Current affairs and culture from Australia and beyond

The NT government’s abolition of the Banned Drinkers Register has divided opinion in Central Australia, writes Eleanor Hogan

Tom Griffiths discusses the career of Mike Smith, author of a major new account of Australia’s desert archaeology

By the end of the year, Australia’s cinema industry will no longer be a film industry. Jock Given looks at what this means for storytelling on the big screen

Amateur astronomers are making a unique contribution to science’s understanding of the universe, reports Marilyn Moore

Richard Johnstone views a breathtaking trove of photographs from the 1870s

What would success taste like, wonders Melbourne AFL supporter Tom Griffiths

When politicians start invading their own privacy, it’s not surprising that the media follow their lead, writes James Panichi

The mobile phone turned forty last month. Ramon Lobato reviews three recent books about the worlds it has created

Tim Rowse’s new book shows the strengths of an evidence-based approach to Indigenous policy, writes Frank Bongiorno

Richard Johnstone reviews Michael Jenkins’s A House in Flanders

The boldest translations of book to film usually make for the best cinema, argues Brian McFarlane

Iain Topliss visits Saul Steinberg’s 1958 panorama, The Americans, on show in Cologne

Henry Reynolds reviews a new account of exploration on two continents

Sylvia Lawson reviews John Hughes’s documentary about the poet Judith Wright, and Pablo Larraín’s No

Rural dynamics explain the government’s victory in the Malaysian election, argues Edward Aspinall

Australian journalist Natalie Bennett has big ambitions for Britain’s Green Party. Carmela Ferraro talked to her in London

The Republicans have a problem and the Democrats have an opportunity, writes Lesley Russell

Despite the cuts, the United States will remain the world’s military giant for the foreseeable future, writes Andy Butfoy

The European Union bungled the Cyprus bailout, writes Ross Buckley. Next time, more Iceland and less Ireland

Faced with turbulence among the elite as well as the general public, the Russian president is adjusting his polices and stepping up appeals to Russian sentiment, writes John Besemeres

If climate change hastens migration in the Pacific, two twentieth-century cases could be useful guides, writes Jane McAdam

A historic election campaign reopened old questions about what kind of nation Malaysia should be, writes Amrita Malhi in Kuala Lumpur

The world’s largest refugee settlement is now telling its own stories, writes Clar Ni Chonghaile

The renowned director’s new film, which uses the socialist mood of 1945 to assail the world Margaret Thatcher created, is bad history and worse politics, says David Hayes

There’s a paradox at the heart of Xi Jinping’s new political maxim, writes James Leibold in Beijing

The grim conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have dulled the instinct for armed intervention. But it still runs deep in British political culture, writes David Hayes

Kenya’s enormous potential seems a step closer to reality after a relatively peaceful election. Now, the Supreme Court faces the delicate task of dealing with Raila Odinga’s challenge to the result, writes Clar Ni Chonghaile in Nairobi

There’s austerity in the air as China’s parliament meets, but has anything else changed, asks James Leibold in Beijing

A sympathetic film portrayal of Britain’s most divisive modern prime minister fits a broader mood of reappraisal of her years in power, says David Hayes

The Iron Lady casts a long shadow, as David Cameron is finding in the lead-up to the next British election, writes Frank Bongiorno in London

The Age’s history shows why Fairfax’s strategy is putting the paper’s identity at risk, writes Sybil Nolan

Telling our own stories through the arts is obviously a good thing, writes Andrew Ford, but what does it mean in practice?

How do we want to be seen as we get older, asks Richard Johnstone – and who is our audience?

Broadband will soon reach small communities in remote Australia, writes Ellie Rennie. But a few details need to be sorted out first…

It might feel right, but is it good for the kids? Sara Dowse reviews two very different books about childhood