The irony was thick as lard. What an indigestible image for International Women’s Day. What an appalling advertisement for the Melbourne ASEAN Summit and its Australian host, a claimed world leader for gender equality. The above pic appeared last week just before Minister for Women Katy Gallagher released the government’s Working for Women strategy to “ensure Continue reading »
politics
AUKUS has become a stillborn project. Vassal states, satellites – in other words the butlers of international relations, the minders of the royal stool – are a rarely respected lot. In Australia’s case, being Washington’s butler is hardly like being Jeeves to Bertie Wooster. Jeeves is, after all, a near omniscient being, a confidant who Continue reading »
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive! Whatever else he might have been, Sir Walter Scott was no clairvoyant. Deeply cemented into Scottish history and folklore, his long narrative poems are now largely forgotten. But this single line captures the essence of AUKUS, where a cocktail of strategic conceits Continue reading »
As we speak, international law is being openly flouted by powerful actors, [the US, the UK, and Israel] with devastating results for Julian Assange, and other political prisoners, for thousands of innocent civilians slaughtered in Gaza, and for the continued viability of international human rights and international law themselves. Introduction by John Jiggens: Craig Mokhiber Continue reading »
We shall never get anywhere with the Australia-China relationship if we are not pragmatic, as Bismarck famously said. While we must avoid over-ambitious goals, forthcoming official talks with China’s top foreign affairs official Wang Yi will present a unique opportunity to test the government’s relationship reset. A two-day visit by Wang Yi later in March Continue reading »
About 15 percent of the people who gave to Menendez’s legal defense fund have links to the MEK, a controversial Iranian exile group.
The post Donors to Bob Menendez Legal Defense Linked to Ex-Terror Group appeared first on The Intercept.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that 2,000 healthcare workers in the northern Gaza Strip will begin the month of Ramadan without suhoor (the pre-dawn) or iftar (breakfast) meals. Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement: “Medical teams are working around the clock in northern Gaza and have nothing to eat.” Continue reading »
For five months now, our screens have been bombarded by images depicting Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza. This extraordinary footage, this apocalyptic scene, shows just how widespread that destruction has been. Israel is still denying foreign journalists independent access to Gaza. We’re in Israel, about a kilometre from the border, reports the ABC’s Continue reading »
The deplorable vandalism of our sacred space by individuals, who, most likely have never experienced war and its consequences, staggers the imagination, writes Gavin O’Brein after “Eyes on Gaza” was spray painted on the Vietnam war memorial, Canberra. I am a Vietnam Veteran, a conscript under National Service, who spent just under a year deployed Continue reading »
At over 40 percent of net migration, Australia’s overseas student program was growing unsustainably before the pandemic. The border closures hid many of the problems and led the Coalition Government to make policy changes that made the situation much worse when borders re-opened (unrestricted work rights, fee-free visa applications, covid visa). The Albanese Government significantly Continue reading »