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This July, The Monthly has the context and the inside word on recent movement at News Corp Australia. The arrival at the Holt St offices of executives Lachlan Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks signalled that the much-anticipated cutbacks were imminent. As the company moves to its post-Rupert era, Jonathan Green considers what the changes signal about a shift in culture at the media behemoth, and the ways in which they reinforce business as usual.

Margaret Simons looks into the strange case of China Matters, an influential think tank devoted to bettering Australia’s understanding of China. Amid changing attitudes to China among our foreign policy experts, the organisation fell out of favour and was ultimately defunded. Simons talked to key players to try to understand what the fate of China Matters tells us about how our leaders regard our role in the region.

The McArthur River zinc mine in the Northern Territory is the site of a growing fight with government, environmentalists and traditional owners. Anthony Ham shares the ways that the company behind the mine has ignored critics, rerouted waterways, and created a massive and combustible waste dump.

And Jane Caro lays bare the inequities and injustices of how education is funded in Australia, spelling out the ways in which the current model perpetuates social disadvantage. It’s a grim picture. All that, plus Alison Croggon on theatre, Santilla Chingaipe on music, David Neustein on design and so much more.