Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading:

Murdoch wins again and populist Xenophon goes again with the big end of town – the NewDaily (Bruce Guthrie)

Dance of the elephants – Inside Story (Matthew Ricketson). When governments and Big Media dance together, it is not a pretty picture.

US Senate Democrats show off anti-religious bigotry – Washington Post (Michael Gerson)

Pope Francis Calls Out Trump, Accuses Him of “Pro-Life” Hypocrisy – Vanity Fair (Tina Nguyen)

Bangladeshis helping Rohingya: “I gave them shelter because I am a human being” – Aljazeera

Debate about energy needs to put people first – Pearls and Irritations Repost (Tony Maher).  What coal mine workers think about the energy mess, by the National Secretary of the CFMEU.

Rooftop solar and storage, cheaper than subsidising old coal – RenewEconomy (Giles Parkinson).  Coal is expensive, dirty and old hat!

Want energy storage? Here are 22,000 sites for pumped hydro across Australia” – The Conversation (Andrew Blakers et al)

The life my brother never had because he was gay – Canberra Times (David Kirby).  David Kirby writes about his brother, Michael.

Where is the biff? Free speech has won every round in the marriage equality debate – David Marr (the Guardian)

The growing concentration of market power among firms is a significant cause of widening inequality and stagnating wages – Geraldine Doogue interview on Saturday Extra with economists Adam Triggers and Luigi Zingales 

We’ve turned our universities into money-grubbing exploiters – Ross Gittins.  It’s not just the current government’s assault on university funding.  Commercialisation of our universities goes back at least 30 years and has left academics with the dismal choice of a crippling workload or a lowering of teaching and research standards.

Authoritarianism ascendant: Cambodia’s politics and Australia’s dilemmas – Cameron Hill (Australian Parliamentary Library)