/qnotables21/ - ===Q Notables 2021===

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13603540 (070632ZMAY21) Notable: Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on May 6, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_Ministry_Spokesperson_Wang_Wenbin_s_Regular_Press_Conference_on_May_6_2021_2.jpg

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>>125306

>>125493

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on May 6, 2021

Shenzhen TV: In a recent speech to the China Business Summit in Auckland, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that ties with China are among her country's most important bilateral relations and that New Zealand stays committed to the one-China policy. She also noted the two countries have differences on some issues and need to work to effectively manage and control them. Do you have a comment?

Wang Wenbin: We noted relevant reports. The New Zealand leader said that she attaches importance to developing relations with China and reiterated her country's commitment to the one-China policy. We appreciate the statement. China and New Zealand are each other's important cooperative partner, with bilateral relations and cooperation registering many "firsts". The 49-year-long journey since establishment of diplomatic ties proves that as long as we show each other mutual respect, seek common ground and shelve differences, treat one another as equals and pursue win-win cooperation, we should be able to and can achieve sound progress in bilateral relations. China stands ready to work together with New Zealand to forge ahead and break new ground, strengthen dialogue, deepen cooperation, rise above disturbances and work for greater progress in our comprehensive strategic partnership.

China is committed to an independent foreign policy of peace. We believe in the equality of all countries regardless of size. We firmly uphold international law, basic norms governing international relations, international fairness and justice. We are committed to advancing the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. China does not intend to engage in systemic competition or ideological confrontation with Western countries. Our development does not come at the expense of other countries' interests. On the contrary, it presents immense development opportunities for all. We are ready to enhance cooperation with all sides including New Zealand to contribute to world peace and development.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1873782.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13603588 (070645ZMAY21) Notable: Cardinal Pell’s Prison Journal, Vol. 2, details crushing rejection of appeal, spiritual reflections of time spent in solitary confinement while unjustly accused of wrongdoing, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Cardinal_Pell_s_Prison_Journal_Vol_2_details_crushing_rejection_of_appeal.jpg

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Cardinal Pell’s Prison Journal, Vol. 2, details crushing rejection of appeal

High-ranking Catholic cardinal details spiritual reflections of time spent in solitary confinement while unjustly accused of wrongdoing

RNS Press Release Distribution Service - May 6, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO — In the second volume of Cardinal George Pell’s prison journal trilogy, PRISON JOURNAL, VOLUME 2: THE STATE COURT REJECTS THE APPEAL (Ignatius Press), the incarcerated Cardinal learns that his appeal was rejected and he must remain in prison. The unprecedented work chronicles Cardinal Pell’s life in an Australian prison as he continues to prove his innocence against unjust accusations of sex abuse. The first volume, PRISON JOURNAL, VOLUME 1: THE CARDINAL MAKES HIS APPEAL, was released last year.

PRISON JOURNAL, VOLUME 2: THE STATE COURT REJECTS THE APPEAL covers the time period of July 14, 2019, through November 30, 2019. In this second of three volumes, Cardinal Pell receives the terrible news that his first appeal is rejected. With the same grace, wisdom and calm perseverance displayed in Volume 1, he continues his quest for justice by appealing to the Australian High Court. Glimmers of hope emerge as more legal experts, including non-Catholics, join the chorus of those demanding that this miscarriage of justice be reversed.

Cardinal George Pell, as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, which had been newly created by Pope Francis to manage the finances of the Vatican, was accused of sexually assaulting choir boys in his former cathedral during the 1990s. So sure that the charges were false, the cardinal voluntarily left Rome for Australia to stand trial. The trial ended in a hung jury, but when the case was retried, Cardinal Pell was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison. He spent 404 days in solitary confinement until his appeal was unanimously overturned by the Australian High Court.

“Two lessons emerge from this astonishing work. The first lesson is the length to which a hate-filled judicial process will go against an innocent man — a process redeemed ultimately by Australia’s High Court, but not before soiling the credibility of a nation’s legal system,” said Charles Chaput, OFM Cap, Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia. “The second is the power of a good man’s endurance in the face of humiliation and poisonous deceit. Cardinal Pell is a superb writer and an articulate witness to an inexcusable abuse of law, but also to the triumph of God’s grace. His journal is a marvel.”

For more information, to request a review copy or to schedule an interview with Cardinal George Pell, please contact Lisa Wheeler (866-777-2313, ext. 700 or LWheeler@CarmelCommunications.com) of Carmel Communications.

https://religionnews.com/2021/05/06/cardinal-pells-prison-journal-vol-2-details-crushing-rejection-of-appeal/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13608307 (072304ZMAY21) Notable: Chinese military scientists discussed weaponising SARS coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_editor_in_chief_of_the_paper_Xu_Dezhong_reported_to_the_top_leadership_of_the_Chinese_Military_Commission_and_Ministry_of_Health_during_the_SARS_epidemic_of_2003.jpg

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Chinese military scientists discussed weaponising SARS coronaviruses

SHARRI MARKSON and JACK HAZLEWOOD - MAY 7, 2021

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Chinese military scientists discussed the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining their ideas in a document that predicted a third world war would be fought with biological weapons.

The document, written by People’s Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials in 2015, was obtained by the US State Department as it conducted an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, The Weekend Australian has confirmed.

The paper describes SARS ­coronaviruses as heralding a “new era of genetic weapons” and says they can be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human ­disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed in a way never seen before”.

The revelation features in an upcoming investigative book on the origins of COVID-19, titled What Really Happened In Wuhan, to be published by Harper­Collins.

The chairmen of the British and Australian foreign affairs and intelligence committees, Tom ­Tugendhat and James Paterson, say the document raises major concerns about China’s lack of transparency over the origins of COVID-19.

The Chinese-language paper, titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons, outlines China’s progress in the research field of biowarfare.

“Following developments in other scientific fields, there have been major advances in the delivery of biological agents,” it states.

“For example, the new-found ability to freeze-dry micro-organisms has made it possible to store biological agents and aerosolise them during attacks.”

Some of China’s senior public health and military figures are ­listed among the 18 authors of the document, including the former deputy director of China’s Bureau of Epidemic Prevention, Li Feng. Ten of the authors are scientists and weapons experts affiliated with the Air Force Medical ­University in Xi’an, ranked “very high-risk” for its level of defence research, including its work on medical and psychological sciences, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s ­Defence Universities Tracker.

The Air Force Medical University, also known as the Fourth Medical University, was placed under the command of the PLA under President Xi Jinping’s military reforms in 2017. The editor-in-chief of the paper, Xu Dezhong, reported to the top leadership of the Chinese Military Commission and Ministry of Health during the SARS epidemic of 2003, briefing them 24 times and preparing three reports, according to his online ­biography.

He also held the position of professor and doctoral supervisor in the Air Force Medical University’s Military Epidemiology ­Department.

Other authors include Zhang Jiangxia and Zhao Ningning, who both served as experiment scientists in the same department.

Intelligence agencies suspect COVID-19 may be the result of an inadvertent leak from a Wuhan laboratory, a line of inquiry under active investigation since early 2020. There is no evidence to suggest it was intentionally released.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13608366 (072314ZMAY21) Notable: Beijing praises New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in between blasts at the “insane” Morrison government, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: In_a_speech_in_Auckland_in_front_of_a_business_crowd_Jacinda_Ardern_spoke_directly_about_the_difficulties_in_New_Zealand_s_relationship_with_China.jpg

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>>125495

>>125496

Beijing praises Ardern in-between blasts at Morrison

WILL GLASGOW - MAY 7, 2021

Beijing has praised New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in between blasts at the “insane” Morrison government in a blunt attempt to wedge the close ­Tasman allies.

After President Xi Jinping’s administration formally suspended a high-level trade dialogue with Australia, China’s foreign ministry portrayed New Zealand as the diplomatic model Australia should follow.

Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin praised a speech Ms Ardern gave on China this week in between rants about Australia’s misbehaviour.

“The 49-year-long journey since establishment of diplomatic ties proves that as long as we show each other mutual respect, seek common ground and shelve differences, treat one another as equals and pursue win-win co-­operation, we should be able to and can achieve sound progress in bilateral relations,” he said at Thursday night’s foreign ministry press conference in Beijing.

Mr Wang overlooked the key message of Ms Ardern’s speech, which frankly acknowledged the growing list of issues upon New Zealand and China “do not, cannot, and will not agree”.

Mr Wang also did not mention the motion the New Zealand parliament passed this week — with Ms Ardern’s clear support — that unanimously declared that ­“severe human rights abuses” were occurring in Xinjiang.

Since Australia’s relationship with China imploded a year ago, Beijing has presented New Zealand as an example of a well-­behaving wealthy country.

China’s state-controlled media gleefully reported comments by New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta last month that Wellington was uneasy about the increased usage of the Five Eyes intelligence grouping as a vehicle for making statements critical of Beijing. Ms Ardern quickly clarified New Zealand’s commitment to the intelligence grouping with Australia, the US, Britain and Canada.

In a speech in Auckland on Monday in front of a business crowd, Ms Ardern spoke directly about the increasing difficulties in New Zealand’s relationship with the Xi administration.

“It will not have escaped the attention of anyone here that as China’s role in the world grows and changes, the differences ­between our systems — and the interests and values that shape those systems — are becoming harder to reconcile,” she told the China Business Summit.

“Managing the relationship is not always going to be easy and there can be no guarantees.”

David Capie, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Wellington’s Victoria University, said the “key takeaway” from the speech was a clear message to New Zealand’s business community.

“Look across the Tasman. As you think about going into business in China, you need to be aware of the risks as well as the opportunities,” he told The Weekend Australian.

Beijing has praised New Zealand as a model partner as sanctions have been whacked on more than $20bn of Australian exports and China’s media and foreign ministry have thundered about Canberra.

That may have limited Beijing’s criticism this week of the forthright language Ms Ardern used on China and the motion in Wellington condemning the treatment of Uighur people in Xinjiang.

“To present New Zealand as the right kind of partner and then turn around and flay it publicly and put it in the freezer is a little hard to reconcile,” Mr Capie said.

Meanwhile, the anger at the Morrison government continued as Beijing justified its tit-for-tat scuttling of a high-level economic and trade dialogue after Canberra tore up Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement.

“We urge the Australian side to cast aside the Cold-War mentality and ideological bias, view China’s development and China-Australia co-operation in a truly objective light, return to the ­rational track without further delay and correct its mistakes,” Mr Wang said.

“It should stop the insane suppression targeting China-Australia co-operation, stop politicising and stigmatising normal exchange and stop going further down the wrong path.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/beijing-praises-ardern-inbetween-blasts-at-morrison/news-story/ec2d51d339502de788e9036a653c5119

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13609317 (080118ZMAY21) Notable: OPINION: Ill-disciplined chest-thumping has put war at centre of what’s left of the Australia-China relationship - Kevin Rudd, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Tension_in_the_skies_A_Taiwanese_F_16_flies_near_a_Chinese_bomber_as_it_passes_near_Taiwan_in_2020.jpg

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>>125398

>>125405

>>125464

OPINION: Ill-disciplined chest-thumping has put war at centre of what’s left of the Australia-China relationship

Kevin Rudd, Former Australian prime minister - May 8, 2021

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The Morrison government’s recent indisciplined commentary on the possibility of Australian military engagement in a future US-China war over Taiwan is both politically juvenile and potentially damaging to our core national security interests.

For 50 years, successive Australian governments have not speculated publicly on what Australia would do in the event of a military crisis or conflict over Taiwan. Scott Morrison, Defence Minister Peter Dutton and aspiring defence secretary Michael Pezzullo have spectacularly breached that bipartisan convention over the past fortnight. Classified military briefings have also been leaked. These three have sought to deflect criticism over the precise parsing of their language, but the net effect has been to elevate the idea of a looming war – and Australia’s probable involvement in it – as the focus of the already dysfunctional Australia-China relationship.

Previous Australian governments have been tight-lipped about potential Taiwan military scenarios for good reason. Such a conflict would involve the world’s two biggest militaries and likely become the most violent and destructive war in Asia since 1945. Given the horrendous choices that would present the government of the day, Australia should not at this stage compromise the independence and flexibility of our national decision-making. And nobody can predict with any certainty which scenarios might arise between cyberattack, maritime blockade, territorial invasion or something else entirely.

In Canberra, Washington, Beijing and Taipei, our officials have done everything possible to prevent any such war from occurring while also forestalling any change to the status quo through the application of Chinese coercion. With Washington, our aim has been to ensure the US has sufficient military deterrence in the region to cause China to defer its longheld ambition to take Taiwan – if necessary by force. In Beijing, we have encouraged China to conclude Washington is determined to defend Taiwan – not least because, if the US failed to act, it would destroy American credibility among its other allies. As for Taipei, we have sought to discourage successive Taiwanese governments from any unilateral declarations of independence (or steps in that direction) that would cross Beijing’s most fundamental red lines.

The Morrison government’s adolescent chest-thumping over Taiwan has perplexed the Americans, infuriated the Chinese, puzzled the Taiwanese and bamboozled most of the region. Only seven weeks ago, Joe Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken met with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and reportedly intervened on behalf of US allies like Australia, which had been on the receiving end of Chinese economic thuggery. China’s anti-Australian rhetoric had begun to moderate in the weeks following that – at least until Morrison decided to unleash on Victoria over its nebulous and non-binding MOUs on the Belt and Road initiative, followed by this most recent rhetorical fusillade over Taiwan. Taiwan’s own foreign minister Joseph Wu on Wednesday discounted the idea of imminent war. And most of the rest of the region sees Australia’s extravagant public language as spoiling for a political fight with China whereas countries like Japan have systematically consolidated their position with the new US Administration while keeping relations with Beijing on as even a public keel as possible.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13609758 (080222ZMAY21) Notable: Australian imports to China slow down as decoupling accelerates - GT staff reporters - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Jacaranda_blossoms_are_seen_near_Sydney_Opera_House_in_Sydney_Australia_Oct_22_2020.png

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Australian imports to China slow down as decoupling accelerates

GT staff reporters - May 07, 2021

China's imports from Australia rose by 13 percent to $14.86 billion in April from the previous month, slowing from the 28 percent monthly import growth rate in March, a trend which analysts said mirrors an accelerating trade decoupling between the two countries as China pushes diversification efforts amid icy bilateral relations.

Chinese observers said that the slower growth reflects how Australia's anti-China stance has weighed on economic and trade relations, which were supposed to be complementary and bring mutual benefits. A flattening economic relationship with China could also deal a blow to Australia's post-virus economic recovery.

"China's imports from Australia expanded in April because China still bought bulk commodities from Australia, in particular iron ore, whose price had reached record highs. That, in turn, inflated the value of imports," Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at the East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Friday.

The average price for imported iron ore in April reached $164.40, the highest since November 2011, according to data sent by the Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center to the Global Times.

Analysts noted that the soaring iron ore price has helped Australia offset its losses in the Chinese market in a variety of industries. A long list of Australian exports to China, from wine and lobster to timber and hay, has run into problems, and those exports have almost completely stalled.

The volume of iron ore imports also jumped. From January to April, China's iron ore imports increase by 6.7 percent year-on-year to 382 million tons, customs data showed.

Some Chinese importers also rushed to stockpile Australian iron ore over political risk-aversion concerns, which also drove up trade in April, the Global Times learned.

However, industry observers noted that such imports are likely to continue dwindling this year amid Chinese exporters' push to source iron ore from alternatives such as Africa, and a trade decoupling could gain pace in the immediate future.

Starting May 1, China has scrapped tariffs on certain steel products including pig iron, crude iron and recycled iron raw material. Ge Xin, an industry analyst, told the Global Times that the policy will also help China further expand steel imports, reducing Australian import volume. Also, the supply expansion could help curb the overheating iron ore price, thus shrinking Australia's export value to China.

Data from the Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center showed that China imported 713 million tons of Australian iron ore in 2020, accounting for 61 percent of China's total iron ore imports. The share decreased 7.51 percentage points compared with 2019, showing an initial result of China's efforts to diversify import channels to reduce reliance on Australia.

The release of the data also comes one day after China's top economic planner indefinitely suspended all activities under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, marking the first time that a diplomatic mechanism between the two countries was frozen after the Australian government fired major shots at China.

Analysts said Australia's recent provocative action against China could further send trade relations into an abyss, hurting the economy of Australia, which is more reliant on China.

"The deteriorating relations, of which Australia is to blame, coupled with Canberra's discriminative moves against Chinese firms, will further hurt Chinese businesses' confidence in investing in Australia," Chen said.

In April, the Australian federal government tore up an agreement between the state of Victoria and China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), unilaterally escalating bilateral tensions.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222896.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13609784 (080225ZMAY21) Notable: China’s April imports from Australia rise 49.3%, but a trade decoupling is imminent amid icy relations - Li Xuanmin and Yin Yeping - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: A_woman_walks_in_the_rain_in_Sydney_Australia_March_20_2021.jpg

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>>125506

China’s April imports from Australia rise 49.3%, but a trade decoupling is imminent amid icy relations

Li Xuanmin and Yin Yeping - May 07, 2021

China's imports from Australia rose by 49.3 percent to $14.865 billion in April, accelerating from the 20.9-percent import growth rate recorded in the first three months as the price of iron ore - a major item China buys in bulk from Australia - surged to a record high. But as China pushes diversification efforts, analysts said a trade decoupling between the two countries is imminent amid icy bilateral relations.

In breakdown, China's exports to Australia rose by 19.7 percent to $5.25 billion in April compared with a year earlier, according to the Global Times' calculation based on data released by the General Administration of Customs on Friday. That compared with a 50.5 percent rises in exports in the first three months.

Chinese observers expected Australia's anti-China political stance will soon weigh on bilateral economic and trade relations, which were supposed to be complementary and bring mutual benefits to both countries. A flattening economic relationship with China could also deal a blow to Australia's post-virus economic recovery.

The release of the data also comes one day after China's top economic planner indefinitely suspended all activities under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, marking the first time that a diplomatic mechanism between the two countries was frozen after the Australian government fired major shots at China.

"The reason why China's imports from Australia expanded in April is that China still buys bulk commodities from Australia, in particular iron ore whose price has been jumping to a record high. That, in turn, inflated the value of imports," Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at the East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Friday.

Some Chinese importers also rush to stockpile Australian iron ore over political risk-aversion concerns, which also drove up the trade volume in April, the Global Times learned.

But such imports are likely to continue dwindling this year amid Chinese exporters' diversification push to source iron ore from alternatives such as Africa, observers noted.

According to data sent by Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center to the Global Times on Friday, China imported 713 million tons of Australian iron ore in 2020, accounting for 61 percent of China's overall iron ore imports. The share decreased 7.51 percentage points compared with that of 2019, showing an initial result of China's efforts to diversify import channels to reduce reliance on Australia.

Bilateral investment and trade ties between China and Australia had already seen a freefall as bilateral relations took a dive, starting in 2018 when Australia became the first country to ban Chinese telecom firm Huawei's 5G participation.

To date, a long list of Australian exports to China, from wine and lobster to timber and hay, has run into problems, and those exports have almost completely stalled.

Analysts said Australia's recent provocative action against China could further send bilateral trade relations into an abyss, hurting the economy of Australia - which is more reliant on China.

"The deteriorating relations, of which Australia is the one to blame, coupled with Canberra's discriminative moves against Chinese firms, will further hurt Chinese businesses' confidence in investing in Australia," Chen said.

In April, the Australian federal government tore up an agreement between the state of Victoria and China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), unilaterally escalating bilateral tensions.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222871.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13609998 (080248ZMAY21) Notable: China needs to make a plan to deter extreme forces of Australia - Hu Xijin - globaltimes.cn - "The plan should include long-range strikes on the military facilities and relevant key facilities on Australian soil", MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Two_Su_35_fighter_jets_and_a_H_6K_bomber_fly_in_formation_on_May_11_2018.jpg

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China needs to make a plan to deter extreme forces of Australia

Hu Xijin - May 07, 2021

Given that Australian hawks keep hyping or hinting that Australia will assist the US military and participate in war once a military conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Straits, and the Australian media outlets have been actively promoting the sentiment, I suggest China make a plan to impose retaliatory punishment against Australia once it militarily interferes in the cross-Straits situation. The plan should include long-range strikes on the military facilities and relevant key facilities on Australian soil if it really sends its troops to China's offshore areas and combats against the PLA. In addition to making the plan, China should also reveal this plan through non-official channels to deter the extreme forces of Australia and prevent them from taking the risk and committing irresponsible actions.

China loves peace and will not take the initiative to pick a fight with faraway Australia, but Australian hawks must be clear-minded. If they are bold enough to coordinate with the US to militarily interfere in the Taiwan question and send troops to the Taiwan Straits to wage war with the PLA, they must know what disasters they would cause to their country. China has a strong production capability, including producing additional long-range missiles with conventional warheads that target military objectives in Australia when the situation becomes highly tense.

The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222899.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13618429 (090603ZMAY21) Notable: - Military conflict with China: Thinking the unthinkable - Australians aren’t used to a defence minister like Peter Dutton speaking to us like adults, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Minister_for_Defence_Peter_Dutton_speaks_with_military_personnel_at_Lavarack_Barracks_in_Townsville_on_Thursday.jpg, Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_visits_the_Robertson_Barracks_in_Darwin.jpg, Taiwan_s_chemical_corps_personnel_stand_in_formation_during_a_demonstration_as_Taiwan_s_President_Tsai_Ing_wen_inspects_troops_in_Tainan_southern_Taiwan.jpg

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>>125398

>>125510

Thinking the unthinkable

Australians aren’t used to a defence minister like Peter Dutton speaking to us like adults.

GREG SHERIDAN - May 8, 2021

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When Defence Minister Peter Dutton commented recently that a military conflict in which China attempted to take control of Taiwan by force “cannot be ruled out”, he seems to have sent much of the nation into a nervous panic.

In some ways that’s a reasonable reaction; there’s a lot to be nervous about.

In other ways the reaction was absurd. Dutton was not warmongering. It is the Chinese themselves who repeatedly say they have not ruled out the use of force to take Taiwan.

It is the Chinese who have engaged in a massive military build-up, and it is the Chinese who, on one day in April, sent 28 warplanes into Taiwanese air space.

Americans at the highest level of military command have said there is a strong possibility of Chinese forces invading Taiwan. So have Taiwanese government ministers. So have countless strategic analysts.

That there is a real chance of military conflict is an undeniable given. What Dutton did that was so strange was to speak, as a defence minister, about critical ­strategic issues to an Australian audience as if they were ­grown-ups.

Australians are unaccustomed to a defence minister doing that.

Of course, war is unthinkable. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about it.

Every civilised human being will work to prevent US-China conflict from happening, but it is essential that security planners, and the democratic conversation, take account of the possibility.

There are thus two urgent questions for Australia: what would such a conflict mean for us, and is there anything we can do to prevent it?

First, some background on Taiwan. It is an island democracy of 24 million, a 24-carat democracy that breaches nobody’s human rights. It has a different history from China but was generally part of China until 1895 when the Japanese took control.

After World War II it reverted to mainland Chinese control in 1945. Beijing was then governed by the anti-communist Kuomintang party of Chiang Kai-shek.

The Chinese Communist Party defeated the KMT in the Chinese civil war, and Chiang and his forces fled to Taiwan where they set up a government, and a nation, in exile. The KMT was pretty autocratic in Taiwan but it democratised in the 1980s and Taiwan has been stable, peaceful and prosperous ever since, with a free media, hi-tech industries, the peaceful rotation of power and the stable rule of law.

So in the past 124 years Taiwan has been ruled directly by Beijing for just four years, the last time more than 70 years ago.

When the US established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979 it established a diplomatic formula to cover Taiwan. Both Washington and Beijing agreed there was “one China” but they also declared that Beijing would seek reunification through peaceful means.

The US passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which commits it to maintaining Taiwan’s security and holds that neither side — neither Beijing nor Taipei or Washington for that matter — can change the status quo by force.

The Taiwanese democracy has absolutely zero interest in being absorbed into China’s increasingly harsh Leninist totalitarian system.

China’s President Xi Jinping has declared that it must be absorbed and the issue cannot pass “from generation to ­generation”.

Given those insoluble conflicts, let’s consider what a very bad case scenario, not necessarily the worst case but a very bad case, of a “kinetic” shooting conflict of some description between the US and China would mean for Australia.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13618441 (090605ZMAY21) Notable: ‘Outstandingly stupid act’: can Australia actually defend itself? - Gaps in our capabilities that must be filled immediately - Michael Shoebridge, ASPI, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_visits_the_Robertson_Barracks_in_Darwin_2.jpg

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>>125509

>>125510

‘Outstandingly stupid act’: can Australia actually defend itself?

Our military could fight other middle powers and win, but there are gaps in our capabilities that must be filled immediately if we are to hold our own in a major battle.

MICHAEL SHOEBRIDGE - May 8, 2021

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Australia has a highly capable, professional military equipped with small numbers of very complex, extremely expensive aircraft, ships, submarines and land vehicles. Australia could fight other middle powers and win, but Australia should only ever plan to be in a major conflict against a great power if we are in very good company.

The idea that Australia should have a military able to fight alone against China is deeply flawed. Fortunately, the prospects of a neatly bilateral conflict between China and Australia are remote. Australia deciding to fight alone would be an outstandingly stupid act of unilateral disarmament that discounted the value of powerful partners, notably the US.

While our military has an impressive force, it has large vulnerabilities in being able to sustain itself in combat. It’s been slow to take up the power that comes from low-cost semi-autonomous systems like armed drones and unmanned systems such as sensors, whether in the air, under the sea or on the ground. And Australia is not taking advantage of our “strategic geography” to support how our military and partner militaries can operate in times of conflict.

Addressing these gaps in a way that fits with the urgency of our darkening security environment is the best contribution Australia can make to deterring conflict in our near region and in the wider Indo-Pacific — and to being prepared if deterrence fails.

To do this, big changes are needed in how all the “consumables” of conflict are supplied. That’s highlighted in the case of advanced missiles, which Australia has only in small numbers that would be consumed rapidly. And we rely on lengthy global supply chains for resupply. Having the best missiles in your military’s “order of battle” doesn’t matter if you run out of them days or weeks into a war.

