Writer
John Tulloh
John Tulloh had a 40-year career in foreign news.
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JOHN TULLOH. “Hell on earth” lies just across the Indian Ocean
If you travelled from Western Australia north-west across the Indian Ocean, the first country you would encounter has been described as ‘Hell on Earth’. You will find there civil war, famine, drought, refugees, destruction and a blockade for starters. Now it has a cholera epidemic. No wonder it has been called the worst story Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Fear, paranoia and anxiety in Turkey one year on from the failed coup attempt.
As one opposition MP noted: ‘Turkey has been wrapped in a cloak of fear and anxiety’. Paranoia as well, he might have added. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Six days of war and 50 years of conflict.
For Palestinians, Nakbar Day means the day of catastrophe. It is commemorated on May 15, the day after the anniversary of Israel’s independence in 1948. It remembers the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were evicted from their homes and land partitioned by the UN for the new Jewish state. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. My first foreign news assignment 50 years ago – the Six Day War.
This article was first published in Foreign Correspondents’ Association Australia and South Pacific website. Next week, John Tulloh will be writing on the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War. It was mid-afternoon Sydney time on a winter’s Monday 50 years ago that events were set in train which to this day remain a major Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. The winds of change in Iran.
‘Iran’s nation chose the path of interaction with the world, away from violence and extremism’. President Hassan Rouhani on his election victory looks forward to a fresh new era for Iran. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Jockeying for the big prize in Iran
‘Trump’s rhetoric towards Iran is so harsh that to have someone on the other side who is equally harsh might provoke an unintentional confrontation’. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Trump’s first 100 days – so what?
The media have been besides themselves in anticipation of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in the White House this weekend. It’s as if this is some magic marker by which to judge his next 1359 days in the Oval Office. It is meaningless. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Turkey – Erdogan’s day of judgment.
Turkey’s voters face a momentous choice: whether they want their president to have the dictatorial power of a potential tyrant or one whose authority remains curbed by parliamentary government. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. The NBN – Another Inconvenient Truth
‘The nbn network is Australia’s exciting new landline phone and internet network. It’s designed to give you access to fast, reliable phone and internet services, no matter where you live’. NBN Connect Kit. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. What will Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop say to Benjamin Netanyahu?
It would be intriguing to know the position Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop intend to adopt in talks when the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visits Australia this week. It comes a week after Netanyahu had startling discussions with Donald Trump. The neophyte US leader on the Palestinian question did not seem too bothered Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. The simplistic naivete of Donald Trump
We certainly live in far more interesting, if not astonishing, news times now that a Manhattan real estate developer occupies the White House. We wake up each day wondering what was the latest personal whim Donald Trump chose to exercise while we slept. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Erdogan aims for the long haul as an Ottoman-style ruler.
Not long ago, when events in Turkey were as unsettled as they are now, its military leaders would have stepped in, toppled the government and taken draconian control to restore order. But President Recip Tayyip Erdogan seems safe for now, having emasculated the military leadership after the failed coup last year, sacked much of Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Just a case of Israeli ‘chutzpah’ or the action of a village tyrant?
The apoplectic rage of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was something to behold. How dare the U.N., an organisation he takes little notice of anyway, condemn his ever expanding housing program for Jewish families in the contested West Bank and how dare the U.S. not even bother to veto it as has been the Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH: Fidel’s ghost teases Washington.
John Tulloh argues that for Trump to renege on Obama’s changes, would be fraught with legal problems, specially for those businesses which have already invested tens of millions in infrastructure in anticipation of Cuba becoming more accessible. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. U.S. finally starts to ease its Cold War punishment of Cuba
It is astonishing that an impoverished speck on the rump of the most powerful country in the world has managed to intimidate it for more than half a century. Cuba, only 144 kms off the coast of Florida, has had to suffer Uncle Sam’s unforgiving wrath because it became a Communist regime, locked up Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH: Vladimir Putin reaches back to the past to define his and Russia’s future.
Tsar Vladimir Putin plots his place in Russian history. It would appear that Vladimir Putin’s current modus operandi is aimed at defining his legacy. Ideally, he would like to be remembered as Vladimir the Great, the most illustrious Russian of his times. As those with the same honorific, Peter and Catherine, did, he is Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. The uncertain future for Turkey and Erdogan.
