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Pearls and Irritations |
The hype around Artificial Intelligence, the now failed U.S. attempt to monopolise it, and the recent counter from China are a lesson in how to...
South Korea is on the brink of major political upheaval following Yoon Seok-yeol’s declaration of martial law and subsequent impeachment. While...
With a federal election looming, leaders of two political parties have now announced plans to deal with the protracted under-funding of...
As the overall number of asylum seekers in Australia continues to rise and is now over 120,000, Shadow Immigration Spokesperson Dan Tehan regularly...
The European Idea is anchored by the desire to banish war from the continent forever and foster collective development by creating a...
The pattern is familiar. Israel tightens the screws. Palestinians resist. Israel, under the pretext of self-defence, massacres Palestinians, steals...
Watching footage of Palestinian parliamentarian and hostage Khalida Jarrar emerge from Israeli captivity was jarring – a far, muffled cry from...
Jillian Segal, a former President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and now Australia’s controversial Special Envoy to Combat...
Amidst colourful lion dances and whatnots, many Chinese community leaders will, once again, fete their white guardian angels at fanciful Chinese...
Trump speaks to media about the intent to clear out Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, while Hamas responds. Google Earth updates its visuals to...
Neither State Department nor MOFA is gonna like this piece. Wang Yi and Marco Rubio, the respective top diplomats of China and the U.S., held their...
Well that didn’t take long. President Trump has said he wants to “clean out” Gaza and relocate its population to US client states Egypt and...
Today marks 237 years since the commencement of the violent dispossession of First Nations peoples from this land. It represents a day of mourning...
One of the strong points Anthony Albanese made before the last election was that Scott Morrison had virtually abandoned honest government, good...
Freedom, the dream that has inspired countless individuals, cultures, beliefs and civilisations over millennia, will soon be gone. Forever. In just...
The promotion of antisemitism as a diversion from what is happening in Palestine is a deliberate activity which must be understood by all...
The new year in Australian politics, an all-important election year, began on a high with a host of initiatives taking effect from January 1, 2025....
Addressing Donald Trump at the National Cathedral’s inauguration service, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, looking the incoming president in...
Australian society has never really been a cohesive entity. In the past its various socio-economic, religious, ethnic, cultural, and political...
At this time of year, we’re reminded that Australia has a problem: an ongoing and deeply divisive conflict over Australia Day. For many, January 26...
A new study published in The Lancet estimates Gaza’s death toll at 64,260 in the first nine months of the war, 41% higher than official figures,...
Pearls & Irritations have graciously published the many articles I have written over the last five years on Donald Trump. I’ve written about his...
The atmosphere at a recent meeting to discuss the results of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change...
As we are now a few short months away from the next federal election, politicians and their advisers are desperate to identify segments of the...
Finally. Someone in government gets it. The Tasmanian Parliament’s Select Committee’s report on the operation of the University of Tasmania is...
Humanity is like a vast operating system designed to run on principles of fairness, collaboration, and kindness. Research shows that humans are...
Suppression of critical voices through the instrumentalisation of religious fanaticism in university systems remains a powerful tool for...
One moment from my work in the USA in the early 1980s stands out in my memory. I’d driven from Chicago to Cleveland at the invitation of the...
For those in Gaza, the war will not end when the bombs stop falling. The war will live on in their bodies and souls—in the limbs they’ve lost, in...
At the end of this month we farewell Aran Martin, after over two years as our editor. From early February, Sam Varghese will be acting editor of...
Wars, like that being waged currently by the Zionist terrorist government of Netanyahu are the destructive and mindless outworking of dualism;...
The International Court of Justice heard, last month, that after reconstruction is factored in Israel’s war on Gaza will have emitted 52 million...
Grassroots support can help many refugees find their feet. Working with very stretched organisations to support refugees. Safety is a primary...
I have been reading Stan Grant’s beautiful new book, Murriyang song of time (Bundyi: Sydney 2024). There is in it a sentence pertaining to the...
“I do hold the view that the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonised by the British,” he said. “Not that they were...
Australian political leaders and their mainstream media backers are in moral outrage mode. Anti-Semitism they say is rife, infectious, getting...
Human societies are setting themselves on a collision course with climate-induced catastrophes. Lithium-ion batteries will soon be facing...
The headline in the Times of Israel says it all: “For the First Time, Israel Just Lost a War.” Regardless of the reasoning behind this...
We need to stop putting all our eggs in the ‘anti-racism strategy basket’ and start to recognise that a more holistic approach where everyone...
Pro-Palestine protests have been taking place all over Australia right from the time when Israel started its massacre in October 2023. But looking...
When Parliament returns, the government will be pressed to enact a law making it a criminal offence to threaten violence against people or groups...
Land rights now! By a strange quirk of fate, I was working in the Minister’s Office in 1976 when Parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (...
Although Australian elections are not marked by turnout issues as they are in the US where voting is discretionary, there are lessons for Anthony...
In Asian media this week: President links China to Panama Canal face-off. Plus: Weaknesses in America’s Asian pact latticework; Government,...
Back at the very start of the war retired US Ambassador Chas Freeman, an eloquent critic of many aspects of his government’s international...
Donald Trump’s return to power for a second term has sent ripples across the globe. On his first day in office, he wielded executive authority...
Australians now have access to significant superannuation balances, but if superannuation is going to meet its purpose of ensuring an adequate...