/qnotables21/ - ===Q Notables 2021===

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14245420 (011845ZAUG21) Notable: Vaccination the gold medal we aspire to - Prime Minister Scott Morrison - theaustralian.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_Prime_Minister_receives_a_dose_of_the_Pfizer_vaccine_at_the_Castle_Hill_Medical_Centre_in_Sydney_last_February.jpg

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>>128491

Vaccination the gold medal we aspire to

SCOTT MORRISON - AUGUST 2, 2021

1/2

Like all Australians, my family has been inspired by watching the extraordinary performance of our athletes in Tokyo. Whether it has been our Queen Machine, led by Emma McKeon in the pool, on the water with our rowers, in the rapids with Jess Fox, or boxer Skye Nicolson baring her heart and soul to the nation after her disappointment and Patrick Tiernan getting to his feet in the final lap of the 10,000m, we are bursting with pride. Not just in what they have achieved, but in what they have overcome to be there in Tokyo.

Of course, these are extraordinary athletes. They have incredible determination and rare skills that enable them to go higher, faster and further than the rest of us. But what I think really endears our Olympians to us all is just how like the rest of us they really are. Ash Barty kicking a footy before a match. Kaylee McKeown’s uncensored joy. Rohan Browning’s mullet. And then you see their families, tearing up, shouting loudly and hugging the breath out of each other.

They come from a place of honesty, sincerity and passion. Where you just push through life’s trials and get on with it.

There may not be gold medals for being a single parent, running a small business, doing night shift at an emergency department or aged-care facility or volunteering for your local surf lifesaving club or bushfire brigade, but if there were, Australia would be high in the medal tally. This is why I have always been so confident that Australia will pull through this Covid-19 pandemic. We won’t let it beat us. We won’t let our frustration get the better of us. We won’t let negativity overwhelm our optimism. We will just put our heads down and keep pressing on.

So far, working together, we have done better than almost any other country in the world in saving lives and livelihoods. We haven’t seen anything like this in 100 years. And it doesn’t come with an instruction manual.

The overseas evidence clearly shows that if we had the same experience of other advanced economy countries, where their Covid death rate has been almost 40 times greater than in Australia, more than 30,000 additional Australians would have died. Together, we stopped this.

And, despite setbacks from recent lockdowns, more than one million Australians were able to get themselves back into work after last year’s Covid recession, as our unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent. Now we have to finish the job and get Australians vaccinated. Because that is our path back.

As Prime Minister, I take responsibility for the early setbacks in our vaccination program. I also take responsibility for getting them fixed and that we are now matching world-best rates, with more than 1 million doses every week. The supplies are in place, the GPs, pharmacists and state clinics are getting the job done.

To keep us focusing forward, I have been able to secure the support of our premiers and chief ministers around the country for our national four-step plan to bring this home.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14245938 (012030ZAUG21) Notable: "Forcing qr checkin is illegal. - PRIVACY ACT 1988 - SECT 94H - Requiring the use of COVIDSafe"

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Forcing qr checkin is illegal.

Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

[Index] [Table] [Search] [Search this Act] [Notes] [Noteup] [Previous] [Next] [Download] [Help]

PRIVACY ACT 1988 - SECT 94H

Requiring the use of COVIDSafe

(1) A person commits an offence if the person requires another person to:

(a) download COVIDSafe to a communication device; or

(b) have COVIDSafe in operation on a communication device; or

(c) consent to uploading COVID app data from a communication device to the National COVIDSafe Data Store.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 5 years or 300 penalty units, or both.

(2) A person commits an offence if the person:

(a) refuses to enter into, or continue, a contract or arrangement with another person (including a contract of employment); or

(b) takes adverse action (within the meaning of the Fair Work Act 2009 ) against another person; or

(c) refuses to allow another person to enter:

(i) premises that are otherwise accessible to the public; or

(ii) premises that the other person has a right to enter; or

(d) refuses to allow another person to participate in an activity; or

(e) refuses to receive goods or services from another person, or insists on providing less monetary consideration for the goods or services; or

(f) refuses to provide goods or services to another person, or insists on receiving more monetary consideration for the goods or services;

on the ground that, or on grounds that include the ground that, the other person:

(g) has not downloaded COVIDSafe to a communication device; or

(h) does not have COVIDSafe in operation on a communication device; or

(i) has not consented to uploading COVID app data from a communication device to the National COVIDSafe Data Store.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 5 years or 300 penalty units, or both.

(3) To avoid doubt:

(a) subsection (2) is a workplace law for the purposes of the Fair Work Act 2009 ; and

(b) the benefit that the other person derives because of an obligation of the person under subsection (2) is a workplace right within the meaning of Part 3-1 of that Act.

http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/pa1988108/s94h.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14249450 (020608ZAUG21) Notable: Video: YouTube’s Murdoch ban over COVID lies - Kevin Rudd

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>>128488

YouTube’s Murdoch ban over COVID lies

Kevin Rudd

Aug 1, 2021

In the midst of a pandemic — more than half the country into lockdown, severe sickness & death, and businesses suffering — Murdoch’s vultures have been caught out lying to the Australian people on basic medical information. And then trying to cover it up. #MurdochRoyalCommission / MurdochRC.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z8tbYj3Rgw

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14249700 (020734ZAUG21) Notable: Plot to oust government, replace AFP thwarted by counter-terrorism police, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_AFP_s_Andrew_Donoghoe_says_police_have_dismantled_a_group_seeking_to_overthrow_the_government.jpg

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>>128498

Plot to oust government, replace AFP

Tracey Ferrier - 02/08/2021

A plan to overthrow the Morrison government and arrest senior MPs and bureaucrats has been thwarted by counter-terrorism police.

The bizarre plot also involved setting up an alternative police force and the manufacture of 470 fake Australian Federal Police badges found dumped in a creek in Cairns.

One man has been arrested in Perth and other arrests are expected in coming days.

The group is allegedly behind a fake video circulating online and purportedly from AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, calling on people to join the AFP and overthrow the federal government.

One man arrested in Perth at the weekend has been charged with one count of impersonating a Commonwealth public official.

AFP Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Donoghoe said the man claimed to be a Commonwealth official during an unsuccessful attempt to obtain stamps and ID badges, bearing the official AFP logo, from a commercial business.

"We are also aware of a shipment of three boxes of replica AFP badges consigned to a house in Cairns. These were found dumped in a local creek and recovered by the Queensland Police," he said.

There were 470 badges in all.

"Inquiries are continuing to ensure no other badges are in possession of this group or any of their associates.

"We have no evidence that this group has the ability or capability to commit violent acts to overthrow the government.

"But the behaviour of these people is extremely concerning and we are continuing our investigation to identify any criminal offences as a result."

Mr Donoghoe said the fake video circulating online demonstrated that "they wanted to establish a separate Australian Federal Police force".

"They had issued several warrants for a number of high-profile government people and they intended to execute those arrest warrants on those people," he said.

He described the video as complete and utter nonsense with no truth or credibility.

The operation to dismantle the group followed a two-week investigation with raids carried out over the weekend in Perth, Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns and rural South Australia.

More arrests are expected.

https://7news.com.au/news/crime/man-busted-over-afp-boss-impersonation-c-3573321

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14249732 (020743ZAUG21) Notable: Man charged with impersonating Commonwealth official as search warrants executed in three states - Australian Federal Police - 2 August 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Man_charged_with_impersonating_Commonwealth_official_as_search_warrants_executed_in_three_states.jpg

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>>128498

Man charged with impersonating Commonwealth official as search warrants executed in three states

Australian Federal Police - 2 August 2021

A Perth man was charged with impersonating a Commonwealth public official and six search warrants were executed across three states on Saturday as part of a Queensland Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) investigation into a group of people allegedly impersonating government officials and holding anti-government sentiment.

The Queensland JCTT executed search warrants in Brisbane, Cairns and Townsville, while additional search warrants were executed in Peterborough (SA) and two locations in Perth (including the suburb of Tuart Hill) by the Joint Counter Terrorism Teams in those states. The purpose of these warrants was to disrupt the group’s activities, and collect evidence which may indicate criminal actions.

Queensland JCTT investigators have not found an impending threat to community safety, and have yet to find any evidence the group had the ability to carry out acts they had discussed.

A 49-year-old man from Tuart Hill is scheduled to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on Monday, 16 August 2021. Police will allege he claimed to be an AFP official during an unsuccessful attempt to obtain stamps and ID badges bearing the official Australian Federal Police (AFP) logo from a commercial business. Further enquiries are continuing into this man’s activities.

Police will allege members of the group are responsible for a video that is circulating through social media channels that falsely claims to be a recording of the AFP Commissioner detailing anti-government sentiment and encouraging others to join. The man speaking in this video is not AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw.

JCTT enquiries identified the man speaking in this recording, and found him to be part of a group of like-minded people across Australia who regularly met online and discussed their shared interest in taking over the Federal Government, including the creation of ‘arrest warrants’ for a number of high-profile politicians and public servants.

Investigators were last week made aware of a shipment of three boxes of replica AFP badges that were consigned to a house in Cairns where a member of the group lived. These three boxes were found dumped in a local creek and recovered by the Queensland Police Service. A total of 470 badges were recovered by police before the execution of search warrants, and enquiries are continuing to ensure the entire shipment of badges has been recovered.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Counter Terrorism Scott Lee said it was concerning a group of people had arranged the manufacture of AFP replica badges and creation of a false video online.

“We have found no evidence this group has the ability – or has actually attempted – to carry out specific violent acts in support of statements made by members of this group. The Queensland JCTT acted early in this instance to stop any potential disturbing activities at the earliest possible stage, and we will not hesitate to lay further charges if more criminal offences are identified,” he said.

“The general public needs to know that a video purporting to be of the AFP Commissioner calling for people to join in a plan to create a new government is complete and utter nonsense – it is not from the Commissioner, it is not from the AFP and has absolutely no credibility. We continue to investigate those we believe are responsible for creating it.”

Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Debbie Platz, Security and Counter Terrorism Command, urged members of the public with any information relevant to this matters to come forward.

“The Queensland Police Service values the ongoing relationships it has fostered with the Australian Federal Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation as part of the JCTT to keep Queensland safe,” she said.

“These types of activities can easily escalate, and we urge members of the community to contact Crime Stoppers or the National Security Hotline with any information of concern.”

The man from Tuart Hill has been charged with one count of impersonation of Commonwealth public officials, contrary to section 148.1 (2) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). The maximum penalty for this offence is two years imprisonment.

The Queensland JCTT is comprised of members of the Australian Federal Police, Queensland Police Service and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

Anyone with information about extremist activity or possible threats to the community should come forward, no matter how small or insignificant you may think the information may be. The National Security Hotline is 1800 123 400.

UPDATE: Audio from this media conference can be downloaded from Hightail - https://spaces.hightail.com/space/Uy5eonBUKP

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/man-charged-impersonating-commonwealth-official-search-warrants-executed

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14249774 (020755ZAUG21) Notable: Man charged over fake video of AFP chief Kershaw ‘plotting coup’, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: AFP_commissioner_Reece_Kershaw.jpg

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>>128498

Man charged over fake video of AFP chief Kershaw ‘plotting coup’

STEPHEN RICE - AUGUST 2, 2021

A faked video purporting to be a leaked briefing by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw planning to arrest government leaders for treason is circulating in online conspiracy circles and has been watched more than 100,000 times, with police sources expressing fear that unbalanced individuals may act on it.

Police sources say a man has been charged over the circulation of the videos.

The video claims to reveal Commissioner Kershaw “spelling out the crimes of how our ‘leaders’ have hijacked our Government and how they will be taken down under common law and the constitution.”

Police authorities who track online conspiracy activists have become increasingly alarmed at the proliferation of anti-vax and anti-lockdown messaging inciting violence and armed resistance to lockdown and other restrictions.

“This has already started,” the man purported to be Commissioner Kershaw says in the video. “When are we going to overthrow the Government? ASAP! This is lawful arrest warrants on people who have done wrong by the criminal justice system and we have to arrest them for that.”

The “commissioner” tells potential recruits some of them will be armed but “the last resort is to pull a handgun on someone – we don’t want to do it; we want to do it lawfully and under the 1979 Police Act.”

They will be getting an AFP badge, he says, but “only to be used on the day of the arrests.”

The fake video clip has been posted on dozens of social media sites including pages belonging to celebrity chef Pete Evans, rebel MP Craig Kelly and activists linked to the recent “Freedom Day” protest marches.

The man who calls himself “the commissioner” claims to have a handgun that he brings to meetings to “show people this is not a bloody game. There could be times where your life could be threatened.”

“This is not a coup, this is not a terrorist act,” he says. “If you think you’re going in guns blazing and it’s going to be all fun and games, it’s not. This is not a game. You’re signing on for something that could be dangerous.”

“The people at the top will be removed from their positions,” the man says. The Governor-General Sir David Hurley will be “taken from power completely” and “the true Governor General”– far right activist Teresa van Lieshout – will be installed in his place.

Former One Nation and Palmer United Party candidate Teresa van Lieshout posts videos issuing “arrest warrants” for various politicians, state premiers and chief medical officers for offences including murder and treason.

The Australian understands the audio is of a real Zoom meeting conducted on the Gold Coast by a splinter group connected to the far-right Citizens Initiated Referendum, for the purpose of recruiting gullible volunteers.

The audio of the meeting has then been re-badged with a picture of Commissioner Kershaw and added text to make it appear he is the speaker.

The session purports to be an opportunity for volunteers to sign up for a secret section of the AFP where they will be given firearms and self-defence training.

The Citizens Initiated Referendum claims Australia’s leaders are traitors and the death penalty should be re-introduced for treason.

The group’s website states that “Australia is heading towards a similar fate to Germany before Hitler came along”, and that “Hitler has plenty to teach us.”

The site links to videos claiming that “Jews are a people of robbers” who have “destroyed civilisations by the hundreds.”

The man claiming to be Commissioner Kershaw says in the video: “All you have to do is sign on, learn the basic self defence, be ready for when we give you that direction to be called up, to effect the arrest warrants.

“So long as you’re ready to stand up and effect the arrest warrants and dissolve the political parties that have done wrong, we don’t have a problem with that

“They won’t be able to come in and vax you because we will stop that. That’s why I’m calling upon Australians, men and women, we need you to sign on, to stand up, put on the boxing gloves and get ready to go. Be ready to do your duty, not only as a Federal Police Officer but as a citizen.

“Eventually they’ll pull a full lockdown on us and that’s something we can’t have.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/man-charged-over-fake-video-of-afp-chief-kershaw-plotting-coup/news-story/b9acb20b6be8263a7c3e033a2ce5e6e3

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14249989 (020841ZAUG21) Notable: U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Australia - Chargé d’Affaires Doug Sonnek Speech: Talisman Sabre Closing Ceremony - August 01, 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Charg_d_Affaires_Doug_Sonnek_Speech_Talisman_Sabre_Closing_Ceremony.jpg

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>>128304

U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Australia

Chargé d’Affaires Doug Sonnek Speech: Talisman Sabre Closing Ceremony

August 01, 2021

Talisman Sabre Closing Ceremony – Kissing Point, Townsville

“It is a pleasure to be here with you in Townsville for the conclusion of Talisman Sabre 2021.

Since 2005, Talisman Sabre has created opportunities for the United States and Australia to work closely together to enhance our collective military capabilities.

Over the past month, here in Queensland, our combined militaries have undertaken critical, high-level training exercises to improve the capacity of our servicemen and women to work together.

We were pleased to welcome some ten thousand American Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Guardians to experience for themselves the close bond our two nations share.

This exercise achieved significant milestones in our military interoperability, including firing the U.S. Marine Corp’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket System here in Queensland.

The ninth iteration of Talisman Sabre was only possible thanks to the Australian and Queensland governments, for enabling this crucial bilateral military training event to proceed safely during a global pandemic.

We also thank all the servicemen and women who have conscientiously adhered to COVID guidelines throughout.

Although this year’s exercise may have looked different due to the pandemic, one thing remains the same: our relationship stands strong.

Despite the challenges of a global pandemic, we have completed this essential exercise, in the presence of our many allies and partners invited to observe.

Talisman Sabre is a critical component in our mission to advance an open, interconnected, resilient, and secure Indo-Pacific.

Exercises such as Talisman Sabre lay the very foundation of our collective response capabilities in the real world.

I personally witnessed our ability to work together when Cyclone Winston devastated Fiji in 2016. I was there when the deadly category five storm struck.

Soon after, Australian and U.S. service members delivered humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The way our countries worked together to provide help in a time of great need reinforced to me, and to the world, that our alliance is a force for good, especially for our friends in the Indo-Pacific.

Ours is an Alliance that spans decades, extends far beyond our military relationship, and is celebrated this year by the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty.

When Australia and the United States came together to sign the Treaty in 1951 at the Presidio in San Francisco, our countries declared formally, and for all time, that we are here for each other.

As we look back on the relationship between the U.S. and Australia, at the same time we remain forward-looking.

Close collaboration on the emerging technologies that will shape the next 70 years of our alliance will also create jobs and grow both economies.

Our alliance is unshakeable, and together we are ready for anything.

We look ahead to new and emerging opportunities to work together to ensure the future security and prosperity of all our nations.

We remain resilient and flexible, as demonstrated at Talisman Sabre across the last few weeks.

We will be where we need to be, shoulder to shoulder with our Australian counterparts, as we have been for decades.

Thank you for joining us at Talisman Sabre 2021, we look forward to meeting once again in the future.”

https://au.usembassy.gov/charge-daffaires-doug-sonnek-speech-talisman-sabre-closing-ceremony/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14250019 (020848ZAUG21) Notable: Defence Minister Peter Dutton flags participation of India in Australia’s biggest wargames with the US, saying he’d like to see the nation’s Quad partner at Exercise Talisman Sabre in two years’ time, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Australian_troops_leave_a_landing_craft_for_a_simulated_beach_assault_at_Forrest_Beach_in_Queensland_during_Talisman_Sabre_2021.jpg

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>>128304

Push to recruit India for Australian wargames

BEN PACKHAM - AUGUST 1, 2021

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has flagged the participation of India in Australia’s biggest wargames with the US, saying he’d like to see the nation’s Quad partner at Exercise Talisman Sabre in two years’ time.

Mr Dutton said the participation of Japan, another Quadrilateral Security Dialogue member, had been a highlight of this year’s exercise in Queensland, which ­officially concluded on Sunday.

He said he hoped Indian forces would be able to attend Talisman Sabre 2023, and believed the matter was under consideration by the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell.

The inclusion of India, which invited Australia to its Malabar naval exercise with the US and Japan last year, would further elevate Talisman Sabre’s strategic significance by bringing in the only absent Quad partner.

“It would be great to see India here,” Mr Dutton said. “Obviously the Quad has been quite remarkable. We have had the ability there … to deepen that relationship, and that relationship will continue to be strengthened.”

The inclusion of India in the biennial exercise would likely infuriate Beijing, with Chinese state-controlled media describing Australia’s participation in Malabar as an unwelcome step towards the establishment of an “Asian version of NATO”.

In an interview on HMAS Canberra during Talisman Sabre 2021, Mr Dutton also expressed confidence that the US would allow the sharing of sensitive missile technology with Australian to establish a sovereign guided weapons industry.

“The Americans have trust and faith and that is built on operations like this over many decades,” he said.

“The intellectual property is tightly held, which is completely understandable.

“But there are also capacity constraints in the US, within their system, around manufacturing and production.

“Australia can provide not only a deepening of our own capability, but we can also provide support back into the US system.”

Mr Dutton said discussions with the US on the matter had been “productive”, and were ongoing. His comments come ahead of a planned bilateral meeting between Scott Morrison and US President Joe Biden, and a face-to-face meeting of Quad nation leaders in Washington DC in September.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14257305 (030828ZAUG21) Notable: Military lockdown gambit exposes Canberra's double standards - Lu Xue - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: A_delivery_person_crosses_the_street_in_the_usually_bustling_shopping_district_of_Parramatta_on_Wednesday_in_Sydney_Australia.jpg

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Military lockdown gambit exposes Canberra's double standards

Lu Xue - Aug 01, 2021

Three hundred Australian military personnel will begin on Monday to help local police crackdown on residents who flout stay-at-home restrictions amid rising COVID-19 cases, Australian media outlet ABC News reported on Friday.

An outbreak of the hyper transmissible Delta variant of the novel coronavirus continues to grow in Australia. New South Wales broke the record of daily coronavirus cases with 239 new infections reported on Thursday, the highest tally since the pandemic begun, according to Sky News. And news.com.au said that Queensland on Sunday reported the highest increase in infections all year with nine positive cases.

In response to the latest outbreak, Sydney on Wednesday extended its lockdown by another four weeks. But anti-lockdown protests have taken place in Australia against the tight restrictions to address a rise of COVID-19 cases.

The protesters reportedly marched unmasked in Sydney carrying signs calling for "freedom" and threw bottles at mounted police officers. This will make it more difficult to curb the spread of the virus in Australia.

In Australia, a so-called liberal democracy, some of the public tend to be anti-intellectual. They ignore the common sense of public health, refuse to wear masks and object to taking vaccines. In a bid to effectively handle the pandemic, Australia has to take drastic measures.

Canberra has been critical of China's effective response to control the disease. For example, ABC News in April 2020 published an article, which indicated that the Chinese government's efforts to track some of its citizens through software that analyzes their personal data to identify their health status and level of risk for COVID-19 "alarmed" human rights advocates.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in June 2020 that "some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy to promote their own more authoritarian models." An AP News report analyzed she was referencing China and Russia.

Now, quite ironically, it turns out that Canberra plans to send its military personnel to help enforce social lockdown.

"This is a typical double standard on the side of Australia," Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Centre, East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"Judging from the desperate situation in Sydney and the military reinforcement, Australia is aware that the right to life is the most important human rights. To help ensure the effectiveness of the lockdown, Australia's move to send military personnel into Sydney seems draconian among nations," Chen said.

Now, it is known to all that Australia's incessant unwarranted criticism of China in terms of freedom and human rights is not about human rights at all. Instead, Canberra has exploited it to echo Washington's anti-China policy, Chen said. "For a time, the Morrison administration has made use of every opportunity to smear and demonize China by politicizing issues such as lockdowns, QR code inspection, mass vaccination and other measures adopted in China's battle against the Covid-19 pandemic," he noted.

Chen said, "Australia has manipulated the definitions of democracy, freedom and human rights as a political weapon to discredit China. The Canberra government has been handling such concepts arbitrarily to serve their ulterior motives. Their goal is crystal clear that is to attack China."

Against this backdrop, no matter what China does, Australian politicians and media outlets will interpret it as a "Chinese conspiracy". Such a bizarre mentality is neither conducive for China-Australia ties nor an effective response to deal with COVID-19.

The rapid spread of the Delta variant is complicating global attempts to stem the spread of the virus, and it is high time for global cooperation. Coordinating the US government's anti-China strategy by badmouthing China will do no good to Australia.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230241.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14257322 (030833ZAUG21) Notable: Barrister acting for Ben Roberts-Smith urges Federal Court to admit into evidence WhatsApp messages that allegedly show key witness for Nine newspapers, Afghan villager Mohammed Hanifa, gave “inconsistent statement” while under cross-examination, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Ben_Roberts_Smith_denies_kicking_an_unarmed_farmer_off_a_cliff_in_2012_but_says_he_helped_shoot_a_Taliban_spotter_during_that_raid.png

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>>128214

>>128502

WhatsApp messages reveal Nine witness’s ‘inconsistency’

KIERAN GAIR - AUGUST 2, 2021

A barrister acting for Ben Roberts-Smith in the war veteran’s defamation trial has urged the Federal Court to admit into evidence WhatsApp messages that allegedly show a key witness for Nine newspapers, Afghan villager Mohammed Hanifa, gave an “inconsistent statement” while under cross-examination last week.

On Monday, Arthur Moses, SC, acting for Mr Roberts-Smith, said WhatsApp messages obtained by the war veteran’s legal team suggested Mr Hanifa, who claimed he witnessed a “big soldier” kick his step-uncle Ali Jan off a cliff, was told by an Afghan official that he could “receive compensation” for Ali Jan’s death.

Last week, Mr Hanifa repeatedly denied giving false evidence during cross-examination about a September 2012 raid on Darwan, and the circumstances surrounding the alleged killing of Ali Jan, who he claims was kicked off a cliff by a big “blue-eyed” soldier and then shot dead by Australian troops behind a berry tree.

In an at times fiery cross-examination, Mr Hanifa was accused by Bruce McClintock, SC, acting for Mr Roberts-Smith, of discussing the possibility of obtaining compensation for Ali Jan’s death with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

At a case management hearing on Monday, Mr Moses told the court that WhatsApp messages from December last year indicated the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission had “mentioned” to Mr Hanifa that “if Ali Jan is your brother or father, file your complaint” and “compensation will be provided.”

He said a representative for Nine in Afghanistan had told the media company’s legal team via Whatsapp about the alleged communication between Mr Hanifa and the Afghan Human Rights Commission.

“The HRC director tells Hanifa some compensation will be provided to affected families by Australians through the HRC in Tarin Kowt,” Mr Moses said.

“He (was) told that there were two groups against each other and one group is facing justice.”

When asked by Mr McClintock last week if he had spoken with anyone from the human rights agency about compensation for Ali Jan’s death, Mr Hanifa said: “I haven’t done that, I haven’t talked to anyone.”

In fact, Mr Moses told the court, the Afghan villager had “spoken to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission”, had been told that compensation “would be provided to affected families”, and was also told that “if Ali Jan was your father or your brother you could file the complaint.”

“The WhatsApp messages tend to prove that Mohammed Hanifa has made a prior inconsistent statement,” Mr Moses said. “The court should admit the WhatsApp messages.”

Nicholas Owens, SC, acting for Nine, told the court the messages were hearsay because they had not been sent by Mr Hanifa, and that Mr Moses would need to “demonstrate why a hearsay exception would apply.”

The defamation trial was adjourned on Friday and will likely resume on November 1, due to the uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 lockdown in Sydney.

On Monday, the court heard Nine intended to call a further “24 witnesses, of whom some 19 are interstate”, while Mr Roberts-Smith may call 19 witnesses in reply.

Speaking via an interpreter from Kabul, Mr Hanifa told the court last week that he saw a “big soldier” kick a handcuffed Ali Jan off a cliff. Mr Hanifa said he saw two soldiers dragging Ali Jan behind a berry tree and then heard gunshots. When he next saw Ali Jan, he was dead.

Under cross-examination, Mr Hanifa conceded that he “hated” Australian soldiers. “If they are coming to our houses, go inside to our women, of course that’s what you call them — infidels,” Mr Hanifa said.

“You call people who are killed by infidel soldiers martyrs, don’t you?” Mr McClintock asked. “Yes, that’s it, yes,” Mr Hanifa said. “And that’s how you see them isn‘t it?” “Yes, yes,” Mr Hanifa replied.

The alleged killing of Ali Jan is the centrepiece allegation in Mr Roberts-Smiths’ action against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over claims that he committed or was complicit in six unlawful killings during deployments to Afghanistan.

Nine alleges Mr Roberts-Smith kicked Ali Jan off a cliff, and then agreed with a colleague – Person 11 – that Mr Jan would be shot dead. He denies the allegations and says the reports portray him as a war criminal.

Justice Anthony Besanko will make a ruling on the messages at a later date.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/whatsapp-messages-reveal-nine-witnesss-inconsistency/news-story/07076a7626314e9021b469c9cc650b60

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14257419 (030908ZAUG21) Notable: Talisman Sabre’s theatre of war - Australia’s biggest defence exercise with the US has grown into a significant multinational training event, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: An_Australian_light_armoured_vehicle_rolls_off_HMS_Canberra_s_landing_craft_on_to_Forrest_Beach_near_Ingham_in_north_Queensland.jpg

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>>128304

Talisman Sabre’s theatre of war

BEN PACKHAM - AUGUST 2, 2021

1/3

On the upper vehicle deck inside HMAS Canberra, 33 Japanese soldiers wearing black face masks check their weapons, surrounded by a larger group of British Royal Marine Commandos.

The Japan Self-Defence Force troops are part of an elite marine unit, the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, established three years ago to counter Chinese threats to the country’s island territories in the East China Sea.

The platoon of Japanese soldiers is the smallest of the combined forces aboard HMAS Canberra for the amphibious assault exercise. But its presence is significant.

The Australian has been invited aboard HMAS Canberra for the final week of Talisman Sabre 2021 – Australia’s biggest defence exercise with the US, which has grown into a significant multinational training event.

This year the exercise tests the interoperability of seven nations’ militaries – those of Australia, the US, Britain, Japan, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand. All share democratic values and a deep desire to protect the international rules-based order.

