/qresearch/ -  Q Research

Notables

are not endorsements

#35 - Part 1

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 1

>>20550335 Jewish leaders back US’s ‘floating pier’ Gaza aid plan, amid calls to fund UNRWA - Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim has urged Labor to support the United States’ plan to build a “temporary floating pier” in Gaza to deliver aid, rather than restore funding to the UN’s aid agency. Mr Wertheim said the Jewish community supported the provision of aid to civilians in Gaza who were in desperate need but remained “totally opposed” to using the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to deliver that aid.

>>20550344 Vietnam War memorial in Canberra defaced with Gaza message - The RSL National President Greg Melick has condemned pro-Palestine activists who vandalised the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial in Canberra by spray-painting slogans on the monument describing Israel as a "colony" and warning of "genocide" in Gaza. The protestors vandalised the memorial on Anzac Parade overnight on Sunday in a protest to highlight the situation in Gaza, with Mr Melick describing their actions as "contemptible" and Opposition veterans' affairs spokesman Barnaby Joyce warning they had undermined their own cause.

>>20555418 Video: Wong backs Biden, urges Israel to ‘change course’ - Foreign Minister Penny Wong has warned that Israel will lose further support from its traditional allies if it proceeds with further ground attacks in the Gaza Strip, backing similar remarks from US President Joe Biden at the weekend. “Unless Israel changes its course, it will continue to lose support,” Ms Wong said at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney

>>20570374 Australia to resume funding for UN aid agency - Australia will restore a $6 million funding pledge to the peak United Nations body that helps the Palestinian people in Gaza after a seven-week suspension due to claims that some of the agency’s staff took part in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians last October. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the funding would be released under “stringent conditions” in a new agreement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency with tougher controls to ensure staff neutrality in the conflict between Hamas and Israel. “The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organisation, and that existing and additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding,” she said.

>>20580396 ‘We are delighted’: Government backflips on cancelled Gaza visas - Several Palestinians fleeing the war in Gaza who were devastated after their visas were cancelled while en route to Australia have again been granted permission to travel to the country, a move that has thrilled advocates in Australia. The Home Affairs Department had told applicants their visas had been cancelled because it believed they may wish to stay in Australia when their visas run out.

>>20617439 Australia out of step with US on UNRWA funding - The Albanese government has slipped further out of step with the US on Gaza after the Biden administration slapped a one year ban on support for UNRWA, just over a week after Australia resumed funding the Palestinian aid agency. Australian Jewish groups said the US move - in a bill to avert a partial government shutdown – should mark the beginning of the end for the “corrupt, inept” organisation whose employees have been accused of participating in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

>>20628581 Jewish leaders file vilification complaints to AHRC against Sydney clerics - The country’s peak Jewish body has formally lodged vilification complaints with Australia’s human rights body against two Sydney Muslim clerics, after they gave sermons that described Jews as “monsters”, “rats”, “bloodthirsty” and “vile”. The sermons also included parables about killing Jews and how if people “spat” on Israel “the Jews would drown”, among anti-Semitic tropes about them having “hands everywhere in business” and “owning the majority of banks”. The Australian can reveal the Executive Council of Australian Jewry has lodged vilification complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission against cleric Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, and sheik Ahmed Zoud, for a December sermon at southwest Sydney’s As-Sunnah Mosque.

#35 - Part 2

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 2

>>20665416 Video: 'Selfless, outstanding' Australian aid worker killed in airstrike in central Gaza - The family of an Australian citizen killed in an airstrike in Gaza has described the humanitarian aid worker as "an outstanding human being" driven by kindness and selflessness. Melbourne-born Lalzawmi "Zomi" Frankcom, along with three other international aid workers and a Palestinian driver, was killed in Central Gaza while working with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity. Video footage posted to social media showed the bodies of the five dead at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. Staff showed the British, Australian and Polish passports of three of the dead. All of the workers killed were wearing protective gear with the charity's logo on it.

>>20665443 Australian World Central Kitchen aid worker Zomi Frankcom killed by apparent Israeli air strike in Gaza - Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom has been killed in what Palestinian officials say was an Israeli air strike on central Gaza. Charity organisation World Central Kitchen (WCK) said seven of its international aid workers were killed by the strike while helping to deliver food and other supplies to northern Gaza. The charity said the team were travelling in a "deconflicted zone" in two armoured cars branded with the WCK logo despite coordinating movements with the Israeli Defense Forces. WCK said the seven killed were from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, a dual United States-Canadian citizen and Palestine. The organisation said it had ordered an immediate pause on its operations, as Israeli forces carry out an "in-depth examination to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident".

>>20665454 Radical preacher Abu Ousayd’s ‘Dawah Van’ charity takes to Sydney streets - A high-profile Sydney preacher who urged people to spit on Israel so “Jews would drown” and gave a series of anti-Semitic sermons runs a registered charity called the Dawah Van that he and other leaders from his centre use as a vehicle to convert young Australians and tourists to Islam. Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, is one of five board members of The Dawah Van Incorporated, the charitable arm of his Al Madina Dawah Centre. The Dawah Van’s social media pages, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, which has come under fire for not doing enough to clamp down on hate speech – show Mr Ousayd, Mr Ye, and other volunteers outside Sydney’s Town Hall preaching predominantly to young men, or tourists and expats.

>>20671014 Video: PM Albanese demanding explanation from Israel PM after aid work’s death - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is demanding an explanation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israel Defence Forces took responsibility for an airstrike that killed seven people, including Australian aid worker "Zomi" Frankcom. - 9 News Australia

>>20671024 No action against Sydney hate preacher Abu Ousayd after latest ‘met by death’ sermon - Police have said it is unable to lay charges against a radical Sydney cleric who warned of violence and “men who love death” if Islam was attacked, saying legal advice had determined that the threats didn’t constitute a criminal offence. On Wednesday, NSW Police confirmed that a Friday sermon by Bankstown-based cleric Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, that promised “humiliation” and “men who love death” if Allah was attacked did not breach state hate-speech provisions.

>>20686521 ‘Inexcusable’: Angry Australia condemns aid worker killings, Israel suspends two officers - The Israeli military has dismissed two army officers who were involved in the operation that killed Australian Zomi Frankcom and six fellow aid workers after an investigation found the deadly strikes were a serious violation of its operating procedures. The snap probe has failed to quell the anger of the Albanese government, which is demanding assurances that evidence be preserved and calling for Israel to be prepared to change their targeting practices in the war. “The information Israel has provided on its investigation hasn’t yet satisfied our expectations,” Wong said.

#35 - Part 3

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 3

>>20686545 Israel pressed to co-operate with ‘unprecedented’ Australian probe into aid worker killings - The Albanese government is pressing Israel to take further action against the troops responsible for the killing of Australian Zomi Frankcom and six fellow aid workers if they are found guilty of wrong-doing after being left unsatisfied by the initial probe into their deaths. It is also urging Tel Aviv to co-operate with an Australian review -- which an international law expert described as “unprecedented in modern times” – of the Israeli Defence Forces’ investigation into the strikes on the aid convoy in Gaza. Foreign Minister Penny Wong decried the operation that killed the aid workers as a “deadly failure”. “It cannot be brushed aside, and it cannot be covered over,” Wong said at a press conference in Adelaide.

>>20695582 Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin to lead probe into Israel’s World Central Kitchen strike - Anthony Albanese has said intelligence from Israel about its investigation into the air strike that killed seven humanitarian aid workers including Australian Zomi Frankcom “hasn’t yet satisfied expectations,” as Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin was appointed special adviser to the government on Israel’s response to the disaster. Air Chief Marshal Binskin will be tasked with engaging with Israel and Israel Defence Forces on the response to the attack which killed Ms Frankcom and six other World Kitchen aid workers. The initial Israeli investi­gation, rejected as unsatisfactory by Australia, found drone strikes on three World Central Kitchen aid vehicles occurred after IDF troops mistakenly determined Hamas gunmen were travelling with the aid convoy. Two Israeli officers were dismissed from their positions over the tragedy, and two senior commanders were reprimanded. The army said its findings would be sent to military prosecutors, but it is unclear whether any of the personnel will face charges. Mr Albanese said he hoped Air Chief Marshal Binskin would have “full access” to the Israeli investigation.

>>20700802 Details of defence deal with Israel kept under wraps to protect Australia's 'reputation' - Details of an agreement struck between Australia and Israel on defence industry cooperation will not be released publicly over concerns the information could damage Australia's "international relations". Scrutiny of military relations with Israel has intensified since last week's air strike on an aid convoy in Gaza, which killed Australian Zomi Frankcom, along with six other humanitarian workers. Shortly after the outbreak of the Gaza war in October, the Greens submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for a copy of the "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) signed between Australia and Israel in 2017. Following a three-month process, the defence department formally rejected the application, arguing that the document, which contains sensitive diplomatic information, is exempt under FOI legislation. "The document within the scope of this request contains information which, if released, could reasonably be expected to damage the international relations of the Commonwealth," the Defence Department said in a letter explaining its decision.

>>20700805 Video: Israel Defense Forces spokesperson defends strike that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six others - Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner has launched a defence of the Israeli drone strikes that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, during an interview with 7.30 where he also said Israel was looking into whether a criminal investigation needed to take place. Asked whether the incident was a war crime, Lieutenant Colonel Lerner denied it was but said there was a series of failures from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). However, he suggested they were understandable ones that occurred under the cover of darkness in an area where IDF forces thought Hamas gunmen were present. The Australian government has been left unimpressed by Israel's reaction to the strike that killed an Australian citizen, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese angered by his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu describing the incident as "what happens in war".

#35 - Part 4

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 4

>>20705252 Video: Penny Wong says peace for Israel will only come with Palestinian state recognition - Australia's foreign minister says peace and security will only come to Israel if Palestine is recognised as a state. Foreign Minister Penny Wong used an address at the Australian National University on Tuesday night to announce that the federal government was contemplating recognising Palestinian statehood. She said international recognition could help "build momentum towards a two-state solution" with Israel. Senator Wong repeated calls on Wednesday morning for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war before repeating the same sentiment she had expressed in a speech the night prior. She added that Australia could be both a friend to Israel and a friend to Palestinians.

>>20705294 Video: ‘Reward for terrorism’: Wong’s speech draws backlash from pro-Israel groups - Pro-Israel groups and the federal opposition have reacted furiously to Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong’s suggestion the Albanese government could recognise Palestinian statehood, declaring such a move would reward Hamas for the October 7 terrorist attacks. Wong said recognising Palestinian statehood could improve the chances for peace while “building momentum” towards a two-state agreement with Israel, in a speech in Canberra on Tuesday night. Her comments have been welcomed by pro-Palestinian advocates and progressive Labor activists, who have campaigned for many years to shift Labor’s position on the question of statehood. However, the speech has further strained the government’s fraught relations with prominent Jewish groups, which were already angry with the government over its decision to appoint a special adviser to review the Israel Defence Force’s killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six colleagues. “Any talk of recognition of Palestinian statehood in such close proximity to the 7 October attacks is entirely premature and will be seen as a reward for those attacks,” Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said.

>>20705307 Penny Wong’s position on Palestine wrong on many levels - "Foreign Minister Penny Wong has delivered an emotionally ­manipulative, substantially dishonest speech implying, without quite stating, that the Albanese government is on the brink of extending formal diplomatic recognition to a state of Palestine. Her reasoning inverts reality, her facts are dubious if not outright wrong, her logic is missing, but the politics is compelling. That is the internal Labor politics and the broader politics of the left. The political bottom line is this. If the government officially recognises a Palestinian state, Labor will go to the election with the enthusiastic support of Muslim voters in key western Sydney and Melbourne electorates. Not only that, Labor thinks it will have a better chance of fending off its most deadly enemy, the Greens, in inner-city electorates in every big Australian city." - Greg Sheridan, The Australian's foreign editor - theaustralian.com.au

>>20715805 Video: Israel's Foreign Ministry has rejected the Australian special adviser appointed to investigate the death of Australian Zomi Frankcom in drone strike - Israel's foreign ministry has rejected the Australian adviser appointed to investigate the deadly strikes which killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her colleagues in Gaza on April 1. Following the international fallout from the Israeli drone strikes, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a move to appoint a special adviser to oversee their investigation into Ms Frankcom’s death. However, Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson broke the news on Thursday night that he government's foreign office had opposed the request. Markson revealed the foreign ministry felt there was "no place for Australia to do such an unprecedented move” and that Israel could "conduct its own investigation without interference from other countries".

>>20726669 Israel urges Australia to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as terrorists - Israel is seeking urgent action from Australia and other democracies to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organisation in a bid to prevent it amassing weapons and launching more strikes after it bombarded Israeli targets on Saturday. The formal request is likely to be put to Canberra within days to gain a practical outcome by limiting the supply of materials and weapons to the Iranian military force, as well as securing a symbolic show of unity with Israel as it comes under attack. Israel’s deputy ambassador to Australia, Chris Cantor, said the issue had been raised with the government in the past but needed swift action because of the unprecedented Iranian decision to launch 300 drones and missiles against Israeli soil on Saturday.

#35 - Part 5

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 5

>>20765048 Anti-Israel ACTU push stirs Jewish fury - The ACTU has ignited a ferocious battle with Australia’s Jewish community during Passover by calling for the Albanese government to end military trade with ­Israel, enforce targeted sanctions against Israeli government officials and ­inject a further $100m of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank. The ACTU savaged Israel’s role in the Middle East conflict and demanded the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, joining some of the most strident pro-Palestinian union critics of the conflict sparked by the October 7 massacre of 1200 Israelis. It is the ACTU’s strongest statement on the war so far, bringing it into conflict with key aspects of the federal government’s position on Israel and piling pressure on Anthony Albanese’s internal handling of the crisis. The statement was released under the names of ACTU president Michele O’Neil and secretary Sally McManus, and will heap pressure on Labor MPs already facing a barrage of criticism from the Greens and Muslim constituents in key seats.

>>20770058 Union leader hits back at ‘outrageous’ ACTU statement - A union official has condemned ACTU chiefs Sally McManus and Michele O’Neil over the peak body’s pro-Palestinian statement, claiming it ignored the role of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza tragedy. Jeff Lapidos, secretary of the taxation officers’ branch of the Australian Services Union, sent an email to the ACTU secretary and president rebutting a controversial pro-Palestinian statement issued on Monday. Mr Lapidos, who is Jewish, said he sent the email in his capacity as a delegate to the ACTU congress in June, and described its statement as “absolutely outrageous”. “They completely ignored the role Hamas has played in the tragedy in Gaza,” he told The Australian. “It’s not just that Hamas wants the Jews out of Israel, they don’t want Israel at all. Hamas says that if they have the opportunity they will attack Israel again and again and again, until they have got them out of the land. The ACTU statement was absolutely outrageous.”

>>20765123 Teachers’ group to focus on Palestine on Anzac Day - A pro-Palestine teachers group has excoriated the Anzac legacy just two days before Australia commemorates its military history. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Teachers and School Staff for Palestine group called for the Anzac legend to be “dismantled” and linked a slaughter committed by World War One Anzac troops to the current war against Gaza. Secondary schoolteacher Lucy Honan said it was important for students to understand Australia’s role in the Middle Eastern conflict. “It is so important that students know that the Anzacs left a long and violent historical imprint in Palestine and in Sarafand al-’Amar in particular,” Ms Honan said. “The British created a prison camp for Palestinian activists at Sarafand al-’Amar. “The residents fled or were evacuated in the 1948 Nakba, and the site then became one of Israel’s largest military bases. “This is a legacy to dismantle, not to glorify.”

>>20770083 Pro-Palestinian teachers ‘deeply disrespectful to all who served’ - The federal government and ­opposition have united in condemnation of a pro-Palestinian teachers’ group for “attacking our Anzac legacy’’. On the eve of Anzac Day, federal Education Minister Jason Clare criticised the attack by the activist teachers on what they termed “Anzac mythology’’. “No one should be attacking our Anzac legacy,’’ Mr Clare said. “It disrespects those that have fought and died in our name.’’ The federal Coalition also condemned the “deeply disrespectful and appalling actions’’ of the Teachers and School Staff for ­Palestine group, which is demanding the Anzac legend “be dismantled”, and has linked killings by Anzac troops in World War I to the current Israeli-Gaza war. Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said teachers should not be “indoctrinating’’ students. “The attempts to link the sacrifice of our Anzacs to this sort of activism is not only misguided but deeply disrespectful to the men and women who served our country,’’ she said. “Our classrooms should be places of objective learning, not ­indoctrination. It is not the role of educators to push political ­agendas or promote divisive ideologies.’’

#35 - Part 6

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 6

>>20789187 Video: Children lead ‘intifada’ chants at pro-Palestine university protest - Young children have chanted ‘intifada’ and other anti-Israel slogans at a controversial encampment of Palestine supporters at the University of Sydney last week, dialling up fears that the anti-Semitism crisis on the nation’s campuses is now out of control. In videos, children who look younger than ten were leading others in chants calling for “intifada” and calling Israel “haram”, being clapped along by controversial anti-Israel Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah among others. Dr Abdel-Fattah is standing in front of children and parents, clapping along to another child chanting into a loudspeaker calling Israel ‘haram’ - Arabic term for ‘forbidden’ - and calling for ‘intifada’, or an uprising against oppression. In the context of the Palestine-Israel conflict, the term ‘intifada’ is often related with the violent resistance on the part of Palestinians to Israel. In another clip, a child leads a march while chanting into a loudspeaker, “five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state”.

>>20803291 Academic Randa Abdel Fattah brands critics ‘white supremacists’ over her anti-Israeli activism - Anti-Israel activist Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has attacked her critics as “white supremacists’’, and vowed to fight to keep her $837,174 taxpayer-funded research grant. Dr Abdel-Fattah led a protest of school students at the rival University of Sydney campus last Friday, when children as young as five could be heard chanting “intifada’’ and “Israel is a terrorist state’’. “When Zionists demand my fellowship be cancelled, they are purposefully targeting me and the next generation of Arab and Muslim women academics,’’ she wrote on X. “They see to eliminate us from the academy because our voices, knowledge production and impact threaten the White supremacist status quo they so desperately seek to maintain.’’

>>20837033 Penny Wong told not to ‘reward terrorism’ by supporting Palestine UN vote - Penny Wong has been urged to vote against a resolution calling for Palestine to be admitted as a full member of the UN, warning it would make a two-state solution “less achievable” and signal to the world that “acts of mass terrorism should be rewarded.” The Executive Council of Australian Jewry wrote to the Foreign Affairs Minister on Tuesday ahead of the upcoming vote of the UN General Assembly as soon as on Friday May 10, saying that a “Palestinian state cannot be declared into existence.” “It must exist in fact. This requires the establishment of institutions which are performing all of the functions of a state on a sustainable basis,” the letter said. “These institutions would preferably be of a democratic nature, bringing freedom and prosperity to its people and withstanding internal security pressures that will pose a threat to regional stability.” Signed by ECAJ President, Daniel Aghion, and co-chief executives, Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin, the letter said the establishment of a functioning Palestinian state would require “comprehensive reform of the Palestinian Authority, and the eradication of those forces fundamentally and irredeemably opposed to the very notion of nation states, let alone peaceful coexistence alongside the Jewish nation state.”

>>20837099 Video: University of Sydney campus speaker Sami Hamdi said to ‘celebrate victory’ of Israel attack - A controversial Muslim commentator who told people to “celebrate the victory” of the October 7 terror attack on Israel addressed the University of Sydney’s pro-Palestine encampment during a protest. British commentator Sami Hamdi appeared at the sandstone university telling the crowd Israel is a “rabid Zionist project that wants to eradicate Palestine”. Mr Hamdi, currently on an Australian tour, has previously had speaking engagements cancelled by Canadian universities for his comments following Hamas’s October 7 massacre. Ten days after Hamas killed 1200 Israelis, most of them civilians, Mr Hamdi urged an audience to “celebrate the victory”, while wiping away tears. “How many of you feel it in your hearts when you got the news that it happened? How many of you felt the euphoria? Allahu Akbar! How many of you felt it?” he said.

#35 - Part 7

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 7

>>20841292 Video: Police called in after radical activists hijack Gaza war protests at universities - Hardline activists have hijacked student peace protests as universities call in police to investigate claims of violence on campus. At Monash University in Melbourne, students filmed pro-­Palestine activist Mohammad Sharab as he swore at Jewish students at the Clayton campus on Wednesday. “I am a Palestinian from Gaza,’’ he told a Jewish student trying to walk past the pro-Palestine protesters. “What you are experiencing right now is exactly what I experienced my entire f.cking life, going from one city to the other, through checkpoints. Look how uncomfortable you are. “Israel is a terrorist state and Zionism is a terrorist entity. Now get your phone and f.ck off.’’ Mr Sharab is on bail over ­charges of alleged kidnapping and assault. Another visitor to the campus on Wednesday was activist Ihab al-Azhari, who was filmed telling pro-Palestinian protesters not to let the Jewish students past. Mr Azhari, founder of the Sit-Intifada protest movement, was filmed on the steps of Victoria’s parliament on Monday declaring that “7 October is just the bloody beginning of it’’.

>>20846766 Australia leans towards supporting resolution extending Palestinians' rights as United Nations observer - Australia is leaning towards supporting a resolution to extend Palestinians' rights as a United Nations observer, sources have told the ABC. The ABC understands the UN General Assembly is no longer trying to grant membership to Palestine in a vote due to be put to the assembly later on Friday night AEST. Instead, the resolution would extend rights to submit proposals, the right of reply regarding the positions of a group, and the right to raise procedural motions as an observer at the UN. The resolution still expresses the aspiration for Palestine to attain membership. It also explicitly rules out Palestine having a vote in the General Assembly. The draft also expresses support for Israel's right to peaceful existence: "unwavering support for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders". Australian sources said that the changes mean more "no" votes will now move to "abstentions" and more abstentions will move to "yes" votes. A source said the prime minister was closely involved in the final deliberations, with Australia shifting to a "yes" disposition on the motion.

>>20846807 Video: Sack ASIO boss, probe arrests of teens on terror charges: Grand Mufti - Muslim community leaders have called for the dismissal of ASIO chief Mike Burgess for comments he made that Sunni Islamic violent extremism poses the “greatest religiously motivated threat in Australia”, and claimed Muslim kids were being charged with terrorism offences because of “religious affiliations alone”. Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, speaking on behalf of the Islamic leaders which included the Grand Mufti of Australia Sheikh Riad El-Refai, said some of the children charged with terrorism offences in Sydney were “targeted on the basis of faith”, as their parents watched on in support. Sheikh Wesam demanded an inquiry into what led to the arrests of the teenagers, including transparency about the decision-making and who was involved, and said terrorism laws needed to change. Sheikh Wesam said “these kids are just kids”. “Somebody shared videos with them, and under the laws possessing violent extremist material, that is effectively readily-available material on the entire internet. What we’re saying here, very clearly, is these young kids were targeted on the basis of faith, religious profiling was occurring. And had they been of any other faith, that would have been a different issue.”

>>20852029 Video: ‘We did not reward Hamas’: Penny Wong defends United Nations vote backing Palestinian statehood - Foreign Minister Penny Wong has insisted Australia did not reward the terror group, Hamas, by backing Palestinian statehood in a high-profile United Nations vote, a move that has drawn fierce criticism from Israel and its local advocates. The Albanese government broke with some of its closest security partners early on Saturday morning by voting in favour of a General Assembly resolution that declared “the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations” under its charter rules. In a rare public display of disunity on foreign affairs, Labor MP Josh Burns said Jewish Australians would feel more isolated as a result of the vote, arguing that the government should have abstained rather than vote yes. “An abstention would have signalled we’re open to further recognition, but that we acknowledge the short-term hurdles that need to be overcome in order to achieve lasting peace,” Burns, who is Jewish, said in a statement.

#35 - Part 8

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 8

>>20859867 Bid to defuse tensions as Victorian Labor faces Gaza ‘split’ - Israeli and Palestinian supporters in the Victorian ALP remain locked in high-stakes talks in a bid to defuse an eruption of tension at Labor’s state conference. Amid an escalating threat of an internal showdown over the war in Gaza at the key meeting, ­security fears are also emerging with hard-left groups calling on supporters to join an anti-Israel rally outside the event being staged at Moonee Valley Racecourse. Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns, the federal MP for Macnamara, and other pro-Israeli supporters have been attempting to negotiate a compromise to convince Labor’s pro-Palestinian faction to remove inflammatory language from any motion debated at the May 18-19 conference.

