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  • international

    The Art of the Self-Serving Deal

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 06 February 2025

    Donald Trump’s presidency, often dismissed as chaotic, follows a clear, transactional logic: power over principle, loyalty over institutions, and reshaping America into a high-stakes deal-making enterprise. But history suggests such a system cannot last. In the meantime, how should we respond? 

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  • religion

    The priest who tried to warn people about the Khmer Rouge

    • Ray Cavanaugh
    • 05 February 2025

      When the Khmer Rouge seized Cambodia, Western intellectuals dismissed reports of atrocities as propaganda. But French missionary Fr François Ponchaud persisted in exposing the regime’s horrors. With his passing, we remember a man who saw the truth before the world was ready to listen.

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  • australia

    Smartphones took over the world. Can we opt out?

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 04 February 2025

    Smartphones dictate access to commerce, communication, and even education, and face-to-face transactions have all but disappeared. Have we willingly surrendered choice for convenience? As digital payments become the norm, are those choosing to live without a smartphone excluded from modern society?

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  • international

    Bluesky thinking: Can the internet rebuild its town square?

    • Jenny Sinclair
    • 07 February 2025

    In the wake of Elon Musk’s tumultuous Twitter takeover, the social media landscape has fractured, scattering digital discourse across competing platforms. Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon each offer a vision of what comes next, but will any replicate the vital, unruly town square Twitter once was? 

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  • international

    In a world of rigid borders, who belongs?

    • Nirmal Ghosh
    • 07 February 2025

    Amongst hardening borders and rising ethnonationalism globally, those who resist rigid identity labels find themselves caught between worlds — too foreign for home, too foreign for here. If identity is both fluid and contested, can belonging ever be more than a temporary state?

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  • australia

    Brushes with the badlands

    • David Halliday
    • 03 February 2025

      “Underworld figure shot in our basement carpark.” Australia is meant to be one of the world’s safest places, where violence belongs to someone else’s world, until it shows up at our door. When it does, how are we supposed to respond?

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  • Still Completely Unknown

    • Barry Divola
    • 30 January 2025

    The flame war over A Complete Unknown burns like a fire on Main Street, with Dylan die-hards railing against its liberties, sometimes without even seeing it. But in their quest for accuracy, they overlook a deeper truth: when has Bob Dylan ever let facts stand in the way of a good story?

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  • We’re outraged with hypocrisy. Is that hypocritical?

    • Barry Gittins
    • 29 January 2025

    As the news cycle fills with exposés of hypocrisy, from politicians to celebrities, we are confronted with uncomfortable questions: When should we hold others to account, and when should we accept the contradictions in ourselves and others? The answers, it seems, lie somewhere between judgment and grace. 

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  • To have and have yacht

    • Barry Divola
    • 21 January 2025

    There’s no genre more sun-drenched or divisive than yacht rock, the smooth, sultry sounds of 70s and 80s soft rock. But as a new documentary shows, even its biggest architects, like Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, aren’t always on board. So, what is yacht rock, and why can’t we all agree?   

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  • The moral dilemma of negotiating with Putin

    • Sergey Maidukov Sr.
    • 04 February 2025

    As global powers weigh the prospect of negotiating with Vladimir Putin, indicted for war crimes, the moral dilemma looms: can peace justify sitting down with a war criminal? This question, compounded by the ongoing suffering in Ukraine, forces leaders to balance expediency against the principles of justice, accountability, and human rights.

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  • Weep with immigrants

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 30 January 2025

    The United States' recent shift in immigration policy towards exclusions and deportations is a modern moral reckoning. It underscores the tension between a society’s right to regulate its borders and its responsibility to uphold the dignity of those who already call it home.

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  • To succeed, the Gaza ceasefire must lead to hope and stability

    • Ran Porat
    • 30 January 2025

    In a negotiated truce, Israel and Hamas have ended a conflict that raged for over a year, since Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023. As hostages are exchanged with Palestinian prisoners, hopes flicker across a battered region bracing for precarious next steps. But can the truce hold amid vague terms, fragile politics, and Gaza’s looming reconstruction?

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  • When neighbours were family on Argyle Street

    • Erica Cervini
    • 05 February 2025

    In 1940s Australia, neighbourhoods pulsed with neighborly connection — a stark contrast to today’s soaring rates of loneliness. As societies grow increasingly fragmented and isolation deepens, can that bygone era offer any lessons on healing our contemporary disconnection?

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  • What the great teachers leave behind

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 29 January 2025

      The relationship between a teacher and a student can be profound in ways that are not realised at the time. As schools go back, it's worth revisiting the gratitude we have for our great teachers, and reaffirming how a mentor’s gentle encouragement can shape a lifetime.

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  • How the politics of prohibition fuelled a gang war

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 29 January 2025

    While health advocates hail falling smoking rates, Australia’s tobacco taxes have inadvertently fuelled a black market in tobacco, with small businesses and law enforcement often bearing the consequences. Policymakers now question how the social toll measures against the health gains.

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  • On 'getting' the synod

    • Richard Lennan
    • 19 December 2024

    Is the synod a parliament, a shareholder meeting, or something wholly unique? How we frame it shapes our understanding of its purpose and outcomes. Beyond analogies, could the true essence of synodality lie in embracing grace and discernment, re-centering the church on its divine mission?

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  • All religion is local

    • John Warhurst
    • 03 December 2024
    2 Comments

    The Synod of Bishops may mark a turning point for the Catholic Church, but the real work now begins — locally. From diocesan councils to parish communities, the challenge lies in translating synodality into action. In Australia, divergent episcopal views and a patchy history of reform raise critical questions about the Church’s future.

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  • How the Synod quietly redefined disability in the Church

    • Justin Glyn
    • 30 November 2024
    2 Comments

    The Synod on Synodality has quietly rewritten the Church’s relationship with disability, shifting from a legacy of marginalisation to a vision of equality and dignity. This historic move acknowledges past failings while championing the rights of disabled people as full participants in faith and society. But does the rhetoric match reality?

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