Witnessing the extraordinary cage fight this week between Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in the Oval Office provided an eye-popping glimpse into what is normally kept behind closed doors when world leaders meet to nut out matters of great consequence. The two presidents loudly talked over each other, eyeballs rolling, aggressively gesticulating and contradicting each Continue reading »
politics
Sarah Schwarz speaks to the silencing tactics against those speaking up for Palestine. Francesca Albanese outlines the many elements that make up genocide. Peter Cronau suggests Australia appears to have breached the International Court of Justice ruling by exporting coal from Newcastle to Israel, while Cameron Leckie suggests a peacekeeping force for Ukraine is disingenuous Continue reading »
Donald Trump is an awful person and a terrible president. But he may provide an enduring breath of fresh air when it comes to the black/white posturing about freedom versus authoritarianism. Let us stipulate at the outset that Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States of America, is a miserable excuse for a Continue reading »
As Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto steers his giant nation closer to China it’s worth recalling Paul Keating three decades ago: “No country is more important to Australia than Indonesia.” His successors nod and offer warm words, but no longer hear their prophet. Caught up in domestic policies and trying to dodge the Trump Martian machine, Continue reading »
The arrogance of early Victorian colonial settlement seems lost to amnesia. Maps of the time show the world as if diseased by a sprawling red virus – the British Empire. With the reach of the red went a blind and over-weening attitude of entitlement, a dictation of what would and would not be. Indigenous people Continue reading »
NATO was, in part, established to prevent moves by France and Germany towards independent European defence and foreign policies, such as the West European Union. This has been a geo-political priority for Washington since the end of World War II. Under Joe Biden, there was panic in the US about Europeans going their own way Continue reading »
The inequity and inefficiencies in our current health programs and the resulting need for change, have been obvious for decades. Finding the necessary political boldness to change this situation has eluded us to date. I acknowledge that there have been a number of governments and ministers who wanted to improve the healthcare of Australians and Continue reading »
The current push in Australia to deploy nuclear power reactors once again contrasts an excessive optimism by nuclear proponents against the continuing stagnant situation of nuclear power worldwide. That contrast is the subject of our new report for the EnergyScience Coalition. The latest nuclear proposals are built on three speculations. First, projected AI-related energy demand Continue reading »
Since the Israel/US alliance went into full-throttle war machine mode in the name of Israel’s right to self-defence, fissures have appeared in the global community, delineating various camps. Roughly speaking: those who support Israel, those who condemn Israel, and those who question Israel. All three groups are being swept into an often confrontational dynamic, where Continue reading »
After the election Australia is likely to have a minority government with the independents, who will hold the balance of power, negotiating each issue on its merits. But democracy is best served if each independent states before the election which party they will support to form a government by guaranteeing supply. For months now, the Continue reading »