>>20868824 Video: ‘This is a genocide’: Labor senator breaks with government over Israel war - Labor senator Fatima Payman has accused Israel of conducting a genocide in Gaza in the most strident criticism of Israel by a government MP since the war in Gaza began. Reflecting division within the Labor caucus over the Israel-Palestine conflict, Payman also deployed the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, a slogan that has been criticised by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as provocative. Jewish groups accused Payman of using a “vile” phrase that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, while the federal opposition called for Albanese to demand the backbencher apologise. Payman, who was elected to the Senate in the 2022 election, was born in Afghanistan and is the first Muslim woman to wear a hijab in the federal parliament. Her comments came after Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, publicly criticised the government for voting in favour of granting Palestine extra privileges at the United Nations at the weekend.

>>20873227 PM says Labor senator Fatima Payman’s use of Israel ‘genocide’, ‘river to the sea’ was inappropriate - Anthony Albanese says it’s “not appropriate” a WA Labor senator used a controversial chant when she broke ranks with the government’s position on Palestine, as the Coalition heaps on pressure on him to “take action” against her. Fatima Payman on Wednesday accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and questioned how many more deaths would be needed before the Prime Minister declared “enough”. Mr Albanese on Thursday morning was asked if he had spoken to Senator Payman since she made the comments, to which he gave an emphatic “no”. But he said her use of the politically charged phrase was “not appropriate” and did not reflect the Labor Party’s position. “What is appropriate is a two-state solution, where both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in security and peace and prosperity,” he told ABC Radio. “It is not in the interests of either Israelis or Palestinians to advocate there just be one state. That is a forerunner of enormous conflict and grief.”

>>20873260 Labor motions slam Israel but not Hamas terrorists - Motions demanding the Albanese Government support the “inalienable right of self-determination for the Palestinian people” and calling for the end to Israel’s “perpetual military occupation and human rights violations” in Gaza will be debated at this weekend’s Victorian ALP state conference. Four motions drafted by pro-Palestinian supporters within the Socialist Left faction seen by The Australian make only a passing mention of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed an estimated 1200 Israelis. While one of the motions calls for the release of hostages it fails to reference the number - estimated to be more than 200 who were taken by Hamas terrorists - and goes on to accuse Israel of conducting a “brutal 17-year long blockade and siege” of Gaza.

>>20873283 NSW Police blasted after force reveals tourist who wore 'October 7' soccer jersey won't face charges: 'Tolerating public support for terrorism' - Police will not press charges against a man who wore a shirt glorifying the October 7 terror attack to a major NSW tourist attraction because it did not break any laws. The inaction has infuriated the peak organisation representing the Jewish community, with its chief executive saying it demonstrated the “weakness of our laws” and authorities’ tolerance for public support for terrorism. The witness who reported the matter to police, Steve Joffe, said he was left feeling “disappointed” after receiving a phone call informing him that police had received legal advice that the sports jersey was not in breach of current legislation.

#35 - Part 9

Australian Politics and Society - Part 1

>>20545757 OPINION: The alternative is awful, but not even conservatives should back Trump - "Trump is not a conservative. A right-wing demagogue he may be. The most scornful and effective scourge of the condescending and censorious liberal elite, he surely is. But that alone is no excuse for conservatives to turn a blind eye to the threat Trump poses to values which they have always considered sacrosanct. Those values include respect for constitutional government. A failed candidate who stubbornly refused to accept the outcome of an election, encouraged his supporters to disrupt the proceedings of Congress to prevent the result being declared, and propagated without a shred of evidence the fantasy that the election had been stolen, is no conservative." - George Brandis, former high commissioner to the UK, former Liberal senator and federal attorney-general - theage.com.au

>>20555431 ‘No idea what we’re facing’: Alice crime scourge escalating - "Despite last year’s intense focus, violence is still on the rise and few locals expect anything to change. CCTV does little to deter the gangs in search of cars to steal - including mine. Houses are attacked with golf clubs, assaults are carried out on joggers. Shopping malls have been left ghostlike. Store owners lock their doors even when they’re open. Little more than a year ago, a national spotlight was placed on the town amid fly-in visits from Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton, but the intense focus was vanishingly brief and the town is again awash in grog. Locals will continue to live in a state of constant hypervigilance." - Liam Mendes - theaustralian.com.au

>>20555490 OPINION: How terrible would a second Trump presidency be for Australia? Terrible enough. - "Now that Donald Trump is the inevitable Republican candidate for the US presidency, countries everywhere need to prepare. Can Australia Trump-proof itself somehow? Some of Australia’s most senior officials have turned to Mike Green for his advice in recent weeks. Green is an American politico-policy expert who relocated to Australia a couple of years ago to run the US Studies Centre at Sydney University. The bad news about a second Trump presidency: “It’d be terrible,” he tells me. The good news: “It wouldn’t be as terrible as people think.” He worked in the White House leading Asia policy for George W. Bush, but he would never work in a Trump White House. He was one of 50 “never Trumpers” national security officials, all of whom had worked for Republican presidents – who published a full-page letter in The New York Times to warn voters that Trump would be “the most reckless president in American history”. They got that right." - Peter Hartcher, political and international editor - smh.com.au

>>20561119 Puberty blockers for trans kids under fresh scrutiny as NHS issues ban - Australia’s children’s hospitals are increasingly being left as international outliers as Britain’s National Health Service moves to ban the routine prescription of puberty blockers in children, raising questions over the safety and clinical effectiveness of the hormone drugs that are given to children experiencing gender dysphoria. The NHS released a statement saying “we have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of [puberty blockers] to make the treatment routinely available at this time” and announced the drugs will only be able to be prescribed as part of clinical trials. The decision is in line with a central recommendation of pediatrician Hillary Cass following an extensive examination of the care being provided to children at London’s Tavistock clinic in the wake of clinical governance concerns raised by doctors and patients. While Australian gender-affirming doctors continue to maintain puberty blockers simply “pause” sexual development while confused children weigh up whether to progress to transition, the Cass review found that an ideologically-driven approach at the Tavistock had essentially transplanted usual clinical governance practice and usual practices of comprehensive assessment and care, and that children were being rushed onto the drugs and placed on a medical pathway that almost invariably progressed to the later prescription of cross-sex hormones and sometimes surgery.

#35 - Part 10

Australian Politics and Society - Part 2

>>20565302 AHRC transgender rights inquiry ‘biased, waste of taxpayer funds’: experts - A national inquiry into trans­gender human rights focusing on “anti-trans mobilisation” and “disinformation” has been ­branded a “serious misuse of taxpayer funds” by experts concerned it fails to balance the rights of transgender people with the rights of women and girls. Specialists and lobby groups have also flagged a possible “bias” exhibited in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s ­inquiry because it restricts submissions to experts “in trans and gender diverse matters”. As part of the inquiry, the commission will probe “discrimination, harassment, vilification and violence” levelled at trans and gender diverse (TGD) Australians, and investigate “extremism and radicalisation”. The inquiry, which will also examine how “education, employment, healthcare, housing, migration, service provision and the law” affect transgender Australians, is open for submissions but will only accept the opinions of experts “in TGD matters”. Senior Queensland child psychiatrist Jillian Spencer said the inquiry fails to focus on how the rights of transgender people ­intersect with the rights of women and children. “All they seem to want is for the transgender community to voice any bad experiences they’ve had, and they don’t want to look at the whole rights issue for the whole of the community,” she said.

>>20570458 Women athletes launch landmark case against transgender inclusion - A group of 16 American women have launched a landmark legal case against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) over the participation of transgender athletes in their sports, with their lawyer stating that the organisation has “institutionalised cheating and discrimination” against them. With a particular focus on Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who claimed a NCAA women’s title in March 2022, the group has filed its 156-page claim at the United States District Court in the northern district of Atlanta, Georgia. It was in Atlanta that the NCAA Division 1 swimming championships took place, with the fact that about 300 women shared a dressing room with Thomas - at the time with “full male genitalia” - cited in the complaint.

>>20570471 Massive nationwide outage of McDonald's payment processing services in Australia - McDonald's says a global IT outage that prevented its servers from processing payments and saw restaurants closed across Australia and several other countries on Friday evening was not a cybersecurity incident. The company has also confirmed some of its restaurants' systems are now back online, and it is working to restore service to the remainder of its restaurants as soon as possible. "The issue is now being resolved," a McDonald's spokesperson told the ABC.

>>20589286 ‘A bowl of vomit’ - Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko blasts Four Corners episode - Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko has blasted an ABC program about the war in Ukraine as a “journalistic equivalent of a bowl of vomit”. The documentary by filmmaker Sean Langan titled “Ukraine’s War: The Other Side” aired on Four Corners on Monday night and was plugged as offering a human perspective of life on the Russian frontline. But Mr Myroshnychenko on Tuesday accused it of unquestioningly repeating “countless blatant lies, historical distortions, racist claims and propaganda narratives emanating from the Kremlin”.

>>20589296 Video: ASIO, ASIS chiefs removed from national security committee - Two of Australia’s leading intelligence bosses have been dumped from the Albanese government’s top security body. The head of ASIO, Director-General Mike Burgess, and the head of ASIS, Director-General Kerri Hartland, have been removed from the Albanese government’s national security meeting of Cabinet, according to Sky News. The director-generals have previously given advice on key security and sovereignty issues within the cabinet, which makes decisions on the highest risk and most urgent national security matters. But it’s understood Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Glyn Davis has removed both as permanent members.

#35 - Part 11

Australian Politics and Society - Part 3

>>20594954 Video: Donald Trump says ‘nasty’ Kevin Rudd won’t ‘be there long’ if he returns as president - Donald Trump has issued a firm warning to Kevin Rudd, claiming the former Australian prime minister won’t remain ambassador to the US if his “hostile" language continues. GB News host Nigel Farage questioned Mr Trump about some of Mr Rudd’s “horrible” comments where he labelled the former president a “traitor to the West”. “I don’t know much about him, I heard he was a little bit nasty,” Mr Trump said. “I hear he is not the brightest bulb, but I don’t know much about him. “If he is at all hostile, he will not be there long.”

>>20594987 Video: Penny Wong vows to keep Kevin Rudd in Washington if Donald Trump is re-elected - Penny Wong says Labor will keep Kevin Rudd on as Ambassador to the US if Donald Trump wins the upcoming election, after the former president and Republican candidate warned he was “not the brightest bulb” and might not last as Australia’s envoy if he returned to the White House. In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, to be aired in Australia by Sky News, the former president said he had heard Mr Rudd, who last year succeeded Arthur Sinodinos as the government’s man in the US capital, was “a little bit nasty”. Anthony Albanese appointed Mr Rudd to the post in December 2022, despite the possibility of a Trump comeback, and the former Labor prime minister’s past criticisms of the Republican president as “nuts”, a “traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history”. The Foreign Minister delivered an unequivocal “yes” when asked on Wednesday whether the government would retain Mr Rudd as ambassador in the event of a Trump victory in November.

>>20595004 Video: Rudd to stay in US after Trump threatened to boot him as ambassador - Foreign Minister Penny Wong has backed Kevin Rudd as Australia's ambassador to the US, after former president and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump threatened to have him booted from the role if he is re-elected. In an interview on GB News with former UK far-right politician Nigel Farage, Trump was quizzed on potentially working in Washington with Rudd, who previously called him a "destructive president" and "a traitor to the West". The former president responded with a heated spray, suggesting Rudd "won't be there long" if he wins this year's presidential race. "I don't know much about him. I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he's not the brightest bulb. But, I don't know much about him," Trump said. "But if he's at all hostile, he will not be there long." In light of the comments, the foreign minister was asked whether the Albanese government would keep Rudd on as ambassador if Trump returned to the White House. "The answer is yes," Wong said. "Rudd is a very effective ambassador. He's recognised as doing across this parliament, as doing an excellent job in advancing Australia's interests in the United States."

>>20595009 Video: Former US president Donald Trump insults ambassador Kevin Rudd, says 'he won't be there long' if he's 'hostile' - Donald Trump has insulted Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd as "not the brightest bulb", and suggested he might not remain in the role if the former president is re-elected. Mr Trump, who recently became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for the 2024 presidential election, was asked about the former prime minister during an interview on British television. Politician-turned-broadcaster Nigel Farage told Mr Trump that Dr Rudd had "said the most horrible things" about him, including calling him a "destructive president" and a "traitor to the West". "He won't be there long if that's the case," Mr Trump responded. Dr Rudd has not commented today, but previously defended his criticisms of Mr Trump, arguing he made them in his capacity as an "independent think-tanker". "I haven't done them as the Australian ambassador to the United States," he told Sky News in November last year. Dr Rudd was the president and CEO of the Asia Society prior to becoming the Australian ambassador a year ago.

#35 - Part 12

Australian Politics and Society - Part 4

>>20595022 Trump has lit the fuse, but Rudd has been a ticking time bomb all along - "Tick, tick, tick. Since Anthony Albanese chose Kevin Rudd to be Australia’s top diplomat in the United States, the former prime minister’s appointment has been a bomb waiting to explode. Now Donald Trump has lit the fuse, threatening to blow up Rudd’s diplomatic career in Washington and damage Australia’s most important security alliance. Installing Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to the US was always a high-risk, high-reward gamble by Albanese. On the plus side, Rudd has a prodigious work ethic and a formidable intellect. His status as a world-renowned China expert promised a level of access in DC that other diplomats could not match. The prospect of a Trump return to the White House just became even more alarming for Canberra. Intellect and work ethic won’t get you far if the leader of the free world hates your guts." - Matthew Knott - smh.com.au

>>20595024 Video: Donald Trump threatens to get rid of 'nasty' Kevin Rudd - Donald Trump has threatened that Kevin Rudd, currently Australia's ambassador to the US, "won't be there long" because of his supposed "hostile" stance towards the former president. - 9 News Australia

>>20595025 Video: Trump vs Rudd: What the former President said about the former Prime Minister - Donald Trump has declared Kevin Rudd “not the brightest bulb” and suggested the former Labor prime minister wouldn’t be welcome in Washington as ambassador under a second Trump presidency. In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, to be aired in Australia by Sky News, the former president said he had heard Mr Rudd, who last year succeeded Arthur Sinodinos as the government’s man in the US capital, was “a little bit nasty”. “He won’t be there long if that’s the case … I don’t know much about him,” Mr Trump told Mr Farage during the interview, when the former Brexit party leader rattled off some of Mr Rudd’s less complimentary remarks about Mr Trump before he became ambassador. - The Australian

>>20595028 'Poor choice': Kevin Rudd showed ‘lack of judgement’ prior to becoming ambassador - Kevin Rudd has shown a “lack of judgement” and was a “poor choice” to become Australia’s Ambassador to the US, says Nationals Leader David Littleproud. Mr Littleproud’s comments come after former US president Donald Trump called Mr Rudd "nasty" in an interview with GB News host Nigel Farage. “I find it extraordinary that Kevin Rudd, who has had experience in the diplomatic pool and then as a prime minister has wanted to weigh in on foreign politics and then ended up as the ambassador to the United States,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News Australia. “It shows that he was a poor choice to start with. “Now if we have a Trump administration, we’re going to have a very difficult time in negotiating with a new administration, particularly with things as important as AUKUS. “This is a problem for the government, they mismanaged this, and Kevin Rudd should have known better than to make disparaging comments about a potential future president of the United States.” - Sky News Australia

>>20595031 Video: Albanese defends Kevin Rudd after Donald Trump labels former PM as 'nasty' - Anthony Albanese has been pressed in Question Time for comment after Donald Trump labelled Australia's Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd as “nasty” during an exclusive interview with GB News host Nigel Farage. The interview between former US President Donald Trump and Nigel Farage is set to air in Australia on Sky News this evening. Donald Trump also slammed Kevin Rudd as being “not the brightest bulb” during the interview. Prime Minister Albanese was on Wednesday questioned by Liberal MP Paul Fletcher about Mr Trump’s comments. Mr Albanese said the question "says everything about the character of this current Opposition". "At a time when Australians are worried about the cost of living and a range of issues that affect their daily lives - they decide to politicise Australia's representative in Washington DC, something that was never done by this side of the chamber when Arthur Sinodinas occupied that position, when Joe Hockey occupied that position," Mr Albanese said. - Sky News Australia

#35 - Part 13

Australian Politics and Society - Part 5

>>20595035 Video: Trump's swipe dominates Question Time as PM takes second shot defending Ambassador Rudd - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taken a second opportunity during a fiery Question Time to defend Australia's Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd after Donald Trump labelled the former prime minister as being "nasty". Mr Trump's comments came during an interview with GB News host Nigel Farage. Donald Trump also slammed Kevin Rudd as being “not the brightest bulb” during the interview. The issue dominated Question Time on Wednesday, with the Prime Minister later taking to the dispatch box to point out Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had made positive comments about Ambassador Rudd on Sky News as recently as last month. - Sky News Australia

>>20595038 Video: Penny Wong responds to Donald Trump’s comments about Kevin Rudd - Foreign Minister Penny Wong has responded to comments made by former US president Donald Trump on Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd. In a GB News interview with Nigel Farage, Trump said he thought Rudd was “not the brightest bulb”, “nasty” and said he “won't be there long”. In response to the scathing critique of Rudd, Ms Wong described the former Australian Prime Minister as a “very effective ambassador”. She said he is recognised as doing an “excellent job” in advancing Australia’s interest in the United States. “Even Mr Dutton has expressed confidence in Mr Rudd,” she said. “He’s been extremely active in engaging in members of Congress on both sides.” - Sky News Australia

>>20595042 Trump 2.0 could end Kevin Rudd’s Washington stint - "Donald Trump’s criticism of Kevin Rudd in a British television interview presents a major problem for Australia should the former president be re-elected in November. With or without AUKUS, Australia will depend on the US for our security even more in coming years. Insisting on having an ambassador in Washington whom the US president, for personal reasons, intensely dislikes would obviously be foolish. If Donald Trump isn’t re-elected in November, Mr Rudd’s tenure is secure. If he is, Canberra will have to give serious thought to recalling him. Pride will have to be swallowed quick smart. It’s highly unlikely a future President Trump would actively seek to persuade Australia to terminate Mr Rudd’s commission. But he could easily ignore him, relegating anything related to Australia way down the White House’s to do list, putting AUKUS in jeopardy and making visits by Australian primes ministers difficult." - Adam Creighton - theaustralian.com.au

>>20600270 Make Kevin great again: embassy’s high-wire act to placate Trump - Moments after Donald Trump publicly cast doubt on Kevin Rudd’s future as Australia’s ­ambassador in Washington under a second Trump presidency, the phones started ringing inside the Australian embassy in ­Washington. Several senior Republicans who are close to Trump called to reassure Rudd, and Australia, not to take Trump’s words literally, saying that Rudd would be able to continue as ambassador if Trump defeated Joe Biden in the presidential election in November.

>>20600280 Kevin Rudd’s Republican mates go quiet after Donald Trump’s hit - The congressional Republicans most likely to come to Kevin Rudd’s defence after he endured sharp criticism from Donald Trump have remained strangely silent. The two Republicans who lead the Friends of Australia caucus - Mike Gallagher and Senator Dan Sullivan - have not responded to requests for comment over 24 hours since Mr Trump’s comments became public. The former president described Mr Rudd as “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb” after Nigel Farage brought up the ambassador’s past criticism of Mr Trump. Similarly, Republican Senator Roger Wicker, whom Mr Rudd worked closely with to ensure critical AUKUS legislation passed congress last year, has also declined to comment via his staff. The office of Congressman Michael McCaul, chairman of the influential House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, also didn’t respond.

#35 - Part 14

Australian Politics and Society - Part 6

>>20600296 Kevin Rudd breaks silence as Donald Trump feud deepens - The Republican leaders of the US congressional Friends of Australia Caucus have failed to publicly come to Kevin Rudd’s aid after he was blasted by former US president Donald Trump. Congressman Mike Gallagher and Senator Dan Sullivan did not respond when asked about their party leader’s threat to refuse to work with Australia’s ambassador to the US if he was re-elected in this year’s presidential election. But Mr Rudd, who has refused to comment on the diplomatic drama, took to social media on Thursday to post photos of himself with Mr Gallagher. He did not say when the pictures were taken, but referred to the Republican’s role co-chairing the Friends of Australia Caucus, as well as his position chairing the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. “Huge week in Congress. House passed legislation on Tiktok on 3/13 and voted unanimously to support the digital privacy bill,” Mr Rudd said. “Amid all this, I caught up with @repgallagher.”

>>20606157 Sky News obtains footage of Kevin Rudd mocking and ridiculing Donald Trump during former president's first term - The Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd’s ability to work constructively with the Trump administration if he is to secure the presidency in the upcoming November election may be uncertain, as more examples resurface of the former prime minister making politically charged and highly offensive comments about Trump during his last term in office. At an address to the Oxford Union in 2017, Rudd said of then-President Trump that he was a “problem” for Australia and the world more broadly. “Trump at present represents a political liability for both sides of Australian politics,” Mr Rudd said. “This guy is a problem. He is an objective problem, for the world, for the region, for my country.” During the address, Mr Rudd - who had transitioned from politician to active political commentator – suggested Congressional Republicans in the United States should act to remove Trump from office.

>>20606184 Video: Unearthed video shows now-Ambassador Rudd calling Trump a ‘problem,’ ‘liability,’ ‘must be removed’ - Sky News has revealed more footage of now-Ambassador Kevin Rudd calling Donald Trump, who was US President at the time, a political liability - saying he’s a problem for the world and must be removed as president. “The freshly unearthed videos from showing Rudd ridiculing Trump's intellect raise serious questions about his viability in Washington should Trump return to the White House,” Sky News host Sharri Markson said. “Trump's remarks about Australia's politically divisive and controversial Washington ambassador have gone global, with Rudd's media and political supporters working overtime to claim he's doing a terrific job and has developed contacts on both sides of the aisle. “But Rudd can't escape from his past invective which is coming back to bite him as Trump's path towards the White House gathers steam.”

>>20622388 Elon Musk criticises fact checkers and accuses them of ‘tyranny’ after Dick Smith complains about ABC RMIT fact check - Billionaire Elon Musk has condemned the work of fact checkers and accused them of “tyranny” after businessman Dick Smith claimed the RMIT ABC Fact Check unit published a report that is “full of lies” about nuclear energy. On Monday, Mr Musk responded to a Sky News Australia article shared on the social media platform he owns, X, formerly Twitter, that explained Mr Smith's disgust over a fact check about the Australian businessman’s comments relating to nuclear power. Mr Musk replied to a post by US columnist Michael Shellenberger that said, “one of the government’s main fact-checker groups has been caught spreading misinformation about renewables and nuclear. Mr Musk replied, “Having government ‘fact-checkers’ is a giant leap in the direction of tyranny.”

>>20622409 Australian intelligence chiefs want law to stop former spies taking skills overseas - Australia’s intelligence chiefs have asked the government for new laws to stop former spies marketing their skills abroad, fearing current provisions are allowing foreign adversaries to gain invaluable knowledge of Australian tradecraft. ASIO is seeking specific consolidated legislation requiring that former spies gain explicit permission before they offer themselves as trainers, in light of what it says is the serious and growing threat of espionage and foreign interference.

#35 - Part 15

Australian Politics and Society - Part 7

>>20628570 ASIO boss tells inquiry into Australian secrecy laws foreign intelligence operatives are posing as journalists - The head of ASIO has warned some foreign intelligence services may be using journalism as a cover as journalists themselves become a target for foreign intelligence services. Mike Burgess has addressed an inquiry by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor into secrecy offences in the Criminal Code. The inquiry comes amid concerns about the lack of protection for whistleblowers and the press. Mr Burgess told the inquiry journalists were a target of foreign intelligence services, and some operatives pretended to be a journalist to do their job. He warned any alterations to the law needed to be carefully assessed. "ASIO does not investigate journalists for their journalism. I'm not saying that we are, but if we do, we investigate them for potential threats to security," Mr Burgess said.

>>20628610 U.S. Naval Institute Tweet: Video: Mar 26, 2024 - #OTD in 1941, U.S. Navy ships made a goodwill visit to Australia. The Americans were mobbed by Aussie women who broke through the crowds to give beer and sweets to the sailors. One sailor boasted of getting a date within 3 minutes of stepping ashore.

>>20634719 Dick Smith receives an apology over ABC RMIT Fact Check unit’s report on renewable energy - The ABC has issued an apology to businessman Dick Smith just hours after he wrote to managing director David Anderson demanding corrections to an RMIT ABC Fact Check report on renewable energy that he claimed was “full of lies”. Just one day after the fact checking unit repeatedly told The Australian it stood by its work, in an embarrassing backdown the ABC published an online apology at 8.03pm on Tuesday and made changes to the report, conceding it was riddled with errors. Furious with his treatment by the ABC, Mr Smith wrote a letter to Mr Anderson and said the fact check was published to “discredit me and my comments so people will not trust me”.

