Last week I was interviewed by the Progressive Podcast Australia on Iraq, Obama’s new war in the Middle East and ISIS:
Showing all posts in June 2019
Handy explainer of the little war in Ukraine
Some classy and pointed German satire (select English subtitles below):
Thoughts and insights from Cape Town's Open Book literary festival
I’ve just returned from Cape Town’s Open Book literary festival where I was a guest speaker. It was a stimulating week of discussions about politics, South Africa’s post 1994 reality, apartheid, Palestine, writing, Africa and much in between. I was warmly welcomed and often provoked by the conversations. One of my sessions was on disaster…
Australia's role as dutiful US client state
My weekly Guardian column: Back in July, Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten delivered a speech… at the Australian American Leadership Dialogue at the New York academy of sciences. It was full of motherhood statements – “We are bonded, we are blood cousins” – praise for Israel’s “innovation” (no mention of the Palestinians) and clichéd rhetoric about…
Making a fortune in US from imprisoning immigrants
My Guardian feature (plus a collection of my photographs): Stewart immigration detention centre is situated on the outskirts of Lumpkin, Georgia, a ghost town seven days a week. Visitors and detainees arriving at the centre – capacity: 2,000, all male – are greeted by a huge painted sign on a water tank: “CCA: America’s Leader…
Radio New Zealand interview on Profits of Doom
My book Profits of Doom has just been released in an updated edition. I was extensively interviewed last weekend by Wallace Chapman on the Radio New Zealand program, Sunday Morning. It’s rare having this much time to discuss issues:
My Politics in the Pub speech on Gaza and Palestine
Last week I spoke at Sydney’s Politics in the Pub about the recent Gaza conflict and implications for global attitudes towards Israel. Thanks to Cathy Vogan for filming the event:
ABCTV Big Ideas on IQ2 debate over technology
In August I was involved in an IQ2 Squared debate in Sydney (and my side won, for the record, despite the audience starting off backing the other team.) This was broadcast by ABCTV1’s Big Ideas: Are we becoming enslaved to our technology? This was a decent Intelligence Squared debate with the audience split between the…
ABCTV Big Ideas on a reporter's focus since 9/11
During the recent Byron Bay Writer’s Festival this event, broadcast by ABCTV1’s Big Ideas, was a robust discussion on the rights, responsibilities and pressures of conflict reporting in a post 9/11 world: In this session writers Abbas El-Zein, Antony Loewenstein and Washington Post journalist David Finkel deliver strikingly different perspectives on the Iraqi and Afghan…