On 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed approximately 1,200 people, the great majority of them civilians, and around 250 people were taken hostage into Gaza. About 364 people were murdered at the Nova Music Festival near Kibbutz Re’im, while others were killed...
Northeastward to the African Heartland From the terrace of Rhodes Memorial, the eye is drawn northeastward across Cape Town and the rolling interior beyond toward the distant mountain horizons of the African heartland. The view is as vast as Africa - not seaward toward Europe, but...
The ABC no longer bothers to hide its feelings about the country that funds it. The contempt is not subtle; it is naked and broadcast openly by presenters and reporters who seem to regard ordinary Australians as impediments to their vision of a better, more...
Twelve Australians are dead. Twelve lives ended in circumstances that would once have been unthinkable in this country. Their deaths are not isolated tragedies; they are signals - warning flares - revealing how deeply antisemitism has taken root in Australia and how little our governments...
Australia’s Mainland Coastline is Twenty Six Thousand Kilometres LongThe past few months have produced two significant warnings about Australia’s strategic position. One came from Major General Greg Melick on Remembrance Day. The other came from Greg Sheridan’s analysis of the new United States National Security...
NSW Parliament House, Sydney - where new laws to combat hate speech are now being debated. The images from Macquarie Street last weekend were as disturbing as they were familiar. Outside the New South Wales Parliament, a group of black-clad men calling themselves the National Socialist...
I was given Apeirogon as a present during the recent Australian Festival of Chamber Music. The festival itself was great fun, full of music and good company. Colum McCann’s book is another matter. It’s hard and heartbreaking and finishing it brings a sense of relief...
From the Rugby Championship to the World Cup, the pattern is clear: too many matches are being tilted not by players but by referees’ interpretations.The recent southern hemisphere championship has once again left players, coaches, and supporters shaking their heads. South Africa, New Zealand, Australia,...
Once upon a time passengers on commercial airlines were offered a choice of magazines. You were asked to leave them on the plane but in May 1983 on a Pan Am flight from Bombay to London when I was unable to finish an article, What...
At the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the performance of Richard Strauss’s *Four Last Songs* was more than a musical highlight - it was a deeply moving meditation on beauty, loss, and memory. The connection to Stefan Zweig’s *The World of Yesterday* was inescapable. Both...