>>20634736 Video: ‘Emergency situation’: Youth curfew declared in Alice Springs - An “emergency situation” has been declared in Alice Springs, with the government implementing a curfew in the CBD for anyone under the age of 18, effective tonight, for 14 days. Fifty-eight additional police will be sent to the area “as soon as possible”, Chief Minister Eva Lawler has announced. “I know youth curfews have been called on before, I’m the Chief Minister now, and my government is determined to get on top of the issues, the youth issues in particular in Alice Springs,” she said. The emergency declaration comes after The Australian revealed a violent riot through the streets of Alice Springs on Tuesday had escalated calls for a total federal government takeover of the town, with the mayor asking the territory’s government to temporarily step aside so that order can be restored to the “lawless” town.

>>20634742 Video: Jacinta Price suggests riot squad be brought into Northern Territory - Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has suggested a riot squad be brought in to restore law and order in Alice Springs. Hundreds of people were involved in a riot yesterday as people marched through the Alice Springs CBD bearing weapons. Ms Price called for the Northern Territory government to take “drastic measures” to address the violence. “I would like to see our authorities, the Territory government, do whatever it takes, whether they need to bring in a riot squad,” Ms Price told Sky News Australia. “There needs to be calm, there needs to be peace … we can’t see it get any worse than it already is.”

>>20634758 Video: Politicians respond to ‘out of control’ violence in Alice Springs as pressure grows for federal intervention - Jacinta Price has called for the Defence force to descend on Alice Springs after a violent riot through the town on Tuesday, as discussions of federal intervention ramp up on both sides of the political aisle. The Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians said she was “deeply disturbed” by the crisis in Alice Springs, which has so far led to five arrests, thousands of dollars in property damage, and terrified local residents. “Violence is escalating, and to say it is out of control is an understatement - I think it’s the absolute worst I have seen the violence in my home town,” Senator Price said. “The people of Alice Springs are beside themselves, businesses are petrified to stay open, nowhere else in Australia would this be accepted, so why is it being tolerated in Alice Springs?”

#35 - Part 16

Australian Politics and Society - Part 8

>>20634790 Video: Two-week youth curfew in place for Alice Springs CBD - A youth curfew will be imposed in Alice Springs from tonight after violent unrest in the town. The unrest came to a head when a large group of people armed with knives and weapons attacked a pub and walked menacingly through the streets last night. The curfew will include the CBD of Alice Springs and apply to everyone under 18 years of age. It will run from 6pm to 6am for the next 14 days. There will be no criminal penalties imposed on anyone breaking curfew. Instead, NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said anyone under 18 found in the town centre after curfew "will be taken home or taken to a safe place". More than 50 extra police officers will also be deployed.

>>20646846 South Korea's ambassador to Australia resigns after less than a month in the job - South Korea's new ambassador to Australia has resigned after less than a month in the job, as he faces a corruption probe at home. On March 4, Lee Jong-sup was named by President Yoon Suk Yeol's conservative administration to replace Kim Wan-joong in Canberra. The former defence minister then flew to Australia on March 12 to take up the position as top envoy after South Korea's justice ministry lifted a travel ban on him to allow him to leave. But he was forced home 10 days later amid an investigation by the country's Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials over allegations he interfered with a probe into the drowning of a South Korean soldier. Mr Lee has denied any wrongdoing. Opposition MPs accused the government of sending Mr Lee to Australia to shield him from facing justice.

>>20646927 Twelve-year-old boy found hiding in a container at ‘secure’ Fremantle Port - The Australian Border Force and WA Police are investigating how a 12-year-old boy was found in a container being moved around a secure area at Fremantle Port. The boy was only found after the container had been lifted, put on a truck, moved, and then offloaded onto the ground with a forklift on Tuesday evening, according to a source not authorised to speak to the media. He was spotted by the forklift driver at Patrick Terminals’ container facility after he came out of the open machinery space at the end of the refrigerated container. Workers who detected the boy immediately stopped work and escorted him to security personnel, a spokeswoman for Patrick Terminals said. She said the appropriate authorities were notified, and the company was fully cooperating with their investigation. Police were called to the port at 10pm after the dangerous incident. The boy was uninjured and after inquiries was identified and returned to his home, a police spokesman said.

>>20647022 ‘I apologise’: ADF chief General Angus Campbell’s admission of failure - Australian Defence Force chief General Angus Campbell has vowed to push for enduring reform in Australia’s military and defence culture to address the suicide crisis that has taken the lives of 1600 servicemen and women between 1997 and 2020 - 20 times the number of service personnel killed on active duty. General Campbell, appearing as the final witness before the Royal Commission Into Defence and Veteran Suicide on Thursday, closed his remarks with a call for everyone in Defence to “stand up” and build and protect a culture of moral excellence. “My comment to everybody would be to know and do what is right and when you see that is not what is happening, just stand up and you will be supported.” In his opening statement before the commission, General Campbell apologised “unreservedly” for what he called organisational “deficiencies” that let down ADF members during their service and post-service life. “Our people deserve and should rightly expect the wellbeing and care they need both during and after their service,” he said. “I am committed to doing better.”

#35 - Part 17

Australian Politics and Society - Part 9

>>20647150 Australian military news: Marine Rotational Force - Darwin arrives - Military activity in the Northern Territory is set to soar, with more than one thousand Marines arriving in the Top End for the 13th rotation of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin. On Friday, Marines got a taste for the Top End’s conditions as they stepped onto the airstrip tarmac. The new rotation’s Commanding Officer Colonel Brian Mulvihill said his troops were “excited” to get started. “The marines and sailors of MRF-D are honoured and excited to continue the legacy of cooperation and interoperability with our Australian Defence Force brothers and sisters,” he said. “Our strong alliance contributes to stability in the region and makes all our forces more ready to respond to any crisis or contingency that arises.”

>>20647189 Marines back in Australia during six months of training across South Pacific - U.S. Marines have returned to northern Australia to train as an air-ground task force for six months across the continent and in the Philippines and Indonesia, a Marine Corps spokesman said Thursday. This year’s 2,000-strong Marine Rotational Force-Darwin is the 13th contingent to arrive in the Northern Territory since 2012, according to a Marine Corps statement that day. “The Marines and Sailors of Marine Rotational Force-Darwin are honored and excited to continue the legacy of cooperation,” force commander Col. Brian Mulvihill said in the statement. “Our strong Alliance contributes to stability in the region and enables the readiness of our forces to respond to any crisis or contingency that arises.” Led by an infantry regiment from Camp Pendleton, Calif., for the third year in a row, the Marines are scheduled to train until October with Australian troops and counterparts throughout the region.

>>20647223 Marines, Sailors Arrive in Australia for 6 Months of Training, Exercises - "Over the next six months, MRF-Darwin will conduct a series of exercises and training events with the Australian Defense Force and other regional allies and partners to establish a forward-postured crisis response force, enhance interoperability between our forces, and contribute to a more stable and secure Indo-Pacific," Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told the media during a briefing today. Led for the third year in a row by a California-based Marine infantry regiment, this will be the 13th annual iteration of MRF-Darwin, according to a news release sent out by MRF-Darwin's media team today. MRF-Darwin dates back to 2011, when former President Barack Obama and then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced an agreement on force posture initiatives designed to significantly enhance defense cooperation between the U.S. and Australia. While the initial iteration consisted of only a small liaison element and a company of 250 Marines, the agreement intended to "establish a rotational presence of up to a 2,500-person Marine Air Ground Task Force," according to White House archives.

>>20647263 Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Tweet: Video: We are happy to be back in Darwin - MRF-D 24.3 is part of an annual six-month rotational deployment to enhance interoperability with the Australian Defence Force and Allies and partners and provide a forward-postured crisis response force in the Indo-Pacific.

>>20651703 Video: South Australia government dubs state Voice election ‘strong first result’ despite low voter turnout - The South Australian First Nations Voice to Parliament election has been declared a success by the Malinauskas government despite a disappointing voter turnout. Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders were asked to elect the 46 members of the state’s Voice to Parliament in a non-compulsory election on March 16. Only 2619 votes of an approximate 30,000 eligible voters were counted across the state according to the Electoral Commission of South Australia. The Malinauskas government described the election as “successful” despite the turnout and was upbeat it set the platform for the Voice to grow in the state.

>>20656128 Government and creators slam Meta’s political posts move amid disengagement fears - Tech giant Meta is “turning the tap off” on some political content across its Instagram and Threads platforms, threatening to leave ­affected Australians uninformed, the government has warned. The change, where both platforms let users decide what political content they are recommended to see but at the risk of blocking valuable information, went through with little fanfare and many users not realising the ramifications.

#35 - Part 18

Australian Politics and Society - Part 10

>>20656192 ABC ombudsman hands down scathing review of ABC RMIT Fact Check report on Dick Smith - The ABC ombudsman has delivered a scathing assessment of the RMIT ABC Fact Check unit in the wake of its botched report about businessman Dick Smith’s on-air comments on nuclear and renewable energy. The ABC received 11 complaints about the fact check titled, “Can a country run entirely on renewable energy?”, published on March 22, that delved into Mr Smith’s public statements on energy including renewables and nuclear. In the report, RMIT ABC Fact Check rejected Mr Smith’s comment that “no country has ever been able to run entirely on renewables”, prompting the well-known businessman to write an urgent letter to managing director David Anderson demanding corrections. But in a two-page finding published late last week, ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron determined that the fact checkers “had inaccurately asserted that Mr Smith’s support for nuclear-generated power meant that he rejected renewable-led electricity generation in the process”.

>>20664917 BEAT THE PHONE TRACKERS - MITIGATING EMF & TRACKING - cairnsnews.org

>>20665462 World of warcraft: Australians in England teach Ukrainians how to defeat Russia - In a military camp in the east of England, Australian Defence Force personnel are barking orders. Cries of “get down”, “quick, quick” echo along a smoke-filled street with a realistic looking medical centre and pub. The team of Ukrainian soldiers has just breached the door of a mock house, quaintly called “door appreciation”, and under the protective cover of their compatriots they check for booby traps, and storm inside to capture “the enemy”. Rounds of gunfire are heard as the team expertly clears the area. It takes less than a minute and then the team prepares for an assault on the property next door. Watching with a keen eye is Major Michael Jack from the 7th Battalion Royal ­Australian Regiment: the only ­soldier here given permission to speak and to show his face. This is Operation Interflex, the British-led mission to train members of the AFU (Force Ukraine) that has been in operation since June 2022.

>>20671030 ‘A leader who represents the best of modern Australia’: PM - Anthony Albanese has announced that businesswoman and gender equality advocate Sam Mostyn AO will be Australia’s next governor-geneMs Mostyn, 59, is currently the chair of Women’s Economic Opportunities Review, and chair of Aware Super fund. She was previously the president of Chief Executive Women (CEW). A Canberran who grew up as the daughter of an Australian Army officer, Ms Mostyn was the first female Australian Football League commissioner, and served for over a decade until 2017. She has also held senior roles with Reconciliation Australia, the Australia Council for the Arts, and the National Mental Health Commission.

>>20671037 Sam Mostyn: Read Australia's next Governor-General's controversial deleted tweets: 'Invasion Day' - Australia's next Governor-General referred to Australia Day as 'invasion day' and urged the country not to 'waste' the opportunity offered by the Uluru Statement from the Heart in now-deleted comments posted to X. Sam Mostyn wiped her social media presence before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the businesswoman, gender and climate activist as General David Hurley's replacement on Wednesday morning. The once prolific tweeter who boasted 22,000 followers on X, wiped clean her X, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts just prior to her appointment to the vice-regal role. But posts Ms Mostyn made over the years - obtained by Daily Mail Australia - offer an insight into the politics of the woman now tasked with representing King Charles in Australia.

>>20671085 Elon Musk’s X threatens to sue Australian government over anti-transgender post - Elon Musk’s social media platform X has threatened to sue the Australian government as it faces a fine of up to $800,000 over a post that made disparaging comments about transgender activist Teddy Cook, declaring it will “protect its user’s right to free speech”. X, formerly known as Twitter, has removed the post written by Canadian Chris Elston, who is known as ‘Billboard Chris’ and says he has “decided to take a stand against gender ideology”, which he has described as “pseudo-religious movement”. But the post targeting Mr Cook - who was part of a panel that advised the World Health Organisation on developing guidelines for the health of trans and gender diverse people - was reshared thousands of times. This prompted the Australian eSafety Commissioner to take action, which X said it would challenge.

#35 - Part 19

Australian Politics and Society - Part 11

>>20676381 Anthony Albanese’s fury at Israel raises Jewish concern - Australia’s position on Israel’s conduct in Gaza has shifted to outright condemnation following the death of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, prompting a warning from the nation’s Jewish community that a premature end to the conflict will leave Hamas in control of the Palestinian enclave. Anthony Albanese confronted Benjamin Netanyahu over the strike on an aid convoy that killed Frankcom and six colleagues, ­expressing the nation’s fury over the attack, as Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned Israel to “change course” or face inter­national ­isolation. The Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council said the demand by the Prime Minister for Israeli accountability was “perfectly reasonable and proper” but argued that responsibility for all deaths in the conflict lay with Hamas. It questioned whether the government still believed there was no role for the terrorist organisation in Gaza’s future.

>>20681364 Navy chief Mark Hammond full steam ahead in bid to lead Australian Defence Force - Chief of Navy Mark Hammond is the frontrunner to replace Angus Campbell as the nation’s next Defence chief, as Anthony Albanese prepares to stamp his authority on the force’s biggest transformation since World War II. The former submarine commander, who is close to the Prime Minister, would be the first naval officer in 22 years to hold the post if he is selected to succeed General Campbell, whose term ­expires at the end of June. But Vice Admiral Hammond faces tough competition from the army’s Lieutenant-General Greg Bilton, who has served as the ADF’s current Chief of Joint ­Operations for the past five years. Admiral Hammond is an ­astute political player who shares Mr Albanese’s love of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team, and was tapped to join the Prime Minister in the US for last year’s AUKUS announcement.

>>20681374 Video: Meta accused of encouraging and reinforcing NT youth crime crisis - Meta Australia boss William ­Easton must step up and do more to remove content on his platform that is putting Indigenous children at risk amid a violent crime wave that has plagued Alice Springs for months, child protection experts and the Coalition have warned. A spokeswoman for Meta on Friday said the company had contacted Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler directly after she accused the tech giant of ­“encouraging and reinforcing” youth crime among Indigenous children seeking social media ­infamy. “At Meta, we have rules that outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. We have reached out to the Chief Minister’s office for their letter and will be following up to engage directly,” the spokeswoman said.

>>20681397 Tech titan Meta guilty in Northern Territory youth crime crisis, says Chief Minister Eva Lawler - Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler has accused tech titan Meta of “encouraging and re­inforcing” youth crime among some of the country’s most vulnerable children seeking social media fame. Ms Lawler has demanded an urgent meeting with Meta, saying her government is considering following other states in launching “post and boast” legislation that could lead to jail time for anyone sharing videos of committing a crime via social media, following a rise in crime that has seen a two-week youth curfew imposed on the Alice Springs CBD. It comes just over a week after children under 18 in Alice Springs were forced off the streets in a move aimed at stopping the riots and violence that have plagued the red centre for months, with police and sources on the ground noticing a significant drop in illegal behaviour such as parading stolen cars in town.

>>20681473 U.S. Embassy Australia Tweet: Video: Ambassador Kennedy will soon drive a 2004 Ford Falcon into the outback to raise funds for the Cancer Council as part of the Shitbox Rally. This Sunday, she speaks to @60Mins about the (Australia / United States) cancer research that gives her hope and takes us for a spin in her shitbox.

>>20686553 SA Libs put future of Indigenous voice in doubt - Australia’s only elected voice to parliament could be scrapped within two years, as the South Australian Liberals toughen their stance against the Indigenous ­advisory group after a dismal turnout in the first voice elections. In a situation critics have ­described as embarrassing and laugh­able, voice delegates who were elected with as few as six votes in a statewide general election will have the right to address parliament, cabinet and departmental chiefs on policy matters. Less than 10 per cent of the state’s estimated 30,000-strong Indigenous population voted in the voice elections late last month, with the turnout of 2583 voters ­resulting in some farcical results.

#35 - Part 20

Australian Politics and Society - Part 12

>>20686589 Boat carrying asylum seekers reportedly lands in Western Australia’s Kimberley coast - WA Police are searching for a man following reports an unknown vessel carrying multiple people landed on the West Australian coastline, also triggering an Australian Defence Force operation. In reports published by The Australian, the occupants of the boat, believed to be Chinese, arrived at the remote Mungalalu Truscott Airbase in the far north Kimberley region on Friday afternoon. Sky News has also reported it’s understood about 13 Chinese nationals walked onto the Truscott air base about 4pm on Friday. It’s been reported more than 100 Australian Defence Force personnel were at the air base on Saturday afternoon, with staff deploying artillery drones in search of other boats and illegal arrivals.

>>20686594 Another illegal boat lands on WA coast, ‘carrying 15 Chinese’ - Another group of non-citizens is believed to have been delivered undetected to the Australian mainland by boat, the third known arrival since November. The latest group, understood to comprise 15 people, arrived at the old WWII Truscott airbase in an extremely remote pocket of the far north Kimberley region of Western Australia late on Friday afternoon. The airbase is owned by the Wunambal Gaambera people who run it as a commercial airstrip. The Australian Border Force has not commented on the arrivals, in keeping with a practice established by the Coalition in 2013, but both residents of the region and sources close to the operation have told The Australian the people in the group are being treated as illegal boat arrivals. Two sources said the group is thought to be Chinese. The last known Chinese to arrive by boat in Australia were Falung Gong. They sailed into Darwin harbour in 2012.

>>20686636 Julie Bishop named United Nations special envoy for Myanmar - Former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop says she is deeply honoured to have been named by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as his special envoy on Myanmar. Bishop, who is currently Australian National University chancellor, will take up the post left vacant by the departure of Singaporean diplomat Noeleen Heyzer last June. “I am deeply honoured to be appointed Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Myanmar to help deliver on the mandate of the General Assembly and the Security Council Resolution of December 2022,” she said in a statement on Saturday. Announcing the role, the UN noted one-time deputy Liberals leader had “extensive policy, legal and senior management experience”.

>>20695601 Anthony Albanese vows no turnback on Operation Sovereign Borders as third boat arrives - People who arrive by boat seeking a better life or even asylum “won’t be settled in Australia”, Anthony Albanese has said as he doubles down on his government’s commitment to the Coalition’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy following another undetected mainland arrival. The latest illegal maritime arrivals to reach Western Australia’s far north Kimberley coastline were the third known group since November and the first Chinese to reach Australia by boat since 2012. All but one of the group was put on a charter jet to Nauru on Sunday. The Prime Minister was adamant that the border control principles established by the Abbott government remained in place. “We will deal with any unauthorised arrivals consistent with Operation Sovereign Borders, and that’s what we’ve done,” Mr Albanese said.

>>20695650 ‘It had nothing to do with Nazis’: Man denies making salute at Sydney soccer match - A young man has denied making a Nazi salute during a soccer match and labelled the accusations “disgusting”, in the first high-profile case testing new laws banning the hate symbol in public. Dominik Sieben, 24, told a court he was simply holding a beer in one hand and cheering on his team with the other and TV footage “twisted” what happened. Sieben was charged alongside 45-year-old Nikola Marko Gasparovic and 44-year-old Marijan Lisica with knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol in public without reasonable excuse, at the Australia Cup final match between Sydney United 58 FC and Macarthur FC at CommBank Stadium on October 1, 2022. The legislation passed through NSW Parliament in mid-2022 and could lead to someone being jailed for one year. The three men were charged with the offence after Sydney United supporters complained about the alleged action.

#35 - Part 21

Australian Politics and Society - Part 13

>>20700919 Video: Alice Springs youth curfew extended until end of school holidays - The Northern Territory government has extended Alice Springs’ youth curfew for a further five days, to expire at the end of the school holidays. The curfew was implemented at the end of March after more than 100 people ­rioted in Alice Springs and cornered one of the town’s most popular pubs, which police said at the time they did not have the resources to control. It will now expire 6am on Tuesday, April 16. The riot on March 27 saw parts of Alice Springs in lockdown over what sources claimed was “payback” for the death of a young man who died after a stolen car overturned on March 8. CCTV revealed by The Australian showed a group attempting to smash the windows of a popular pub, pelting bricks and throwing their bodies at glass doors as workers try to barricade themselves in on the other side, following a ceremony for the 18-year-old who was killed. For weeks, locals in Alice Springs had feared a war would begin between families seeking payback against the driver of the vehicle.

>>20705379 US colleges impose new limits on transgender athletes - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the governing body for small US colleges, has announced a policy that effectively bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. In a move that was approved by a 20-0 vote of its council of presidents, the NAIA ruled athletes will only be allowed to compete in women’s sports if they were assigned the female gender at birth. Transgender athletes may still participate in college sport, but only in male categories. A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in inter-scholastic competition.

>>20705409 Women-only social media app Giggle for Girls taken to court by transgender woman Roxanne Tickle after her account was restricted - A transgender woman who was excluded from a women-only social media app should be awarded damages because the app's founder has persistently denied she is a woman, a Sydney court has heard. In February 2021, Roxanne Tickle downloaded the Giggle for Girls social networking app, which was marketed as a platform exclusively for women to share experiences and speak freely. Users needed to provide a selfie, which was assessed by artificial intelligence software to determine if they were a woman or man. Ms Tickle's photograph was determined to be a woman and she used the app's full features until September that year, when the account became restricted because the AI decision was manually overridden. In a case before the Federal Court, Ms Tickle alleges unlawful discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

>>20705415 ‘Evolutionary biologist’ to be called in trans defamation case - An evolutionary biologist is set to give evidence in a case brought by an Australian transgender woman against a female-only social media app and its founder for discrimination, a court heard. Roxanne Tickle, who underwent gender affirming surgery in 2019 and is now designated as female on her birth certificate, will argue she was discriminated against on the grounds of gender identity by the Giggle for Girls app and its owner Sall Grover when she was denied access to the app, which was otherwise available to cisgender women. Ms Tickle claims she was initially accepted into the app when she submitted a ‘selfie’ through Giggle’s third-party artificial intelligence tool but was later blocked by Ms Grover. Ms Grover’s defence barrister Bridie Nolan said they would call the evidence Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist, whose expert report and affidavit would suggest it was “objectively and scientifically reasonable” for Ms Grover to identify Ms Tickle as of the “male species”. In that evidence, Mr Wright would argue there are only two sexes, and there can only be two sexes, the court heard.

#35 - Part 22

Australian Politics and Society - Part 14

>>20705428 No transition from gender reality, app boss Sall Grover tells court - The founder of a women's-only social media app says she does not accept that a person who trans­itions from male to female surgically, socially and legally is a woman, and removed her from the app as she does with “all males”. The view, held by Giggle for Girls app founder and CEO Sall Grover was described in court on Wednesday by Roxanne Tickle’s legal team as being at the “heart” of the discrimination case. Ms Tickle, who underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2019 and is now designated as female on her birth certificate, will argue she was discriminated against on the grounds of gender identity by Giggle for Girls and Ms Grover when she was denied access to the app. Ms Tickle claims she was ­initially accepted into the app in February 2021 when she submitted a “selfie” through Giggle’s third-party artificial intelligence tool but was later blocked by Ms Grover. It is the first time a case alleging gender identity discrimination has been heard by the Federal Court following changes to the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013, which made it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.

>>20705439 Landmark review rejects puberty blockers for children wanting to change gender - An entire field of medicine aimed at ­enabling children to change gender has been “built on shaky foundations”, the chairwoman of a National Health Service review has concluded. Dr Hilary Cass found that there was no good evidence to support the global clinical practice of prescribing hormones to under-18s to halt puberty or transition to the opposite sex. This method of medical intervention for young people who identify as transgender has become embedded in clinical guidelines around the world over the past two decades. Thousands of children have received puberty blockers on the NHS since 2011, and referrals to its youth gender identity service have increased 100-fold in little over a decade. Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, was commissioned by NHS ­England in 2020 to review services for children with gender dysphoria. Her final report has endorsed a ­fundamental shift in approach away from medical intervention towards a holistic model that addresses other mental health problems the children may have.

