USA

There are seminal moments in a US presidency, often sadly sparked by catastrophe. Recall the Srebrenica Massacre for Bill Clinton and 9/11 for George W Bush. Likewise, Tuesday’s horrific chemical weapons attack in Syria marked a turning point for Donald Trump’s nascent presidency and US global leadership more broadly. So, struck by the tragic images of dead and dying children

Australia must tackle the highly-centralised structures of public education if we are to stem the long-term decline of Australian students’ performance compared to the rest of the world. When it comes to public education, Australia has much to learn from the United States. Last week, the US Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for Education Secretary, Betsy

After just four weeks, the Trump administration finds itself beset by problems, many of them related to national security: the botched executive order on immigration; a gush of leaks from the intelligence community and the messy departure of national security advisor Lieutenant-General Mike Flynn; and concerns, increasingly shared by Republicans in Congress, about reported links between Trump’s circle and Russia.

Tough phone calls between Australian prime ministers and other world leaders are nothing new; I have been present for a number of them. Even when the messages are firm and the differences great, invariably they remain civil. Harsh words between a prime minister and a US president are still rarer – although the alliance almost fractured over differences between Gough

“President Donald Trump announced today that his Administration will significantly reduce red tape on job creating businesses. Australia must implement serious reforms to reduce the $176 billion cost red tape is imposing on our economy, or we will be rendered uncompetitive,” said Daniel Wild, research fellow with the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. According to CNBC,

In Reflections on the Revolution in France published in 1790, Edmund Burke concluded that “A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation”. That’s exactly what we learned in 2016. If the politicians won’t change the system, voters will change the politicians. The phenomena of Brexit and Donald Trump smashed the so-called political “centre”

Two anniversaries that fall in October, both important for lovers of western civilisation, highlight the new iconoclasm at the heart of modern western progressives. The first date is Columbus Day, which commemorates Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas on 12 October 1492.  The effective discovery of the Americas by Europeans is an obviously important event in Western history: for one

The death of the murderous dictator Fidel Castro is a timely reminder of the alternatives to democracy. Winston Churchill was right on nearly all of the big things – but he was very wrong on democracy. The idea that “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others” is just plain wrong. In the absence of democracy,

Donald Trump’s historic victory represents a huge opportunity for middle America. It is a rejection of liberal internationalism, political correctness and the progressive politics of urban elites in favour of traditional American values – love of country, family and, for many, faith. Like Brexit, it heralds a return to the pre-eminence of the nation state, of national sovereignty and democracy.