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About two decades ago, the idea of a “Group of Two” (G2) began to gain traction. The idea was that if the United States and China – now the world’s two largest economies – began to work together on managing global affairs, the rest of the world would benefit.
This never became a formal agreement like the G20. But the way the countries worked together to stabilise the global economy after the global financial crisis in 2008 fuelled some optimism. Over the 2010s, however, competition between the two nations saw these hopes fade. By the end of the decade, they were locked in a trade war.
Could the tide now be turning? US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have just completed a summit in Beijing, the first visit to China by a US president since 2017. Trump told Xi the countries would have “a fantastic future together”.
For anyone watching for details of a major breakthrough on trade or the Iran war, Friday afternoon was an anticlimax.
As ANU’s Wesley Widmaier writes, the idea of a G2 isn’t necessarily a win for everyone else. As the US backs away from its leadership of the liberal, rules-based economic order, a G2 focused on its own interests could sideline other nations. Middle powers, such as Australia, should pay attention.
PS The entire series of our new podcast, The Making of One Nation, is out now. You can listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen.
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Matthew Hall
Deputy Business & Economy Editor
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Wesley Widmaier, Australian National University
This week’s summit has revived a 20-year-old idea of the ‘Group of Two’ superpowers working together with global benefits. But we’re now living in a different world.
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Best reads this week
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Mei Li, University of Sydney
My new research offers a new way to understand China’s grand strategy through plot devices and overarching narratives.
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Meredith Primrose Jones, RMIT University
The virtual world still runs on a very physical network – and states are waking up to the strategic implications.
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Deborah Shnookal, The University of Melbourne
Nothing angers Cubans more than being told by Americans how to run their country.
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Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta, Edith Cowan University
70 years on, Eurovision voters are driven by identity, politics and national alliances – and the juries and public often don’t agree.
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Julien Cooper, Macquarie University; Maël Crépy, Université Lumière Lyon 2 ; Marie Bourgeois, Université Lumière Lyon 2
The circular mass graves were filled with the bones of people and animals, often carefully arranged around a key person at the centre.
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Paul Formosa, Macquarie University
Although Jimmy Donaldson might have you think otherwise, exploiting people for entertainment can’t be morally offset by doing good elsewhere.
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TC Weekly podcast
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The treasurer joined us on the podcast to defend his fifth budget, explaining the ‘new architecture’ to make future tax cuts easier ‘when the budget can afford it’.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The shadow treasurer plans to fight Labor’s tax changes, arguing they would increase pressure on rents and ‘kneecap’ young Australians trying to get ahead.
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Our most-read article this week
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Myfanwy Graham, Monash University; Suzanne Nielsen, Monash University
Anxiety, psychosis and paranoia are among adverse events people are reporting after using higher-strength medicinal cannabis, according to a new study.
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In case you missed this week's big stories
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Digital Storytelling Team, The Conversation
The key figures from the federal budget, from negative gearing changes to tax cuts for workers.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
With his party in deep trouble, the opposition leader decided to go big in his budget reply.
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Charles Livingstone, Monash University
Australia’s gambling epidemic will likely continue because the government has only half-heartedly agreed to do more to protect Australians.
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Sarah Cameron, Griffith University; Ian McAllister, Australian National University; Juliet Pietsch, Griffith University
Voters have been growing dissatisfied with the major parties for decades. And they are no longer as willing to be told where to send their preferences.
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Nicholas Dickinson, University of Exeter
The pressure on Keir Starmer is relentless – but any challenge won’t play out like the prime ministerial topplings of the previous government.
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Rhys Parry, The University of Queensland
A virus doesn’t become a pandemic simply because it’s deadly.
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Jeannie Marie Paterson, The University of Melbourne
This court decision will have huge ripple effects right across Australian retail – and petrol retailers in particular should be on notice.
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Bridget Haire, UNSW Sydney; David J. Carter, UNSW Sydney
You might expect a sexual partner to disclose a sexually transmitted infection. But you can’t rely on this – and criminalising the spread doesn’t work.
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Joel Scanlan, University of Tasmania
This shift is a clear reversal of Meta’s privacy-first posture, which Mark Zuckerberg announced back in 2019.
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Shireen Daft, Macquarie University
In Myanmar and Gaza, sanitary products are next to non-existent. It’s having a catastrophic impact on women and girls.
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Jen Webb, University of Canberra
This is Lee Lai’s second book to be shortlisted for the Stella Prize, and her first win.
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We'd love to hear from you. You can email us with your thoughts on our stories and each day we'll publish an edited selection.
Australian made
“Jim Chalmers announced an additional $1 billion in funding for Australian manufacturing. But reading between the lines, this is only for established manufacturers. What about those just starting out? My business only has two employees, the founders, so doesn't qualify for any of the grants and assistance available currently within Australia for manufacturers. We saw the effects with COVID of relying on overseas manufacturers. We are again seeing it with the war on Iran. Australia absolutely needs to encourage Australian manufacturing, not just the big, established manufacturing firms. They all started small. We need to support small.”
Cathy Allington
The biggest gambling losers
“Australians lose more money to gambling per capita than any other nation. As such, the government's long-overdue response to gambling reform is frankly scandalous, as is trying to hide the announcement in the budget. I am led to the conclusion that the government's greed for tax dollars, greatly assisted through their capture by the gambling lobby, far outweighs any concern for the devastation caused to communities through the false promises of wealth and happiness via the push of a button or the flick of a switch. If only more of our politicians had the moral compass of the late Peta Murphy and of the likes of Andrew Wilkie and David Pocock who continue the fight
against the juggernaut of gambling in Australia.”
Maggie Woodhead, Ballajura WA
Not enough for nature
“While the budget has a few measures to justifiably redistribute wealth a little, it has done very little to enhance protection of the natural environment or to address the existential threat to all life through the irrational and unnecessary use of fossil fuels. Seems a waste of an amazing mandate the people granted at the last election."
Bill Spiers
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Swinburne University of Technology
Hawthorn VIC, Australia
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Full Time
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