>>20705542 ‘Shaky foundations’: England’s health system to review all transgender treatment - England’s publicly funded National Health Service will review all transgender treatment, after a landmark report said the evidence for allowing children and young people to change gender was built on “shaky foundations”. On Wednesday, Dr Hilary Cass, a paediatrician, published her long-awaited review into the support and treatment offered to children who believe they are transgender, and cautions that extreme care should be taken before anyone under the age of 25 transitions. It also calls for an end to the prescribing of any powerful hormone drugs to those under 18; warns children who change gender may regret it; finds that many have experienced trauma, neglect and abuse; and says there is no “good evidence” on the long-term outcomes of the treatments that have been given to children. The review warns of pressures on families, with parents feeling forced to allow their children to transition so they are not labelled transphobic amid a “toxic” debate. Cass declares that “gender medicine for children and young people is built on shaky foundations”.

>>20705580 Anthony Albanese under pressure to probe puberty blocker harms - Anthony Albanese is being urged to replicate a landmark British review into interventionist medical treatments that enable young children to change gender, amid increasing concern that puberty blockers may cause serious harm. The National Association of Practising Psychiatrists has urged the federal government to facilitate a national independent investigation into the use of treatments including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, warning their use should be ­approached with caution. The calls come after the release of an NHS review which found the entire field of medicine aimed at enabling children to change gender was “built on shaky foundations”, with review chair Dr Hilary Cass finding there was no good evidence to support the practice of prescribing hormones to halt puberty. Pressure on the Prime Minister to act on the findings is growing in Australia with the federal opposition saying the results were “concerning” and should be taken seriously.

#35 - Part 23

Australian Politics and Society - Part 15

>>20710562 Albanese to visit the Kokoda Track for Anzac Day - Anthony Albanese will mark Anzac Day by walking part of the Kokoda Track with his Papua New Guinea counterpart, James Marape. The two leaders are expected to attend a dawn service at Isurava to commemorate the hundreds of people who died during the World War II Kokoda campaign. Originally a network of trails to connect mountain villages, the track stretches for 96 kilometres from the Kokoda Plateau in the north to Owers Corner in the south. Australian forces were stationed in the area from July 1942 to stop Japan advancing towards the PNG capital of Port Moresby. More than 600 Australians were killed during the campaign, and thousands more became ill or were seriously injured. The campaign was considered critical to the security of the Australian mainland. Now part of Australian folklore, Kokoda attracts thousands of Australian tourists every year.

>>20719788 Video: Multiple dead and more seriously injured in horror stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction - A heroic police officer ended a knifeman’s reign of terror inside a packed Westfield at Sydney’s Bondi Junction as she bravely took him on alone and shot him dead with a bullet to the chest. The horror unfolded at 3.20pm on Saturday afternoon when a man in an NRL jersey began stabbing shoppers at random, including a woman and her nine-month-old baby, with six people confirmed dead and many more injured. Multiple people were stabbed during the horror as panicked families ran for their lives. He was then shot dead by a senior female police officer who was nearby at the time and bravely decided to take him on alone, stalking him through the mall before gunning him down. Five people were confirmed dead at the scene, as well as the attacker, with a sixth victim later dying in hospital. The sixth victim is the mother of the nine-month-old baby, with witnesses describing how the 38-year-old desperately battled to save her child despite her own injuries by stumbling towards other shoppers and handing the infant to them.

>>20719871 Video: Six people killed in stabbing attack at Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction, alleged offender shot dead - Six people have been killed in a knife attack at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney's east on Saturday afternoon, NSW Police say. Five of the victims died at the scene and the sixth died from their injuries in hospital, NSW Police said. Nine people, including a small child, were stabbed by a man in the centre and some are in a critical condition. The offender was shot dead at the scene by a police officer. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said authorities believe the man acted alone and there is no ongoing threat. Assistant Commissioner Cooke said he did not have further information about the man's identity. He said there was no indication of the offender's motive but police had not ruled anything out.

>>20719889 Video: Six people killed, attacker shot dead in Bondi Junction stabbing attack - Six people have been killed and an attacker has been shot dead after multiple people were stabbed at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney's east. - 9 News Australia

>>20719892 Attacker identified as 40-year-old man: Police Commissioner Webb - Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the six victims killed in the Bondi Junction Westfield attack were five women and a man. Five died onsite, while one woman died later in hospital. The attacker has been identified as a 40-year-old man known to law enforcement, though police are waiting to formally identify him. He is believed to have acted alone. “If he is the person that we believe, then we don’t have fears of that person holding an ideation. In other words, it’s not a terrorism incident,” Webb said. She said it was too early to comment on his psychological state.

#35 - Part 24

Australian Politics and Society - Part 16

>>20719904 Video: ‘Horrific act of violence’: Anthony Albanese speaks out on Bondi Junction stabbing - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken out about the stabbing at Bondi Junction Westfield describing it as a "horrific act of violence". Mr Albanese’s comments come after police confirmed five have been killed and several have been conveyed to hospital following the stabbing at the shopping centre. “This was a horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeted at innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday doing their shopping,” Mr Albanese said during a media conference on Saturday. “Tonight, the first thoughts of all Australians are with the victims of these terrible acts and their loved ones. “Our nation offers our deepest condolences and sympathies - to all those who are grieving for someone they’ve lost and we send our strength to those who have been injured.” - Sky News Australia

>>20719914 Video: Prime Minister describes Bondi Junction stabbing as ‘horrific act of violence’ - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called the attack which has killed six people at a Sydney shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon a "horrific act of violence". - 9 News Australia

>>20724352 Video: Westfield Bondi attack: John Singleton’s daughter, new mum among victims - The daughter of millionaire businessman John Singleton is among the victims of the horror Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing attack. Friends of Dawn Singleton have started sharing tributes to the soon-to-be-married 25 year-old. Jade Young, of Bellevue Hill, has been identified as a victim of the Bondi Junction stabbing attack. Ms Young was an architect at Georgina Wilson Associates, a mother-of-two and a beloved member of the Bronte Surf Club. 38-year-old osteopath Ashlee Good has died at St Vincent’s hospital and medics are still fighting to save her baby daughter, who has undergone surgery overnight and is a stable but serious condition. Dr Good was pushing the baby, nine months, through the centre when the attacker stabbed her in her pram, The Daily Telegraph reports. As Dr Good thrust the bleeding infant into the arms of strangers, the knifeman then turned the weapon on her. Dr Good later died in hospital. Refugee and security guard Faraz Ahmad Tahir is the fourth victim named after Saturday’s tragedy at Bondi Westfield. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Australia confirmed the death of Mr Ahmad in a short statement on Sunday afternoon. Mr Ahmad, who is a 30-year-old Muslim Pakistani, was killed while working as a security guard at the shopping centre.

>>20724362 Video: Bondi Westfield attacker Joel Cauchi ’possibly’ targeting women - Less than a week before killing six people in a deadly stabbing rampage at an upmarket Sydney shopping centre, 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi was appealing for surfing buddies on Facebook. “Hi I am surfing Bondi this afternoon if anyone wants to meet there for a surf!” Cauchi posted on the Beginning Surfing & Adventuring (Sydney AU) Facebook page on the morning of April 8. Cauchi’s family is now helping NSW Police with their investigations, which are focusing on his apparent mental health issues. NSW Police are investigating whether Cauchi was deliberately targeting women on Saturday. Cauchi was shot dead by police as he ran around Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing shoppers including a nine-month-old baby in a pram. Five of the victims, including the baby, were female.

>>20724374 Video: Channel 7 presenter Matt Shirvington names innocent man Benjamin Cohen as Bondi Junction killer - One of Channel 7’s highest-profile presenters, Sunrise co-host Matt Shirvington, named an innocent man as the Bondi Junction knife-wielding murderer during an on-air wrap of the tragedy. Shirvington told Weekend Sunrise that the killer was “40-year-old Benjamin Cohen, dressed in a Kangaroos ARL jersey”, who was “shot and killed by a brave female police officer.” Shirvington’s comments aired at 6.05am AEST and just 10 minutes later during the same broadcast, presenters Monique Wright and Michael Usher spoke with reporter Lucy McLeod who was outside the shopping centre. She too wrongly named Cohen as the killer. NSW Police subsequently named 40-year-old Joel Cauchi as the killer; Benjamin Cohen had nothing to do with the murderous rampage whatsoever. Seven also contacted Cohen on Sunday afternoon to apologise and an apology was also broadcast on TV.

#35 - Part 25

Australian Politics and Society - Part 17

>>20724386 Policewoman who ended Westfield Bondi attack hailed a hero - With a bullet to a murderer’s chest, a heroic female police officer ended the Bondi massacre and saved multiple lives after racing through the busy Westfield shopping mall to confront the knifeman who had fatally stabbed six people. An emotional Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday night singled out the courage of NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott, who had been nearby when the stabbing frenzy began and rushed alone to the top floor of the centre where the rampaging killer was armed with a 30cm knife. “She entered the proceedings that were taking place, obviously very dangerous, by herself,” Mr Albanese said. “She is certainly a hero. “There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions.”

>>20726609 Sixth Bondi Junction victim identified as Chinese international student Yixuan Cheng as Westfield crime scene finalised - A Chinese national has been identified as the sixth victim in the Bondi Junction stabbing attack. Nine News has identified 27-year-old Yixuan Cheng as the remaining victim in Joel Cauchi’s stabbing rampage through the Westfield shopping centre on Saturday afternoon. Cheng is understood to be an international student and the delay in revealing her identity was likely due to police attempting to contact the young woman's family in China. NSW Police confirmed late Sunday evening 55-year-old Pikria Darchia was among the people who died at the shopping centre after the 40-year-old knifeman unleashed on 18 shoppers in a random and horrific attack. Ms Darchia is of Georgian origin and understood to have moved to Australia in 2013.

>>20726696 Accused Fijian torturer sacked from Australian Army command - Fijian Col­onel Penioni (Ben) Naliva has been removed from his post as deputy commander of the Australian Army’s 7th Brigade following allegations first revealed by The Australian earlier this year that he was involved in the torture of detainees in Fiji. A one-time right-hand man to former Fiji coup leader and prime minister Frank Bainimarama, Col­onel Naliva will now be posted to the Australian Defence College, where he will “contribute to ­Pacific-related research projects”. Colonel Naliva is alleged to have been involved in several incidents of torture, including a violent beating of two Fijian politicians, with one victim claiming the soldier tried to force an M16 rifle barrel into his anus during an interrogation. The revelation Colonel Naliva will remain with the Australian Defence Forces, albeit in a diminished role, has sparked further outrage from his alleged victims, who had wanted him expelled from the country or prosecuted.

>>20731815 Video: Two people allegedly stabbed by 15-year-old youth at western Sydney church as riot erupts outside - A 15-year-old boy was accused of stabbing an Assyrian bishop at a western Sydney church on Monday night, with some officers forced to use capsicum spray as the streets descended into mayhem and a nearby hospital was put on lockdown. Riot police were deployed to the Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley where hundreds of people flocked following the shock stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and another person, who were both treated for stab wounds after the alleged attack. The teenager - who is known to police - was apprehended by parishioners until police arrived. In a livestreamed video, the youth dressed in black can be seen approaching Bishop Mar Mari at the altar, before allegedly stabbing him in the face with an implement, and then multiple times on his body. At the time, Bishop Mar Mari was delivering a sermon to a full congregation.

>>20731832 Video: Street riots unfold after Sydney church attack - A terror attack in Sydney’s west has triggered ugly riots on the streets of Wakeley, involving hundreds of the bishop's supporters. Many turned on police and paramedics as they arrived on the scene. - 9 News Australia

>>20731841 Video: Church stabbing in Sydney's south-west declared a terrorist act - Sydney is reeling after an Orthodox bishop was attacked with a knife during a church service in what police have declared a terrorist act. The attack occurred at the Assyrian Orthodox, Christ the Good Shepherd Church, in Wakeley, with graphic video showing Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being stabbed. A 16-year-old boy has been arrested and is in police custody. - ABC News (Australia)

#35 - Part 26

Australian Politics and Society - Part 18

>>20731911 Video: ‘Act of terror’: Alleged attacker yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ after stabbing Sydney bishop - The teenager who allegedly attacked a prominent Sydney bishop in the middle of his sermon last night screamed “Allahu Akbar” after plunging a knife into his face, neck and torso at least eight times. Police allege a 16-year-old male stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley the city’s west at about 7.10pm last night. The incident, which was captured on a live YouTube stream of the Assyrian orthodox Christian service, has been declared a terrorist attack. In addition to allegedly yelling “Allahu Akbar”, counter-terrorism authorities are also aware of other comments the male is accused of making, including a reference to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Separate vision circulating on social media show the aftermath of the alleged attack, with several man holding the teenager face down on the ground. One of the men holding him down strikes him in the back of the head and says in English: “While people are praying, you’re gonna do this? You’re gonna f*cking do this?” The chilling vision shows the teen’s grinning face being revealed, prompting anger from one onlooker. “You’re a f*cking idiot. Laughing? You’re a f*cking idiot. You’re gonna cop it.”

>>20731928 Video: PM calls for Australians to ‘unite, not divide’ after Sydney church stabbing - Australians have been urged to remain vigilant and report suspicious behaviour after an alleged terrorist attack against a Sydney priest prompted a call for peace from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Islamic leaders. As the nation remains in shock over the weekend’s Bondi stabbing spree, Albanese declared there was no space for “violent extremism” in a peace-loving, multicultural nation after a Christian leader and a number of his followers were stabbed at a church in Sydney’s west on Monday night. The prime minister chaired a meeting of the national security committee of cabinet on Tuesday before holding a press conference with federal police chief Reece Kershaw and ASIO boss Mike Burgess in Canberra. Albanese confirmed the incident inside the church on Monday night was being treated as religiously motivated, a development which gives NSW police extraordinary powers to search people and vehicles and demand the disclosure of people’s identities to avoid any further violence. “There is no place for violence in our community. There’s no place for violent extremism. We’re a peace-loving nation. This is a time to unite, not divide, as a community, and as a country,” Albanese said.

>>20731951 Video: Bishop questioned Islam before livestreamed terror attack - The high-profile Assyrian Christian orthodox leader stabbed during a live stream of his service has in the past vocally proclaimed support for Palestinian civilians and criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza, but has also said he had a “question mark with Islam”, as authorities scramble to investigate the motive for Monday’s terror attack. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel has questioned the validity of other faiths, including and particularly Islam, but said that he has “love and respect for Muslims”. His views, religious leaders explained, were a conservative orthodox reading of Christianity – that only Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the way to heaven – which, alongside all different faith views, “should be tolerated and accepted in Australia”. He has, however, taken aim at the Islamic faith. “This is a very controversial topic, but the truth must be said,” the bishop said in a recent sermon, uploaded in March. “… With all my love and respect (for Muslims), I don’t have a problem with the Muslim people. But I’ve got a question mark with the faith of the Islamic world.”

>>20731990 Video: eSafety commissioner orders X and Meta to remove violent videos following Sydney church stabbing - Facebook’s parent company Meta and X/Twitter have been told to remove violent and distressing videos and imagery of the stabbing of a prominent Orthodox Christian leader in Sydney’s west on Monday evening. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told reporters on Tuesday that X and Meta had been issued with notices to remove material within 24 hours that depicted “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail”, with the companies facing potential fines if they fail to comply. “While the majority of mainstream social media platforms have engaged with us, I am not satisfied enough is being done to protect Australians from this most extreme and gratuitous violent material circulating online,” Inman Grant said. “That is why I am exercising my powers under the Online Safety Act to formally compel them to remove it.”

#35 - Part 27

Australian Politics and Society - Part 19

>>20736626 Accused Islamist terror teen ‘poisoned by monster’: social media radicalisation claim after Bishop Mar Mari, Wakeley stabbing - Community leaders and fellow young Muslims had grown increasingly concerned with the “extreme religious views” of the 16-year-old alleged to have stabbed an orthodox Assyrian bishop during a service in Sydney’s southwest, amid claims he had been radicalised online. The teenager alleged to have stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and three others during a live-streamed service at Wakeley’s Christ the Good Shepherd Church on Monday remains in police custody. The Australian understands concerns had grown among community members that the teenager had “spent too much time online”, particularly on radical content across social media un­aligned to mainstream Islamic views.

>>20736633 ‘He’s just a child’: Family of teen accused of Wakeley church stabbing break silence - The family of the 16-year-old alleged to have stabbed an Assyrian bishop in Sydney say they are distraught after Monday’s attack, and can’t believe their once “gentle” but troubled son could be a terrorist. The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is alleged to have stabbed high-profile orthodox Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on Monday while he live-streamed a service. The teenager’s parents have told The Australian, through a spokesman, that he suffers from anger outbursts, and have been left confused at NSW Police for designating the incident a terror-attack - the first since 2017 - so quickly after the event.

>>20736637 Video: Student Benjamin Cohen has taken legal action after being wrongly named as Bondi attacker - A university student wrongly named as the Bondi Junction knife-wielding murderer has taken legal action against Channel 7 after the network aired multiple live broadcasts labelling him as the culprit. Benjamin Cohen, a first-year student at the University of Technology, Sydney, has engaged law firm Giles George and is seeking an apology, compensation and costs for serious harm after he was falsely named as the Bondi killer. A concerns notice has been sent by Mr Cohen’s lawyers to Seven West Media chief executive officer and managing director James Warburton outlining that the network incorrectly identified Mr Cohen as the wrong man who killed six people, and not the actual killer, 40-year-old Queenslander Joel Cauchi. Among those to wrongly name Mr Cohen included one of the network’s highest profile stars - Sunrise co-host Matt Shirvington - who told Weekend Sunrise viewers on Sunday the killer was “40-year-old Benjamin Cohen, dressed in a Kangaroos ARL jersey”, who was “shot and killed by a brave female officer.” Shirvington’s comments were aired on the program at 6.05am AEST and then just 10 minutes later hosts Monique Wright and Michael Usher spoke with reporter Lucy McLeod in a live cross and she too wrongly named Cohen as the murderer.

>>20741519 Stabbed Sydney Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel releases update, publicly forgives attacker and calls for calm - The bishop who was stabbed at a Sydney church on Monday night says he forgives his attacker and is "doing fine" after undergoing surgery. The Assyrian Orthodox Christ The Good Shepherd Church posted an update on social media this morning that included an audio recording from the bishop. A 16-year-old boy has been arrested over the attack and authorities are investigating it as a "terrorist incident". No charges have been laid. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel said he forgives "whoever has done this act". "I will always pray for you. And whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well is Jesus's mighty name," he said.

>>20741536 Teenage terror accused dropped out of school, was increasingly ‘disobedient’ - The 16-year-old boy accused of carrying out a terrorist attack at a western Sydney church had not attended school for months and displayed increasing disobedience at home before the shock stabbing of a bishop on Monday night. The 16-year-old, who cannot legally be identified, allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Wakeley during a livestreamed Bible session shortly after 7pm on Monday. Bishop Emmanuel and another clergyman received non-life-threatening injuries. The boy lost a finger during the attack, according to Premier Chris Minns. The teenager had not attended his high school for more than six months, a source not authorised to speak publicly said. In 2020, he had been suspended for bringing a knife onto school grounds. The boy’s father had also seen signs of increasing “disobedience”, according to an Islamic community leader who accommodated the father at Lakemba Mosque on Tuesday night.

#35 - Part 28

Australian Politics and Society - Part 20

>>20736687 Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Facebook Post: Paying Respects - #Marines with MRF-D 24.3 visit the Australian War Memorial in Campbell, ACT, Australia. The Australian War Memorial is a national war memorial and museum dedicated to all Australians who died during war.

>>20741589 ‘Stop list’: Russia sanctions ex-Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, 234 Australian state MPs - Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is among more than 200 names on the latest list of Australians who have been banned from entering Russia. Andrews is one of the most high-profile of the 235 current and former Victorian and South Australian MPs across the political divide who have made Moscow’s list over Australia’s “anti-Russian agenda”. Russia’s foreign ministry said the Australians were handed indefinite bans “in response to politically motivated sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities by the Australian government”. “Taking into account the fact that official Canberra does not intend to abandon its anti-Russian course and continues to introduce new sanctions measures, work on updating the Russian ‘stop list’ will continue,” the ministry said on its website.

>>20741607 Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Tweet: Down Under Diplomacy - #MarineCorps Sgt. Maj. Garret Kirkby and Col. Brian T. Mulvihill visit Caroline Kennedy, the 27th U.S. Ambassador to Australia at the U.S. Embassy Canberra.

>>20746949 Video: Accused Wakeley church teen charged with terrorism offence - A 16-year-old boy has been charged with a terrorism offence after he allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at a Sydney Assyrian church. The teenager has been refused bail and is expected to appear before a hospital bedside court hearing on Friday. Fairfield Police attended the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley about 7.10pm on Monday and found Bishop Emmanuel with significant injuries to his head. Senior Parish Priest Isaac Royel, who attempted to intervene, also sustained lacerations and a shoulder wound. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the teenager allegedly made comments “centred around religion”, while Premier Chris Minns said the terror designation was not “performative”, and the boy’s history and rhetoric aided the decision. Investigators from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team Sydney interviewed the boy before he was charged. Committing a terrorist act carries a maximum penalty of imprisonment for life.

>>20751248 Take down order ‘unlawful and dangerous’: X rejects Australian law - The social media giant X has rebuffed demands from the nation’s eSafety commissioner to pull down “distressing” content from Sydney’s stabbing attacks, saying they do not breach its own rules on violent content while rejecting the reach of Australian law on its activities. In a post endorsed by X owner Elon Musk and retweeted widely by Australian and American-based X users, the company’s global governance affairs department said it would robustly challenge the commissioner’s take-down orders, describing them as “unlawful and dangerous”.

>>20751269 Video: Government declares Australia 'is not going to be bullied by Elon Musk' after X refuses to remove harmful Wakeley material - Social media giant X (formerly known as Twitter) has claimed it could face daily fines of $785,000 if it does not take down content that references the stabbing of Sydney bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel. "The Australian eSafety commissioner ordered X to remove certain posts in Australia that publicly commented on the recent attack against a Christian Bishop. These posts did not violate X's rules on violent speech," the statement said. "While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the eSafety commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X's users can see globally. We will robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court." New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said he was shocked but not surprised by X's response. "This is exactly as I would expect from X … a disregard for information they pump into our communities. Lies and rumours spreading like wildfire and then when things go wrong, throwing their hands up in the air to say they are not prepared to do anything about it."

#35 - Part 29

Australian Politics and Society - Part 21

>>20751856 Australia will work with Trump if that’s the card we’re dealt: Treasurer - Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers insists Australia’s relationship with the US will remain strong if Donald Trump is re-elected, saying Canberra will “play the cards that we’re dealt” after the US presidential election in November. He is yet to meet any members of Trump’s team, but asked how he might be preparing for a potential change of administration, Chalmers replied: “We play the cards that we’re dealt in Australia. The Americans choose their own presidents and leaders, and that’s obviously appropriate. “But we are confident that in either scenario, we’ll continue to be well-represented and we’ll continue to have our interest recognised here in the US because we’re such close friends.” Concerns about the future of Australia’s relationship with its most important security partner emerged last month after Trump hit out at former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, now the nation’s ambassador to the US, describing him as “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb”.

>>20755608 Meet the first astronaut to represent Australia: Katherine Bennell-Pegg - A small number of Australians have trained as astronauts and gone to space, representing the US and other nations. But on Monday, Katherine Bennell-Pegg will become the first ever Australian-badged astronaut. She has already received the congratulations of Dr Andy Thomas, the first Australian-born NASA Mission Specialist, who told her she was “ready to make the next giant leap” and “boldly go where no Australian woman has gone before”. Once a certified astronaut, she is eligible for missions to the International Space Station or further to Artemis.

>>20755622 ‘Lost for words’: Joe Biden’s tale about cannibals bemuses Papua New Guinea residents - Joe Biden’s suggestion that his uncle may have been eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea during world war two has been met with a mixture of bemusement and criticism in the country. Biden spoke about his uncle, 2nd Lt Ambrose J Finnegan Jr, while campaigning in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, describing how “Uncle Bosie” had flown single engine planes as reconnaissance flights during the war. Biden said he “got shot down in New Guinea”, adding “they never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea.” Official war records say Finnegan was killed when a plane on which he was a passenger experienced engine failure and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The records do not mention cannibalism or state that the plane was shot down.