Our military’s expensive manned ships, aircraft, submarines and army vehicles are also vulnerable to the new kinds of weapons that other militaries — China in a big way — have in numbers and which we have so far been slow to adopt.

This is about missiles, but also the new and lethal semi-autonomous and autonomous systems that are the force multipliers for modern militaries. The Azerbaijanis used cheap but lethal armed drones to destroy Armenian tanks last year. The Iranians used them to put one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil refineries out of business in 2019.

In the era of low-cost lethality, our defence organisation is taking the same approach to unmanned systems and missiles that it has to manned systems such as naval ships in past decades: buying small numbers of elaborate, very expensive systems that are hard to get, slow to replace and not made here.

As examples: Defence is buying 12 armed MQ-9B drones, based on the Predator used against terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, for around $2bn, and four large Triton long-range maritime surveillance drones for $1.8bn-2.7bn, both made offshore.

This has to change. Defence needs “consumable” weapons that are able to be used, lost and replaced in large numbers during conflict if the Australian government is not going to get some very nasty surprises in a future war. That could include the loss in combat of Air Warfare Destroyers, Joint Strike Fighters and tanks — together with the men and women operating them. Losing one destroyer’s 180 crew in combat would be 4½ times the casualties the ADF suffered in the entire Afghanistan conflict.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13618463 (090610ZMAY21) Notable: Scott Morrison says Australia will be closed to the world for a long time - Australians want to suppress COVID, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Simsha_owner_Shardia_Singh_with_Prime_Minister_Morrison_in_Townsville.jpg, The_PM_visits_the_Australian_Navy_base_HMAS_Cairns.jpg, Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_cracks_the_whip_at_Beef_Week_in_Rockhampton_this_week.jpg

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Scott Morrison says Australia will be closed to the world for a long time

Our borders will stay closed to the world for now because Australians want to suppress COVID, says Prime Minister Scott Morrison in this wide-ranging interview.

James Campbell - May 9, 2021

1/2

Australia will stay closed to the world for now, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison warning he doesn’t see an appetite to move ­beyond the suppression strategy that has shut the nation’s borders.

In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with News Corp, the Prime Minister made clear there was no plan to alter the government’s approach to the pandemic that has created Fortress Australia.

While in the early days of the pandemic Mr Morrison talked about local restrictions from outbreaks as “part of living with COVID-19”, he thinks Australians are not eager for a change.

“I don’t see an appetite for that at the moment,” he said.

“I think what we’re seeing at the moment is the appreciation of the people that the pandemic isn’t going anywhere.”

Mr Morrison said “we sit here as an island that’s living like few countries in the world are at the moment.

“We have to be careful not to exchange that way of life for what everyone else has.”

It is “different for the UK and the US and Europe because they have been riddled with the pandemic and they can’t turn that back,” he said.

“All I know is once you let it back in … you cannot get it out. You’ve crossed that threshold. You move into another dimension.

“At this point in the pandemic that is a very uncertain world.

“We continue to roll out the vaccination program, over the course of this year, and in the meantime, I intend to be cautious, it’s in my nature.”

Mr Morrison said there was not enough evidence on how the current crop vaccines reduced transmission to wind back quarantine.

“We don’t as of yet have considerable clinical evidence that tells us transmission is preventable … and so, we’ve just got to wait for the numbers to come in on that, but at this point in time I think Australians want to ­ensure that the way we’re living at the moment is maintained,” he said.

Mr Morrison said that given the risk aversion of the state premiers he couldn’t be certain things would change even after the vaccine rollout was completed.

“The next big step that can be taken is that Australians who are vaccinated, based on clear evidence that this prevents transmissibility, are able to travel and return to Australia without having to hotel quarantine, and ideally we only have to engage in some sort of home quarantine of a less restrictive nature,” he said.

“And indeed, if for whatever reason, a state might from time to time impose some lockdown, then an Australian who is vaccinated might be exempted from those sorts of ­restrictions.

“That’s the next step. So ask yourself the question: which state and territory is going to adopt that?”

In these circumstances there was no saying when immigrants will return.

“I can’t tell you. I don’t know. Now as we look at COVID, it’s not necessarily as a short-term thing. But as a medium-term challenge. That’s where our minds turn.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13625963 (100711ZMAY21) Notable: Australian media slammed for twisting open book as 'evidence' of 'China weaponizing COVID-19' - Liu Caiyu and Lou Kang - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: A_woman_walks_in_the_rain_in_Sydney_Australia_March_20_2021.jpg

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>>125501

Australian media slammed for twisting open book as 'evidence' of 'China weaponizing COVID-19'

Liu Caiyu and Lou Kang - May 09, 2021

The Australian newspaper recently quoted a Chinese book that is openly on sale as a "leaked" exclusive document, in an embarrassing article that smears China over the origins of COVID-19, twisting the book's contents to support its own conspiracy theory that China was engaged in weaponizing the novel coronavirus several years before the pandemic.

Chinese netizens and experts slammed the newspaper for losing its professional ethics by drawing any possible clues to back its own political narrative.

Quoting a so-called leaked document obtained by the US State Department, The Australian claimed China had been probing whether it could weaponize the coronavirus five years before the COVD-19 pandemic, and even took the document as evidence of China's interest in bioweapons.

Yet, the Global Times found the leaked document mentioned by The Australian was a book titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapon. It was published by military doctor Xu Dezhong in 2015 and is on sale on Amazon, although it is out of stock. The book suggests that SARS epidemic during 2002 and 2004 in China originated through an unnatural way of genetic modification originating from abroad.

An academic book that explores bioterrorism and possibilities of viruses being used in warfare was interpreted as a conspiracy theory by The Australian, which deliberately and malignantly intends to invent pretexts to smear China, Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

It is a shame for anti-China forces in Australia to back their own ideology against China at the expense of basic professional journalistic ethics, conspiring to twist the real meaning of the book, Chen said.

The book alleges with evidence how biological weapons labs abroad successfully transferred the virus to civets or other mammals, and how the animals were brought into markets in southern China at the time. The subject and core argument of the book is nothing like the report by The Australian claiming China was weaponizing the SARS virus five years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The book's author pointed out the noticeable facts that the infected cases at the time were concentrated in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and the island of Taiwan. Other cases were concentrated in countries and regions where Chinese nationals and their descendants lived. More cases showed that among 15 deaths out of the virus in Canada, 13 were Chinese people. "Conspiracies cannot be ruled out that terrorists abroad were developing contemporary genetic weapons to fight against China," Xu wrote in the book.

In another claim by The Australian, the idea of Xu's book suggested a use of biological weapons for a predicted third world war. The idea, however, was only an objective enumeration which listed a series of countries developing biological weapons including the US, for the past few years.

"The US began its bioweapons research in 1941, after which a great scale of study fields and production plants were built," reads chapter two of the book, "during 1940 and 1945, Japan invaded China with the use of bioweapons and caused a plague in East China's Zhejiang Province and Central China's Hunan Province."

In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, theories also exist that the novel coronavirus may have originated at a US military research institute at Fort Detrick. Chinese experts have been calling for a probe into the US' mysterious bio-labs in order to better understand coronavirus origins, and Russian officials said the US is developing biological weapons in those labs.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223003.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13626087 (100803ZMAY21) Notable: Fears of Taliban retribution raised in Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Ben_Roberts_Smith_is_suing_Nine_newspapers_for_defamation_over_reports_alleging_he_committed_war_crimes.jpeg

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Fears of Taliban retribution raised in Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case

LANE SAINTY - MAY 7, 2021

Fears of brutal Taliban retribution against Afghan witnesses in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case have been raised in court as parties battle over whether certain documents should, if they exist, stay secret.

After the possibility of “barbaric punishment or death” was mooted by a lawyer for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force, Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister Arthur Moses SC retorted that his client might be the one in danger.

Mr Roberts-Smith is “the father of two children, has been accused of war crimes against the Taliban and he wears those allegations like a loaded gun every day”, Mr Moses said.

Mr Roberts-Smith, a former SAS soldier and Victoria Cross recipient, is suing Nine newspapers for defamation over reports alleging he committed war crimes while on deployment in Afghanistan and punched a woman in a Canberra hotel.

Nine will vigorously defend its reporting at an eight-week trial due to start on June 7.

Mr Roberts-Smith has subpoenaed the ADF and Australian Federal Police in relation to four Afghan witnesses, the Federal Court was told on Friday.

The four people, from the village of Darwan, are expected to testify remotely from Kabul about an allegation that Mr Roberts-Smith kicked an Afghan man named Ali Jan off a small cliff and ordered another officer to shoot him.

But Inspector-General James Gaynor has filed a public interest immunity claim against Mr Roberts-Smith’s request, contending the documents – which may or may not exist – should be kept confidential.

The case is already subject to extensive national security confidentiality measures.

On Friday, lawyers were at pains to say they were speaking only in hypotheticals before the hearing was closed to the public altogether.

Barrister Andrew Berger QC said the immunity claim was necessary to protect people in Afghanistan who had co-operated with the Brereton inquiry into Australian war crimes and to ensure Mr Gaynor could continue to carry out his work as Inspector-General.

Mr Berger argued the mere possibility of Taliban retribution should weigh heavily in favour of the claim.

“The Taliban can and does punish people who are perceived to have acted inconsistently with their ideology and objectives,“ he said.

Mr Berger also argued the immunity claim should outweigh concerns about the administration of justice as it was a civil, not criminal, case. “Liberty is not at stake in these proceedings and nor is the protection of the community,” he said.

Mr Moses suggested the threat of Taliban retribution could equally apply to Mr Roberts-Smith. “We should just pause for a moment and think what the Taliban may or may not do to someone they think has engaged in such war crimes if they ever got their hands on him or his family,” he said.

He said if the Afghan witnesses had previously put forward a version of events about what happened with Ali Jan, Mr Roberts-Smith was entitled to have it.

The immunity claim is being supported by the Australian Federal Police.

Justice Wendy Abraham has reserved her decision.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/fears-of-taliban-retribution-raised-in-ben-robertssmith-defamation-case/news-story/db59c3a82bc821b00e7a3ef78f4b1faa

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13626133 (100828ZMAY21) Notable: For whom do Canberra’s war drums beat - Chen Hong - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: For_whom_do_Canberra_s_war_drums_beat.png

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>>125405

For whom do Canberra’s war drums beat

Chen Hong - May 10, 2021

The previous weeks saw a series of militantly strident remarks from Australia's top officials, ranging from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defense Minister Peter Dutton to current Home Affairs Secretary Michael Pezzullo, whipping up Canberra's bellicosity toward the one-China principle.

The Australian Financial Review on May 6 claimed that Australia has now signaled that its collective pushback to manage China includes drawing the line at the defense of the island of Taiwan. Asked about whether Australia will support Taiwan, Morrison said his government had "always honored all of our arrangements in the Indo-Pacific."

There are observers who explain that such pugnacious remarks have been the collateral results of the political infighting within Canberra's Liberal-National Coalition party. Internal wrestling matches for power prod the populist politicians in Canberra to engage in "chest thumping" contests with each other to act as rough and tough as possible over issues related to China.

China is not interested in the mind-boggling power struggle in Australian politics, in which the prime minister's office had had a succession of six occupants between 2010 and 2018. Canberra politicians should think twice if they fancy making political gains by means of harming China's national interest.

The joint communiqué for the establishment of diplomatic relationship between China and Australia states unambiguously that "the Australian government…acknowledges the position of the Chinese Government that Taiwan is a province of the People's Republic of China." All official interactions between the two countries are based on this basic principle, which also serves as the bottom line not to be challenged or violated in any way at any time by anyone.

China's reunification is the sacred mission of the Chinese nation, which is indubitably within its own sovereign domain. Any other country, including Australia, should not poke their noses into this noble undertaking in China's course toward its national rejuvenation.

China and Australia were in the same trenches during the World War II against international fascism. Since the two countries established formal diplomatic relationship 49 years ago, bilateral relations have steadfastly developed into the mutually beneficial comprehensive strategic partnership. China's economic takeoff has provided the most important momentum for Australia's economic growth, which also contributes to the peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world.

Any country with political wisdom and strategic sensibility would spare no effort to cherish and nurture such an important and valuable partnership. It is therefore extremely irresponsible and insane if Australia's top brass plans to interfere with China's internal affairs by means of military intervention.

There have not been any historical conflicts or territorial disputes between China and Australia. War has never been on the agenda in China's relationship with Australia. However, recently, Canberra seems to be senselessly fixated on actively collaborating with Washington's anti-China campaign, rattling sabers for the most absurd prospect of military conflict with China.

There is a rotating US military presence in Australia's top north, where Australia plans to build a special military fuel tank for US armed forces. Australia is also working with the Pentagon to make and deploy guided missiles on its territory. Nuclear submarines and F-35 fighter jets have also been in Canberra's shopping cart.

It is an unmistakable fact that China is faced with an increasingly militarizing Australia, which is beating its war drums to prepare for war with its largest trade partner.

With its military strength, China has not put Australia on its military radar. However, peace loving as we are, the Chinese people have to be prepared for possible military incursions provoked by Canberra.

Australian hawks could play with their war drums, but they'd better also listen to the bell of justice, which always tolls for war mongers.

The author is a professor and director of the Australian Studies Centre, East China Normal University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223035.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13633861 (110657ZMAY21) Notable: Army may have to fight next war with pencils and paper - Axing of $2bn battle management system sets back Army’s digital transformation by more than 15 years, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: A_soldier_at_Exercise_Talisman_Sabre_in_Rockhampton_in_2015_The_army_would_go_to_July_s_exercise_the_nation_s_largest_bilateral_war_games_with_the_US_without_the_ability_to_digitally_manage_its_forces.jpg

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>>125446

>>125499

Army may have to fight next war with pencils and paper

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 11, 2021

The axing of a $2bn battle management system has set back the army’s digital transformation by more than 15 years, leaving commanders facing the prospect of having to fight a hi-tech war using paper maps and pencils.

The Australian has learned ­Defence has terminated its relationship with Israeli company Elbit Systems on the advice of the Australian Signals Directorate, which raised the alarm over an alleged back door in its software.

The introduction of Elbit’s digital Battle Management System — which incorporates communications, targeting and friendly force tracking — dates back to 2005 and was said to be the army’s “highest priority project”.

The system, designed to shift the army “from a paper-based ­system to a modern digital system”, is now being ripped out of army vehicles and computer servers following an order from Defence headquarters.

Defence sources said the army would go to July’s Exercise Talisman Sabre — the nation’s largest bilateral war games with the US — without the ability to digitally manage its forces.

Defence is currently looking at alternative BMS options used by British and US forces.

But sources warned it could be years before the capability gap was overcome, given the long lead times in rolling out complex technologies within Defence.

Amid warnings of the growing risk of war with China over Taiwan, one senior defence source warned that the army was “almost non-deployable”.

“The holy grail in modern war fighting is digitisation and connectivity,” the source said. “This is like having an iPhone without the operating system.”

The source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter within Defence, said it was unclear how any vulnerability had been missed for so long, given the system had been extensively tested with US support. Another senior source warned that the lack of a robust BMS would deny the army “decision ­superiority” against a modern ­digitally managed force.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13633893 (110707ZMAY21) Notable: Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying says the country did not develop, research or produce bio-weapons, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Chinese_Foreign_Ministry_spokeswoman_Hua_Chunying_speaks_to_reporters.jpg

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>>125501

Beijing denies producing bio-weapons

ADESHOLA ORE - MAY 11, 2021

Beijing has denied it is producing bio-weapons in response to The Australian’s revelation its military scientists discussed weaponising SARS coronavirus five years before the emergency of COVID-19.

The Weekend Australian’s exclusive reporting has raised questions about the origins of the pandemic. The reports were based on a document, written by People’s Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials in 2015, obtained by the US State Department.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said the country did not develop, research or produce bio-weapons.

“China has always strictly fulfilled its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention,” she said at a press briefing.

Ms Chunying also accused the United States of conducting a “smear campaign” against China.

“Some in the US take every opportunity to cite and play up so-called ‘internal documents’ and ‘reports’ to denigrate and smear China. However, facts and truth always prove that they are either the offender playing the defendant, or making vicious interpretations by taking words out of context or with presumption of guilt, or spreading sheer lies.”

Ms Chunying said the document, obtained by the US State Department, was a “piece of openly available academic work”

“It cited relevant research by former US Colonel Michael Ainscough and pointed out that ‘next generation bioweapons’ are part of US air force projects which are aimed at helping the US to better cope with the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The argument by Ainscough shows that it is the US that is researching the technology of genetic engineering applied to bio-warfare and bio-terrorism.”

Ms Chunying also said that a number of countries were “gravely concerned” about bio-labs built by the US on its shores and overseas.

“People are eager to know: Why did the US set up so many bio-labs around the world? What’s it after? How much sensitive biological resources and information did the US acquire from relevant countries? What activities are carried out at Fort Detrick and its overseas bio-labs? Are they somehow linked to the US research on ‘next generation bioweapons’?

“The US owes the international community an honest, transparent and responsible answer to those questions.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/beijing-denies-producing-bioweapons/news-story/fcd92c6229c6ea5e2ee61f29cee884b5

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13633895 (110708ZMAY21) Notable: Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on May 10, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_Ministry_Spokesperson_Hua_Chunying_s_Regular_Press_Conference_on_May_10_2021.jpg

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>>125501

>>125519

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on May 10, 2021

Global Times: It is reported that as it conducted an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, the US State Department obtained an internal document written by scientists from the Air Force Medical University of the People's Liberation Army and senior Chinese public health officials in 2015. The paper says that SARS­coronaviruses can be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human­disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed in a way never seen before". What's your comment?

Hua Chunying: I note reports on this. Some in the US take every opportunity to cite and play up so-called "internal documents" and "reports" to denigrate and smear China. However, facts and truth always prove that they are either the offender playing the defendant, or making vicious interpretations by taking words out of context or with presumption of guilt, or spreading sheer lies. There are already media reports saying that the document mentioned by the US side is not any classified internal document, but rather a piece of openly available academic work. It cited relevant research by former US Colonel Michael Ainscough and pointed out that "next generation bioweapons" are part of US air force projects which are aimed at helping the US to better cope with the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The argument by Ainscough shows that it is the US that is researching the technology of genetic engineering applied to bio-warfare and bio-terrorism.

China has always strictly fulfilled its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention and doesn't develop, research or produce bio-weapons. China has put in place a complete set of laws and regulations, technical standards and management system on the safety of bio-labs.

I also want to point out that many countries are gravely concerned about bio-labs built by the US both within its borders and overseas. It is reported that the US has over 200 overseas bio-labs in 25 countries and regions including Africa, Middle East, South Asia and the former Soviet Union. The sites where some bio-labs are based have seen outbreaks of large-scale infectious diseases. A USA TODAY Network investigation reveals that since 2003, hundreds of lab incidents have occurred in the US biological laboratories where humans had accidental contact with deadly pathogens, leading to epidemics. Since June 2019, US media have been reporting on problems at Fort Detrick. However, nearly two years on, the US government still remains reticent on this. A Russian official recently said that Russia believes that labs under US control along the Russia-China border are developing biological weapons. People are eager to know: Why did the US set up so many bio-labs around the world? What's it after? How much sensitive biological resources and information did the US acquire from relevant countries? What activities are carried out at Fort Detrick and its overseas bio-labs? Are they somehow linked to the US research on "next generation bioweapons"? The US owes the international community an honest, transparent and responsible answer to those question.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1874669.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13634048 (110755ZMAY21) Notable: Japanese Ambassador to Australia encourages South Australia to export more wine to Japan to counter the loss from the Chinese market, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Japanese_Ambassador_to_Australia_Shingo_Yamagami_at_Adelaide_University.jpg, A_joint_Australian_Japanese_naval_exercise_in_2016_the_same_year_Japan_missed_out_on_the_contract_to_build_the_Future_Submarines.jpg

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New Japanese Ambassador to Australia encourages SA to export more of its wine to the country

Japan’s top diplomat, on his first visit to Adelaide, has urged SA winemakers to expand into his country to counter the loss from the Chinese market.

Gabriel Polychronis - May 11, 2021

There are more than 30 million Japanese wine drinkers waiting to be introduced to quality South Australian wine, Japan’s top diplomat in Australia says.

In a wide-ranging interview, new ambassador to Australia Shingo Yamagami urged SA wine makers to diversify their exports, declaring he wanted Japanese to be able to enjoy everything from Penfolds to Fruity Lexia.

He made the plea while also revealing senior Japanese officials were still hurt after losing out on the Future Submarines contract five years ago.

Mr Yamagami said there was “growing demand” in Japan for SA wine, as the local industry reeled from China’s unrelenting trade tariffs.

“That kind of high-quality wine is yet to reach the Japanese market,” he said.

Mr Yamagami said Australia was “lagging behind” other nations, such as Italy and France, when it came to exporting wine to Japan.

“This is high time for (South Australia) to diversify export destinations,” he said.

“Japanese people drink wine like whales; consumption is enormous.”

On his first visit to SA since becoming Ambassador in December 2020, Mr Yamagami gave a talk at the University of Adelaide on Monday.

“There are over 30 million regular wine drinkers in Japan just waiting for someone to introduce them to the delights of a good Barossa Valley shiraz,” he said.

“As much as I love being able to have a nice glass of Jacob’s Creek in Tokyo, what I’d really like is to be able to enjoy the full range of SA wines; from a fancy Penfolds to a Berri Estates Fruity Lexia.”

Mr Yamagami is due to tomorrow meet with Premier Steven Marshall, with whom he is expected to discuss wine exports, the state’s hydrogen plans and future space co-operation. “SA was quite fast in coming up with a (hydrogen) strategy and they are ahead in the game,” he said.

“In particular, Japan is excited about SA’s endeavour to create the largest green ammonia plant in the world (on the Eyre Peninsula).”

He also declared “the sky is the limit” with Japanese-SA space co-operation, pointing to last year’s landing of the Hayabusa2 at Woomera as one example.

Meanwhile, Mr Yamagami told The Advertiser there still remained a “great deal of disappointment” among senior Japanese government officials after losing the bidding process for the Future Submarines contract to French company DCNS (now Naval Group) in 2016.

“Never in the history of Japan did we enter into the bidding for any foreign country,” he said.

“But, because we were urged by the Australian government, we reluctantly decided to enter.

“We thought this was going to be Japanese submarines (built in SA).

“That is something we should never repeat in our bilateral relationship, there is a great deal of disappointment on the part of the Japanese.

“While I am always astonished by the beauty and tranquillity of the Australian ocean, I can’t help but think it would have been even more beautiful and quiet with South Australian manufactured, Japanese submarines in it.”

Mr Yamagami, however, left the door open to Japanese companies manufacturing other defence equipment in SA in the future.

“It will be possible, but we failed once, we cannot have a second failure,” he said.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/new-japanese-ambassador-to-australia-encourages-sa-to-export-more-of-its-wine-to-the-country/news-story/7bdfd0649a6f270667605c0ae66fdc7c

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13642264 (120718ZMAY21) Notable: ‘Battle ready’: Australia’s warning to China in Federal Budget - investing $270 billion over 10 years in defence capability, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Defence_Minister_Peter_Dutton_at_Lavarack_Barracks_in_Townsville.jpg, Relations_between_China_and_Australia_have_plummeted.jpg, Aussie_troops_are_being_pulled_out_of_Afghanistan_this_year.jpg

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‘Battle ready’: Australia’s warning to China in Federal Budget

After a year in which Australia’s relationship with China went from bad to worse, there’s an ominous sign in today’s budget.

Benjamin Graham - MAY 12, 2021

1/2

After a year of international relationships being strained by the pandemic, the Australian government says it will pump an additional $1.9 billion into strengthening our national security, law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

As Australian troops begin to come home from Afghanistan, the federal budget today said the focus in defence will be shifted to the Indo-Pacific region — after a year of increased tension between Australia and China.

As part of this, the government is upgrading four key training areas and ranges in the Northern Territory to ensure our troops are “battle ready”.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that while Australia had been fighting COVID-19, other threats to our security “have not gone away” — and that the pandemic had raised new challenges.

“We need to be prepared for a world that is less stable and more contested,” he said in his budget speech.

“This is why we are investing $270 billion over 10 years in our defence capability.”

Big spending to counter Indo-Pacific threat

As part of the defence splurge, the budget states that the government will work with other nations in pursuit of a “free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific”.

In a bid to “protect our interests” in the region – amid rising tensions between China and South East Asian nations in the South China Sea – the government has committed $747 million to upgrade four key military training areas in the Northern Territory.

It’s part of the government’s commitment to invest $270 billion in defence capability over the next decade, but it says the focus on the top end will further support our “ability to promote an open and peaceful Indo-Pacific”.

It says these upgraded facilities will enable the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to conduct simulated training exercises and ensure its troops “battle ready”.

“Essential upgrades will be made to four key military training areas and weapon ranges, including Robertson Barracks, Kangaroo Flats, Mount Bundy and Bradshaw,” Defence Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement.

“This significant investment will ensure Australian Defence Force continues engagement with allies and other nations through the conduct of world-class joint training, including the US Marine Rotational Force in Darwin.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13642403 (120816ZMAY21) Notable: Matthew James Barsby - Paedophile’s sick secret life exposed in Border Force bust, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_dark_secret_life_of_Tinana_s_Matthew_James_Barsby_was_exposed_in_Maryborough_District_Court_this_week.jpg

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Paedophile’s sick secret life exposed in Border Force bust

To the outside world, he was a hardworking, law abiding citizen. But behind closed doors, the Tinana man spoke of his depraved desire to sexually abuse a child. Warning: disturbing content

Carlie Walker - May 11, 2021

To the outside world, Matthew James Barsby was a hardworking, law abiding citizen.

But behind closed doors, the Tinana man spoke of his depraved desire to sexually abuse a child and had a catalogue of children suffering at the hands of others.

It was only when another man drew the attention of Australian Border Force officers that Barsby’s true nature would be exposed.

In Maryborough District Court this week, Barsby pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child abuse pornography, charges that would put him behind bars for just eight months.

