‘I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice’ ~ Abraham Lincoln The UK High Court decision in the Assange case may be just over a week away. The delegation of Australian politicians currently in Washington DC have reportedly been granted audience with Republicans Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, & Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy and Continue reading »
International Relations
India appears to have taken a leaf out of Saudi Arabia’s book in dealing with its critics abroad, with the alleged killing by Indian agents of a prominent Khalistan activist in Canada recently. In fact, if one goes by the accusation levelled by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, India has not even bothered to hunt Continue reading »
During the disastrous Vietnam War, it was said that the US government treated the public like a mushroom farm: keeping it in the dark and feeding it with manure. The heroic Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers documenting the unrelenting US government lying about the war in order to protect politicians who would be embarrassed Continue reading »
We believe the right and best course of action would be for the United States’ Department of Justice to cease its pursuit and prosecution of Julian Assange.” As a cross-party delegation of Australian politicians headed to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to pressure the U.S. government to end its yearslong pursuit of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Continue reading »
Shadow boxing around “universal health coverage” instead of “universal access to healthcare” in the UN General Assembly reflects deeper tensions around the direction of the world economy. At the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday, 21 September the delegates will consider a compromise document on universal health coverage (the 1 September draft Continue reading »
According to independent observers who visited the region, Beijing has implemented policies to help Uygurs after crushing terrorist threat. We have all heard the “genocide” narrative from the mainstream news media about Xinjiang. Four independent German sinologists and an international law specialist investigated on site on their own initiative in May and returned with their Continue reading »
The fact is that between 2010 and 2016, Xinjiang was on the brink of chaos. Unlike America’s war on terror, characterised by US troops invading the wrong countries, destroying infrastructure, pillaging resources, terrorizing locals and conducting drone strikes that killed civilians and journalists, as Julian Assange valiantly exposed on WikiLeaks, China’s approach to counter terrorist Continue reading »
New Zealand academic Robert Patman advocates back peddling on confrontation with China to focus on fighting Russia, but both promise disaster. Robert Patman, a luminary of the New Zealand foreign policy establishment, has won applause from a surprising array of political positions for his hostility to NZ becoming involved in AUKUS. These range from former Continue reading »
China wants to expand its sphere of influence; the West, thankfully, is devoid of such base instincts. We can ignore the US’ vastly greater military budget, its 800 overseas military bases compared to China’s one, its mammoth track record of overseas interventions, and its military encirclement of China with Australia’s aid; China is the obvious Continue reading »
Indonesia and Australia have more to gain from energy transition – and more to lose from inaction – than any two countries in the world. But the Indonesian government must navigate significant policy challenges to attract the capital it needs for a swift, just and orderly transition. When Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited Australia recently Continue reading »