Crucially, of the participants in Talisman Sabre this year, Japan is closest to the frontline of strategic geopolitical tensions with China; facing regular incursions by Chinese military, coast guard and maritime militia into its territorial waters. As a fellow member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, with Australia, the US and India, Japan is also a vital partner in the combined Indo-Pacific pushback against Chinese attempts to flout international norms.

The presence of two Chinese spy ships monitoring Talisman Sabre from international waters for the duration of the exercise provides a constant reminder of its strategic backdrop.

The landing of 650 Australian, US, British and Japanese personnel from HMAS Canberra, and the subsequent “battle” for the north Queensland town of Ingham last Friday, is the culmination of a month of combined exercises involving 17,000 personnel, 18 ships, 70 fixed wing aircraft and 50 helicopters.

The Australian hitches a ride to HMAS Canberra with Peter Dutton on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. The Defence Minister lauds Japan’s contribution and flags the future participation of India – the only absent Quad partner – in the next Talisman Sabre in 2023.

“It would be great to see India here,” Dutton says. “Obviously the Quad has been quite remarkable.

“Our Five Eyes partnerships obviously, historically, have been the underpinning of our training model and our intelligence gathering and sharing. But as we see here, with Japan and with many other partners, there really is a very significant collaboration with countries within the Indo-Pacific, and Japan has really stepped up and is an important partner.”

For the purposes of the amphibious exercise, Ingham and its surrounds are cast as an island that had been occupied by a large force of “North Torbians” – a fictional “near peer” enemy with comparable air, ground, maritime, space, and cyber capabilities.

For Australia, an isolated, three-ocean nation with friends and partners scattered throughout the region, it’s a potentially realistic scenario.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14257474 (030929ZAUG21) Notable: Local, national and calls to mobiles will now be free from Telstra payphones, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Telstra_has_previously_made_its_15_000_payphones_free_to_use_at_Christmas_and_New_Year.jpg

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Local, national and calls to mobiles will now be free from Telstra payphones

abc.net.au - 3 August 2021

Future generations may never know the thrill of making a reverse-charges call to their parents after Telstra made its 15,000 payphones free.

The telco announced today local or national calls to a fixed line or Australian mobile from a Telstra payphone would no longer incur a charge.

The move means the days of scrambling for 50 cents in change, or devising a code involving a predetermined number of rings were effectively over.

The company said around 11 million calls were made from its payphones last year, including 230,000 calls to critical services such as 000 and Lifeline.

Telstra CEO Andy Penn said the move to make every payphone free would cost the company around $5 million a year.

"Just watching over the last 18 months how they've played a role in emergency situations through the bushfires in keeping people connected and particularly those that are vulnerable and disadvantaged, I just thought we've got to a point where we can make this free," he said

"It's not not a big deal for Telstra."

"It just means people don't have to worry about having a pocketful of coins if they need to make a phone call in an emergency."

Mr Penn said Telstra had no plans to remove any of the payphones, and the number of phones the company maintained was determined by the federal government.

The phones have previously been made free to communities affected by natural disasters, or in remote indigenous communities.

Telstra has also offered free Christmas and New Year calls from its payphones for the past five years.

Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle said it was a "game changer" for people who couldn't afford a mobile phone, or have had to leave dangerous domestic situations.

"Many vulnerable Australians don't have access to a mobile phone so it's really important for them to break down that sense of social poverty, social isolation to connect with a friend, or to connect with a service," he said.

"During COVID we've seen the spotlight shone on isolation and the reality is there is a proportion of Australians that suffer from social isolation every day of their lives."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-03/telstra-has-made-its-15000-payphones-free/100344664

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14265549 (040605ZAUG21) Notable: Covid-19 returns to Wuhan, China - Wuhan is in a “wartime state”, local officials say, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Shoppers_stock_up_in_a_Wuhan_supermarket_as_the_central_Chinese_city_records_its_first_Covid_19_cases_in_more_than_a_year.jpg, A_Wuhan_resident_is_given_a_nucleic_acid_test_for_the_coronavirus.jpg

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Covid-19 returns to Wuhan, China

WILL GLASGOW - AUGUST 4, 2021

Wuhan is in a “wartime state”, local officials say, with the coronavirus returning to the central Chinese city where it was first ­detected in late 2019.

Across China, domestic summer holiday plans are in tatters and mass testing is under way as the fiendishly infectious Delta variant strains even the world’s strictest public health orders.

Many in Wuhan – veterans of last year’s 76-day lockdown – stocked up on essentials on Tuesday, a day after seven new cases were detected in the city, which has a population 11 million.

Simon Carter, an Australian geophysicist who now lives in Wuhan, set off to buy lentils and red wine before he and his wife lined up for yet another test.

“It was always going to come back,” Dr Carter said. “I do worry. When do we get back to normal?”

Life in Wuhan has actually been closer to normal than in most of the world over the past 14 months, the last time officials announced a coronavirus case had been found in the city.

A year ago, thousands in Wuhan celebrated their freedom from the pandemic with a mask-less pool party that stunned the world outside China.

That won’t be repeated this month now that Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, has joined the burgeoning list of Chinese ­cities struggling with a growing cluster of Delta cases.

The Chinese outbreak began with the infection of an airport cleaner in Nanjing in China’s east in July and has since spread to Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai and Wuhan, as well as some of the country’s most populous provinces, including Hunan and Fujian.

Wuhan’s summer holiday plans are now ruined. And it is the same situation across China, as local governments advise against all but essential travel.

Ms Tan, a teacher in Wuhan, said she had to cancel a planned trip to ­Liaoning, a province in China’s northeast on the border with North Korea. And she is far from alone.

“Many people I know have had to cancel travel,” she said.

This outbreak is not terrifying like the original one, which killed thousands as Wuhan’s hospital system was the first in the world to be overwhelmed by what was then an unknown virus.

More than a year and a half after those first cases were ­detected, the country’s corona­virus set-up is formidable.

China was the first country to establish a smartphone check-in system which – combined with a political system that is less troubled than Australia’s with individual rights – has helped with contact tracing.

It has also pioneered a system of mass testing that operates on a scale unparalleled in the world. The entire population of Wuhan – which is the size of Melbourne and Sydney combined – was first tested in just 10 days last May.

Following orders this week from Hubei party secretary Ying Yong to “quickly enter a wartime state”, the city’s 11 million people are being tested again. They aim to be completed by next week.

Similar mass testing is being undertaken across the country as China’s officials desperately try to retain the almost Covid-free status of the world’s second-­biggest economy.

They hope it will allow China’s cities to avoid the extended lockdowns that have occurred in ­Australia.

More than half of China’s 1.4 billion people have been twice jabbed with the locally made Sino­vac and Sinopharm vaccines.

While those vaccines have not stopped people getting infected with Delta, China’s most famous doctor Zhong Nanshan said they had greatly reduced the severity of the cases.

“They still have a protective ­effect,” said Dr Zhong in an interview with Chinese media.

The national Covid-19 outbreak – which grew to a total of 61 new domestic cases on Monday – has overtaken China’s gold medal dominance at the Tokyo Olympics as the most discussed topic in the country.

As in Australia, many in China are grumbling about whether this current outbreak could have been avoided.

Feng Jun, who was the party secretary of Nanjing airport until he was sacked last month, has been widely pilloried.

“He ruined the summer ­vacation of all Chinese students,” said one commentator.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/covid19-returns-to-wuhan-china/news-story/67168cb79f07deb4f9e76c9644d621c3

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14265795 (040739ZAUG21) Notable: Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Commonwealth of Australia - Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's Remarks, 2021/07/22 - "Recently, the Japanese ambassador to Australia has made some nasty remarks regarding China.", MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Chinese_Embassy_Spokesperson_s_Remarks_2021_07_22.jpg

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>>128377

Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Commonwealth of Australia

Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's Remarks - 2021/07/22

Recently, the Japanese ambassador to Australia has made some nasty remarks regarding China. At a diplomatic function in Canberra not long ago, he attempted blatantly to whitewash and even beautify the brutal aggression and atrocities by the Japanese militarists in World War II. It is all natural he was excoriated by the Chinese ambassador on the spot. And his offer to invite the Chinese ambassador for a dinner was politely declined.

In 2010, China surpassed Japan in terms of GDP. Unfortunately up to today, a small number of Japanese with imperial dream still cannot come to terms with history and reality. But the trajectory of world development will not be altered just because someone does not like it.

http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/sghdxwfb_1/t1894240.htm

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14265799 (040741ZAUG21) Notable: Chinese embassy in Canberra accuses Japanese ambassador of 'nasty remarks', MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Mr_Yamagami_had_praised_Australia_s_resolve_in_the_face_of_economic_pressure_from_Beijing.jpg, The_statement_was_posted_on_the_official_website_of_the_Chinese_embassy_in_Canberra.jpg, Tokyo_Beijing_relations_have_deteriorated_since_Shinzo_Abe_second_left_resigned_as_Japan_s_prime_minister_last_year.jpg, Japanese_and_Australian_warships_are_planning_more_joint_exercises_in_the_South_China_Sea.jpg

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>>128377

>>128515

Chinese embassy in Canberra accuses Japanese ambassador of 'nasty remarks'

Stephen Dziedzic - 3 August 2021

The Chinese embassy in Australia has launched an extraordinary personal attack on Shingo Yamagami, Japan's ambassador in Canberra, accusing him of making "nasty remarks" about China and glorifying Japanese war crimes at a diplomatic function.

The embassy said China's ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, responded by "excoriating" Mr Yamagami at the event.

But Japan's embassy firmly denied that Mr Yamagami had ever praised Japan's World War II legacy and insisted the two ambassadors never engaged in a verbal confrontation.

The confusing diplomatic stoush was kickstarted by a highly unusual statement posted to the Chinese embassy's website 10 days ago.

"At a diplomatic function in Canberra not long ago [Japan's ambassador] attempted blatantly to whitewash, and even beautify, the brutal aggression and atrocities by the Japanese militarists in World War II," it reads.

"It is … natural he was excoriated by the Chinese ambassador on the spot. And his offer to invite the Chinese ambassador for a dinner was politely declined."

The Chinese embassy released the statement a day after Mr Yamagami gave a speech to the National Press Club, praising Australia's policies on China.

He said the federal government had "faced up to tremendous pressure in a consistent, principled and resilient manner".

The Chinese embassy statement called the speech "nasty" and accused the ambassador of pining for the days of imperial Japan.

"In 2010, China surpassed Japan in terms of GDP. Unfortunately … a small number of Japanese with imperial dream[s] still cannot come to terms with history and reality," it says.

"But the trajectory of world development will not be altered just because someone does not like it."

However, it is not clear exactly which event the Chinese embassy is referring to when it talks about the ambassador excoriating Mr Yamagami.

China's ambassador Cheng Jingye did not attend the National Press Club speech given by Mr Yamagami, so the alleged confrontation could not have happened there.

The ABC asked the Chinese embassy to provide more details. But officials simply said Mr Yamagami's speech spoke for itself and they had nothing further to add.

Ambassadors attended Holocaust memorial event

The Japanese embassy told the ABC it did not know which function the Chinese embassy was referring to, and the two ambassadors had never exchanged barbs.

Mr Yamagami and the Chinese ambassador did both speak at a Holocaust memorial event hosted by the Israeli embassy in April.

But a spokesperson for the Japanese embassy said the Japanese ambassador spoke only about the Holocaust at the function.

While Mr Yamagami referred briefly to Japanese officials who helped Jews flee Europe to reach safety, he made no references to the war in Asia or Japan's military conquests in World War II, they said.

The spokesperson added that if the Chinese embassy's statement was indeed aimed at that speech, then it was not an accurate portrayal.

The Chinese embassy's attack on the ambassador coincides with a broader deterioration of ties between Japan and China.

There are deep reservoirs of hostility in China towards Japan over Tokyo's depredations before and during World War II, when Japanese troops murdered countless civilians and prisoners of war in China.

And fresh tensions flared in recent months as senior Japanese politicians adopted increasingly assertive language on deeply sensitive issues, from territorial disputes in the East China Sea to human rights abuses in China.

Beijing's ambassador to Japan recently declared that Japan's statements on Taiwan and Hong Kong had "seriously disturbed" the bilateral relationship, warning Tokyo against working with the United States to contain China.

Several Chinese diplomats have also embraced a far more confrontational tone — sometimes labelled "Wolf Warrior diplomacy" — partly in response to surging nationalism back home.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-03/chinese-embassy-attacks-japanese-ambassador-australia-canberra/100343564

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14265811 (040745ZAUG21) Notable: Australia all alone on anti-China path despite Japan envoy's empty talks - Chen Hong - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Australia_all_alone_on_anti_China_path_despite_Japan_envoy_s_empty_talks.jpg

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>>128377

>>128515

Australia all alone on anti-China path despite Japan envoy's empty talks

Chen Hong - Jul 23, 2021

In a recent speech made at Australia's National Press Club, Japanese Ambassador to Canberra Shingo Yamagami profusely applauded the Morrison administration's provocative and hostile approaches of handling Australia's relations with China. He slandered China's lawful and justified trade actions on Australian exports as coercive pressure, and instigated Canberra to continue relentlessly antagonizing its biggest trade partner in an inimically confrontational way. "You are doing an excellent job," commended Yamagami, adding more fuel to the already fiery tensions between Australia and China.

As Japan's top diplomat to Australia, it is obviously very undiplomatic for Yamagami to try to shove Canberra's icy relationship with Beijing into a more aggravating deadlock in such an unveiled and inflaming manner. Instability and confrontations in the Asia-Pacific region would not only impair Australia and China's national interests, but would also backfire to inflict harm on Japan itself.

The Japanese envoy went further by encouraging Canberra to invoke the mythological US-Japan-Australia alliance. "Australia, Japan, (the) United States, like-minded countries have to get together (and) join forces" to tackle "the rise of this emerging power."

However, the most recent statistics show that the US has been taking the lion's share of the market in China left by the exit of some Australian products, in particular wines, beef, timber, and seafood. Moreover, the US had not been an exporter of coal to China, but the most recent year has witnessed a sharp surge from almost zero American coal bound for China in October 2020 to 720,000 tons in May this year. American beef exports to China have now overtaken Australian products, harvesting on the huge Chinese market with an increasing middle class population of 400 million strong.

In fact, even Japan itself has been handling its relations with China in ways much more cautious and prudent than Australia. While differences and disputes remain between the two countries, Tokyo has managed to maintain political, economic, social and cultural dialogues and exchanges with Beijing at various levels.

In recent months, Australia has been hit by successive outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular with the Delta variant rampaging in its major cities and towns. Almost half of the population are confined at home with another round of lockdown, with no foreseeable prospect of an immediate lift. Australia's economy, pillared with exports, tourism and international education, has been facing serious peril with international travel and supply chains disrupted and therefore adversely impacted. It is in essence irrational and self-defeating that Canberra has been ferociously turning against its comprehensive strategic partner, China, jeopardizing its own long-term economic health.

The Japanese ambassador's void promises and futile support carry no actual substance. It is simply out of the question that Japan, itself ensnared in the deteriorating pandemic, would lend a helping hand to Australia's economic plight.

One thing that causes alarm is that Yamagami attempted to coax Australia to get implicated in the contestations in the East China Sea, on the ground that, according to his absurd logic, Australia's trade shipping route goes through the said waters. But it is plain to any eye that the destinations of most of Australia's trade going through the East China Sea are located in China. Does Yamagami really believe that Canberra politicians are so gullible as to believe China would attack shipments destined to its own ports? His ulterior motive is simply to embroil Australia into Japan's illegitimate territorial contest for the island.

Canberra has already been acting as the deputy sheriff for Washington's anti-China campaign, only to gravely spoil the mutually beneficial relations with China that for almost 50 years had brought substantive dynamism to its economic development. Australia is an independent country with its own national interests and does not have to prioritize Washington or Tokyo's strategic goals. Do Morrison and his policymakers have the political wisdom to become aware of this and stop acting as the cat's paw for other countries?

The author is President of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies, and professor and Director of the Australian Studies Centre, East China Normal University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1229450.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14265971 (040924ZAUG21) Notable: Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz Tweet: I had an excellent call with my Australian counterpart @peterdutton_MP, emphasizing the strong bond between our countries based on shared values, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: BG_1.jpg

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Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz Tweet

I had an excellent call with my Australian counterpart @peterdutton_MP, emphasizing the strong bond between our countries based on shared values. We discussed deepening the excellent industrial & defense relations between our countries.

https://twitter.com/gantzbe/status/1422590268365230082

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14273935 (050804ZAUG21) Notable: Sydney suffers worst day of pandemic, Victoria state to enter sixth lockdown, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Personnel_from_the_Australian_Defence_Force_and_New_South_Wales_Police_Force_patrol_a_street_in_the_Bankstown_suburb_during_an_extended_lockdown_to_curb_the_spread_of_the_coronavirus_disease_COVID_19_in_Sydney.jpg

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>>128203

Sydney suffers worst day of pandemic, Victoria state to enter sixth lockdown

Renju Jose and Colin Packham - August 5, 2021

SYDNEY, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Sydney reported a record daily number of new coronavirus infections on Thursday, as Victoria state said it will enter a snap one-week lockdown as Australia struggles to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

Sydney, Australia's largest city and the capital of New South Wales state, is nearing the seventh week of its own nine-week lockdown. It reported five deaths and a record 262 infections in the past 24 hours.

Victoria state said it has detected eight new cases, the bulk of which could not be traced back to a known infection, triggering a one-week lockdown for the state's more than 6 million people from later on Thursday evening.

"Nothing about this is optional. This is a lockdown, it will be enforced, for the best of reasons and the best purposes, to bring these case numbers down, under control so we can once again be open," Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

Australia will within hours have its three most populous cities - Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - in hard lockdowns, threatening to drive the country's A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy into a second recession in as many years.

Brisbane reported another 16 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the same as the previous two days. It has been under a lockdown since July 31.

The Hunter region in New South Wales, home to the state's second-largest city of Newcastle, will also be locked down from Thursday evening after six new cases.

Officials suspect the virus in the Hunter region spread from a beach party near Newcastle after people travelled from Sydney, an apparent violation of the city's lockdown.

"Our strongest focus ... is getting to the bottom of how the disease was transmitted and introduced into Newcastle," New South Wales Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters in Sydney.

GET VACCINATED

With around 35,200 COVID-19 cases and 932 deaths, Australia has avoided the high caseloads of other developed countries but its vaccination figures are among the lowest, with only 20% of its population over 16 fully vaccinated.

Four of the five people who died in Sydney were unvaccinated while one had one dose, state health officials said, as they implored residents to get inoculated as early as possible.

They included three men in their 60s, one man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s, taking the total number of deaths in the latest outbreak in New South Wales to 21.

Health experts expect the country to endure stop-and-start lockdowns until it reaches a high vaccination coverage, but lawmakers are under mounting pressure to ease restrictions for those unable to work.

"I'm a fortunate one to be in essential service, so I'm still working, still getting paid. For other people it's a mixed bag. Some people are taking it really well and others not so well," Keirom O'Donoughue, a pharmacy salesperson in one of the worst-affected suburbs of Bankstown in Sydney, told Reuters.

($1 = 1.3535 Australian dollars)

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-new-south-wales-reports-262-local-covid-19-cases-five-deaths-2021-08-05/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14274251 (050947ZAUG21) Notable: Academic papers from the 1960s reveal how a CIA-funded 'mind control' program came to Australia - MK-Ultra and Operation Midnight Climax, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: In_the_60s_the_CIA_wanted_to_find_out_if_hypnosis_could_control_political_figures_as_portrayed_in_the_film_The_Manchurian_Candidate.jpg, Dr_Martin_Orne_was_highly_regarded_by_the_CIA_for_his_scientific_approach_to_hypnosis.jpg, When_American_POWs_defected_after_the_Korean_war_many_decided_the_communists_must_be_using_mind_control.jpg

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Academic papers from the 1960s reveal how a CIA-funded 'mind control' program came to Australia

Joey Watson - 5 August 2021

1/3

In the winter of 1960, Martin Orne, remembered as one of the 20th century's greatest psychologists, touched down in Sydney.

The American professor was due to begin a three-month sabbatical at the University of Sydney, attracted by its world-renowned psychology faculty.

Professor Orne was one of the leading researchers into hypnosis, something the Sydney team awaiting his arrival was also interested in. They were all trying to apply a scientific approach to a practice long associated with magic and mystery.

"The environment at [the University of] Sydney was electrically alive with intellectual stimulation," says psychologist Dr Peter Sheehan, who was completing his honours in psychology at the faculty during Professor Orne's visit.

"I suddenly found myself surrounded by people who were entrenched in the issues of hypnosis."

But, unbeknownst to the Sydney university staff and students, documents recently retrieved by the ABC confirm that Professor Orne was receiving funding from the secretive intelligence program MK-Ultra, which was in turn funded by the CIA.

Orne was a keen psychologist, well regarded for his scepticism and scientific rigour, but the CIA had questionable motives.

Sleep, drugs and Operation Midnight Climax

In the early years of the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union were poised for nuclear combat.

"The United States became convinced that we were under imminent threat," says Stephen Kinzer, a former foreign correspondent at the New York Times.

"[The population] felt that the Soviet Union had the power, almost at a moment's notice, not only to destroy the United States but to destroy the entire possibility of meaningful human life on Earth."

The anxieties of US citizens were not just about their nuclear capacities.

There was a widely held suspicion that the Soviets were developing mind-control capabilities.

Reports had emerged of American soldiers, captured during the Korean war, defecting to the communist side and seemingly renouncing the US.

US intelligence concluded that the communists must be hypnotising the soldiers. Alarmed, they decided that they needed to develop similar capabilities.

This spurred the creation of the MK-Ultra program.

It was, says Mr Kinzer, "a project to find ways for the CIA to seize control of the minds of other people".

Over 100 experimental projects were set up under MK-Ultra. The project titles included phrases like "aspects of magicians' art useful in covert operations" or "sleep research" and "behavioural modification"

Mr Kinzer says that those working on MK-Ultra experiments, often under extreme secrecy, would push ethical boundaries in the name of national security.

For instance, in an operation known as 'Midnight Climax', the CIA employed sex workers in San Francisco, Mill Valley and New York.

They were instructed to bring their clients to a safe house and dose them with LSD, so researchers could assess the impact of the drug and gauge its suitability for use in military settings.

In another example, the CIA funded experiments at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, Canada, directed by the controversial Professor Donald Ewen Cameron.

Professor Cameron's "psychic driving" involved subjecting drugged, sleep-deprived patients to continuously repeated audio messages on a looped tape.

Years later, a senate hearing on MK-Ultra concluded that some of these experiments represented "a fundamental disregard for the value of human life".

"The research and development program … resulted in massive abridgments of the rights of American citizens, sometimes with tragic consequences," the 1977 report states.

According to the senate committee report, many participants felt the "residual effects" of the experiments decades after the program ceased. At least two died.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14274255 (050949ZAUG21) Notable: Academic papers from the 1960s reveal how a CIA-funded 'mind control' program came to Australia - MK-Ultra and Operation Midnight Climax

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>>>/qresearch/14274254

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Alternative explanations

The aim of Professor Orne's experiments in Sydney was to see if it was possible to get hypnotised people to engage in "anti-social behaviour". If a subject could be made to perform tasks against their own wishes, the CIA could potentially use this power against opposition soldiers.

Historical experiments had recorded hypnotised subjects doing almost anything. They could be made to steal, injure themselves, even attempt murder.

Professor Orne wanted to test this. According to the article, he asked a group of hypnotised subjects, comprised of Sydney University psychology students, to perform a series of seemingly dangerous acts, including picking up a venomous snake and throwing a vat of nitric acid at an experimenter.

While many of the subjects completed these seemingly dangerous tasks, Professor Orne did not necessarily conclude that hypnosis was responsible.

Eager to find alternative explanations to why the participants had performed these actions, Professor Orne used a control group of non-hypnotised subjects.

They also completed the tasks, the researchers discovered.

The subjects, Professor Orne concluded, knew at some level that they would be safe, regardless of whether they were hypnotised. They judged correctly that researchers were simulating danger.

In experiments with snakes, for example, the animals had been rendered harmless by the University's zoology department; in other experiments with nitric acid, the acid was simply a convincing "coloured solution". The subjects were not told about this.

"The tasks are within the broad range of activities which are perceived as legitimized by the nature of the situation," the journal article reads.

"They were requests made by experimenters, viewed by subjects as responsible scientists, in the context of a psychological experiment."

But if the CIA was looking to control the human mind in their Cold War battle against communism, Professor Orne's findings would have proven disappointing.

"No conclusions can be drawn from the present investigation about the potential use of hypnosis to induce antisocial behaviour," Professor Orne wrote in the journal article.

According to Mr Marks, this scepticism was part of the professor's appeal to the CIA.

"Orne was the person they would go to, in terms of hypnosis, to say, do you think this is going to work — and he tended to be a sceptic," he says.

"So, his sceptical and academic way of looking at it would have been useful in turning down half-baked ideas."

This scientific approach is Professor Orne's legacy.

In a career that continued for four decades, Professor Orne helped to established what hypnosis could and couldn't do, and moved it from the realm of magic to an established academic and clinical practice.

"I learnt an awful lot from him," says Dr Sheehan, Professor Orne's student and collaborator.

"There are lots of people out there that would love to think that you or I could do terribly immoral things under hypnosis, but I don't think that's true," he says.

"I think that experiment would have been absolutely pivotal in proving otherwise."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-05/how-a-cia-mind-control-program-came-to-australia/100308002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL0CAmYN9Kk

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14274492 (051102ZAUG21) Notable: Talisman Sabre wraps up - Nearly 17,000 personnel from Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and the United Kingdom worked, trained and fought side by side, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Army_Captain_Samuel_O_Neal_centre_RAAF_Flying_Officer_Kristian_Henderson_and_RAN_Leading_Seaman_Medic_Erika_Birkefeld.jpg

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>>128304

>>128526

Talisman Sabre wraps up

3 August 2021

1/2

Along the coast from the Northern Territory to NSW, the dust settled and members of international forces started to catch their breath as Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 (TS21) on July 31 drew to a close.

Seven nations sent military forces to test their abilities to operate together across the traditional operating domains of sea, land, and air, as well as on the new frontiers of information/cyber and space.

While COVID-19 reduced personnel numbers, it added to the complexity and the ability of all nations to plan complicated manoeuvres while protecting the health and safety of their forces.

This year’s exercise included some of the most realistic and challenging training activities yet, spreading even further across Queensland than in previous years.

Nearly 17,000 personnel from Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and the United Kingdom worked, trained and fought side by side.

In the first few days of the exercise, each nation focused on foundational training to get the multinational forces reading from the same playbook.

Sailors, soldiers, and aviators of each nation made brief introductions, brushed up on their tactics and skills and took the first steps on what would become a steep learning experience.

Within days, they were live-firing – a symbol of the action set to play out on the battlefield.

In a first for Australia, the US Army launched the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area on July 16.

The next two days involved a barrage of munitions from land, air, and sea, culminating in an awesome display by the US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

Not only spectacular to watch, the live-fire activities ultimately showed that the forces of the seven nations could operate as one to produce a coordinated and staggering result.

Things ramped up again in the second week with the collective training; engineers paired with infantry, explosive detection dogs alongside amphibious elements; and special forces worked in the air and in the shadows.

As the complexity of each event built, so did the threat scenario.

The urban operations training facility within the Townsville Field Training Area hummed.

It is a series of structures built for soldiers to fight through the streets and buildings of a simulated town.

At sea, the air and maritime assets engaged in high-end warfare training above and below the waves off the Queensland coast.

Meanwhile, a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber joined the latest Australian aircraft in a simulated long-range strike.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14276698 (051837ZAUG21) Notable: Marise Payne dismisses China talk terms - Australia will not be cowered into accepting Beijing’s preconditions for the recommencement of high-level dialogue with China, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Marise_Payne_rejected_Beijing_s_characteris_ation_of_the_Morrison_government_as_anti_China_.jpg

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Marise Payne dismisses China talk terms

WILL GLASGOW - AUGUST 5, 2021

Australia will not be cowered into accepting Beijing’s preconditions for the recommencement of high-level dialogue with China, Marise Payne says.

In a forthright address to Australia’s most China-exposed businesses, the Foreign Minister said there was still no path to normalise the relationship that spectacularly unravelled last April and argued that China was holding the relationship hostage.

“We have been advised by China that they will only engage in high-level dialogue if we meet certain conditions. Australia ­places no conditions on dialogue,” she told the Australia China Business Council’s annual Canberra gathering.

“We can’t meet the conditions, such as the now well-known list of 14 grievances raised in the media last year.”

Officials from China’s ­embassy in Canberra last Nov­ember circulated a list of 14 ­grievances with the Australian government, including rejected Chinese investment deals, the ban on Huawei’s involvement in Australia’s 5G network, the passage of foreign interference legislation, the call for an independent inquiry into Covid-19 and what Chinese diplomats described as “incessant, wanton interference in China’s Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan affairs”.

