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- Announcing Deepcut News
Today’s edition of everything is fine* will be its last.
Over the last 16 months, I’ve published stories here that are being told nowhere else, like the details of the leaked ‘Zionist 600’ groupchat, leaked comments from ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin, and the extent of the union movement’s ties with its Israeli counterpart.
I’ve published testimonies of anti-Palestinian racism inside climate NGOs, the NSW public service, the music industry, the nonprofit sector, at major universities, in public schools, at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and in Parliament House. I’ve spoken to doctors and nurses who’ve been doxxed, teachers who’ve been harassed at work, unionists who’ve been bullied out of their jobs, and students who’ve been threatened with deportation for speaking out about the genocide.
More than 3,000 people have subscribed to this dinky little newsletter, and nearly 150 of you pay for it. There’s a clear demand for journalism that tells these stories, especially in a media environment overwhelmingly dominated by outlets that all but copy-paste IDF press releases.
So I’m not going to stop doing this work. I’m going to double down.
From Wednesday, I’m teaming up with Antoun Issa to launch Deepcut News, an independent media title on Substack dedicated to telling the stories other outlets won’t. From the genocide in Gaza to the collapse of Western democracy to the accelerating climate crisis, there has never been a greater need for journalism that is unafraid to speak truth to power.
Antoun’s career in journalism dwarfs mine. He spent three years as a journalist in Beirut during the Arab Spring, building a team of Palestinian journalists in Gaza who produced extraordinary work. In 2024, he left a senior role at Guardian Australia over the outlet’s coverage of the Gaza genocide.
We don't just want to publish fearless journalism. We want to build a sustainable model for genuine alternatives in Australia’s woeful media landscape — one that’s free to read and funded by its readership.
As we grow, we want to publish articles from other writers, host live events, and give mentorship and a platform to journalists who are starting out. Eventually we want to help foster new journalists in Palestine itself.
It’s a big risk. The subjects we cover will likely attract legal threats and smear campaigns. Relying on the audience to fund the work is a hard sell, especially in a small market like Australia. We have no institutional backers or cashed-up patrons. And I have a young family to support.
But the demand is there — and, more importantly, the need is there. I said a while ago that I’ll keep doing this work as long as it needs to be done. Israel is starving everyone in the Gaza Strip to death while the world looks on. We have just resoundingly re-elected a government that has backed Israel every day of this genocide. The campaign to silence anyone who speaks out about Gaza has never been more vicious.
If this fails, it fails. In the scheme of things, my career doesn’t matter. But I believe we have an opportunity to build something.
This newsletter is ending, but the work is just beginning.
I’m all in. I hope you are too.
Some housekeeping:
Deepcut’s first edition will be mailed out on Wednesday, May 21. Given it’s our official launch, we’re going big. Sign up now so you don’t miss out.
Deepcut will be free to read, but we’re funding it through paid subscriptions. If you’re in a position to financially support Deepcut, you can do that here.
Follow Deepcut on Instagram and YouTube. Please like, share and interact with our stuff as much as you can to combat the algorithm trying to bury us.
If you’ve got a tip for a story, let us know about it here.
If you have a paid monthly everything is fine* subscription, please cancel it and subscribe to Deepcut if you can.
I will be issuing refunds for paid yearly everything is fine* subscriptions from this weekend on a pro rata basis.
The everything is fine* webpage and all articles will remain live, but I’ve also moved the bulk of its archive over to Deepcut.
I should have said this at the top, but I am so grateful to everyone who has helped make this possible. If you’ve read, shared, subscribed or talked up this newsletter over the past 16 months, I can’t express how much I appreciate it.
I’m going to keep up my fundraising for Noor and Hoor Hammad as this new venture starts up, so please, if you have anything to spare, please give anything to can to help them through Israel’s blockade and out the other side.
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