The court heard that when police seized Barsby’s laptop and phone, dozens of disturbing child pornography photos and videos were located, including images in which children were being anally and orally penetrated.

The photos and videos included pre-pubescent and older children, some involved in acts with other children and some with adults.

In total, 86 photos and 56 videos were found on Barsby’s devices.

The court heard the 45-year-old had no prior criminal history and was employed as a manager at a business in the Northern Territory.

Barsby was also in a relationship when the crimes were committed.

But he suffered from depression and anxiety, the court was told, and was on medication.

Barsby’s offending had come to light when ABF stopped a Malaysian man at Sydney Airport.

The message exchange between Barsby and the man, with whom he had discussed what it would be like to feel a child’s small hand or mouth “on his d*ck”, had led police to his door in the rural suburb of Tinana.

During the investigation, police found Barsby had been receiving and sending child abuse material with two other users and this catalogue included videos of children being raped.

Judge Richard Jones described Barsby’s conversations as “disturbing and disgusting”.

“People like you keep the (child abuse) industry alive,” he said.

“It’s hard to accept you only recently came to realise it wasn’t a victimless crime.”

Judge Jones said the conversations Barsby had regarding the abuse of children showed he had “more than passive interest in the sexual exploitation of children”.

Barsby was given a head sentence of two and a half years in prison, with eight months to be served and the rest to be suspended for an operational period of three years.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/fraser-coast/paedophiles-sick-secret-life-exposed-in-border-force-bust/news-story/eeef33c7741ce05e40b3a966dc49b359

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13642424 (120831ZMAY21) Notable: U.S. Department of Defense Press Readout: Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Australian Minister for Defence Peter Dutton by phone today, reaffirming the strength, endurance, and resilience of the U.S.-Australia Alliance – the Unbreakable Alliance, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: SODLJAIII_1.jpg, E1JagrKWYAIKYWd.jpg

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Tweet

I had an excellent call with Australia’s MoD @PeterDutton_MP. The Unbreakable Alliance has faced all challenges in its first 70 years, and we stand ready with our Australian mates for the challenges of the next 70 and beyond, strengthening the #FreeandopenIndoPacific.

https://twitter.com/SecDef/status/1392275695322210311

—

U.S. Department of Defense

Readout of Secretary of Defense Austin's Phone Call With Australian Minister for Defence Dutton

MAY 11, 2021

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Australian Minister for Defence Peter Dutton by phone today, reaffirming the strength, endurance, and resilience of the U.S.-Australia Alliance – the Unbreakable Alliance.

Secretary Austin conveyed appreciation for Australian support to premier Alliance activities – especially the 2021 deployment of the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin.

Secretary Austin and Minister Dutton committed to sustain progress on Alliance priorities, reiterating their support for collaborative approaches to address security challenges throughout the Indo-Pacific region – working together with other likeminded partners.

Secretary Austin and Minister Dutton acknowledged the close alignment in both nations’ perspectives and priorities in addressing pressing regional and global security concerns.

Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining a Free and Open Indo-Pacific – founded on broadly held international rules, laws, and norms.

Secretary Austin looks forward to the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial (AUSMIN) meeting this fall and the opportunity to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Unbreakable Alliance.

https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2603990/readout-of-secretary-of-defense-austins-phone-call-with-australian-minister-for/utm_source/miragenews/utm_medium/miragenews/utm_campaign/news/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13642586 (121005ZMAY21) Notable: Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet: Good to see Sec @JohnKerry again including to discuss key outcomes from the #ClimateSummit & the $1.1b (Australia) committed to low emissions technology, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: FMMP_17.jpg, E1LZAK1UUAMpscb.jpg, E1LZAK3UcAAC_F.jpg

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Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet

Good to see Sec @JohnKerry again including to discuss key outcomes from the #ClimateSummit & the $1.1b (Australia) committed to low emissions technology. I look forward to collaborating with the (United States) bilaterally & through the Quad to progress work on climate finance & low emissions tech.

https://twitter.com/MarisePayne/status/1392413842190209027

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13650206 (130825ZMAY21) Notable: What is Australia's space division, and why is it in the military?, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Australia_has_said_it_won_t_seek_to_develop_technologies_to_attack_enemy_satellites.jpg

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>>125503

What is Australia's space division, and why is it in the military?

Belinda Smith - 13 May 2021

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It's official: planning is underway for the Australian military to launch its own space division in 2022, with its chief already appointed.

It was announced over the weekend that Royal Australian Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Catherine Roberts will lead the division from January.

The newly created military space command, which will draw on all aspects of the Australian Defence Force, will "allow us to establish an organisation to sustain, force-generate, operate space capabilities and assign them to a joint operation command if needed", according to RAAF chief Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld.

The RAAF chief has said previously that unlike other nations like China and Russia, Australia would not seek to develop technologies to attack enemy satellites.

But what does that mean? Why is the proposed Australian space division in the military? And how does it compare to others around the world?

Why does Australia need a space division?

As far as international movers and shakers in space defence go, you may think Australia is a bit player.

But while we may seem like small fry when compared to the likes of the US, Australia already has an impressive track record in communications and observation satellites, said Cassandra Steer, space law lecturer and mission specialist with the Australian National University's Institute of Space.

These satellites are particularly important for farming and mining in remote areas, for instance.

The Australian Defence Force declined to comment on the division's aims, but protecting these assets is what the new space division will likely focus on, Dr Steer said.

"We're facing a huge problem of space debris and space traffic management at the moment, just because of the sheer number of objects we are continuing to launch into space.

"I have to keep updating my numbers because SpaceX launches every two weeks, but there are about 3,800 operational satellites in orbit, and an estimated 128 million pieces of debris [smaller than 1 centimetre]."

What the division will not do is weaponise space, nor use it to wage war.

If not for war, then why is the division in the military?

The Australian Space Agency was set up only a few years ago, and it, among other roles, regulates and authorises space-based technology such as weather and land-monitoring satellites.

So why does the space division need to sit within the military, if war isn't on the cards?

Alongside people in remote corners of Australia, pretty much every aspect of daily life across the nation involves satellites, whether that be banking, weather forecasting or health services — or military purposes.

So essentially, Dr Steer said, the issue of "space traffic management" is a safety and security threat.

A local space division will let the military develop and sling small satellites into orbit that will not only keep an eye on space debris, but help people on the ground investigate further should a suspicious collision occur.

"If something happens to one of our own satellites, particularly the new defence satellites that we will have in the next five to 10 years, [we could ask] was that a nefarious attack? Or was it just a bit of space debris?" Dr Steer said.

"It's really hard to know unless you have proper capabilities to track what's in space, and that's what [Australia] will be excellent at — small satellite launch.

"It's what the 21st-century space industry is about, much more than launching huge things or launching humans."

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13650331 (130925ZMAY21) Notable: ScoMo says preparing for war with China is doing his job, backs Peter Dutton in warning Australians that we need to be prepared for military conflict with China, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Scott_Morrison_has_supported_his_Defence_Minister_Peter_Dutton_in_warning_Australians_they_should_be_prepared_for_a_military_conflict_with_China.jpg, Chinese_Foreign_Ministry_spokesman_Wang_Wenbin_wants_Australia_to_stay_out_of_China_s_issues_with_Taiwan.jpg

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>>125398

ScoMo says preparing for war with China is doing his job

Scott Morrison has backed Peter Dutton in warning Australians that we need to be prepared for military conflict with China.

dailytelegraph.com.au - May 12, 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says it would be “foolish” to not appreciate the potential risks of going to war with China.

The PM’s comments came in response Defence Minister Peter Dutton saying a military conflict with China over Taiwan “should not be discounted”.

“Of course there are many tensions that exist in the region, and it would be foolish of Australia to not appreciate the potential risks that emerge,” said Mr Morrison on 7.30 on Wednesday.

“That doesn’t mean something will happen but any Defence Minister, any Prime Minister of Australia who do not, in consideration of these things, ensure Australians are prepared in these circumstances would not be doing there job.”

Mr Morrison supported his Defence Minister’s position, saying it was based off information from their advisers.

The statements from the Prime Minister are expected to continue to brouhaha with the country’s biggest trading partner.

Late last month, Mr Dutton angered the Chinese when he criticised the country’s position on Taiwan.

Mr Dutton said Australia must be “realistic” about China’s antagonistic behaviour, saying: “There is militarisation of bases across the region. Obviously there is a significant amount of activity and there is an animosity between Taiwan and China,” he said.

Asked about the prospects of a “battle” over Taiwan, Mr Dutton said: “I don’t think it should be discounted”.

Mr Dutton said Australia wanted to continue being a “good neighbour” in the region, adding “nobody wants to see conflict”.

“But we do have a difference of opinion with the ideals of the Communist Party of China. Let’s be very frank about that,” he said.

Australia does not formally recognise Taiwan at a diplomatic level, but has regularly called for a “peaceful resolution” of differences between China and the small independent nation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the communist country wanted a peaceful reunification with Taiwan.

“We hope that Australia will fully understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan issue, adhere to the One China principle, be cautious in its words and actions, refrain from sending any wrong signals to the secessionist forces of Taiwan independence,” Mr Wang said.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/scomo-says-preparing-for-war-with-china-is-doing-his-job/news-story/c33d6875eddcac2ed1213a77adc25a40

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13650344 (130933ZMAY21) Notable: Former NSW Labor staffer John Zhang loses High Court battle over validity of warrants used to seize his property, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: NSW_Labor_MP_Shaoquett_Moselmane_s_former_adviser_John_Zhang_is_being_investigated_over_alleged_foreign_interference.png, Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_and_John_Zhang_at_an_event_in_2018.png

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>>125211

>>125229

Former NSW Labor staffer John Zhang loses High Court battle over validity of warrants used to seize his property

Elizabeth Byrne - 12 May 2021

The High Court has upheld Australia's foreign interference laws, throwing out a challenge to three warrants issued in an investigation into an alleged Chinese plot to infiltrate the New South Wales Parliament.

Former Labor advisor John Zhang has never been charged, but Australian Federal Police (AFP) seized material from him during an investigation into an alleged Chinese plot to infiltrate the state parliament through the office of Labor backbencher Shaoquett Moselmane.

Mr Zhang worked part-time in Mr Moselmane's office for two years from 2018 to 2020.

Mr Zhang's lawyers had argued in the High Court that the warrants, used to seize computers, phones and $60,000 in cash from his home, business and NSW Parliament, were not specific enough about the alleged crime.

His lawyers also claimed that Australia's foreign interference laws impugned the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication.

But today the High Court threw out the case, finding the warrants were valid and ordering Mr Zhang to pay costs.

It found the questions about the imposition on the implied right to freedom of political communication were unnecessary to answer.

In its submissions to the High Court, the government said the purpose of Australia's foreign interference laws were "not only legitimate, but serve[d] to preserve and enhance the system of representative and responsible government."

"The provisions are reasonably appropriate and adapted to that significant purpose," the government submissions read.

Mr Zhang's case escalated tensions between Australia and China, with three Chinese journalists who were part of the WeChat group known as FD (Fair Dinkum) leaving in June last year shortly after being questioned by ASIO.

Another two scholars had their visas cancelled.

The diplomatic crisis also saw the ABC's Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review's Michael Smith evacuated from China.

Today's High Court ruling has cleared the way for the AFP to continue its investigation.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-12/former-nsw-labor-advisor-john-zhang-loses-high-court-battle/100133374

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13650347 (130938ZMAY21) Notable: GT Voice: Canberra's defense spending means economic carnage - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Canberra_s_defense_spending_means_economic_carnage.jpg

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>>125522

GT Voice: Canberra's defense spending means economic carnage

Global Times - May 12, 2021

Even after single-handedly driving China-Australia ties to a near-frozen state, the Morrison government appears to be dead set on further escalating regional confrontation by substantially increasing investment in defense and national security - apparently to maintain its role of an attack dog for the US' so-called Indo-Pacific strategy aiming to contain China.

The Australian federal government plans to spend 270 billion Australian dollars ($212 billion) over the next decade on upgrading defense capabilities to "promote an open and peaceful Indo-Pacific," according to media reports, citing a newly released economic plan by Australia's Treasury Department.

The hefty defense and security investment will include spending on upgrading infrastructure facilities aimed at assisting US military as well as other collaborative weaponry projects with the US, media reports said.

The spending plan came as some Australian politicians and media outlets have been pushing Australia to join forces with the US if a military conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Straits. In such context, observers generally see the move as a signal from Canberra that it will continue and even escalate its confrontational approach toward China.

While it is not all that shocking to see Canberra echoing the US' so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy" to contain China, it is still inconceivable that Australian politicians would be willing to run huge deficits to curry favor with the US. Ultimately, the defense spending could mean more carnage for the Australian economy.

According to the Treasury Department's budget plan for the fiscal year starting on July 1, none of its other spending plans could be comparable to the defense spending with the total expenses for the next fiscal year set at A$589 billion. For instance, the government proposed a A$17.7 billion spending on elderly care over five years, falling way short of even one-tenth of the defense budget.

Moreover, with such aggressive military spending plan, it is also questionable whether the country's budget deficit will decline in the coming years, as the Treasury claims, after hitting a record high of A$161 billion for the fiscal year ending on June 30.

But judging from the way Australian politicians talk and act, they are not so concerned about trade and economic issues that could affect the jobs and livelihoods of millions of Australians. If they were, they would have stopped their unreasonable provocative political stunts that wreak havoc on bilateral relations.

Australia's trade ties with China, its largest trading partner, will unlikely improve in the foreseeable future, which has and will continue to add pressure on the Australian economy. As Canberra continues on its confrontational approach, China's National Development and Reform Commission recently halted exchanges with Australia.

This week, some media outlets reported that liquefied natural gas (LNG) is regarded as the latest Australian export that could bear the brunt of deteriorating ties. A Bloomberg report stated on Monday that at least two Chinese small LNG importers were told not to purchase Australian LNG next year.

While the authenticity of the report remains unclear and China is unlikely to issue export ban without justified reasons, it doesn't mean China won't seek diversification of LNG supplies.

In fact, considering the tensions between the two sides and Canberra's reluctance to show even the slightest sign of willingness to repair bilateral ties, China's diversification push may cover more products.

It is Australia's relentless and unreasonable provocations that push China to seek such diversification. Certainly, China does not seek to initiate a "trade war," but a comprehensive counter plan is necessary to not just protect China's interests but also deter any potential provocation from Canberra.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223299.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13650382 (131006ZMAY21) Notable: Joint drill by US, allies on Japanese land insignificant: analysts - Liu Xuanzun and Guo Yuandan - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: An_artilleryman_on_the_guided_missile_frigate_Chaozhou_Hull_595_with_a_naval_frigate_flotilla_under_the_Eastern_Theater_Command_opens_fire_on_the_target_aircraft_during_a_combat_training_on_April_29_2021.jpg

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>>125534

Joint drill by US, allies on Japanese land insignificant: analysts

Liu Xuanzun and Guo Yuandan - May 12, 2021

The ongoing joint exercises by Japanese, US, French and Australian troops, claimed to "serve as a deterrent to China," is only symbolic and of little military significance, as the drill was put together by participants that have different agenda or are too weak, experts said on Wednesday, while slamming Japan's outdated mindset of rallying alliances for confrontation.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) doesn't even need to make pointed responses to the joint drill since it's insignificant militarily. PLA should make concrete steps in its own development, like it did with recent drills and warship commissioning, said analysts.

Japan, the US and France kicked off their first-ever joint military drill in southwestern Japan on Tuesday, with an Australian naval ship also taking part in the week-long air, land and sea exercises, AFP reported.

Ten surface vessels from the four countries plus a Japanese submarine will participate in the drill, the report said.

Citing a Japanese scholar, the report claimed the drill is a deterrent to China's moves in the East and South China seas, including those over the Diaoyu Islands, which are Chinese territories.

"The drill will not be a threat to China, because it was only scraped together," Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The French troops traveled from afar only to do the US a favor and show presence, and while foreign reports said France has strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific Region where it has territories, including the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean and French Polynesia in the South Pacific, it has no core interests in the West Pacific, let alone confronting China, analysts said.

If a military conflict breaks out in the region, France will wait and see and even prevent NATO from participating, Song predicted, noting that France and the US have many substantial differences, including on NATO's eastward expansion.

Australia's military is too weak to be a worthy opponent of China, and if it dares to interfere in a military conflict for example in the Taiwan Straits, its forces will be among the first to be hit, Song said. "Australia must not think it can hide from China if it provokes."

Australia is within range of China's conventional warhead-equipped DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile, observers pointed out.

AP said on Tuesday that the event will feature urban warfare drills followed by amphibious operation exercises under a scenario of defending a remote island from an enemy invasion..

While the amphibious exercises clearly point to the Diaoyu Islands and islands and reefs in the South China Sea, the urban warfare drills could indicate these foreign forces could be practicing interfering in the Taiwan question, because that is where urban warfare is required, analysts said.

Despite its severe domestic COVID-19 situation, Japan remains stubborn in hooking in "like-minded" countries for joint military exercises, which is an outdated Cold War mindset and will only build divisions and confrontation, Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

As an invading country defeated in World War II, why is Japan holding offensive exercises like this? Zhang asked. "Japan should learn from history and not let militarism come back to life."

While it is possible that China will send a reconnaissance ship close to the site, China does not really need to react to the exercise, as it only needs to make concrete steps in strengthening its military and develop its science and technology capabilities, Song said.

The PLA has been making strides in its development, and recently held joint cross-sea landing exercises, conducted aircraft carrier drills and commissioned powerful new warships, all of which are pragmatic, analysts said.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223303.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13650406 (131026ZMAY21) Notable: U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Tweet: Appreciated meeting today with Foreign Minister @MarisePayne of Australia. We discussed our nations’ efforts to meet shared challenges, from China’s aggression to democracy in Burma and counterterrorism in Afghanistan. It was a good conversation with a great ally, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: LMcC_1.jpg, E1OTMghXIAcDhsW.jpg

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U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Tweet

Appreciated meeting today with Foreign Minister @MarisePayne of Australia. We discussed our nations’ efforts to meet shared challenges, from China’s aggression to democracy in Burma and counterterrorism in Afghanistan. It was a good conversation with a great ally.

https://twitter.com/LeaderMcConnell/status/1392618555317882886

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658108 (140843ZMAY21) Notable: Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet: Honoured to meet with @LeaderMcConnell in Washington DC to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing our nations including #IndoPacific cooperation and Myanmar., MISSING MEDIA/FILES: FMMP_18.jpg, E1RXsdyVcAYojP8.jpg

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>>125536

Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet

Honoured to meet with @LeaderMcConnell in Washington DC to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing our nations including #IndoPacific cooperation and Myanmar.

https://twitter.com/MarisePayne/status/1392834610665459717

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658120 (140847ZMAY21) Notable: Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet: (Australia and the United States) are the closest of friends & allies. @SecBlinken & I reaffirmed our commitment to a stable, secure & open #IndoPacific., MISSING MEDIA/FILES: FMMP_19.jpg, E1UzfKqVkAAtSb4.jpg, E1UzfKqVcAEvR7T.jpg, E1UzfLUVcAAI3Mz.jpg, E1UzfKrVUAE7pDg.jpg

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>>125538

Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet

(Australia and the United States) are the closest of friends & allies. @SecBlinken & I reaffirmed our commitment to a stable, secure & open #IndoPacific. Our nations’ shared values, interests & history underpin our relationship & enable cooperation including on #COVID recovery, technologies & supply chains.

https://twitter.com/MarisePayne/status/1393076283500761092

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658137 (140854ZMAY21) Notable: Marise Payne and Antony Blinken call for ‘real transparency’ from China on Covid origins, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_Minister_Marise_Payne_and_US_secretary_of_state_Antony_Blinken_have_called_for_greater_transparency_from_China_over_the_origins_of_SARSCov2.jpg

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>>125538

Marise Payne and Antony Blinken call for ‘real transparency’ from China on Covid origins

ADAM CREIGHTON - MAY 14, 2021

Foreign Minister Marise Payne and US secretary of state Antony Blinken have called for greater transparency from China over the origins of SARSCov2, amid growing interest in the idea the virus leaked accidentally from the Wuhan Virology Lab.

In Washington DC for a series of meetings with US political leaders, Ms Payne said Australia hadn’t changed its view, expressed in April 2020, that “that there should be an independent international objective review into covid19 origins and impact”.

Secretary Blinken said the US wasn’t satisfied with a WHO-led investigation, released in March, which concluded the virus more likely spread from bats to human than from an accidental leak.

“Yes we support an ongoing investigation to get to bottom of what happened with covid 19. This is so important because we need to understand what happened if we are going to have the best possible opportunity to prevent it happening again,” he said, speaking at a press conference with Ms Payne on Friday morning AEST.

His remarks came as prominent scientists called for a deeper investigation into the origin of COVID-19, including the possibility that a laboratory accident released the new coronavirus that caused the pandemic, in a letter published Thursday in the journal science,

“In the early days of the pandemic there was a failure on the part of the PRC to allow timely access to international expert … real transparency when it mattered most,” Mr Blinken said.

Earlier foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was visiting DC at a time of “great strategic uncertainty and global crisis”.

“Australia-US collaboration, along with co-operation among a broad collective of liberal democratic nations, are key to both Australia’s own sovereignty as well as global security,” the Minister told The Australian.

“This is the case whether the challenge is responding to COVID-19, countering malign foreign influence and disinformation or preventing cyber attacks,” she added.

The minister’s arrival comes amid heightened tension between the US and China and with Russia, and separately, follows the shutdown last week of a major US oil pipeline for days owing to a cyber attack.

Evan Medeiros, a US-China relations specialist at Georgetown University, said Australia’s relationship with the US was “entering a qualitatively new stage”.

“We are witnessing a further convergence of economics and security interests as the true scope and intensity of the China and Russia challenges present themselves,” he told The Australian.

“The good news is that it isn’t 1945 and we aren’t starting from scratch, but the US and Australia will need to broaden their coalition to achieve meaningful gains in a short time,” he added.

Senator Payne was the third foreign Minister, after Italy’s and Jordan’s, to visit Washington DC since President Joe Biden took office in January.

Richard Fontaine, the chief executive of Center for New American Security, said the minister’s visit signalled “both the strength of the US-Australia alliance and its relative importance given the new team’s focus on the Indo-Pacific”.

“The administration has been keen to show that it values allies and wants to work with them, that strong alliances make dealing with China easier, and that it stands with Australia as it endures Chinese economic coercion,” he added.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/era-of-great-strategic-uncertainty-and-global-crisis-says-marise-payne/news-story/e5622361565d738344f198100c4b85c8

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658141 (140855ZMAY21) Notable: Foreign Minister Marise Payne: US-Australia alliance should embolden others on China, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Australia_s_Foreign_Minister_Marise_Payne_at_a_press_briefing_with_US_Secretary_of_State_Antony_Blinken.jpg

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>>125538

Payne: US-Australia alliance should embolden others on China

Matthew Knott - May 14, 2021

Washington: Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the United States’ vocal support for Australia should embolden other countries to stand up to Beijing when the Chinese government threatens their national values and interests.

Payne held her first in-person meetings with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Friday (AEST) as well as meetings with other top Biden administration officials.

Payne said the Morrison government is pushing for a more thorough investigation into the origins of the coronavirus while maintaining its belief the virus probably emerged from wildlife rather than a Chinese laboratory leak.

At a joint press conference at the State Department, Blinken backed recent remarks by Indo-Pacific Co-ordinator Kurt Campbell that China’s economic coercion of Australia is a roadblock to a normalisation of relations between the rival superpowers.

“I reiterated that the United States will not leave Australia alone on the field - or should I say alone on the pitch - in the face of economic coercion by China,” Blinken said.

“That’s what allies do.”

Blinken said he had told Chinese officials explicitly that “actions targeting our closest partners and allies will hinder improvements in our own relationship with China”.

Payne said: “I hope that the support Australia has received from the United States gives confidence to others.

“It doesn’t matter where challenges to your sovereignty come from, all countries should know that there is a global community that can support one another in this most basic expectation of nationhood.

“As with the freedom of individuals, so with the sovereignty of states.”

Payne said Australia stands ready to resume dialogue with China “at any time”.

“But we have been open and clear and consistent about the fact that we are dealing with a number of challenges,” she said.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age after the meeting, Payne said other countries can “feel reluctant to engage” with China on issues such as the repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang province but she hopes this will change.

“The United States is giving strength to others that it is possible to speak out on these issues,” she said.

Both Payne and Blinken said they continue have concerns about the World Health Organisation’s report into the origins of the coronavirus, especially as global investigators were not given access to original data and lab samples in China.

But Payne said the Morrison government still believes the virus probably began in wildlife such as bat rather than leaking out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“We would still say the most likely hypothesis continues to suggest that the virus emerged from wildlife through an intermediate host,” Payne said.

The so-called lab leak hypothesis has been attracting increased attention in both Australia and the US in recent weeks.

Republican congressman Mike Gallagher introduced a bill this week that would require the US director of national intelligence to “declassify any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 2019”.

“Now we know certain facts too that stack up in favour of the lab leak hypothesis,” Gallagher said in an interview with Fox News.

Adding that he did not know for sure how the virus emerged, he added: “All I’m saying is lets get to the bottom of it. Is there any more important question in the world right now?”

During her visit Payne also met with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, climate envoy John Kerry and Samantha Power, the head of the US Agency for International Development.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/north-america/payne-us-australia-alliance-should-embolden-others-on-china-20210514-p57ruj.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658147 (140856ZMAY21) Notable: Video: Australia and the US demonstrate ‘democracy delivers’: Payne - Sky News Australia

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>>125538

Australia and the US demonstrate ‘democracy delivers’: Payne

Sky News Australia

14 May 2021

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia and the United States can demonstrate “democracy delivers” during a press conference following diplomatic discussions with her US counterpart Antony Blinken in Washington.

“Together with our partners, including through groups such as the Quad, Australia and the United States can demonstrate that democracy delivers,” she said.

“Transparency and accountability matter, indeed lives and livelihoods depend on it”.