>>20759583 Nation unites in gratitude for hero of Bondi Junction Amy Scott at candlelight vigil - A heroic police officer has been embraced by a grateful nation as the Prime Minister joined a beachside vigil to remember those lost in the Bondi Junction killings. Inspector Amy Scott, who shot Joel Cauchi dead after he killed six people, was on Sunday again the person everyone turned to - a beacon of light and bravery on a night filled with sorrow and pain. The police officer was ­approached by tear-stricken mourners and colleagues relieved she could join them as the sun went down over Bondi Beach. Inspector Scott was composed and gracious as she was greeted by wellwishers and the grieving.

>>20759602 Video: Don’t blame me for Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel terror attack, says radical Sydney preacher Abu Ousayd - One of the nation’s most radical Islamic preachers has said “don’t blame me” for the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop in an alleged terrorist incident but claims the bishop hates Islam and speaks against the prophet Mohammad. Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, used an online sermon on Friday to claim he and his Al Madina Dawah Centre have been blamed by mainstream Islamic leaders and the community for last Monday’s terror incident. “You want to push hate on to us for no reason, with allegations that have no proof,” Mr Ousayd said. “Because you have a personal agenda against us.”

>>20759620 Video: Government accuses ‘narcissist’ billionaire Musk of acting above the law - The Australian government has savaged Elon Musk as an egotist and narcissist, as the online safety watchdog prepares to fight social media giant X over its refusal to remove videos of the western Sydney church stabbing. The billionaire’s comparison of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to a communist regime censor has fuelled bipartisan attacks on Musk by senior politicians accusing him of acting above the law. Inman Grant has signalled she will fight Musk in court over the X owner’s refusal to comply with the regulator’s take-down order, which the company described as “unlawful and dangerous”.

#35 - Part 30

Australian Politics and Society - Part 22

>>20759636 Meta new AI tool names Turnbull, Albanese among our ‘best’ PMs, sparking political bias fears - Meta’s new artificial intelligence tool has ranked Malcolm Turnbull and Anthony Albanese as among Australia’s five best prime ministers, while labelling Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison as controversial and named Peter Dutton among the least humane politicians - sparking fresh concerns of political bias from big tech. Meta unleashed its latest large language model, Llama 3, on Friday as the AI race intensifies between Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies. It labelled Kevin Rudd as one of Australia’s most humane politicians for his apology to the stolen generations in 2008, while it said Mr Dutton was the least humane for his role in implementing the “Stop the Boats” policy and his comments on “African gangs”. It comes as big tech has attracted criticism for promoting political biases via its powerful AI models.

>>20759654 Video: ANZAC Day 2024: Australia’s Federation Guard prepare to stand on hallowed ground - Australia’s Federation Guard prepare to stand on hallowed ground, representing ADF at Gallipoli for the 2024 ANZAC Day service. There is no bigger stage than Gallipoli, it is where the ANZAC spirit was forged and continues to live on today. “It’s a huge honour, it feels special to come after them, to keep their legacy going and what they fought for alive,” AC Jordan McGrath, Australia’s Federation Guard. - Defence Australia

>>20764915 Video: Watchdog wins urgent court bid to make X take down stabbing videos - Australia’s online watchdog won an injunction to force Elon Musk’s social platform X to hide videos of last week’s Sydney church stabbing as a high-powered ministerial taskforce leads a bid to tackle online algorithms pushing anti-women influencers. Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have joined the many politicians savaging digital platforms in recent days as momentum grows for new laws to assert Australia’s sovereignty after Musk rebuffed Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s take-down orders, calling them “unlawful and dangerous”. Late on Monday, Inman Grant launched a Federal Court bid to force X to comply with the order. The court found in favour of the Australian regulator on an interim basis and decided the videos should be removed by putting them behind a notice within 24 hours. The order also applied to Meta, which Inman Grant said last week was co-operating with her demand to take videos down.

>>20764968 Video: Anthony Albanese and Elon Musk feud over X's bid to show graphic stabbing footage, as conservative senator shares footage - Federal senator Ralph Babet has shared the unedited violent footage of the Wakeley church stabbing attack as a feud continues over X's bid to be able to host it on its site. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday morning hit back at "arrogant" billionaire Elon Musk after he made comments goading Mr Albanese on his social media platform X. Overnight Mr Musk twice posted comments mocking Australia's prime minister, suggesting X's refusal to remove the violent videos left it alone among social media platforms as a defender of free speech. "I’d like to take a moment to thank the PM for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful one," Mr Musk wrote. Mr Albanese retorted that Mr Musk's comments only exposed his arrogance. "This guy is saying more about himself than anything else, he's putting his ego and putting his billionaire's dollars towards taking a court case for the right to put more violent content on what will sow social division and cause distress," Mr Albanese told Channel Nine. "It just shows his arrogance really, if he doesn't see that this is essentially a common sense position by the eSafety commissioner."

>>20765147 Albanese to trek Kokoda in campaign for PNG’s hearts and minds - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has brushed off Beijing’s attempts to expand its influence in Papua New Guinea, insisting no country can match the depth of Australia’s relationship with its closest neighbour as he prepares to undertake a gruelling hike of the Kokoda Track alongside counterpart James Marape. Albanese’s arrival in Port Moresby on Monday came a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the Papua New Guinean capital, a rapid turnaround underscoring the increasingly intense conflict for geopolitical influence in the Pacific. As well as signing lucrative deals for Papua New Guinea to export cocoa and coffee into the Chinese market, Beijing’s top diplomat used his visit to criticise the AUKUS pact and favourably compare China’s approach to international development with Australia’s. Albanese will become the first sitting prime minister to walk part of the Kokoda Track this week, embarking on a 15-kilometre walk in 30-plus degree temperatures and stifling humidity alongside Marape.

#35 - Part 31

Australian Politics and Society - Part 23

>>20765177 Selfies, snacks and ceremonies: Albanese sets up camp for night on Kokoda Track - Greeted by the sound of tribal chants and pounding drums, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in Kokoda Village on Tuesday morning for an extravagant traditional welcome ceremony before beginning to walk the Kokoda Track. Thousands of locals, some of whom walked up to an hour for the event from remote villages, lined up along the hillside to welcome Albanese as he descended in a PNG defence helicopter after travelling from the capital, Port Moresby. The crowd included scores of schoolchildren wearing the national colours of Australia and PNG. Many waved national flags as they greeted Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape. A public holiday was declared in the area for the visit from the prime ministers. Longtime residents said it was the most lavish welcome an Australian leader had received in the country since Paul Keating visited in 1992, when he kissed the ground at the site of one of the most important military campaigns in Australian history.

>>20769708 Video: Musk decision to leave knife attack video on X prompts police terror warning, says Australian senator - An Australian senator said on Wednesday that police feared Elon Musk's decision to ignore a regulator order and leave footage on his social media platform X of a Sydney bishop being stabbed might encourage people to join terrorist groups. An Australian court has upheld a regulator order for the billionaire to take down posts containing footage of the April 15 stabbing of the Assyrian bishop during a service. Senator Jacqui Lambie said that by keeping the violent posts online globally the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had told the federal court Musk's platform X created a risk that "the video could be used to encourage people in Australia to join a terrorist organisation or undertake a terrorist act". Musk "should put his big boy pants on and do the right thing, but he won't because he has no social conscience", Lambie said in her social media posts. The AFP declined to comment.

>>20769780 Video: 'Enemy of the people': Elon Musk unleashes on Jacqui Lambie after the Senator claimed the X owner 'should be 'in jail' - Elon Musk has clapped back at Senator Jacqui Lambie after she launched an attack on the billionaire amid calls for his social media platform X to remove violent content of last week’s alleged terror attack. Speaking to Sky News Australia’s Kieran Gilbert on Tuesday, Senator Lambie said Musk was “creating hatred” by ignoring requests to remove harmful content, and announced she would be boycotting X. "I think he's a social media knob with no social conscience, he has absolutely no social conscience," she said. "Someone like that should be in jail and the key be thrown away. That bloke should not have a right to be out there on his own ideology platform and creating hatred, showing all this stuff out there to our kids and doing all the rest. "I'll say this to everybody else, I'll be switching off X today, I'll be doing that before I get to the airport this afternoon, and I suggest that the other 226, there's 227 members of Parliament, do the same thing. Show him that you mean business.” Musk responded to Ms Lambie’s suggestions he should be in jail from a clip of her appearance on Sky News Australia. “This woman has utter contempt for the Australian people,” he wrote.

>>20769820 Video: ASIO boss says privacy ‘not absolute’ as he urges social media companies to do more on extremism - Social media companies must do more to stamp out extremism and assist law enforcement to track criminals, the heads of Australia’s federal police and security agencies have urged. In comments likely to provoke criticism from some civil and digital rights campaigners, the ASIO director general, Mike Burgess, will use a major speech on Wednesday to argue “privacy is important but not absolute”, while the AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, believes “there is no absolute right to privacy”. Burgess will also sound an alarm about artificial intelligence, warning the new technology “is likely to make radicalisation easier and faster”. In the latest salvo in an expanding dispute between the Australian government and tech companies such as Facebook and X, Burgess and Kershaw will use a joint address to the National Press Club to call for social media companies to give more assistance to law enforcement in certain circumstances, including in cases of potential crimes being discussed on encrypted messaging platforms.

#35 - Part 32

Australian Politics and Society - Part 24

>>20769864 Video: Security chiefs to target technology giants - Australia’s top spy and police chief will put tech companies on notice over terrorists, spies and criminals using end-to-end encryption and artificial intelligence to stoke ­extremism, disinformation and foreign interference, harm children, build weapons and plan attacks. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw will warn on Wednesday that technology is “not above the rule of law” and accuse social media giants of refusing to “snuff out” extremist poison. In a rare joint address to the National Press Club following last week’s church terrorist attack and Bondi Junction murders in Sydney, Mr Burgess and Mr Kershaw will focus on criminals and extremists weaponising the expansion of end-to-end encryption by tech giants.

>>20769937 ASIO boss Mike Burgess says 50 per cent chance terror attack could be planned or conducted in next 12 months - There is a 50 per cent chance someone will plan or conduct an act of terrorism in Australia in the next year, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess has revealed. Mr Burgess explained Australia’s national terrorism threat level during his address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday alongside AFP Commissioner Reece P Kershaw APM. The intelligence chief said the current threat level remained at “possible”. “Which means there is a 50% chance that in the next 12 months or even right now there is someone planning an act of terrorism or will conduct an act of terrorism,” he said. “The most likely attack will come from an individual or a small group of individuals that go to violence with little or no warning.”

>>20769978 ‘Unacceptable risk to the people’: Teens arrested in counter-terror raids - Seven teenage boys allegedly belonging to a terror cell have been arrested in police raids across Sydney as part of a major counter-terrorism investigation launched after the stabbing of a Christian bishop last week. A further five people, including two men and three other teenage boys, are being questioned by a joint counter-terrorism squad. Police made the arrests as part of an investigation that was launched after the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at Christ The Good Shepherd Church, Wakeley, last Monday. A 16-year-old boy was charged with terrorism offences. In the days after the stabbing, officers from ASIO, Australian Federal Police, NSW Police and the NSW Crime Commission started looking into the teenager’s associates. Official sources briefed on the investigation said the alleged assailant in the church stabbing was part of a loose network of teenagers who communicated on encrypted apps. The federal sources, who were authorised to publicly disclose details of the briefing, said counter-terrorism police believed some members of the group were engaging with radical Islamic material.

>>20770002 X lawyers say Sydney bishop is of ‘strong view’ stabbing video should be live - Lawyers representing X Corp will argue the bishop attacked in an alleged terrorist stabbing is “strongly of the view” footage of the incident should be visible, as the online safety watchdog wins an extension of a court order for the platform to hide the violent material. The Federal Court granted eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant a request to extend an injunction requiring X to hide video of the alleged stabbing on Wednesday, despite the social media platform owned by Elon Musk so far refusing to comply with the legal order. X Corp’s barrister Marcus Hoyne told the court the injunction “might be futile” due to the material being shared and re-posted, suggesting that the order may have increased public awareness of the material despite efforts to block it in a phenomenon known as the Streisand effect. He also revealed that the alleged victim of the western Sydney stabbing Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel would file an affidavit stating that he was “strongly of the view the material should be available”.

#35 - Part 33

Australian Politics and Society - Part 25

>>20770211 Video: The Last Post - Anzac Day 2024 - "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them." Lest We Forget.

>>20770161 Video: National Dawn Service | Anzac Day 2024 - Join us as we go LIVE for the Anzac Day 2024 National Commemorative Service in Canberra from 5.30am AEST on April 25. - ABC Australia

>>20770166 Video: Anzac Day 2024 Melbourne Dawn Service - Watch the live stream of the Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance. In solemn tradition, Victorians gather to commemorate those who served and died in defence of our country. The service is held at dawn to coincide with the time of the Gallipoli landing in 1915 - the first major military action by Australian and New Zealand forces (ANZACs) during the First World War. The event includes recitations, hymns, wreath-laying and an address by the Governor of Victoria. - ShrineMelbourne

>>20770170 Video: Gallipoli Dawn Service | Anzac Day 2024 - Join us as we go LIVE for the Anzac Day 2024 Gallipoli Dawn Service from 12:30pm AEST April 25. - ABC Australia

>>20770177 Video: Villers-Bretonneux Service | Anzac Day 2024 - Join us as we go LIVE for the Anzac Day 2024 Villers-Bretonneux Service from 1:30pm AEST on April 25. - ABC Australia

>>20770180 Video: Melbourne March | Anzac Day 2024 - Join us as we go LIVE for the Anzac Day 2024 Melbourne March from 9:00am AEST on April 25. - ABC Australia

>>20770188 Video: Anzac Day 2024 March & Commemoration Service - Watch the live stream of the Anzac Day March and Commemoration Service. Honour and recognise those who have served and who currently serve in defence of Australia and its interests. The march commences in Swanston Street (near Federation Square) along St Kilda Road to the Shrine of Remembrance. The march is normally complete by midday, and is followed by a commemoration service at the Shrine of Remembrance. - ShrineMelbourne

>>20774481 Video: Thousands gather before dawn to commemorate Anzac Day - Thousands of Australians have gathered before first light to commemorate the solemn occasion of Anzac Day. From capital city cenotaphs to local memorials, thousands have braved the cold to honour the memory of all Australians who have served their country at home and abroad. The dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra began at 5.30am after earlier services across the nation got underway. Wreaths were laid by Governor-General David Hurley before the Anzac Day dawn service address was delivered by the Vice-Chief of the Defence Force, Vice-Admiral David Johnston. The traditional sounding of the Last Post was sounded before a minute's silence and the Reveille.

>>20774499 Video: Anzac Day 2024: Marches underway in Sydney and Melbourne - Australians across the country move from dawn services to marches in our major cities to honour the fallen this Anzac Day. - 9 News Australia

>>20774576 Video: PM pays tribute on the Kokoda Track, ‘this great artery of mud and suffering and perseverance’ - Illuminated by the glow of distant stars and campers’ headlights, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood at the site of a crucial World War II battle in remote Papua New Guinea to commemorate Anzac Day. After spending two days walking the Kokoda Track in often arduous terrain alongside his PNG counterpart James Marape, Albanese told the crowd of approximately 400 people at the Isurava memorial that they were standing on “ground made hallow by Australian sacrifice”. “We are gathered in a place that has known the most pitiless ferocity of battle, fought with bullet, bayonet, mortar, and the desperation of bare hands,” Albanese said. “It is also a place that has seen the unadorned strength of the Australian spirit.”

#35 - Part 34

Australian Politics and Society - Part 26

>>20774750 Video: Anthony Albanese attends Anzac Day dawn service at Isurava, saying 'we will never forget' people of PNG - The prime minister has told the crowd at an Anzac Day dawn service in Papua New Guinea that Australia "will never forget" the help the country's people provided to Australian soldiers during World War II. Anthony Albanese marked Anzac Day with the completion of a two-day, 16-kilometre journey along the Kokoda Track with PNG's Prime Minister James Marape, a visit the leaders have used to highlight their shared legacy of war in the context of a growing security relationship. "We feel the weight of history as we gather here along the Kokoda Track, this great artery of mud and suffering and perseverance that has come to occupy a place of singular power in Australia's shared memory." Mr Albanese used the speech to highlight how the events of the war forged a powerful bond between Australians and the people of PNG. "We thank every one of them who helped Australians in the face of retribution and sometimes unfathomable cruelty," he said. "The troops, the coast watchers and the shipping pilots. The villagers who risked their own lives to feed and guide and shelter Australians in desperate need. The stretcher bearers whose courage was matched only by their kindness. To the people of PNG, I offer Australia's promise: We will never forget."

>>20775620 Australians gather at Anzac Day services across the country to honour service men and women - Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders have gathered for Anzac Day dawn services and parades across both countries to honour those who served. This year marks 109 years since Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed on the Turkish coastline at Gallipoli during World War I. Their eight-month battle was ultimately unsuccessful, but their courage and bravery amid hardship have become an enduring symbol of military sacrifice. The day now honours the more than 1.5 million men and women who have served Australia in all conflicts, wars and peacekeeping operations, and the 103,000 Australians who lost their lives while serving. Dawn services were held in cities and towns across every state and territory in Australia, in Papua New Guinea and Samoa, and a later service at Gallipoli at dawn local time.

>>20775653 Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Facebook Post: - Lest We Forget - “U.S. Marines and Sailors are honored to be included in #AnzacDay activities with our Australian Defence Force brothers and sisters. The display of national support to those that serve and sacrifice on behalf of this great nation is awe-inspiring. We are humbled to share in the love and support from the people of Darwin and the surrounding communities.” - U.S. Marine Corps Col. Brian T. Mulvihill, the commanding officer of MRF-D 24.3. Anzac Day marks the landings in Gallipoli of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers in 1915, and commemorates all Australian personnel who served and died in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. MRF-D 24.3 #Marines and #Sailors showed their support to Defence Australia personnel commemorating Anzac Day through dawn services and other commemorative services.

>>20780481 Video: Stabbed bishop takes swipe at those using attack ‘to serve political purposes’ - The Sydney bishop who was stabbed in an alleged terror attack has taken a swipe at those who he says are using his assault to serve their political purposes. In a lavishly produced 11-minute YouTube video -- his first public statement since he was stabbed multiple times on April 15 while delivering a livestreamed sermon – Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel commented on eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s takedown order of the graphic footage. “I do acknowledge the Australian government’s desire to have the videos removed because of their graphic nature; I do not condone any acts of terrorism or violence,” Emmanuel said in a voice-over accompanying footage of him walking the processional route of Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. “However, noting our God-given right of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, I’m not opposed to the videos remaining on social media. I would be of great concern if people use the attack on me to serve their own political interests to control free speech.”

#35 - Part 35

Australian Politics and Society - Part 27

>>20780521 Musk's X says posts of Australia bishop stabbing don't promote violence - Elon Musk's social media platform X defended publishing posts showing a bishop in Australia being stabbed during a sermon as "part of public discussion", rejecting a regulator's order to take down the content on grounds it is offensive and violent. In a post overnight, X's "global government affairs" account said the video taken by an "innocent bystander" should not have been banned under Australian law, which "permits content that can be reasonably considered as part of public discussion or debate". "The content within the posts does not encourage or provoke violence," the X account said.

>>20780540 Dutton backs Musk on global policing of internet - The opposition says it supports Elon Musk's argument that Australia can't police the internet globally, as the week ended the way it began with a war of words and legal wrangling over graphic videos circulating on X. Musk's company, formerly known as Twitter, is locked in a legal battle with the eSafety commissioner to be able to keep graphic videos on its site showing the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said while he'd love to say no child would be able to watch the video, "we can't pretend that Australia can dictate to other countries around the world what people see within their countries. We need to be realistic about what the options are here, we can't police the whole internet across the world, but we can influence what happens in Australian society."

>>20780765 Teen terror suspects had Islamic State beheading and bomb-making videos, court told - Two teenagers arrested in connection with the Wakeley church stabbing had graphic videos of Islamic State beheadings, with one also possessing bomb-making instructions, police allege. A 14-year-old, who stopped attending school in 2022, is among the five young people charged with a range of terrorism and extremism offences after a 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel multiple times during a live-streamed service at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley on April 15. Children’s Magistrate Paul Mulroney granted the 14-year-old boy bail with strict conditions, but a last-minute appeal application by the prosecution prevented his release from custody. However, Mulroney refused a 17-year-old boy bail at Parramatta Local Court for allegedly possessing videos of Islamic State taking, beheading and killing hostages - as well as videos linked to Hamas and bomb-making material.

>>20780813 Channel 7 has reached a confidential settlement with Benjamin Cohen, wrongly named as the Bondi killer - Channel 7 has reached a confidential settlement with a 20-year-old university student after the network wrongly identified him as the Bondi Junction mass murderer. Benjamin Cohen, a first-year student at the University of Technology, Sydney, engaged law firm Giles George after he was wrongly named multiple times as the Westfield Bondi killer on Seven’s Weekend Sunrise program. On Friday the law firm confirmed the matter was resolved and in a statement, principal Patrick George who was representing Mr Cohen said: “The terms of the settlement are otherwise confidential.” Under the NSW Defamation Act it can attract damages up to $459,000.

>>20780846 Video: Morrison on meds: toll of top office laid bare - Scott Morrison has revealed that he faced mental health challenges during his prime ministership, suffering from anxiety that became so acute he received medication for it. Mr Morrison says that without the medication he would have fallen into a serious depression and that his anxiety during much of his time in The Lodge was “debilitating and agonising”. With each new challenge, from the Covid pandemic to the showdowns with China, and with each new controversy and subsequent wave of media attacks, Mr Morrison said the waves of anxiety he felt became more acute. Eventually he sought help from his doctor in Canberra who prescribed him medication to help him deal with it. “My doctor was amazed I had lasted as long as I had before seeking help,” Morrison writes as he reveals for the first time his mental health challenges in his new book Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness.

#35 - Part 36

Australian Politics and Society - Part 28

>>20780890 Australian journalist named as co-conspirator in Trump hush money trial - The Australian journalist embroiled in a hush money plot to help Donald Trump become president has been named as a co-conspirator in the trial, with text messages read in court showing him discussing potentially being pardoned for electoral fraud if he was ever charged. Dylan Howard, the then editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer, also told the tabloid’s boss David Pecker that he believed a story about Trump having sex with porn star Stormy Daniels was true and suggested paying $US120,000 ($183,900) to bury it, according to emails shown in court. The bombshell revelations were made during Trump’s historic trial on Thursday (Friday AEST), in which the former president has been accused of falsifying business records to ensure his 2016 campaign to win the White House wasn’t derailed.

>>20781023 Video: Tucker Carlson to tour Australia with Clive Palmer - Tucker Carlson is heading to Australia for the first time. The former Fox News host is teaming up with former federal MP and mining billionaire Clive Palmer to hit the public speaking circuit. The pair will front The Australian Freedom Conference, an event that will take place all around Australia from late June and host sessions in major cities as well as Cairns, Perth and Adelaide. Advertising for the conference with Mr Carlson as the headline act began airing on Friday on Sky News Australia and on social media. Mr Carlson appears, without his trademark tie, in the one-minute advertisements spruiking the event that is sponsored by Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy. “Why am I dressed this way? Because I’m so excited to come to Australia. I’m American, obviously. But I’ve been thinking about Australia my entire life as most Americans my age have. Australia always seemed like a place that was very much like where we lived, but maybe a little more exotic and interesting, but again, I’ve never seen it,” a polo T-shirt clad Mr Carlson said. “We’re going be talking about what is happening in your country and ours, countries with common histories, common values, and common threats. “Free speech is bigger than any one person or any one organisation. Societies are defined by what they will not permit. What we’re watching is the total inversion of virtue,” Mr Carlson added in a heavily edited clip.

>>20789168 Richard Marles unveils $100m new aid for Ukraine - Australia will hand new drones and air defence systems to Ukraine in a new $100m military aid package to help the country’s flagging forces rally against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Defence Minister Richard Marles announced the new support in the western Ukraine city of Lviv on Saturday, a week after the US Congress unlocked $94bn in fresh funding for the country. The package, including $50m in anti-air missile launchers and missiles and $30m in unmanned aerial vehicles, bolster’s Australia’s support for Ukraine to $1bn. The fresh support includes a further $15m worth of much-needed equipment, including rigid hull boats, combat helmets and generators. It follows Kyiv’s disappointment at the Albanese government’s decision to junk Australia’s fleet of 40-plus MRH-90 Taipan helicopters rather than donate them to its war effort.