The list followed strikes by Beijing on Australian exports worth more than $20bn a year, ­including coal, wine, barley, ­lobsters and timber.

Those bans remain in place.

Senator Payne on Thursday rejected Beijing’s characteris­ation of the Morrison government as “anti-China”.

“Where we raise certain ­behaviours or certain challenges to long-agreed rules, that doesn’t mean that we are anti-China or anti any other country,” she said.

“It means we want all countries to operate by the rules that protect our shared interests and those of all countries – large and small.”

Unlike past years, no representative from China’s embassy in Canberra spoke at the Australia China Business Council’s major annual event.

Ambassador Cheng Jingye had been scheduled to give the opening address when it was to run at Parliament House and was to host a reception for guests at the Chinese embassy.

“Unfortunately, because of Covid, it didn’t come to be,” the council’s chief executive, Michael Clifton, said.

Covid-19 outbreaks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane made attendance impossible for most of the business council’s members, so the summit was held online.

Speaking from her parliamentary office, Senator Payne noted she was at the online East Asia Summit foreign ministers’ meeting on Wednesday with China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, and would join him and their regional counterparts again on Friday at the ASEAN Regional Forum.

“We remain open — genuinely open — to dialogue with China,” she said. “We have made that clear to China on many occasions.”

Trade Minister Dan Tehan, whose counterpart in Beijing has refused to take his calls since his appointment to the portfolio last December, said Australian and Chinese officials in Geneva had recently been working co-operatively on reform of the World Trade Organisation.

“This is one of the positive things we have seen in the relationship in the last few months,” he said.

In a later session, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the relationship with President Xi Jinping’s China would “continue to be challenging”, even under a change of government, but it was “a pity” Scott Morrison had rejected his suggestion earlier this year to use former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and John Howard in an “informal role” to engage with Beijing.

“We need to be diplomatic in how we deal with China,” the Prime Minister said.

In the same session, Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said Australian public sentiment about the country’s biggest trading partner had fallen sharply because the people had “observed the way that China has changed … and they understand the ways in which differences with China are structural and enduring and have to be managed by any government”.

Senator Payne said Australia was “following a clear strategy informed by clear objectives and principles. In working with China, we want a relationship that serves the interests of both countries in which each respects the other’s interests.”

But she acknowledged the many points of ongoing friction.

“Where it is in our interest to do so, we will call out malicious cyber activity that can and does undermine Australian businesses and security and give advantages to China,” Senator Payne said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/marise-payne-dismisses-china-talk-terms/news-story/e79c6c0a423a6f08f59895e8b5f2ea00

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14282319 (060849ZAUG21) Notable: Delta spreads in Sydney as Australia widens COVID-19 restrictions, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Personnel_from_the_Australian_Defence_Force_and_New_South_Wales_Police_Force_walk_through_the_waiting_area_at_a_coronavirus_disease_COVID_19_vaccination_clinic_at_the_Bankstown_Sports_Club.jpg

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>>128203

Delta spreads in Sydney as Australia widens COVID-19 restrictions

Renju Jose - August 6, 2021

SYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Australian officials warned Sydney residents on Friday to brace for a surge in COVID-19 cases after the country's largest city logged record infections for the second straight day despite a weeks-long lockdown to stamp out an outbreak of Delta variant.

"Just based on the trend in the last few days and where things are going, I am expecting higher case numbers in the next few days and I just want everyone to be prepared for that," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the state capital.

Sydney reported a record 279 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, up from the previous high of 259 the day before. New South Wales reported a record 291 cases, up from 262. One more person has died, raising the state total to 22 during the latest outbreak, all in Sydney.

The dead person was an unvaccinated woman in her 60s who died in a Sydney hospital after contracting the coronavirus from a healthcare worker. There are 304 cases in hospitals in New South Wales, with 50 people in intensive care, 22 of whom require ventilation.

Of particular concern is the growing number of people positive with the highly infectious Delta strain moving around in the community, particularly in Sydney's southwestern suburbs. Around one-fifth of Friday's cases have spent time outside while infectious.

Officials in the neighbouring state of Victoria, which on Thursday night entered its sixth lockdown since the pandemic began, warned the state was "in a precarious position" as officials try to trace the source of several unlinked new cases.

"We have many lines of inquiry actively underway as to where these new cases have been and any further exposure sites," state Health Minister Martin Foley said in a media conference.

Faced with another lockdown within weeks, an anti-lockdown protest erupted in state capital Melbourne on Thursday night.

Victoria reported six locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Friday, down from eight a day earlier, with all linked but not in quarantine during their infectious period.

In Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, the authorities reported 10 new cases, down from 16 the day before, and added that they were hopeful a lockdown would be lifted as planned on Sunday since all but two cases were isolated before testing positive.

LOCKDOWN WOES

More than 60% of Australia's 25 million citizens are in hard lockdowns on Friday to try to contain latest surge, including the country's three largest cities - Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Snap lockdowns, strict border controls and swift contact tracing have helped Australia keep its coronavirus numbers relatively low, with just over 35,600 cases and 933 deaths. But recent stop-and-start lockdowns amid a sluggish vaccination rollout, with only about 21% of people above 16 fully vaccinated, have frustrated residents.

Australia has also enacted tough border controls requiring residents to apply for exemptions to leave and incoming overseas travellers, capped at around 3,000 a week, must go through a two-week mandatory quarantine.

The rules will further tighten from Aug. 11 by removing an automatic exemption for citizens and permanent residents living outside of Australia to leave, a government statement tabled in the parliament on Thursday showed.

The change would require all citizens and permanent residents living outside the country to apply for permission to exit.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-victoria-reports-six-local-covid-19-cases-first-day-lockdown-2021-08-05/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14282328 (060852ZAUG21) Notable: Proposed AFP dark web powers get cautious tick - Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission would be given powers to hunt paedophile rings, terrorists and drug traffickers operating on the “dark web” under planned laws, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Liberal_senator_James_Paterson_s_committee_has_recommended_new_oversight_authority_if_sweeping_new_powers_are_given_to_the_AFP.jpg

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Proposed AFP dark web powers get cautious tick

Anthony Galloway - August 5, 2021

Politicians want the authority to oversee proposed new police powers to take over the online accounts of criminals and terrorists, as well as tougher hurdles for warrants and an independent review within three years.

The Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission would be given powers to hunt paedophile rings, terrorists and drug traffickers operating on the “dark web” under planned laws.

Senior security officials and law enforcement have been pushing for a version of the laws for years. They have been the subject of controversy after one of the earlier proposals was leaked to then-News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst, leading to an AFP raid on her house in 2019.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security released its report into the proposed laws on Thursday, recommending new oversight powers for itself and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security given the “novel” and “covert” nature of the legislation.

PJCIS chair, Liberal senator James Paterson, said the committee “recognised the significance of the powers and their potential impact”.

“The committee concluded that oversight should be increased and safeguards should be added to ensure the community has confidence that these powers are only used for their intended purpose while remaining operationally effective,” he said.

The new laws will create three new powers for the AFP and ACIC to break into the networks of serious criminals.

Under an “account takeover power”, the two agencies would be able to take control of a person’s online account to gather evidence of criminal activity. They would also be able to apply for “network activity warrants” to collect intelligence on the most serious and harmful criminal networks, building a picture of how they operated online.

The third power – “data disruption warrants” – would allow the AFP and ACIC to modify data belonging to individuals suspected of criminal activity to stop them from distributing harmful material. For example, investigators who were aware of child abuse images would be able to modify or delete the material to prevent its further spread.

Under the legislation as currently drafted, a judge or member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal would have to approve network activity and data disruption warrants, while a magistrate would have to tick off on account takeover warrants.

The PJCIS inquiry has instead recommended the authority to approve the first two powers be given to either a Federal or Supreme Court judge.

It also suggested the PJCIS committee review the new powers within four years of the laws coming into force and that the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor review them within three years. It called for a sunset clause of five years on each of the new powers, meaning they would have to be re-legislated.

The Morrison government argues the new powers are needed because existing computer access warrants are not designed to address new threats on the “dark web” – a part of the internet that allows users to interact anonymously and therefore can more easily evade traditional law enforcement or investigation methods.

Evidence from AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw to the PJCIS inquiry showed a worrying rise in traffic to the dark web during the COVID-19 pandemic, including 168 per cent more child abuse material identified in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period the previous year.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/proposed-afp-dark-web-powers-get-cautious-tick-20210805-p58g6o.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14282340 (060858ZAUG21) Notable: 26-year-old man summonsed to appear in court over Brittany Higgins rape allegation, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Brittany_Higgins_speaks_at_the_March_4_Justice_protest_outside_Parliament_House.jpg

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Man summonsed to appear in court over Brittany Higgins rape allegation

David Crowe - August 6, 2021

Federal police have charged a 26-year-old man with raping former government adviser Brittany Higgins in Parliament House two years ago.

Ending almost six months of doubt over whether charges would be laid, the police served the summons on the man’s lawyers on Friday to ask him to appear at the ACT Magistrates Court on September 16.

“The man will face one charge of sexual intercourse without consent. The maximum penalty for this offence is 12 years imprisonment,” the ACT Police said in a statement on Friday.

Lawyers for the man said he would defend the charge and denied any form of sexual activity took place.

Ms Higgins went public in February with her claim that a colleague raped her in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds in March 2019, setting off a public debate about the treatment and the culture of Parliament House.

The political storm led Senator Reynolds to apologise for not offering Ms Higgins enough support, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison faced questions over how many staff in his office knew of the allegations years before they were made public.

The ACT Police named Saturday, 23 March 2019, as the date of the alleged rape, the same date Ms Higgins named when she spoke to the media.

“Detectives from ACT Policing’s Criminal Investigations Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team, the specialist team dedicated to investigating sexual assaults in the ACT, first received a report in April 2019,” the police said in a statement on Friday.

“The investigation remained open and in February 2021 a formal complaint was made. Detectives have since spoken to a number of witnesses and collected evidence as part of the investigation.”

Ms Higgins has spoken publicly about her allegation several times since telling News.com.au and The Project on the Ten Network in February that she was raped by a colleague in the office of Senator Reynolds, who was defence industry minister at the time and is now the Minister for Government Services.

The man accused of the rape has declined to comment since those claims were made, but his lawyer said on Friday he rejected the allegation.

“My client absolutely and unequivocally denies that any form of sexual activity took place whatsoever,” said barrister John Korn of Sydney firm Ada Evans Chambers.

“He will defend the charge.

“The only thing that matters is what the charge alleges and he absolutely, unequivocally denies that any form of sexual activity took place at all.”

Mr Korn added that his client was in a “very fragile state at the moment” and vehemently denied the claims against him.

The debate over the allegations came after years of dispute over the treatment of women in politics, sparking disputes in question time and leading Mr Morrison to launch a series of inquiries into the culture of Parliament and the process for advisers to lodge complaints.

Mr Morrison responded on July 26 to one of those reviews, by senior public servant Stephanie Foster, with a pledge to create an independent complaints mechanism for serious incidents within six weeks.

Parliament is also subject to a separate review by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, which is still underway.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/man-summonsed-to-appear-in-court-over-brittany-higgins-rape-allegation-20210806-p58gk0.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14282357 (060906ZAUG21) Notable: Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Commonwealth of Australia: Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's Remarks, 2021/08/06 - "The recent remarks by Foreign Minister Payne at the Australia China Business Council, as reported by The Australian, mischaracterized the current problem in China-Australia relations.", MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Chinese_Embassy_Spokesperson_s_Remarks_2021_08_06.jpg

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>>128528

Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Commonwealth of Australia

Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's Remarks - 2021/08/06

The recent remarks by Foreign Minister Payne at the Australia China Business Council, as reported by The Australian, mischaracterized the current problem in China-Australia relations. As we have reiterated, the difficult situation in the bilateral ties is the result of Australia’s actions against China. We hope the Australian side will make serious reflection in this regard and take practical moves towards improving the bilateral relations.

http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/sghdxwfb_1/t1897845.htm

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14282364 (060908ZAUG21) Notable: GT Voice: Enhanced response to Delta variant may affect China-Australia trade - Global Times - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Heavy_fog_floats_above_the_Sydney_Harbour_Bridge_in_Sydney_Australia_on_June_30_2021.jpg

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GT Voice: Enhanced response to Delta variant may affect China-Australia trade

Global Times - Aug 05, 2021

The Chinese Embassy in Australia on Thursday reminded Chinese citizens in Australia to ensure they took personal protective measures against COVID-19, according to a post published on the embassy's WeChat account.

According to the post, at present, the Delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading fast around the world, with the resurgence of the epidemic peak seen in many countries and regions including Australia, posing a new challenge to the ongoing fight against the pandemic. The embassy advised Chinese citizens in Australia not to travel unless for some necessary or urgent reasons and reminded Chinese citizens not to let down their guard and to continue to take necessary prevention measures to reduce the infection risk.

The reminder came at a time when Australia is struggling to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant. Australia's largest city, Sydney, reported a record daily number of newly confirmed infections on Thursday, while the state of Victoria is set to enter a seven-day lockdown from 8 pm local time on Thursday, the state's sixth lockdown since the pandemic began, according to media reports.

The coming week will also see the country's most populous cities, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, under lockdown. Meanwhile, Australia's vaccination has been slow to get off the ground, with only 20 percent of its population over 16 fully vaccinated.

It is conceivable that strengthened epidemic prevention and control measures following the resurgence of the outbreak will have an impact on China-Australia trade.

Domestically, China has also seen the spread of the Delta variant in a number of provinces and regions over past weeks, which is almost certain to lead to enhanced quarantine and inspection procedures involving some imported products at Chinese customs. Based on past experience, it is possible that imports of cold-chain food may suffer certain negative impacts in terms of stricter importing procedures.

Given the tensions between China and Australia, any minor setback encountered by Australian exports to China could be seen by some Australian politicians as the so-called China's "economic retaliation." Yet, in fact, the China-Australia trade has not been hit as hard as many have claimed.

Data released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the country's exports gained 4 percent month-on-month in June. Specifically, among all major trading partners of Australia, some statistics showed the growth rate of Australia's exports to China was still relatively fast. Chinese customs statistics also reflects this trend. In the first half of this year, Chinese imports from Australia increased 37 percent year-on-year, according to customs data.

Since the relationship between China and Australia turned sour, some Australian politicians have grabbed any opportunity to accuse China of "economic coercion," but official data from both countries doesn't support this bias agenda.

Now both sides are expected to step up anti-epidemic measures as a result of the Delta variant spread, which is likely to affect bilateral trade. It is hoped that some in Australia could be more rational and objective in viewing trade frictions during this challenging time.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230712.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14282642 (061123ZAUG21) Notable: Ambassador YAMAGAMI Shingo Tweet: Delighted to welcome to my Residence AFP @AusFedPolice Commissioner Reece Kershaw APM, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: AYS_10.jpg, E8ERXN2VgAA_zes.jpg

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Ambassador YAMAGAMI Shingo Tweet

Delighted to welcome to my Residence AFP @AusFedPolice Commissioner Reece Kershaw APM.

Expressed my gratitude for the contributions the AFP makes to the continuation of peace and safety for approximately 100,000 Japanese citizens that reside in Australia.

https://twitter.com/YamagamiShingo/status/1423438932377702403

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14282778 (061222ZAUG21) Notable: Video: Bill gates praises Australia’s Covid response, plays down relevance of virus origins investigations

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Bill gates praises Australia’s Covid response, plays down relevance of virus origins investigations

ADAM CREIGHTON - AUGUST 6, 2021

US tech titan Bill Gates has lauded Australia’s Covid-19 response as world’s best practice and played down the relevance of investigations into the origins of Sars-Cov2.

The Microsoft founder, speaking on US cable TV on Wednesday, said investigations into the origins of Sars-Cov2, which have become highly controversial among scientists and fuelled tension between China and the US and Australia, wouldn’t change “the need for masks and vaccines”.

“The last paper I saw showed evidence against lab leak, but yes we should investigate these things, but it’s not directly tied to particular actions to save lives,” he said.

Gates, whose personal wealth is in excess of $162 billion, also called for a “very different regimen so all countries can get on top of cases very quickly and be more like Australia than Europe or the US ended up being”.

The comments came as Victoria entered its sixth lockdown after recording eight new cases, putting the state in lockdown along with Queensland and New South Wales, where the military is helping local police keep residents in their homes.

Mr Gates, whose charity behemoth the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been criticised for holding up the global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, also said eradication of influenza and the common cold was in prospect.

The subject of numerous conspiracy theories throughout the pandemic, Mr Gates said he had been in “a lot of discussion about break throughs in diagnostic and therapeutics, and the scaling of vaccine factories in less than six months”

In June last year a prominent US newspaper, USA Today, had to factcheck the claim Bill Gates “was planning to microchip the world through a Covid-19 vaccine”.

“We need to resource the preparedness for the next pandemic and we can get a lot of benefits. People don’t like flu and common cold, we will build tools that over time get rid of those as well,” said Mr Gates, who is currently embroiled in a messy multi-billion dollar divorce with wife Melinda, and awkward questions about his own relationship with the late disgraced Jeffrey Epstein.

The billionaire has repeatedly come under fire for backing vaccine patent protections for multinationals pharmacy businesses. He reversed his position in May after US President Joe Biden buckled to global pressure and threw the government’s weight behind the push to waive vaccine patents.

In July Gates and fellow billionaire George Soros bought UK company Mologic, a maker of rapid Covid testing kits, for $55 million.

US intelligence services are due to release a report on the origins of Sars-Cov2 within a fortnight.

The report was commissioned by President Joe Biden in May amid declining confidence among scientists in a report by the World Health Organisation published in March, which concluded a lab-leak was “extremely unlikely”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/bill-gates-praises-australias-covid-response-plays-down-relevance-of-virus-origin-report/news-story/146a43e02f68916dfecadd0589ec4e6d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXYeED38y0

>7:48

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14286727 (062334ZAUG21) Notable: Morrison government plea to US for excess Covid-19 vaccine doses going to waste, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Senior_Republican_on_the_House_foreign_affairs_committee_Michael_McCaul.jpg

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Plea to US for excess Covid-19 vaccine doses going to waste

SHARRI MARKSON and ADAM CREIGHTON - AUGUST 6, 2021

1/2

The Morrison government has made urgent appeals to the Biden administration for access to its ­estimated 26 million vaccine doses that are sitting unused in warehouses and about to expire.

The Weekend Australian has spoken to three high-level sources involved with the negotiations ­between Australia and the US and it is understood Australia has “made representations” over the course of several weeks for access to America’s excess Pfizer ­vaccines.

All of Australia’s requests have so far been unsuccessful.

A senior Australian government source said the representations were continuing.

Leading Republicans are pushing the Biden administration to provide Australia the excess doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines – some of which expire this month.

Michael McCaul, the senior Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, said Australia should be prioritised for the doses, followed by developing nations where China was exerting influence through vaccine diplomacy.

“Australia is not only an ally but a Five Eyes ally,” Mr McCaul said.

“I’ve been pressuring this ­administration through the Covax program to give more of these ­vaccines that are just sitting in warehouses in the US.

“They will expire if we don’t get them out the door.”

“I think particularly a Five Eyes ally should get the vaccines … and then we need to get it to countries like Sri Lanka, to African nations and Latin America where we know the Chinese are playing a pretty big game of vaccine diplomacy, to vaccinate people against the very virus that they created.”

Mike Gallagher, the Republican co-chairman of the Friends of Australia congressional caucus, is also backing the move.

“The United States has vaccine doses set to expire at the same time our Australian mates need extra doses,” Mr Gallagher said.

“The Biden administration should be doing everything in its power to get these doses to ­Australia.”

About one million doses have gone to waste in the US since ­December, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials chief ­medical officer Marcus Plescia told The New York Times: “Here we are with loads of ­vaccine, and there are other countries in the world where people are desperate for vaccination.”

Despite interest from some US states in sharing excess vaccines, the doses are owned by the federal government which is preventing their redistribution.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14286750 (062337ZAUG21) Notable: PM asks Biden to share vaccine supply - Sky News Australia

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>>128536

PM asks Biden to share vaccine supply

Sky News Australia

Aug 7, 2021

The Morrison government has made urgent appeals to the Biden administration for extra coronavirus vaccine supplies.

Australian officials are asking for access to excess Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

America is estimated to have up to 26 million doses sitting unused in warehouses and about to expire.

The Australian newspaper has revealed negotiations have been ongoing for a number of weeks, but all requests so far have been unsuccessful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghH55B7Td14

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14287270 (070051ZAUG21) Notable: Beijing laboratory director infected with Covid-19 in lab accident in early 2020, explosive emails have revealed - inadvertent leak of the highly contagious coronavirus is far from a conspiracy theory, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Ohio_State_University_director_of_viruses_and_emerging_pathogens_Shan_Lu_Liu.jpg

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Beijing lab mishap ‘infected scientist’ with Covid-19

SHARRI MARKSON - AUGUST 6, 2021

A Beijing laboratory director was infected with Covid-19 in a lab accident in early 2020, explosive emails have revealed, showing an inadvertent leak of the highly contagious coronavirus is far from a conspiracy theory.

A senior scientist at a prestigious laboratory, the National Institute for Viral Disease Control, allegedly contracted Covid-19 in his laboratory in early 2020 while researching the virus, prominent virologists say.

The virologists discussed the infection in an email chain obtained by the US Right to Know group.

China’s failure to disclose this laboratory accident has raised questions about whether health authorities would have disclosed a lab accident in Wuhan months earlier.

Ohio State University director of viruses and emerging pathogens Shan-Lu Liu wrote in an email dated February 14, 2020: “We were from the same lab where my former director has now been infected by SARS-CoV-2! Very sad but he’s doing OK!”

Scientist Lishan Su, then at the University of North Carolina, replied: “Your former colleague was infected with sars2 in the lab?”

Shan-Lu Liu responded: “Yes, he was infected in the lab!”

University of Massachusetts Medical School professor Shan Lu, also on the email chain, wrote 15 minutes later: “I actually am very concerned for the possibility of SARS-2 infection by lab people. It is much more contagious than SARS-1.

“Now every lab is interested in get a vial of virus to do drug discovery. This can potentially (sic) a big issue.”

The virologists were preparing a commentary to refute the ­hypothesis that Covid-19 emerged in a laboratory. The piece had been commissioned by Shan Lu, who is editor-in-chief of the medical journal Emerging Microbes and Infections.

US Right to Know executive director Gary Ruskin said the emails were a strong and reliable indication of a lab-acquired infection of SARS-CoV-2 from a prestigious Beijing virology institute.

“Lab accidents happen. They are not a conspiracy theory. It’s time for the China CDC to disclose everything they know about this accident,” he told the Weekend Australian.

“This new lab accident, and the failure to disclose it, is further evidence of the potential dangers of Chinese biolabs, and the failure to publicly disclose the accident does not bring confidence they would have disclosed a lab accident in Wuhan if it happened.”

The Right to Know group obtained the emails from Ohio State University under the Ohio Public Records Act.

In the same email chain where Shan-Lu Liu revealed his former colleague had been infected in the lab, the scientists discussed whether to include in the article the risks of working on contagious coronaviruses.

Lishan suggested including such a sentence about the “public health concerns” of working with a contagious virus in an email sent at 11am on February 14, 2020.

Shan-Lu Liu replied saying: “I get your point – maybe below one reads better?

“We should emphasis that although SARS-CoV-2 shows no evidence of laboratory origin, ­viruses with such great public health threats must be handled properly in the laboratory and properly regulated by scientific community and governments.”

The Chinese Communist Party, World Health Organisation investigators and prominent scientists have repeatedly claimed that a lab leak origin for Covid-19 is a conspiracy theory.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/science/beijing-lab-mishap-infected-scientist-with-covid19/news-story/9b0cb0ed84df21d25da11b698be3611a

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14288823 (070437ZAUG21) Notable: Australia daily COVID-19 at 2021 record high with millions in lockdown, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: A_woman_walks_past_a_Stay_Safe_Melbourne_sign_on_a_mostly_empty_city_centre_street_as_the_state_of_Victoria_looks_to_curb_the_spread_of_a_coronavirus_disease_COVID_19_outbreak_in_Melbourne_Australia.jpg

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>>128203

Australia daily COVID-19 at 2021 record high with millions in lockdown

Lidia Kelly - August 7, 2021

MELBOURNE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Australia reported a record daily number of new coronavirus cases this year on Saturday with the highly infectious Delta variant continuing to spread through the country's most populous states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

With about 15 million people in the three states, or 60% of Australia's population, under a strict lockdown, the country also reported five coronavirus-related deaths, one of the highest this year.

NSW reported 319 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, the most since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, with Sydney and neighbouring regional centres spanning 200 km (120 miles) of coastline under a stay-at-home order for six weeks already.

There are 345 people admitted to hospital in NSW, with 56 in intensive care and 23 under ventilation, state authorities said.

Neighbouring Victoria saw the highest daily jump in cases this year, with 29 new infections, as the state remains under a snap seven-day lockdown imposed earlier this week, the state's sixth since the start of the pandemic.

Victoria Premier Dan Andrews urged people to follow the public health rules that allow residents to leave their house only for essential work, shopping, care, vaccination or two hours of outdoor exercise.

"This Delta variant spreads so fast," Andrews said. "We don't have enough of people vaccinated, we will finish up with younger people in the hospital, otherwise fit and healthy people. Our system will be overrun if we don't bring this under control."

Queensland recorded 13 new cases, with all but one isolating while infectious, bringing hopes that the eight-day lockdown in parts of the state will be lifted as planned on Sunday afternoon.

With just over 36,000 COVID-19 cases and 937 deaths, Australia has avoided the high caseloads of other developed countries, but its vaccination figures are among the lowest, with only 20% of people aged over 16 fully vaccinated.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-daily-covid-19-2021-record-high-with-millions-lockdown-2021-08-07/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14289377 (070642ZAUG21) Notable: Greg Norman blasts Joe Biden for failing to provide Australia with excess vaccine doses, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Golfer_Greg_Norman_says_Australia_should_not_have_to_beg_the_US_for_vaccines_that_will_otherwise_go_to_waste.jpg, Senior_US_Republican_Michael_McCaul.jpg, S_GN_1.jpg

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>>128536

Greg Norman blasts Joe Biden for failing to provide Australia with excess vaccine doses

SHARRI MARKSON and ADAM CREIGHTON - AUGUST 7, 2021

Golf legend Greg Norman has blasted President Joe Biden for failing to provide Australia with some of its millions of vaccine doses that are sitting unused in warehouses and about to expire.

Commenting on The Weekend Australian’s revelations today that the Morrison government has made urgent appeals to the Biden administration for access to some of its estimated 26 million excess doses of Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, The Shark appealed to the President and the White House to help Australia out.

“Living in the States for 40+ years I am so dismayed with this article and the fact that little brother has to beg to big brother for unused vaccines about to expire after all we have done in support for eons,” Norman wrote on Instagram.

“We have stood shoulder to shoulder in every war America has fought (except domestic) and this is a war. We are meant to be allies.

“Come on @joebiden @potus @whitehouse help little brother”.

The Weekend Australian has spoken to three high-level sources involved with the negotiations ­between Australia and the US and it is understood Australia has “made representations” over the course of several weeks for access to America’s excess Pfizer ­vaccines.

All of Australia’s requests have so far been unsuccessful.

A senior Australian government source said the representations were continuing.

Leading Republicans are pushing the Biden administration to provide Australia the excess doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines – some of which expire this month.

Michael McCaul, the senior Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, said Australia should be prioritised for the doses, followed by developing nations where China was exerting influence through vaccine diplomacy.

“Australia is not only an ally but a Five Eyes ally,” Mr McCaul said.

“I’ve been pressuring this ­administration through the Covax program to give more of these ­vaccines that are just sitting in warehouses in the US.

“They will expire if we don’t get them out the door.”

“I think particularly a Five Eyes ally should get the vaccines … and then we need to get it to countries like Sri Lanka, to African nations and Latin America where we know the Chinese are playing a pretty big game of vaccine diplomacy, to vaccinate people against the very virus that they created.”

Mike Gallagher, the Republican co-chairman of the Friends of Australia congressional caucus, is also backing the move.

“The United States has vaccine doses set to expire at the same time our Australian mates need extra doses,” Mr Gallagher said.

“The Biden administration should be doing everything in its power to get these doses to ­Australia.”

About one million doses have gone to waste in the US since ­December, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials chief ­medical officer Marcus Plescia told The New York Times: “Here we are with loads of ­vaccine, and there are other countries in the world where people are desperate for vaccination.”

Despite interest from some US states in sharing excess vaccines, the doses are owned by the federal government which is preventing their redistribution.

One source involved in the ­negotiations between Australia and the US, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it would be politically awkward for the US to send excess vaccines to a “rich” country because it could be seen as undermining the administration’s commitment to deliver 500 million doses to developing nations, under a $US3.5bn ($4.7bn) deal with Pfizer, by the end of 2022.

