Apr
5
2023
With an Oscar for best feature documentary now linked to his name, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is one of the world’s better-known victims of a chemical weapons attack. Poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020 by Russian operatives, Navalny was airlifted in a coma from Russia to Germany where he spent months recovering.
Apr
5
2023
Ballooning suspicion has pushed TikTok onto the back foot across much of the western world with increasing concerns the popular video-sharing app could double as a platform for disinformation as well as data gathering tool for China. Social media disinformation campaigns have been favoured by certain nations for years; deployed to push a range of agendas: …read more
Mar
11
2023
Mick Humphreys says one bite from a mosquito left him with permanent brain damage. Ten months after that bite he gets monster headaches, he has to use a walking stick and his short-term memory is shot. The 71-year-old retiree lives near the Murray River in far north Victoria and a mosquito infected him with the Japanese …read more
Mar
10
2023
Businesses must seriously consider diversification to be part of the new green economy, says Barney Swan, founder of ClimateForce charity in far north Queensland. At 28 and armed with business and multi-media degrees from the US, he understands the fears and aspirations of younger generations and he knows that as climate change heats up, business …read more
Mar
10
2023
As the world takes action to confront the looming threat of climate change, the Australian tourism industry is gearing up for a paradigm shift to greener travel options. With regenerative and sustainable tourism increasingly on the industry agenda, experts foresee a mix of government regulation and incentivisation is on the cards to shepherd the green transformation …read more
Mar
10
2023
A new tourist pontoon on the Great Barrier Reef offers far more than sunbeds and soft-drinks. Forty-five kilometres from Cairns, on Moore reef, the Reef Magic pontoon is solar and wind-powered; it has a working scientific laboratory and accommodation for scientists. Launched in April 2022, the pontoon signifies the new thinking in the region: the need …read more
Feb
17
2023
The New Zealand pilot kidnapped by independence fighters in Indonesia’s restive eastern-most province of Papua is now living in the jungle with the separatist fighters and eating what they eat, a separatist spokesman has told Crikey. Independence fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) seized Susi Air’s small propeller plane when it landed at …read more
Feb
9
2023
Separatists in Indonesia’s eastern-most area of West Papua have taken guerrilla warfare to another level by kidnapping a New Zealander pilot in the rugged mountainous terrain of Nduga. History suggests this desperate bid to win some autonomy from Jakarta will not end well.
Jan
17
2023
It took Indonesian president Joko Widodo nearly a decade to make good on his 2014 election promise to address the nation’s historic gross human abuses – most of them the bloody work of the police and the military. Last week he listed 12 of the historic atrocities that have blighted the nation’s human rights record. …read more
Nov
30
2022
Increasing numbers of Australians are leaving the nation’s capital cities and moving to the regions, encouraged by proliferating work-from-home options and the digital wave revolutionising healthcare and education. The shift has slowed since the peak of the pandemic, yet the push is still there, raising questions of how rural Australia will cope with an inflow of …read more