>>20789170 Boat from Vietnam intercepted as arrivals continue to rise - Authorities have confirmed they intercepted a boat carrying three Vietnamese nationals, in what is believed to be the first boat to make the journey from Vietnam towards Australia in almost a decade. Australian Border Force on Friday said that it had “resolved” what it described as a people-smuggling venture and confirmed that the vessel was intercepted in March. “All three persons were safely returned to Vietnam in close co-operation with the Vietnamese government,” Border Force said in a brief statement. It is the latest in a growing list of boats to be intercepted in the past two years and is the fifth vessel to arrive since September. The three on board the Vietnam vessel will not be sent to Nauru, with Australia and Vietnam having a longstanding agreement to return those who make the journey back to Vietnam.

#35 - Part 37

Australian Politics and Society - Part 29

>>20789205 Video: Prime minister Anthony Albanese to return to crime-ridden Alice Springs - Anthony Albanese will return to Alice Springs for the first time in over a year following a spate of high-profile public violence, rioting and youth crime resulting in a 20-day-long youth curfew. Fifteen months after the Prime Minister’s controversial four-hour trip in January last year, Mr Albanese is returning to Alice Springs on Monday following calls by members of the Coalition who claim he has been neglecting the troubled town. Sources not authorised to speak have told The Australian Mr Albanese will spend a day and a night in the town. At the end of March a youth curfew was implemented after more than 100 people rioted in the town and cornered one of its most popular pubs, which police said at the time they did not have the resources to control.

>>20793336 Video: ‘Not a tin ear, a wall of concrete’: Anthony Albanese lashed over rally speech - Anthony Albanese has been accused of misogyny and showing “a lack of compassion” by the organisers of the rally against men’s violence, who said the Prime Minister had “abused his power” when he took the stage on Sunday to speak. Founder of advocacy group What Were You Wearing, Sarah Williams, told the crowd at Sunday’s rally that Mr Albanese had refused to speak as part of the event and said he was telling a “flat out lie” when he took the stage to rebuff the accusation and declare he had offered to make an address at the rally. Mr Albanese said on Monday he wished Ms Williams - who broke down in tears on Sunday as he spoke - all the best and that she had done “very well in organising the rallies”.

>>20793370 Video: ‘Do you want me to speak or not? I am the prime minister’: Albanese caught on film - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was caught on camera at Sunday’s Canberra domestic violence rally asking the organiser whether she wanted him to speak or not, saying “I am the prime minister” before stepping up to take the microphone. The ABC footage shows the scene moments before the prime minister told the crowd he’d been initially asked not to speak, prompting rally organiser Sarah Williams to start weeping as she cried out that this was “a flat-out lie”. The rancorous debate over the prime minister’s words at the rally spilled over into Monday, as Williams doubled down on her criticisms of the prime minister, appearing on several national television programs and using her Instagram account to claim she overheard Albanese say: “I’m the prime minister. I run this country.”

>>20793404 Years of political attacks on Scott Morrison catch up with Anthony Albanese - "Anthony Albanese, whose party spent years attacking Scott Morrison over misogyny, has been hit by a political karma bus and reality check. While some in government feel the Prime Minister is being unfairly maligned following his appearance at a gendered violence rally in Canberra on Sunday, Albanese owns his government’s pledge to “end violence against women and children in one generation”. Ahead of the 2022 election, Albanese and his senior ministers led the pile-on targeting Morrison’s handling of women’s policies and scandals that the former prime minister struggled to fully comprehend and address. Labor’s political attacks framing Morrison as misogynistic were a constant theme in the lead-up to the election. For all of Morrison’s poor judgment, Albanese sought to put himself and his party on a pedestal when it came to dealing with the complex nature of a domestic and family violence scourge that does not disriminate along social or cultural lines. Labor poured petrol on every political opportunity to malign Morrison and accuse the Coalition of being anti-women. Just over one-year out from the 2025 election and facing a public blowtorch over gender violence, Albanese is under pressure to deliver on his rhetoric to keep women and children safe." - Geoff Chambers, The Australian’s Chief Political Correspondent - theaustralian.com.au

#35 - Part 38

Australian Politics and Society - Part 30

>>20793447 Alleged teen terror group ‘wanted to target Jews’ - Members of an alleged youth terror cell in western Sydney reportedly wanted to target Jews, were ready to “die” for their cause, and called themselves “soldiers of Allah” in a series of text messages. Sydney’s Jewish leaders were on alert on Sunday night after ­revelations the alleged teenage ­ terrorists arrested in a mass raid had been planning to target their community. A police fact sheet tendered to court at the weekend says the teens started their plot after the stabbing of an Ayssrian bishop by one of their alleged associates, and that they planned to buy guns and store them in abandoned homes. One alleged jihadi also wrote that he wanted to target Jews. “I really want to target the yahood (Jewish people) … we will plan it,” one 15-year-old allegedly sent to a group chat titled “Plans” on April 19, four days after the Wakeley stabbing incident.

>>20793510 Anthony Albanese’s war on Elon Musk is just a national security blanket - "Anthony Albanese’s war on Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, is low politics but might just divert Australians’ attention away from his government’s national security failures. It took chutzpah for Albanese to raise “misinformation” and “disinformation” last week in defence of legal action by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, against Musk. Albanese last Monday said: “This isn’t about freedom of expression. This is about the dangerous implications that can occur when things that are simply not true, that everyone knows are not true, are replicated and weaponised in order to cause division.” Yet there is no suggestion the video of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel’s stabbing by a minor who cannot be named for legal reasons is “simply not true”. While Albanese has often spoken against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, he has never spoken against the outrageous anti-Israel demonstration at the Opera House on October 9, only two days after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust." - Chris Mitchell - theaustralian.com.au

>>20793584 Video: Released detainee Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan charged over vicious Perth home invasion, bashing - A former immigration detainee released in the wake of last year’s High Court decision who had already allegedly breached his curfew has been charged over his alleged involvement in a violent home burglary in Perth. Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan appeared in court on Monday after allegedly being one of three men who bashed an elderly cancer patient inside her home earlier this month. Western Australian Police had previously described how three assailants had arrived at the home of 73-year-old Ninette Simons and her 76-year-old husband Philip Simons in Girraheen in Perth’s north, and gained entry to the home after telling them they were police officers. The three men then allegedly pushed Mr Simons to the ground and tied his hands behind his back, before punching Mrs Simons in the face repeatedly. She lost consciousness during the assault and was left with significant facial injuries.

>>20798750 Terror-accused, 16, ‘effectively made admission’ he was conspiring to plan attack - A 17 year-old boy, charged with possessing extremist propaganda and a video of associates committing alleged assaults under an ISIS watermark, has been granted bail. One of his bail conditions included a non-association order with Wassim Fayad, who was previously identified as the influential former IS supporter listed on search warrants in relation to the stabbing of Assyrian Christian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on April 15. A 16 year-old, charged with the more serious offence of having conspired with three others to plan an unspecified terrorist attack, calling them “the soldiers of Allah” in messages, was denied bail in the same court, after the prosecution alleged he made “effectively an admission” in encrypted messages when he thought police were onto them.

#35 - Part 39

Australian Politics and Society - Part 31

>>20798781 ‘Intifada’ protest gave kids ‘agency’, says Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah - Controversial Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah says criticism of her by the nation’s peak Jewish body was “defamatory and racist” and an event where children were filmed chanting for “intifada” was intended to give them a “sense of agency”. On Friday last week Dr Abdel-Fattah, with a group called Families for Palestine, held a “kids excursion” to the pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Sydney. Videos from the event showed children -- many who looked younger than 10 – leading anti-Israel chants such as calling for an “intifada” and labelling Israel a “terrorist state”. Dr Abdel-Fattah, in a statement posted to her social media accounts on Monday, defended the Friday event. “We gave children a space to participate in craft, ball games, face-painting and embroidery. We offered them the megaphone to lead chants of their choosing, hoping to give them a sense of agency in a moment of distress. The ones who jumped at the opportunity had been to the weekly rallies for over seven months, observing and participating in chants and calls for justice, freedom and an end to the slaughter.”

>>20798881 Video: MRF-D 24.3 U.S. Marines, Sailors honor Anzac Day in Darwin, Palmerston - April 25, 1915, etched into history as the day 140 soldiers of the first wave set sail, their destination: the Gallipoli Peninsula. Among them, only 38 would step onto the shores alive, marking the harrowing beginning of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps' campaign in World War I. Today, over 100 years later, April 25th stands as Anzac Day, a solemn tribute to the courage and sacrifice of Australians and New Zealanders who served and perished in wars and peacekeeping missions. As dawn broke over the grounds of the Darwin Cenotaph War Memorial and Palmerston War Memorial Park, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, U.S. Marines and Sailors of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin 24.3, alongside their Australian Allies, reflected on the earnestness of the occasion and the enduring legacy of service and sacrifice. Following the Dawn Service, U.S. Marines, Sailors and Australian Defence Force members and veterans participated in the Anzac Day march in Darwin City and Palmerston. They marched in solidarity, parading through Palmerston and downtown Darwin to honor their Allies' memory, embodying the mateship between the United States and Australia.

>>20803363 Indian spies booted out of Australia for trying to steal sensitive information - Australian authorities expelled two Indian intelligence operatives in 2020 for being members of an elaborate “nest of spies” that attempted to steal sensitive information about defence technology, airport security and trade relationships. The revelation about the previously secret operations of India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), raises uncomfortable questions about Australia’s deepening ties with India, including through the high-profile Quad security grouping. As part of a detailed investigation into Indian foreign interference efforts around the globe, The Washington Post reported on the expulsion of the two RAW officers on Monday. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess revealed in 2021 that ASIO had uncovered a “nest of spies” from a foreign intelligence service, whose operations included grooming politicians and a foreign embassy as informants, but did not identify the country behind it.

>>20808123 Youngest terror-accused teen wanted to do ‘catastrophic [act] to either Assyrian or Jewish people’ - A 15-year-old who allegedly declared in an online group chat that he wanted to attack Jewish and Assyrian people, and “do jihad now”, before being arrested for conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack, has been denied release following a lengthy bail hearing. The lawyer for the youngest of the four teenagers charged in Sydney with conspiracy following the stabbing of Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, told waiting media he would take the application to the NSW Supreme Court, as the juvenile’s parents covered their faces. “Obviously the family is disappointed, and we will appeal to the Supreme Court,” he said, after a court heard the 15-year-old’s parents would put up their home, worth $1.5 million, as surety and offered to pay for expensive third-party ankle-monitoring technology.”

#35 - Part 40

Australian Politics and Society - Part 32

>>20808279 Non-binary pupils up as teachers told to forgo ‘boys and girls’ - The number of school students identifying as neither male nor female is now 20 times higher than before the pandemic, as new school rules warn teachers against calling students boys and girls, or referring to parents as mothers and fathers. Data released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority reveals that at least 2560 students enrolled as non-binary last year, up from 128 in 2019. Non-binary enrolments account for barely 0.05 per cent of the nation’s four million school students but create a legal and ethical minefield for principals and teachers as education departments and anti-discrimination bodies dictate increasingly complex regulations. The sharp rise in non-binary identification among children comes as schools are forced to introduce gender-neutral uniforms, combine boys’ and girls’ toilet facilities, and use personal pronouns.

>>20813692 Video: eSafety Commissioner’s war on ‘misgendering’ tweet - Weeks before Julie Inman Grant took action against X (previously Twitter) over footage of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in western Sydney, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner curiously issued the social media giant with a take-down order over a tweet “misgendering” an Australian transgender activist. As the author of the tweet, Canadian activist Chris Elston - better known as “Billboard Chris” sees it, it was “not my nicest tweet ever, but technically accurate,” and in the context of all the vile content available on the internet, rather benign. Currently visiting Australia to campaign against what he views as the “irreversible harming” of gender dysphoric children through the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, Mr Elston told The Australian he found the eSafety Commissioner’s action against X regarding both his tweet and footage of the stabbing as “absurd” and “politically motivated”.

>>20818041 Anthony Albanese in private: ‘Blames Trotskyists for university protests, will speak strongly’ - Leading rabbis say Anthony Albanese used a private meeting to dismiss pro-Palestine protesters encamped at universities as “Trots” who were ignorant of Middle East history, with leading Jewish MP Julian Leeser calling for a judicial inquiry into anti-Semitism on campuses. Multiple rabbis who attended the hour-plus meeting at Central Synagogue in Bondi Junction confirmed the Prime Minister had described the protesters as “Trots” - short for Trotskyists - and had committed to “unequivocally fight anti-Semitism”. One source at the meeting, convened by rabbinical councils and Jewish leaders, claimed Mr Albanese said a lot of university protesters were “just Trots who are just looking to instigate and make trouble”. Rabbinical Council of Australasia president Rabbi Nochum Schapiro confirmed Mr Albanese’s “Trots” comment.

>>20818106 ‘Billboard Chris’ and X to Appeal Order to Remove Post Criticising Trans Activist - A new front has opened in the ongoing battle between Elon Musk’s X Corp. and Australia’s internet regulator, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. The Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is to rule on whether eSafety was justified in ordering X to block a post by Canadian activist Chris Elston, who goes by the pseudonym “Billboard Chris.” Mr. Elston’s X post showed a screenshot of a Daily Mail story published in late February, about Teddy Cook, an Australian female-to-male trans activist who was appointed to a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert panel to draft guidelines for the care of trans and non-binary people. In his post, Mr. Elston misgendered Mr. Cook and made other allegedly “disparaging” remarks. On March 22, Mr. Elston received a letter from an unnamed person in the office of the eSafety commissioner, demanding he remove the “deliberately degrading” post, characterising it as “cyber-abuse material targeted at an Australian adult. The social media company is pursuing action against the commissioner in the Federal Court of Australia, while Mr. Elston - represented by the Free Speech Union of Australia - is appealing the decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal,

#35 - Part 41

Australian Politics and Society - Part 33

>>20822380 Video: ‘Radicalised teen’ shot dead by police in Willetton after stabbing - A “radicalised” teenage boy was shot dead by police following an “extremely confronting” incident in Perth’s southern suburbs on Saturday night. WA Premier Roger Cook said a 16-year-old boy was shot by a police officer after rushing him with a knife in a Bunnings car park on High Street in Willetton about 10pm. “A 16-year-old male armed with a knife who had already wounded a member of the public, rushed the attending officers, in response a police officer discharged his firearm fatally wounding the male,” he said. “There are indications [the teenager] had been radicalised online.” WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said several people called triple zero concerned about the actions of the teenager, after he indicated he was going to hurt people. The teen, who was a Caucasian male who had converted to Islam, also called police and told them he was going to commit acts of violence, but did not tell the phone operator who or where he was. Blanch said the teen had a complex mental health history and was taking part in a rehabilitation program for people who had been radicalised online.

>>20822408 Video: Rossmoyne Senior High School parents flagged ‘disturbing behaviour’ before teen’s Bunnings carpark stabbing - Parents at the Perth public high school attended by the radicalised Muslim convert teen shot to death by police at a Bunnings carpark on Saturday night repeatedly raised fears with authorities about disturbing behaviour among a cohort of the boy’s year group. The caucasian boy, who has not yet been publicly identified, was a student at Rossmoyne Senior High School, one of the top public high schools in the state. The boy was shot dead after he stabbed a man in the back and had called triple-0 to warn police that he was preparing to commit “acts of violence”. CCTV footage showed the boy charging at police cars as they arrived at the scene. Parents in the local community had repeatedly tried to alert authorities about the group, with one concerned parent having gone to both WA’s Department of Education and the Australian Federal Police earlier this year over fears that the boys were trying to “indoctrinate” their son. They said that one boy in the group had previously brought a homemade bomb to school and had used the device to damage a toilet block. The same student, they said, had made comments about bringing a bomb to an upcoming graduation ceremony.

>>20831561 Video: Schoolmates of ‘jihadi’ Perth teen circulate bombing video - The radicalised 16-year-old was killed by police on Saturday night after stabbing a male stranger in a Willetton car park and has since been identified as year 11 Rossmoyne student James Hollands. Hollands had been under a deradicalisation program for the past two years amid growing concerns among parents and students about the behaviour of him and a cohort of boys at the school. Video footage circulating among the school community since the shooting shows Hollands throwing a small homemade explosive device into a school toilet block, folllowed by the sounds of an explosion, as a group of other students look on.

>>20827038 Gang rampage: ‘There’s a war zone in Australia that no one knows about’ - An armed attack last week on a remote Northern Territory community that sent terrified residents fleeing from shotgun blasts and left homes torched has sparked fears of retaliation and an all-out war between rival family groups. The tiny community of Nauiyu on the Daly River, three hours south of Darwin, was attacked last week by up to 25 people armed with various weapons - including shotguns, axes and crossbows – who had driven into the community and set homes and vehicles alight, with locals describing the town, population 350, as a “war zone”. One person allegedly fired the shotgun at a group of people, with video obtained by The Australian showing residents, including chil­dren, running for their lives as shots erupt behind them. One stolen car was paraded through the community before being smashed into a home and set on fire, an eight-month-old baby apparently inside, although it had safely escaped when police arrived. Police say four people attended the local clinic to have pellets removed from their skin. Another man was pictured with an arrow piercing his abdomen and protruding from his back. “There’s a war zone in Australia that no one knows about,” said one local, too scared to be identified. It is a commonly used term in the NT, but it had greater resonance last week, with the community at breaking point and bracing for the violence to return.

#35 - Part 42

Australian Politics and Society - Part 34

>>20831610 ‘Not Marrickville or Newtown’: Sydney council bans same-sex parenting books - A council in western Sydney has voted to “rid” its libraries of books that contain same-sex parenting material in a move that has outraged the mayor and local families. The motion at Cumberland City Council was passed six votes to five, and prompted an angry NSW government to threaten a review of its library funding. “When civilisations turn to burning books or banning books it is a very bad sign. That is equally true for local councils,” Arts Minister John Graham said. The council, which includes the western Sydney suburbs of Auburn and Merrylands, met last Wednesday to vote on a new strategy for the eight council-run libraries. During the debate, former mayor and current councillor Steve Christou put forward the amendment “that council take immediate action to rid same-sex parents books/materials in council’s library service”, while brandishing a picture of one book he said his constituents had complained about. The book, title Same-Sex Parents by Holly Duhig, is part of a series depicting diverse family structures for a younger audience. It features two men and a child on the front cover. “This is not Marrickville or Newtown, this is Cumberland City Council, and we need to respect the wishes of our residents,” he said during the debate. Christou rejected suggestions the ban was discriminatory, but instead told the Herald that books concerning same-sex parenting were sexualising young children. “Don’t open up our children to any form of sexualisation … Children are innocent and should be allowed to enjoy appropriate story reading time in their libraries without being burdened by issues of sexualisation,” he said.

>>20837133 Video: Men caught ‘in mangroves’ in Torres Strait after trying to enter Australia illegally - New video has emerged of five men detained by Australian Border Force officials on Saibai Island, in the far-northern reaches of the Torres Strait, after they were caught in mangroves attempting to enter Australia illegally. The short clip, captured by a local on Saibai, shows the five men - reportedly from West Africa - shrouded in blankets and flanked by four Border Force officers under a shelter on the island. Saibai is only about 4km from mainland Papua New Guinea, and PNG can be seen from the Torres Strait island. The men are understood to have travelled to PNG, via Indonesia, before attempting to enter Queensland in the latest brazen bid at illegal arrival. Saibai Island councillor Chelsea Aniba said the men were spotted on Monday by local hunters in an uninhabited part of the island, known to be crocodile habitat. The group was undergoing medical checks in the Torres Strait on Tuesday evening and had travelled to PNG, via Indonesia, before attempting to enter Queensland, The Australian understands. PNG’s Post-Courier newspaper reported the men were from the West African nation of Senegal and were travelling with fraudulent documents.

>>20841316 Former Fiji PM Frank Bainimarama sentenced to year in jail - Fiji’s former long-serving prime minister Frank Bainimarama has been sentenced to a year in prison for perverting the course of justice, the country’s director of public prosecutions said. Bainimarama was initially spared jail in the case during sentencing last month, before an appeal by the country’s director for public prosecutions. On Thursday, that appeal was upheld by Fiji’s high court. After the hearing, supporters of his FijiFirst party gathered outside the high court in Suva and sang a Fijian hymn. Regardless of the ruling, Bainimarama would remain the leader of the FijiFirst party, said Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, a former attorney general and the party’s former general secretary. Bainimarama led the Pacific island nation for 16 years until narrowly losing an election in December 2022 to a coalition of parties led by current prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka.

>>20841371 Australian Government Threatens Gab With $500,000 Fine For Refusing To Censor Video - "This morning Gab received a notice from the Australian government threatening us with a fine of $500,000 for refusing to censor a video of the tragic attack at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in western Sydney. The video was posted by a Gab user and followed with a heartfelt message from Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was wounded in the attack. As a platform committed to free speech principles, Gab refused to comply with the censorship demands of the Australian government. We believe that the right to free speech is fundamental and are determined to stand up against any attempts to suppress it. We refuse to succumb to the pressure of the Australian government and will not censor the video posted by our user." - Andrew Torba - CEO, Gab.com

#35 - Part 43

Australian Politics and Society - Part 35

>>20841393 Christian extremist allegedly linked to Wieambilla police shooting, Donald Day, offered plea deal by the FBI - An American man with alleged links to Queensland's Wieambilla police shootings has been offered a plea deal. Arizona District Attorney Gary Restaino filed the court motion to have a pre-trial hearing delayed to allow time for Donald Day Jr and his lawyers to consider the deal. "A plea offer has been extended and the deadline for acceptance is May 17," Mr Restaino said in court documents. After a joint Queensland Police Service and FBI investigation, Mr Day was arrested in December and charged with two counts of making an interstate threat. In January, he was further charged with illegal gun possession and threatening FBI agents added. The 58-year-old is alleged to have communicated directly with Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train online, sending messages containing Christian end-of-days ideology. Police constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and neighbour Alan Dare were killed in the religiously motivated terrorist attack by the Trains, who were later shot dead by specialist police.

>>20846679 Australian regulator says Musk's X should not set limits of internet law - Elon Musk's X has policies to take down harmful content when it chooses but should not be allowed to overrule Australian law in deciding what can be viewed there, a lawyer for the cyber regulator told a hearing into video of a bishop being stabbed. X, formerly Twitter, is fighting an order by the eSafety Commissioner to remove 65 posts showing video of an Assyrian Christian bishop being knifed mid-sermon in Sydney last month, in what authorities called a terrorist attack. "X says … global removal is reasonable when X does it, because X wants to do it, but it becomes unreasonable when X is told to do it by the laws of Australia," Tim Begbie, the lawyer, told a hearing of the Federal Court, Australia's second-highest. Begbie said the dispute was not a debate about free speech but rather about the practicality of the Australian law that gives the regulator power to protect citizens from the most objectionable content. Geo-blocking Australians, the solution X offered, was ineffective because a quarter of the population used virtual private networks that disguise their locations, he added. "Global removal in these circumstances is a reasonable step," he said. "It would achieve what parliament intended, which is no accessibility to end users in Australia."

>>20846729 Video: Australia targets social media with parliamentary probe - Australia announced on Friday that it would hold a parliamentary inquiry to look into the negative impacts of social media platforms, saying they have significant reach and control over what Australians see online, with almost no scrutiny. The government has criticised social media platforms for not being quick enough to remove violent posts and seeks more oversight over content posted on Meta's Facebook, ByteDance's TikTok and Elon Musk-owned X. "Across a range of issues, whether it be the issue of domestic violence, whether it be the radicalisation of our young people, across a range of areas, something that keeps popping up over and over again is the role of social media," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. "(They) can be very positive but also can have a negative influence which is there."

>>20852084 United States Space Force CSO speaks at Australian Air, Space Power Conference - U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman underscored the importance of the U.S.-Australia strategic partnership during the Royal Australian Air Force’s 2024 Air and Space Power Conference in Canberra, May 9. The conference brought together members of Australia’s military forces and partners, including the U.S. Space Force, to discuss the nation’s security interests in air and space. Saltzman’s keynote, titled Deterrence Down Under, began with a brief history of U.S. and Australian defense relations, starting with the Battle of Hamel in 1918 during World War I. In this engagement, U.S. Army infantry fought under the same command as Australian soldiers, supported by British tanks, against German positions in and around the town of Le Hamel in Northern France. “This was the first time in history that U.S. Army troops were commanded operationally by non-American officers,” said Saltzman. “And by the end of the war, [General John Monash] said, ‘success is not measure by how high you climb, but by how many people you bring with you.’’