The negotiations are still ­ongoing as the US currently has excess supplies, but sources were not hopeful of a positive outcome.

One source said the ­negotiations were all “up in the ether”.

A third insider said the US was reluctant to commit any doses to Australia, because it might need to divert the vaccinations to hot spots in the US amid a fresh outbreak of the Delta variant.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/greg-norman-blasts-joe-biden-for-failing-to-provide-australia-with-excess-vaccine-doses/news-story/32867c46cd4c398c3e410ca0f51d5c39

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSQSmuFs4CT/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14289530 (070725ZAUG21) Notable: Why the Quad Alarms China - Its Success Poses a Major Threat to Beijing’s Ambitions - Kevin Rudd - August 2021, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Representatives_of_Japan_Australia_India_and_the_United_States_meet_in_Tokyo_Japan_October_2020.jpg

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Why the Quad Alarms China

Its Success Poses a Major Threat to Beijing’s Ambitions

Kevin Rudd - August 6, 2021

1/4

When former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited officials from Australia, India, and the United States to meet in Manila in November 2017, Chinese leaders saw little reason to worry. This gathering of “the Quad,” as the grouping was known, was merely “a headline-grabbing idea,” scoffed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “They are like the sea foam in the Pacific or Indian Ocean: they get some attention but will soon dissipate.” Beijing had some reason for such dismissiveness. The interests of the Quad’s members were, Chinese strategists assessed, too divergent to allow for real coherence. Anyway, the Quad grouping had already been tried more than a decade earlier, with little in the way of real results.

Within a few years of that November 2017 gathering, however, Beijing had started to rethink its initial dismissiveness. By March of this year, when the Quad held its first leader-level summit and issued its first leader-level communique, Chinese officials had begun to view the Quad with growing concern. Since then, Beijing has concluded that the Quad represents one of the most consequential challenges to Chinese ambitions in the years ahead.

As “strategic competition” with China has become a rare point of bipartisan consensus in Washington, Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken to warning that his country faces a “struggle over the future of the international order” with a United States determined to thwart China’s rise. Xi believes that Beijing has an opportunity between now and 2035 to make China the world’s top economic, technological, and potentially even military power. Integral to this push is persuading countries in Asia and around the world that Chinese dominance is inevitable and that, accordingly, they have no option but to start deferring to Chinese demands. That would enable China to begin rewriting the rules of the international order—and entrench its global leadership position—without ever having to fire a shot.

The Quad is uniquely problematic for China’s strategy because its aim of unifying a multilateral coalition of resistance has the potential to stiffen spines across the whole of the Indo-Pacific and possibly beyond. For Xi, the critical question is whether the Quad will evolve to be large, coherent, and comprehensive enough to effectively balance against China, thereby undermining any sense that its dominance, in Asia or globally, is inevitable. So far, Beijing has struggled to mount an effective response to the Quad challenge. Whether Chinese officials settle on a strategy that succeeds in undermining the Quad’s progress will be one of the key factors in determining the course of U.S.-Chinese competition—and the fate of China’s global ambitions more generally— in what has already become a “decade of living dangerously.”

COME TOGETHER

Abe’s first attempt to launch the Quad came in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, when Australia, India, Japan, and the United States worked together on a disaster response. Abe saw the Quad as a way to build the four countries’ capacity to work together to meet shared regional security challenges. But the response in other capitals was tentative at best.

In Washington, President George W. Bush worried that such cooperation would unhelpfully alienate China when it needed Beijing in the “war against terrorism”; within a few years, as cables subsequently released by WikiLeaks showed, the administration was privately assuring regional governments that the Quad would never meet. In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh repeatedly ruled out any real security cooperation with the Quad and categorized ties with Beijing as his “imperative necessity.” And in Canberra, the conservative government of John Howard worried about undermining economically beneficial ties with China and also opposed expanding existing trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan by adding India; in July 2007, Australia formally withdrew and announced the decision in Beijing soon after. When Abe, the driving force behind the Quad, unexpectedly resigned, in September 2007 (before becoming prime minister again in 2012), his successor, Yasuo Fukuda, formally consigned the Quad to the dustbin of history.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14289712 (070903ZAUG21) Notable: Australian ships join US-led Large Scale Global Exercise 21 - defence.gov.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: HMAS_Canberra_front_conducts_manoeuvres_with_USS_New_Orleans_left_JS_Makinami_and_USS_America_during_the_Large_Scale_Global_Exercise_in_the_Western_Pacific.jpg

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>>128545

Australian ships join US-led exercise

news.defence.gov.au - 6 August 2021

HMA Ships Canberra and Ballarat have arrived in the Western Pacific Ocean for the opening phase of the US-led Large Scale Global Exercise 21.

Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Greg Bilton said Australia’s participation in the first phase of the activity followed the success of Exercises Talisman Sabre and Pacific Vanguard.

“We have just completed some extraordinary training in and around Australia and now we have this exciting new opportunity to consolidate those gains,” Lieutenant General Bilton said.

“We’ve got amphibious forces, including United States marines, embarked in Canberra, and a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft involved at various stages as well.

“Activities like this build strong operational relationships, which are the foundation for responding to shared security challenges.”

Commanding Officer Canberra Captain Jace Hutchison said the exercise would prove invaluable for the crews of Canberra and Ballarat.

“Any opportunity for us to test our skills and processes with partner nations enhances our readiness and ability to respond as required,” Captain Hutchison said.

All activities will be conducted in a contactless environment, with strict COVID-19 safety measures in place to ensure the safety of all participants.

https://news.defence.gov.au/international/australian-ships-join-us-led-exercise

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14295282 (080348ZAUG21) Notable: Video: Dr Anthony Fauci discusses how the US is dealing with the Delta variant differently - 7.30 / ABC News (Australia)

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Dr Anthony Fauci discusses how the US is dealing with the Delta variant differently | 7.30

ABC News (Australia)

Aug 6, 2021

Delta cases are surging in parts of the United States, but even with such high infection numbers, with nearly half the population fully vaccinated they're dealing with the Delta variant differently and with far fewer restrictions.

The public face of the US response to COVID is Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and he speaks to Laura Tingle on the way the US is handling Delta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcF8AAi1nCw

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14296273 (080658ZAUG21) Notable: In an avalanche of misinformation, who decides what’s too dangerous to hear? - Sky News Australia returns to YouTube, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Uncancelled_Sky_News_uploaded_a_YouTube_special_to_the_platform_on_Thursday_night_when_the_suspension_lifted.jpg

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>>128488

In an avalanche of misinformation, who decides what’s too dangerous to hear?

Michael Koziol - August 8, 2021

1/2

After its one-week suspension for breaching Google’s COVID-19 misinformation policies, Sky News Australia returned to YouTube on Thursday evening with a dramatic all-singing, all-dancing assault on the American-owned tech giant.

“When big tech censors opinion for some but not for others, it’s a dark day for free speech,” boomed an ominous voice over. “Will you allow it? Freedom of debate and conversation should not be cancelled. Your freedom to think should not be extinguished.”

Sky News digital editor Jack Houghton went on to lament that “conservatives seem to be the only people ever to be locked out of the national conversation”, and while YouTube might be great at coding, “tech geeks in Silicon Valley are not very well-versed at nuance on difficult social issues”.

And host Chris Kenny put it this way: “This is cancel culture writ large. This is censorship ... a US company banning Australians talking to Australians and the rest of the world”.

In one of the banned videos, veteran broadcaster Alan Jones claimed COVID-19 was not by definition a pandemic and that India’s death toll was not really as bad as portrayed. The World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. Other clips promoted hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as COVID-19 treatments.

This firebrand commentary has a particular appeal among the world’s far-right and anti-vaxxers, and has helped give Sky News Australia a global platform with 1.9 million YouTube subscribers.

But is it dangerous enough to be banned? And in a sea of misinformation and competing claims related to COVID-19, who gets to decide which contentions and opinions get censored and which are disseminated to the public?

Nick Coatsworth, Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer and now executive director of medical services at Canberra Health Services, says advocacy of “zero-COVID” and misleading statements about the AstraZeneca vaccine in mainstream media are just as dangerous as anti-vaccination propaganda on pay TV.

Coatsworth was critical of the ABC’s coronavirus commentator Norman Swan after he told ABC News Breakfast on Tuesday that Sydneysiders were “guinea pigs” in an experiment of using vaccination to try to arrest an outbreak. “I don’t think this has been tried anywhere else in the world,” Swan said.

“No, Dr Swan, they are not guinea pigs,” Coatsworth responded. “Rapid vaccination during an epidemic is part of epidemic control. And it’s what every other country has done with COVID-19.”

On Saturday, UNSW adjunct professor Bill Bowtell tweeted that NSW’s COVID policy settings were “closer to those in Florida” than other Australian states or New Zealand, even though Florida has rejected lockdowns. Coatsworth replied: “The Australian media cannot let this sort of hyperbole go unchallenged. The community should just ignore it.”

Coatsworth says these comments - as well as infectious diseases expert Michelle Ananda-Rajah’s remarks on Q+A in February that mass vaccination with AstraZeneca was a “population-level experiment” - are as bad as right-wing conspiracies about COVID-19 or vaccines.

“There is no difference between that and an anti-vaxxer saying ‘you’re conducting experiments without knowing the consequences’. What is the difference? It’s exactly the same language,” Coatsworth tells The Sun-Herald.

“The problem with the pro-lockdown, zero-COVID view is although it seems like it’s a lot nicer and a lot more credible than anti-vaxxer [content], you could still end up in a pretty dark place if you try and push for COVID-zero against the Delta variant.”

Coatsworth does not advocate censorship in either case but says people who hold themselves up as experts need to be held to account firmly and publicly. Meanwhile, Swan stands by his remarks, saying NSW’s approach would show whether the Doherty Institute’s modelling for reopening based on vaccination levels would work.

“I can be criticised for calling that an experiment,” Swan says. “I wasn’t sure that was the right word to use - but we don’t know yet the extent to which it will work.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14296376 (080718ZAUG21) Notable: Virginia Roberts is set to sue Prince Andrew in a New York court over her claims that Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex with the Duke aged 17, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_Duke_of_York_has_always_vehemently_denied_all_charges_made_by_Virginia_Roberts.jpg, The_filing_of_a_civil_action_against_the_Duke_in_America_is_certain_to_cause_huge_embarrassment_for_the_Royal_family.jpg

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Now Virginia Roberts is set to sue Prince Andrew in a New York court over her claims that Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex with the Duke aged 17

DANIEL BATES and CAROLINE GRAHAM - 8 August 2021

Prince Andrew could be sued in an American court by his accuser Virginia Roberts, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Ms Roberts, who claims she was forced to have sex with the Prince by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when she was just 17, could file a multi-million-pound civil action in New York as early as this week.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, her lawyer David Boies said the bombshell lawsuit 'would be based on her being lent out to Prince Andrew for sex by Jeffrey Epstein and [her] being under 18'.

He added the suit would include claims of 'improper sexual violations, physical and emotional distress' and would include a claim for damages.

Mr Boies said: 'To use a common phrase here in the United States, 'Time's up.' '

The Duke of York has always vehemently denied all charges made by Ms Roberts.

Buckingham Palace previously issued a statement saying: 'It is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.'

The filing of a civil action against the Duke in America is certain to cause huge embarrassment for the Royal family as lawyers will seek to question him under oath about his sex life. He could also be forced to hand over texts, emails and private letters.

A defamation suit, filed by Ms Roberts in 2015 against Ghislaine Maxwell, ended in a settlement – but deeply embarrassing depositions in which Ms Maxwell discussed her sex life were made public last year.

A source said: 'This could be devastating for Andrew. If he chooses to fight it and is deposed [forced to give evidence], then those depositions could end up being made public.

'If he ignores it, he could be found guilty in absentia which would be a public relations disaster.'

Under the New York Child Victims Act, Ms Roberts has until next Saturday to file the civil action which will include her claims that she and Prince Andrew had sex three times in 2001.

Although Ms Roberts was then above the UK legal age of consent, in New York a child is considered to be anyone under 18.

She alleges the first encounter took place at the London home of Epstein's alleged 'madam' Ms Maxwell, the second at Epstein's £77 million New York mansion and the third during an 'orgy' on his private island in the Caribbean. Saturday's deadline was created by the New York Child Victims Act which came into law in 2019.

Previously, victims had up to five years after turning 18 to file a claim against an alleged abuser.

But the new law gave victims a one-off window to make a legal claim, regardless of how old their claim is. The timeline to file those claims expires next Saturday.

The final decision about whether to proceed rests with Ms Roberts, now a 37-year-old mother-of-three who lives in Australia.

Should the Duke ignore the lawsuit, Mr Boies warned it could go to trial without him and the court could enter a default judgment.

The amount of damages would then be set and 'that judgment could be enforced any place in the world', Mr Boies said.

Weeks ago Mr Boies sent a second formal letter to the Duke's lawyers offering to sign an agreement, known as a tolling agreement, that extended the statute of limitations so that both sides could negotiate.

The letter said that Ms Robets needed to file a claim 'now' or she risks not being able to file a lawsuit.

So far it has been ignored, according to Mr Boies.

Epstein hanged himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Ms Maxwell, 59, was arrested last July and is due to go on trial in November for allegedly recruiting underage girls for Epstein.

She has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Last night Ms Roberts declined to comment.

A spokesman for Prince Andrew declined to comment.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9872595/Virginia-Roberts-sue-Prince-Andrew-New-York-court.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14296407 (080730ZAUG21) Notable: Moderna vaccine to be approved by Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration within a fortnight, doses rolling out in mid-September, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Federal_Health_Minister_Greg_Hunt_says_we_can_expect_delivery_of_10_million_Moderna_vaccine_doses_before_the_end_of_the_year.jpg

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Moderna vaccine to be approved within a fortnight, doses rolling out in mid-September

Tom Lowrey - 8 August 2021

1/2

Australia's third COVID-19 vaccine will begin being rolled out around the country from the middle of next month, with final approvals likely within two weeks.

The Moderna vaccine is currently being considered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), and Health Minister Greg Hunt said he expected it to be approved shortly.

"Best advice is that we're likely to receive approval from the TGA — but it is in their hands — within the next two weeks," he said.

"And that we would receive a million doses during the course of September, and then three million in each of October, November and December."

The first batch of doses is expected around the middle of next month.

Australia has bought 25 million doses of the vaccine, with 10 million to be used for primary vaccinations this year, and 15 million to be used as booster shots.

It is an mRNA vaccine, similar to the one available now from Pfizer.

Like the Pfizer vaccine it is also expected to be administered to children 12 years and older later this year, though that will have to be approved separately.

Asked if there was any prospect of accelerating deliveries of Moderna doses, as has been done with Pfizer, Mr Hunt said it was something they are pushing, but that it was a difficult and competitive global market.

"We work with all our suppliers on a continuous basis to try to bring forward," he said.

"There is immense global demand, immense global demand, and so we working continuously with all our suppliers."

CMO says NSW can still get on top of outbreak

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has suggested New South Wales could alter some of its approaches to handling the Sydney outbreak, but conceded there was no "magic bullet".

On Friday, Professor Kelly suggested there was "clearly a need for a circuit-breaker" in the city to start driving cases towards zero.

Pushed to elaborate on those comments on Sunday, he suggested altering existing approaches and said many different things were already being tried.

"It's a combination of doing as much as we can, in all of things we know that work, and continuing to do that," he said.

"A combination of extra vaccination sites, different ways of vaccination — that's happening.

"Looking at different ways of testing — that's already happening — we've talked about rapid antigen tests in workplaces and so forth in the last few days, that's an important component.

"Looking at different ways we can work on contact tracing, getting other states to assist and indeed the Commonwealth to assist in that endeavour.

"Looking at any possible way we can reach out to the community, to make sure they are getting that right message — and it's difficult."

Professor Kelly said today's dip in case numbers in Sydney, from 319 yesterday down to 262 today, was positive, while acknowledging one day is not a trend.

He said cases could still be driven back down to zero.

"We'll get on top of this," he said.

"There is hope."

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14296485 (080759ZAUG21) Notable: Alexander Downer Tweet: No one. I’d never heard of Mifsud!, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: AD_24.jpg, E8Mwto_WEAcS5bR.jpg

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Alexander Downer Tweets

George Papadopoulos @GeorgePapa19

Coming up on Newsmax at 6:25 pm ET! Tune in!

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1424030277312122880

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Paul Blackman @paulblackman

This is your reminder that @GeorgePapa19 tried to drink @AlexanderDowner under the table. A man who did this sober while Foreign Minister.

https://twitter.com/paulblackman/status/1424035470678315012

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Alexander Downer @AlexanderDowner

Exactly!

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1424082881115213828

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JVP @jv_payne

How much money did you give to the Clinton’s?

https://twitter.com/jv_payne/status/1424087259490439168

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Alexander Downer @AlexanderDowner

Billions!! Are you sober??

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1424088524257648640

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TDS_Sufferer @SuffererTds

Who tasked you with eliciting from Papadopoulos what mifsud had said to him?

https://twitter.com/SuffererTds/status/1424103975960334340

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Alexander Downer @AlexanderDowner

No one. I’d never heard of Mifsud!

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1424112688670527489

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14303690 (090646ZAUG21) Notable: RSA Webinar: Michael Dove on ‘The census and religion–Giving more Australians the freedom to choose’ - Rationalists Australia

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>>128553

RSA Webinar: Michael Dove on ‘The census and religion–Giving more Australians the freedom to choose’

Rationalists Australia

Jul 30, 2021

On 28 July 2021, Michael Dove, leader of the ‘Census21 - Not Religious? Mark 'No Religion'’ campaign, presented on the census religion question and new initiatives that will make it easier for people to exercise their freedom to choose their religion or to choose 'no religion' at the August census.

He also provided updates about the progress of the Census21 campaign and what it hopes to achieve.

Read more here: https://bit. ly/3yfvmHN

We hold a monthly RSA Webinar with a guest speaker exploring important topical issues from a rationalist perspective. For more information about upcoming webinars and to register for them, visit: https://bit. ly/2V2AFvW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHS_wCUY36c

>1:02:48

>PURE EVIL.

>HOW MANY IN WASHINGTON AND THOSE AROUND THE WORLD (IN POWER) WORSHIP THE DEVIL?

>Conspiracy?

>Fake News?

>The World is WATCHING.

https://qanon.pub/?q=satan

https://qanon.pub/?q=devil

https://qanon.pub/?q=evil

https://qanon.pub/?q=god

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14303931 (090813ZAUG21) Notable: India the foil to China threat: Australia’s special envoy to India, Tony Abbott, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Tony_Abbott_says_Australian_foreign_policy_had_wrongly_assumed_that_increased_free_trade_would_lead_to_an_increased_freedoms_and_liberalisation_in_China.jpg

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>>128544

India the foil to China threat: Abbott

DENNIS SHANAHAN - AUGUST 8, 2021

1/2

Australia’s special envoy to India, Tony Abbott, says the conclusion of a trade deal with New Delhi would signal the “democratic world’s tilt away from China” and has placed Australia’s relations with India, Japan and Beijing at the heart of an escalating global contest to shape the world order.

The former Liberal prime minister has pushed for India to take its “rightful place” in world affairs and warned that China had ­“exploited the West’s goodwill and wishful thinking to steal our technology and undercut our ­industries”.

The push by Mr Abbott comes as Japan’s ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, prepares to address all federal Labor MPs and senators after accepting an invitation to speak at a landmark meeting about Tokyo’s relations with Australia, China, India and the United States.

The two envoys are united in urging closer Australia-Japan-India relations as part of the development of the Quadrilateral relationship between the three ­nations and the US amid new warnings China now views the four-nation agreement as the ­biggest challenge to its global dominance.

After travelling to Britain and India as Scott Morrison’s special trade envoy, Mr Abbott said the revival of the Quadrilateral agreement and the military exercises ­involving Australia, India, the US, Japan and the UK’s visiting naval flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth was “an impressive show of strength, demonstrating the ­democracies’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

Writing in The Australian, Mr Abbott argues that Australian ­foreign policy had wrongly ­assumed that increased free trade would lead to an increased freedoms and liberalisation in China.

He argues for greater trade diversification away from Beijing, warning the pandemic has ­exposed the “extent to which the world has become dependent on Chinese imports, including in critical supply chains, that can be turned on and off like a tap”.

“China’s daunting power is a consequence of the free world’s decision to invite a communist dictatorship into global trading networks,” Mr Abbott says. “Back then, the assumption was that rising prosperity and more economic freedom would lead, eventually, to political liberalisation too. Certainly, that was my view in 2014 when we finalised China’s first trade deal with a G20 economy.

“Subsequently, our exports to China did indeed grow, even faster than theirs to us; but the current capricious boycotts of Australian coal, barley, wine and seafood show that, for the Beijing regime, trade is just politics by other means.

“Because trade deals are about politics as much as economics, a swift deal between India and Australia would be an important sign of the democratic world’s tilt away from China, as well as boosting the long-term prosperity of both our countries.”

Mr Abbott said that India and Australia were “like-minded ­democracies” whose relationship had been underdeveloped until Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister. “Under Modi, India has revived the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and the first in-person Quad summit is ­expected before the end of the year,” Mr Abbott said.

India is Australia’s seventh-largest trade partner, with annual two-way trade of about $30bn, but Mr Abbott warned it was “hampered by tariffs and mutual perceptions that neither country is always a good place to do ­business”.

He argued there was huge ­potential for progress, pointing to a 150 per cent tariff on Australian wine exports to India and a range of other tariffs on Australian wool exports. Mr Abbott also said that Australia could replace China as a key source of rare earths and ­strategic minerals that India would need.

“The answer to almost every question about China is India,” he said.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14303953 (090820ZAUG21) Notable: India the sensible substitute for belligerent Beijing - Tony Abbott - theaustralian.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Australian_Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_speaks_to_Indian_Prime_Minister_Narendra_Modi_during_the_2020_Virtual_Leaders_Summit_between_Australia_and_India.jpg

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>>128556

India the sensible substitute for belligerent Beijing

TONY ABBOTT - AUGUST 9, 2021

The world’s “emerging democratic superpower” is how I habitually described India as PM. With the world’s other emerging superpower becoming more belligerent almost by the day, it’s in everyone’s interests that India take its rightful place among the nations as quickly as possible. And because trade deals are about politics as much as economics, a swift deal between India and Australia would be an important sign of the democratic world’s tilt away from China, as well as boosting the long-term prosperity of both our countries.

India and Australia are like-minded democracies whose relationship had been under-developed, at least until Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister. Under Modi, India has revived the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, and the first in-person Quad summit is expected before the end of the year. Under Modi, India has invited Australia to join the annual Malabar naval exercises that will soon involve India, the US, Japan, Australia and also the UK’s visiting carrier strike group led by the Royal Navy’s new flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth. It will be an impressive show of strength, demonstrating the democracies’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

But the basic problem is that China’s daunting power is a consequence of the free world’s decision to invite a communist dictatorship into global trading networks. Back then, the assumption was that rising prosperity and more economic freedom would lead, eventually, to political liberalisation too. Certainly, that was my view in 2014 when we finalised China’s first trade deal with a G20 economy. Subsequently, our exports to China did indeed grow, even faster than theirs to us; but the current capricious boycotts of Australian coal, barley, wine and seafood show that, for the Beijing regime, trade is used as a strategic weapon.

China has exploited the West’s goodwill and wishful thinking to steal our technology and undercut our industries; and, in the process, become a much more powerful competitor than the old Soviet Union ever was, because it’s now a first-rate economy that’s rapidly developing a military to match; and spoiling for a fight over Taiwan, a pluralist democracy of 25 million that’s living proof there’s no totalitarian gene in the Chinese DNA.

The pandemic has put up in flashing neon lights the extent to which the world has become dependent on Chinese imports, including in critical supply chains, that can be turned on and off like a tap. But the answer to almost every question about China is India. Although currently not as rich as China, as a democracy under the rule of law, and as the world’s second-largest producer of steel and pharmaceuticals, and with its own version of Silicon Valley, India is perfectly placed to substitute for China in global supply chains.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14304044 (090847ZAUG21) Notable: Dassi Erlich - Alleged Malka Leifer victim’s medical records released, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Malka_Leifer_is_taken_from_the_North_Melbourne_Police_Station_into_a_police_van_after_her_video_link_court_case_in_January.jpg

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>>128523

Alleged Malka Leifer victim’s medical records released

TESSA AKERMAN - AUGUST 9, 2021

Victorian prosecutors will hand over medical records of a woman who was allegedly abused by Malka Leifer after defence lawyers claimed the reports had probative value for the woman’s credibility.

Barrister Lucinda Thies told the Melbourne Magistrates Court the reports by medical professionals and counsellors had legitimate forensic purpose in determining the alleged victim’s, Dassi Erlich’s, credibility and reliability.

The reports formed part of a civil case in 2015.

Ms Leifer is facing 74 charges relating to three sisters, comprising 11 counts of rape, 47 of indecent assault, 13 of committing an indecent act with a child and three counts of sexual penetration of child.

The abuse allegedly occurred between 2004 and 2008 while the sisters were under Ms Leifer’s care as principal at Adass Israel School in Elsternwick.

The sisters – Ms Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper – obtained a court order allowing them to identify themselves as the alleged victims.

Ms Leifer was extradited from Israel in January.

A five-day committal hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for trial is set for next month with Ms Leifer attending by video link.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/alleged-malka-leifer-victims-medical-records-released/news-story/32d83c12a72d1874f2f48759f8312af2

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14304081 (090905ZAUG21) Notable: Vaccination is now a race to the federal election - Alexander Downer - afr.com, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Vaccination_is_now_a_race_to_the_federal_election.jpg

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Vaccination is now a race to the federal election

Poll ratings are rising and falling based on management of the pandemic. That’s why the Morrison government must throw everything into rolling out the vaccine as fast as humanly possible.

Alexander Downer - Aug 8, 2021

1/2

Political commentary in Australia is dominated by party politics. Every decision by the government is analysed in terms of its electoral impact on the government and the opposition. And then every fortnight or so opinion polls are published and commentators judge the winners and the losers.

There’s endless analysis about who is winning and losing in day-to-day politics even if the election is years away.

It’s not necessarily very enlightening. It would make more sense for there to be constant analysis of the efficacy of government policies rather than an analysis of whether those policies will win or lose an election.

These days, commentators are saying the Morrison government is heading for electoral defeat because of the way it is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, the election, I would guess, is still around nine months away, and a lot will happen in that time.

What has happened elsewhere in the world is illustrative of the electoral impact of the pandemic. Without doubt, Donald Trump lost the presidential election in November last year because of his clumsy and erratic rhetoric about COVID-19. The rollout of the vaccine didn’t come soon enough to save him.

In the UK, Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party have seen their poll ratings rise and fall depending on their responses to the pandemic.

In the early months of the pandemic, the British government seemed uncertain about what to do and polling showed the government in decline. Then came the rollout of the vaccines, which was a stunning success, and the government poll ratings rose almost stratospherically. Lockdowns have now ended and things have settled down.

In Europe, Angela Merkel and her party, the Christian Democratic Union, have seen their ratings rise and fall and rise again according to their management of the pandemic. The same is true for President Emmanuel Macron in France.

So back to Australia. In the early stages of the gilded-cage strategy, the public rallied behind Scott Morrison and his government. But then the state premiers started pursuing their quixotic COVID-19 elimination strategies – which are, of course, unsustainable and, as you can now see, are doomed to fail.

The relatively slow rollout of the vaccine, the constant lockdowns and the never-ending dramatic reports of COVID-19 infections have created a political headache for the federal government.

It has to be said that for the traditional Liberal voter it’s hard to accept that the government they voted for constricts people’s individual freedoms and goes on a spending spree the likes of which none of us has seen before. It’s hard to swallow.

A handful have said they will not vote Liberal at the next election. One of those is the former Queensland premier Campbell Newman.

I must say, I find it a bit hard to sympathise with him. His mother and father would never have become ministers had it not been for the Liberal Party, and nor would he have become the premier of Queensland and the lord mayor of Brisbane without the endorsement of the Liberal Party. I might be wrong, but when the election comes, I doubt Newman will trouble the scorer.

So let’s face it, these are troubled times for the Morrison government, and I don’t expect its position to look pretty in the next round of opinion polls. That means we are about to get a flurry of commentary about the end of the Morrison government and what kind of prime minister Anthony Albanese will make.