My friend! Leave not my homeland to the hands of villainous men! Render your chest as armour and your body as bulwark! Halt this disgraceful assault! For soon shall come the joyous days of divine promise; Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow? Perhaps even sooner! A verse from the Turkish national anthem. More than ever Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Malaysia – the wolf of Kuala Lumpur.
There was much mirth in Malaysia the other day when the US Justice Department filed civil lawsuits alleging a $3.5bn embezzlement of a Kuala Lumpur fund and diplomatically referred to one of the alleged villains as ‘Malaysia Official 1’. Everyone knew who that was – their prime minister, Najib Razak. It concerns the long-running Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Shrugging off the effects of the Iraq invasion.
‘His decision to invade Iraq is easily the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American president’. Professor Jean Edward Smith, eminent US presidential biographer, on George W. Bush. The other day the Sydney Morning Herald had a cartoon showing John Howard in a military uniform and holding a pop gun. Behind him Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Olympics and oil – a tale of two South American countries.
Back in 2009, the International Olympic Committee made a bold decision. It decided the 2016 Games would be held for the first time in South America, a continent not noted for its political, economic or social stability. Rio de Janeiro in Brazil would be the host city even though the evaluation of three others Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. The Defence Department prepares for war.
The release of the Chilcot report revives a memory from late 2002 or early 2003. Washington, London and Canberra were abuzz with talk of military action against the Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein. President George W. Bush accused him of having weapons of mass destruction and aiding al-Qaeda, the 9/11 terrorists. The war Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. 60 Minutes – the failure to think it right through. Amazing!
One of the best pieces of advice I received in 40 years of involvement in foreign television news was ‘Think it right through’. I was arguing with a colleague on a telex machine about a certain story. I was keen for it. He was cautious, hence his advice. He was right. The story was in Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. The odd couple – the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and their uneasy relationship.
As enduring international couples go, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia must rank among the oddest. They have been kind of firm friends since 1933 when oil was discovered in the kingdom. Yet their societies are so different as President Obama might have seen for himself when his limousine drove through the streets of Riyadh last Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. Erdogan leads Turkey back to the Ottoman era.
It is the time of the year when we have our annual bout of sentimental reflection on the heroics of the Anzac forces at Gallipoli a century ago. One of the Turkish military commanders whose resistance wore down the Anzacs and other allies was Kemal Ataturk, who went on to be the founder of Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. Springtime – the season of alarm and disharmony in Europe.
United in diversity. EU’s motto. If ever there were a line in a report to alarm European leaders, it might have been one buried in a 204-page document on the EU economy last November. It predicted that up to three million additional asylum seekers could enter the 28-nation bloc by the end of Continue reading »
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Culture and Religion, Defence and Security, Human Rights, Politics, Religion and Faith, World Affairs
John Tulloh. Middle East: The Arab Spring becomes the Arab Winter.
‘Arabs have rarely lived in bleaker times’. The Economist. An impoverished Arab would have been been flabbergasted at the consequences of his single, desperate protest five years ago. It precipitated the ousting of his country’s ruler and two other Arab leaders, the greatest upheaval and carnage of this century in one country, protests in others, Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. In praise of those who bring you the evening news.
Updated version of what appeared in Australian Cinematographer. In the world of television news, if there is one group which can rightfully claim a grievance for lack of recognition, it is the cameramen* who bring you what it is all about: the pictures, the vision, the actuality and the reason you watch news bulletins. Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. The Cost of the star-spangled arms banner.
Repost from 05/10/2015 O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, we’re so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. Turkey’s new neighbour – DAESH (Islamic State)
President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey must feel like a chess grand master playing several games simultaneously. He has far more neighbours and different cultures to contend with than most leaders: eight in all. They are a mixed bag across more than 2600 kms of borders – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, an Azerbaijan enclave, Georgia, Bulgaria Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. Europe: The political impact of a dead Syrian.
Ahmed al Mohammad may have a greater impact on Europe than his evil terrorist deeds did in Paris last week. It appears he was a Syrian asylum-seeker who, according to Greek records, passed through Greece last month and made his way through the Balkans to join his cohorts in France. He satisfied whatever checks there Continue reading »