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.
19 December 2025
Pearlcast: a year that overturned the old certainties
As 2025 draws to a close, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions. But in the latest episode of our podcast Pearlcast, that impulse is firmly resisted.
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.
18 December 2025
Looking for the wrong things: peace, power and the meaning of Christmas
As another bruising year ends, Christmas offers a reminder that peace is not found in power, wealth or spectacle, but in inner integrity, humility and care for others.
18 December 2025
Climate hot takes for 2025
Scientific evidence in 2025 showed global warming accelerating faster than expected, while emissions continued to rise and climate policy lagged dangerously behind physical reality.
18 December 2025
2025 in Review: What this year taught us about life, loss and shared humanity
Amid violence, war and deepening polarisation, 2025 has shown that despair and passivity are choices too – and that human survival depends on rejecting dehumanisation in all its forms.
16 December 2025
2025 in Review: ageing, policy failure and a year of misplaced priorities
Looking back on 2025, a year marked by global turmoil, timid reform at home, policy failure on ageing and a rushed social media ban that mistakes gesture for solution.
14 December 2025
Trembling before the religion of AI
We like to think we have moved beyond religion, yet our reliance on AI reveals a new metaphysics shaped by imagination, projection and fear. Adrian Rosenfeldt explores how digital systems have taken on the psychological role once held by the divine.
12 December 2025
What didn't happen in 2025
As leaders promised change at home and abroad, 2025 was shaped less by decisive action than by stalled reforms, broken assurances and opportunities left untouched.
9 December 2025
Writing as resistance in a year that refused to slow down
After a dizzying year of global upheaval, this reflection looks back on writing as resistance – against war, media failure, imperial power and silence – and why truth-telling still matters heading into 2026.