#35 - Part 44

Australian Politics and Society - Part 36

>>20855545 Chinese boat migrants bound for Australia intercepted in Indonesian fishing town - A heavily modified Indonesian fishing boat intercepted with six Chinese nationals on board trying to get to Australia was owned and operated by a Chinese boat captain believed to be involved in a new modus operandi of people smuggling. The group was intercepted by Indonesian fisheries authorities in waters near the eastern city of Kupang, a straight-line 500km journey to the north West Australian coast where 39 Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indian asylum- seekers were ferried by fishermen earlier this year. The interception was on Tuesday night in the harbour at Kupang, a traditional departure point in West Timor, part of East Nusa Tenggara province, and involved a boat carrying six Chinese men and a group of Indonesians. The interception come only hours before a visit by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill to Jakarta, where she met with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto, to discuss co-operation on law enforcement and maritime security.

>>20858332 Australia To Ban Live Sheep Exports By Sea From May 2028 - Australia will ban the live export of sheep by sea from May 2028, and help those impacted by the decision to adjust, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said. The industry has already begun moving away from the trade. Australia exported approximately 652,000 sheep by sea in 2022-23, compared to 5.92 million sheep 20 years ago, government data showed. Still, the National Farmers’ Federation said the four-year time frame would be devastating for farmers and accused the government of pandering to activists.

>>20859885, >>20861656 Federal Court ends temporary block on Australians viewing bishop stabbing footage on X - A temporary order by Australia’s eSafety commissioner to block Australians from viewing footage of the alleged terrorist stabbing attack of Sydney bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel has been refused, in a win for tech giant X. In April, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant ordered X (formerly Twitter) remove access to the video for Australian users, slapping the footage with a Class 1 classification, reserved for high-impact violent or child sex abuse material. While X complied with a take-down notice, “geo-blocking” the content, Australian users with VPNs could still watch the attack on the platform and the tech company has refused to totally remove the footage from its platform. In a brief court hearing on Monday morning, Federal Court Justice Geoffrey Kennett said: “In the this matter which I heard on Friday, the orders of the court will be that the application to extend the interlocutory injunction granted on the 22nd of April 2024, as extended on the 24th of April, is refused.”

>>20859947 Nazi-saluting soccer fan slapped with two-year ban as police investigate - A spectator who performed a Nazi salute at last month’s Sydney A-League derby has been banned from attending matches for two years and could yet be subject to criminal charges. Football Australia says it has concluded an investigation into the incident after broadcast cameras captured the man - who has been identified as a well-known member of the Western Sydney Wanderers’ main active support group, the Red and Black Bloc - making the gesture at Allianz Stadium on April 13. The ban is for all matches sanctioned by FA, including Socceroos, Matildas, A-Leagues, Australia Cup, and National Premier Leagues fixtures, as well as the yet-to-be-established National Second Tier, which is launching next year. NSW Police confirmed to this masthead that their own investigation into the incident was ongoing and that no arrests had yet been made. The man was caught by Network 10’s cameras holding his middle finger up in the air before raising his right hand in what was widely interpreted as a Nazi salute. It has been illegal to perform the Nazi salute in NSW since mid-2022, while similar laws passed by the federal parliament came into effect in January.

#35 - Part 45

Australian Politics and Society - Part 37

>>20868956 US COLONEL HAS ‘UTMOST CONFIDENCE’ IN OSPREYS AS THEY LAND IN DARWIN - A US Marine Corps Colonel has expressed “utmost confidence” in the MV-22B Osprey aircraft as a squadron begins operating from Darwin. Col. Brian T. Mulvihill, the commanding officer of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin (MRF-D) 24.3, said he backed the tilt-rotor aircraft, which was grounded for three months after being involved in two fatal incidents last year. “I have the utmost confidence in the reliability of the aircraft and the capabilities of our pilots and crews,” he said. “The well-being of our Marines and sailors is always a priority, and we have spared no effort in ensuring that they are prepared for the missions ahead.” Ospreys from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (Reinforced) landed in Darwin on 11 May as part of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF), finalising the formation of the 13th rotation of MRF-D. The MV-22B joint service multi-role combat aircraft, which can take off and hover like a helicopter before transitioning to turboprop aircraft flight, was given the green light by US Naval Air Systems Command to return to service on 8 March after being out of service since December. Eight personnel were killed when a US Air Force V-22A Osprey suffered a materiel failure to a V-22 component and crashed off the coast of Japan near Yakushima Island on 29 November 2023. The aircraft were then grounded from 6 December while investigations were undertaken into the cause of the crash. An MV-22B Osprey aircraft also crashed near Melville Island, 60 kilometres off the coast from Darwin during Exercise Predators Run in August 2023. That tilt-rotor aircraft had previously appeared at Gold Coast Pacific Airshow earlier in the year.

>>20868983 Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Facebook Post - 82nd Battle of the Coral Sea commemorative service - MRF-D 24.3 #Marines and Sailors paid their respects alongside their Australian Allies during the 82nd Battle of the Coral Sea commemorative service at the USS Peary Memorial, Darwin, NT, Australia, May 4, 2024. The ceremony commemorated U.S. and Australian service members who lost their lives in the Battle of the Coral Sea, which took place from May 4-8, 1942, during WWII. The Australian-American Association hosted the annual memorial to recognize the combined sacrifice of both nation’s services, and the tremendous stepping stone the Battle of the Coral Sea provided the allied forces as they sailed north through the Pacific.

>>20873174 Scott Morrison meets with Donald Trump to discuss AUKUS and China - Donald Trump has given a powerful signal that he will back the AUKUS plan to acquire US nuclear-powered submarines if he becomes president, telling former prime minister Scott Morrison that he believes AUKUS plays a critical role in deterring China. A meeting between the two former leaders in Trump Tower in New York focused on the growing strategic threat posed by China in the Indo Pacific and the need to deter Beijing from continued military aggression against Taiwan. Mr Morrison said Mr Trump was “in good spirits and appreciated the visit, especially amid the issues he is currently dealing with in New York. Our discussion focused primarily on the Indo Pacific, the escalating threat of violence in the Taiwan Straits and the need to continue the work to establish and maintain a strong, credible and effective deterrent in the region to PRC aggression, especially in relation to Taiwan,” Mr Morrison said. “In this context, I discussed how the AUKUS agreement played a critical role, which I was pleased was a view shared by former president Trump. There was a welcome level of comfort about AUKUS in our discussion.”

>>20873196 Video: Scott Morrison says Donald Trump gave 'warm reception' to AUKUS pact at Trump Tower meeting - Donald Trump has given a "warm reception" to the AUKUS defence pact during a meeting with Scott Morrison in New York, the former prime minister says. Mr Trump has never publicly endorsed the pact, which was announced by Australia, the US and the UK in 2021, when Mr Morrison was prime minister. That's raised questions about whether the former president - who has questioned America's commitment to some international alliances - would support AUKUS if re-elected in November. But in a social media post, Mr Morrison said the pair discussed AUKUS on Tuesday night, local time, and it "received a warm reception" from Mr Trump. In an interview with the ABC in Washington on Wednesday, Mr Morrison declined to reveal specifically what Mr Trump told him about his position on AUKUS. "I'm not going to go into that because obviously [it was] a private conversation," he said.

#35 - Part 46

Australian Politics and Society - Part 38

>>20873218 Scott Morrison backs nuclear power and protectionist US tariffs - Scott Morrison expects to see multiple nuclear power stations in Australia within his lifetime and has defended the push for higher tariffs in the US by both Democrats and Republicans as “entirely reasonable”. The former prime minister, speaking in Washington on Wednesday evening (Thursday AEST), said the reality of the “post globalisation economy” meant nations would inevitably increase tariffs in response to unfair Chinese competition, playing down any negative impact on Australia “I think it’s entirely reasonable that a country, which is operating in what I call our sphere, takes that response,” Mr Morrison said in an interview with The Australian, in response to a question about the potential impact of higher global tariffs on Australia. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has promised a 10 per cent tariffs on all US imports if elected, while president Joe Biden last week slapped a range of high tariffs on Chinese imports, in particular electric vehicles.

>>20878316 Scott Morrison says Donald Trump deserves respect from Australia if he’s President again - Donald Trump deserves Australia’s respect if he returns to power, former prime minister Scott Morrison said as he dismissed the “hyperventilation” of the ex-president’s critics. Mr Morrison - who worked with Mr Trump and President Joe Biden – said both leaders had a “deep commitment” to the US-Australia alliance that would endure regardless of the result of November’s extraordinary election rematch. Mr Morrison avoided predicting the election result, as he acknowledged the polls “say what they say”, but he declared: “Democracy at the end of the day decides.” “The only people whose views matter on that are Americans themselves,” he said. “There’ll be a triumph of democracy … Whoever is elected should have the respect that they’re entitled to, not just here in the United States, but from partners and allies.”

>>20883003 ‘Disgusted’: Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan slams pro-Palestine gatecrashers as controversial Gaza motions pass - Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan says she is “disgusted” by the pro-Palestine activists who gatecrashed the Victorian Labor State conference as six contentious motions on Gaza were carried on Saturday. Urgency motions relating to the Israel-Hamas war, drafted by pro-Palestinian supporters within Labor’s Socialist Left faction, were debated and met with overwhelming support. The carriage of the motions come after the Victorian Premier took to social media to condemn the activists, which forced her and Deputy Premier Ben Carroll to be rushed into the conference room away from the group. “Today, protestors and intruders brought violence, homophobia and anti-Semitism to the front door of state conference,” she wrote on social media platform X. “I’m disgusted. No one should be cowered by these bullies.”

#35 - Part 47

Coronavirus / COVID-19 Pandemic, Australia and Worldwide - Part 1

>>20768285 (30 September 2021) - Entire Western Bulldogs squad received first dose of a coronavirus vaccine - (12 April 2024) AFL veteran Tom Liberatore ‘just collapsed’ in bizarre moment against Essendon.

>>20793630 AstraZeneca admits for first time in court documents its Covid vaccine can cause rare side effect - AstraZeneca has admitted for the first time in court documents that its Covid vaccine can cause a rare side effect, in an apparent about-turn that could pave the way for a multi-million pound legal payout. The pharmaceutical giant is being sued in a class action over claims that its vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, caused death and serious injury in dozens of cases. Lawyers argue the vaccine produced a side effect which has had a devastating effect on a small number of families. The first case was lodged last year by Jamie Scott, a father of two, who was left with a permanent brain injury after developing a blood clot and a bleed on the brain that has prevented him from working after he received the vaccine in April 2021. AstraZeneca is contesting the claims but has accepted, in a legal document submitted to the High Court in February, that its Covid vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS”. TTS, which stands for Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, causes people to have blood clots and a low blood platelet count. AstraZeneca’s admission made in a legal defence to Mr Scott’s High Court claim , follows intense legal wrangling. In a letter of response sent in May 2023, AstraZeneca told lawyers for Mr Scott that “we do not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level”. But in the legal document submitted to the High Court in February, AstraZeneca said: “It is admitted that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known. “Further, TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). Causation in any individual case will be a matter for expert evidence.”

>>20803319 Charges dropped: Victorian Government escapes punishment over quarantine blunders that cost 768 lives - Victoria’s Department of Health will not face prosecution on dozens of criminal charges over the bungled hotel quarantine scheme because the state’s top prosecutors are barred from using evidence from a public inquiry. The County Court ruling, which rendered 10 witnesses statements inadmissible, has forced the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) to drop 32 charges that alleged hotel staff and guests were put in danger during the COVID-19 outbreak that sent parts of Victoria into one of the world’s longest lockdowns. The department had originally faced 58 charges, but that had been reduced to 32 throughout the prosecution. The 10 witnesses were employees of the Department of Health who had provided statements to an inquiry investigating the state government’s handling of the hotel quarantine scheme, known as the Coate Inquiry. By providing those statements on behalf of the department to the Hotel Quarantine Board of Inquiry - a public hearing - their evidence was later deemed inadmissible in the criminal proceedings brought by WorkSafe Victoria. An OPP spokesman said the inadmissible evidence of 10 witnesses had “substantially weakened the prosecution case”. “As a consequence of the evidentiary ruling, a determination was made that there were not reasonable prospects of conviction in relation to the charges before the court,” he said.

>>20821185 Video: KIDS COLLAPSING AND DYING SUDDENLY IN APRIL 2024 - 30 Kids who made the news

>>20826973 US shared ‘gobsmacking’ Covid lab leak file with UK - The US shared “gobsmacking” evidence with Britain at the height of the Covid pandemic suggesting a “high likelihood” that the virus had leaked from a Chinese lab, The Telegraph can reveal. In January 2021, Five Eyes intelligence-sharing nations were convened to discuss the possibility of a lab leak as the US warned that China had covered up research on coronaviruses and military activity at a laboratory in Wuhan. In a previously unreported phone call that month, Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, presented evidence that supported the lab leak theory to Dominic Raab, then the Foreign Secretary, and representatives from Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Speaking to The Telegraph, two Trump administration officials accused Mr Raab and the UK Government of ignoring the lab leak theory because of resistance from government scientists who supported the explanation that the virus had jumped between animals and humans. “We saw several pieces of information and thought that they were, frankly, gobsmacking,” said one former official who worked on the intelligence that informed Mr Pompeo’s report. “They obviously pointed to the high likelihood that this was indeed a lab leak.”

#35 - Part 48

Coronavirus / COVID-19 Pandemic, Australia and Worldwide - Part 2

>>20837151 AstraZeneca withdraws COVID-19 vaccine citing a decline in demand - AstraZeneca has initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic. "As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines," the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company said. The surplus had led to a decline in demand for its vaccine, known as Vaxzevria since 2021, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied, the company said. The company said it would also proceed to withdraw the vaccine's marketing authorisations within Europe. The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been available in Australia since March 21, 2023. It was linked to a rare but serious side effect, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TSS), according to the Department of Health and Aged Care. In TSS, a person develops blood clots (thrombosis), which can appear in different parts of the body, combined with a low blood platelet count. Other COVID-19 vaccines are not associated with TSS.

>>20841352 Premiers blasted by Greg Hunt for Covid overreach without medical advice - Former health minister Greg Hunt has hit out at states and territories over “unilateral” health decisions taken during the pandemic that were not backed by medical advice, recommending all jurisdictions be forced to formally commit to a new national code mandating all medical advice be published. In a submission to the federal government’s inquiry into Covid, Mr Hunt was critical of actions taken by premiers that were not the subject of commonwealth advice nor the advice of their chief medical officers. Mr Hunt hit out at Victoria in particular over decisions taken by former premier Daniel Andrews to implement stringent curfews, a 5km radius as well as the state’s choice not to use ADF personnel at hotel quarantine facilities. “Subsequent unilateral decisions of some states outside of the national cabinet framework, such as Victoria’s curfews or 5km movement restrictions, were not the subject of commonwealth advice and nor to the best of my ­knowledge has the medical advice for such restrictions been released or affirmed at state level,” he said. Mr Hunt urged premiers and chief ministers to commit to not taking “unilateral decisions against national cabinet decisions unless there is published and signed medical advice”.

>>20855549 Judge rules Victoria Police violence ‘unjustified’ in Covid lockdown protest - Victoria Police used “unlawful” and “unjustified violence” in a violent attack on anti-lockdown protesters during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a judge has found. In a stunning decision handed down in the County Court, Judge Liz Gaynor ruled police were the “aggressors” and “employed unjustified violence” amid a public protest on 29 May, 2021 that left one man with a dislocated arm. The judgment has called into question police tactics and prompted calls for prosecutors to consider laying charges against the police involved. At the time of the protest Victorians were subject to strict lockdown conditions including bans on leaving the home and wear face mask requirements. A 5km bubble was in place for needing to go shopping or wanting to exercise, and both public and private gatherings were explicitly banned. The protest, around the city’s Flagstaff Gardens, drew a huge police presence with officers outnumbering the 150 protesters and forming a ring of steel around the gardens. More than a dozen protesters were arrested for offences including assaulting police, affray and breaching the chief health officer’s directions, during the protests. In her stinging judgment Judge Gaynor ruled the arrests unlawful, saying the men did nothing to warrant the violent police response which was captured by body-worn cameras.

#35 - Part 49

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 1

>>20565278 Stella Assange begs Anthony Albanese to pressure Americans to drop Julian Assange case - Julian Assange’s wife has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to “bring it up a notch” and publicly call for the release of the WikiLeaks founder amid fears that the United States government could secretly extradite him across the Atlantic on a military jet. Stella Assange said that for several years Mr Albanese has been saying the case should be brought to an end, but she said that his language was ambiguous. In response to a question from The Australian at a Foreign Press Association event in central London on Wednesday Mrs Assange said: “The terms he uses are still quite ambiguous and I would like to see a much clearer statement from the Prime Minister that Julian has to be released.” She added: “Enough is enough, he’s been saying that for three years, you have to bring that up a notch and of course he has the backing of the Australian people and the Australian public to say it clearly now: that Julian has to be released; he needs to be released now.”

>>20600525 Julian Assange, Justice Department Exploring Guilty Plea to End 14-Year Legal Drama - The U.S. Justice Department is considering whether to allow Julian Assange to plead guilty to a reduced charge of mishandling classified information, according to people familiar with the matter, opening up the possibility of a deal that could eventually result in his release from a British jail. Justice Department officials and Assange’s lawyers have had preliminary discussions in recent months about what a plea deal could look like to end the lengthy legal drama, according to people familiar with the matter, a potential softening in a standoff filled with political and legal complexities. The talks come as Assange has spent some five years behind bars. U.S. prosecutors face diminishing prospects that he would serve much more time even if he were convicted stateside.

>>20600532 Assange supporters welcome possible plea deal with US - Julian Assange’s supporters say they are thrilled by the prospect of a plea deal with the United States Justice Department that would allow the WikiLeaks founder to avoid the threat of a lengthy jail term in America. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the Justice Department was considering whether to allow Assange to plead guilty to a reduced charge of mishandling classified information rather than more serious espionage charges, citing people familiar with the matter. Such a deal would potentially allow Assange to enter a plea to the misdemeanour charge remotely, and walk free without travelling to the US, which has been seeking his extradition from the United Kingdom for years. Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, one of Assange’s biggest champions in federal parliament, said many Australians would be heartened by the report of a possible deal. “Personally, I’d be thrilled with a breakthrough because this injustice has been wrong from the start and must be brought to an end,” he said.

>>20628594 Court to announce if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be extradited to the United States - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will know whether he will be extradited to the United States later tonight Australian time. After five years of battling extradition to the United States to face 17 counts of espionage and a computer misuse charge for revealing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents in 2010, Mr Assange will hear his fate at 9.30pm AEDT when two British High Court judges hand down a decision. This could be the 52-year-old’s final day in the UK and hundreds of supporters are expected outside the Royal Courts of Justice to hear the decision. If the result goes Mr Assange’s way, the court will allow a further appeal to a full court of the High Court and he will most likely remain in Belmarsh prison. If it doesn’t, Mr Assange will be on a US military plane to Virginia almost immediately and he will be held in a maximum security remand centre until trial.

#35 - Part 50

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 2

>>20634678 Video: Julian Assange avoids immediate extradition to US - WikiLeaks founder Julian ­Assange has avoided immediate extradition to the US, with the British High Court seeking reassurances from the Biden administration that he will not face the death penalty and he will have the right to free speech. There was confusion outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London when the decision was handed down, with many people unsure if the delay -- and with further legal action pending – was good news as supporters had wanted the entire extradition case thrown out. After more than a decade of court battles, seven years of asylum in the Ecuadorean ­embassy and five years as a ­remand prisoner at the Belmarsh prison in London, the Australian is likely to be flown to Virginia in the US to face espionage allegations once the British court is satisfied he will not face the death penalty and that he is able to rely on the first amendment of the US constitution, which allows for journalists’ freedom of speech. If the assurances are not filed by April 16, the court has allowed Assange’s legal team leave to ­appeal. If the assurances are provided the court will list the case for May 20 for a one-day hearing, after which Assange will be extradited to the US.

>>20634687 Video: Julian Assange handed legal lifeline by London's High Court after delay in appeal ruling - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been handed a legal lifeline by the High Court in London where he is trying to appeal his extradition to the United States. In a written judgement released on Tuesday, two of the court's justices did not make a final decision. They said they'd give the US more time to provide assurances about several points "before making a final decision on the application for leave to appeal". The justices wrote that if the US could not provide adequate assurances on three of nine points identified in the judgement, Assange, an Australian, would be granted leave to appeal. They are: That Assange is permitted to rely on the US Constitution's first amendment (which protects free speech), that Assange is not prejudiced at trial or sentence because of his nationality, and that the death penalty is not imposed should he be convicted. Lawyers for the US have been given three weeks to provide the information.

>>20634690 ‘His health is very risky’: Assange’s brother fears for his life - Julian Assange’s brother says he fears for the Wikileaks founder’s life as lawyers appeal his extradition to the US on grounds the espionage charges against him are politically motivated. On Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), a British court put the extradition process on hold and upheld part of a claim by Mr Assange’s legal team that the US had provided insufficient guarantees he wouldn’t receive the death penalty, or that he could rely on the First Amendment which protects freedom of speech in the US. “Belmarsh Prison is an awful place, and Julian’s hanging in there,” said his brother, Gabriel Shipton, who visited him last month. “But it’s very scary to watch him deteriorate. He’s suffering every day and his health is in a very risky position now.”

>>20710527 Video: Joe Biden says US 'considering' dropping pursuit of Julian Assange, announces plan for missile system with Australia and Japan - Joe Biden has indicated the United States could abandon its pursuit of Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting America's bid to extradite him to face serious espionage charges. Mr Assange's plight has been a sore point in the close alliance between the two nations, which Mr Biden has revealed will tighten further with the development of an integrated missile system with Japan. Ahead of press conference in Washington on Wednesday (local time), the US president was asked if he had a response to Australia's request that he end Mr Assange's prosecution. Mr Biden responded: "We're considering it." Assange, who faces 18 criminal charges in the US over the publication of classified documents in 2010, is trying to appeal his extradition in the UK High Court. The court has asked the US to provide several assurances before it makes a decision, including that Mr Assange would not be sentenced to death if he were convicted.

#35 - Part 51

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 3

>>20710531 Video: Biden says he’s considering Australia’s request to drop prosecution of Wikileaks founder Assange - President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long U.S. push to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for publishing a trove of American classified documents. For years, Australia has called on the U.S. to drop its prosecution against Assange, an Australian citizen who has fought U.S. extradition efforts from prison in the U.K. Asked about the request on Wednesday, as he hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for an official visit, Biden said, “We’re considering it.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Biden’s comment on Assange was encouraging. “I have said that we have raised, on behalf of Mr. Assange, Australia’s national interests that enough is enough and this needs to be brought to a conclusion and we’ve raised it at each level of government in every possible way,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Mr. Assange has already paid a significant price and enough is enough. There’s nothing to be gained by Mr. Assange’s continued incarceration in my very strong view and I’ve put that as the view of the Australian government,” he added.

>>20736646 Video: Julian Assange extradition edges closer after US promises not to seek death penalty - Julian Assange's bid to avoid extradition to America has been dealt a blow, after lawyers for the United States provided the assurances about his treatment a London court had demanded. Assange, an Australian, is trying to challenge the extradition in the High Court of England and Wales - his last legal avenue in that jurisdiction. Last month, two of the court's justices handed the 52-year-old a legal lifeline when they asked the US legal team to provide assurances that if he was extradited, Assange would be permitted to rely on the US Constitution's first amendment (which protects free speech), Assange would not be prejudiced at trial or sentence because of his nationality, and the death penalty would not imposed should he be convicted. The US on Tuesday provided those, although they came with one catch. In a diplomatic note sent from the US embassy in London, it said while Assange would be able to "seek to rely" upon the US Constitution's provisions for free speech, "a decision as to the applicability of the first amendment is exclusively within the purview of the US courts".

>>20736652 US provides assurances to prevent Julian Assange appeal against extradition - The US has provided assurances to the high court in London in an attempt to prevent a last-ditch appeal by Julian Assange against extradition, but the WikiLeaks founder’s wife has dismissed them as “weasel words”. Last month, two judges deferred a decision on whether Assange, who is trying to avoid being prosecuted in the US on espionage charges relating to the publication of thousands of classified and diplomatic documents, could take his case to an appeal hearing. They granted him permission to appeal but only if the Biden administration was unable to provide the court with suitable assurances “that the applicant [Assange] is permitted to rely on the first amendment, that the applicant is not prejudiced at trial, including sentence, by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same first amendment [free speech] protections as a United States citizen, and that the death penalty is not imposed”. On Tuesday details emerged of the assurances given by the US, which stated that he “will not be prejudiced by reason of his nationality with respect to which defences he may seek to raise at trial and at sentencing”. It referred specifically to him having “the ability to raise and seek to rely upon” the first amendment but also said that its applicability “is exclusively within the purview of the US courts”. The assurances also state: “A sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed on Assange.”

