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Keywords: News

  • AUSTRALIA

    Smartphones took over the world. Can we opt out?

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 04 February 2025

    Smartphones dictate access to commerce, communication, and even education, and face-to-face transactions have all but disappeared. Have we willingly surrendered choice for convenience? As digital payments become the norm, are those choosing to live without a smartphone excluded from modern society?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Brushes with the badlands

    • David Halliday
    • 03 February 2025

      “Underworld figure shot in our basement carpark.” Australia is meant to be one of the world’s safest places, where violence belongs to someone else’s world, until it shows up at our door. When it does, how are we supposed to respond?

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    To succeed, the Gaza ceasefire must lead to hope and stability

    • Ran Porat
    • 30 January 2025

    In a negotiated truce, Israel and Hamas have ended a conflict that raged for over a year, since Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023. As hostages are exchanged with Palestinian prisoners, hopes flicker across a battered region bracing for precarious next steps. But can the truce hold amid vague terms, fragile politics, and Gaza’s looming reconstruction?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    We’re outraged with hypocrisy. Is that hypocritical?

    • Barry Gittins
    • 29 January 2025

    As the news cycle fills with exposés of hypocrisy, from politicians to celebrities, we are confronted with uncomfortable questions: When should we hold others to account, and when should we accept the contradictions in ourselves and others? The answers, it seems, lie somewhere between judgment and grace. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What the great teachers leave behind

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 29 January 2025

      The relationship between a teacher and a student can be profound in ways that are not realised at the time. As schools go back, it's worth revisiting the gratitude we have for our great teachers, and reaffirming how a mentor’s gentle encouragement can shape a lifetime.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How the politics of prohibition fuelled a gang war

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 29 January 2025

    While health advocates hail falling smoking rates, Australia’s tobacco taxes have inadvertently fuelled a black market in tobacco, with small businesses and law enforcement often bearing the consequences. Policymakers now question how the social toll measures against the health gains.

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  • EDUCATION

    Are Australian universities sacrificing teaching quality for research prestige? Discuss.

    • Erica Cervini
    • 21 January 2025

    Top Australian universities, including the Go8, are underperforming in teaching quality, with recent surveys revealing student dissatisfaction and disengagement. Despite their research reputation, top institutions are failing to meet student expectations, highlighting the need for urgent reform to improve teaching standards.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    When disaster becomes routine in L.A.

    • Jim McDermott
    • 16 January 2025

    In Los Angeles, wildfires blur the line between disaster and daily life. Evacuation alerts, smoke-filled horizons, and neighborhoods turned to ash coexist with packed restaurants and holiday plans. As the fires rage on, one question persists: is this the new normal? 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Reflecting on the year that was

    • David Halliday, Michael McVeigh, Laura Kings, Michele Frankeni, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Butler
    • 18 December 2024

    To close the year for Eureka Street, the editorial team are taking a step back to reflect on the character of 2024. What did it demand of us? What did it teach us about ourselves, and the world we inhabit?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The delight and discomfort of undeserved gifts

    • Emma Wilkins
    • 18 December 2024

    Gift-giving should be a celebration of kindness, but modern rituals often entangle us in obligation and excess. From generous neighbours to Christmas present hauls, reciprocal gifts build and shape our relationships. But what does it mean to give without strings?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Sanmao and the priest

    • Margaret Simons
    • 13 December 2024

    High in Taiwan’s mountains, Jesuit priest Barry Martinson found a soulmate in celebrated author Sanmao, who inspired millions with her writing. Their relationship—neither romantic nor conventional—was a profound meeting of kindred spirits, rooted in shared curiosity, literary love, and the sacrificial essence of friendship.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Friendship in freefall: Unpacking a crisis of civic disconnection

    • David Halliday
    • 13 December 2024

    In 2024, a fifth of Americans reported having no close friends, and the number is growing, especially among those without college degrees. So what are the societal structures behind this crisis in loneliness, and how we can rebuild meaningful connections?

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