Composite image by Aresna Villanueva.

When cancel culture goes this far,our democracy is in peril

An Australian human rights lawyer is the latest victim of a campaign to shut down Jewish people who dare to criticise Israel.

  • Josh Bornstein

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Banning G-strings at public pools is a bummer for some,but it’s the right move

Blue Mountains City Council has banned G-string bikinis at its pools,causing online outrage. But not everyone wants to see your bare bum.

  • Cherie Gilmour
Anthony Albanese will go toe-to-toe with Adam Bandt’s Greens in Parliament this week over Labor’s agenda.

No compromise:Labor targets Greens in election on up to 20 bills

Labor has pulled its misinformation crackdown and won’t put forward gambling reform this week but is pushing the Greens to accept its agenda on up to 20 other bills unchanged.

  • David Crowe
Multinational tech firms are being targeted by a swathe of new laws.

Big Tech didn’t like Biden. Trump won’t be any better for Google&Co

The Biden administration has used antitrust legislation to target the technology giants,even seeking to break up Google. Trump’s nominees to key posts overseeing the tech sector won’t be much friendlier.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
State Librarian and State Library WA chief executive Catherine Clark.

WA’s most senior librarian gears up to fight censorship

In the wake of a campaign by a conservative advocacy group to restrict access to two sexual education books to over-16s,the State Library said it would continue to support and defend intellectual freedoms.

  • Hamish Hastie
Kanye West,known as Ye,watches an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles.

China’s censors are letting Kanye West perform there. His fans are amazed

Why would the notoriously prickly Chinese government let in the notoriously provocative Ye? The answer may lie in China’s struggling economy.

  • Vivian Wang
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Our cultural institutions are having to decide to what extent,if any,they are platforms for political discussion.

When art and politics collide:The battles tearing our cultural bodies apart

Sackings,boycotts,sponsorship withdrawals:arts organisations across the country are in turmoil. So who has the right to say what?

  • Kerrie O'Brien

What surprises about the Middle East culture wars? The left and right have swapped sides

Culture wars have many fronts but the Israel/Hamas conflict has supercharged unlikely battles over free speech,discrimination and the nature of protest.

  • Jacqueline Maley
Elon Musk Pavel Durov

The free-speech billionaires are losing the war

Elon Musk and Pavel Durov have been asking for trouble. It has found them.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz

Elon Musk saying civil war is inevitable is not inciting violence. Here’s why

Beware the online-harm brigade,or we’ll have police on our doorsteps as fast as we can say boo online.

  • Josh Szeps