Ms Payne said the pair had discussed relationships with China and noted the “clear expressions of support” from Washington were welcomed as Australia works through its differences with the communist power.

“Australia seeks a constructive relationship with China, we stand ready at any time, amongst all of my counterparts and colleagues, to resume dialogue,” she said.

“I hope that the support Australia has received from the United States gives confidence to others.

“It doesn’t matter where challenges to your sovereignty come from, all countries should know that there is a global community that can support one another in this most basic expectation of nationhood.

“As with the freedom of individuals, so with the sovereignty of states”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXC_6vEaP7A

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658148 (140858ZMAY21) Notable: Video: Marise Payne calls for an end to Gaza violence - Sky News Australia

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>>125538

Marise Payne calls for an end to Gaza violence

Sky News Australia

14 May 2021

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has called for an end to escalating violence between Israel and Gaza.

She met the US secretary of state in Washington DC this morning, starting a series of meetings to strengthen the alliance between Australia and the US.

The leaders conveyed their stance on the Israel-Gaza violence with Ms Payne supporting a stop to any actions which further tensions.

The secretary of state reiterated her comments, saying both the Israelis and Palestinians have a right to peace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lMeGxrPCks

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658222 (140932ZMAY21) Notable: Israeli defence company Elbit Systems to fight ADF axing of $2bn battle management system over ‘security’ fears, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Jim_Molan_says_Defence_cannot_afford_another_2bn_failure_.jpg

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>>125446

>>125499

Israeli company Elbit Systems to fight ADF snub on ‘security’ fears

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 14, 2021

Israel’s biggest publicly listed ­defence company, Elbit Systems, has warned the Australian government it is prepared to wage a sustained legal battle to restore its global reputation after the army recently axed its battle management system over undisclosed ­security concerns.

The company told Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s office it was blindsided by the decision, which it said was not based in fact, and it was left with no other ­option but to fight.

The Australian has learned one of the company’s top executives is quarantining in Melbourne after flying from Israel for talks with the government.

Defence’s surprise move to rip Elbit’s BMS from army vehicles and servers has thrown the service’s command and control processes back to the pre-digital age, after spending $2bn and 15 years developing the capability.

The decision is being likened in defence circles to the Seasprite debacle, in which the navy spent more than $1.3bn on 40-year-old helicopters, which were scrapped five years after they were ­accepted for service.

Senator Jim Molan will return to parliament next week — midway through cancer treatment — to demand answers from Defence officials on the growing scandal.

“Defence cannot afford ­another $2bn failure. It is my view that we cannot afford to start again on the BMS,” the retired major general and former head of operations in Iraq told The Australian. “It is my intention to raise this in Senate estimates under privilege, and in the ­Defence subcommittee.”

Defence sources said the Australian Signals Directorate warned of a possible “back door” in the Elbit system, but neither ASD nor Defence would confirm the allegation.

The Australian can reveal the company’s Australian managing director, Paul McLachlan, met Mr Dutton’s chief of staff Craig Maclachlan in Canberra this week, seeking answers for the ­abrupt decision.

A source familiar with the discussions said Mr McLachlan ­argued Elbit’s source code had been available to Defence for years, and was validated by the US government. He said the decision had caused friendly forces, including those in Britain and Germany, to reconsider the ­security of Elbit’s products.

Another source said the decision to axe the system was “so ham-fisted” the contract was only added to Defence’s “projects of concern” list after the orders were issued to get rid of the system.

It is understood the company, which is close to Israel’s government, will argue its treatment by Defence is inconsistent with the 2017 Australia-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on defence industry co-operation.

According to the Defence order issued last month: “The employment of the BMS-C2 ­system version 7.1 within army’s preparedness environment is to cease no later than May 15, 2021.”

It said memory sticks and software must “be withdrawn from issue to users and … quarantined by signals support staff”.

The decision has created a massive problem for Defence, leaving commanders facing the prospect of fighting a war using paper maps and pencils.

Defence sources said the army would go to the July exercise Talisman Sabre — the nation’s largest bilateral war games with the US — without the ability to digitally manage its forces.

Elbit Systems, which has a 250-strong Australian workforce, said it “strongly refuted the security ­rumours” surrounding its BMS. “Elbit Systems of Australia utilises secure software ­development processes in collaboration with the Department of Defence, including the provision of all source code,” the company said.

The army’s relationship with Elbit Systems Australia was already strained before the alleged security issue was identified, amid a series of cost blowouts and delays.

A 2019 Auditor-General’s report found the program was marred by poor acquisition processes and ineffective governance. The price was “severely unaffordable”, and was already two years late by 2015. A plan to track individual soldiers was abandoned because the system was considered too unwieldy.

Sources warned it could be years before the capability gap was overcome, given the long lead times in rolling out complex technologies within Defence.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/israeli-company-elbit-systems-to-fight-adf-snub-on-security-fears/news-story/6117dec92d0c7a8702d60901bc31b43c

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658239 (140937ZMAY21) Notable: NSW MP Gareth Ward stands aside amid police probe into alleged sexual violence - "It is appropriate I stand aside from my role as minister. I will also remove myself from the Liberal partyroom.”, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Minister_for_Families_Communities_and_Disability_Services_Gareth_Ward.jpg, The_latest_developments_involving_Gareth_Ward_come_at_a_sensitive_time_for_the_NSW_government.jpg

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NSW MP Gareth Ward stands aside amid police probe into alleged sexual violence

YONI BASHAN - MAY 14, 2021

Gladys Berejiklian has lost her second cabinet minister in three months after her families minister, Gareth Ward, moved to the crossbench over sexual assault allegations made against him.

Mr Ward’s move, little more than a week before a crucial by-election caused by the resignation of a Coalition MP accused of rape, pushes the NSW government deeper into minority and threatens its stability.

Mr Ward on Thursday afternoon confirmed that he was under investigation by the NSW Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad over “sexual violence related offences” dating back to 2013.

Mr Ward, who denies any wrongdoing, said he had learned of the allegations after inquiries from a journalist that day.

“I have not been contacted by police in relation to any allegations,” he said. “Until this matter is resolved, it is appropriate I stand aside from my role as minister. I will also remove myself from the Liberal partyroom.”

Mr Ward’s departure follows that of former sports minister John Sidoti, who moved to the crossbench in March as an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry was publicly launched into his family’s property affairs. He denies wrongdoing and that investigation remains ongoing.

The latest developments involving Mr Ward come at a sensitive time for the government, which faces a crucial by-election in the seat of Upper Hunter next Saturday, and the possibility of losing its majority in the lower house of parliament.

Upper Hunter was vacated in March by former Nationals MP Michael Johnsen after he, too, was forced onto the crossbench — and later out of politics — over allegations he raped a sex worker, and sent explicit messages while sitting in parliament. Mr Johnsen denies the rape allegations.

Police said the allegations against Mr Ward dated back to 2013 and involved a number of incidents — these are understood to extend up until 2015 and they are believed to have been raised with police in recent months.

As news of the investigation became public, the shockwave of the allegations rippled through the hallways of parliament.

A gathering of the government’s expenditure review committee was cancelled by Ms Berejiklian midway through discussions, with Police Minister David Elliott seen exiting the meeting in frustration and saying: “business has to go on”.

Others gathered outside the ministerial offices on level eight of the building, where at least one minister was seen exiting Mr Ward’s office in tears. Mr Ward issued a statement in co-ordination with one distributed by Ms Berejiklian’s office.

The Premier said she supported Mr Ward’s decision to step aside.

“I was made aware through media reports today that an MP is under investigation by police,” the Premier’s statement said.

“I have subsequently received advice from minister Gareth Ward of his decision to step aside as -minister and sit on the crossbench while there is speculation about his future.

“I support his decision.”

Attorney-General Mark Speakman will assume Mr Ward’s responsibilities.

Mr Ward, the minister families, community services and disability services, was elected to parliament in 2011 and successfully increased the margin in his seat of Kiama, on the NSW south coast, at the last state election in 2019.

Legally blind due to a genetic condition, he was promoted to the Coalition ministry that year and remains a prominent figure in the Liberal Party’s dominant moderate faction.

While regarded by colleagues as a shrewd and capable minister, one who has been invested in his portfolio, the MP has also courted controversy, most recently in March 2020 when he was found naked and disoriented by police officers outside his Sydney apartment.

Mr Ward later said he had been under a general anaesthetic for a medical procedure that day. No police action was taken.

The Berejiklian government has so far sailed through the COVID-19 pandemic on the popularity of its leader, but it remains vulnerable in parliament and reliant on the support of independent MPs to pass legislation.

As a coalition, the government holds 46 of 93 available seats in the lower house; a loss in the seat of Upper Hunter next Saturday would cement the Liberal-Nationals to a minority government.

It does not hold a majority of seats in the upper house.

Nationals officials are confident they will retain the seat, which is held on a 2.6 per cent margin, but preference flows from independent candidates, along with One Nation and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, could deliver a tight contest.

Some MPs said on Thursday that Mr Ward’s matter and its proximity to the ballot could also shape the outcome.

“It won’t help,” one said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/nsw-mp-under-investigation-over-sexual-assault/news-story/147d8de8d8e849071b5d945d9b92712a

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658639 (141152ZMAY21) Notable: Cardinal Pell leads Eucharistic procession at the Angelicum in Rome, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Cardinal_George_Pell_at_the_annual_Eucharistic_procession_at_the_Angelicum_in_Rome_May_13_2021.jpg, Cardinal_Pell_leads_Eucharistic_procession_in_Rome.jpg, Cardinal_Pell_leads_Eucharistic_procession_in_Rome_4.jpg, Cardinal_Pell_leads_Eucharistic_procession_in_Rome_5.jpg, Cardinal_Pell_leads_Eucharistic_procession_in_Rome_3.jpg

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Cardinal Pell leads Eucharistic procession in Rome

CNA Staff - May 13, 2021

Cardinal George Pell led a Eucharistic procession Thursday at the Angelicum in Rome.

The former Vatican finance czar led the annual procession on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, at the institution formally known as the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, located on Rome’s Quirinal Hill.

This was the first time that the cardinal had led the procession, which was canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to EWTN News, Pell said: “I’m very pleased to be here. I gather it’s a student initiative, led by students, a wonderful example of faith in practice.”

He continued: “I think it’s important after COVID to get back to a regular church routine of prayer and worship. I’m not sure in the long run that COVID will change too much, but it might have given another excuse for us to get a little bit slack, a little bit relaxed, in our approach to our prayer and worship, and we’ve got to battle against that.”

The event began with a reflection by the 79-year-old Australian cardinal at the Angelicum’s Church of Sts. Dominic and Sixtus, one of Rome’s titular churches assigned to cardinals.

The university church is the titular church of Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church.

The Angelicum is a Dominican institution that traces its history back to 1222, shortly after Pope Honorius III officially approved the Order of Preachers, founded by the Spanish priest Dominic de Guzmán.

The cardinal’s address was followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The monstrance was then carried beneath a golden processional canopy through the university grounds, followed by hundreds of people.

Cardinal Pell, the former prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, arrived in Rome on Sept. 30, 2020, on his first visit to the city since he left in 2017 for Australia to prove his innocence of abuse charges.

The cardinal was imprisoned in 2019 but ultimately acquitted in April 2020 after 404 days in prison.

He was unable to celebrate Mass in jail because he wasn’t allowed access to wine. He said that this deprivation heightened his appreciation for the Eucharist.

He said: “I had 13 months in jail. I was unable to celebrate Mass and attend Mass. I listened to many Protestant preachers, and I became even more aware of the centrality of the liturgical celebration. It’s a making present of Christ’s sacrifice. It’s an explicit act of adoration. It involves the whole of our persons. It needs faith to be practiced.”

“It’s the high point of Catholic life, and we have to learn that, get into it. Most of us do that as we grow up. It’s beautiful and enriching and absolutely central.”

The cardinal will turn 80 on June 8, losing his right to vote in a future conclave.

Ignatius Press released the second book in his three-volume prison journal on May 3. The book covers the rejection of his first appeal and his efforts to bring his case before the High Court of Australia, the country’s top court.

The cardinal told EWTN News: “What is interesting for a person of my age is to see the enthusiasm for silent prayer and adoration among so many young people, young adults, and I think it’s, one, a thirst for transcendence, but also a search for a little bit of quiet and peace because their lives are very, very distracted, very noisy.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247645/cardinal-pell-leads-eucharistic-procession-in-rome

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658651 (141157ZMAY21) Notable: ‘Entirely undemocratic’: Bernard Collaery to challenge court order requiring large parts of his trial to be held in secret, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Lawyer_Bernard_Collaery_and_Witness_K_allegedly_revealed_Australia_bugged_East_Timor_s_cabinet_during_tense_oil_and_gas_negotiations.jpg

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‘Entirely undemocratic’: Bernard Collaery to challenge secrecy orders

Anthony Galloway - May 14, 2021

Lawyers acting for Bernard Collaery will next week challenge a court order requiring large parts of his trial to be held in secret as the long-running case continues into his alleged efforts to expose a secret Australian operation to bug East Timor’s government.

The ACT Court of Appeal will hold a two-day hearing on Monday and Tuesday into an order made under national security laws to hold the trial largely behind closed doors.

Mr Collaery, the former lawyer for an ex-spy known as Witness K, is challenging an order made by the ACT Supreme Court last year to accept former attorney-general Christian Porter’s application to invoke the National Security Information Act, which governs how courts should handle sensitive information. The NSI Act requires the court to give “greatest weight” to the Attorney-General’s views about the national security implications of a case, which has resulted in large portions of the hearings being held in secret.

Mr Collaery, a barrister and former ACT attorney-general, is facing the prospect of jail for allegedly helping his client reveal information about Australia’s bugging operation of East Timor’s government during commercial negotiations to carve up the oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.

Witness K, a former intelligence officer for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, has indicated he will plead guilty to breaching secrecy laws by revealing Australia’s spying on East Timor, but Mr Collaery is continuing to fight the charges against him. The Witness K case is being held up by disagreements over whether he can access his affidavit that was used by East Timor in international proceedings in the Hague, which his lawyers argue need to be before the court for his sentencing.

Mr Collaery is charged with offences relating to the alleged disclosure of information to both the East Timor government and the Australian media.

After East Timor commenced legal proceedings in the International Court of Justice and Permanent Court of Arbitration, the two nations signed a revised energy treaty in 2018 dividing the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields.

Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Kieran Pender said there was no public interest in prosecuting Mr Collaery and Witness K.

“The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has the power to discontinue a prosecution at any time. They should exercise that power,” he said.

“The Attorney-General’s use of secrecy in this case is entirely undemocratic: it enables the government to concede in closed court that Australia spied on Timor-Leste while continuing to refuse to admit this publicly. The NSI Act should be reformed to better safeguard the principles of openness and transparency that are at the heart of our judicial system.”

Mr Pender said the cases of Mr Collaery and Witness K were part of a wider trend - alongside the prosecutions of tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle and defence whistleblower David McBride - which were part of a “dangerous chilling effect”.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Michaelia Cash said the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had applied the NSI Act to “protect national security information in the criminal proceeding”.

“As this matter is currently before the courts, it would not be appropriate to comment further,” the spokesman said.

“The NSI Act enables the court to make orders to protect national security information in criminal and civil proceedings. It provides a framework for the court to balance the public interests in protecting national security, maintaining the accused’s right to a fair trial, and the principle of open justice.”

The NSI Act is being probed by the national security legislation watchdog as part of its inquiry into the secret trial of another former spy, a man known as Witness J, who was convicted of mishandling classified information that potentially revealed the identities of agents recruited by Australian intelligence agencies. The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor last year launched an inquiry into a “unique set of circumstances” which led to Witness J being tried, sentenced and jailed in secret.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/entirely-undemocratic-bernard-collaery-to-challenge-secrecy-orders-20210514-p57rxi.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658777 (141223ZMAY21) Notable: Peter Dutton’s ‘shadow aggression’ talks with global allies - Defence Minister to visit United States and Japan, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Peter_Dutton_said_security_pacts_like_Five_Eyes_and_the_Quad_were_essential_in_maintaining_a_balance_for_what_he_said_were_widely_understood_challenges_and_threats_in_the_region.jpg, Petty_Officer_Aircrewman_Raymond_Solomon_gives_a_thumbs_up_to_the_crew_of_Royal_Malaysian_Navy_Ship_KD_Selangor_during_a_cooperative_activity_with_HMAS_Parramatta.jpg, HMAS_Parramatta_s_Commanding_Officer_Commander_Anita_Nemarich.jpg

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>>125534

Peter Dutton’s ‘shadow aggression’ talks with global allies

Charles Miranda - May 14, 2021

Regional “shadow aggression” will top the agenda as Defence Minister Peter Dutton plans to visit allies including the United States and Japan as their forces rehearse fighting together.

Mr Dutton told News Corp security pacts like Five Eyes and the Quad were essential in maintaining a balance for what he said were “widely understood” challenges and threats in the region.

The Federal Government’s Budget papers this week specifically highlighted the importance of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) of the US, Japan, Australia and India which this coming year was to be “an even more prominent pillar of our international agenda”.

The East Asia Summit and ASEAN was also seen as critical.

Mr Dutton said while COVID-19 had paused his plans for high level visits, meetings were being conducted online, and his troops were conducting essential military exercises with allies.

This week the Royal Australian Navy joined land, maritime and air elements from Japan, France and the United States for exercises off the south coast of Japan.

These he said were part of the “evolution” of the ADF, to have greater interoperability with allied forces and understand and be more responsive to “grey zone” conflict threats.

Defence has long stated defending our shores would involve interoperability in understanding, practice and equipment between allied forces.

“We’re still living in a COVID world but I’m very keen to get overseas to visit our friends and allies including the United States and Japan and many others but I think at the moment we are faced with reality of COVID and perhaps have to continue to engage over the internet,” Mr Dutton told News Corp.

But he added troops engagement with counterparts was constant and in shadow aggression Australia also stood up for “national values, sovereignty and for our closest friends and allies”.

“Helping to build capacity, there is still an enormous amount of respect between the respective defence forces in our near neighbours and Australia, many of them have trained together, many of them attended colleges together, many have fought alongside, we want those relationships to deepen as well and that’s the focus for now … that (ADF) evolution is already underway as you’d expect particularly with Our Five Eyes partners there are many joint operations we work on in our own national interest and in the interest of our Five Eyes partners so that work continues and there is well and truly an understanding of the threats in relation to cyber, so we need to continue to invest in that space.”

Mr Dutton said after six years on the National Security Committee, as then Home Affairs Minister now Defence, working alongside ADF chief General Angus Campbell and Navy chief Vice Admiral Michael Noonan had given him great confidence.

“I have been supportive for a long time in their work and their build up in capacity, their necessary wading into grey zone issues, cyber attacks and offensives and since I’ve moved into the portfolio all of that has become highlighted to me and there is a lot of challenge in the region and for the decades ahead.”

This week Anzac-class frigate HMAS Parramatta began training activity in bluewater combat, amphibious and aviation training elements.

Commander of the Joint Task Force, Rear Admiral Mark Hammond, said Exercise ARC21 provided Australia with an opportunity to test interoperability under a shared commitment to a safe and stable Indo-Pacific region.

HMAS Parramatta’s Commanding Officer Commander Anita Nemarich, said it would also further develop the capabilities of her ship and crew.

“By exercising with our partner navies we build trust and mutual respect which enhances our ability to work together,” she said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/defence-chiefs-to-meet-as-their-forces-rehearse-fighting-together/news-story/8f844c76974428f1846a1f92de17e8b1

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658933 (141249ZMAY21) Notable: Global Times editor Hu Xijin warns of missile attack on Australian soil, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Hu_Xijin_editor_in_chief_of_the_Global_Times_in_Beijing_on_June_21_2019.jpg, Marise_Payne_said_the_relationship_between_Australia_and_China_was_mutually_beneficial.jpg

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>>125509

>>125531

Global Times editor warns of missile attack on Australian soil

Australia’s comments about the potential risk of military conflict with China have sparked a shocking new threat.

Jade Gailberger - MAY 14, 2021

Beijing has fired a warning shot at Australia, saying it should prepare to fend off Chinese missiles as tensions flare between the two nations.

The threat follows Scott Morrison saying it would be “foolish” not to appreciate the potential risk of military conflict with China over Taiwan.

Hu Xijin, editor of Chinese mouthpiece the Global Times, took to Twitter on Friday to begin the shocking intimidation.

“Preparing for war? Then build an antimissile system!” he tweeted.

“I believe once Australian troops come to Taiwan Strait to combat against the People’s Liberation Army, there is a high probability that Chinese missiles will fly toward military bases and key relevant facilities on Australian soil in retaliation.”

In an interview on Wednesday night, the Prime Minister said many tensions existed in the region.

“That doesn’t mean something will happen,” Mr Morrison said.

“But any defence minister, any prime minister of Australia who does not, in consideration of these things, ensure Australians are prepared in these circumstances would not be doing their job.”

Labor has previously called on the government to tone down its language on China’s threats against Taiwan.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne joined US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday in Washington, where issues regarding the global power were discussed.

The US vowed to back Australia as tensions with China escalated, with Secretary Blinken saying the country would “not leave Australia alone on the field”.

“Or maybe I should say alone on the pitch, in the face of economic coercion by China,” he said in a joint press conference.

“That’s what allies do. We have each other’s backs so we can face threats and challenges from a position of collective strength.”

Senator Payne reiterated that Australia sought a constructive relationship with China, after it indefinitely suspended strategic economic dialogue between the two trading partners this week.

“We stand ready at any time, amongst all of my counterparts and colleagues, to resume dialogue,” Senator Payne said.

“But we won’t compromise on our national security or our sovereignty, and we’ll continue to act to protect that.”

https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/global-times-editor-warns-of-missile-attack-on-australian-soil/news-story/3aa7b87da0f1681d1bce9b99a8e4114e

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13658947 (141252ZMAY21) Notable: Hu Xijin Tweet: Is there any chance that China-US relations can be used as bargaining chip given how bad it’s already become? Your coercion against China is meaningless, but your coaxing may work with Australia, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: HX_3.jpg, E1SQEh2VIAA3hbD.jpg, HX_4.jpg, E1VlnO2VIAUSUIR.jpg

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>>125538

>>125553

Hu Xijin 胡锡进 Tweets

China state-affiliated media

Preparing for war? Then build an anti-missile system! I believe once Australian troops come to Taiwan Strait to combat against the PLA, there is a high probability that Chinese missiles will fly toward military bases and key relevant facilities on Australian soil in retaliation.

https://twitter.com/HuXijin_GT/status/1392896890220384261

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/scomo-says-preparing-for-war-with-china-is-doing-his-job/news-story/c33d6875eddcac2ed1213a77adc25a40

—

Is there any chance that China-US relations can be used as bargaining chip given how bad it’s already become? Your coercion against China is meaningless, but your coaxing may work with Australia.

https://twitter.com/HuXijin_GT/status/1393131665526984706

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-14/us-says-australia-wont-face-china-economic-coercion-alone/100137732

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13664626 (150134ZMAY21) Notable: Record $1.3bn boost for ASIO’s war on spies and hackers - Spy agency will move to an artificial intelligence war footing in a technology arms race, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Mike_Burgess_and_Karen_Andrews_at_an_ASIO_centre.jpg

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>>125522

>>>/qresearch/13642270

Record $1.3bn boost for ASIO’s war on spies and hackers

SIMON BENSON - MAY 15, 2021

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Australia’s domestic spy agency will move to an artificial intelligence war footing in a technology arms race against the nation’s adversaries as it moves to counter a spike in foreign intelligence services launching sophisticated attempts to steal Covid and vaccine research secrets.

It comes as the national security chief warned that the recent shutdown of one of the largest oil pipelines in the US due to a cyber attack could happen in Australia.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews and ASIO director- general Mike Burgess have revealed that an unprecedented $1.3bn boost to ASIO’s operations in Tuesday’s budget would involve sophisticated AI technology to boost Australia’s security and intelligence capabilities.

Ms Andrews said there had been a number of countries identified behind repeated and increasing attempts to infiltrate government, commercial and industrial sources but said it would be wrong to assume China was the focus of the funding increase aimed at countering threats.

This week saw the largest investment in ASIO’s operational capabilities in the agency’s 70-year history, as it moves to machine learning capabilities to counter and detect increasingly sophisticated and high-level terrorism and espionage threats.

“I know there will be people out there who will see this funding in terms of just the Chinese influence — that will be a mistake to interpret it as that,” Ms Andrews told The Weekend Australian.

“There are a number of nations out there. We take a very broad approach and as a government we want to be as proactive as we can in dealing with any of those threats. It would be wrong of us to be focusing on one particular nation when there are a number of threats.”

Mr Burgess said that AI would be a major component of the funding, the bulk of which would be rolled out over the next four years, but stressed that it was not designed to equip the agency for mass surveillance programs.

The Weekend Australian was granted the first access by media into one of ASIO’s highly sensitive surveillance operations centres in Canberra that tracks the movements of agents and targets across the country in real time.

“This is not an investment in mass surveillance. Everything we do in this organisation is proportionate and targeted,” Mr Burgess said. “That’s a fact of law. It’s a fact of practice.

“This is the single biggest investment ASIO has had in our seven decades of existence.

“The size and scale of that investment is commensurate with the threat that we and other agencies in Australia are dealing with. Threat to way of life, espionage and foreign interference … This continues to be at unacceptably high levels. We are having an effect. But given the complexity of the environment and the global situation we have to continue pressing into that.

“That’s why we have won this argument and justification for investment because it is the capability ASIO officers need to operate in a world where you have … rapid adoption of technology.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13665040 (150226ZMAY21) Notable: Police probe sealed envelopes, scraps of paper in Ben Roberts-Smith case, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Former_soldier_Ben_Roberts_Smith_has_denied_any_involvement_in_the_intimidation_plot.jpg

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>>125244

Police probe sealed envelopes, scraps of paper in Ben Roberts-Smith case

Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters - May 15, 2021

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A new police taskforce investigating former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has uncovered scraps of paper with the hand-written names and addresses of SAS soldiers, created as part of an alleged plot to threaten witnesses to a war crimes inquiry.