Well, nearly every election in Australia is closely fought and either of the main political parties always has a chance of winning. The Liberal Party could win the next election, but it depends on three things.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14304166 (090938ZAUG21) Notable: A Tight Spot: What Prince Andrew Faces If Virginia Roberts Guiffre Files Her Civil Suit Against Him This Week, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prince_Andrew_s_accuser_Virginia_Robert_s_Giuffre_center_flanked_by_her_lawyer_David_Boies_left.jpg

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>>128550

A Tight Spot: What Prince Andrew Faces If Virginia Roberts Guiffre Files Her Civil Suit Against Him This Week

Guy Martin - Aug 8, 2021

1/3

It’s a political and societal irony of great proportion that a child-victims law signed into effect by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — himself accused by 11 women of unwanted sexual advances, one of whom has just filed a criminal complaint against him — would have any effect on Prince Andrew’s legal status in his dispute with his chief accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre. But on Valentine’s Day 2019, the governor signed into law the New York Assembly’s far-reaching Child Victims Act, which enhanced the rights of childhood victims of sexual abuse, including a broadening of victims’ rights to file civil suits against their abusers in New York state.

In August 2020, as a result of the pandemic, the New York Assembly drafted and Cuomo signed into law an extension of what’s called the “Look Back Window” to the Child Victims Act. That 2020 legislation increased the time for victims to file civil suits relating to certain historical cases of childhood sexual abuse until August 14, 2021. Which is upon us.

These two pieces of legislation did not go unnoticed in the offices of legendary trial lawyer David Boies, who represents Prince Andrew’s accuser among the many Epstein victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, nor did they go unnoticed in England. Bottom line: With the August 14 deadline fast approaching, reporters from London’s tabloid Mail on Sunday, who have been assiduous in reporting every minute twist and turn of the increasingly ominous matters Andrew faces in relation to his decades-long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, rang up Mr. Boies to ask what he thought of his client Ms. Giuffre’s intention to file a suit against Prince Andrew this week.

Noting that the August 14 deadline meant that his client faced the risk of not being able to sue Prince Andrew at all, Boies said to the reporters: “To use a common phrase here in the United States, ‘Time's up.’”

As we might expect from Mr. Boies, the pithy quote has quite some legal muscle behind it. More pointed and significant for Prince Andrew is the letter Boies acknowledged sending some time back to the prince’s lawyers. As of August 6, according to Boies, this letter has gone unanswered. It seems it’s in the interests of the prince to gin up some sort of response. Because: the Boies letter offered Andrew’s legal team the opportunity to enter what is called a tolling agreement, an agreement by both parties in a prospective lawsuit to set aside any time limitations on the prospective suit so that the parties can have time to negotiate a settlement, rather than proceeding toward trial — in public — with the suit.

In other words, the suit has been in the works for quite some time. In short, what Boies and Giuffre were offering Andrew in that letter was an opportunity at a far more discreet solution in the civil matter.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14311486 (100824ZAUG21) Notable: Source refutes Aussie journalist’s rumor that researcher at Beijing lab infected with coronavirus at work - Xie Wenting and Bai Yunyi - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Source_refutes_Aussie_journalist_s_rumor_that_researcher_at_Beijing_lab_infected_with_coronavirus_at_work.jpg

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>>128538

>>128539

Source refutes Aussie journalist’s rumor that researcher at Beijing lab infected with coronavirus at work

Xie Wenting and Bai Yunyi - Aug 10, 2021

As US President Joe Biden's deadline for the intelligence community to hand over the report of the origins of coronavirus approaches, Australia's right-wing newspaper The Australian and some US tabloids are churning out another vicious rumor that the "coronavirus comes from a Chinese lab." This time they smeared the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention (NIVDC) under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"A Beijing laboratory director was infected with Covid-19 in a lab accident in early 2020, explosive emails have revealed, showing an inadvertent leak of the highly contagious coronavirus is far from a conspiracy theory," The Australian claimed in a report on Friday, adding that "a senior scientist at a prestigious laboratory, the National Institute for Viral Disease Control, allegedly contracted Covid-19 in his laboratory in early 2020 while researching the virus, prominent virologists say," the report claimed.

Regarding the accusations in the report, the Global Times learned from a source close to the NIVDC on Monday that the report was a complete lie. A person familiar with the situation told the Global Times that one researcher at the institute did become infected early last year but that person belonged to the institute's viral hepatitis division, which has nothing to do with the coronavirus research work. His office and his activities were located on the second floor of the institute and he had no access to the samples or to the P3 laboratory on the sixth floor of the building.

According to the source, the researcher was infected out of the workplace early last year when the COVID-19 epidemic was much severe in China. Relevant departments in Beijing have visited the NIVDC to investigate the case and confirmed that the infection process was not connected to the laboratory. This case was also included in Beijing's COVID-19 infection data and there was no "cover-up" as alleged in some reports.

How was this vicious rumor fabricated? According to the right-wing US media National Pulse, a group called the US Right To Know Foundation obtained the email exchange under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In a February 14, 2020 email exchange, Shan-Lu Liu, a virologist based in Ohio, said that the former director of the NIVDC, where he previously worked "has now been infected with SARS-CoV-2." Subsequent emails show him reiterating that "he was infected in the lab."

However, another source close to the NIVDC told the Global Times on Monday that Liu had left the institute for "at least more than a decade" and that it was impossible for him to know what was going on at the institute as researchers were not close to him.

The Global Times found Liu got master degree in Viral Infectious Diseases at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine (now CDC). The Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine was transformed into the CDC on January 2002, which means Liu's intersection with the NIVDC occurred at least 19 years ago.

It's worth noting that it is The Australian's Sharri Markson that fabricated this report. Markson has previously fabricated many rumors regarding the novel coronavirus, including claims that it may be a "biological weapon" developed by China.

Markson has her routine to make fake news: the first step is to find an unreliable source and get information which may be nonsense or get a few words out of context; the second step is to label it as "leaked documents" under the guise of "intelligence agency" to create a "mysterious sense of trust;" the third step is to distort the truth to attack China in her report. This time, the "Beijing lab mishap" adopted the same method.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231030.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14311596 (100909ZAUG21) Notable: PDF: Virginia Giuffre: Epstein accuser sues Prince Andrew for alleged sexual abuse - lawsuit accuses Andrew of sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: _There_s_only_one_of_us_telling_the_truth_and_I_know_that_s_me_Virginia_Giuffre_tells_BBC_Panorama.jpg, Virginia_Giuffre_Epstein_accuser_sues_Prince_Andrew_for_alleged_sexual_abuse.jpg, 0001.jpg, 0002.jpg, 0003.jpg

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>>128550

Virginia Giuffre: Epstein accuser sues Prince Andrew for alleged sexual abuse

New York lawsuit accuses Andrew of sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress

Graeme Massie - 10 August 2021

1/4

An alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein has sued Prince Andrew in a US court for alleged sexual abuse.

Virginia Giuffre claims that the Queen’s 61-year-old son sexually abused her at Epstein’s New York mansion and two other places when she was under the age of 18.

Ms Giuffre filed her case in New York federal court just days before the expiration date of a state law that allows alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse to file claims that would otherwise be prevented by statutes of limitations.

Her lawyer said that his client was determined to take action against Prince Andrew.

“If she doesn’t do it now, she would be allowing him to escape any accountability for his actions,” Ms Giuffre’s attorney, David Boies told ABC News.

“And Virginia is committed to trying to avoid situations where rich and powerful people escape any accountability for their actions.”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14311655 (100936ZAUG21) Notable: George Christensen condemned by Parliament for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: George_Christensen_was_reminded_to_wear_his_mask_while_in_the_House_of_Representatives.jpg, George_Christensen_was_condemned_after_his_fiery_speech_calling_for_the_end_of_COVID_19_restrictions.jpg, George_Christensen_spoke_at_an_anti_lockdown_rally_in_Mackay_north_Queensland_last_month.png

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>>128417

George Christensen condemned by Parliament for spreading COVID-19 misinformation

Jade Macmillan - 10 August 2021

Federal government MP George Christensen has been condemned by the federal Parliament after describing COVID-19 restrictions as "madness".

In a brief speech to Parliament just before Question Time, Mr Christensen called for an end to measures such as masks and lockdowns, arguing they did not work.

"Our posturing politicians, many over there, the sensationalist media elite and the dictatorial medical bureaucrats need to recognise these facts and stop spreading fear," he said.

"COVID-19 is going to be with us forever, just like the flu. And just like the flu, we will have to live with it, not in constant fear of it. Some people will catch it, some people will tragically die from it. That's inevitable and we have to accept it.

"Open society back up, restore our freedoms, end this madness."

Labor leader Anthony Albanese successfully moved a motion condemning Mr Christensen's comments, arguing they were aimed at spreading misinformation and undermining Australia's COVID-19 response.

"I'll tell you what madness is. Madness is saying let this disease rip, let people die, let whole economies be shut down. Let's stop us being able to return to our way of life," he told the chamber.

Mr Christensen has announced he is retiring at the next election. But Mr Albanese argued the Coalition should expel him before then.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament his government "does not support misinformation in any way, shape or form".

"That is not the position of the government and my government will not support those statements where there is misinformation that is out and about in the community, whether it's posted on Facebook or it's posted on social media, or it's written in articles or made statements, whether in this chamber or anywhere else," he said.

Mr Morrison also defended his government's handling of the pandemic amid criticism of his previous statements that the vaccine rollout was "not a race".

"It doesn't matter how you start the race, Mr Speaker, it's how you finish the race," he said.

"We're going to run that race all the way to the finish line but we're going to do it as team Australia. We're not going to do it in a way which seeks to divide Australians and set Australians one against the other."

Mr Christensen has previously been criticised for appearing at an anti-lockdown rally in Mackay, Queensland, in his electorate.

Last week, he was reminded to keep his mask on while in the House of Representatives chamber, after the opposition pointed out Mr Christensen had taken his mask off.

Mr Christensen said he took his mask off in preparation to speak to the chamber.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-10/george-christensen-mp-condemned-parliament-covid-misinformation/100365856

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14311676 (100942ZAUG21) Notable: Video: The Final Assault - The best of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 - We’ll continue to train together, and look forward to seeing you again for Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 - Department of Defence Australia

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>>128304

The Final Assault - Talisman Sabre 2021

Department of Defence Australia

Aug 9, 2021

We’ve put together the best of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 (TS21). If you enjoyed the action-packed scenes of amphibious landings, urban assaults, and parachute drops – all set against the backdrop of Queensland’s coastline and regional towns – our final video is one to watch.

Held every two years, TS21 is the largest bilateral training activity between Australia and the United States. In addition, TS21 involves participating forces from Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

The story of TS21 is one of mate-ship and resilience where partnering nations learn to work together in all situations, across all warfighting domains, but doesn’t end here. We’ll continue to train together, and look forward to seeing you again for Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHWkgda0SkE

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14311736 (101010ZAUG21) Notable: Video: Prince Andrew sued by Virginia Roberts Giuffre for an alleged sexual assault - 9 News Australia

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>>128565

Prince Andrew sued over alleged sexual assault

9 News Australia

Aug 10, 2021

Prince Andrew is being sued by Virginia Roberts Giuffre for an alleged sexual assault.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGG4YF82vKY

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14322190 (110712ZAUG21) Notable: Melbourne extends COVID lockdown; 'no jab, no job' in Sydney, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Healthcare_workers_administer_coronavirus_disease_COVID_19_tests_at_a_drive_through_testing_centre_on_the_first_day_of_a_seven_day_lockdown.jpg

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>>128203

Melbourne extends COVID lockdown; 'no jab, no job' in Sydney

Colin Packham and Renju Jose - August 11, 2021

CANBERRA, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne will stay locked down for a second week after reporting 20 new COVID-19 cases as it struggles to stamp out infections caused by the highly infectious Delta variant of the pandemic.

Melbourne had been due to exit the lockdown on Thursday, the sixth for its five million people in stop-start battles against the coronavirus also seen elsewhere across the country have triggered frustration and discord. In Sydney police are stepping up lockdown enforcement, while some labourers are being allowed to return to construction sites - if vaccinated.

Victoria state Premier Dan Andrews confirmed strict stay-at-home orders for Melbourne will remain in place until at least Aug. 19 after authorities were unable to trace how several of the 20 people confirmed as new cases on Wednesday contracted COVID-19.

"If we were to open, then we would see cases akin to what is happening, tragically, in Sydney right now," Andrews told reporters in Melbourne, referring to an outbreak in Australia's most populous city that has spread to thousands despite Sydney being in week seven of its own lockdown.

"We have seen a surge in the number of cases and (that is) expected to continue," New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, reporting another 344 new infections in the past 24 hours, close to the city's single-day record.

Berejiklian said the Sydney lockdown, which has grown to include several areas north of the city, will also be expanded to include Dubbo, a small city about 400 kilometres (248 miles) northwest of Sydney.

The latter is scheduled to remain in lockdown until the end of August. Most expect the restrictions to be extended, despite a recent surge in people seeking vaccinations.

Byron Bay, a popular tourist spot near the New South Wales border with Queensland and nearly 500 miles north of Sydney, was this week plunged into lockdown when a man allegedly drove there with his two teenage children.

Authorities said the man, now hospitalised with the virus, has not cooperated with officials when asked about his movements, and on Wednesday police said they have charged the unidentified man with contravening lockdown orders to stay at home.

'NO JAB, NO JOB'

Desperate to restart some major employment industries, New South Wales has allowed some in the most-affected Sydney suburbs to return to construction jobs around the city, but they must first be vaccinated.

"I didn't want to get the vaccine ... but I needed to get the jab or I don't have a job," said Nick, a 31-year-old man who drives for an engineering company. He declined to give his surname.

Australia has so far fared much better than many other countries in the developed world during the pandemic, with just under 37,000 COVID-19 cases. The death toll rose to 944 on Wednesday after two people, including a man in his 30s, died in Sydney.

But with fewer than 25% of the country fully vaccinated, Australia is struggling to avoid stop-start lockdowns that some warn could tip Australia's economy, the world's 13th biggest according to the International Monetary Fund, into a second recession in as many years.

Federal and state governments have committed to ending lockdowns when 70% of the country's near 26 million population is vaccinated.

Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg last month said the country's economy would contract in the current quarter as a result, and a recession would depend on how long the lockdowns last.

On Wednesday Matt Comyn, the Chief Executive of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX) - the country's largest lender - said he expects Australia would avoid a recession

"While Australia faces near-term challenges due to the lockdowns we expect growth will simply be pushed back by six months, with the economy rebounding in late 2021 and growing strongly in 2022," Comyn told analysts.

The curbs have already dented consumer sentiment, which slid to a one-year trough in August, data published on Wednesday showed.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-victoria-reports-20-locally-acquired-covid-19-cases-2021-08-10/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14322314 (110800ZAUG21) Notable: How QAnon became a Covid conspiracy cult in Australia - Perry Duffin - dailytelegraph.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Frontline_worker_Emma_says_her_father_has_been_caught_up_in_the_QAnon_conspiracy_cult.jpg, A_Sydney_Freedom_Day_protester_in_September_2020_holds_up_a_sign_bearing_QAnon_s_slogan.jpg

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>>128572

How QAnon became a Covid conspiracy cult in Australia

The families of our frontline medical heroes are being torn apart by conspiracy theories that began in the US and have mutated in Australia.

Perry Duffin - August 10, 2021

1/2

QAnon burst from the sewers of the internet to infect the minds of countless Australians — now the conspiracy theory has mutated and is tearing apart families of our pandemic first responders.

QAnon is a cult conspiracy that believes Donald Trump and the US military are fighting a holy war against paedophiles in the satanic ‘deep state’.

President Trump’s defeat and a mass ban on outspoken accounts put QAnon on the ropes, but in Australia the fading fringe thinkers found a new captive audience thanks to Covid-19.

NSW surgical and emergency nurse, Emma, said her father is among those now lost to the broadening anti-government, Covid-denying conspiracy.

“Dad started out saying the Chinese deliberately released the virus and no one should wear masks — he said he heard it on podcasts with American doctors,” Emma told The Daily Telegraph.

“Now he says none of it’s true — it’s just fear mongering and population control. And he keeps talking about celebrities being paedophiles.”

Emma was one of numerous healthcare workers who spoke under a pseudonym about losing a loved one to the disinformation pandemic.

Her father will not speak to her, calling the virus a lie even as she works in Covid-19 wards.

The final straw in their relationship was Emma’s decision to get vaccinated.

“It just feels like everything you do is for nothing. It’s all completely disregarded,” Emma said.

Her story is not unique.

Dr Sarah works in a Sydney hospital witnessing the worst of the pandemic.

But her mother has gone down an anti-vax rabbit hole after becoming interested in alternative health.

“We had to lay down an ultimatum that we wouldn’t be seeing my parents until they are vaccinated,” Dr Sarah said.

“That’s where it’s come to. It’s caused a rift that I hope will be bridged but we don’t see or talk to my parents much right now.”

As with Nurse Emma, Dr Sarah’s mother trusts obscure podcasts, books and online figures over her own medically trained child.

“People don’t want to believe experts,” Dr Sarah said.

“What you saw on Facebook is not the same as 20 years of study.“

Dr Sarah’s mother does not have social media so has not been exposed to QAnon’s global paedophile theory.

But “alternative health”, fears of “big pharma”, anti-vaccination and scepticism around official health advice has become a major entry ramp for the conspiracy community, researchers warn.

“The anti vaxxers and holistic medicine groups out there are often associated with the hippie movement,” Queensland University of Technology disinformation researcher Axel Bruns said.

“They’re now wrapped up in QAnon which has connected them with far right groups that heavily promote white supremacy.”

Professor Bruns called it a “meta-conspiracy theory” that has few borders and many entry points. It’s acting as a “glue” between the normally disparate groups.

ASIO has warned far right groups, which it considers a major domestic terror threat, are seizing on the pandemic conspiracy movement to recruit new members.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14322319 (110803ZAUG21) Notable: Experts reveal how to spot QAnon, anti-vaxxer fake news - Perry Duffin - dailytelegraph.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: A_Qanon_photo_posted_by_an_IMOP_Party_candidate.jpg

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>>128572

Experts reveal how to spot QAnon, anti-vaxxer fake news

Disinformation is everywhere online, some of it is hard to even detect, here’s the expert guide to recognising the gateways to QAnon and conspiracy land.

Perry Duffin - August 11, 2021

Conspiracists believe their “research” has led them to a secret truth – but the path to QAnon’s communities in Australia is just a few clicks away.

If you search Facebook for information about Sydney’s Delta outbreak you’ll be shown official health advice from Facebook on the dangers of Covid-19, as well as articles from reputable news sources.

Among the next results are pages and groups posting about lockdown rallies and the vaccine – these are the gateways to rabbit holes.

A popular page on Facebook has spent months sharing articles from a dinky website that claims everyone taking the vaccine is a “guinea pig”.

The page also shares badly photoshopped images purporting that Covid was planned or is “a hoax by the global elites”.

Monash University said fringe groups were using pandemic conspiracy theories to recruit new members.

Photoshopped news reports or unfamiliar news websites are a major warning sign, experts say, that you’ve wandered into tinfoil hat land, as well as pixelated ­images, mismatched fonts or unknown sources.

If you search for more information about any of the claims made in this QAnon-lite territory you will likely be introduced to private Facebook groups where reality is a long lost memory.

The groups are full of Australians reciting anti-­Semitic conspiracies, QAnon believers and anti-vaxxers.

The University of Western Sydney found only 39 per cent of Australians were confident they could identify fake news.

Researchers warn misinformation could divide Australia’s society and threaten its democracy and called for training in school and adult life.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/experts-reveal-how-to-spot-qanon-antivaxxer-fake-news/news-story/819c435aaf5ab8b6f6f3831316165e1b

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14322373 (110825ZAUG21) Notable: Marise Payne, Peter Dutton planning diplomatic visits to US, India and Indonesia, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Foreign_Affairs_Minister_Marise_Payne_has_been_busy_with_virtual_meetings_throughout_the_pandemic.jpg, Senator_Payne_met_with_Afghan_President_Ashraf_Ghani_in_May.jpg, Mr_Dutton_s_office_declined_to_comment_on_the_possible_trip.jpg

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Marise Payne, Peter Dutton planning diplomatic visits to US, India and Indonesia

Stephen Dziedzic and Andrew Greene - 11 August 2021

Australian officials are working on an ambitious diplomatic plan which would see Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Peter Dutton travel to three countries — the United States, India and Indonesia – for meetings with their counterparts.

Senator Payne and Mr Dutton are likely to head to Washington next month for annual talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

But the ABC has been told officials are also working on a broader itinerary that would see the two frontbenchers visit New Delhi and Jakarta for "2+2" meetings of foreign and defence ministers.

The meetings are not locked in and could yet be derailed by the pandemic or other events, but Australian diplomats in all three countries have been working on the plan.

The overseas trip would be Mr Dutton's first since becoming Defence Minister in March.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison may also visit the United States in September for a possible in-person meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue leaders, with US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The ABC has been told this is not a certainty.

The United Nations General Assembly is also sitting in New York in September, which would offer Mr Morrison a chance to speak to senior diplomats and world leaders.

The extensive travel plans being drawn up for Mr Dutton and Senator Payne signal the federal government is keen to re-engage in face-to-face meetings with key Asian partners.

Senator Payne has kept up a relentless schedule of virtual meetings since the pandemic hit, but has only made three overseas trips.

Last year, she travelled to the US in July before heading to Japan and Singapore in October.

In May this year she also travelled to the United Kingdom for a G7+ Foreign Ministers meeting, as well as to Geneva, Washington and Kabul.

Meeting in person better for thorny discussions

The director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, Ben Bland, said Australia had been "conspicuous by its absence" from major South-East Asian nations, particularly Indonesia, and it was good to see the government planning high-level visits to the region.

"No Australian minister had visited Indonesia since the start of the pandemic and in that time there has been a very long list of ministers visiting from China, Japan, the US, Russia, Iran, the European Union and the United Kingdom," he said.

"It would be great to correct that. In the midst of this terrible pandemic, Indonesia values the partners that show up, as well as the assistance they give."

Mr Bland said politicians in South-East Asian nations such as Indonesia put a high premium on face-to-face meetings.

"It's hard to have frank discussions about thorny regional issues like China's assertive behaviour, or the response to the coup in Myanmar, over Zoom," he said.

"Ministers and other senior officials need to meet in person to have the confidence to speak openly."

Senator Payne and Mr Dutton are expected to tackle a broad array of issues during the meetings, should they be confirmed.

The Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) talks are expected to focus heavily on defence cooperation, including moves to expand joint military training exercises in Australia.

The US and Australian ministers are likely to discuss joint efforts to roll out COVID-19 vaccines around the Indo-Pacific region, the direction of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, securing supply chains and regional security.

In India, Mr Dutton is likely to again encourage India to join the next Talisman Sabre exercises in Queensland which already involve Japan, South Korea and the US.

The pandemic and regional security are likely to also dominate talks in Indonesia, a country that has been grappling with Chinese-flagged fishing vessels in its territorial waters.

Mr Dutton's office declined to comment on the planned trip, saying it would announce any plans once finalised.

Senator Payne's office also did not comment.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-11/cph-peter-dutton-and-marise-payne-travel-plans/100366330

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14322440 (110845ZAUG21) Notable: Scott Morrison urges for ‘upgrade’ to US-Australian alliance as China’s tariffs hit hard, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Speaking_at_the_Australian_American_leadership_dialogue_on_Wednesday_Mr_Morrison_hailed_the_US_for_building_the_current_liberal_world_order_from_the_ashes_of_depression_and_war_after_WWII.jpg, Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_met_with_US_President_Joe_Biden_during_the_G7_Leaders_meeting_in_June.jpg, The_PM_applauded_the_recent_Talisman_Sabre_military_exercise_which_saw_nearly_14_000_personnel_from_the_US_and_Australia_training_across_Queensland.jpg

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Scott Morrison urges for ‘upgrade’ to US-Australian alliance as China’s tariffs hit hard

Scott Morrison has insisted Australia and the US need to drastically ramp-up their economic and military partnership as the two countries move forward.

Helena Burke - AUGUST 11, 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has insisted Australia and the US need to drastically ramp-up their economic and military partnership as the two countries move forward.

Speaking at the Australian American leadership dialogue on Wednesday, Mr Morrison declared the US had “no stronger partner” than Australia in preserving the liberal world order amid China’s rising influence.

“In Australia, the US has no stronger partner today in defending the values and its institutional pillars of what was created by a remarkable generation of American leaders,” Mr Morrison said.

The Prime Minister’s comments come amid increasingly tense relations with the world's other major power, China, which recently slapped tariffs on several key Aussie industries.

“Unlike the Cold War, geostrategic competition in the coming decades will be engaged in the economic realm,” Mr Morrison told the leadership dialogue meeting.

“Our recent experience with economic coercion underlines that.”

Mr Morrison emphasised the strength and importance of the Australian-US alliance, stating Australia was “deeply committed” to the partnership as the “foundation of our security and our prosperity.”

Moving forward, the Prime Minister insisted Australia and the US needed to strengthen and increase their economic and military partnership.

Mr Morrison urged the US to “upgrade” its trade partnership with Australia, telling Mr Biden to consider regular strategic economic dialogues between the two countries, and to work alongside Australia “to deal with the reform of the World Trade Organisation.”

The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement is one of the strongest trade partnerships in the world, with 96 per cent of all Australian exports to the US being tariff-free.

However, the US currently makes up just 5.3 per cent of Australian exports. Meanwhile, China makes up approximately 30.6 per cent.

Mr Morrison also implored the US to continue to build on the recent surge in US-Australian joint military activities.

“Our defence co-operation is strengthened and accelerated, as has Australia‘s own defence rebuild”, he said

“We are undertaking the biggest regeneration of our navy since the Second World War.”

The PM applauded the recent Talisman Sabre military exercise, in which almost 14,000 personnel from the US and Australia along with contingents from Japan and Korea, New Zealand, Canada and the UK trained together across Queensland.

And Mr Morrison was not shy about disclosing the true strategic objective of the military exercise.

“There were a few spectators out there not too far away looking on,” the PM said.

“We’re investing our wealth and treasure to make Australia stronger so we can be ready to defend our nation and a rules-based order in our region – a world that favours freedom and to be able to do so alongside who share our values and beliefs: most significantly, the United States.”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/scott-morrison-urges-for-upgrade-to-usaustralian-alliance-as-chinas-tariffs-hit-hard/news-story/b1370e7e35e7c9fca85a9cfbe836bb09

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14332246 (120702ZAUG21) Notable: Scott Morrison criticises 'crazy' COVID-19 conspiracy theories, George Christensen defends comments on restrictions - Jade Macmillan - abc.net.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_says_the_government_does_not_stand_for_misinformation_on_COVID_19.jpg, Dawson_MP_George_Christensen_wore_a_face_mask_in_Parliament_a_day_after_being_condemned_for_comments_saying_they_did_not_work.jpg, Nationals_leader_Barnaby_Joyce_says_he_cannot_tell_George_Christensen_not_to_speak.jpg

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>>128566

Scott Morrison criticises 'crazy' COVID-19 conspiracy theories, George Christensen defends comments on restrictions

Jade Macmillan - 11 August 2021

The Prime Minister criticised what he described as "crazy, rubbish" conspiracy theories about COVID-19 a day after the views of one of his backbenchers were formally condemned by Parliament.

The House of Representatives took the unusual step of condemning comments made by Queensland MP George Christensen on Tuesday, after he used a speech to argue masks and lockdowns do not work.

Asked in Question Time about QAnon conspiracy theories being spread online, Scott Morrison said no form of misinformation would be tolerated.

"Crazy, rubbish conspiracies have no place when it comes to the public health of this country and this government will have no association with it as we demonstrated yesterday in this House," he said.

"Ensuring that we take all steps we can to deal with misinformation is what this government is doing.

"And it is up to all of us as members to seek to do everything we can to ensure that we are countering that in our own communities."

A video of Mr Christensen's speech was removed from his Facebook page by the social media giant, which argued it breached its misinformation policies.

"We don't allow anyone, including elected officials or public figures, to share misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm or misinformation that could lead to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy," Facebook said in a statement.

Mr Christensen has since posted a "censored" version of the video, in which the audio of his comments about masks has been removed.

He told Nine Radio that he did not regret making the speech.

"I now know what it's like to be slapped with a wet lettuce leaf," he said.

"My email has been flooded with people from all over the country since I made those comments congratulating me and saying it's about time that some politician actually just said it as it is."

'He can say what he likes,' says Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce

Mr Christensen will not not be re-contesting his seat of Dawson at the next election but Labor argues he should be kicked out of the Coalition before then.

"If Scott Morrison can't pull George Christensen into line, he needs to push him onto the crossbench," Shadow Health Minister Mark Butler said.

"We can't have this disinformation coming from a member of the national government."

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said he had spoken to Mr Christensen but could not stop him from expressing his views.

"What you're asking is to say, 'Barnaby, go out there and muzzle George Christensen'. Well, first of all, I'm not allowed to, I'm in lockdown," he said.

"And tell him never to speak again? Well, he's a free individual, he can say what he likes."

Nationals MP David Gillespie, who is the Minister for Regional Health and a doctor, said he had told Mr Christensen that masks were effective.

But Mr Gillespie argued the formal condemnation of the Parliament was an adequate response to the speech.

