In 2009 the American ambassador to Tunisia spent the evening at the home of Mohamed Sakher el-Materi, the president's son-in-law. By any standards the dinner was lavish – yogurt and ice cream were flown in from St Tropez – and the home was opulent.

US intelligence agencies are accessing the servers of nine internet giants as part of a secret data mining program, according to reports from the US and Britain this morning.

The Australian government has washed its hands of Julian Assange as prosecutors at the trial of US soldier Bradley Manning have openly targeted the WikiLeaks publisher as a conspirator engaged in espionage.

For more than two years, Rod Cameron's pessimism about Labor's prospects has been a strictly private affair. Although he dubbed Tony Abbott unelectable, the former ALP pollster remained circumspect on the challenge facing the party he served in more than 50, mostly winning, state and federal campaigns.

Once a state gets used to abusing the rights of foreigners in distant lands, it's almost inevitable it will import the habit

On Tuesday, a poll published by News Ltd showed that Labor's primary vote has fallen one point to 30 per cent and the Coalition is up three points to 49 per cent. On a two party-preferred basis, this puts the Coalition in a definitive election-winning position, 58 per cent to Labor's 42 per cent.

Wall Street is back!

Tony Blair has sparked anger by claiming the murder of Lee Rigby shows there is a "problem within Islam".

First up from the God Machine this week is a look at the unfortunate ways in which social-conservative activists are responding to American women's economic empowerment.

Israel’s Fraying Image and Its Implications

Remarks to a Seminar convened by The National Interest to Discuss an Article by Jacob Heilbrunn

Before Sir David Attenborough recently warned us about the lunacy of endless growth, I was writing a long article about this very subject and how to accept and prepare for the values of restraint... Unfortunately my computer is reaching the end of its useful life and as I was saving the pages it froze and killed off what was a rather angry rant...

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/attenborough-endless-growth-lunacy-20130525-2n3pg.html

It would be troubling enough if Tony Abbott's shilly-shallying on electoral reform had merely killed off hopes of making overdue changes to the nation's electoral laws.