The discovery of the scraps of paper, along with witness testimony alleging that Mr Roberts-Smith was behind the 2018 plot to intimidate witnesses, is the biggest breakthrough yet for the recently launched Australian Federal Police taskforce as it investigates the former soldier for serious criminal offences.

If it was proven that Mr Roberts-Smith had sought to threaten any of his fellow Special Air Service Regiment soldiers to stop them testifying at the Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes, he could face up to five years in jail.

The former soldier has denied any involvement in the intimidation plot and is suing The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald over reports detailing his alleged involvement in war crimes, bullying and assaulting a woman.

In late April, AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney told a parliamentary estimates committee that the federal police had in late March launched a new “priority” investigation into Mr Roberts-Smith and that the witness intimidation allegations were being treated “seriously”.

Mr McCartney refused to provide the committee with further details and the AFP has declined to respond to inquiries, citing ongoing investigations. But multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation, who were not authorised to speak publicly, said the handwritten scraps of paper contained the names of two SAS soldiers who had served with Mr Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan.

Both SAS veterans hold adverse information about the decorated former soldier and both men were ordered to appear before the Brereton inquiry, a major probe into alleged war crimes run between 2016 and 2020 by the military Inspector-General and overseen by senior judge Paul Brereton.

Detectives working on the case have also recovered four envelopes containing threatening anonymous messages warning the two SAS soldiers to cover up damning alleged misconduct in Afghanistan.

Two of the envelopes were sent to one of the witnesses via a post office servicing the elite SAS headquarters in Perth. They were seized by the AFP in June 2018. The remaining envelopes were never sent. They were recovered by police in March 2020.

In 2018, the then chief of the defence force, Mark Binskin, described the sending of the anonymous letters as a disgraceful criminal act aimed at scaring witnesses from testifying before the Brereton inquiry. He said defence had called the AFP in to urgently investigate, although the original police inquiry stalled until the recent discovery of the handwritten notes.

That discovery triggered AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw to launch a new police taskforce. The AFP taskforce is operating in Brisbane and is the third investigating Mr Roberts-Smith.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13665457 (150330ZMAY21) Notable: Disturbing number of alleged child porn offenders busted in Far North Queensland since the inception the Cairns Joint Agency Child Exploitation Team (JACET), MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Cairns_JACET_arrest_a_Yorkeys_Knob_man_during_2020.jpg

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>>125558

Disturbing number of alleged child porn offenders busted in FNQ

Police have revealed how many alleged child pornography offenders have been charged in the Far North since the introduction of a specialised team of detectives targeting the disturbing “crime trend”.

Grace Mason - May 14, 2021

A SPECIALISED team of detectives operating in the Far North focusing on child pornography offenders could be expanded after new figures showed the had laid charges against almost two dozen people in less than a year.

The Cairns Joint Agency Child Exploitation Team launched in July last year, including officers from both the Australian Federal Police and the city’s Child Protection and Investigation Unit.

Police bosses revealed on Friday 23 alleged offenders – most from the Far North – have been charged with a total of 148 offences including the making, distribution and possession of child exploitation material.

Among those charged was 35-year-old Edge Hill bookkeeper Matthew Stephen Warren who is facing a total of 59 charges – some disturbingly linked to images and videos of babies being sexually assaulted.

Mr Warren was arrested in November last year and made an unsuccessful attempt for bail last week with the Cairns Magistrates Court hearing he planned to plead guilty to the offending and was in protective custody within the prison system.

He is not accused of any offending against children.

Far North police Det Acting Insp Kevin Goan said among the 23 charged there was one accused of actual contact offending against a child.

He said the formation of the Cairns JACET team had allowed better targeting of that type of offending in the region.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” he said.

“The collection of knowledge, the expertise and the technical know-how … has allowed us to get a much greater picture of the offending.

AFP Commander Hilda Sirec, who heads the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation and Child Protection, said the Cairns team had been “operating very effectively” and did not rule out expanding it.

The squad – which is the first outside a capital city – currently includes just three dedicated officers, supported by their respective CPIU and AFP branches.

“There are always conversations made about growing teams,” she said.

“But they don’t work in isolation, if they need resources (they are available).”

Police continued to urge Far North residents to report suspicious online behaviour and be aware of who children were engaging with online.

https://www.cairnspost.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/disturbing-number-of-alleged-child-porn-offenders-busted-in-fnq/news-story/7f608e1b34fe1fd4028104a64078318e

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13666298 (150617ZMAY21) Notable: Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth warns: Australia must reopen borders, prepare for the return of COVID-19, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Former_deputy_chief_medical_officer_Nick_Coatsworth_says_Australia_needs_to_prepare_for_reopening_international_borders_and_the_reintroduction_of_COVID_19_in_the_community.jpg

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Former deputy chief doc warns: Australia must reopen borders, prepare for the return of COVID-19

Kate Aubusson and Rachel Clun - May 15, 2021

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Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer has challenged doctors to smash the “false idol” of COVID-19 eradication and prepare the public for the next critical phase of the pandemic: open international borders and the return of the virus in the community.

In a speech at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeon’s annual scientific meeting, Dr Nick Coatsworth admonished a “hardcore rump of activist doctors” spreading misinformation and undermining vaccine confidence. He condemned a “rotten, but vocal, few” doctors who used social media to abuse their colleagues, administrators and politicians.

His warning came as almost half of the 150 Australians booked on the first repatriation flight from India on Friday were barred from boarding after 42 tested positive for COVID-19, forcing them and their close contacts to remain in the COVID-ravaged nation.

“We once again have a responsibility as a profession to calmly reassure the community that vaccines must be taken up when they are offered, that waiting is not a valid option either individually or for the public health, and that ultimately when we allow COVID-19 back on our shores and it circulates in our community, that we are prepared and comfortable for that to happen,” said the infectious disease physician – one of the Commonwealth government’s most prominent public health spokespeople throughout 2020.

“I know that will make some, maybe most, in this room and online today uncomfortable.”

On Friday, health security experts warned large numbers of Australians wanting to board repatriation flights will test positive for COVID-19 and the federal government had a duty to implement strategies to bring them home regardless.

One passenger with a ticket booked on the first flight from India to Australia since the travel ban, who spoke anonymously for fear of losing his spot, said not all passengers had been told their final test results.

“We heard that news [that 40 passengers had tested positive] and now we’re very scared,” the passenger said from his hotel room in Delhi.

“It’s nerve-racking because I’m pretty sure I don’t have it, but I’m still stressing about it.”

Pandemic planning and global health security expert Associate Professor Adam Kamradt-Scott said both the federal and state governments had a moral responsibility to let all stranded citizens return.

“We should be bringing them home, full stop,” he said. “The risk is that they will succumb to the illness and die.”

The government halted all direct and repatriation flights from India at the end of April in response to a third wave of coronavirus that overwhelmed the country’s health systems.

Dr Coatsworth, in his speech on Thursday morning, said Australians had to come to terms with the fact that Australia cannot ride out the COVID-19 pandemic “in an eliminationist bunker”.

“It is clear we will not have our borders closed indefinitely. We will not have quarantine stations in perpetuity whilst we aim for the false idol of eradication,” said Dr Coatsworth, speaking in a personal capacity.

“At a point in the future when a significant majority of our community is vaccinated, there will be pressure to open our borders. We must not resist that. In fact, when the time is right, we should be leading the calls for it.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13671798 (160003ZMAY21) Notable: Opinion: Defence spending needs to match the risk of conflict now - Peter Jennings, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_opportunity_to_strengthen_a_shared_US_and_Australian_deterrent_posture_in_the_Indo_Pacific_needs_to_be_urgently_reconsidered.png, Defence_Minister_Peter_Dutton_during_Question_Time.jpg

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>>125522

>>125533

Defence spending needs to match the risk of conflict now

If Beijing wanted to slow down the growth of Australian-US defence co-operation in the Top End, surely a very clever way to do it would be to take control of the area’s most viable port …

PETER JENNINGS - May 15, 2021

In an expansionary budget, one area that felt a bit underdone was Defence. Here, the government delivered what it promised 12 months ago: $44.6bn, an increase over last year’s budget of 4.1 per cent in real terms.

At any time in the last 25 years a Defence budget growing at that level would have been welcome. But now Australia and the wider region faces the direst strategic outlook perhaps since the end of World War II.

It’s clear that Scott Morrison and his ministers understand that the region is facing a crisis brought on by an increasingly bellicose Chinese Communist Party. Taiwan is the immediate flashpoint, with the level of risk peaking in perhaps four to five years’ time. In that period, according to the US Defence Department, the People’s Liberation Army will gain a strong military edge over the Straits of Taiwan in air power, missiles and ships.

Would Xi Jinping risk his own future, as well as that of the Chinese Communist Party, to stage an attack on Taiwan? Xi has learned to turn risky situations to his advantage. In the illegal annexation of the South China Sea, in cyber spying and intellectual property theft, the imposition of Communist authority in Hong Kong and in the economic coercion of Australia, Xi took significant risks to strengthen his rule and largely got away with them.

Xi will apply the same strategy to Taiwan, using all means short of war and indeed some measures that cross that offensive line right up to the limits of US tolerance.

I’ll come to what this might mean for Australia and for the defence budget soon, but first consider a remarkable phenomenon, which is the ability of so many in Australia to deny what is obvious about Beijing’s intentions.

Writing in the Australian Financial Review last week, Gareth Evans judged that “no Chinese political or military preparations suggest an invasion is remotely imminent”. That is an astonishing misjudgment. On April 24, Xi presided over a ceremony commissioning three major warships for China’s Southern Fleet.

The Communist Party newspaper the Global Times declared: “These vessels will play important roles in solving questions in places like the island of Taiwan and the South China Sea.” Hardly a day goes by without PLA aircraft, often in large numbers, encroaching Taiwanese airspace. Communist Party rhetoric about taking Taiwan by force if necessary is increasingly being used in speeches and editorials.

Xi will hope that this show of strength will deter the US and the allies from stepping in and that his aims can be realised short of war, but we all need to understand that the risk of conflict is sharply growing.

In Washington on Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Marise Payne held talks and gave a press conference, underlining the closeness of the alliance relationship.

The Secretary of State stressed the Biden administration’s interest in “reaffirming and revitalising America’s alliances and partnerships” and, in the 70th year of the ANZUS Treaty, finding ways for the alliance “to evolve to meet the challenges we face”.

Blinken said: “The United States will not leave Australia alone on the field, or maybe I should say alone on the pitch, in the face of economic coercion by China. That’s what allies do. We have each other’s backs.”

Understand that the US has every expectation that the requirement for support runs in both directions. Washington wants Australia to do more, and is telling us that the alliance needs to be revitalised, and that challenges will be faced together.

This will include working out how to jointly respond to Chinese Communist Party belligerence over Taiwan, which wasn’t mentioned once in the Blinken/Payne press conference. Sometimes you can judge the significance of an issue by the way it isn’t mentioned publicly.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13674100 (160603ZMAY21) Notable: Video: Three Reasons Why Australia Dares To Stand Up To The CCP - Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng

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>>125509

>>125554

Three Reasons Why Australia Dares To Stand Up To The CCP

Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言

16 May 2021

Have you ever wondered why #Australia, as a relatively smaller country, out of so many countries in the #West, has the guts to stand up against the #CCP?

Three reasons exclusively by me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6pNmjh37pc

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13682361 (170731ZMAY21) Notable: Former St Joseph’s College student sexually abused by paedophile teacher John Coogan launches new legal action against the Christian Brothers, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: St_Joseph_s_College_Newtown.jpg

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Former St Joseph’s College student sexually abused by teacher launches new legal action

A Geelong man who was sexually abused by a paedophile teacher at St Joseph's College in the 1970s has launched new legal action against the Christian Brothers.

Harrison Tippet - May 17, 2021

A GEELONG man who was sexually abused by a paedophile teacher at St Joseph's College in the 1970s has launched new legal action against the Christian Brothers.

Almost 50 years after he was abused by John Coogan as a teenager, the man will argue the redress he received in the 1990s was inadequate and he should get “decent compensation” for his suffering.

His law firm Slater and Gordon says recent legal changes made it possible for victims to get a second settlement from the Church.

Coogan, now dead, spent a number of years in jail in the 1990s for abusing children while a PE teacher and sports coach at St Joseph’s College.

Slater and Gordon’s client was plied with treats, including beer, by the teacher at school, and offered private athletics training on the beach at Ocean Grove, near where Coogan lived.

Coogan repeatedly abused him at that house.

“It went on for several months. He told me not to tell anyone. The abuse affected me profoundly,” the victim said.

“(It) was effectively like being kidnapped.”

Slater and Gordon’s Jane McCullough said the Catholic Church’s so-called ‘Melbourne Response’ locked sex abuse victims into confidential, inadequate, one-off settlements with the Church.

But legislative changes prompted by a Royal Commission meant settlements could now be set aside.

She said community sports still needed to improve the way they vetted helpers.

“We are investigating sexual abuse claims within amateur sporting clubs around Australia following children being subjected to sexual abuse and predatory behaviour by coaches, paid staff, volunteers and parents,” Ms McCullough said.

“Stronger regulation is still needed to prevent the wrong people having access to children.

“It’s a sad fact that children can be at risk of abuse by simply participating in physical activities within their local sporting club. We have seen it across multiple codes — from junior cricket, to surf lifesaving, soccer and football.

Her client said Coogan’s abuse destroyed his promising athletics career and his interest in academic work, and still haunts him today.

“Having to continue at the school where my abuser was still teaching was very difficult, creepy in fact,” he said.

“Things got pretty mediocre for me at school after that. My grades really suffered. I wanted to leave school as soon as possible.

“It’s been more than 40 years of baggage I’ve carried. I never married or had kids. My friends from school days who were not abused have led very different lives.

“It’s affected my ability to work properly and keep any sort of job.

“As a result of what happened, I’ve abused alcohol over the years and have been diagnosed with anxiety, OCD and a personality disorder.”

He said parents at the school in his day expressed concerns about paedophiles but no action was taken.

“My mother notified the school with concerns about his relationship with me … a staff member warned Mum to keep an eye on his dealings with me,” he said.

“My message to young people being abused or taken advantage of is simply to tell someone. “It might be a medical professional, a school counsellor, or a psychologist.”

“Tell someone you trust, who you feel might be able to help you. Don’t bottle it up.”

https://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/former-st-josephs-college-student-sexually-abused-by-teacher-launches-new-legal-action/news-story/b5c3f8b17dfe80221148e1aff9d6329f

Members of the public who have any information about people involved in child abuse and exploitation are urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

https://crimestoppers.com.au

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

https://www.1800respect.org.au

https://www.lifeline.org.au

https://www.beyondblue.org.au

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13682432 (170752ZMAY21) Notable: Video: US, Australia call for transparency on COVID-19 origins - Sky News Australia

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>>125538

>>125542

US, Australia call for transparency on COVID-19 origins

Sky News Australia

17 May 2021

Former Pentagon adviser Jason Israel says a major thing that came from the US-Australia diplomatic talks was further demands for an independent inquiry into COVID-19 origins.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington DC where the two held a joint press conference.

“Australia did say the most likely origin was due to an animal being a part of the chain rather than being part of a failed experiment in Wuhan,” Mr Israel told Sky News.

“But (Australia is) still demanding that China provides evidence to the world and actual lab testing data that backs it up.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34iyiS3NwCw

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13682438 (170755ZMAY21) Notable: Video: Mike Pompeo warns of more Chinese laboratory 'coverups' - Sky News Australia

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>>125501

Mike Pompeo warns of more Chinese laboratory 'coverups'

Sky News Australia

17 May 2021

Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo says China’s efforts to coverup the origins of COVID-19 is “staggering” and the risk of the pandemic happening again is “very real”.

“That evidence continues to accumulate despite of the fact that the Chinese Communist Party will not permit anyone to get any access to the laboratory, to the original materials, to the doctors that were working there.” he told Fox News.

“The list of the coverup efforts is staggering”.

Mr Pompeo has remained adamant the deadly virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"The combination of the circumstantial evidence that we have combined with the intense effort to deny us information about that lab suggests to be strongly that this where it originated,” he said.

“The risk of something like this happens again from that laboratory or another Chinese laboratory is very real".

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo also asked Mike Pompeo his thoughts on Sky News journalist Sharri Markson’s recent investigation into China developing coronavirus as a bioweapon.

“There is increasing evidence that the Chinese Communist Party acted at least with reckless negligence and perhaps even worse."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_VbacxbgyI

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13682462 (170810ZMAY21) Notable: Fourteen children rescued in the Philippines following Australian Federal Police child sexual abuse investigations, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Philippines_rescue_1.jpg, Philippines_rescue_2.jpg

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Fourteen children rescued in the Philippines following Australian child sexual abuse investigations

17 May 2021

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Fourteen children, aged between two and 17, have been rescued from alleged child sexual abuse in the Philippines following investigations by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

The children, six girls and eight boys, were removed from harm on 7 May after the AFP International Command Philippines provided intelligence to the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Centre (PICACC) and engaged Philippine National Police.

The information also led the Philippine National Police Luzon Field Unit (LFU), with support from PICACC, to arrest three women and a man in Bombom, Camarines Sur, for their alleged roles as facilitators of online child sexual abuse.

Investigators from the Victorian Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET), comprising AFP and Victoria Police, referred information to the AFP International Command in the Philippines after charging a then 68-year-old man from regional Victoria in March with possession of child abuse material, who then engaged Philippines Authorities.

The maximum penalty for the offence is 15 years' imprisonment.

The linked investigations across two countries highlight the enhanced cooperation between the AFP and its partner agencies in Australia and globally to fight online sexual exploitation.

A computer seized from the man contained child abuse material and records of online chat conversations allegedly facilitating 'pay-per-view' child abuse content in the Philippines, police have alleged in court in Victoria.

Among the evidence seized by Philippines authorities last week were digital devices containing several child sexual exploitation materials; a sex toy; and several money transfer receipts showing foreigners as senders.

The child victims have been placed in the care of a local social welfare office.

AFP Commander Todd Hunter, Commander Investigations Southern Command, said the AFP’s expertise stands ready to protect children, regardless of where they may be located.

“Our investigators are dedicated to protecting children in Australia from abuse and work with law enforcement across the world to do the same,” Commander Hunter said.

“Our message to offenders accessing or exchanging child abuse material online is that we will never stop trying to identify anyone involved in bringing harm to children and bringing them before the court.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13682473 (170819ZMAY21) Notable: Former Big Bash League and state cricketer Aaron Summers in court on child abuse charges, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Aaron_Summers_right_bowling_for_the_Hobart_Hurricanes_in_2017.jpg

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Former BBL cricketer in court on child abuse charges

Daniel Cherny - May 17, 2021

A former Big Bash League and state cricketer fronted court in Darwin on Monday, charged with possessing child abuse material and grooming a minor after his alleged behaviour was brought to the attention of cricket authorities.

Aaron Summers, 25, appeared in front of the Darwin Local Court, with police alleging that his mobile phone contained child abuse videos.

Summers played one game for the Hobart Hurricanes in late 2017 as well as three one-dayers with Tasmania, for whom he made his debut in 2018.

Summers, a fast bowler originally from Perth, had been due to play in this winter’s NT Cricket 365 tournament, an event run by Cricket Australia and featuring a host of current and former state and BBL players.

CA issued a statement to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday.

“A matter was brought to the attention of NT Cricket and was immediately actioned in accordance with our member protection policy. In line with the policy the matter was referred to the relevant authorities and is now being handled by police,” the statement read.

No longer tied to an Australian state or BBL club, Summers earlier this year became the first Australian player to appear in Pakistani domestic cricket, playing for Southern Punjab in the Pakistan Cup. He said at the time that he had hoped the experience would help his path back into state and BBL ranks.

NT Police issued a statement in relation to the matter.

“Detectives from the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET) arrested a 25-year-old man in Fannie Bay on Friday afternoon for child abuse material.

“Police executed a section 3E Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) search warrant on the man and seized a mobile phone.

“Police will allege that the man’s mobile device contained a number of videos containing child abuse material. There was also evidence that the man had been in contact with up to 10 children to attempt to procure further illicit photographs.

“On 14 May 2021, Northern Territory and Australian Federal Police executed a further section 3E Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) search warrant on the man’s premises in the Darwin CBD. Police found a mobile device containing child abuse material

“The man has been charged with the following Commonwealth offences:

• Two counts of possess or control child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service, contrary to section 474.22 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth)

• One count of use carriage service to groom a person under 16 years, contrary to section 474.27 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth)

“He has been remanded in custody to appear in Darwin Local Court on Monday, 17 May 2021.”

In the statement detective acting senior sergeant Paul Lawson said: “The behaviour is despicable. Young people should be able to enjoy their childhood without the fear of predators approaching them for their own appalling intentions. The Northern Territory JACET will continue to work with national and international partners to keep the most vulnerable in our community safe.”

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/cricket/former-bbl-cricketer-in-court-on-child-abuse-charges-20210517-p57smo.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13682563 (170912ZMAY21) Notable: Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka calls for open borders, even if ‘some people may die’, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Jayne_Hrdlicka_chief_executive_of_Virgin_Australia_seen_in_a_file_image.jpg

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>>125561

Virgin CEO calls for open borders, even if ‘some people may die’

Stuart Layt - May 17, 2021

Virgin Australia’s chief executive has called for the country’s borders to be reopened before the stated goal of mid-2022, saying it made long-term sense even if “some people may die”.

Speaking at a business lunch in Brisbane on Monday, Jayne Hrdlicka said she did not agree with the current stated reopening date of “mid-2022” put forward by the federal government in last week’s federal budget.

Ms Hrdlicka said she believed, with a viable vaccine in place for a large enough portion of Australia’s population, the country needed to reopen its borders or risk being left behind by the rest of the world.

The airline boss said as long as vaccination levels were high enough, and vulnerable people were protected, the country should take the risk of fully opening again sooner than June 2022.

“COVID will be part of the community, we will become sick with COVID and it won’t put us in hospital, and it won’t put people into dire straits because we’ll have a vaccine,” Ms Hrdlicka said.

“Some people may die, but it will be way smaller than with the flu.

“We’re forgetting the fact that we’ve learnt how to live with lots of viruses and challenges over the years and we’ve got to learn how to live with this.”

It is estimated more than 3.3 million people have died worldwide from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. In the US, 584,495 people died of COVID-19 between January 2020 and last Friday, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

Globally, anywhere from 290,000 to 650,000 people die of flu-related causes every year.

In countries with vaccination programs further along than Australia’s, there have been good indications that the vaccines have greatly reduced death tolls, Britain this month recording zero deaths from COVID for the first time since July last year.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison recommitted to the reopening target of mid-2022 on Monday, saying Australians understood a “cautious approach” was needed to any border reopening.

“I welcome the fact that I think Australians by and large share the view that Australia has done incredibly well throughout the course of the pandemic,” he said.

“We have been able to not only save lives but save livelihoods as well, and Australians want to see that continue.”

The latest Newspoll showed 73 per cent of respondents supported the current border approach and believed they should remain closed until the middle of next year.

Ms Hrdlicka’s comments come as Virgin works to put itself back together after the pandemic delivered several blows to the business, which led to it entering receivership temporarily last year.

The company was bailed out by American firm Bain Capital with a focus on domestic travel.

The airline retired its fleet of Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 jets in favour of smaller aircraft more suited to interstate and short-jump travel within the Australasian region.

The company previously maintained that it believed short trips to Fiji and other tourist centres by the end of this year was a “realistic” goal.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/virgin-ceo-calls-for-open-borders-even-if-some-people-may-die-20210517-p57sn2.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13682626 (170937ZMAY21) Notable: ‘Not a good look’: Malcolm Turnbull questions Scott Morrison’s red carpet welcome at RAAF Williamtown Base, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_full_photo_posted_online.jpg, RP_1.jpg

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‘Not a good look’: Turnbull questions Morrison’s red carpet RAAF welcome

Josh Butler - May 17, 2021

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he hopes a red carpet welcome for his successor Scott Morrison at a Newcastle air force base “won’t be repeated”, after an Instagram snap of the guard of honour went viral online.

The Department of Defence claimed the official welcome – including numerous Air Force members standing at attention, brandishing Australian flags was “standard protocol”, but Mr Turnbull and fellow former PM Kevin Rudd said they never received such a welcome.

The unusual controversy was set off on May 7, when Mr Morrison visited RAAF Williamtown, north of Newcastle in the NSW Hunter region.

He was in town to announce $66 million to upgrade the Newcastle Airport runway, to allow larger aircraft to land, which Mr Morrison said would “leverage our significant defence investments at RAAF Base Williamtown”.

He flew on his private RAAF jet to Williamtown. A photo of Mr Morrison walking off the plane was posted to his Instagram, showing the PM – wearing a suit, blue tie and face mask – walking along a red carpet, as up to 10 men and women in RAAF uniforms stood to attention.

One was holding an Australian flag, another the Royal Australian Air Force Ensign.

The photo – with the caption “always good to be back in the Hunter” – was posted to Mr Morrison’s Instagram Story, a popular feature where photos automatically expire after 24 hours. It was not shared on the PM’s other social media channels, but was soon shared across Twitter by Australians curious about the ceremonial welcome.

Labor MP Brian Mitchell tweeted on May 9 that it was “right up there with knights and dames”, referring to an unpopular decision from former PM Tony Abbott to revive that system of honours.

The New Daily has been told by a senior government source that Mr Morrison’s office did not specifically request the red carpet welcome.

The ABC published an article on Monday, with claims from Mr Turnbull and Mr Rudd that they did not recall ever receiving such a welcome when visiting army facilities. Mr Rudd was PM between 2007 and 2010, then again briefly in 2013, while Mr Turnbull held the top job from 2015-18.

Mr Rudd’s office told The New Daily he did not believe such a welcome was standard protocol. Mr Turnbull echoed similar remarks.

“I don’t recall ever being received by a ceremonial guard like that with flags,” he told TND.

“It wasn’t a good look.”

Mr Turnbull claimed the ceremony was “more Ruritanian than Australian”, a reference to the mythical kingdom of Ruritania, a fictional nation which is imagined as the setting of fairy tales.

