the Middle East, and Russia mired in its intractable invasion of Ukraine, among the great powers, China is largely free to advance its interests on an increasingly global scale. Sabre rattling Continue reading »
-
The urgency of Diplomacy
Now is the time for talks that will bring us closer to peace and away from a deadly and destructive war with no end in sight. Continue reading »
-
A Republican victory in 2024 will be a climate disaster
After the Super Tuesday results signalled Trump would become the Republican presidential candidate in November, a first promise was that “We’re going to drill baby drill.” One of the most important reasons to watch American politics this year is that a Trump victory will push the world faster towards catastrophic climate heating. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Booming oil and gas profits mainly benefit shareholders
The oil market is twice as large as all ten largest metal markets combined. Most oil and gas profits go to shareholders, not reinvestment in the industry. Since 2001 only 5 months have been cooler than the average for 1981-2010. Extinction Rebellion perform at the National Gallery of Victoria. Continue reading »
-
Geopolitical grand larceny and its risks
One of the Ten Commandments says, with awkward bluntness: Thou Shalt Not Steal. Predictably, some are inclined to read certain qualifications in to this prohibition. As it happens, this sort of adaptive-thinking underpins arguments made in a recent article in the leading US journal, Foreign Policy. Continue reading »
-
Authorised atrocities
Israel’s lawlessness has a history that those in the West share with the apartheid state. Continue reading »
