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Pearls and Irritations |
Record numbers step out to vote in the US election while PM Netanyahu fires his defence Minister and protesters gather in Tel Aviv. Israel...
Close to half of Republicans (46%) and more than a quarter of Democrats (27%) said they would not consider 2024 election results to be legitimate...
The recent BRICS summit in Kazan summed up the results of the Russian presidency of the organisation in 2024. John Shipton, an Australian activist...
In recent days, our media have covered two “scandals” involving allegations against public figures of failing to adequately address...
“I need your help… I have taken this whistleblowing as far as I can. This has been going for eight long years for me. Louise Beaston and I are...
The global consumer-capitalist machine is well-programmed to consume the planet in its quest to produce ever-more stuff. Avoiding pollution is...
A position paper has been published by the organisation BADIL in October, suggesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision on the...
If Australian anti-terror laws are to be considered principled and fair, they must apply equally to all organisations that meet the criteria,...
As US voters go to the polls on November 5th, they need to remind themselves that when the US elects its next domestic president, it is also...
There is a belief widely held across the Western world: Chinese students are schooled through rote, passive learning – and an educational system...
One of Mark Twain’s more celebrated aphorisms is that ‘history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme’. Witty, no doubt, but it doesn’t...
“The basic facts about youth crime in Australia, including Queensland, is that the number of young people getting into trouble with police has...
And the National Anti-Corruption Commission loses its appeal. Major General Paul Brereton would be doing well to plan a skilful retreat from utter...
From the outset, a question mark hovered over whether Australia’s federal National Anti-Corruption Commission would serve the purpose of shedding...
At the Imperial War Museum in London, there’s a moving display about Nazis and the Holocaust, the ‘ultimate human evil’. Seeing it in May this...
The Foreign minister Penny Wong should recall Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to Washington. Australia badly needs an ambassador who performs...
Simply put, the majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony, and is prepared to face it down rather than submit to its dictates....
The US empire is addicted to a belief in its exceptionalism, grounded in aggression both at home and abroad, and finding it hard to admit mistakes....
I have always had an interest in reading local official research documents. First, compared with the central level document, it provides a more “...
A very long line has been drawn between two dots: Israel and China, across what looks like a credibility chasm, by the vocal Australian Coalition...
With only days until the US Presidential election on 5 November and with polls calling the race 50:50. Michael Lester in discussion with Amelia...
The new Queensland Premier, David Crisafulli, has made some moderately progressive comments about climate and nuclear energy but they are, when...
Private schools have seized on an opportunity provided by an Amendment Bill before the Parliament to attempt to lock-in billions in Commonwealth...
Mr Shaoquett Moselmane, a popular politician amongst the Sydney’s multicultural community has been urged to nominate for the preselection for the...
As we approach the end of election season in the USA and are faced with a very uncertain future, it’s worth commenting that democracy is dead. At...
Palestine’s problem is only partly expressed as a frustrated 2-State Solution; it might, more effectively be understood as a 2-Israel problem....
Israel’s unholy policy trinity – destroy, kill, lie – has been underway for decades. But since October 2023 it has reached horrific levels. The...
This is a US operation being carried out by Israel but with complete complicity by the United States and silence by Europe. We fought trillions of...
A few years ago Ken Haddock, a retired social worker, discovered that a legendary folk tale of Melbourne Catholicism was false. For decades Father...
In 1962, a columnist with the Melbourne Herald noted that a 16th century sculpture of Madonna and Child would be on that year’s Christmas stamp....
The 2024 Nobel Prize for economics has gone to two economists for work on why some poor nations prosper while others fail and remain poor. But it...
On October 11, I attended a vigil for Palestinians in Federation Square, Melbourne. The event did not attract politicians’ censure as it was...
The U.S. and Israel are the alpha and omega of tyranny and destabilisation throughout much of the Middle East – arguably, the world. Who will...
A United Nations report, published on Monday, lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate “the very...