politics

The recently concluded summit of the five member states of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) agreed to expand membership to include from next January Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE. Western media and commentators’ responses have been a farrago of sneering at the unlikely hodgepodge of countries that Continue reading »

Looking on as the Republican Majority Leader is pushed out the window. We thought that only the USSR got rid of its leaders in a purge like this! Continue reading »

These days, Melbournians celebrate the contribution of the Kulin clans to the life of the city. But even as Elders welcome us to the MCG, and clan members, young and old, bring vibrancy to the city’s cultural, intellectual and spiritual life, commentators on the Voice referendum report that many voters have little knowledge of the Continue reading »

“Where is the outrage we saw when Israeli children were killed?” asked a co-founder of IfNotNow. Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes across the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ weekend attack have killed at least 1,100 people in the besieged enclave, including 326 children, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Wednesday. Gaza-based Hamas launched a major surprise attack against Israel on Continue reading »

While mainstream media and our own and other Western government’s cup runneth over in support of Israel, a deeper story of occupation, ethnic cleansing and apartheid underpins the decades-long suffering of the people of Palestine from successive Israeli governments that have been supported and funded by the US Government. While the bloodshed and loss of Continue reading »

The Opposition leader, the Dark Lord Peter Dutton is incensed, after being told that he would have to remove his white hood tomorrow when he votes in the referendum. ”What sort of country have we become when a good honest... Read More ›

For almost all of its thirty-year duration, it seemed quite natural to think of the conflict in Northern Ireland, unfolding just a few dozen miles away from my hometown of Dublin, as an anachronism. The local joke was that when planes landed at Belfast airport, the pilot announced, “Welcome to Belfast. Put your watches back […]

The post Defying Tribalism appeared first on The New York Review of Books.

Palestinians have long warned that Israel’s blockade and repeated aggressions would eventually lead to an explosion. But few of us in Gaza expected this. More than five days have passed since Hamas broke out of its Gaza cage, launching an unprecedented attack that caught the Israeli army completely off guard. The infiltration of Palestinian militants Continue reading »