On 24 December 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, it’s a battle of civilisation against barbarians.” His words echoed the rhetoric adopted by violent aggressors throughout history to deny their own atrocities. A hierarchy of humanity: good against evil barbarians intent on annihilating civilisation. At the Continue reading »
Media
In Asian media this week: Xi thanks Bangkok for strong action against online rackets. Plus: Myanmar civil war is world’s third-worst conflict; Confirmation bias behind markets’ DeepSeek shock; China advances its military technology; Allies must adapt to ‘fundamental’ US changes; Cambodia confirms it is free press desert. Thailand has cut off power, fuel supplies and Continue reading »
This story is about vast quantities of uranium, stealing squillions of dollars, how to screw desperately poor people and what an outstanding job the mainstream media does in keeping us all blithely ignorant of this. The French are at it again. The Americans are at it again. The BBC is at it again. I just Continue reading »
The Federal Parliament has yet to pass a law ensuring five-year funding for the ABC. If it doesn’t get passed, it leaves the national broadcaster open to cuts and threats should the government change. Would a Coalition Government return to crippling ABC budgets? Most likely if it follows past practices – and the Trump manual. Continue reading »
China today is not the China of the pre-COVID age, but many commentators think it is still an economy based on cheap manufacturing. Several weeks ago, Thomas Friedman, diplomatic editor of The New York Times, travelled to China and published his impressions in a syndicated article on the country’s “staggering manufacturing muscle”. He concluded that Continue reading »
The late journalist Alexander Cockburn had a good line on the legacy media. Referring to the little ‘Correction’ boxes that would appear most mornings in The New York Times, he suggested that the principal reason the paper made such a show of its fallibility was to bolster its reputation for veracity. In owning to these... Continue Reading →
Part Four of a five-part special investigation by Dan Evans and Tom Latchem into a missing person’s case with dark criminal undertones
There was a flurry of Ofcom complaints after a series of offensive remarks by presenters on the right-wing channel
This week’s big China threat story is DeepSeek, an Open-Source AI (artificial intelligence) platform that the alarmists are signalling is further proof China is stealing our personal data. Those shouting loudest are the right-wing free marketeers but what are we to make of Wall Street greeting the rise of DeepSeek by wiping $1 trillion off Continue reading »
There is a deliberate attempt to mislead the public, in order to push for Trump-style mass deportations, argues Zoe Gardner