“We play down the pomp and ceremony as a rule. So I hope it won’t be repeated,” Mr Turnbull said.

Labor’s shadow defence minister, Brendan O’Connor, was also critical.

“There is a time and a place for formal protocol, but we don’t expect our leaders to indulge in confected pageantry at the taxpayers’ expense,” he told TND.

The New Daily contacted the Department of Defence on multiple occasions since May 9, asking questions about the welcome for Mr Morrison. The department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

While not responding to specific questions, a Defence spokesperson instead directed TND to a press release on its website from Mr Morrison and defence minister Peter Dutton, on the Newcastle airport upgrade.

The ABC quoted a Defence spokeswoman as saying the welcome – known as a ‘Ceremonial Stairway Guard’ – was “standard protocol for the arrival of VIPs” including prime ministers.

However, the ABC reported it could not find photographic examples of similar welcomes for other ministers, only the PM.

Neil James, the executive director of the Australia Defence Association, told the ABC that “generally speaking, a visit by a minister, including the prime minister, is not a VIP visit.”

On Monday, South Australian senator Rex Patrick tweeted it was “not the Aussie way”.

Labor MP Andrew Leigh tweeted “less of this” with a photo of the red carpet arrival.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/05/17/scott-morrison-red-carpet-raaf-welcome/

https://twitter.com/Senator_Patrick/status/1394075242914455553

—

Why did Scott Morrison get red-carpet treatment on airbase visit when previous prime ministers didn't?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-17/scott-morrison-red-carpet-raaf-williamtown-visit-fact-check/100139660

>Optics are important.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13690912 (180653ZMAY21) Notable: Scott Morrison reacts strongly to Virgin Australia CEO comments - ‘won’t take risks with lives’ when reopening international borders, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_disagreed_with_comments_made_by_the_Virgin_Australia_chief.jpg, Gladys_Berejiklian_says_community_safety_always_comes_first.jpg

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>>125570

Scott Morrison ‘won’t take risks with lives’ when reopening international borders

Scott Morrison has reacted strongly to comments made by the boss of Virgin Australia that ‘some people may die’ when borders reopen.

Evin Priest - MAY 18, 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slammed Virgin Australia chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka for saying Australia’s borders needed to reopen even though “some people may die”.

The Virgin Australia boss said if vaccination levels were high enough and vulnerable people were protected, the federal government should take the risk of opening its international borders sooner than June 2022.

The government’s gloomy revision for international travel was projected in last week’s federal budget after Australians put hopes on an initial target to reopen in October this year.

On Monday, Ms Hrdlicka said: “COVID will be part of the community, we will become sick with COVID and it won’t put us in hospital, and it won’t put people into dire straits because we’ll have a vaccine. Some people may die, but it will be way smaller than with the flu. We’re forgetting the fact that we’ve learnt how to live with lots of viruses and challenges over the years, and we’ve got to learn how to live with this.”

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister labelled the Virgin boss‘s comments as “insensitive”.

“Nine-hundred-and-ten Australians have lost their lives,” Mr Morrison said on Tuesday. “Every single one of those lives was a terrible tragedy, and it doesn‘t matter how old they were.

“They were someone‘s mum, someone’s dad, someone’s aunty, someone’s cousin, brother, sister, friend.

“So, no. I find it very difficult to have any part of what was said there.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also distanced herself from Ms Hrdlicka’s comments.

“Look, I don't know whether those comments were taken out of context or not,” she said.

“I think we need to be very sympathetic and mindful to the fact community safety always comes first.

“But in NSW we've demonstrated you can keep the community safe but also push ahead with economic openness, and it’s that right balance that has kept NSW where it is.

“We intend to keep that right balance.”

There have been growing calls for the federal government to reopen borders and accept a certain level of COVID-19 in the community once the vaccine has been rolled out.

But Mr Morrison was defiant in responding, “I‘m not going to take risks with Australians’ lives.”

Ms Berejiklian said she did not have a threshold of COVID-19 hospitalisations that was acceptable.

“Please, no death is acceptable, please don’t put words in my mouth,” she told a reporter.

“I’ve never said that and I never would. We have worked hard in NSW to protect life to keep communities safe and that’s what we’ll do.

“(But) there’s no doubt the vaccine program is key to our freedom.”

However, Ms Berejiklian did suggest June 2022 was too long to wait to reopen borders.

“We can’t have these conversations until we vaccinate the majority of the population,” she said.

“We need to get cracking and do the work … but I’m very keen to bring timetables forward.

“I don’t want us to be closed off from the world longer than we need to.”

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/scott-morrison-wont-take-risks-with-lives-when-reopening-international-borders/news-story/e43be24afee7c4014695abbe325162ea

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13692528 (181443ZMAY21) Notable: Carolyn2813928 Tweet - Giant pipes coming out from the ground marked with Masonic symbols - 1829 New World Infrastructure Commission - Australis Project West - Bunbury, WA, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: 4247B8F8_9656_4B95_A742_A348F777B7D1.jpeg, 1ADF7BE4_8506_415A_8DE5_2EB4AAAB31A0.jpeg, 979187B7_9B5B_4A70_B055_79F92D559623.jpeg, AC8D68EA_F80C_4137_B897_C0A2605CDB5D.jpeg, 54C54308_590C_4CC2_92F0_3B61F8D2E15A.png

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https://twitter.com/carolyn2813928/status/1394329758540959749

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13700263 (190936ZMAY21) Notable: Talk of China war ‘a political strategy’, says Penny Wong, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Labor_foreign_affairs_spokeswoman_Penny_Wong.jpg

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>>125398

>>125405

Talk of China war ‘a political strategy’, says Penny Wong

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 19, 2021

Penny Wong has accused Scott Morrison of failing to understand the Australia-China relationship and “deliberately encouraging anxiety about conflict” with the Asian superpower to secure domestic political advantage.

In a prepared speech to launch a new book on China on Wednesday by journalist Peter Hartcher, she argues Australia is “sprinting ahead” of the US policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan.

Senator Wong will say Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s recent warning that war with China over Taiwan could not be discounted and Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo’s claim that “the drums of war” were beating are part of a wider government strategy.

“It would take childlike naivety to think these interventions were a coincidence, or to think the Morrison government isn’t deliberately encouraging anxiety about conflict,” she will say. “But it would represent a monumental and catastrophic failure of leadership to see that anxiety realised.

“My concern is that not only does (the Prime Minister) not fully comprehend Australia’s interests in relation to China, he doesn’t even seek to.”

Amid growing concern in the business community over the Australia-China relationship, Senator Wong will accuse Mr Morrison of putting “political opportunism” ahead of Australia’s national interests. “Australians don’t want their leaders to bow to coercion, but neither do they expect their leaders to recklessly beat the drums of war.”

She will criticise Mr Morrison’s error in describing Australia’s position on Taiwan as “One Country, Two Systems” — a reference to China’s governance of Hong Kong — and note his pledge ahead of the Wentworth by-election to shift Australia’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

She will also reference his 2019 “negative globalism” attack on multilateral institutions, and his decision not to call out Donald Trump over the Capitol riots.

“Foreign policy should not be the prosecution of domestic politics by other means because as I’ve said, in diplomacy, words matter,” Senator Wong will say.

Her criticism comes as a new China Matters think tank paper says key laws targeting Chinese interference in Australian institutions “have had demonstrable negative impacts on Australia-PRC relations”.

The paper says the Espionage and Foreign Interference Act (2018), the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act (2018), and the Foreign Relations Act (2020) that allowed the government to axe Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative agreements target connections with foreigners rather than improper conduct.

“These three laws are flawed,” the paper says.

“They are too widely cast, subjecting large new areas of activity to national security scrutiny, and poorly focused, scrutinising links and connections rather than improper conduct.”

The government has stepped up warnings in recent months over the prospect of a conflict with China, after last year’s Defence Strategic Update identified US-China tensions as the nation’s biggest strategic threat.

Mr Morrison recently said Australia wanted a peaceful relationship with China where trade between the two countries could again flourish.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/talk-of-china-war-a-political-strategy-says-penny-wong/news-story/9227ae310701cee67c91ba341f93084f

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13700295 (190953ZMAY21) Notable: Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 18, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_ministry_spokesperson_Zhao_Lijian_is_making_remarks_at_a_press_briefing_on_April_7.jpg, Foreign_Ministry_Spokesperson_Zhao_Lijian_s_Regular_Press_Conference_on_May_18_2021.jpg

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Australia urged to abandon ideological prejudice against China: Foreign Ministry

Global Times - May 18, 2021

The Australian government needs to listen to rational voices and abandon its cold war mentality and ideological prejudice, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday, in response to a recent call from Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Innes Willox for resorting to rational negotiations to ease China-Australia tensions.

The Australian government has for some time frequently taken a provocative and confrontational stance toward issues regarding Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan that implicate China's core interests and involve the country's major concerns, severely undermining China-Australia political mutual trust and the basis for bilateral cooperation, Zhao told a regular press conference in Beijing.

A rising number of far-sighted Australians have voiced concerns about this situation, and they have urged Australia to re-think its China policy and come up with fairly valuable suggestions, the spokesperson commented.

"It's hoped that the Australian government can face squarely to the cause of the frustration of bilateral ties, take China's concerns seriously, hearken to rational voices and abandon [its] cold war mentality and ideological prejudice," he continued.

He called for more efforts by Australia that would bode well for bilateral mutual trust and economic partnership, and that accord with the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223779.shtml

—

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 18, 2021

Global Times: It is reported that Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox warned the nation was facing a long-feared "day of reckoning" between its security and economic relationships. He urged the government to calm tensions with China through "negotiation, common sense and diplomacy" and called for an end to inflammatory language. He believed that the industrial and business community should work to avoid an escalation of tensions. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: I noted relevant reports. For quite some time, the Australian government has repeatedly made provocative and confrontational moves on such issues of China's core interests and major concerns as those related to Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan. This has severely undermined the political trust and cooperation foundation between the two sides.

We noticed that more and more visionary people in Australia expressed their concern over this, calling on the Australian government to reflect on its China policy and putting forward very valuable suggestions. We hope the Australian government will face squarely the crux of the setbacks of the bilateral relations, take China's concerns seriously and heed rational voices. Australia should set aside the cold war mentality and ideological bias, and do more things that are conducive to mutual trust and cooperation and are in line with the China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1876623.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13708152 (200832ZMAY21) Notable: Who’s to blame for worsening China-Australia relations? - Qin Sheng - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Who_s_to_blame_for_worsening_China_Australia_relations.png

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Who’s to blame for worsening China-Australia relations?

Qin Sheng - May 19, 2021

1/2

Relations between China and Australia are reaching a freezing point. This has become a hot topic of discussion on both sides. The Australian Financial Review published an article on Sunday saying that Australia's business leaders are "frustrated about the disintegration of Australia's relationship with China" and "many executives doing business with China privately blame Prime Minister Scott Morrison rather than an increasingly assertive Beijing."

It said that Australia's business leaders wondered why the foreign minister called for an international probe into the coronavirus; why was the government considering tearing up the 99-year lease on the Port of Darwin; and why are politicians talking about going to war with a country vastly more powerful than it?

In fact, China wants to know answers to these questions too.

Some Australians, however, still blame China for the deterioration of China-Australia relations. They believe China's "economic punishment" against Australia is groundless and has caused losses to the Australian business community and Australian farmers, and even stalled the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).

But every effect has its cause. The suspension of the SED is in response to a series of egregious anti-China policies made by Canberra. China, as a responsible power, rarely suspends or terminates cooperation agreements with other countries through official announcements. The Chinese government's actions are mainly countermeasures due to the all-around and multi-level anti-China actions of Australia.

Economically, Australia is not only the world's first country that banned Huawei 5G technology. But it also cracked down on China's investment by introducing The Security of Critical Infrastructure Act in 2018, which led to a continuous drop in China's investment. Even China's Mengniu Dairy's merger and acquisition of Australian dairy enterprises were rejected by the government. In 2020, China's investment in Australia dropped by 61 percent. A series of such anti-China measures was a huge blow to Chinese companies in cooperation with Australia. This will also affect their future investment and business decisions in Australia.

Politically, Australia introduced the National Security Legislation Amendment Act and Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill in 2018 to strike Chinese entrepreneurs and persecute China-friendly lawmakers. In June 2020, Australian security authorities forced an entry into houses of Chinese correspondents in Australia, and later in September, they revoked the visiting visas of two Chinese scholars on trumped-up charges. Then in April 2021, Australia became the first country in the world to tear up the Belt and Road agreement with China. This infringed on the development rights of Australian local governments and relevant enterprises, seriously hurting the development of China-Australia relations, and closing the door to dialogue between the two countries.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13708504 (201104ZMAY21) Notable: Victorian Travel Permit System - applies to travellers coming to Victoria from anywhere in Australia or New Zealand.

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Victoria now has a travel permit system. OMFG! WTF!

https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/victorian-travel-permit-system

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13717834 (210833ZMAY21) Notable: ‘We are not pursuing a woke agenda’: Dutton bans special morning teas at Defence after International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Peter_Dutton_met_soldiers_in_Townsville_last_month.jpg

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>>125380

>>125581

‘We are not pursuing a woke agenda’: Dutton bans special morning teas at Defence after IDAHOBIT

James Massola and Anthony Galloway - May 21, 2021

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has ordered his department and serving military personnel to stop pursuing a “woke agenda” after Defence held morning teas where staff wore rainbow clothing to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia.

Mr Dutton, who has vowed to shake up his department and refocus on its core mission, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he ordered Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell and Secretary Greg Moriarty on Friday to issue a note ending events with “particular clothes in celebration”.

“I’ve been very clear to the chiefs that I will not tolerate discrimination. But we are not pursuing a woke agenda,” Mr Dutton told this masthead.

“Our task is to build up the morale in the Australian Defence Force and these woke agendas don’t help.”

Earlier in the year a note was sent out from Defence to staff urging them to mark IDAHOBIT on Monday by wearing rainbow clothing and ally pins to morning tea events.

“Defence ADF and APS employees are encouraged to acknowledge IDAHOBIT in a COVID-safe manner. Examples for activity include hosting morning teas, encouraging discussions regarding the importance of IDAHOBIT, raising awareness of LGBTI rights and wearing visible rainbow clothing or ally pins,” the note said.

The goal was to show “support for our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) colleagues, friends and family by standing against prejudice and discrimination, and demonstrating inclusion”.

But on Friday Mr Dutton ordered Mr Campbell and Mr Moriarty to issue a department-wide note banning events where staff celebrate by wearing particular clothes.

“Defence represents the people of Australia and must at all times be focused on our primary mission to protect Australia’s national security interests. We must not be putting effort into matters that distract from this,” the new note said.

“To meet these important aims, changing language protocols and those events such as morning teas where personnel are encouraged to wear particular clothes in celebration … are not required and should cease.

“We have made it clear to all Service Chiefs and Group Heads that combat and organisational capability is to be delivered through our well-developed training and education programs, exercises and operational experience, with respectful behaviours, underpinned by Defence values.”

The directive, signed by General Campbell and Mr Moriarty, applied to all members of Defence across the armed forces and the public service.

A Defence People Group Communication Plan prepared for IDAHOBIT also told members to use the term partner instead of husband or wife and to check with colleagues “what is your pronoun”.

“Do not assume that everyone is heterosexual (straight) or that this is the norm. Avoid using language such as ‘wife’ or ‘husband’ that assumes all relationships are heterosexual,” the document said.

Mr Dutton has also reduced the number of public servants stationed in his office to an absolute minimum since taking up the Defence post, in contrast to former minister Linda Reynolds, who had several extra mandarins from the department in her personal office.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/we-are-not-pursuing-a-woke-agenda-dutton-bans-special-morning-teas-at-defence-after-idahobit-20210521-p57u2g.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13718096 (211016ZMAY21) Notable: Australian Federal Police respond to disturbing child abuse investigation resourcing claims, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Online_platforms_need_to_step_up_to_help_reduce_the_threat_of_child_abuse_a_report_says.jpg

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Australian Federal Police respond to disturbing child abuse investigation claims

JAMES HALL - MAY 21, 2021

A senior federal cop has slapped down claims federal police were unable to execute search warrants on potential child abuse offenders during the height of pandemic because of basic resourcing issues.

The emphatic response from Child Protection Operations Superintendent Paula Hudson came after a damning report declared “stretched” and “exhausted” law enforcement officers were struggling to keep up with an alarming surge in online child exploitation, abuse and grooming.

The University of NSW research had a global focus, but its lead author Michael Salter provided startling details about the impact to investigations in Australia.

“I’m aware that there were police forces in Australia who were not executing search warrants for a period of time during the pandemic simply because they didn’t have their infection control procedures in place to make it safe for police to be in the field,” the criminologist told NCA NewsWire.

“And we know that the child protection services had similar sorts of challenges – how do you go out and how do you investigate child abuse complaints when that puts your staff at risk of COVID-19 infection?”

But Superintendent Hudson insisted the pandemic was no barrier to targeting child exploitation offenders.

She said the Australian Federal Police’s Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) charged 187 people with 1966 child abuse-related offences in 2020.

“If the community thinks that COVID-19 restrictions have stopped the AFP and the AFP-led ACCCE from operational activity to protect children, they are wrong,” the senior cop told NCA NewsWire.

“Our investigators continue to operate on both the dark and clear net, ensuring that children are safe and our joint anti child exploitation Teams across the country are executing search warrants on a near daily basis arresting offenders.”

Another disturbing finding in the UNSW report, funded by the Australian eSafety Commission, was authorities across the world failed to ramp up operations as reports of offences surged, which Superintendent Hudson said didn’t relate to Australia.

“To ensure the protection of children during the COVID-19 pandemic, the AFP bolstered also resources within the ACCCE child protection triage unit and ACCCE covert online engagement team to address the increase in referrals received,” she said.

Dr Salter also highlighted significant and concerning ignorance from social media and online gaming platforms that he said let complaints and alerts of abuse go “unanswered”.

He said the “clear message” was technology companies needed to step up and take responsibility for the horrific rates of abuse occurring on their social media and online gaming platforms.

“We had a range of complaints from many agencies that they were dealing with the overflow from social media companies who just weren‘t responding to reports fast enough and hadn’t invested in online safety during the pandemic,” he said.

“So cases and complaints were just going unanswered but, more broadly, their platforms are just so unsafe for children that at a time of crisis there were no brakes to put on, there were no safeguards to raise.

“Children were abjectly at risk on these online platforms and there was just nothing that could be done about it.”

The criminologist said there was “absolutely no question the epidemic levels of online abuse and exploitation” during the pandemic was “a result of the lack of preventive measures from online platforms”.

“To a certain extent, they've tied their own hands behind their back because it’s crazy that the online profile of a user who is sexually exploiting children and the online profile of a legitimate user appear the same to the social media company,” he said.

“They haven't designed their platform to make those distinctions.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/australian-federal-police-respond-to-disturbing-child-abuse-investigation-claims/news-story/0af09629e11701591d33ef05e6b2611b

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13718126 (211028ZMAY21) Notable: Australian writer Yang Hengjun to face court in China next Thursday over espionage charge, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Yang_Hengjun_was_detained_in_Guangzhou_in_January_2019.jpg

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Australian writer Yang Hengjun to face court in China next Thursday over espionage charge

Bill Birtles - 21 May 2021

An Australian writer charged with espionage in China will be tried in a closed court next Thursday after more than two years behind bars.

Yang Hengjun faces a sentence of between three years and life in jail if convicted of espionage — a near certainty in a country with a criminal conviction rate above 99 per cent.

China's government has not released any details of what Dr Yang is accused of, making it harder to assess a likely sentence.

In previous statements conveyed to family and supporters from his jail cell, Dr Yang denied all accusations against him and said he was the victim of political persecution.

A lawyer in Beijing representing the 56-year-old confirmed the hearing scheduled for May 27 at the Beijing Number 2 Intermediate People's court.

Dr Yang's Beijing-based wife, Yuan Ruijuan, told the ABC authorities were preventing her husband's lawyer from sharing with her any details about the case because it involved national security.

She said it was "very hard to judge" whether her husband would be tried over one day or if it would take longer.

Despite the secrecy from prosecutors, some online posts and videos from anonymous accounts have emerged online in recent months denouncing Dr Yang as a "spy".

One of his main supporters, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Chinese studies academic Feng Chongyi, believes such posts are disseminated by people within the State Security Ministry to set the public tone ahead of the trial.

A complicated background

The ABC has previously reported that Yang Hengjun worked for China's State Security Ministry for 14 years up until the year 2000.

Friends say he firmly turned his back on China's government and that he later became a political commentator who advocated for democracy in his online writings.

Dr Yang obtained Australian citizenship in the early 2000s, undertook a PhD at UTS and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in the US at the time of his arrest in January 2019.

He had flown into southern China from the US to visit relatives for the Lunar New Year when security agents swooped on him.

Despite being detained for a week during an earlier trip to China in 2011, Dr Yang had been a regular visitor to the country, even attending a government banquet in Beijing in 2014.

"Australia and China currently have bad relations, so we're concerned this might have a negative impact on his trial," Professor Feng said.

Dr Yang is one of two Australians detained in Beijing accused of national security crimes, with former state TV news anchor Cheng Lei detained and imprisoned last August.

She is accused of leaking state secrets and has been denied access to a lawyer.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-21/australian-yang-hengjun-detained-in-china-has-court-date-set/100157350

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13721113 (212002ZMAY21) Notable: This week in US Politics: Why a meaningless recount in Arizona might be the most important political story of the year

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>>125588

Posts have already gone up in Generel Research over the last few days. The number of ballots counted were more than the number of Registered Voters.

The physical counts for the boxes have several times not matched the number of ballots on the tally sheets.

Duplicate ballots intended to replace those damaged are being discovered with no original matching ballot in the boxes.

Maricopa County claimed they did not have the passwords to access the machines despite it being law they control the election.

Database was deleted from machines, but Cyber Ninjas were able to recover the deleted data. Looks like Dominion employees did the deleting.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13732843 (230529ZMAY21) Notable: ‘I’ve become very Italian’: George Pell enjoys a Roman revival, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Cardinal_George_Pell_in_his_home_at_the_Vatican.jpg, Cardinal_George_Pell.jpg

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‘I’ve become very Italian’: George Pell enjoys a Roman revival

Nicole Winfield - May 22, 2021

Rome: Cardinal George Pell is enjoying his first Roman spring since being exonerated of sex abuse charges in his Australia: he receives visitors to his Vatican flat, sips midday Aperol Spritz’s at the outdoor cafe downstairs and keeps up religiously with Holy See news.

Pell, who turns 80 in June, is buoyed by the perks of being a retired Vatican cardinal despite his life and career being upended by his criminal trials and 404 days of solitary confinement in a Melbourne lockup.

“I’ve become very Italian,” Pell tells a visitor one morning, referring to his daily routine checking coronavirus cases in Italy. “I check the stats every day. But I’m regional: I go immediately to Lazio,” which surrounds Rome.

Pell left his job as prefect of the Vatican’s economy ministry in 2017 to return home to face charges that he sexually molested two 13-year-old choir boys in the sacristy of the Melbourne cathedral in 1996.

After a first jury deadlocked, a second convicted him and he was sentenced to six years in prison. The conviction was upheld on appeal only to be thrown out by Australia’s High Court, which in April 2020 found there was reasonable doubt in the testimony of his lone accuser.

Pell and his supporters strongly denied the charges and believe he was scapegoated for all the crimes of the Australian Catholic Church’s botched response to clergy sexual abuse. Yet victims and critics say Pell epitomises everything wrong with how the church has dealt with the sex abuse problem and have denounced his exoneration.

Pell spoke to the Associated Press ahead of the US release of the second volume of his jailhouse memoir, Prison Journal, Volume 2, chronicling the middle four months of his term.

“Looking back, I was probably excessively optimistic that I’d get bail,” Pell says now, crediting his “glass half-full” attitude to his Christian faith.

Pell still has many detractors – he freely uses the term “enemies” – who think him guilty. But in Rome, even many of his critics believed in his innocence, and since returning in September he has enjoyed a well-publicised papal audience and participates regularly in Vatican events.

Pell had returned to Rome to clean out his apartment, intending to make Sydney his permanent home.

But he never left. As Italy’s COVID-19 resurgence hit, Pell spent the winter watching as the scandal over Vatican corruption and incompetence that he tried to uncover as Pope Francis’ finance tsar exploded publicly in ways he admits he never saw coming.

For the three years that Pell was in charge of the Vatican’s finances, he tried to get a handle on just how much money the Secretariat of State had in its asset portfolio, what its investments were and what it did with the tens of millions of dollars in donations from the faithful.

He largely failed, as his nemesis in the Secretariat of State, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, blocked his efforts to impose international accounting and auditing standards. But now Becciu has been sacked, Francis has stripped the secretariat of its ability to manage the money and Vatican prosecutors are investigating the office’s €350 million ($550 million) investment in a London real estate venture.

No indictments have been handed down after two years of investigation. But in court documents, prosecutors have accused an Italian broker involved in the London deal of trying to extort the Holy See of €15 million in fees, and they have accused a handful of Vatican officials of involvement.

Those same court documents, however, have made clear the entire venture was approved by top officials in the Secretariat of State, and witnesses say Francis himself approved a “just” compensation for the broker. Yet only low-ranking Vatican officials and external businessmen are known to be under investigation.

Pell said he is heartened that Vatican prosecutors are on the case, given the tens of millions of euros that were lost in the deal. But he expressed concerns about possible problems in the investigation and wondered if the truth will ever come out.

He noted a British judge recently issued a devastating ruling against the Vatican in a related asset seizure case against the broker, Gianluigi Torzi. The judge said Vatican prosecutors had made “appalling” omissions and misrepresentations in their request for judicial assistance, and his ruling essentially dismantled much of their case against Torzi.

“He used the word ‘appalling’ about the level of competence,” Pell said. The issues flagged in the British ruling are “a matter for concern,” said Pell, for whom matters of due process are particularly dear.

“It’s a matter of basic competence and justice,” Pell said. “We must act within the norms of justice.”

