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‘Agree to disagree’: Festival gave ‘silenced’ writers a voice

I have just spent some days at the Sydney Writers’ Festival – and I am more convinced than ever that these face-to-face forums are important.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Ottawa earlier in May.

Is Canada about to break apart? Referendum question on Albertan independence revealed

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to call a referendum that could lead to the energy-rich province separating from Canada has angered both sides of the debate.

Jacinda Ardern, now resident in Sydney.

Jacinda Ardern: The survival of democracy is at stake

The former New Zealand prime minister may have moved to Sydney, but might her family ever barrack for the Wallabies?

  • Peter FitzSimons
The left-right binaries: Anthony Albanese, Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor.

I dumped the Libs and the left-right drudgery. Voters simply ask: What will make us better?

Australians don’t care about ideology. They want solutions that will work. I have a plan.

  • Charlotte Mortlock
Illustration by Simon Letch

Lovin’ democracy? You’re probably doing all right, then

Those who aren’t doing well in the economy are less likely to be happy with the way our democracy is treating them. That’s a problem for everyone.

  • Ross Gittins
Peace, love and “flower power” was the mantra of the hippie generation: handing out daffodils to Kings Cross pedestrians in 1969.

Crime, gold discoveries and 35 odd socks: How the Herald has told the stories you want to read

Over 195 years, the Herald has chronicled Sydney’s transformation, sorting fact from fiction, breaking the news and shining a light into dark corners.

  • Damien Murphy
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Covering western Sydney: how the Herald’s photographer captured Hindu celebrations as locals lit up their homes in Phantom Street, Nirimba Fields, as part of Blacktown City’s Diwali Lights in October.

Western Sydney lost 21 newspapers in a decade. What’s happened in that vacuum?

People need to know – and deserve to know – what’s going on in their neighbourhood.

  • Anthony Segaert
Trump

Trump has laid out a ‘dim sum menu’ of reasons for attacking Iran. There’s one key thing missing

Donald Trump has shown little appetite for finding an off-ramp to the Iran war, even as concerns among Western allies rise and the conflict spreads further.

  • Michael Koziol
The police action on George Street on Monday night.

I’ve worked alongside good police, but what my daughter saw this week shocked me

She asked me why the Herzog protest required such a violent police response. I did not have a simple answer. 

  • Violet Roumeliotis
What do we want to stand for as a nation?

We’re a great nation. Let’s remind ourselves why that is

Compared with much of the world, everything “just works” in Australia, right? No, it doesn’t. It’s up to us to make sure it keeps working.

  • Parnell Palme McGuinness