"He's faced the consequences," he said.

"Inside this building, for people that understand parliamentary processes, that is an exceptional rebuke."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-11/cph-pm-criticises-crazy-covid-conspiracies/100369488

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14332326 (120718ZAUG21) Notable: Scott Morrison vows to snuff out QAnon ‘rubbish’, Covid conspiracies - Perry Duffin - dailytelegraph.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_during_Question_Time_in_the_House_of_Representatives_in_Parliament_House_Canberra.jpg, QAnon_conspiracy_theories_continues_to_frustrate_health_authorities_and_NSW_and_Federal_authorities_warn_they_are_witnessing_growing_online_extremism_.png

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>>128572

>>128579

Scott Morrison vows to snuff out QAnon ‘rubbish’, Covid conspiracies

Authorities say they are intercepting pandemic conspiracy ‘extremists’ as the Prime Minister vows to stamp out QAnon ‘rubbish’ and misinformation spreading online.

Perry Duffin - August 12, 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed to fight the ­insidious spread of QAnon and Covid-19 conspiracy theorists after The Daily Telegraph’s revelations that families are being torn apart by dangerous misinformation.

It comes as NSW and Federal authorities warn they are witnessing growing “online extremism” leading to the ­arrests and charging of multiple people in recent weeks.

This week doctors and nurses spoke emotionally of internet conspiracy theory QAnon brainwashing their loved ones.

The pandemic frontline heroes are now returning home from Covid-filled wards to friends and family who ­believe Covid is a hoax or the pandemic is a plot by evil ­global “elites”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, on Wednesday, was asked what his government was doing to stop the online conspiracy theories that are threatening the crucial vaccine rollout.

“Crazy rubbish conspiracy theories have no place when it comes to the public health of this country and this government will have no association with it,” Mr Morrison told Question Time.

“Countering misinformation is a task for all of us, it is certainly a task for the government and one we are acting on.”

NSW Police said Covid-19 had “enlivened extremist views and conspiracy theories” which exploit the internet’s capacity to connect.

“This has seen an increase in online extremist commentary with mixed and often complementary ideologies,” a spokeswoman said, noting it was almost entirely online.

“The risk associated with this activity is a concern and the NSW Police Force closely monitors online activity and assesses online sentiment.”

The Fixated Persons Unit, which monitors the ideologically motivated potential threats inside the state, has charged three people for online threats since the start of July.

The Australian Federal Police said it had observed nationalist, racially motivated and religious extremists among those “exploiting public fear” during the pandemic.

“Ideologically motivated violent extremism (IVME) propaganda, and increased time spent online, has seen extremist narratives influencing a broad mainstream audience,” an AFP spokesman said.

“This comes in many forms including by spreading disinformation, conspiracy theories, and in some cases to incite violence.”

“Extremists do this for a range of reasons including to promote their ideology and recruit new members.”

Last week the AFP arrested a group for allegedly starting their own “strain of the AFP” using a fake video they circulated online.

In the video a man, masquerading as AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, allegedly urges people to join them as they work to overthrow the Commonwealth Government.

The fake AFP had allegedly established its own commissioners and was issuing “arrest warrants” for high profile Australians as it planned to “dissolve” the government.

Such expressions are commonplace among the QAnon, Sovereign Citizen, anti-lockdown and other conspiracy movements.

Investigators allege the group is IVME motivated.

Joint Counter Terrorism Teams, the AFP’s specialist squads, say they have disrupted multiple IVME plots this year — and say they will continue to disrupt others.

“Our community and our families are going through some very testing and trying times right now,” the AFP spokesman said.

“Many Australians are doing it tough because of the pandemic and are being targeted while they are vulnerable. The Covid pandemic will not stop the work of JCTTs in ensuring the safety of the community.”

Since 2014 there have been nine terror attacks and 21 major disruptions, the AFP said — of these two were IVME plots.

The AFP spokesman urged the community to only get their information from trusted sources.

The Prime Minister said he was working with multicultural and faith leaders, particularly in South West Sydney, to have the trusted community figures encourage vaccines.

Regional neighbours Papua New Guinea, he said, were also fighting against a tide of misinformation and Australia was working to increase vaccine uptake there.

Health Minister Greg Hunt told Question Time his department was “mythbusting” across multiple languages.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-nsw/cops-reveal-battle-with-extremists-as-pm-pledges-to-snuff-out-qanon-rubbish/news-story/e4e3a98d51ddfb8e02a580a9576b6f72

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14332362 (120726ZAUG21) Notable: New weapons deal between US and Australia confirmed as tensions with China continue to rise, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Australia_and_the_US_have_signed_a_new_missile_deal.jpg, The_new_missiles_will_be_able_to_strike_at_ranges_from_70_to_more_than_400km.jpg, Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_said_the_US_had_no_stronger_partner_in_defending_the_values_of_the_liberal_world_order_than_Australia.png

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>>128577

New military weapons deal confirmed between US and Australia

A new weapons deal between the US and Australia has been confirmed as tensions with China continue to rise.

Helena Burke - AUGUST 12, 2021

Australia has announced a new partnership with the US to develop precision strike missile technology capable of hitting targets at ranges of more than 400km in an effort to bolster Australia’s military capabilities.

In a recent memorandum of understanding between the Australian Army and the US military, the two countries pledge to increase the lethality, range and target engagement of the missile under development.

The US Army’s Defence Exports and Co-operation deputy assistant secretary Elizabeth Wilson said the new missile agreement “complements the US presence in the Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility”.

“(The agreement) reinforces our dedication to allies in the Indo-Pacific and sets a path forward for US Army long-range precision fires in the region,” Ms Wilson said.

It comes as China’s mouthpiece, The Global Times warned about the US’s increasing closeness to its allies in the Pacific region.

“The US is eager to unite allies and partners, which reflects its strategic anxiety,” it wrote.

“Washington aims to strengthen maritime co-operation with allies and strategic partners, flexing muscles against China and demonstrating its deterrence capabilities and determination.”

As part of the new $907m precision strike missile program, the Australian government will contribute more than $70m to advance long-range precision fire capabilities.

Head of the Australian Army’s land capability Simon Stuart said the precision strike guided missile would provide the ADF with “long range and deep strike capability from (Australian) land”.

“The surface-to-surface, all-weather, precision-strike guided missile will be capable of destroying, neutralising and suppressing diverse targets at ranges from 70 to over 400km,” Defence Minister Peter Dutton said in a media release on Thursday.

Earlier this week, one of Australia’s most respected think tanks the Lowy Institute warned that China could already strike Australian land from the South China Sea if it chose to do so.

“Absent assistance from allies and partners, China already possesses the capability to strike Australia from existing bases with bomber aircraft and long-range missiles,” its report said.

The think tank cautioned that while the possibility of an Australian-China war remained “remote”, policy makers needed to remain vigilant about the implications of China’s rapidly increasingly military capabilities.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/new-military-weapons-deal-confirmed-between-us-and-australia/news-story/f326c67f6c2731d6d148e5bc55eff791

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14332404 (120737ZAUG21) Notable: Upgrading Quad and Malabar exercise shows US anxiety about China - Zuo Xiying - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Upgrading_Quad_and_Malabar_exercise_shows_US_anxiety_about_China.jpg

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>>128581

Upgrading Quad and Malabar exercise shows US anxiety about China

Zuo Xiying - Aug 11, 2021

The four Quad countries - India, the US, Japan, and Australia - will conduct the Malabar 2021 exercises off Guam in the Western Pacific later this month. The Malabar exercise started in 1992 as a bilateral military exercise between the Indian Navy and the US Navy in the Indian Ocean. Japan has been participating in this drill annually since 2015. In 2020, India invited Australia to take part in the annual exercise, making it a drill among the Quad navies.

As a routine joint military exercise mechanism led by the US, the Malabar drill has actively undergone transformation in recent years. This indeed reflects some new trends in the current US maritime strategy. Washington aims to strengthen maritime cooperation with allies and strategic partners, flexing muscles against China and demonstrating its deterrence capabilities and determination. This also reflects Washington's consistent strategic intention in recent years - to enhance its conventional deterrence capability against China by uniting allies and strategic partners.

On April 30, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin addressed the change of command ceremony for the US Indo-Pacific Command. At this event, he proposed a new approach as an "integrated deterrence." "We'll use existing capabilities, and build new ones, and use all of them in networked ways - hand in hand with our allies and partners," he said.

The US is eager to unite allies and partners, which reflects its strategic anxiety. After the 1995-96 Taiwan Straits crisis, China tried to develop key weapons to deter the US. At that time, the US was still able to deter China through its powerful conventional military forces. But with the advancement of China's military modernization over the past two decades, China has fully caught up with the US in terms of conventional military forces. However, the US' conventional deterrence capability in the Western Pacific has relatively declined. It has been critically questioned by US allies and partners, China, and even by many within the US.

Therefore, Washington is eager to find a solution. It believes a decline in its conventional deterrence capabilities will encourage Beijing to take adventurous actions. Based on such a judgment, Washington thinks it must strengthen its conventional deterrence capabilities. To achieve this goal, the US has no other choice but to unite and rope in its allies and strategic partners, as well as to strengthen security cooperation among key allies and strategic partners. Against this backdrop, the US has chosen to strengthen the Quad mechanism by transforming and upgrading the original US-India bilateral naval drill into a quadrilateral joint military exercise.

As the US keeps promoting its Indo-Pacific Strategy, the Quad mechanism has continued to deepen cooperation in the security field and made great progress in joint military exercises and intelligence sharing. This has indeed brought some strategic pressure to China.

However, the cooperation between Washington and its allies and partners in the security field should not be exaggerated, and it would be inaccurate to claim that the quadrilateral mechanism is becoming NATO-like. The US will undoubtedly continue to strengthen its security cooperation with India, Australia, and Japan to counterbalance China, but we need to see the limitations of the US strategy.

On the one hand, the strengthening of the Quad mechanism reflects the fact that China's military growth is for sure putting enormous external pressure on the US in the Indo-Pacific region. This has worried the US strategic community. As a result, Washington has taken aggressive defensive measures to counterbalance Beijing. On the other hand, India, Australia, and Japan have their own interests in security issues. Washington cannot have a monopoly on the Quad mechanism, even though it is led by the US.

As for China, there is definitely a need for it to counter the US' strengthening of the security cooperation among the Quad countries. However, we should also look at it in a normal way, and not be overly nervous. It is expected that China's military power will grow steadily. The Quad countries need to take such a reality into account as a constant factor. For China, it is crucial to seek a balance between controlling external pressure and responding to it.

The author is a research fellow at the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231167.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14332463 (120752ZAUG21) Notable: Video: Australian journalist fans flames of conspiracy theory - China Daily

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==>>128564

Australian journalist fans flames of conspiracy theory

China Daily

Aug 3, 2021

Australian journalist Sharri Markson actively fans the flames of the Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory and politicizes the Covid origins investigations with the rightwing circle in the US. She achieved big money and fame, but helped to poison the international community's rhetoric.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrevSxpH0P8

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14332475 (120757ZAUG21) Notable: Japan calls on Australia to lead resistance to China’s regional sway, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Japanese_Defence_Minister_Nobuo_Kishi.jpg

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Japan calls on Australia to lead resistance to China’s regional sway

Eryk Bagshaw - August 12, 2021

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Japan’s Defence Minister has warned China is trying to change the status quo in the region by force and has called on Australia and other allies to step up to ensure Beijing’s dominance is not inevitable.

In some of his strongest comments on the deteriorating security situation across the Indo-Pacific, Nobuo Kishi said the shifting power balance between the US and China “has become very conspicuous” while a military battle over Taiwan had “skewed greatly in favour of China”.

“Japan’s defence policy is not targeted at any specific nation. But given that the security environment surrounding Japan is getting even harsher, we must build a structure where we can protect ourselves,” Kishi told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in an interview in his office at the Defence Ministry in Tokyo.

“[China] is trying to change the status quo unilaterally backed by force and coercion. And they’re trying to make it into a fait accompli.”

The 62-year-old younger brother of former prime minister Shinzo Abe said it was up to the Japanese Parliament to decide if the country needed to change its pacifist constitution to meet its security needs.

“For us to be able to respond to those challenges, what we must do is enhance our defence capabilities on our own,” he said.

“There could be a constitutional debate in [autumn] this year in the national Diet, but this is a matter for the Diet. I will refrain from making such comments.”

Liberal Democratic Party MPs have spent decades arguing for changes to the constitution that would give its self-defence forces greater power to join conflicts in which there is a collective interest. A legislative reinterpretation in 2014 allowed Japan’s military to defend other allies if war was declared upon them, but Abe left office last year without a constitutional legacy and the debate has since been overshadowed by the coronavirus and the Olympics.

Kishi said Tokyo had been paying particularly close attention to the South China Sea and the East China Sea where it has disputed territories with China. He welcomed the arrival of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group and a German frigate in the region but said the military gap between China and Taiwan was growing “year by year”.

China regards the democratic island of Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be united with the mainland by 2049. In a show of force, Beijing has flown more than 300 warplanes towards its neighbour over the past 12 months.

“The defence stability of Taiwan is very important, not just for Japan’s security, but for the stability of the world as well,” said Kishi.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14332513 (120811ZAUG21) Notable: ‘Additional evidence’: Another women, Johanna Sjoberg, to testify against Prince Andrew, says Virginia Roberts Giuffre's lawyer David Boies, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prince_Andrew_denies_having_had_sex_with_Virginia_Giuffre_when_she_was_17_Giuffre_says_she_was_forced_by_Jeffrey_Epstein_to_sleep_with_the_duke.jpg, Prince_Andrew_pictured_with_Virginia_Giuffre_at_the_home_of_Ghislaine_Maxwell_right_in_London_in_2001.jpg

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>>128565

‘Additional evidence’: Other women to testify against Prince Andrew, says lawyer

Josie Ensor and Victoria Ward - August 12, 2021

New York: New evidence that links Prince Andrew with his alleged victim is set to emerge after other women indicated that they were prepared to testify against him, a lawyer claimed.

Australian-based Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an accuser of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, filed a lawsuit in New York this week accusing Andrew, the Duke of York, of “rape in the first degree”.

Her lawyer, David Boies, said his team was preparing to present fresh testimony that would throw further doubt on the prince’s account.

“You will see additional evidence,” he said. “You’ve heard testimony about other girls who saw Andrew with Virginia, and there will be additional testimony about that from the same woman, but from some other women, too.”

Boies was referring to Johanna Sjoberg, the only other accuser to have come forward publicly to allege sexual contact with the royal.

Sjoberg, 41, accused Andrew of groping her by taking a “Spitting Image” puppet of himself and placing its hand on her breast in London in 2001.

Andrew’s spokesman declined to comment on the claim.

Andrew, 61, is at Balmoral with the Queen, having left for Scotland with his former wife Sarah, the Duchess of York, on Tuesday, just hours before a US summons was approved by a court clerk and sent to Royal Lodge, his Windsor home.

He is said to have 21 days to respond or face “judgement by default”.

Giuffre has not put a figure on the compensation she is seeking for “significant emotional and psychological harm” but is asking for both compensatory and punitive damages.

Boies said: “Both categories will be substantial. A person’s declared wealth does come into consideration with respect to punitive damages.”

Albert D’Aquino, a New York lawyer, said that while punitive damages were discretionary for a jury, they were generally limited to no more than 20 to 25 per cent of a defendant’s net worth, and were “more typically less than that”.

David McClure, a royal finances expert and author of The Queen’s True Worth said the duke’s finances were “shrouded in a pea-soup fog of impenetrability”.

“Judging by the fact that the Queen is known to bankroll less well-off members of her family, it’s logical to assume that if he was short of funds and had a big outlay in terms of legal bills that she would help,” he added.

Andrew’s legal team has been locked in discussions about how to deal with the lawsuit and has so far refused to comment publicly.

A lawyer suggested that the team would want to delay proceedings until they knew the outcome of a civil case Giuffre brought against lawyer Alan Dershowitz, whom she has accused of sexual assault, as well as the criminal trial of socialite Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges.

“They will want to see how the Dershowitz case goes to establish whether Ms Giuffre is deemed a credible witness,” the lawyer told the London Telegraph.

Boies said: “They could be stalling but delay does not help him because nothing that’s going to happen in either the Maxwell or Dershowitz case is going to help him. The more that is exposed, the more information we find out. Time is not on their side.”

Giuffre has alleged she was trafficked to the duke and sexually abused on three separate occasions, when she was 17 in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands. The duke has said he has no recollection of meeting Giuffre, now 38, and denies sleeping with her.

“You’re not going to find anybody who was present in the room when they [are alleged to have] had sex,” Boies said. “What you will have is more evidence that refutes his [Prince Andrew’s] assertion that he never knew her, or as his most modification has it, that he doesn’t recall meeting her.

“He’s going to have a very difficult time when his deposition is taken because now he’s got to answer questions under oath, subject to cross-examination and there will be lots of difficult questions.”

Boies, 80, a litigator known for his successful prosecution of Microsoft, said his team had tried to make contact with the Andrew’s representatives for five years, but never received a reply.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/additional-evidence-other-women-to-testify-against-prince-andrew-says-lawyer-20210812-p58i4y.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14342413 (130605ZAUG21) Notable: `How China ‘disappeared’ Australian journalist Cheng Lei - nabbed by secret police in Beijing, August 13 2020, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Cheng_Lei_Cheng_is_engulfed_in_a_political_crackdown_overseen_by_Chinese_President_Xi_Jinping.jpg, Tadek_Markowski.jpg

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>>128282

`How China ‘disappeared’ Australian journalist Cheng Lei

WILL GLASGOW - AUGUST 12, 2021

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Cheng Lei’s colleagues were horrified.

The single mother of two children — one of the highest-profile Australians living in China — had been nabbed by secret police in Beijing. That was August 13 — a year ago, this Friday.

Her co-workers in the headquarters of the China Global Television Network, China’s English-language state broadcaster, only found out when someone on the Beijing breaking news desk saw a report in international media.

Staff in the futuristic office, which looms over Beijing’s CBD, were stunned. None of their bosses had mentioned that the anchor and face of CGTN’s business coverage had “disappeared”.

Eight days earlier, management had made them sign a strange legal document, called a nondisclosure undertaking.

“Everyone — all the foreign staff — were given one to sign,” Tadek Markowski tells The Australian. “You can draw your own conclusions from that.”

When the news broke, Markowski immediately wrote an email to his duty manager.

“Make no mistake, this will send shockwaves through the entirety of the foreign staff,” he wrote, in correspondence shared with The Australian.

“Cheng Lei has children back in Australia, as do myself and others. Her kids must be worried sick … Imagine what all of our families must now be thinking.”

Within weeks, Markowski quit the network and joined his family in Queensland, ending a seven-year career at CGTN.

“I found it very difficult to be at my desk, in the building, and pretend that it was business as usual,” he says, speaking publicly for the first time about his friend and colleague’s ordeal.

The horrific plight of Cheng has coincided with the most profound breakdown in Australia’s political relationship with China in 50 years. Along with two Canadians, Michael Spavor and ­Michael ­Kovrig, hers is the most notorious detention of a foreign national in China. On Wednesday, Spavor was given an 11-year sentence for “spying and illegally providing state ­secrets to other countries”. But this is much more than a bilateral story.

A different time

Cheng — who turned 46 in a Beijing prison cell in June — has been engulfed in a political crackdown overseen by President Xi Jinping. It has spread across business, education and all of Chinese society.

State media was never going to escape it.

Xi took over as the Communist Party’s leader in November 2012, weeks before Cheng started at China’s English-language broadcaster. Back then, talented journalists were joining the expanding network from all around the world. It was an optimistic time, back when engagement with China was still America’s — and Australia’s — foreign policy.

Now many are leaving, disturbed by Beijing’s increasing editorial intrusion.

Christine Schiffner left her job as the director of news gathering at CGTN’s Washington DC bureau weeks before Cheng was detained. Schiffner, who previously worked for Germany’s public broadcaster, ARD, said the network’s coverage of Xinjiang made her increasingly uncomfortable.

“It was just a line I couldn’t cross,” she tells The Australian in her first interview since leaving the state broadcaster.

The interference ramped up in her last six months after a new Chinese manager was installed to oversee the American operations.

As the coronavirus spread around the world, things only got worse. “Beijing wanted us to follow up on these stories and find these people to prove that the virus did not originate in Wuhan but originated somewhere else,” says Schiffner.

On a visit in 2016 to CGTN’s parent network, China Central Television — with which it shares its Beijing office — Xi could not have been clearer about his media philosophy: “Media run by the party and the government are the propaganda fronts and must have the party as their family name.”

That sort of editorial intrusion took a while to reach CGTN, at least in America.

“I can only imagine what Cheng Lei went through in Beijing. I had a little bit more freedom living in the States — but in Beijing, what do you do?”

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14342555 (130639ZAUG21) Notable: Sydney readies for more military support as COVID-19 Delta variant sweeps city, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Police_officers_patrol_through_the_quiet_Central_Station_in_the_city_centre_during_a_lockdown_to_curb_the_spread_of_a_coronavirus_disease_COVID_19_outbreak_in_Sydney_Australia_August_12_2021.jpg

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>>128203

Sydney readies for more military support as Delta sweeps city

Renju Jose - August 13, 2021

SYDNEY, Aug 13 (Reuters) - More defence personnel could begin patrolling Sydney from next week to help ensure compliance of lockdown rules as officials on Friday warned of a surge in cases in Australia's largest city after it reported its biggest daily rise in infections yet.

"Unfortunately, this trend (in cases) will continue for at least the next few days," New South Wales (NSW) state premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the state capital.

As daily COVID-19 cases hover near record highs in the city, the defence department said they have received a request for extra personnel to help support state police to enforce home-quarantine orders in the worst-affected suburbs.

"Defence is preparing to deploy an additional 200 personnel commencing Monday ... to assist NSW police force," a defence department spokesperson told Reuters.

More than 500 unarmed army personnel are already helping police in Sydney, including monitoring compliance activities at hotels and airports.

Despite a nearly seven-week lockdown in Sydney, NSW state reported 390 new locally acquired cases, most of the cases in the city, eclipsing the previous daily high of 356 set on Tuesday. Daily cases have topped 300 for the past four days.

Two new deaths have been recorded, taking the total number of deaths in the latest outbreak in the state to 38.

Several regional towns in NSW are also in lockdown due to people breaching the Sydney lockdown and spreading the virus. One of the most concerning is in the town of Walgett in far northwest NSW where 80% of the population is indigenous.

Australian authorities have always feared a COVID-19 outbreak in disadvantaged indigenous communities.

Berejiklian said the surge in the highly infectious Delta variant has never been "tested in this magnitude in Australia", but stopped short of announcing tougher restrictions and implored Sydney's five million residents to strictly follow the existing curbs to contain the outbreak.

"I am a bit tired of hearing people say they don't know what they are supposed to do," Berejiklian said.

The surge in cases comes as Australia's national cabinet is due to meet later on Friday amid worries the Delta outbreaks in NSW could seep through the country, where only about 25% of people above 16 are fully vaccinated.

Some states have closed their borders with NSW or enforced restricted entry to stop the spread.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under fire for a sluggish vaccination rollout, has been calling fellow world leaders in a bid to procure immediate vaccine shipments, the Australian Financial Review reported on Friday, as the latest outbreaks have spurred a surge in people getting inoculated.

The prime minister's office did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Australia's two largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne - are in extended lockdowns while residents in the country's capital city of Canberra woke up on Friday to their first strict stay-home restrictions in more than a year.

Despite the recent outbreaks, Australia still has far lower COVID-19 numbers than many other countries in the developed world, with just over 38,100 cases and 948 deaths.

In Victoria, 15 new local cases were detected, all of them in Melbourne, down from 21 on Thursday. Of the new cases, seven have spent time outside while infectious, the state's health department said. Eleven are linked to the current outbreak.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-victoria-state-reports-15-local-covid-19-cases-2021-08-12/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14342787 (130805ZAUG21) Notable: Will criticism of Turnbull, Rudd make a difference on Morrison's China policy? - Chen Hong - globaltimes.cn, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Will_criticism_of_Turnbull_Rudd_make_a_difference_on_Morrison_s_China_policy.jpg

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Will criticism of Turnbull, Rudd make a difference on Morrison's China policy?

Chen Hong - Aug 12, 2021

It is very rare for a sitting head of state to be criticized by a predecessor, so it is exceptionally uncommon that two of Australia's former prime ministers, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, both spoke out at a webinar on Tuesday in unison with strong disapproval of the China policy of the current administration in Canberra under Scott Morrison.

It is a naked fact that the Morrison government has wreaked unprecedented havocs upon Australia's relations with China. The previously constructive and mutually beneficial comprehensive strategic partnership between Australia and China has been recklessly ravaged to an almost irreparable point. Constant accusatory tones set with megaphone diplomacy have replaced mutual respect and trust. High-level officials in Canberra have even been preposterously instigating military confrontation with China, alleging that "drums of war" are beating for the Australian Defence Force to fight with the China's People's Liberation Army.

There are certainly domestic politics at play. Morrison and his government have been putting up, in Turnbull's words, an "Antipodean Trump performance, flinging abuse left, right and center" for their own partisan interests. There seems to be a championship contest of hairy-chested bellicose Aussie politicians. This is creating a toxic culture for Australia's political arena. It is misleading and deluding the public with the discreditable creation of a demonized image of China.

When sentiments of fear have been stoked up, self-interested politicians shamelessly profit from their crafty moves by ramping up the China threat theory. Australia's long term national interest has simply been cast aside for petty and ephemeral political gains.

What makes matter even worse is Canberra's obsessive attachment to Washington's anti-China strategy. It is indeed spearheading the scare and smear campaign with what Rudd called "the rhetorical overdrive stick." On a number of issues, Canberra has outdone Washington and many of its other allies to frame and blame China. This has entailed imposing discriminatory regimes to thwart China's lawful business initiatives, interfering with China's cooperation and investment projects with other countries, especially in the South Pacific, and challenging a series of guardrail "bottom-line issues," in particular those related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Such perverse hostilities seem to have become interminable and customary with Morrison, along with the right wing in his administration. In his recent response to the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report on global climate change, Morrison once again imprudently attempted to shift the public focus by maliciously accusing and making unreasonable demands to Beijing in order not to set a net zero target for Australia's carbon emission. There is a very aggressive tone of antagonism in his mind-set about China, a kind of belligerence without any regard of the likely costs to the bilateral relations.

One egregious aftermath is that the Chinese community in Australia has been seriously impacted in such a toxic atmosphere of hate and rancor. A Lowy Institute survey conducted earlier this year revealed an outrageous fact: Almost one-in-five respondents say they have been physically threatened or attacked because of their heritage and about a third said they had been verbally abused. Australia prides itself of being a nation of cultural and social tolerance and diversity. But the current prevailing political animosity toward China has clearly undermined "the success of our (Australia's) multicultural society" with a resurgence of bellicose racism and White supremacism.

Both Rudd and Turnbull rightly criticized Canberra's "grossly irresponsible and reckless language" as "absolutely contrary to Australia's national interests." On a separate occasion, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce also urged his government to exert caution in its China policy.

"Talk less, do more," this is what Rudd counseled Morrison when dealing with China. However, it is not merely Canberra's incendiary words, but injurious deeds, that have propelled the bilateral relations into the downward spiral. Australia has its own national interest to prioritize rather than serving Washington's strategy to preserve its global hegemony. It therefore takes prudence and wisdom for the Morrison government to think wisely before it leaps into the anti-China trap set up by Washington.

The author is president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies, and professor and Director of the Australian Studies Centre, East China Normal University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231335.shtml

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14342833 (130822ZAUG21) Notable: ROYAL RAGE: Furious dad of Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts tells Royal ‘you should be ashamed of yourself’ over rape lawsuit, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Ms_Guiffre_s_father_has_slammed_the_Duke_for_his_alleged_actions.jpg, Prince_Andrew_has_always_denied_any_allegations_made_against_him.jpg, Ms_Giuffre_s_lawyers_claim_that_they_have_made_multiple_attempts_to_contact_the_Duke_and_his_legal_team.jpg, She_also_claimed_the_Duke_was_aware_she_was_17_and_that_she_has_been_trafficked_by_Epstein_and_Maxwell.jpg

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>>128565

ROYAL RAGE: Furious dad of Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts tells Royal ‘you should be ashamed of yourself’ over rape lawsuit

James Beal and Mat Sanchez - 12 Aug 2021

VIRGINIA Giuffre’s dad says he is “proud” of his daughter for her lawsuit against Prince Andrew and has told the royal: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Sky Roberts, 65, let rip after Virginia, 38, filed a civil suit against the duke in New York, claiming he sexually abused her three times when she was 17.

Andrew has fiercely denied any allegations, says he has no memory of even meeting alleged victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre, and he had no suspicions of Epstein's wrongdoing during their friendship.

