What, one wonders, is the ultimate source of autocratic corruption? Is a certain type of person more likely to strive to become an autocrat because they see power as the clearest path to extreme wealth? Or does the belief in one’s own infallibility lead autocrats to lose the ability to discern between moral and immoral? Or might it be, in some cases, that the wealth one already has and continues to amass is erroneously seen as proof of the rectitude of all that one does? Gold-leafed narcissism, if you will?
Der Spiegel & Charles Hawley
November 8, 2026
America has a founding habit it has never broken: when powerful people get caught, the country finds a reason to look the other way. It calls this “healing.” It calls this “moving on.” It calls it “the good of the nation.” It is, every single time, cowardice dressed up as grace, and every single time it teaches the next crook that the penalty for burning down the house is a book deal.
Dean Blundell
November 6, 2026
If Israel’s moral conscience was not completely obliterated long ago, the silence of its society in the face of Gaza’s destruction has finished the job.
Gideon Levy
September 12, 2026
There could be no more treacherous terrain into which to send American troops to fight than the inside of Donald Trump’s brain. It is a place where ego and pride drive decisions rather than rationality, where delusions have replaced any sense of reality, in which ignorance rules and from which facts are banished, in which base impulses and spasmodic misfires have crushed any role reason or decency might have played.
David Rothkopf
July 21, 2026
A single premise has always held constant about Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, generations of Israeli leadership and its Zionist society - cowardice, duplicity and manufactured victimhood have become the defining characteristics of a political and military establishment addicted to violence, manipulation and perpetual war. Everything about Israel reflects a state consumed by paranoia, evil, vengeance and an almost obsessive pursuit of dominance at any cost. Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now Iran underscore a pattern that has remained disturbingly consistent for decades: overwhelming force inflicted on civilians, the weaponisation of Western media narratives, and the endless invocation of existential fear to justify actions much of the world now views as morally bankrupt and strategically catastrophic.
George Hazim
May 29, 2026
The Press Club cancelled Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges after he submitted a speech on the killing of Palestinian journalists, then booked Israel’s ambassador instead. If you wonder why media reporting on Gaza genocide has been so disappointing this is what they think is normal.
David Shoebridge
April 7, 2026
In another Pyongyang on the Potomac moment, Republicans at a party fundraiser this week awarded Donald Trump the first annual “America First Award”. House Speaker Mike Johnson described the prize as a “beautiful golden statue … appropriate for the new golden era in America.” Even in the midst of an unpopular war, there’s a cult-like feel to Trumpworld.
Nick Bryant
March 28, 2026
One Nation’s voters are people who in Andrew Hastie’s words, don’t recognise Australia as the country they grew up in. Like Tony Abbott, they are nostalgic for the days of the White Australia policy, when such anti-migrant prejudice as existed was directed against Italians and Greeks. And Hastie’s comment reveals the fact that there is now no significant policy gap, between One Nation and the now-dominant right wing of the Liberal-National coalition. Both want (mostly unspecified) cuts in immigration, oppose any kind of action on climate, and trade in anti-Islamic rhetoric. But One Nation is loud and offensive, while the LNP tends to trade in euphemisms.
John Quiggin
March 28, 2026
The American Empire is not going to be defeated on the battlefield. It is going to be defeated by the spreadsheet. It is going to drown in the compounding interest of its own military addiction. And when the history books are written, they will note that the richest country in the history of the world could not afford to feed its children, could not afford to treat its sick, could not afford to house its poor... but could always, ALWAYS, find another few trillion dollars to blow something up on the other side of the planet. That is not strength. That is a sickness.
GMan
March 10, 2026
FIFA and UEFA suspended Russia 4 days after the start of the conflict in Ukraine. It has now been 716 days since what Amnesty International described as genocide began and Israel is still allowed to compete. Why are there double standards? FIFA and UEFA should suspend Israel. Clubs and active players around the world should refuse to play against Israeli teams.
