Jobseekers get about $345 less than pensioners each fortnight. This gap is hurting, and is set to widen without change theconversation.com/jobseekers-get… via The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand

“If globalisation is in partial retreat, Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman provide a snapshot of the machinery the United States used to turn it around.” Jock Given reviews ‘Underground Empire’ from Allen Lane via Penguin Books Aus inside.org.au/the-plumbing-i…

On Anzac Day, 25 April, it’s always worth recalling that more French soldiers died at Gallipoli than Australians, and many of the allied troops were African and Indian. Myth making doesn’t help us understand the past (or the present).
insidestory.org.au/gallipoli-and-…

This is my ideal Anzac Day read... insidestory.org.au/from-a-distanc…

My review of Nathan Thrall's brilliant A Day in the Life of Abed Samara: The wall, on Inside Story inside.org.au/the-wall

While China Matters winds up after Morrison-era cuts, a respected analyst reviews government funding for security-related research and education inside.org.au/think-tanked

Patrick Mullins I agree. An excellent piece from MargaretSimons re the fallout from the Higgins/Lehrmann case for journalism. There are further nuances about objectivity and advocacy to be teased out, some of which are in this piece I did. insidestory.org.au/were-not-at-wa….

(I'll be speaking on the jury/family history issue in the case, discussed here: insidestory.org.au/judging-kathle….)

“Lacking strong support for change, the govt scaled back and delayed the new fuel standard. But its near-silence on the health impacts of air pollution raises an important question: was this dimension of the policy fully explored?” inside.org.au/hot-air-triump…

Please enjoy this great piece from Australia’s preeminent Zizek Understander

Hot air triumphs over clean air. My latest for ⁦Inside Story⁩

Despite worrying evidence, the direct health effects of car-boosted air pollution barely figured in the debate over Labor’s vehicle efficiency standard
insidestory.org.au/hot-air-triump…

A welcome tribute to a prolific scholar who coined (among others) the term 'soft power', to which I devoted (and I am still devoting) several years of my academic life an a dissertation: Joseph Nye.

#softpower #internationalrelations

insidestory.org.au/the-father-of-…

“I weep more at a wedding than a funeral.”
Kate Fullagar reviews Susannah Gibson’s ‘Bluestockings,’ from John Murray Press inside.org.au/i-weep-more-at…

“It wasn’t long before Yevtushenko was prevailed upon to water down his poem, but when Shostakovich refused to change the words in his symphony the piece was banned.” Andrew Ford reviews Jeremy Eichler’s Time’s Echo, from Faber Books via Allen & Unwin inside.org.au/music-of-remem…

Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump have had their ups and downs, but it’s mainly been down since 2020 inside.org.au/not-quite-a-ma…

Good review of two new books on Hannah Arendt

From where else? Inside Story

bit.ly/3VM7ha3

Enjoyed writing this review for Inside Story on Bluestocking women, Virginia Woolf and Henry Thrale's scrofulous balls. 🙏 [Sophie Coulombeau wanted to recount Hester Thrale's awfulness but I must say unexpected sympathies got in the way] insidestory.org.au/i-weep-more-at…

Inside Story review of a 'Life in the American Century': An eighty-year retrospective from Joseph Nye, the American academic, who changed the way nations attract and argue.
inside.org.au/the-father-of-…

Not the most uplifting bromance: me on Murdoch and Trump: Not quite a marriage made in heaven, on Inside Story inside.org.au/not-quite-a-ma…