While the Jewish diaspora in Australia has long endorsed the Zionist dream, more recently ‘Ausraelis’ have come to see leaving Israel as an escape.
AAP/Dean Lewins
A new generation of emigrants from Israel to Australia is reversing the Zionist narrative. They have a distinctly different view of the Israeli state from that of older Australian Jewish migrants.
Capital punishment is unfairly imposed, innocent people are regularly condemned and it is patently ineffective in deterring crime. So why to states retain the death penalty?
Ka-ching! The sound most countries heard when news of the nuclear deal with Iran broke.
Euro Iran via www.shutterstock.com
The fierce debate in the US Congress that almost derailed the president’s trade agenda is likely to replay itself in many of the 11 other capitals that are party to the deal.
When reports surface that a drugs syndicate might control an airport’s baggage handlers, it’s time to look at the pressure points for what is a precarious job – and a serious security threat.
Not all eyes are on the prize: Eurovision is often as much about undeclared alliances, voting blocs and political paybacks.
Andres Putting (EBU)/Eurovision
For the first time, Australians can vote for this year’s Eurovision winner. But it’s as much a political battlefield as a song contest – so hopefully the Russians have forgotten the “shirtfront”.
President Joko Widodo is not crying over cuts to Australian aid for Indonesia.
AAP Image/Eka Nickmatulhuda
Australia has cut aid to Indonesia by 40%. That may cause diplomatic displeasure, but the country has restructured its development programs in recent years to be less dependent on foreign money.
Rohingya refugees from Myanmar travelled in this fishing boat to Sumatra, Indonesia, with officials announcing some 2000 people were rounded up or rescued after arriving in Malaysia and Indonesia over the weekend.
EPA
Australia may have ‘stopped the boats’ but the tragedy of people drowning at sea continues to our north and is getting worse. A regional solution to the refugee crisis is urgently needed.
Survival capsule used by Australia to return asylum seekers from Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan to Indonesia.
Himawan Nugraha/EPA
What would it mean if the European Union decided to “get Australian” and adopt a tougher approach to asylum seekers? Could it work, and at what cost?
Despite declining gun fatalities, there should be no room for complacency in Australia, with an estimated 260,000 illegal guns in Australia – including this MP5K 9mm machine gun, seized in Queensland in 2013.
Dan Peled/AAP
The rate of fatal shootings has fallen in Australia, the US and other nations in recent decades. Yet anti- and pro-gun ideology still makes it hard to have a sensible discussion about gun violence.
Like their allies, New Zealand troops served in Afghanistan without the ‘Rolls Royce’ legal agreement now being demanded by some politicians for the upcoming joint mission with Australia in Iraq.
AAP/NZ Defence Force, CPL Sam Shepherd
Australia and New Zealand’s joint mission in Iraq is getting underway. But in NZ, the decision to send 143 troops to train Iraqis against Islamic State has faced a divided parliament and public.
Almost as nice as Margate.
Bondi image via www.shutterstock.com
The dramatic siege in Sydney’s Martin Place played out in front of a global audience through real-time reporting by mainstream news outlets abetted by social media. Australian media academic Julie Posetti…
An Australian Super Hornet refuels from a KC30 tanker while flying over Iraq.
@VCDF_Australia/Twitter
There are two reasons why we should ignore the growing calls in the United States, Canada and Australia for Western “boots on ground” – meaning ground troops – to fight and destroy the Islamic State (IS…
Ice cores reveal that Antarctica was polluted long before Scott and Amundsen set foot there.
Andrew Mandemaker/Wikimedia Commons
Lead pollution from Australia reached Antarctica in 1889 – long before the frozen continent’s golden age of exploration – and has remained there ever since, new research shows. In our study, published…
A tourist train from Sheringham to Holt steams past an offshore wind farm, one of many that have sprung up along the UK coast.
Gerry Balding/Flickr
Australia’s carbon price has gone – but a UK review released this week shows that to lay the foundations for a low-carbon economy, pricing carbon is far from the whole story. Over recent months, as Australia’s…
A China-Australia FTA agreement would be handy for business but it’s just the first step.
Parker Song/Pool/AAP
Going from raw data the Australia-China trade relationship should be a source of celebration and congratulation. In 2013, bilateral trade came to A$140 billion, up 20% on the year before. Even better…
This Vietnamese school girl is growing up in a new era: by the time she is middle-aged, 60% of the world’s children will be living in a tropical region.
UN Photo/Mark Garten
Our Tropical Future: A new report on the State of the Tropics has revealed rapid changes in human and environmental health in the Earth’s tropical regions. This is the first in a four-part series about…
Sunrise over Queenstown in New Zealand in July 2012. This year’s ski season is just beginning in Australia and New Zealand.
Trey Ratcliff/Flickr
Australia’s ski season is finally getting underway, with the first resort, Perisher, opening its ski lifts after some weekend snow fall. But snow lovers are still watching and waiting for good falls elsewhere…
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
Faculty Member, Asian Studies Program, Georgetown University; Visiting Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University., Georgetown University