ASIA FOCUS
Understanding the conflict in the Philippines
The ongoing armed conflict between government forces and Islamist rebels in Marawi, the Philippines, has taken a familiar turn. Evidence is emerging of increased US and Australian military support for the government of Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine military. The fighting in Marawi – t...CONTINUE READING
How to beat the far right
Britain in the 1970s was a place of increasing political tensions. The economy was on a downswing and unemployment was rising. Racism towards migrants and the Afro-Caribbean population was being stoked by the government and was amplified by an increasingly confident far right. The main for...CONTINUE READING
Capitalist vultures circle hurricane disasters
As the flooding of Houston was just beginning in late August, as cyclone Harvey dumped more than 50 trillion litres of water on south-east Texas, the US National Weather Service tweeted “this event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced”. The media were qu...CONTINUE READING
The US is a bigger threat than North Korea
With one hurricane having devastated Houston and another causing carnage in Florida, it’s easy to forget that we remain caught in what appears to be a slow-motion Cuban missile crisis with North Korea. On the surface, it’s also easy to buy into the prevailing narrative that Kim Jong-un is...CONTINUE READING
ASIA FOCUS
South Asia devastated by floods
The worst monsoons in decades have left 1,400 dead across South Asia and millions without shelter, food and potable drinking water. Flooding and landslides have directly affected at least 41 million people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. In some of the poorest and hardest-hit areas, diseas...CONTINUE READING
Rohingyas driven out of Myanmar
More than 100,000 Rohingyas (a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar) have been driven out of their ancestral villages and into Bangladesh, fleeing for their lives while their houses have been burnt to the ground. Desperate survivors recounted incendiary rockets being fired from mil...CONTINUE READING
The nuclear threat that Trumps them all
The unthinkable possibility of nuclear war is once again in the headlines after US officials reacted with shrill threats to the North Korean government claim to have tested its most powerful nuclear bomb yet. This is the latest escalation in a game of nuclear chicken, with calculated provo...CONTINUE READING
Why governments hate public housing
The Sirius building has always been controversial. Is it an eyesore? A brutalist masterpiece? A concrete blemish on Sydney’s skyline? What many don’t know about Sirius is that, for its architect Tao Gofers, the building is much more than a place for 200 low-income tenants to eat and sleep;...CONTINUE READING
Will Trump last the year?
A presidency that began as something of a historical accident now has one-time allies looking for the exits, while a Justice Department investigation hangs over its head. So, will the Trump administration be over almost before it barely began? Donald Trump has caused mass outrage before, b...CONTINUE READING