Speaking at his home in Summerfield, Florida, Sky – in his first comments on Virginia’s lawsuit – told The Sun: “I support my daughter 100 per cent.

“The royals are not above the law. That’s not the way it works. They can’t just do what they want. People fight back. That’s what Virginia is doing, she is fighting back.

“She has to do what she thinks is right.

“If Prince Andrew puts himself in my position, if this was happening to his daughter, how would he feel? He should be ashamed.

“Even though they have photos of them together, he pretends like he never met her. It makes me angry about the whole thing.

“I’m sure it was a hard decision for Virginia, but she has done it because it’s the right thing to do. Even though he has money, power, friends and lawyers.

“He has the money and the power, but I hope Virginia comes out ahead. She is persistent when she gets her mind set on something, so I think she will win. She will get her day in court.

“It’s brave and I’m proud of her.”

'VINDICATION'

The retired mechanical engineer believes the lawsuit will be “vindication” for his daughter over what happened to her.

She was just a teenager when he got her a job at the Mar-a-Lago resort, in Florida, where she was procured for Jeffrey Epstein by British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Virginia, who now lives in Australia, claims the pair lent her out to a string of powerful men, including Prince Andrew.

Her dad has now joined the chorus of calls for Andrew to be held to account.

Sky added: “He gets to go about his life, he is not prosecuted for anything. He should face up to these charges. I think he is not cooperating because he knows he is guilty.

“I’m hoping this can set the record straight. I don’t think this is about money, it’s about doing the right thing. It’s about vindication.”

Giuffre's lawyers filed a lawsuit with a New York court claiming she was "lent out for sexual purposes" and "compelled" to have sex with Andrew.

She also claimed the Duke was aware she was 17 and knew she had been "trafficked" - claiming she was abused by him three times in London, New York and on Epstein's island in the Caribbean.

Ms Giuffre’s lawyers claim that they have made multiple attempts to contact the Duke and his legal team but have been ignored.

According to her lawyer the latest letter sent to Prince Andrew was sent last month, and warned that a lawsuit could be filed.

Espstein hanged himself in his prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking offences.

Andrew faces civil litigation with the 15-page suit for the first time after he allegedly abused Ms Giuffre when she was 17 at Ghislaine Maxwell's house in London.

Maxwell and Epstein are alleged to have run a global sex trafficking ring of young and underage girls who they lured in using their wealth and power before offering them to their pals.

Her legal team argue she was a "frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her" when she was allegedly abused by Andrew, saying "no person, whether President or Prince, is above the law".

It is believed that the Duke of York will not be able to invoke the special royal diplomatic immunity which is enjoyed by his mum, The Queen.

The Sun has contacted a spokesman for Prince Andrew.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15853945/prince-andrew-dad-virginia-robert-royal-should-be-ashamed/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14342860 (130829ZAUG21) Notable: UK Scotland Yard Police review Prince Andrew claims - Dame Cressida Dick, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police: ‘No one is above the law’, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Britain_s_Prince_Andrew_Duke_of_York.jpg, Prince_Andrew_and_Virginia_Roberts_at_Ghislaine_Maxwell_s_townhouse_in_London_in_2001.jpg, Metropolitan_Police_Commissioner_Cressida_Dick.jpg, Paedophile_Jeffrey_Epstein.jpg

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>>128565

Police review Andrew claims as ‘no one is above the law’

FIONA HAMILTON - AUGUST 13, 2021

Britain’s most senior police officer said yesterday “no one is above the law” as she revealed that detectives will review allegations of sexual abuse made against the Duke of York.

Scotland Yard has previously said it would not open a criminal investigation into claims by Virginia Giuffre that she was trafficked to London and forced to have sex with Prince Andrew.

Giuffre filed a civil suit in New York this week seeking damages. She is suing the duke for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17, claiming that she was brought to the UK by the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with Andrew.

The duke has categorically denied having sex with Giuffre and said he has no recollection of meeting her.

Dame Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said a review of the case was under way. No investigation is taking place. She told LBC radio: “No one is above the law. It’s been reviewed twice before, we’ve worked closely with the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service].”

Dick indicated that the force would co-operate with the FBI, if asked. Detectives are studying the civil claim for any new information.

She added: “We are of course open to working with authorities from overseas, we will give them every assistance if they ask us for anything, within the law obviously. As a result of what’s going on I’ve asked my team to have another look at the material.”

The Met decided in 2016 that it was not the appropriate authority to carry out an investigation into the human trafficking allegation because it “would be largely focused on activities and relationships outside the UK”.

After Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died, aged 66, in a New York jail in August 2019, the force carried out a second review. Commander Alex Murray said then that its decision remained unchanged. Dick said yesterday that police had considered “is there evidence of a crime ... is this the right jurisdiction for this to be dealt with and is the person against whom the crime is alleged still alive?” She believed the previous decisions not to open an investigation were right, but said: “We will of course review our position.”

David Boies, a lawyer acting for Giuffre, said this week that Andrew risked a default judgment if he did not engage in the civil process, adding: “You cannot hide behind wealth and power and palace walls”.

The Times reported yesterday that a source close to the Prince of Wales said the duke would never return to public life because of the lawsuit. Prince Charles believes that even if it fails the reputational risk is too great because of the reminder of Andrew’s friendship with Epstein.

Andrew is at Balmoral with the Queen, accompanied by his former wife, Sarah, and is holding long-distance talks with his lawyers.

Yesterday Charles was seen driving in Aberdeenshire with the Duchess of Cornwall. He had been touring Scotland to fulfil royal engagements.

The Met has previously said it had not received a formal request from US authorities asking for help in the case.

During her interview Dick reiterated how much she loved her job amid questions about her future when her contract expires next April. The Times revealed last month that she hopes for an extension. Dick said she had not yet had talks about her future with Priti Patel, the home secretary, and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.

Dick said plans for two weeks of climate protests by Extinction Rebellion over the August bank holiday were “extremely frustrating”. She added: “I don’t think London supports hugely disruptive protests.”

She defended the Met’s policing of the Euro 2020 final last month when ticketless England fans stormed Wembley. Dick said officers responded with courage and bravery.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/police-review-andrew-claims-as-no-one-is-above-the-law/news-story/80a91d9613bb1b9cdac28cc40504bec0

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14342881 (130836ZAUG21) Notable: Australia will work with allied forces to extract citizens and visa holders from Afghanistan - Taliban making rapid battlefield gains, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Peter_Dutton_says_the_government_is_working_to_extract_remaining_Australians_in_Afghanistan.jpg

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>>128249

Allies to help Australia on Afghan rescues

Matt Coughlan - August 13, 2021

Australia will work with allied forces to extract citizens and visa holders from Afghanistan where the Taliban is making rapid battlefield gains.

Insurgents have taken control of 12 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals with the United States and Australia ending a 20-year presence in the war-torn country.

The UK is deploying about 600 troops to help British citizens leave the country, while the US plans to send in 3000 to help evacuate some personnel from its embassy in Kabul.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was working closely with the US and other nations engaged in getting people out of Afghanistan.

"We'll be working closely with them including when necessary using Australian Defence Force personnel to assist in securing that outcome," he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

"Both for the safe passage of people who we are taking out of Afghanistan to Australia and also the remaining people who may still be there.

"It is a very serious issue and it is one the government has been progressing very carefully now for many, many months."

Since April about 400 Afghans who helped Australia's military efforts have been resettled through a special visa program for locally engaged employees.

"We have made a lot of ground on this issue in the last few months. We'll continue to do that," Mr Morrison said.

The prime minister described the Taliban's advances as upsetting and concerning but not surprising.

Asked what his message to Australians who served in Afghanistan only to see the enemy make rapid inroads, Mr Morrison said: "Fighting for what you believe in is always worth it."

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the time frame for getting the remaining people out would depend on individual circumstances.

"Some people don't want to come out because they're performing work for an NGO or they're involved in some business still. That will be an issue for them," he told the Nine Network.

"But for those that want to come out, DFAT will be working with those people now."

Mr Dutton said nobody was suggesting Australia should have stayed for another 20 years to ward off the Taliban.

"Once the United States and other Allied partners there pulled out it was impossible for us with such a small force to stay."

https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/remaining-aussies-could-leave-afghanistan-c-3670876

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14342961 (130859ZAUG21) Notable: Peter Ben Embarek, Head of World Health Organisation Team Investigating Origins of Covid-19 Calls For Closer Look at China Lab, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Wuhan_mission_leader_Peter_Ben_Embarek_delivering_remarks_during_a_press_conference_in_February.jpg, The_P4_laboratory_left_on_the_campus_of_the_Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology_in_Wuhan_in_China_s_central_Hubei_province.jpg

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Head of WHO Team Investigating Origins of Covid-19 Calls For Closer Look at China Lab

DREW HINSHAW, JEREMY PAGE and SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN - AUGUST 13, 2021

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The Danish head of a World Health Organisation-led team that travelled to China earlier this year to probe the origins of Covid-19 called for closer scrutiny of a laboratory near the site of the first known cluster of cases at a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

In comments broadcast by Denmark’s state-owned TV 2 and confirmed to The Wall Street Journal, Peter Ben Embarek, a food-safety specialist, said investigators should seek more information about the lab, a research facility run by the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr Ben Embarek’s remarks mark the biggest departure by a member of the WHO’s team from their view, expressed at a news conference in February, that a laboratory incident was too unlikely to merit further studies.

“It’s interesting that the lab relocated on the 2nd of December 2019: That’s the period where it all started,” Dr Ben Embarek said in the TV interview. “We know that when you move a lab, it disturbs everything...That entire procedure is always a disruptive element in the daily work routine of a lab.” The Wuhan CDC couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. In February, lab workers told the WHO-led team that there were no incidents or mishaps that could have unleashed a virus.

“The Wuhan CDC lab which moved on 2nd December 2019 reported no disruptions or incidents caused by the move,” the WHO’s joint report said. “They also reported no storage nor laboratory activities on CoVs [coronaviruses] or other bat viruses preceding the outbreak.” The debate over whether the coronavirus pandemic could have begun with a laboratory mishap has pitted the U.S. against China, and caused deep ruptures between virologists who reach difference conclusions on how likely the idea seems.

Chinese authorities, who say the virus couldn’t have come from a local lab, have suggested the pandemic could have started outside its borders.

The WHO team sent to study evidence on where the coronavirus came from was sharply constrained during its four-week trip — with two of those weeks spent in quarantine — and was mostly limited to listening through presentations from Chinese scientists and government officials who declined to provide raw data behind their conclusions.

China says it co-operated fully with the probe, and has encouraged the WHO to study whether the virus first began spreading elsewhere.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for further scrutiny of labs in Wuhan, and has offered to send experts as part of a second phase of studies. But diplomatic negotiations to conduct that work have stalled in recent weeks in the face of objections by Beijing.

“Searching for the origins of any novel pathogen is a difficult process, which is based on science, and takes collaboration, dedication and time, ” the WHO said in a statement. “In order to address the ‘lab hypothesis, ’ it is important to have access to all data and consider scientific best practice.” The Biden administration has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct a 90-day review of the available evidence. That review is set to wrap up at the end of this month. U.S. officials have warned that it is unlikely to reach a firm determination of whether the virus began with a lab accident, or in nature.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14343347 (131052ZAUG21) Notable: Wuhan lab door slammed on Covid inquiry by China - China refusing to allow international scientists access to a laboratory in Wuhan, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology_in_Hubei_province_China.jpg

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>>128593

Wuhan lab door slammed on Covid inquiry by China

WILL GLASGOW - AUGUST 13, 2021

China is refusing to allow inter­national scientists access to a laboratory in Wuhan in a hardball attempt to shape the terms of the World Health Organisation’s ­investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

Peter Ben Embarek, the Danish head of a WHO-led team that travelled to China earlier this year, said investigators needed more information about the ­research facility in Wuhan.

The WHO added further pressure on Beijing after Professor Ben Embarek’s comments were broadcast. “Searching for the origins of any novel pathogen is a difficult process, which is based on science, and takes collaboration, dedication and time,” the WHO said in a statement.

“In order to address the ‘lab hypothesis’ it is important to have access to all data and consider scientific best practice.”

Speaking in Beijing, Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu on Friday said China would not allow the WHO’s proposed second phase of investigation to go ahead because it was “political”.

“This is negotiation and diplomacy,” said Dominic Dwyer, the Australian member of the expert team that conducted the first stage of investigation. “The Chinese do feel the laboratory leak is highly unlikely. They are not keen for people to come and ­investigate in the absence of any evidence – and that’s the diplomacy part.”

Beijing launched a sweeping trade coercion campaign on Australia after the Morrison government in April led calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, which has killed more than four million ­people. Bans have been imposed on Australian exports to China worth more than $20bn a year.

A spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade called on Beijing to co-operate, so the world could prevent future pandemics. “We believe that further studies must have access to all relevant data,” the spokesman said.

“Australia has consistently called for a transparent, independent, scientific review into the origins of the virus and for work to progress with momentum, ­including in China.”

Beijing has further ramped up its disinformation campaign ahead of the late August deadline of a report US President Joe Biden has ordered from his intelligence agencies into the origins of the coronavirus.

Chinese state-controlled media published articles this week citing comments by a fabricated Swiss biologist called “Wilson Edwards”, who claimed WHO sources had told him that Washington was politicising the Covid investigation. Staff at Switzerland’s embassy in Beijing later confirmed that no such scientist existed.

The majority of scientists on the WHO team have said that the coronavirus most likely jumped to humans from a bat or other wild animal.

Banks of donated blood in Wuhan and other Chinese cities, along with further study of China’s wild animals trade, are key focuses of the proposed second phase of investigation.

But in an interview with Denmark’s state-owned TV 2, Dr Ben Embarek said the lab run by the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control could be linked to hypotheses the WHO team thought were much more likely.

“An employee who was infected in the field while collecting samples falls under one of the likely hypotheses,” he said. “That is where the virus jumps directly from a bat to a human. In this case, it would be a lab employee instead of a random villager.”

Dr Ben Embarek said he would have preferred to class a lab accident as “unlikely” rather than “extremely unlikely”, as was published in the official report.

The Danish food-safety specialist said that form of words was reached after a 48-hour ­period of intense negotiations with Chinese counterparts.

Despite Beijing’s refusals, Professor Dwyer said he was optimistic the WHO inquiry would continue. “It’s too important not to go ahead,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/head-of-who-team-investigating-origins-of-covid19-calls-for-closer-look-at-china-lab/news-story/7d07fa106afca54faa7387bf792a036a

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14346911 (140201ZAUG21) Notable: Special Counsel John Durham considering prosecutions and scrutinizing Trump-Russia tipsters: Report, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Durham_considering_prosecutions_and_scrutinizing_Trump_Russia_tipsters_Report.jpg

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Durham considering prosecutions and scrutinizing Trump-Russia tipsters: Report

Jerry Dunleavy - August 13, 2021

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Special counsel John Durham is reportedly considering criminal prosecutions of FBI agents and others as he investigates information provided to the FBI in 2016 that spurred on the Trump-Russia investigation, with the federal prosecutor reportedly scrutinizing whether the tipsters knew their claims were false.

Former Attorney General William Barr quietly appointed Durham to be special counsel in October after assigning him the task as a prosecutor in May 2019, and a report from the Wall Street Journal says it has continued, presenting information to a grand jury and looking into possible prosecutions beyond the single guilty plea from ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith.

Durham “has been examining potential criminal charges against several lower-level FBI employees, and people who aren’t in government,” according to the outlet, citing "people familiar with the matter." Durham prosecutors “have focused on people outside the FBI who provided information that helped to fuel the 2016 investigation.” Durham’s team is reportedly “examining whether those who provided the information knew it was false at the time, and what the FBI subsequently did with it.”

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December 2019 that concluded Christopher Steele's Democratic-funded dossier played a "central and essential" role in the FBI's effort to obtain wiretap orders against Trump campaign associate Carter Page. The DOJ watchdog criticized the bureau for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions."

Robert Mueller’s special counsel report in 2019 concluded the Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion" but "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government."

The new report said, “Durham has asked questions about evidence related to allegations that a Trump Organization server was secretly communicating with Russian bank Alfa Bank.”

Horowitz’s report shows Steele pushed the claim Alfa Bank was a secret conduit between Trump and the Kremlin during discussions with State Department DOJ officials in 2016.

Horowitz said, “The FBI investigated whether there were cyber links between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, but had concluded by early February 2017 that there were no such links.”

Steele testified in a British court that Democratic lawyer Michael Sussman provided him with claims about Alfa Bank’s purported ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a late July meeting. These allegations made their way into a mid-September 2016 memo that became part of Steele’s dossier. Shortly after writing that memo, Steele met with Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, who was the general counsel for Clinton’s campaign and had personally hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS on the campaign’s behalf.

Sussman is reportedly the source for news stories in 2016 about alleged secretive server claims. Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified in 2018 that Sussman shared the Alfa Bank claims with him during a September 2016 meeting.

Hillary Clinton tweeted on Halloween 2016 that “computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.” She shared a statement from her campaign foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, who is now Biden’s national security adviser, who said that “the secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia.”

The new report also said, “Durham has focused on other sources of information to the FBI.”

Steele reportedly refused to hand notes over to Durham that the former MI6 agent took during meetings with the FBI in July and October 2016, as the now-special counsel scrutinizes whether the bureau improperly disclosed classified information to the former MI6 agent.

The FBI revealed to Steele that Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was under investigation after a "Friendly Foreign Government," then-Australian envoy Alexander Downer, relayed a conversation about Papadopoulos being told about alleged Russian dirt on Clinton, and Steele told Fusion GPS. The FBI also told Steele about Page, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Trump campaign adviser Michael Flynn.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14346925 (140202ZAUG21) Notable: https://qanon.pub/?q=Durham, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Q_3674_Durham.jpg

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>>128595

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Horowitz said Steele's main source, Igor Danchenko, “contradicted the allegations of a ‘well-developed conspiracy’ in” Steele’s dossier. Durham is reportedly scrutinizing Danchenko’s prior work at the Brookings Institution.

Stefan Halper, a Cambridge professor, worked as an FBI informant in 2016 and recorded discussions with at least three Trump 2016 campaign members: Page, Papadopoulos, and campaign co-Chairman Sam Clovis. Collusion denials by the Trump campaign associates were not provided to the FISA court.

William Barnett, the FBI agent who handled Flynn's case in 2016 and 2017, called the Trump-Russia investigation “Collusion Clue" and argued many investigators were out to “get Trump.” The DOJ said Barnett said a claim Halper made about Flynn was not accurate.

The new report also said that “beyond the role of outside tipsters,” Durham has also “examined how the FBI first came to open the investigation."

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok admitted last year he got a key element about the genesis of the Trump-Russia investigation wrong in his book following a question from the Washington Examiner.

The “opening electronic communication” was authored by Strzok and authorized by FBI counterintelligence official Bill Priestap at the end of July 2016. The investigation looked into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia after Downer informed the United States about the claims from Papadopoulos, whom the FBI didn’t interview until January 2017. It was then that Papadopoulos revealed his April 2016 conversations with mysterious Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, whom he claimed told him the Russians had damaging information on Clinton.

Horowitz found the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation had “sufficient factual predication.” Barr and Durham disagreed, with the special counsel saying "we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened."

The new report also said Durham scrutinized a "2017 U.S. intelligence report” on Russian election interference, adding Durham “isn’t expected to bring any criminal charges in connection with that intelligence assessment.”

The January 2017 assessment from the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the FBI concluded with "high confidence" that Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016” and that Russia worked to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former Secretary of State Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” and “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”

Adm. Mike Rogers of the NSA diverged from CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey on one key aspect, expressing only “moderate confidence” rather than "high confidence" that Putin “aspired to help” Trump’s election chances by “discrediting” Clinton “and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report in April defending the 2017 assessment, saying it “presents a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case of unprecedented Russian interference.”

But a report from the Republicans leading the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 concluded that "judgments on Putin's strategic intentions did not ... employ proper analytic tradecraft."

Durham is looking into whether the CIA director took politicized actions to pressure the rest of the intelligence community to match his conclusions about Putin’s motivations.

The new report said Durham “is presenting evidence to a grand jury and preparing a lengthy report expected to be completed in the coming months.” Durham’s report was supposedly supposed to be finished “by the end of this summer, though that target is likely to be pushed back.” The report “is expected to be long and detailed, with few sweeping conclusions.”

The Biden Justice Department said last month it agrees that “in addition to the confidential report” Durham is required to submit to DOJ, he should also submit his final report “in a form that will permit public dissemination.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/durham-considering-prosecutions-scrutinizing-trump-russia-tipsters

https://qanon.pub/#3674

https://qanon.pub/?q=Durham

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14347185 (140235ZAUG21) Notable: Ben Roberts-Smith’s alleged USB backyard burial revealed in pictures taken by his ex wife, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_site_where_Ben_Roberts_Smith_allegedly_buried_USBs_containing_secret_information_from_his_days_in_the_SAS_has_been_revealed_in_photographs_taken_by_his_ex_wife.jpg, Emma_Roberts_according_to_court_documents_photographed_a_part_of_her_backyard_where_she_found_buried_USBs.jpg, The_site_where_Ben_Roberts_Smith_allegedly_buried_USBs_containing_secret_information_from_his_days_in_the_SAS_has_been_revealed_in_photographs_taken_by_his_ex_wife_2.jpg, Another_photo_taken_of_the_backyard.jpg, Ben_Roberts_Smith_says_he_never_buried_USBs_containing_evidence_in_his_backyard_Nine_claims_otherwise.jpg

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>>128214

Ben Roberts-Smith’s alleged USB backyard burial revealed in pictures taken by his ex wife

PERRY DUFFIN - AUGUST 13, 2021

Ben Roberts-Smith denies burying any military files in his backyard – but his wife photographed the patch of dirt where she allegedly unearthed a box of USBs filled with sensitive information.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine for defamation over allegations he committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

Nine, earlier this year, claimed Mr Roberts-Smith buried USBs containing photographs from his tours in Afghanistan and mission information in his backyard.

The Federal Court, on Friday, released black and white grainy photos of a hose reel, next to an airconditioning unit, on top of what appears to be dirt and rocks.

The images were taken by Mr Roberts-Smith’s ex wife, Emma Roberts, and included in court documents related to her best friend – Danielle Scott.

Both women will testify against Mr Roberts-Smith saying he pressured his ex-wife to lie about the final months of their marriage.

Ms Scott’s court documents claim Ms Roberts suspected her husband had buried something in the backyard.

When Ms Scott was visiting, on March 16 2020, she and Ms Roberts began searching the property to see if they could find anything.

They found a rock beneath a hose reel and used a pitchfork to dig, court documents state.

“About 10-15cm down they found a lunch box which contained six USBs that had been placed in a plastic snap lock bag,” the documents say.

Ms Scott claims she copied the documents and the USBs were returned to their underground hiding spot.

Three months later, Ms Scott’s documents claim, Ms Roberts took photographs of the hiding spot as Mr Roberts-Smith came to the home to “collect documents”.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s wife ultimately provided copies of the USBs to authorities, the court documents claim.

The court previously heard the USBs contained information and documents relevant to the decorated soldier’s time in Afghanistan.

Ms Scott, in her court documents, claims she had a conversation with the Roberts-Smiths in late 2018 in which the soldier said “the boys are sending me photos” or something similar, the court documents state.

Mr Roberts-Smith told the court in June that four or five USBs arrived at his home from mid-2019 until early 2021 but he didn’t know who had sent them.

“In the main, the photos (on the drives) were simply photos of the SAS operators themselves – the guys out in Afghanistan it was quite benign,” he said.

“There were lots of photos of the Fat Ladies Arms and parties.”

The Fat Ladies Arms is the SAS’s unofficial bar and the location where soldiers were pictured drinking from a prosthetic leg.

Nine alleges Mr Roberts-Smith murdered an arrested Taliban fighter with a prosthetic leg.

Mr Roberts-Smith denied that, saying he’d lawfully gunned down the armed insurgent and another SAS operator had taken the leg back to the base against his wishes.

Mr Roberts-Smith said he never drank from the leg himself but appears in photos with other men using the prosthesis in the bar.

The USBs also contained aerial surveillance images of the mission where the one-legged Taliban insurgent was shot.

Mr Roberts-Smith has launched a separate lawsuit against his former wife to try and ascertain if she or Ms Scott accessed his emails and leaked them to Nine in his defamation lawsuit.

The soldier’s barrister, Arthur Moses SC, said WhatsApp messages between Ms Scott and Ms Roberts showed they had access.

“Boom there it is,” Ms Scott wrote to Ms Roberts on WhatsApp last year.

Her message included an address for one of Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers.

“Holy f*cking god I love you” Ms Roberts responded.

Mr Moses, reading the messages to the court, said the women could only get the address through Mr Roberts-Smith’s emails.

The main trial is delayed until November.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/ben-robertssmiths-alleged-usb-backyard-burial-revealed-in-pictures-taken-by-his-ex-wife/news-story/c9ad25ac05598662c04528fb41965461

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14347246 (140243ZAUG21) Notable: ‘Not that f*cking stupid’: How ‘threats’ ruined Roberts-Smith’s friendship with private investigator John McLeod, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Mr_Roberts_Smith_denies_he_struck_Person_17_in_Canberra_The_court_has_heard_they_had_a_tumultuous_relationship_after_he_split_from_his_wife.jpg, Court_documents_have_claimed_John_McLeod_cut_ties_with_Ben_Roberts_Smith_over_threatening_letters_Roberts_Smith_denies_ever_sending_them_or_that_Mr_McLeod_sent_them_on_his_behalf.jpg

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>>128214

‘Not that f*cking stupid’: How ‘threats’ ruined Roberts-Smith’s friendship with private investigator

PERRY DUFFIN - AUGUST 13, 2021

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Court documents have claimed a veteran private eye cut ties with Victoria-Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith over “threatening letters”.

It comes as the Federal Court hears the high profile investigator will give evidence about “surveilling” the soldier’s girlfriend at an abortion clinic.

John McLeod, a former policeman, has long made headlines as a fixer helping high-profile Australians stranded in foreign prisons.

The security provider helped with the recent rescue of academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert from Iran.

He also helped to bring back his friend Adam Whittington after he became stranded in Lebanon as part of the bungled 60 Minutes child recovery story.

Mr McLeod met Mr Roberts-Smith in Brisbane in 2011, his evidence outline released by the Federal Court on Friday said, and he became “relatively close” to the soldier’s family.

It was early 2018, Mr McLeod’s outline says, that Mr Roberts-Smith reached out and asked him to conduct “surveillance” on a woman.

Mr Roberts-Smith did not tell his fixer the name of the woman, the document says.

“She was going to the Greenslopes day hospital or day surgery. (Mr Roberts-Smith) said to McLeod something like, ‘All I want is video of her arriving, entering and leaving’.”

“(Mr Roberts-Smith) told McLeod it was for an executive at Channel 7.”

But the court has heard, from Mr Roberts-Smith himself, that the surveillance was not related to the media network where he works.

Instead, he told the court in June, the woman was his girlfriend who had flown into Brisbane for an abortion.

Mr Roberts-Smith told the court he thought the woman was lying about carrying his child and he wanted Mr McLeod to film her after the procedure she was expected to have at Greenslopes.

Mr Roberts-Smith told the court the woman, known only as Person 17, looked fit and fine after leaving the surgery - but when he met her a short time later she seemed frail and weak.

The soldier said he showed Person 17 the video Mr McLeod filmed of her leaving the surgery and she changed her story to say she’d had the abortion earlier.

Mr Roberts-Smith concluded she was not being truthful, he told the court.

He has denied he had an affair with the woman, insisting he was separated from his wife during their relationship.

He also denies striking her after she drunkenly fell down a staircase in Canberra.

Greenslopes has told the court it has no medical records related to Person 17.

The court has previously heard it’s been hard to serve documents on Mr McLeod - he has not been answering his door.

However Nine’s witness list shows he is expected to give evidence for the newspapers along with Mr Roberts-Smith’s former wife, Emma Roberts.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14356359 (150529ZAUG21) Notable: Video: Australian government secures 1 million extra Covid-19 Pfizer doses - Sky News Australia

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Australian government secures 1 million extra Covid-19 Pfizer doses

ANTHONY PIOVESAN - AUGUST 15, 2021

One million extra doses of the Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine will arrive in Australia on Sunday night from Poland after the commonwealth secured a deal with the pharmaceutical giant and Polish government.

They will be rolled out through Sydney’s vaccination hubs after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the doses would be targeted towards the NSW capital as it’s Covid-19 outbreak worsens.

It followed the state’s “most concerning day” as 466 local coronavirus cases were recorded in NSW on Saturday, along with four more deaths.

About 530,000 of the doses would be prioritised for express delivery to the 12 city local government areas.

Those council areas are Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta and Strathfield.

