YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)

YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)

On Wednesday, Donald Trump proclaimed his Middle East peace deal an "amazing thing". By week's end, things were not as straightforward as they seemed.

The UN's role in areas beyond diplomacy, such as in humanitarian aid and refugees, cultural heritage, health, and climate, are all under assault from savage budget cuts.

In the Middle East and in Europe, political leaders are making their own arrangements in the absence of US leadership.

China's display of an array of naval weaponry and assets, as opposed to land-based ones, could hardly have been less subtle.

Intentionally attacking civilians like aid and rescue workers, and journalists, is a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

Trump's confirmation this week that any security guarantees would not involve any US troops on the ground was just one of the sorts of noises that would be music to Putin's ears.

World leaders are rightly anxious about just what Donald Trump might agree to, about the future of another sovereign country, when left in a room with Vladimir Putin.

The debate in the Israeli media over Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to occupy Gaza have barely mentioned the fate of the two million people who live there.

The outcome somewhat took the wind out of the sails of those who have been criticising Australia's prime minister for not getting a meeting with the US president.

The reality of the situation on the ground in Gaza, and the spectre of children dying of malnutrition or starvation, sits at such extraordinary odds with the language of spokespeople for both the Neta...

YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)

As Australia tries to find its path through the uncertainty flowing out of Washington, it is important to understand that Donald Trump is not the only issue — or player — to be dealt with.

Putting aside the Coalition, let's focus on the new government: the one that has won an exceptionally large number of seats and which is probably already doing stuff that's affecting us voters.

But the last election campaign exposed the true decline in the quality and capacity of the parliamentary Coalition — as well as its underlying party machines — to do politics and to do policy in a way...

The reforms of the 80s and 90s, often sentimentalised by people who weren't there, came about through a mixture of policy intelligence and political rat cunning.

Hopefully everyone who has been elected can retain a muscle memory of the goodwill that seemed to be abroad on election night.

The comprehensive nature of this win gives Anthony Albanese the chance to change the narrative of our politics.

The global situation requires the complete rewiring of our political and bureaucratic establishment brains.

We have a sometimes mystifying relationship with ideas about honouring those who serve our country, and with ideas about how we defend it.

The winner at the polls on May 3 will face not just a game of global economic and geo-strategic chess, but possibly an epoch-defining choice for the country.

The Coalition has sent voters contradictory messages about whether it has accounted for the vast water requirements of its seven proposed nuclear plants after Peter Dutton declared the issue all but r...

The Coalition has resorted to relentless social media posts about the prime minister falling off a stage and lying about it.

We've all talked about the potential strategic and economic ramifications for Australia of Trump's America First policies. Well, they are now happening. And the whole world will never be the same.

A senior Coalition source told the ABC Ms Rinehart believed the opposition leader was not sufficiently pro-business.

The election campaign begins with both sides already having given their campaign policy speeches.

YouTube video by ABC News In-depth

The stark difference between how the second Trump administration is "flooding the zone" and what the Coalition is doing is that the Trump team knows exactly what they are doing.

The Coalition claims it could have struck a tariff deal with Trump but remains coy about what else it could achieve if it wins at the upcoming election.

The decision about Australia's Venice Biennale exhibition is political but it reveals a cycle in which flaws are found in institutions that should be at arm’s length from politics and leaves them too ...

Labor has a long held commitment to sustaining public services, even when the global political stage is dominated by those who revel in blowing them up. Nothing could be truer now.

For once, in this parliament, it seemed the government was not just sitting like a hapless duck in the crosshairs of a question time attack.