Australia’s alliance with the United States is no longer reliable, and clinging to it now risks Australia’s interests and values. The case for a deliberate, staged Plan B begins with strategic autonomy – and an overdue reckoning with extended nuclear deterrence.
Right-wing campaign groups and Coalition MPs are again using Australia Day to drive petitions, wedge politics and anti-elite rhetoric. This year’s campaign is being amplified by paid digital ads, ARC grant outrage and calls to “legislate the date”.
Israel’s reputation is treated as a strategic asset to be managed in Western media and political domains. The Israeli ‘machine’ spends lot of money and effort doing it. The passing of hate laws in the Parliament just switched some of the cost to us. Rex Patrick explains.
The Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua has ridiculed the administration of US President Donald Trump for using the popular ‘Nihilist penguin’ meme to promote its campaign to gain control of Greenland.
Trump, more than a decisive player, is a symptom of the changing times.
Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” is framed as a peace initiative, but it centralises authority, sidelines the vulnerable and rewards coercion. Australia should reject it rather than lend it legitimacy.
Australia does not suffer from a lack of empathy. It suffers from selective empathy. And nowhere is that clearer than in the way our political and media class decide who is allowed to mourn. Andrew Brown with the story.
