The visit of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House has not gone to plan – at least not to his plan. There were extraordinary scenes as a press conference between Zelensky and Trump descended into acrimony, with the US president loudly berating his opposite number, who he accused of “gambling […]
Politics
In the 2022 federal election, two demographics were key to the final outcome: women and young people. With another election fast approaching, will they swing the result again? To answer this question, I turned to the Australian Election Study (AES) data spanning the period from 1987 to 2022, to investigate how different demographics have […]
Many Americans have watched in horror as Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has been permitted to tear through various offices of the United States government in recent weeks. Backed by President Donald Trump, and supported by a small team of true believers, he has successfully laid siege to America’s […]
On his first day in office, Donald Trump launched his second term with a barrage of executive orders. Unsurprisingly, many could have a major impact on Mexico, which shares a 3,145-kilometre border with the US and more than 200 years of diplomatic and economic ties. Yet, this deep interdependence has not stopped Trump from making Mexico a […]
TikTok has made a dramatic return to millions of American users after abruptly shutting down for 14 hours in compliance with a nationwide ban. The reversal was prompted by President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he would extend the deadline for the China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the app, effectively […]
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s Sunday “soft launch” of his campaign for election year was carefully calibrated to pitch to the party faithful while seeking to project enough nuance to avoid alienating centrist voters. It contained nothing new – there was no attention-catching big announcement to start the year. Rather, this […]
Former US president Jimmy Carter, a man defined by his humility and idealism, has died at 100. Many US presidents come from modest upbringings. Born in Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter’s Depression-era childhood was no exception. His home lacked running water and electricity, while his rural high school lacked a 12th […]
Much has been written about the longstanding failings of the Australian media in its reportage of Indigenous affairs. The most recent example is the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum. Research shows journalists were unable to articulate to voters what they were voting for. It also shows journalists failed to counter misinformation and were ill-equipped […]
The swift and unexpected fall of the Syrian capital, Damascus, to Sunni opposition forces marks a pivotal moment in the modern history of the Middle East. Bashar al-Assad’s regime had withstood more than a decade of uprisings, civil war and international sanctions since the onset of widespread protests in 2011. Yet, […]
