William Briggs

The federal government will spend $48.6 billion on the military. This, we are told, is to keep us safe. But, as William Briggs argues, many are feeling decidedly unsafe. Our fear is real as we wonder how to keep warm, pay the bills and keep a roof over our heads?

MIchelle Bachelet in Xinjiang, China

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet's visit to China last month was seized on by the United States to ramp up its anti-Chinese rhetoric, writes William Briggs.

China has crossed some imaginary line by seeking to develop mutually advantageous relationships with Pacific Island nations. William Briggs reports.

New PM Anthony Albanese pledged his unswerving loyalty to the United States and its anti-China push at the Quad meeting in Japan, writes William Briggs

The recent ASEAN summit, hosted by US President Joe Biden, was designed to bring the 10-country association closer to the US’ anti-China orbit. William Briggs reports.

Workers are being told that a pay rise to match inflation will hurt the economy and “fuel” inflation. William Briggs takes issue with those arguments.

NATO globalisation

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss calls for the “globalisation” of NATO to pre-empt “threats in the Indo-Pacific”, namely China, William Briggs reports.

Cost-of-living pressures and the economy are critical issues in most election campaigns, and they certainly are in this one, argues William Briggs.

Canberra's bullying of the Manasseh Sogavare government for its deal with China follows from its longstanding paternalistic approach on the existential matter of rising seas. William Briggs reports.

A tidal wave of outrage followed the Solomon Islands and China signing a security deal. Missing in the fury is a recognition that the Solomon Islands is a sovereign state, argues William Briggs.

War and climate change are linked: one cannot be solved without solving the other, and neither can be resolved by capitalism. Because this is all too obvious, William Briggs argues a lot of time and effort is spent on obscuring the truth.

If war were not such a profitable enterprise for capitalism, the arms industries would not be so huge, writes William Briggs.

The integrated nature of the world's economies means that it is a fiction that national budgets are divorced from the global setting, William Briggs explains.

Less than three weeks after saying the rules-based international order allows "sovereign nations to pursue their interests free from coercion”, the PM warned the Solomon Islands not to take this idea too far, writes William Briggs.

The war between Russia and Ukraine and its NATO backers continues, but Australia’s chief international focus is much closer to home — China. William Briggs reports.

Major multinational corporations such as Shell and BP have made much of cutting ties with Russia. The publicity value has been significant, but it has a hollow ring to it, argues William Briggs.

 

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