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/i-ve-become-very-italian-george-pell-enjoys-a-roman-revival-20210522-p57u8o.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13741392 (240951ZMAY21) Notable: Australian intelligence suspect 500 incidents of foreign meddling in Australian politics, society, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_head_of_ASIO_Mike_Burgess_said_covert_agents_of_foreign_powers_made_up_just_a_tiny_minority_of_diaspora_communities.jpg

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Spies suspect 500 incidents of foreign meddling in Australian politics, society

Peter Hartcher - May 24, 2021

Australian intelligence has identified about 500 recent incidents of covert foreign agents interfering in domestic politics and society, but the nation’s chief spy insists that “at least 99.9 per cent” of the diaspora communities here are uninvolved.

The previous head of domestic spy agency ASIO, Duncan Lewis, had said in 2017 that the agency was being overwhelmed by foreign interference and espionage and in 2018 that it was happening at unprecedented levels.

But the number of instances has not been known publicly until now. ASIO’s last public update said that it had dealt with more than 30 cases in 2020. Only a handful were publicly visible.

In an interview for the new book Red Zone, by this correspondent, a senior intelligence officer said there were about 500 known or suspected cases of foreign interference and espionage in Australia in late 2020.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, emphasised the qualifiers “known or suspected”. Not all suspected cases were verified, and it was possible that there were undetected cases.

Several countries are behind such activity but officials have said that the Chinese Communist Party is by far the most active in trying to influence Australian politicians and political processes covertly.

The current head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, said covert agents of foreign powers made up just a tiny minority of diaspora communities.

“It is important to understand that ASIO works with – not against – diaspora communities as we seek to help and protect them,” he said in an interview for the book.

“I am always at pains to distinguish between diaspora communities on the one hand and the foreign governments and their intelligence services that are conducting foreign interference on the other.

“I would venture that at least 99.9 per cent of the diaspora community are fine. In fact, it is the diaspora communities that are often the victims of interference. I am an immigrant myself [from England, with his family when aged seven]. I understand that fondness for the country of your birth does not mean you are disloyal to Australia, and it certainly does not mean you are a security threat.”

The Turnbull government toughened laws against both espionage and interference in 2018 with full support from the Labor opposition, and the Morrison government allocated funding for a joint ASIO-Australian Federal Police taskforce to enforce the laws.

When asked for an assessment of ASIO’s progress against foreign interference and espionage, Mr Burgess said the agency had a list and they were working to shorten it.

“We’re shrinking that list through those activities – visa cancellations or interviews, that disrupts and reduces harm. In February 2020 I gave a speech where I warned any nation conducting espionage and foreign interference in this country that ASIO and its partners will hunt you down and deal with your activities.

“Obviously, I cannot go into details but I can confirm that we have made impressive progress. Of course, that does not mean the threats have ended. Foreign intelligence services will still try to steal our secrets and undermine our sovereignty, and they are likely to respond to our successes by using more sophisticated tradecraft and technology in the future.”

The federal budget this month allocated funds for a 15 per cent increase in ASIO staff numbers, up by 279 people to 2152. Its total budget last year was $520 million. The government projected a total, 10-year increase for ASIO of $1.3 billion including some for artificial intelligence. The AFP was allocated money for another 290 staff.

Australia’s new foreign interference and espionage laws were denounced by Beijing, with the Chinese government demanding they be repealed. Of the 14 demands made by China’s government in November as a precondition of improving relations, the repeal of these laws is number three.

Number one on the list calls for China’s foreign investment to be unrestricted. Number two is a reversal of the Huawei ban.

Mr Lewis said in 2018 that foreign interference and espionage were a “real and potential existential threat to Australian security and sovereignty”. Mr Burgess told the author that the new laws had exerted “a chilling effect” on foreign governments and their agents.

The head of the ANU’s National Security College, Rory Medcalf, said the estimate of 500 known or suspected cases of foreign interference and espionage did not mean there were 500 active efforts to influence or turn senior decision-makers.

“But it’s part of a wide spectrum of activity ranging from low-level community interference right through to efforts to disrupt the system at a high level,” he said.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/spies-suspect-500-incidents-of-foreign-meddling-in-australian-politics-society-20210523-p57uey.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13741399 (240953ZMAY21) Notable: Senate President Scott Ryan tells estimates hearing that Parliament was hit by brute force 'attack' in March 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Senator_Scott_Ryan_has_detailed_a_brute_force_cyber_attack_on_federal_parliamentary_services.jpg

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Parliament hit by brute force 'attack'

Marion Rae - 24 May 2021

Federal parliament has suffered a brute force attack, two years after cyber espionage by a sophisticated state actor thought to be China.

President of the Senate Scott Ryan told an estimates hearing on Monday the "malicious activity" lasted just under 24 hours.

He said it was unsuccessful and Department of Parliamentary Services networks were not compromised.

"I'm not going to get into a backdoor discussion of attribution," Senator Ryan said.

"What I can say about the attack is the following: On March 26, 2021, the DPS was the subject of malicious cyber activity."

"A malicious actor sought to access the DPS network accounts from MobileIron devices," he said, naming the commercial software used to manage the security and management of DPS-issued mobile devices.

He said "unsophisticated brute force tradecraft" was used.

The attempted hack sparked an outage for department-issued mobile phones and tablets from March 27 to April 5 as accounts were locked down.

Those controls were successful in blocking the malicious actor but also impacted legitimate users, Senator Ryan said.

"DPS has been and will remain an attractive target for malicious cyber activity, which is increasing in frequency and sophistication," he said.

The federal government had previously stopped short of describing the March incident at Parliament House as an "attack".

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess told a hearing last month he was not concerned by the latest outage.

A "sophisticated state actor" was detected in February 2019 conducting malicious activity within the networks of federal parliament and major Australian political parties.

https://thewest.com.au/politics/parliament-hit-by-brute-force-attack-c-2917772

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748272 (250615ZMAY21) Notable: Latest research by ‘bat woman’ shows novel coronavirus closer to pangolins, 'unlikely from Wuhan lab' - Leng Shumei - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Latest_research_by_bat_woman_shows_novel_coronavirus_closer_to_pangolins_unlikely_from_Wuhan_lab_.jpg

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>>125501 (pb)

Latest research by ‘bat woman’ shows novel coronavirus closer to pangolins, 'unlikely from Wuhan lab'

Leng Shumei - May 25, 2021

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Latest research again indicates that it was unlikely the novel coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), experts said, amid US media's recent hyping of the lab leak theory ahead of the World Health Assembly (WHA).

Researchers from the WIV and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, including Shi Zhengli, who has been dubbed China's "Bat Woman" for her years of research and achievements with bats and viruses, published a report on Friday on BioRxiv that further refutes the hyped theory that the virus came from the laboratory.

The research shows that none of the known viruses of the bat SARSr-CoV-2 lineage or its novel variant use the human ACE2 as efficiently as SARSr-CoV-2 from pangolins or some of the SARSr-CoV-1 lineage viruses.

"These results suggested the SARSr-CoVs discovered in bats now may be just the tip of the iceberg. These viruses may have experienced selection or recombination events in the animal hosts and rendered viral adaption to a new host and then spread to the new species before they jumped to humans," researchers said in the report.

Bats and pangolins are recognized as the most probable reservoir hosts that harbor viruses which are very similar to SARS-CoV-2.

Based on the Friday report, it is safe to say that bats are probable ancestors of the coronavirus that led to SARS in 2003 and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and coronavirus strains discovered in pangolins are closer to the novel coronavirus in humans, Yang Zhanqiu, a virologist from the Wuhan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that the report still did not explain how the virus transferred and adapted from bats to humans via pangolins.

But the results were enough to demonstrate that it is unlikely that the coronavirus leading to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic leaked from the WIV, where Shi and her team kept virus samples from bats, a Beijing-based immunology expert told the Global Times on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

"When we say a virus is from a lab, we are indicating that either the virus, or a highly similar virus, is leaked from a lab, or a virus is manufactured by man in a lab. But the two possibilities have both been refuted so far by scientific research," Zhuang Shilihe, a Guangzhou-based expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The most likely process is that the coronavirus from bats had mutated in nature for decades before it successfully infected humans and led to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, Zhuang said.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748489 (250717ZMAY21) Notable: Mike Pompeo Tweet: The CCP was actively engaged in viral research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Every piece of evidence points to a leak from this laboratory. The CCP has done everything to cover up and deflect blame, even blaming the U.S. Prove it. They must be held accountable., MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Mike_Pompeo_6.jpg

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>>126819

Mike Pompeo Tweet

The CCP was actively engaged in viral research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Every piece of evidence points to a leak from this laboratory.

The CCP has done everything to cover up and deflect blame, even blaming the U.S. Prove it.

They must be held accountable.

https://twitter.com/mikepompeo/status/1396898406614904843

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748562 (250736ZMAY21) Notable: Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 24, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_Ministry_Spokesperson_Zhao_Lijian_s_Regular_Press_Conference_on_May_24_2021.jpg

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>>125587 (pb)

>>125589 (pb)

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 24, 2021

AFP: According to Australia, Chinese-born Australian academic Yang Jun will go on trial on espionage charges on Thursday. Can you confirm it? Do you have any detail on this case?

Zhao Lijian: China has made clear on many occasions its position on the individual case of the relevant Australian citizen. China is a country under the rule of law. China's judicial organs handle cases in accordance with law and fully protect the lawful rights and interests of relevant personnel. As for the specific situation you mentioned, I have no information to offer you at present.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1878214.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748583 (250743ZMAY21) Notable: Masks, social restrictions return to Australia’s Melbourne after fresh outbreak - May 25, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_Fearless_Girl_Statue_looks_at_a_Please_Stay_Home_sign_in_an_empty_Federation_Square.jpg

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Masks, social restrictions return to Australia’s Melbourne after fresh outbreak

Renju Jose - May 25, 2021

Australia’s second largest city Melbourne reinstated COVID-19 restrictions on Tuesday as authorities scrambled to find the missing link in a fresh outbreak, prompting New Zealand to pause a “travel bubble” with the state of Victoria.

Amid worries the cluster, which has grown to nine cases in two days, could spark a major outbreak, Victoria imposed social restrictions and made face masks mandatory in hotels, restaurants, and other indoor venues from 6 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Tuesday until June 4.

The latest outbreak ends Victoria's run of zero cases for nearly three months and saw New Zealand suspend quarantine-free travel with the state and the neighbouring state of South Australia impose travel restrictions.

Australia has avoided the high COVID-19 numbers seen in many developed countries by closing its international borders in the early stages of the pandemic and with lockdowns. It has reported just over 30,000 cases and 910 deaths.

Thousands of people in Melbourne have been ordered to self isolate and undergo COVID-19 tests with health alerts issued for several sites, including one of the largest shopping centres in the country.

One of the cases had a high viral load while he visited some venues prompting authorities to warn Melbourne's five million residents to brace for more positive cases in the next few days.

Authorities urged Victorians to get vaccinated.

"There are right now millions of Victorians that are eligible to be vaccinated. They shouldn't wait for tomorrow, they shouldn't wait for next week. They should move now and get vaccinated," James Merlino, Victoria state's acting premier, told reporters in Melbourne.

Victoria was the hardest-hit state during a second wave late last year, accounting for about 70% of total cases and 90% of deaths in Australia. The state, the country's second most populous, only controlled the outbreak after one of the world's longest and strictest lockdowns.

Five new locally acquired cases were reported in Victoria on Tuesday, a day after four infections were recorded in Melbourne.

All cases belong to one extended family across different households and could be traced back to the variant found in an overseas traveller who returned to Melbourne early this month after completing quarantine in the city of Adelaide.

Authorities, however, said they could not yet find how the latest cases contracted the virus from the overseas traveller.

New Zealand's COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the 'travel bubble' with Victoria has been suspended for three days from Tuesday evening.

"New Zealand officials have assessed that the most cautious option is to pause the travel bubble with Victoria as there are still several unknowns with the outbreak," Hipkins said.

Melbourne's fresh outbreak comes as Australian authorities try to ramp up a sluggish national vaccination drive with health experts worried many people were delaying getting inoculated because of the country's success in effectively eliminating the virus.

https://www.reuters.com/world/australia-reinstates-covid-19-curbs-melbourne-after-fresh-outbreak-2021-05-25/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748711 (250826ZMAY21) Notable: Ben Roberts-Smith wiped laptop days after being told to retain documents, court told, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Suing_for_defamation_Ben_Roberts_Smith_pictured_on_2015.jpg

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Ben Roberts-Smith wiped laptop days after being told to retain documents, court told

Georgina Mitchell - May 25, 2021

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Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith wiped the contents of his laptop five days after he was told by lawyers in a defamation case to retain certain information and documents, a court has heard.

Mr Roberts-Smith, 42, is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over a series of stories published in 2018, which he says are defamatory because they portray him as someone who “broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement” and committed murder.

A trial, due to begin in Sydney on June 7, is expected to last six to eight weeks.

On Tuesday, the newspapers’ barrister Lyndelle Barnett told the Federal Court her clients have asked for a series of USB sticks retrieved from Mr Roberts-Smith’s former home in June 2020 to be produced to the court. However, they were told the contents of the USBs had been “condensed” onto Mr Roberts-Smith’s laptop in August or September last year and the USBs were then discarded.

“We then sought the laptop, with a view to it being inspected by an expert, and were told on Friday night that the applicant has wiped the hard drive of that laptop very recently, on the 17th of April,” Ms Barnett said. “Nonetheless, we still press for production of that laptop.”

Ms Barnett said the newspapers plan for an independent expert to examine the laptop to see if anything is recoverable, and to examine any metadata on the laptop so it might be seen how it was wiped.

“That did occur five days after we wrote to the applicant requiring him to retain documents associated with the USBs, so we are concerned about the hard drive having been wiped in those circumstances. It is something we wish to explore,” Ms Barnett said.

“We don’t accept it was appropriate for the applicant to wipe his hard drive after being asked to retain it, but that will be a matter for trial.”

Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, said he is happy to provide the laptop, adding “there’s nothing sinister in what occurred”.

“My client was in the course of buying a new computer and trading in the old one, and that’s the reason for these events,” Mr McClintock said. “The five USBs, or whatever number they were, were in fact condensed into one USB.”

He said this USB remains with his instructing solicitors because, “I believe there are national security issues.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748743 (250836ZMAY21) Notable: Australian Embassy in Kabul packs up as troops prepare to leave, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_US_embassy_is_understood_to_be_finalising_plans_to_expand_its_Kabul_compound_with_an_eye_to_accommodating_allied_diplomatic_missions.jpg

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Embassy in Kabul packs up as troops prepare to leave

AMANDA HODGE and BEN PACKHAM - MAY 25, 2021

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Australia is packing up its embassy in Kabul less than six weeks after the government announced it would pull its last 80 troops from Afghanistan and promised a “new chapter” in the bilateral ­relationship.

Following a report in The Australian on Tuesday morning, Scott Morrison confirmed Australia’s embassy in Afghanistan will close on May 28 following the government announcement it would pull its last troops from the country.

Mr Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia would revert to the pre-2006 model of diplomats visiting Afghanistan from a residence in another part of the region. But the government expected a permanent bricks-and-mortar presence would be established in Kabul “once circumstances permit”.

“This form of diplomatic representation is common practice around the world. It does not alter our commitment to Afghanistan or its people,” the statement said.

“The departure of the international forces and hence Australian forces from Afghanistan over the next few months brings with it an increasingly uncertain security environment where the government has been advised that security arrangements could not be provided to support our ongoing diplomatic presence.”

Mr Morrison and Senator Payne said Australia remained committed to an ongoing bilateral relationship with Afghanistan and supporting the stability and development of the nation.

“Australia is proud to have worked over the past 20 years to assist Afghanistan in protecting itself from exploitation as a base for terrorist groups, to address inequality, and to contribute to improvements in the rights and livelihoods of women and girls,” the statement read.

Private security companies have been notified that their contracts are to end next month, and most Australian diplomats to be out of leased buildings inside the capital’s ­fortified diplomatic zone in the next fortnight.

The US embassy is understood to be finalising plans to expand its Kabul compound, with an eye to accommodating allied diplomatic missions, even as it too reduces in-country diplomatic staff.

This month, Senator Payne met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul to reaffirm Australia’s continued “support for the people of Afghanistan”, and its commitment to a “new chapter” in the bilateral relationship in the wake of the military withdrawal.

“We will continue our close friendship, and support our shared aspiration of peace, stability and prosperity,” Senator Payne said in a statement.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748782 (250846ZMAY21) Notable: ‘A matter of time’: New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta warns China ‘storm’ could be coming, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Nanaia_Mahuta.jpg, Up_to_a_million_Uyghurs_are_believed_to_be_held_in_detention_camps_in_Xinjiang.jpg

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‘A matter of time’: New Zealand’s foreign minister warns China ‘storm’ could be coming

In an interview with the Guardian, Nanaia Mahuta says exporters must diversify to protect themselves from a potential cooling of ties with Beijing

Tess McClure - 25 May 2021

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New Zealand could find itself at the heart of a “storm” of anger from China, foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta has warned, saying exporters needed to diversify to ensure they could survive deteriorating relations with Beijing.

Mahuta’s comments come as the New Zealand government faces increasing pressure to take a firmer stance on human rights violations and crackdowns by China, putting the spotlight on the potential repercussions for countries who provoke Beijing’s ire.

Neighbouring Australia is in a deepening trade war with China, which Mahuta likened to being at the centre of a storm – one which could easily engulf New Zealand.

“We cannot ignore, obviously, what’s happening in Australia with their relationship with China. And if they are close to an eye of the storm or in the eye of the storm, we’ve got to legitimately ask ourselves – it may only be a matter of time before the storm gets closer to us,” she told the Guardian.

It was one of the minister’s more frank discussions of the vulnerability of New Zealand’s trade dependency on China – and a clear directive to local exporters that they should be seeking to redistribute some of those eggs to baskets elsewhere.

“The signal I’m sending to exporters is that they need to think about diversification in this context – Covid-19, broadening relationships across our region, and the buffering aspects of if something significant happened with China. Would they be able to withstand the impact?” she asked. China accounts for more than $33bn of New Zealand’s total trade, and nearly 30% of exports.

New Zealand is attempting to walk a difficult tightrope with China: maintaining a strong trade relationship, while still carving out space to criticise violations of human rights or international law. Over the past year, that position has become increasingly difficult to maintain.

The country is under pressure to take a stronger moral stance on human rights issues in and around China. Human rights groups have described mass human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including the incarceration of more than a million people in internment and re-education camps, forced labour, mass sterilisation of women, and restrictions on religion, culture and language, as cultural genocide.

The crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong is ongoing: an operation rounding up of dozens of pro-democracy politicians and activists in March means many key voices of dissent are now in custody or prison. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand’s differences with China were becoming “harder to reconcile”.

New Zealand has issued statements expressing “grave concerns” about China’s actions in both Xinjiang and Hong Kong, but those statements have tended to be softer than those of its longstanding allies in the Five Eyes network, Britain, the US, Canada and Australia.

New Zealand, along with Australia, welcomed coordinated sanctions announced by the UK, US, the EU and Canada over Uyghur abuses, but did not institute sanctions of their own. In May, New Zealand shied away from using the word “genocide” in a motion on Xinjiang debated and unanimously adopted by parliament – opting instead to use more general, watered-down language of “human rights abuses”. Mahuta says New Zealand “didn’t go to the degree of naming it is genocide because of the international legal threshold around that”.

At the time, trade minister Damien O’Connor said that using the language of genocide would hurt New Zealand’s trade relationship. “Clearly the Chinese government wouldn’t like something like that … I have no doubt it would have some impact [on trade]. That’s hardly rocket science,” O’Connor said.

The opposition leader, Judith Collins, also said New Zealand’s trade relationship with China was the “elephant in the room” in the discussion. “At the moment, clearly we are [beholden to China] in terms of trade,” she told Stuff.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748789 (250848ZMAY21) Notable: Video: Jacinda Ardern says differences with China becoming 'harder to reconcile' - Guardian News

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>>126825

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Mahuta has previously come under fire for comments that New Zealand was “uncomfortable with expanding the remit of the Five Eyes,” a remark that some saw as a shift away from traditional allies. In China, state-run media heralded the comments as “New Zealand secure[ing] its interests by distancing from US-led clique”.

“In sharp contrast with Australia, which tied itself to the US’ chariot, New Zealand has maintained a relatively independent approach on foreign policies, paving the way for the country to pursue policies that benefit its own economy,” the Global Times wrote.

“To be clear, New Zealand values the Five Eyes relationship,” Mahuta told the Guardian. “It’s a security and intelligence framework from which we can work with trusted allies on those specific issues. But the human rights community is much broader than that. … We don’t need the Five Eyes to articulate where we stand on human rights issues.”

Australia provides a vision of what collapse in that trade relationship could look like. The diplomatic rift escalated when Australia called for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in China. It has only intensified since.

China has retaliated with tariffs, import restrictions and a warning to its citizens not to travel to Australia. Analysis last year found China’s declared and undeclared sanctions cost Australia around AU$47.7bn (£26.5bn) last year. So far, the impact of that trade war has been buffered by China’s continued reliance on Australian iron ore. But China has been exploring how to shift its sourcing to mines in Brazil and Guinea – if they’re successful, Australia could be hit harder.

New Zealand does not have an equivalent resource monopoly in its China trade relationship. “Everything that you can get from New Zealand, you can get elsewhere,” international law professor Alexander Gillespie said.

“China will know our vulnerability in this area. And I think the way that we’re positioning ourselves with our statements shows that we’re conscious of that vulnerability as well,” he said.

If it came, trade retaliation from China could hit New Zealand across multiple industries. Near the end of 2020, the value of exports to China alone surpassed the value of New Zealand’s next four largest trading partners – Australia, the US, UK, and Japan – combined.

Trade to China accounts for 28% of New Zealand’s overall exports, including a quarter of dairy exports, more than 60% of forestry products and around 50% of meat. The country is New Zealand’s second-largest source of tourism cash, behind only Australia – before Covid-19, Chinese tourists were spending about $1.7bn in New Zealand each year. International education is a $5bn industry for New Zealand, and Chinese students make up about 47% of international students at New Zealand universities.

“Right now, China will be delighted with us because they will see us as the weak link in the Five Eyes,” Gillespie said. “For a country like New Zealand to steer away from that words like genocide when the other countries use it, symbolically, it’s important.”

Asked about the differences between New Zealand and Australia’s approaches to China, Mahuta said she did not “want to be drawn into commenting on the approach of another country in its bilateral relationship”. But she did say that New Zealand’s connection with China had changed, maturing over time.

“The relationship with China has moved beyond the relationship of firsts – we were the first to achieve a free trade agreement with China – to a maturing relationship … where we can be respectful, consistent and predictable on the issues that are important to us, but also on the issues that separate and differentiate our view of the world from China.”

Mahuta was careful to frame her message to exporters as part of a wider broadening of New Zealand’s connections across the Asia-Pacific. “We’ve said that it’s ‘China, and,’ not ‘China, or’,” she said.

New Zealand would need to strengthen its relationships across the region in the coming years, she said. “Trade is – while it is important, so is regional peace and stability.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/25/a-matter-of-time-new-zealands-foreign-minister-warns-china-storm-could-be-coming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvLlBttZ3uk

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748794 (250851ZMAY21) Notable: Right-wing terror threat still on the rise, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess tells Senate estimates hearing, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: ASIO_director_general_Mike_Burgess_told_the_Senate_estimates_hearing_terror_threats_were_complex.jpg

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Right-wing terror threat still on the rise

Matt Coughlan - 25 May 2021

Australia's right-wing terrorism threat has continued to rise with almost half of domestic spy counter-terrorism investigations now dedicated to ideological extremists.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Tuesday terror threats were complex and challenging.

"Our investigations in ideologically motivated violent extremism, such as racists and nationalists, are approaching 50 per cent of our counter-terrorism onshore caseload," he said.

"This reflects a growing international trend as well as ASIO's decision to allocate more resources to the threat."

He said the increase was concerning and challenging but needed to be viewed in context.

"Religiously motivated violent extremism remains, in the short term, our most serious terrorist threat."

Mr Burgess said battle-hardened foreign fighters could return to the country, while 14 Australians convicted of terrorism offences were due to end prison terms over the next five years.

"Right now ASIO is aware of multiple religiously motivated violent extremists who want to kill Australians. Groups such as ISIL continue to urge attacks," he said.

The threat of a terrorism attack remains probable, with Mr Burgess telling a hearing last month an incident was likely within the next year.

He also warned foreign spies and extremists were using encrypted messages along with other technology to evade authorities.

The ASIO boss said recent increased government investment would allow ASIO to connect more dots in combating espionage and terrorism.

"Given the volume and complexity of data, we are not searching for a needle in a haystack, we are searching for a needle in a hayfield," the director-general said.

Mr Burgess backed an Australian Federal Police push to criminalise possessing swastikas and terrorist manifestos.

"There is a link between hate speech and hate crime including acts of terrorism," he said.

"There's a link between possession of violent or extremist insignia and acts of terrorism."

Mr Burgess said threats to lives in Australia would always be a priority which was "hard to walk away from" with the terror threat level at probable.

"At the same time though, espionage and foreign interference is unacceptably high and we do think will supplant terrorism as this country's principle security concern," he said.

https://thewest.com.au/politics/right-wing-terror-threat-still-on-the-rise-c-2928441

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748811 (250857ZMAY21) Notable: 19 alleged incidents of misconduct involving federal MPs, staff reported to Australian Federal Police - 12 identified as “sensitive investigations”, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Australian_Federal_Police_commissioner_Reece_Kershaw_said_a_criminal_investigation_into_Brittany_Higgins_allegations_was_reaching_its_final_stages.jpg

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19 alleged incidents of misconduct involving federal MPs, staff reported to AFP

Katina Curtis and Anthony Galloway - May 25, 2021

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Police have received reports about 19 incidents of possible misconduct involving federal MPs and their staff since former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins came forward in February to allege she was raped by a colleague in Parliament House.

