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Pearls and Irritations
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In the shadow of the Bondi massacre, Christmas and Hanukkah sit side by side this year. Acts of courage and faith remind us how light is kept alive...


Homelessness in Australia is worsening, with services stuck in crisis mode. Evidence from Finland – and new research in SA and WA – shows a...


Low levels of plastic recycling are bad for human health and the environment. For lead, high levels of dangerous recycling are doing the damage....


Julian Assange has filed a legal complaint seeking to block Nobel Peace Prize funds from being paid to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina...


Public safety can be strengthened without turning fear into a political performance. When protection becomes theatre, institutions weaken and...


Revelations about overseas training, intelligence failures and police responses raise urgent questions that cannot be left to internal reviews. In...


José Antonio Kast’s election marks the first time since Chile’s return to democracy that an admirer of the dictatorship has reached the presidency....


The Bondi attack has renewed scrutiny of whether Australia’s domestic intelligence agencies have sufficient cultural reach and human intelligence...


East Asia has led the global recovery since the pandemic, but deep welfare imbalances are now threatening the sustainability of its growth model....


The ACCC’s case against Microsoft raises questions about market power and consumer transparency – but it also highlights how dependence on bundled...


As US pressure on Venezuela intensifies, Washington is reviving an openly interventionist approach to Latin America. The targets extend beyond...


In the aftermath of the Bondi Beach attack, grief was quickly accompanied by political demands that blurred the line between combating antisemitism...


In an age of political, ecological and social strain, hope is often mistaken for denial. But real hope is neither passive nor naïve – it is a...


From China’s new investing in people strategy to Thailand’s threat to continue border fighting, revelations about Korea’s martial law bid, South...


Australia faces no credible military threat from China. The real danger lies in uncritical alignment with US strategy, fear-driven rhetoric and the...


The tragic massacre at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi was followed by a rush to assign blame, inflame fear and curtail dissent. My wife and I were...


School attendance has been sliding for more than a decade, with more than a million Australian students now missing significant classroom time....


Heavy rains and gale-force winds have turned life-threatening for Palestinians in Gaza, where the destruction of housing and restrictions on aid...


In 2025, the crisis in Palestine brought international law to a breaking point. Australia’s response, marked by caution and inaction, raises hard...


The latest MYEFO shows only marginal improvement in the budget outlook, while deficits persist and fiscal settings continue to complicate the...


A story published by the ABC framed a military encounter as an act of aggression. But subsequent details told a more complicated story that...

As 2025 draws to a close, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions. But in the latest episode of our podcast Pearlcast,...


After the Bondi massacre, grief was swiftly overtaken by politics. Public mourning and the misuse of symbols raise hard questions about solidarity,...


As another bruising year ends, Christmas offers a reminder that peace is not found in power, wealth or spectacle, but in inner integrity, humility...


Amid violence, war and deepening polarisation, 2025 has shown that despair and passivity are choices too – and that human survival depends on...


Artificial intelligence is increasingly framed in terms of efficiency and growth. But that framing sidelines harder questions about power, choice...


The Taliban’s September Internet blackouts were not a technical disruption but a deliberate act of control. By cutting digital access, Afghan women...


In ‘Earthquake: The Election that Shook Australia’, Niki Savva dissects a federal election result that all but erased the Liberal Party from...


India and China are racing to build vast hydropower projects in the Himalayas. Framed as clean energy, the dams are also about territorial control,...


Australia is moving toward its biggest overhaul of firearms regulation since Port Arthur. For New Zealand, the lessons may be uncomfortable – and...


Scientific evidence in 2025 showed global warming accelerating faster than expected, while emissions continued to rise and climate policy lagged...
