On 30 January 2025, CNN carried a long, detailed article, accompanied by photographs entitled Suicidal tendencies and ’80s battlefield tactics: How North Korean soldiers are operating in Russia’s war on Ukraine. The article, by a team led by senior journalists Nick Paton Walsh and Rebecca Wright, offered an insight into “the brutal and near-suicidal tactics Continue reading »
politics
Last Friday 79 nations signed a statement condemning the announcement 24 hours earlier by genocide enabler US President Donald Trump, that he was imposing sanctions on officials of the International Criminal Court because they had issued a warrant for the arrest of architect of genocide of the Palestinian people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Shamefully, Continue reading »
The catastrophic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians (the present “ceasefire” notwithstanding) has done nothing to relieve the centuries-old contradictions that exist between and within our three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Mysteriously, God’s role in these ongoing horrors is seldom seriously discussed by our political leaders, the media or even religious leaders. In Continue reading »
On the third day after Donald Trump announced the imposition of 25% and 10% tariffs on imported Canadian and Chinese goods respectively, Canada yielded and co-operated with Trump’s demands, in exchange for a one-month suspension of the agreement by the US. But China quickly introduced four countermeasures: first, imposing a 15% tariff on US coal Continue reading »
History did exist before 7 October 2023. It existed before 1948 and 1929 and goes back millennia. Archaeological evidence shows the geographic region was known as Palestine as far back as 4000BCE and had a Jewish presence dating from 3800 BCE. In contemporary politics, 7 October 2023 represents a decisive shift in the Middle East Continue reading »
The Dural caravan affair stinks to high heaven. If I were Anthony Albanese, I would bow, with every appearance of reluctance, to Peter Dutton’s demands for an inquiry. Far from shrouding this inquiry with a cloud of secrecy of the sort so beloved by the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and his department, I would opt for Continue reading »
Australia’s former top diplomat says Donald Trump may achieve what 75 years of post-war anti-Americanism could not: concede the case for moral equivalence. Donald Trump may achieve what 75 years of post-war Americanism could not: concede the case for moral equivalence. Moral equivalence was the accusation that for all America’s claims to the ethical high Continue reading »
In recent decades, the West has witnessed a growing trend among increasingly hubristic US leaders to proclaim the United States as “indispensable.” This rhetoric reflects a mindset often seen in declining empires: the belief that their peak is yet to come, despite mounting evidence of decay. To counter such self-deception, ancient Roman leaders employed a Continue reading »
In two month’s time, 10 years would have passed since the Robodebt scheme was introduced into Australia via a flawed cabinet submission in April 2015 and the federal budget of that year. Robodebt was described in a 2023 BBC article as a “costly failure of public administration” within which “extensive, devastating and continuing” wrongdoing was Continue reading »
When Donald Trump proposed recently to “clean out” Gaza of its entire population, you might have thought what you heard was a plan to “ethnically cleanse” Palestinians from their lands – I mean, it’s right there in that word. But not according to most of the media. An analysis of the Dow Jones database of Continue reading »