Penrith is also included for the following suburbs – Caddens, Claremont Meadows, Colyton, Erskine Park, Kemps Creek, Kingswood, Mount Vernon, North St Marys, Orchard Hills, Oxley Park, St Clair and St Marys.

“These 1 million doses of hope, which will give people right across the country, particularly in NSW, where they are fighting this Delta strain in the most significant battle we have had in this country during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic up until now,” he told reporters on Sunday.

“A key factor in being able to secure these doses from our Polish friends has been that we have had a significant outbreak in our largest city.”

Australians aged between 20 and 39 would be targeted in the rollout of the extra Pfizer doses as the Delta variant continues to infect a large majority of the country’s younger population.

“This will greatly assist, particularly the effort in NSW, to assist them as they go into this harder lockdown, and those lockdown measures must be adhered to,” Mr Morrison said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the extra doses would bring the country’s national vaccine rollout forward.

“Much of the burden of the fourth quarter as being brought forward to the third quarter,” he said.

“We are vaccinating more people than we had planned and anticipated was possible at this time and that is a tribute to both the supply, logistics and above all else, the Australian people that are coming forward and those doing the vaccinations.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the doses were on a plane that left Warsaw on Saturday and then Dubai on Sunday morning, and would arrive in the country late on Sunday evening.

While addressing the media following 415 new local cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was “thankful” to the commonwealth for securing the extra doses.

While Cumberland City Council Mayor Steve Christou – one of the LGA’s of concern in Sydney – said he had been calling for more vaccines “for months”.

“This new roll out of vaccines in western Sydney will help us to move out of lockdown faster and get on the road to recovery,” he said.

“Thank you for hearing our pleas and sourcing additional vaccines that are so desperately needed.”

About 20.45 per cent of Australia’s population is fully vaccinated and 26.54 per cent of the eligible population in NSW is fully inoculated.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/australian-government-secures-1-million-extra-covid19-pfizer-doses/news-story/29240c3a58d1a92d19669aade7b2f711

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMpepeEdX2c

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14356371 (150531ZAUG21) Notable: Scott Morrison flags rescue mission for Afghan angels - locals who helped Australian troops during the two-decade conflict, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Taliban_fighters_patrol_the_streets_in_Herat.jpg, Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_during_a_press_conference_on_Sunday_morning.jpg

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>>128249

Scott Morrison flags rescue mission for Afghan angels

ADESHOLA ORE - AUGUST 15, 2021

Scott Morrison has flagged Australia will dispatch military flights to rescue Afghan locals who helped Australian troops during the two-decade conflict, as the Taliban sweeps further towards Kabul.

Taliban insurgents are inching closer to the troubled nation’s capital, with civilians who worked with Australian forces warning they will be killed when the city falls. The Prime Minister on Friday said the government was in talks with the US and Britain about rescuing Australians and local backers in Afghanistan. He also flagged that Australian Defence Force personnel could be used if necessary. The ABC has reported the Royal Australian Air Force flights could land in Kabul as early as this week.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister refused to discuss the upcoming operation, citing security risks, but said Australia was in “constant engagement” with its allies about the mission.

“I can assure you that this task has the utmost urgency and priority of the government and has been considered at the highest levels of government,” he said.

He noted that the government had already settled 400 Afghans and their families who faced death from the Taliban because they had worked for Australia.

Australia shut its Kabul embassy in May and withdrew the last of its troops in June, as US and NATO forces pulled out of Afghanistan. The US is sending 3000 troops to conduct evacuations of its embassy staff from Kabul‘s green zone. Britain is also sending about 600 troops for a similar mission.

Mr Morrison acknowledged it was a “heartbreaking” and “very troubling time” for Afghanistan.

“The world is a complex place and there is no more complex place than Afghanistan,” he said.

He reiterated that the primary purpose of Australia’s deployment was to “hunt down” Osama bin Laden and prevent Al-Qaeda using Afghanistan as a global terrorism base.

“That was achieved but the challenge for the people of Afghanistan, sadly, remain an unresolved issue and we hope for the best for them but the situation is very dire,” he said.

Mr Morrison said Australia’s top priority was to support those that had aided the nation’s troops and diplomats.

“We are receiving regular updates on our operations and we will continue to do that when I am in a position to provide further updates securely, I will,” he said.

“If we are unable to provide any further details on that, it is for their safety that we are doing that.”

More than 39,000 Australian troops served in Afghanistan since 2001 and 41 were killed.

Asked what his message was to families who lost a loved one in the conflict, Mr Morrison said “we are forever in their debt.”

“They have fallen under our flag, under our name, wearing our uniform,” he said.

“I don’t believe any Australian who falls in that service dies in vain because what we always seek to fight for, which is freedom, is always important in whatever course, regardless of the outcome.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/scott-morrison-flags-rescue-mission-for-afghan-angels/news-story/bf5b94fff1e2f1e557c0c233257bc5aa

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14356386 (150533ZAUG21) Notable: ‘Inconsistencies’, ‘Doubts’ about Prince Andrew’s account of his dealings with Virginia Giuffre as it’s revealed his legal bills are being underwritten by the Queen, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prince_Andrew_the_Duke_of_York_speaks_to_Queen_Elizabeth_II_during_Derby_day_at_the_Epsom_Derby_in_2013.jpg, A_photograph_tendered_to_the_Florida_District_Court_shows_Prince_Andrew_and_Virginia_Roberts_at_Ghislaine_Maxwell_s_townhouse_in_London_in_2001.jpg, Virginia_Giuffre_speaks_in_an_interview_with_60_Minutes_in_the_US.jpg, Britain_s_Prince_Andrew_Duke_of_York_arrives_to_attend_a_church_service_at_St_Mary_the_Virgin_Church_in_Hillington_Norfolk_last_year.jpg

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>>128565

‘Inconsistencies’ in Prince Andrew’s story, royal aides admit

‘Doubts’ about Prince Andrew’s account of his dealings with Virginia Giuffre as it’s revealed his legal bills are being underwritten by the Queen.

DIPESH GADHER and TIM SHIPMAN - August 15, 2021

Aides to the British royal family believe there are “inconsistencies” in Prince Andrew’s account of his dealings with Virginia Giuffre, who has accused him in a US lawsuit of underage rape, as it emerged that his legal bills are being underwritten by Queen Elizabeth.

Lawyers for Prince Andrew are desperate to prevent the case from going to trial in America because they fear jurors may not believe him over an alleged victim of sexual abuse.

Although the prince strenuously denies Giuffre’s claims, palace insiders believe there are “credibility” problems with his version of events.

Andrew, 61, has said he has “no recollection” of meeting Giuffre, despite the existence of a photograph that shows him smiling with his arm around her waist.

Giuffre, who was previously known by her maiden name, Roberts, filed a civil lawsuit in New York last week, accusing the prince of abusing her on three occasions in 2001 when she was 17, including an assault at the London home of the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Giuffre alleges that the duke knew at the time that she was a minor under US law and had been trafficked for sex by Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile financier and former friend of Andrew, who died in jail two years ago. Maxwell, who is facing separate child sex trafficking charges in New York, denies wrongdoing.

Giuffre, now 38, is suing the prince for “punitive damages”, which could amount to millions of pounds if she wins her case. She has requested a jury trial.

Andrew’s defence is understood to be funded by payments he receives from his mother’s private Duchy of Lancaster estate after he was forced to step down from his royal duties and stopped receiving British taxpayers’ money.

His supporters point out that Giuffre’s story has changed and that in an interview with a British newspaper in 2011 she never accused the prince of rape or sexual assault.

“However, there are inconsistencies in his own account and in the credibility of his own account,” a royal source said. “If it goes to trial in the MeToo era, it’s going to be challenging to swing a jury behind the duke.”

Giuffre alleges in her lawsuit that she was first made to “have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew against her will” on March 10, 2001 at Maxwell’s mews home near Knightsbridge.

The duke is accused of later abusing her at Epstein’s New York mansion and on the financier’s private island in the Caribbean.

In a disastrous interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, Andrew denied that anything untoward had happened in London. He sought to use a trip to Pizza Express in Woking as his alibi.

However, an analysis of the day’s events does not rule out the possibility of the prince meeting Giuffre in the evening, when the infamous image of Andrew and the teenager is said to have been taken. Friends of the duke have questioned the authenticity of the photograph, but no evidence has been produced to prove it is a fake.

A source close to the royal household said: “No one at the palace knows what to believe about what Prince Andrew is telling them. Some of it doesn’t stack up. The basic problem is that he’s a massive embarrassment, but you can’t sack him. There are also questions over some of the legal advice he has been getting.”

The duke’s solicitor is Gary Bloxsome, a partner at Blackfords law firm. He also retains Clare Montgomery, a QC at Matrix, the chambers co-founded by Cherie Blair.

Bloxsome is said to have advised Andrew to remain silent on the lawsuit and failed to respond to Giuffre’s lawyers when they wrote to the duke last month threatening legal action.

Andrew’s legal team may now attempt to get the case thrown out, arguing that the New York court has no jurisdiction in the UK.

Spokeswomen for the duke and the Queen declined to comment.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/inconsistencies-in-prince-andrews-story-royal-aides-admit/news-story/23f6a90a9159093dfee3a55781288db2

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14356560 (150620ZAUG21) Notable: US President Joe Biden’s refusal on Oz Pfizer plea shows gulf between him and Donald Trump - Miranda Devine - dailytelegraph.com.au, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Prime_Minister_Scott_Morrison_announces_the_extra_Covid_doses_on_Sunday_morning.jpg, Senior_Republican_Michael_McCaul_has_campaigned_for_Australia_to_get_the_US_s_surplus_doses.png

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>>128536

>>128600

US President Joe Biden’s refusal on Oz Pfizer plea shows gulf between him and Donald Trump

MIRANDA DEVINE - AUGUST 15, 2021

Joe Biden is a disgrace. In Australia’s hour of need, the US President has betrayed its stalwart ally.

Australia has fought alongside America in every godforsaken war — including Afghanistan — but has been deemed not worthy of receiving a small portion of the 26 million spare doses of vaccine Biden and his administration is sitting on.

Instead, it’s left to Poland to come to Australia’s rescue with the extra one million Pfizer doses we sorely need.

According to the Weekend Australian, the Morrison government has begged the Biden administration for access to its stockpile of spare Pfizer doses that are about to expire — and has been rebuffed.

Why?

Senior Republicans have been advocating in Australia’s behalf, to no avail.

Michael McCaul, the senior Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, told Sharri Markson’s Sky News that Australia should be prioritised for the doses.

“Australia is not only an ally but a Five Eyes ally,” Mr McCaul said.

“I’ve been pressuring this ­administration through the Covax program to give more of these ­vaccines that are just sitting in warehouses in the US.

“They will expire if we don’t get them out the door.”

You can bet that if Donald Trump were still president, Australia would have all the vaccine it needed.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/us-president-joe-bidens-refusal-on-oz-pfizer-plea-shows-gulf-between-him-and-donald-trump/news-story/7bb2a0b3b2628152f17bb51600b9dc0e

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14357216 (151009ZAUG21) Notable: Ghislaine Maxwell sells mews house in Belgravia - for £1.75m - where Prince Andrew allegedly had sex with his then 17-year-old accuser Virginia Roberts, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: The_property_is_said_to_be_where_the_Duke_of_York_was_photographed_with_his_arm_around_the_bare_waist_of_then_17_year_old_Virginia_Roberts_In_the_background_Ghislaine_Maxwell.jpg, The_Mail_on_Sunday_has_learned_the_British_socialite_s_mews_house_in_Belgravia_was_bought_by_a_property_developer_for_1_75_million.jpg, Ghislaine_Maxwell_sells_mews_house_in_Belgravia_for_1_75m.jpg

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>>128565

Ghislaine Maxwell sells mews house in Belgravia - for £1.75m - where Prince Andrew allegedly had sex with his then 17-year-old accuser Virginia Roberts

IAN GALLAGHER - 15 August 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell has sold the London home where Prince Andrew allegedly had sex with his accuser.

The Mail on Sunday has learned the British socialite’s mews house in Belgravia was bought by a property developer for £1.75 million.

It is said to be where the Duke of York was photographed with his arm around the bare waist of then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts, one of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, now known as Virginia Giuffre.

Last week Ms Giuffre filed a bombshell lawsuit in a US court claiming Andrew had sexually abused her when she was 17.

She alleges she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times – once at the Belgravia address in 2001 – on the orders of Epstein, Ms Maxwell’s former boyfriend.

Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he has never even met Ms Giuffre, now a mother-of-three living in Australia.

Ms Maxwell, 59, sold the house, a short walk from Hyde Park, to fund legal fees for her own court battle in the States. She remains in a New York jail facing allegations she procured girls for the disgraced financier, which she denies. Her spokesman said she would be sad about the sale because the house – which he called her London ‘refuge’ – held happy memories.

Land Registry documents show it was bought by Hampshire-based property developer Stuart Robinson. Disgraced solicitor Malcolm Grumbridge’s name also appears in the documents.

A long-time friend of the Maxwell family, he was granted power of attorney by the socialite several months before the sale.

Earlier this month it was revealed Mr Grumbridge, who agreed to quit the legal profession last year after admitting ‘reckless’ conduct, set up multiple companies for the Maxwell family from a health club in Chiswick, West London. Many of the businesses showed little or no trading activity. Several are linked to Ms Maxwell’s brothers Kevin and Ian.

Mr Grumbridge agreed to have his name removed from the roll of solicitors in December after admitting failings, including breaches of anti-money-laundering and terrorism-financing rules.

The house sale reportedly ran into complications with Ms Maxwell’s bank after it closed her account in February, the day after lawyers deposited £130,000 as an initial payment from the buyer.

Ms Maxwell’s family has insisted she is innocent of all charges, branding the US legal system ‘bizarre and cruel’.

Ian Maxwell said his sister was being subjected to ‘brutal and degrading’ treatment and called for her release from jail while she awaited trial on child sex trafficking charges.

‘On evidence that can be shown to be false, given just a little exploration and digging, Ghislaine has been accused of being a procurer and a heartless woman and far more beside,’ said Mr Maxwell. ‘In fact, she is none of these things.’

Last month, reports surfaced that Ms Maxwell had been ‘physically abused’ by prison guards, was losing her hair and was ‘withering to a shell of her former self’.

There have been repeated attempts to get her released on bail, with most revolving around claims of mistreatment at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.

Court documents allege that Ms Maxwell ordered a ‘room full of underage girls’ to dance, sexually, in front of Epstein.

It was alleged that 100 ‘massage therapists’ had visited Epstein’s mansion while Ms Maxwell was present and that she stole a 15-year-old’s passport when the girl refused to have sex with him.

Epstein was found dead in his jail cell on August 10, 2019, having killed himself after being charged with sex trafficking

Ms Maxwell denies helping to recruit and groom girls for sex with Epstein.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9894181/Ghislaine-Maxwell-sells-mews-house-Belgravia-1-75m.html

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14364688 (160309ZAUG21) Notable: "China insurgency" Bun, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: ClipboardImage.png, ClipboardImage.png

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China insurgency

Chinese tech company Huawei has sponsored more politicians' overseas travel than any other

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/chinese-tech-company-huawei-sponsors-politicians-trips/9907064

U.K. Parliamentary Committee Alleges ‘Collusion’ Between Huawei And Chinese Communist Party

https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/10/08/uk-parliamentary-committee-alleges-collusion-between-huawei-and-chinese-communist-party/?sh=d2150b53e59

Daniel Andrews and China

Victorian Labor MPs have gone to China at least 25 times over the past four years, racking up close to $1 million in travel bills as part of Premier Daniel Andrews’s pursuit of closer ties with the communist nation.

Since Labor’s 2014 election victor­y, Mr Andrews has made no secret of his desire to court China as a trade, education and cultural partner, and has personally led four delegations there at a cost of almost $300,000 to taxpayers.

https://www.riteon.org.au/daniel-andrews-and-china/

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/victorian-election-labor-mps-clock-up-25plus-visits-to-china/news-story/9da6379be6d216b66df71f502743eda6?utm_source=TheAustralia

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/state-election/victorian-state-election-2018-andrews-governments-second-secret-belt-and-road-deal-revealed/news-story/c07f170d2299e4d1b5e53cec61dafed1

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/victorian-election-andrews-plays-a-dangerous-game-with-beijing/news-story/dc953861864a60209c02c41c6ea0eeca

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/the-mocker/daniel-andrews-china-mou-has-serious-implications/news-story/3a8daac8d8ecfce15125d26c8c4b8f2f?utm_content=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_source=TheAustralian

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2018/11/victorias-andrews-government-releases-mou-with-china.html

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/andrews-staffer-link-to-china-foreign-influencers/news-story/04426a3e19bc0954885aa7d14c5d43e1

Chinese Communist member data leak shows thousands in US government, companies and more: report

A leaked database of 2 million Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members revealed that thousands of Chinese communist members infiltrated U.S., U.K., and Australian government agencies and companies, new reports revealed over the weekend.

No. of CCP members identified at:

AstraZeneca: 54

Pfizer: 69

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/12/chinese-communist-member-data-leak-shows-thousands-in-us-government-companies-and-more-report/

https://www.riteon.org.au/confucius-institutes-beijings-control-in-australian-universities/

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Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14364704 (160311ZAUG21) Notable: "China insurgency" Bun, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: ClipboardImage.png

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>>128605

China’s Overseas United Front Work

https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China%27s%20Overseas%20United%20Front%20Work%20-%20Background%20and%20Implications%20for%20US_final_0.pdf

Confucius Institutes – the international propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party deemed national security threats by various U.S. government agencies

These suggested materials are all written by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council (OCAO), an entity funded and controlled exclusively by the CCP.

Reorganizing the United Front Work Department: New Structures for a New Era of Diaspora and Religious Affairs Work

https://jamestown.org/program/reorganizing-the-united-front-work-department-new-structures-for-a-new-era-of-diaspora-and-religious-affairs-work/

OCAO is part of the regime’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), described by the U.S. government’s China Economic and Security Review Commission as “working to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party.”

The report asserts:

“It is precisely the nature of United Front work to seek influence through connections that are difficult to publically [sic] prove and to gain influence that is interwoven with sensitive issues such as ethnic, political, and national identity. […] The goal of “overseas Chinese work” is to use ethnic, cultural, economic, or political ties to mobilize sympathetic overseas Chinese communities—ideally of their own accord—to advocate for the interests of the CCP and marginalize its opponents. The UFWD teaching manual directs operatives to win overseas Chinese over to the CCP’s side by emphasizing “flesh and blood” ties to China with the goal of securing political, moral, and financial support for the CCP.”

https://thenationalpulse.com/politics/confucius-institute-schools/

Western Australia Govt Criticized for Appointing CCP Affiliates to Advisory Council

Western Australian CCP influence expert Tshung Chang called out the WA Government for choosing CCP-linked individuals Ting Chen and Edward Zhang over other leaders in the Chinese community, despite a wealth of available nominees.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/western-australia-govt-criticized-for-appointing-ccp-affiliates-to-advisory-council_3877909.html

Beijing-Linked Firms to Control Islands Off East, West Coasts of Australia

The Western Australia Labor government approved the lease on Cockatoo Island for a Hong Kong firm with ties to Beijing last year. This comes after the Queensland Labor government on the opposite east coast approved a lease to another Hong Kong firm for Keswick Island.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/beijing-linked-firms-to-control-islands-off-east-west-coasts-of-australia_3730420.html

WHO Insider Blows Whistle on Gates and GAVI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSRgPkO3abY

Gates still pulls a lot of strings at the WHO. He negotiates and signs contracts on behalf of different countries, acting as the unelected middle man in deciding which vaccines or pharmaceuticals will be purchased by them.

In October 2019 The WHO, Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins ran a simulation of an SARS outbreak - they literally game planned the pandemic.

The Event 201 scenario

October 2019 in China - Event 201 simulates an outbreak of a novel zoonotic coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a severe pandemic. The pathogen and the disease it causes are modeled largely on SARS, but it is more transmissible in the community setting by people with mild symptoms.

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/scenario.html

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/event201-resources/event201-model-desc.pdf

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Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14364721 (160313ZAUG21) Notable: "China insurgency" Bun, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: ClipboardImage.png, ClipboardImage.png

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>>128606

And Scott Morrison pushes to give these un-elected foreign entities unchecked power.

Coronavirus: PM’s push to give WHO new powers

Australia wants the World Health Organisation to have the powers of an international “weapons inspector” to enter countries without permission to assess their response to any future health crises.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/coronavirus-scott-morrison-meets-bill-gates-as-uk-death-toll-soars/news-story/3d8bdfc54027eec195a75f6f51596860

Coronavirus: PM Scott Morrison talks with Bill Gates over World Health Organisation's future amid pandemic

https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-australia-scott-morrison-bill-gates-who-world-health-organization-discussion-donor-funding-covid-19/7c72c208-4bd6-4195-be35-6418ae2c96ca

Bill Gates: Vaccines are phenomenal profit makers -

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/gates-vaccines-phenomenal-profit-makers/

Two Chinese scientists from Wuhan — who Western intelligence agencies are looking into as part of their probe into the origins of the global coronavirus contagion — studied live bats in Australia in research jointly funded by the Australian and Chinese governments.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/two-chinese-scientists-from-a-wuhan-lab-found-to-be-studying-bats-in-australia/video/f3a2fd3128a1719763f4bf7fbac92e99

China 'recruits as many as 600 top scholars and scientists in Australia' - sounding alarm bells that Beijing could be using them to get clandestine access to the latest technology

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9163543/China-recruits-600-scholars-scientists-Australia.html

Methods for producing recombinant coronavirus

https://patents.google.com/patent/US7279327B2/en

More death and injury from the shots:

More language changes to hide deaths from the shots - shameful.

https://www.tga.gov.au/periodic/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-safety-report-12-08-2021

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Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14366022 (160703ZAUG21) Notable: Sydney records deadliest day of COVID-19 pandemic, Melbourne lockdown extended, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Commuters_wear_protective_face_masks_on_public_transit_at_Central_Station.jpg

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>>128203

Sydney records deadliest day of COVID-19 pandemic, Melbourne lockdown extended

Colin Packham and Renju Jose - August 16, 2021

CANBERRA/SYDNEY, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest city of Sydney recorded its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday as troops and police set up roadblocks to limit the movement of people, while Melbourne faced a nightly curfew and a further two weeks of lockdown.

Sydney, which is in its eighth week of lockdown, is the epicentre of Australia's third COVID-19 wave that threatens to push the country's A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy into its second recession in as many years.

New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said seven people in Sydney had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, surpassing the state's previous record daily toll from earlier this month.

Berejiklian said New South Wales had detected 478 infections, the highest one-day rise since the pandemic began.

"Our community transmission numbers are disturbingly high," Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

"Every death is a person who has loved ones, who has died in tragic circumstances," she added.

Authorities also confirmed the death of a 15-year-old boy from Sydney, who had pneumococcal meningitis and COVID-19.

Australia has confirmed 55 deaths since July 11, breaking a run of more than three months without any fatalities. In total, Australia has recorded 966 COVID-19 deaths.

The toll rose as 200 military personnel were deployed across Sydney to set up roadblocks in the hardest-hit areas, amid persistent reports of people flouting lockdown rules. The latest deployment comes on top of 500 troops deployed last month.

LOCKDOWNS

With only 26% of people above 16 years of age fully vaccinated, Australia is vulnerable to the highly infectious Delta variant that has steadily spread across the country.

While Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Darwin - which entered into lockdown on Monday - are all under tight restrictions, cases have steadily risen.

Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said Melbourne's 5 million residents would be subjected to a nightly curfew and the city would remain in a lockdown until Sept. 2 after recording 22 new COVID-19 cases.

"We are at a tipping point. There is simply no option today but to further strengthen this lockdown," Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

A spike in cases had been driven by people breaking lockdown rules, he said. In one instance, police fined 69 people A$5,500 ($4,034) each for attending an engagement party in breach of the lockdown.

National capital Canberra recorded 19 new cases as it extended its lockdown for a further two weeks.

Australia's economy rebounded strongly from the initial wave of the pandemic, with unemployment hitting its lowest levels in more than a decade at 4.9% in June.

But with its two most populated cities Sydney and Melbourne in lockdown, economists expect a heavy toll.

"Unemployment may spike back up to 5.5% in the months ahead, mainly driven by (New South Wales)," said Shane Oliver, Chief Economist at AMP.

VACCINES

The outbreak and sluggish vaccine rollout has fuelled pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who must call an election before May next year. A poll last week showed his approval rating at its lowest level since the pandemic began.

Morrison said on Sunday that Australia had bought about 1 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine from Poland, but declined to specify how much had been paid. The government has already ordered 40 million doses from Pfizer.

He said more than half of the doses from Poland would be rushed to inoculate 20- to 39-year-olds in the worst-affected suburbs of Sydney.

($1 = 1.3633 Australian dollars)

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/roadblocks-erected-sydney-australia-battles-delta-outbreak-2021-08-15/

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14366141 (160811ZAUG21) Notable: Threat of white-power race war ‘grave concern’ to ASIO, says chief, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: ASIO_director_general_Mike_Burgess.jpg, Members_of_the_National_Socialist_Network_celebrate_Adolf_Hitler_s_birthday.jpg

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Threat of white-power race war ‘grave concern’ to ASIO, says chief

Nick McKenzie and Joel Tozer - August 15, 2021

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Australia’s counter-terror intelligence chief has warned that Australians as young as 16 are being radicalised to support a white-power race war, and that half of ASIO’s most important domestic anti-terrorism cases now involve neo-Nazi cells and other ideologically motivated groups.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has told The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes that this unprecedented shift in the national security threat away from religiously motivated terrorism is being fuelled by disinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and other global events. Encrypted platforms offered by tech companies are allowing them to communicate securely.

“What they [neo-Nazi cells] are prepared to do, or some of them are prepared to do, to make [a race war] happen … is of grave concern to us, and should be of grave concern to all Australians,” Mr Burgess said.

“This is spread across every state and territory, and it’s regional and rural, as well as capital cities … It’s currently 50 per cent of our priority onshore counter-terrorism caseload, so it is of concern to us.”

Mr Burgess’ comments come as The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes release part one of an eight-month investigation, including an unprecedented infiltration of Australia’s largest neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network.

The investigation has exposed the network’s secret membership lists and its leaders’ support for the Christchurch terrorist and terror suspects facing trial in NSW and South Australia.

Leader Tom Sewell has been recorded comparing Australia’s most notorious white supremacist, terrorist Brenton Tarrant, to Nelson Mandela and telling network members that Tarrant will stay in jail “until we win the revolution”, a reference to the race war or societal collapse the group is in training for.

Video and audio records also capture National Socialist Network leaders instructing their followers to destroy evidence to thwart ASIO and counter-terrorism investigations, as well as their networking with outlaw bikie gang associates, a prison skinhead gang and members of international neo-Nazi terror groups, including Combat 18.

Mr Burgess said ASIO had assessed that a lone wolf or small cell would be the most likely culprit behind a terror attack, but warned these actors could be inspired by a neo-Nazi or similar group and their violent race war rhetoric.

“Whilst we might conclude these groups in these online forums are just talking a good game, it could unfortunately spur someone on who is on the fringe of that group,” he said.

(continued)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/14375620 (170633ZAUG21) Notable: Scott Morrison delivers heartfelt message to diggers who fought in Afghanistan and asks them to do 'one more thing for us' - as he admits not all locals who fought alongside them will be evacuated, MISSING MEDIA/FILES: Scott_Morrison_thanked_Australian_soldiers_for_their_service_in_Afghanistan.jpg, Afghans_climb_on_top_of_a_passenger_jet_at_Kabul_s_airport_amid_chaotic_scenes_as_civilians_try_to_find_safe_passage_out_of_the_Afghan_capital_after_Taliban_takeover.jpg, A_C_17_jet_carrying_640_Afghan_refugees_that_left_Kabul_on_Sunday_night_as_the_Taliban_claimed_the_city.jpg, French_soldiers_stand_guard_near_a_military_plane_at_airport_in_Kabul_on_August_17.jpg, Australia_joined_the_war_in_Afghanistan_in_November_2001.jpg

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Scott Morrison delivers heartfelt message to diggers who fought in Afghanistan and asks them to do 'one more thing for us' - as he admits not all locals who fought alongside them will be evacuated

CHARLIE MOORE - 17 August 2021

Scott Morrison has thanked Australian soldiers for their service in Afghanistan as the war-torn nation falls to the Taliban.

The Prime Minister insisted that 41 diggers who died during Australia's longest war were not killed in vain.

'There is no more decent and good purpose than being willing to serve the country that you love.

'It doesn't mean history's currents always run our way. I wish it did. But, sadly, it doesn't,' he said.

In a press conference in Canberra, the Prime Minister asked servicemen and women to 'do one more thing for us'.

'And that is to please talk with people each and everyday in the weeks and months ahead.

'To your comrades, to your fellow veterans, to your friends, to your family to your counsellors,' he said.