In our five-minute scroll on X: Julian Assange recognised as a political prisoner; shameful, divisive western media commentary; Iran strikes Israel’s most secure air base; Russian carpet bombs in Volchansk; Malcolm Turnbull speaks his mind on Peter Dutton, and Hong Kong anti-China groups awash with mystery cash. Julian Assange recognised as a political prisoner @@wikileaks Continue reading »
World Affairs
Last week, Indonesia, our biggest and closest neighbour, deposited its instrument of ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the UN. This was a major international and regional development, a good-news story with a very positive impact on international security, but we’ve heard virtually nothing about it from our government Continue reading »
Al Jazeera has produced a documentary of graphic war crimes, academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi receives death threats after setting Sky News straight, reports that Hezbollah had agreed to a ceasefire before Nasrallah assassination, Jayson Gillham takes a stand against the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and more war crimes. Our five-minute scroll on X. Al Jazeera documentary Continue reading »
The United Nations is the biggest incubator of global norms to govern the world and the vital core of the rules-based global multilateral order. Four parts of the UN system have complementary roles in efforts to regulate and eliminate nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is a technical organisation that functions as the Continue reading »
Five minutes on X reveals the outrage toward the Australian government for its response to weekend protests while Israel is bombing Beirut. The Malaysian PM calls for western leaders to put the narrative right, while Craig Mokhiber calls for the arrest warrant of Netanyahu and Netanyahu offers the people of Iran a better future. The Continue reading »
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year. The vote in the 193-member world body was 124-14, with Australia one of 43 members states to abstain. The United States voted against it. Australia’s Continue reading »
UN estimates suggest 2.5 million people will die by the end of 2024 and six million by 2027. World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on the world to “wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through”. That nightmare refers to a civil war waged since April 2023 Continue reading »
In a recent significant article in the US journal, Foreign Policy, David E Rosenberg, the economics editor of Haaretz, clarifies how a minority of religious extremists have come to wield so much power in Israel today. It is a chilling, informative read. Rosenberg adeptly summarises how Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has sold his soul (if Continue reading »
Some US commentators are advocating a recalibration of America’s full-spectrum global posture, while others, including Condoleezza Rice, energetically beg to differ - naturally for the good of the world. Continue reading »
In a recent article for the Washington Post on the militarisation of Australia’s north, the Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, said: “We’re working together [with the United States] to deter future conflict and to provide for the collective security of the region in which we live.” The defence preparations against China that Marles describes do Continue reading »