The criminal investigation into Ms Higgins’ allegation is reaching its final stages with police preparing a brief for prosecutors. It comes as cabinet prepares to consider an independent mechanism to deal with serious complaints within parliamentary workplaces.

Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday that police had received 40 reports relating to the 19 alleged incidents of misconduct involving federal politicians and their staff. Mr Kershaw confirmed some of the reports related to alleged sexual assaults and said 12 had been identified as “sensitive investigations”. The AFP defines a sensitive investigation as one that involves an elected member, journalist or prominent person, could impact the operation of government and Parliament, or may be of “significant interest” to the Australian community.

The AFP later confirmed it had referred 15 of the matters to state and territory police for further investigation.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will take recommendations from his department’s deputy secretary, Stephanie Foster, on how to improve workplace conditions for political staffers at Parliament House to a cabinet meeting later on Tuesday.

The review of complaints handling was called after Ms Higgins went public with an allegation she was raped by a colleague in a ministerial office in March 2019.

Ms Foster has recommended an independent and confidential complaints mechanism be set up and that there be face-to-face education for managers and staff to understand their workplace obligations and how to respond to serious incidents.

She spoke to staffers, politicians and experts in the field for her report, which was finished late on Monday night. She also spoke with organisations such as sporting codes and mining companies which had already tackled similar issues.

“Her proposals and recommendations seek to ensure that processes are independent, provide empowerment to victims and provide timely, effective and ongoing support,” Mr Morrison said.

He noted work to establish a new complaints mechanism was “more detailed and complex and will require consultation across the Parliament”.

Mr Morrison briefed coalition MPs on Ms Foster’s report on Tuesday morning.

The union representing parliamentary staff called for the government to release Ms Foster’s report and consult employees about its recommendations, but said mandatory training was welcome if long overdue.

Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Melissa Donnelly said this would not be “the last step in making Parliament House a safer place”.

Ms Foster told a Senate estimates hearing she had sought to focus on things that could be done immediately or in the very short term.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748832 (250904ZMAY21) Notable: Father Anthony William Peter Caruana - Catholic priest charged with indecent assault wanted to change ‘feeling towards young boys’, court told, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Father_Anthony_Caruana_is_facing_trial_for_the_alleged_indecent_assault_of_12_boys_during_the_1980s.jpg

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Priest charged with indecent assault wanted to change ‘feeling towards young boys’, court told

Laura Chung - May 24, 2021

A Catholic priest charged with indecently assaulting 12 boys in a NSW Southern Highlands boarding school in the 1980s allegedly wrote if he could change something about himself it would be “this feeling I have towards young boys”, a court has heard.

Father Anthony William Peter Caruana, 79, allegedly assaulted the boys when he was a dormitory manager, rugby coach and band teacher at Chevalier College, in Burradoo, between 1982 and 1988.

He has pleaded not guilty to 29 charges, including four counts of homosexual intercourse with a student and several counts of indecent assault of a person aged under 16.

In her opening statement at the Sydney Downing Centre on Monday, crown prosecutor Nerissa Keay outlined the allegations and told the jury what they could expect to hear from the 12 complainants over the course of the eight-week trial.

Among the allegations is the indecent assault of a student who took part in an extracurricular school activity in 1984.

Ms Keay told the jury the complainant would tell them that on one occasion after practice, Father Caruana allegedly rubbed his erection against the boy’s buttocks.

During the incident, Father Caruana allegedly said words to the effect of “God will love you if you let me teach you” and told the student he would be expelled if he told anyone what had occurred, Ms Keay expects the complainant will say.

In a separate incident, Ms Keay said another former student will recall that on one night in Father Caruana’s office, the priest allegedly pulled his erect penis from his pants, grabbed hold of the student’s head and forced his penis into the student’s mouth.

After the alleged incident, the student was given a lolly and told to return to his room.

“It is the Crown’s case that there is evidence that establishes the accused had a sexual interest in boys between 11 and 15 years [of age] in the 1980s and had a tendency to act in accordance with that sexual interest,” Ms Keay said.

The court was also told there was a questionnaire which had been located in church records by police that had been completed in 1989, the year the complaints were made, “which is in the accused’s handwriting”, she said.

When the questionnaire asked: “what do you like least about yourself”, Father Caruana allegedly responded with,“my sexual problem.”

In response to the question: “do you or did you feel there might be something wrong with you” he allegedly wrote: “Yes and now for the last 30 years, my sexual problems.”

When asked if he could change something about himself, he responded, “this feeling I have towards young boys.”

Following the 1989 complaints, Father Caruana was moved from a “teaching role to an archiving role in Sydney” and did not teach again, Ms Keay said.

The Crown is also expected to hear from a former manager in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, who allegedly wrote a file note in 1993 that “Tony acknowledges he is a paedophile and there is little likelihood of change,” Ms Keay said.

She added while the man couldn’t remember writing the note, he will likely tell the jury “he wouldn’t have written it if that wasn’t said to him”.

Defence barrister Bernard Brassil told the jury it was vital they gave his client a “fair trial” and urged them to be patient.

“That imperatively means that you must not decide anything at this point in time,” he said. “Listen with open ears and open minds what it is the defence says about this trial ... We all know the sound that liars make when they give untruthful stories and sometimes intelligent questioning reveals more.”

Detectives launched Strike Force Caber in 2018 to investigate reports of sexual and indecent assaults and arrested Father Caruana at a home in Kensington in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in April 2019.

The trial continues.

National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line: 1800 737 732. Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au).

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/priest-charged-with-indecent-assault-wanted-to-change-feeling-towards-young-boys-court-told-20210524-p57ukx.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13748898 (250923ZMAY21) Notable: Marine Rotational Force – Darwin Facebook Post: U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force - Darwin provided a color guard to carry the national colors and Marine Corps colors for the Battle of The Coral Sea Commemorative Service in Darwin, NT, Australia, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: MRF_D_10.jpg, 190883149_4140744046014864_16597.jpg, 188419063_4140744066014862_77273.jpg, 189096211_4140744062681529_60872.jpg

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Marine Rotational Force – Darwin Facebook Post

24 May 2021

Color Guard, Post!

U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force - Darwin provided a color guard to carry the national colors and Marine Corps colors for the Battle of The Coral Sea Commemorative Service in Darwin, NT, Australia, May 8, 2021. Known as "the battle that saved Australia," the Battle of The Coral Sea was a historic demonstration of interoperability between U.S. and Australian militaries during World War II and its strategic importance is commemorated annually. The 2021 rotation provides the U.S. Marine Corps and Australian Defence Force with an exceptional opportunity to develop relationships, learn about each other’s cultures, strengthen partnership, and increase shared military capabilities.

(U.S. Marine Corps photos and photo illustration by Cpl. Lydia Gordon)

https://www.facebook.com/MRFDarwin/posts/4140744202681515

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13756589 (260635ZMAY21) Notable: US eyes Top End military build-up to combat China threat - US wants to store munitions and defence equipment in Australia’s Top End, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: US_charge_d_affaires_Mike_Goldman_says_it_just_makes_sense_to_forward_deploy_US_war_stocks_in_Australia.jpg, A_Royal_Australian_Air_Force_F_A_18F_Super_Hornet_at_RAAF_Base_Tindal_in_the_Northern_Territory.jpg

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US eyes Top End military build-up to combat China threat

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 26, 2021

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The US wants to store munitions and defence equipment in Australia’s Top End under a bilateral force posture review to better prepare the ANZUS allies for growing strategic threats from China.

In an interview, acting US ­ambassador Mike Goldman said it “just makes sense to forward deploy” US war stocks in Australia, given US bases in Guam and elsewhere in the region were within reach of Chinese missiles.

The US charge d’affaires also expressed support for a more “ambitious” redevelopment of the Lombrum naval base in Papua New Guinea, subject to negotiations with PNG and Australia.

Mr Goldman said geostrategic tensions required a more “innovative defence partnership” between Australia and the US, including co-production of precision-guided weapons on Australian soil.

He said a bilateral force posture review working group, established following last year’s AUSMIN talks, had met for the first time ­earlier this month to discuss “a wide range of contingencies”.

Mr Goldman said it was too early to provide details on any new initiatives, but said pre-positioning US weapons in Australia offered strategic advantages.

“A lot of that just makes perfect intuitive sense, particularly when we talk about how we are going to project force in any sort of contingency,” he told The Australian.

He stressed that “any change in US force posture in Australia would be in full consultation with the Australian government”.

Mr Goldman’s comments follow the US government’s announcement last year of a $15m contract to build an earth-covered weapons magazine and munitions conveyor at RAAF Base Tindal, south of Darwin, as well as upgraded fuel storages.

The base’s runway is also being extended to 3.3km to accept larger aircraft, which could potentially include B-52 bombers.

As the US reviews its broader Indo-Pacific military footprint, Mr Goldman said the Lombrum deep-water naval base on Manus Island – which is currently a small facility for Australian-donated patrol boats – was one the US hoped could be developed further.

“I think we would like to make it as ambitious as possible in co-operation with Australia and Papua New Guinea,” he said of the base, which has progressed slowly since it was announced as a joint PNG-Australian-US facility at APEC in 2018. Australia, which is leading the negotiations, has been unable to resolve political difficulties surrounding the base, including a backlash by local landowners.

Mr Goldman indicated talks were already under way on manufacturing US-designed missiles in Australia, which Scott Morrison has thrown his support behind under a $1bn plan for a new sovereign guided-weapons enterprise.

“We are in a new geostrategic context now that requires a different set of platforms and a different force posture,” he said.

“These things aren’t instantaneous but our militaries and strategic thinkers are engaged in discussions about how best to confront these new challenges ­together. So I think we will see new, innovative ways that we are enhancing our partnership.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13756731 (260714ZMAY21) Notable: Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 25, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_Ministry_Spokesperson_Zhao_Lijian_s_Regular_Press_Conference_on_May_25_2021.jpg

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>>126825

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 25, 2021

Bloomberg: New Zealand's foreign affairs minister said that exporters from the country should be preparing for any potential deterioration in the trade relationship with China by diversifying into other markets. Does the foreign ministry have any comment on these remarks?

Zhao Lijian: China and New Zealand are each other's important cooperation partners. The considerable progress in China-New Zealand relations is achieved on the premise that the two sides have long been committed to mutual respect, mutual trust and win-win results. We hope New Zealand can carry forward the spirit of "striving to be the first" and the principle of mutual respect and equal treatment, work with China toward the same direction, make the pie of cooperation bigger, rise above external distractions, and jointly advance China-New Zealand comprehensive strategic partnership.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1878445.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13756806 (260736ZMAY21) Notable: Backstage manipulators: Western press’ guide to creating anti-China rumors on hot issues, or out of nothing - Bai Yunyi - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: A_screenshot_of_Australian_journalist_Sharri_Markson_who_was_found_spreading_rumors_about_China.jpg

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>>126819

>>>/qresearch/13748275

Backstage manipulators: Western press’ guide to creating anti-China rumors on hot issues, or out of nothing

Bai Yunyi - May 25, 2021

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As some Western media spread more rumors about China, their formula of creating such misinformation becomes clearer.

The latest report from the Wall Street Journal on Sunday revealed an "undisclosed US intelligence report" indicating that several researchers in the lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in November 2019 displaying symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and other common seasonal illnesses, implying the possibility of the so-called virus "lab leak theory."

Yuan Zhiming, director of the institute's Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, told the Global Times on Monday that the report is an outright lie that came from nowhere.

In fact, China's National Health Commission had publicly clarified the matter at a press conference as early as March 31: The institute has reviewed samples collected from patients in Wuhan with influenza symptoms from January 2019 to January 2020 and found that four of them (three adults and one elderly patient) were positive for SARS-CoV-2, but none of them were workers at the Institute. The three positives were revealed in January 2020, not "November 2019" as the WSJ claimed. But most of the Western media continued to turn a blind eye to such a clarification.

US politicians and media outlets have again been pursuing the lab leak theory as the origin of COVID-19, despite scientists from the WHO-China joint study team concluding in a full report that a lab leak is extremely unlikely.

Behind this highly conspiratorial report by the Wall Street Journal, more clues and characters working in collusion emerged to piece together how such COVID-19-related rumors were produced and disseminated.

The production line of concocting such anti-China rumors has become clear: Taking an unidentified source of information, labeling it as a "top secret intelligence document" to create "mystical credibility," and then using a distorted and exaggerated interpretation in the report to attack China.

Right-wing conservatives in the US are hyping and amplifying these unscientific conspiracy theories. This directly led many American scientists who originally opposed the conspiracy theory, such as top epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, to betray science under political pressure and turn to calling for an "investigation" of Chinese laboratories in searching for the virus' origins.

'Celebrity journalist'

The Global Times found the rumor that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology contracted the disease in November 2019 had been circulated in the Australian media more than two months ago.

On March 21, Australian journalist Sharri Markson published a widely circulated "exclusive report" in The Australian, citing a chief researcher at the US State Department named David Asher as a source, claiming that the novel coronavirus disease may be a "biological weapon" developed by China and that vaccine is the "antidote" being developed.

This is not the first time that Markson has made a "scoop" about the plot "Novel coronavirus [disease] leaked from Wuhan Institute of Virology lab."

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13756846 (260749ZMAY21) Notable: Chef Pete Evans another traveller down the dark road of misinformation - Jack The Insider (Peter Hoysted) - theaustralian.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Celebrity_chef_Pete_Evans.jpg, Evans_at_an_anti_vaccine_rally_in_Sydney.jpg

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Chef Pete Evans another traveller down the dark road of misinformation

JACK THE INSIDER (Peter Hoysted) - MAY 26, 2021

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The company of celebrity chef, Pete Evans has been hit with almost $80,000 fines for alleged false advertising of wellness products.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration fined Evans’ company for alleged false advertising of therapeutic goods, including the Bio-Charger lamp, hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers and two medicines.

The TGA also issued a directions notice to the company and its sole Director, Evans, for removal of alleged non-compliant advertising.

Therapeutic goods, including medical devices and medicines, must be entered in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods before they can be legally advertised in Australia.

A quick peek into Evans’ website reveals the products that drew the wrath of the TGA have been removed. There is no sign of the Bio Charger lamp that in April 2020, Evans claimed had recipes that could cure “the Wuhan coronavirus.”

At the time, the manufacturers of the Bio Charger distanced themselves from Evans’ claims, stressing it was “not a medical device” and “not intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of diseases or any other conditions.”

You can still buy some wellness pills made from sustainably sourced red marine algae, turmeric and organic agaricus bisporus (mushroom powder) of which no medical or health claims are made and bench top water filters that start at $869. Gotta get rid of that fluoride somehow.

I keep a fairly close eye on Evans, not from a consumer advocate point of view but because his claims are invariably weird and often inadvertently funny.

His latest obsession is the old, tortured conspiracy of chemtrails where condensation trails that appear from planes flying at high altitude are not condensation at all, but biological or chemical agents designed to… Well, you know, we’re all being crop dusted by the deep state for some reason.

Evans, who said in his podcast he was able to trace air traffic in his part of the world (you guessed it, Byron Bay and its environs), made the fanciful claim that there were more aircraft in the skies during a pandemic when international borders were closed and the states themselves closed their borders.

Get a new conspiracy theory, Pete. This one’s got very old.

Is Evans a harmless idiot or a dangerous influencer?

What we have seen is that in the space of a few years, Evans has gone from promoting various diets – paleo, more recently keto, not of themselves harmful when consumed by adults — to reposting neo-Nazi memes. That is a big shift in thought and belief, a quick fire veer to the fringes but it is actually commonplace among many people in the wellness industry.

We saw it last week when a beautician on the Gold Coast declared (with a massive publicity free kick from the media) she was banning customers from her shop who had been vaccinated for Covid-19.

She’s not the first and she won’t be the last. There was a massage business that did the same in NSW’s Northern Rivers and several weeks ago, a NDIS service provider emailed her clients (some with intellectual disabilities) telling them she would no longer offer her services if they have been vaccinated for Covid-19.

In all three cases, the rationale was more or less the same. Each business spouted nonsense about viral shedding. None of the Covid-19 vaccines in use around the world are “live viral” vaccines. Viral shedding is bunk, a lie put about by anti-vaxxers.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13764021 (270606ZMAY21) Notable: Video: Victoria plunged into seven-day lockdown from midnight - Sky News Australia

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>>126837

Victoria plunged into seven-day lockdown from midnight

Sky News Australia

May 27, 2021

Victorians are being plunged into a seven-day lockdown as the Andrews government takes drastic measures to stop the spread of the latest coronavirus outbreak.

From midnight tonight a state-wide circuit breaker lockdown will be imposed until June 3.

Acting Premier James Merlino announced this morning more than 10,000 primary and secondary contacts had been identified.

“If we can ease those restrictions earlier we will but this is a seven-day circuit breaker lockdown,” he said.

Under the lockdown, residents will have five reasons to leave home including essential shopping, a two-hour exercise period, giving compassionate care and for medical reasons.

Mr Merlino confirmed a new fifth reason to leave home is to get vaccinated.

State residents will also be required to wear masks in every setting except for their homes.

Victorians will only be allowed to accept intimate partners into their homes, however, people living alone can form a bubble with another single-person household.

Public gatherings have also been suspended, although approved professional sports events will go ahead without spectators.

Restaurants, cafes and pubs will be open for takeaway only and essential workers and workplaces – such as supermarkets – will be allowed to continue operating.

Schools will also be moving to remote learning – except for vulnerable children.

Victoria recorded 11 new local cases overnight, taking the state’s total case load to 26.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSbQHwMudrs

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13764297 (270755ZMAY21) Notable: Ron Watkins Is Done With Q and Has Moved On to Aliens (alienleaks.org) - Lucas Ropek - gizmodo.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Ron_Watkins_Is_Done_With_Q_and_Has_Moved_On_to_Aliens.jpg

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Ron Watkins Is Done With Q and Has Moved On to Aliens

Lucas Ropek - May 27, 2021

Ron Watkins, conspiracy-peddler extraordinaire, has found his next gig: leaking “disclosures” about extraterrestrials, Julian Assange-style.

Yes, do yourself a favour and check out “AlienLeaks,” a new website Watkins just launched that he claims will be a destination for secret “never before seen” documents and disclosures regarding extraterrestrials. In an insult to Assange and actual whistleblowers everywhere, Watkins further stated that the site was “heavily” inspired by WikiLeaks.

In case you don’t know, Watkins, also known by his Telegram handle “CodeMonkeyZ,” is basically a professional conspiracy theorist. He lives in the Philippines, where he apparently spends his days promulgating the crap-pop conspiracy fodder of our day. Until recently, Watkins was neck-deep in the QAnon movement — some have even ventured to argue that he is the “Q,” of legend. He and his father, Jim Watkins, were the primary subjects of HBO’s recent docu-series Q: Into the Storm, which examined the QAnon phenomenon and the Watkins’ ties to it. Ron was formerly the site administrator for 8chan, an image board where the conspiratorial-minded were known to gather (the elder Watkins created and ran the site). Both have largely been credited with helping to spread the QAnon conspiracy theory widely across the internet.

But as of recently, Q’s star is waning. Aliens are the new thing.

“AlienLeaks will be focused on collecting, curating, and publishing leaked documents regarding extraterrestrial technology, biology, and communications,” Watkins’ new website hilariously claims in a “press release.” “If you are a scientist, researcher, in communication with aliens, or otherwise have access to original — never before seen — documents regarding alien technology, biology, or communications, please consider reading the AlienLeaks Submit Documents with Tor page for further information regarding the process for submitting documents to AlienLeaks,” it continues shamelessly.

On Telegram, Watkins let his audience know what the situation is: “The government is currently gearing up for some kind of soft alien disclosure. They will only reveal the tip of the iceberg.”

The timing of this whole project is appropriate since the government is, indeed, gearing up for a disclosure of some kind — or at least claims it is. As required by a stipulation in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, the U.S. intelligence community is required to deliver an unclassified report about what it knows about UFOs to Congressional intelligence and armed services committees sometime next month. Knowing America’s spooks and their reputation for saying little except carefully curated and calculating bullshit, we may not actually be in for much. But you never know.

Indeed, in a head-spinning reversal, America’s national security state has gone from a decades-long dismissive eye-roll re: UFOs to saying that, uh, yeah, they’re probably real! What appear to be officially sanctioned disclosures by U.S. Navy and Air Force personnel about sightings in the line of duty keep popping up on 60 Minutes, in the New York Times, and in pretty much any other large, prestige news organisation that will have them — suggesting that the military establishment, for whatever reason, wants the American public to know that they suddenly take UFOs very seriously. It’s all very weird and surely leaves the average person wondering what kind of bizarro world we’ve all just slipped into.

I doubt we will get any satisfaction by visiting “AlienLeaks” — unless, of course, you consider laughter the balm for life’s mysteries. In that case, I’m sure it’ll be great.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/05/ron-watkins-is-done-with-q-and-has-moved-on-to-aliens/

https://alienleaks.org/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13764310 (270800ZMAY21) Notable: Video: ADF ‘crucial’ as criminal groups seek to ‘exploit’ confidential health information - Sky News Australia

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>>126838

ADF ‘crucial’ as criminal groups seek to ‘exploit’ confidential health information

Sky News Australia

May 27, 2021

The ADF is “absolutely crucial” in combatting organised crime groups seeking to “exploit” confidential health information, according to Defence Minister Peter Dutton.

Mr Dutton said during Question Time on Thursday, the defence force has provided “significant efforts” in protecting the cybersecurity of the coronavirus vaccine rollout.

“It’s almost unbelievable to conceive that organised criminal groups and indeed state actors would seek to exploit health information, patient records of aged care facilities, of health facilities, of state health authorities that hold important and confidential and essential information,” he said.

“But that is the case. So the work of the Australian Defence Force is absolutely crucial along with the staff of the Department of Home Affairs.”

The Defence Minister also said Operation COVID-19 Assist had seen the ADF deliver “significant support” to the Victorian Government throughout the pandemic, with almost 4,000 defence force personnel deployed in Victoria as part of the operation.

Mr Dutton’s comments come as Greater Melbourne is set to plunge into a seven-day snap-lockdown amid a growing cluster in the city’s north.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iko5NOHwpEE

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13764363 (270831ZMAY21) Notable: Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 26, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_Ministry_Spokesperson_Zhao_Lijian_s_Regular_Press_Conference_on_May_26_2021.jpg

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>>126842

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 26, 2021

The Paper: Recently, several US officials claimed that China's investigation on virus origin-tracing lacked transparency, and called for a comprehensive and experts-led investigation on the origin of the coronavirus. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: Origin-tracing of the virus is a scientific issue. The purpose is to improve human's understanding of the virus and better guard against infectious diseases in the future.

After the outbreak of the pandemic, China took the lead to support the WHO in conducting researches on origin-tracing on a global scale. From January 14 to February 10 this year, the WHO international expert team carried out an in-depth study in Wuhan together with the Chinese experts for one month or so. Experts on both sides jointly made field trips, analyzed a large number of statistics, issued an authoritative study report, and reached many significant conclusions. This joint study actively promoted the origin-tracing globally.

Some people in the US talk about "facts", when what is really on their mind is political manipulation. Every time when the issue of pandemic is brought up, they smear and attack China, while totally ignoring the doubts over the origin-tracing work and failure of pandemic response in the US. They are obsessed with spreading "lab leak theory" and other conspiracy theories and disinformation. What they did is total disrespectful of the spirit of science and research results of the WHO expert team, and undermines global anti-epidemic efforts and solidarity.

I want to stress again that, according to the clues, reports and researches, the COVID-19 pandemic was spotted in various places around the world early in the second half of 2019. China takes the origin-tracing work seriously with a responsible attitude, and has made positive contributions that are widely recognized. If the US side truly demands a completely transparent investigation, it should follow China's lead to invite the WHO experts to the US, open Fort Detrick and bio-labs overseas to the rest of the world, and disclose the detailed data and information on the unexplained outbreaks of respiratory disease in northern Virginia in July, 2019 and the EVALI outbreak in Wisconsin. We urge the US and other relevant countries to cooperate with the WHO in a scientific, open and transparent manner.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1878751.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/13764374 (270843ZMAY21) Notable: China’s trial of Yang Hengjun begins with Australia’s ambassador denied access, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_trial_of_Australian_writer_Yang_Hengjun_opened_in_Beijing_on_Thursday.jpg

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China’s trial of Yang Hengjun begins with Australia’s ambassador denied access

Sarah Zheng and Linda Lew - 27 May, 2021

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Australian diplomats were denied access to the closed-door trial of Chinese-born Australian writer Yang Hengjun on espionage charges in Beijing on Thursday, in a high-profile case that looks set to put further strain on relations between the two countries.

There was tight security around Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday morning as Australia’s ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher, was prevented from watching the proceedings, with the Covid-19 pandemic given as the reason.

“This is deeply regrettable and concerning and unsatisfactory,” he told reporters outside the court, adding that the Chinese foreign ministry had also said it would not be able to access the trial because the case involved national security.

“We’ve had long-standing concerns about this case, including the lack of transparency, and therefore have concluded that it is an instance of arbitrary detention.”

Fletcher said that Yang’s condition was “fine”, and that the Australian government had been informed about the trial date late last week.

He said that consular officials had access to Yang last month, and would continue to provide support to him and his family. He denied that the case would affect China-Australia relations.

If found guilty – which is likely given China’s 99.9 per cent conviction rate – Yang, who has been in detention for more than two years, faces between three years and life in prison.

Australia’s government has pushed for its officials to be allowed access to the trial but without success. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said last week that Canberra had raised its concerns over the treatment of Yang and the “lack of procedural fairness in how his case has been managed”, including depriving him of access to his family and allowing only limited access to legal representation, and the lack of evidence for the espionage charge.

Payne said on Australian radio on Thursday that Yang’s treatment had been “difficult” and that she hoped for a fair process for the writer.

“I very much hope that we have a transparent and open process,” Payne told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio programme AM. “We’re not interfering in China’s legal system; the concerns we have raised are legitimate ones. But we do expect those basic international standards of justice to be met.

“We have not seen any explanation or evidence for the charges that have been brought against him.”

(continued)