>>20817961 Australian lawmakers send letter urging Biden to drop case against Julian Assange on World Press Freedom Day - A group of Australian lawmakers wrote to President Biden on World Press Freedom Day urging him to drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as press freedom groups call for the release of Assange and other journalists around the world facing legal cases. In a Friday letter, the co-chairs of the "Bring Julian Assange Home" Parliamentary Friendship Group - Members of Parliament Andrew Wilkie, Independent; Josh Wilson, Labor Party; Bridget Archer, Liberal Party, and Sen. David Shoebridge, Greens – called on Biden to end the prosecution of Assange, who is in a U.K. prison fighting extradition to the U.S. to face espionage charges for publishing classified American military documents 14 years ago.

#35 - Part 52

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 4

>>20873298 Julian Assange may live in Australia under new deal: lawyer - Julian Assange’s wife says she will move to Australia with their two children if a political outcome between Five Eyes allies Australia, Britain and the United States results in him being freed and released to his home country. On the eve of a crucial British High Court appeal decision which could confirm Assange’s extradition to the United States next Monday, Stella Assange said that among the possible court outcomes, one could be that her husband could walk free. She told a meeting of the Foreign Press Association in central London: “I believe anything could happen, Julian could be extradited or he could be freed. It is important to have in mind, this (extradition case) has gone on for over five years, and he has been in the UK’s most notorious prison the entire time and in one form of detention or another for longer.’’ Mrs Assange, an international lawyer, said: “I will follow Julian wherever he goes and wherever he is safe, Julian misses Australia and I am very keen to travel to Australia with the kids and show his home country to our children.”

#35 - Part 53

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

>>20555470 Ghislaine Maxwell appeal over 2021 sex trafficking conviction to begin in New York - Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal over her conviction for sex trafficking in 2021 is due to begin this week. Maxwell, 62, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars last year, after being found guilty of five counts of trafficking and abusing young girls over decades with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Her appeal, which is taking place at a federal court in New York, is set to begin on Tuesday. Lawyers have argued that if her conviction is not overturned then she should be given a new trial or re-sentenced. It is expected that during the appeal, Maxwell will claim that the four victims who testified against her at trial had “faded, distorted and motivated memories”. Her lawyers will argue that she was prosecuted as a “proxy” for Epstein to satisfy public outrage after his death in custody while awaiting trial in 2019. The Associated Press reported that she will also claim that prosecutors breached a non-prosecution agreement, charged her with “time-barred offenses”, and recast Epstein’s crimes to make her the culprit.

>>20570486 Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer tell appeals judges that Jeffrey Epstein’s Florida plea deal protects her - Imprisoned British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to toss out her sex trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence, saying Jeffrey Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution deal with a U.S. attorney in Florida should have prevented her prosecution. Attorney Diana Fabi Samson’s argument was repeatedly challenged by Judge Raymond Lohier on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before the three-judge panel reserved decision. Lawyers for Maxwell are challenging her December 2021 conviction on multiple grounds, but the only topic at oral arguments was whether the deal Epstein struck in Florida to prevent a federal case against him there also protected Maxwell in New York.

#35 - Part 54

Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry and Ben Roberts-Smith Defamation Trial

>>20864699 David McBride: Australian army whistleblower jailed for leaking documents - A whistleblower who helped expose allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail. David McBride pleaded guilty to stealing and sharing military secrets on the eve of his trial last year, after legal rulings sunk his defence. An ex-military lawyer, McBride said he felt a moral duty to speak up. A landmark inquiry later found evidence that Australian forces had unlawfully killed 39 Afghans during the war. McBride's case has sparked uproar in Australia, putting a spotlight on what some say are flimsy whistleblower protections and slow progress towards prosecuting soldiers alleged to have killed with impunity under its flag. McBride, 60, admits he gave troves of document to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), saying he was concerned about the attitudes of commanders and what he then thought was the "over-investigation" of troops, the court heard. But instead the information he provided underpinned a series of reports in 2017 called The Afghan Files, which gave unprecedented insight into the operations of Australia's elite special forces in Afghanistan, and contained allegations of war crimes.

>>20864718 David McBride sentenced to five years, eight months jail for leaking classified military documents - Former army legal officer David McBride, 60, has been sentenced to five years and eight months jail, with a non-parole period of 27 months, for stealing classified ­Defence secrets and sharing them with journalists. ACT Supreme Court Justice David Mossop found McBride had committed a “gross breach of trust” and had shown “no contrition for his offending”. McBride’s supporters cried “shame on you” as Justice Mossop delivered the sentence. His legal team vowed an appeal. McBride - who served two tours in Afghanistan - leaked the classified documents to the ABC, which used them to produce its 2017 Afghan Files reports alleging a cover-up of war crimes by Australian soldiers. The judge said McBride’s conduct had caused significant harm to the commonwealth by releasing Defence ­secrets, including its rules of engagement in Afghanistan. He said Australia’s foreign partners had to be informed of the leak, which may have “reduced their willingness to share information with Australia”. Justice Mossop said the release of the information risked informing Australia’s adversaries on the ADF’s use of force and its limitations, offering them a “technical advantage”.

>>20868853 Diggers’ anger as commanders duck responsibility for war crimes, report warns - The refusal of the nation’s military leaders to accept responsibility for war crimes in Afghanistan has generated “anger and bitter resentment” among serving personnel and veterans that will take years to overcome, an independent panel has warned. The Afghanistan Inquiry Implementation Oversight Panel says in its final report to Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles that it does not accept the Brereton inquiry’s finding that senior commanders should not be held accountable for the murders of 39 Afghans by up to 25 special forces soldiers. It says there has been “an unmet need for Defence senior leadership to communicate to the serving and ex-serving ranks of the ADF that they collectively accept organisational responsibility and accountability for part of what went wrong in Afghanistan”. “There is ongoing anger and bitter resentment amongst present and former members of the special forces, many of whom served with distinction in Afghanistan, that their senior officers have not publicly accepted some responsibility for policies or decisions that contributed to the misconduct, such as the overuse of special forces,” the panel warns. The report, obtained by The Australian, says the resentment among special forces soldiers was “expressed forcefully and repeatedly to the panel by Defence members of all ranks” during visits to SAS and 2nd Commando Regiment headquarters.

#35 - Part 55

Brittany Higgins Rape Allegations and Bruce Lehrmann Defamation Trial - Part 1

>>20575539 Judge asks whether Brittany Higgins should be recalled over $2.4m compo evidence - The judge in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case has sensationally asked whether Brittany Higgins should be recalled to give evidence about her $2.4m compensation payout, after the Ten Network suggested it would be unfair to her for the court to make findings about whether she had made false represent­ations to the commonwealth. Justice Michael Lee emailed parties to the defamation case earlier this week after receiving a submission from Ten that allegations Ms Higgins had “committed a fraud on the common­wealth” should not be adjudi­cated in the case. Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers had argued that Ms Higgins made 11 separate representations about her alleged rape in her settlement that were either false or contradicted by her own evidence in the defamation case. Ms Higgins made false representation “for the purposes of securing a life-changing payment” and were a breach of the warranties made by her in the deed, Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers alleged.

>>20656143 Ten seeks to reopen Bruce Lehrmann defamation case after ex-Seven producer Taylor Auerbach’s evidence - In a dramatic last-minute move, Network Ten has launched an urgent application asking the Federal Court to reopen its case in the defamation action brought against it by Bruce Lehrmann, after it received sensational new information from former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach. The application by the network will be heard by Justice Michael Lee on Tuesday, just two days before the judge was due to deliver his verdict in the long-running trial. On Sunday, Ten filed an application for “leave to reopen the … case for the purpose of adducing fresh evidence be granted”.

>>20660643 Inside Ten’s eleventh-hour manoeuvre in the Lehrmann defamation case - On Easter Sunday, Network Ten filed an urgent application seeking to call fresh evidence as part of its defence to Bruce Lehrmann’s multimillion-dollar defamation suit over an interview with Brittany Higgins helmed by Lisa Wilkinson and aired on The Project on February 15, 2021. Federal Court Justice Michael Lee will preside over a hearing at 5pm on Tuesday to determine whether he will allow Ten to reopen its case, less than 48 hours before his judgment was expected to be delivered on Thursday morning. If Lee accedes to Ten’s application, the network is seeking to call Taylor Auerbach, a former producer on Seven’s Spotlight program, who was part of a team working to woo Lehrmann into striking an exclusive interview deal with the broadcaster in late 2022. Those efforts proved persuasive, and Lehrmann inked a media exclusivity deal with Seven in April 2023.

>>20671056 Federal Court publishes affidavit detailing Seven Network payments to Bruce Lehrmann, including for sex, drugs - A former Seven Network producer has claimed the broadcaster paid for "illicit drugs and prostitutes" as part of its efforts to secure an exclusive sit-down interview with Bruce Lehrmann. The evidence has come to light in an affidavit from Taylor Auerbach, who was a producer on the Spotlight program, which aired two interviews with Mr Lehrmann last year. The affidavit has now been released by the Federal Court, after it was tendered during Network Ten's application to reopen its case in Mr Lehrmann's defamation claim. Mr Auerbach's affidavit details multiple payments in late 2022 and early 2023. He said that over two days in January 2023, money Mr Lehrmann allegedly paid for illicit drugs and to engage sex workers was reimbursed to him "by Seven through 'per diems' … in the days after [Mr Lehrmann's] departure from Sydney in early January".

>>20676391 Lehrmann invoiced Seven for ‘bender’ with cocaine and sex workers, court told - Bruce Lehrmann asked Seven to pay for a “bender” in Sydney with cocaine and sex workers as the network sought to secure an exclusive interview with the former federal Liberal staffer, an ex-producer on its Spotlight program has claimed in explosive evidence in the Federal Court. Taylor Auerbach has emerged as an unlikely witness in Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and high-profile presenter Lisa Wilkinson after Ten won an eleventh-hour court bid on Tuesday to reopen its case and call him to give evidence in its defence. The former senior producer on Spotlight told the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday that Lehrmann had “purchased a bag of cocaine while we were dining at Franca” in Potts Point in Sydney on January 5 last year before the exclusive interview deal was inked in April.

#35 - Part 56

Brittany Higgins Rape Allegations and Bruce Lehrmann Defamation Trial - Part 2

>>20676399 Court told Brittany Higgins colluded with Lisa Wilkinson to ‘attack’ Linda Reynolds, as defamation case heads for trial - Liberal senator Linda Reynolds intends to claim that Brittany Higgins and her now fiance David Sharaz colluded with Lisa Wilkinson and a Channel Ten producer to politically attack her, if her defamation cases against the couple go to trial. The former defence minister, who plans to retire from politics at the next election, is suing both her former political staffer and Sharaz over a series of social media posts that she says damaged her reputation. Lawyers for the parties appeared in the Western Australian supreme court on Wednesday, after a closed-door mediation hearing failed last month as the matters edged closer to trial. They wrangled over how the prospective trials should be run, with Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett saying they were so “intertwined” they should be partially merged to prevent duplication and save the parties money.

>>20700884 Brittany Higgins questions whether she ‘may have been drugged’ on night Bruce Lehrmann allegedly raped her - Brittany Higgins has questioned whether she may have been drugged on the night she was allegedly raped by Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House, and that she wishes the Federal Court had explored this possibility during Mr Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson, new court documents have revealed. The former Liberal staffer also claims the circumstances in which her $2.4m commonwealth payment was “prepared, agreed and executed” had not been explored “in any meaningful way” during proceedings, saying there is “no proper basis” to make adverse findings against her in relation to the compensation package. Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers had argued that Ms Higgins made 11 separate representations about her alleged rape in her settlement that were either false or contradicted by her own evidence in the defamation case.

>>20700895 Judgment day finally announced for epic Bruce Lehrmann, Ten, Lisa Wilkinson defamation saga - Bruce Lehrmann will learn on Monday next week whether judge Michael Lee has found he was defamed by Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson when they aired an interview with alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins. On Tuesday, the Federal Court advised that Justice Lee would deliver his verdict at 10.15am next Monday, with the judge expected to read an abbreviated version of his judgment, live-streamed on the Federal Court’s YouTube channel, with longer reasons to be published in full on the court’s website at the conclusion. The judgment had been delayed by an 11th-hour intervention last week by disaffected former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach, who provided Ten with affidavits about Mr Lehrmann’s involvement with the Seven network. Mr Lehrmann sued Ten and Wilkinson over her interview with Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021, detailing accu­sations that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins but not naming him as the alleged attacker. Ten and Wilkinson have relied on a defence of truth, in an attempt to prove Mr Lehrmann sexually assaulted Ms Higgins on the couch of senator Linda Reynolds in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019. Mr Lehrmann has consistently denied raping Ms Higgins.

>>20726614 Bruce Lehrmann ‘raped Brittany Higgins’, Ten wins defamation case - Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson have won their landmark defamation case against Bruce Lehrmann after Justice Michael Lee found the former Liberal staffer raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House. In delivering his long-awaited judgement, Justice Lee found Mr Lehrmann was “hellbent” on having sex with Ms Higgins after passionately kissing her in a Canberra night club, and was “so intent upon gratification” that he “did not care one way or the other whether Ms Higgins understood or agreed to what was going on.” Mr Lehrmann will receive no damages from the media outlet, and a debate regarding costs will be heard in coming weeks. Justice Lee also rejected suggestions aired by The Project that there was a political conspiracy to cover up Ms Higgins’ rape allegations, saying the accusations caused a “broom of confusion” and did much “collateral damage, including to the fair and orderly progress of the underlying allegation of sexual assault through the criminal justice system”.

#35 - Part 57

Brittany Higgins Rape Allegations and Bruce Lehrmann Defamation Trial - Part 3

>>20726638 ‘Bruce Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat’ - Justice Michael Lee’s defamation judgement was a masterstroke. Here are some of his sharpest observations. ‘I’m convinced … that sexual intercourse did take place, and that took place with Mr Lehrmann on top of Ms Higgins on the couch in the minister’s office’ - ‘Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins. I hasten to stress this is a finding on the balance of probabilities’ On Lehrmann pursuing damages after his aborted criminal trial: ‘Having escaped the lion’s den Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat’

>>20736640 Reynolds breaks silence over Lehrmann judgment, vows to pursue Higgins - Former Coalition minister Linda Reynolds has broken her silence following Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation defeat, vowing to proceed with her own civil case against Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz while declaring accusations of a political cover-up had been dispelled. Hours after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said his Liberal colleague had been vindicated by Federal Court Justice Michael Lee’s findings into the “sordid affair”, the West Australian senator became the first MP embroiled in the saga to speak out. Dutton also suggested Higgins and Sharaz should apologise to her. “For three years I have endured intense public scrutiny, vilification, vile trolling and have been demonised as the villain in a story of a political cover-up I have always known to be untrue,” Reynolds said. She said both her and her former chief-of-staff Fiona Brown had lost their careers, “had our reputations destroyed and have had our health seriously and irreparably compromised”.

>>20798809 David Sharaz waves white flag in Linda Reynolds defamation case - Brittany Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz has declared he will no longer defend himself against the defamation claim lodged against him by Linda Reynolds, in the latest twist in the long-running legal saga. Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz at the same time over the social media posts in 2022 and 2023. Senator Reynolds is expected to argue that her reputation was destroyed by a false allegation that she was part of an attempt to cover-up the rape of Ms Higgins by her then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann and the social media posts by the pair that pushed that false allegation. In a directions hearing in the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Tuesday, Mr Sharaz’s lawyer described the impending six week trial, scheduled to start in late July, as horrendously expensive and a disaster for everyone. He said Mr Sharaz could not afford to participate in it. Earlier, Mr Sharaz had posted a statement on social media saying he had informed the court that he would not fight the legal action against him any more. “I will now appeal for Senator Reynolds to settle her litigation against Brittany, a rape victim, by agreeing to disagree and putting all of this behind them. It’s time to move on,” he wrote. “It’s time to let Brittany heal.”

>>20808182 Sharaz could be bankrupt if he loses: Reynolds’ lawyer - Brittany Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz could “go bankrupt” if he loses the defamation claim lodged against him by former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds, following his declaration he was abandoning his defence of the case. In the midst of a directions hearing in the West Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday, Mr Sharaz posted a statement on social media saying he could not afford to pay the costs of a six-week trial fighting Senator Reynolds’ legal action. Senator Reynolds has made it clear through her lawyer, Martin Bennett, that she has no intention of abandoning her case against Mr Sharaz or Ms Higgins without an apology over their allegations she was involved in a cover-up of Ms Higgins’ rape by Bruce Lehrmann. Senator Reynolds says the cover-up allegations, found by Justice Michael Lee to be false, destroyed her reputation. Mr Bennett ridiculed Mr Sharaz’s claim that he could not afford his defence, observing he now lived with Ms Higgins in a five-bedroom country house in the south of France. “He lives in a chateau. He hasn’t got a job and he’s got a QC and a junior solicitor, two solicitors representing him,” he said. “If he’s impecunious as he asserts in France, he’ll go bankrupt.”

#35 - Part 58

Brittany Higgins Rape Allegations and Bruce Lehrmann Defamation Trial - Part 4

>>20826937 Linda Reynolds seeks to overturn Brittany Higgins trust - Linda Reynolds is preparing new legal action to set aside a trust established by Brittany Higgins that the former Liberal minister asserts may have been set up by Ms Higgins to protect the money she received in a $2.4m commonwealth compensation payout. Senator Reynolds’ move is designed to ensure that in the event she wins her upcoming defamation case against Ms Higgins, she is able to access any assets still held by her former staffer. In a draft of an application to be filed in the Western Australian Supreme Court on Monday Senator Reynolds demands a copy of the Brittany Higgins Protective Trust deed, set up in February last year, to ascertain who is the trustee -- and who to sue in the event Ms Higgins claims not to be able to meet any costs or damages awarded. If the court grants the order, Senator Reynolds would then be able to bring an action under section 89 of the WA Property Act - or other similar provision in the relevant jurisdiction where the trust was established - to have the trust set aside.

#35 - Part 59

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 1

>>20555443 US Navy cuts Virginia-class submarine from budget in potential blow to AUKUS pact - The US Navy is cutting a Virginia-class submarine from its latest budget in a move that critics fear could send a troubling signal to Australia and other nations about Washington’s commitment to the AUKUS military pact. Three months after a divided US Congress finally passed legislation to help Australia acquire nuclear-propelled submarines, the US Navy has proposed removing an attack submarine from its 2025 spending plan, in a tacit recognition that American shipbuilding yards are struggling with the pace of keeping its local fleet healthy. Democratic congressman Joe Courtney said if approved, the navy’s proposal could have “a profound impact” on it and the Australian Navy, and make it harder to assuage concerns about America’s ability to deliver on AUKUS while maintaining its own industrial base.

>>20555460 USS Annapolis Visits Australia - USS Annapolis (SSN 760) arrived in HMAS Stirling in Perth, Western Australia Sunday. This marks the second visit by a U.S. fast-attack submarine to HMAS Stirling since the announcement of the AUKUS [Australia, United Kingdom, United States] Optimal Pathway in March 2023. The Optimal Pathway is designed to deliver a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarine capability to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). “It’s an honor to be here and the team looks forward to working with the Australians and furthering our relationship,” said Cmdr. James Tuthill, Commanding Officer, USS Annapolis. “The enthusiasm and professionalism of the HMAS Stirling team is apparent, and we look forward to making this visit as productive as possible.”

>>20561037 US Navy’s nuclear submarine AUKUS charm offensive begins in Perth - The United States Navy and Royal Australian Navy have launched a PR assault on Perth this week to address a looming AUKUS recruitment crisis. The USS Annapolis Los Angeles-class fast-attack nuclear submarine docked at HMAS Stirling Naval Base on Sunday where much of its 155 crew will use their time on land to sell the job to Australians who will be needed to man the RAN’s own Virginia-class nuclear submarines over the next decade. At the head of the charm offensive is USS Annapolis’ commanding officer Commander James Tuthill who lead media on a tour of the submarine on Tuesday and spoke volumes of Perth. As part of AUKUS about 700 US Navy personnel will live and work in Perth and US Naval Attache to Australia Kevin Quarderer said every sailor wanted to come to Australia. “Everyone has heard about Perth, they hear the great stories from the crews that return out of these visits,” he said. “This is where people want to be.”

>>20570394 ‘Too big to fail’: US insists AUKUS deal is not sub par - The Biden administration has assured Australia that the US remains strongly committed to the AUKUS military pact after a contentious decision to halve American submarine production raised alarms about the future of the agreement. Three months after legislation to help Australia acquire nuclear-propelled submarines finally passed in Washington, the US Navy this week proposed removing an attack submarine from its 2025 spending plan, in a tacit recognition that American shipbuilding yards are struggling with the pace of producing and maintaining the national fleet. The proposed budget cut prompted fears about the viability of AUKUS, which was designed by the US, Australia and the UK to safeguard the Indo-Pacific from the growing threat of China, but requires the US maintain a production rate of 2.33 submarines a year to sell any subs to Australia.

#35 - Part 60

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 2

>>20570434 Video: US congressman Joe Courtney hits back at Malcolm Turnbull’s claim Australia was ‘mugged by reality’ on AUKUS deal: 'Never stepped foot in that shipyard' - US Democratic Congressman Joe Courtney has hit back at former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s claim Australia was "mugged by reality" over the production of submarine deliverables from the United States as part of the tripartite AUKUS deal with the UK and the US. Mr Turnbull claimed on Wednesday that Australia was now at the mercy of its ally after the US announced it will halve the number of submarines it will build in 2025. The Pentagon's budget draft request calls for just one Virginia-class submarine to be built next year, potentially jeopardising plans for the US to provide three of the models to Australia by the early 2030s. "This is really a case of us being mugged by reality. I mean, there's a lot of AUKUS cheerleaders, and anyone that has any criticism of AUKUS is almost described as being unpatriotic. We've got to be realistic here," Mr Turnbull said. Speaking to Sky News host Peter Stefanovic on Friday morning, Mr Courtney shot down Mr Turnbull's concerns, claiming the deal was in a "healthy" position. "He has never stepped foot in that shipyard, he’s never gone to the job creating programs where we are building up capacity every single day, so I think that the reality is not one that’s mugging anyone. I think the reality is positive," Mr Courtney said.

>>20575568 ‘It’s a deal between countries, not a deal between individuals’: PM Anthony Albanese says AUKUS agreement has support required to survive another Trump presidency - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the AUKUS agreement has the support required to survive a second Trump presidency, declaring “it’s a deal between countries, not a deal between individuals”. Mr Albanese, Premier Peter Malinauskas and a host of industry leaders discussed their ideas for building a bigger, better South Australia at The Advertiser’s Future SA forum at SkyCity Adelaide on Friday. Asked by moderator David Penberthy whether the AUKUS deal would be threatened by a second Trump presidency, Mr Albanese said support had already been shored up. “I think that it’s beyond question now,” he said. “It did take effort, it was essentially an idea without a plan. “That plan is now in place. It enjoys bipartisan support here and it enjoys bipartisan support in the US.”

>>20589317 Australia should be talking to Trump about AUKUS: ex-security chief Michael Rogers - "Australia needs to sell the benefits of the AUKUS pact for the US to Donald Trump to prevent the planned sale of nuclear-powered submarines being knocked off course, a former US security chief who served in the Trump presidency says. Former US National Security Agency head Michael Rogers said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review that Australian officials should reach out to Mr Trump and his campaign ahead of November’s presidential election to shore up the trilateral deal between Australia, the US and UK. Mr Rogers said the Turnbull and Morrison governments’ successful management of relations with Mr Trump during his first term in office offered pointers for how the Albanese government should handle him. “I would argue that during President Trump’s term of office, he ultimately had a stronger relationship in many ways with Australia for example than he did with the United Kingdom which we traditionally talk about as the ‘special relationship’,” he said. “My recommendation to my Australian teammates would be is there is a lot to learn from the past. I would step back and ask ‘How did you manage to put the US-Australian relationship in such a strong position during President Trump’s term’?”" - Andrew Tillett - afr.com

>>20589317 Q Post #585 - TRUST Adm R. He played the game to remain in control. Q - https://qanon.pub/#585

>>20612791 US needs to step up assurances on AUKUS, admits Kurt Campbell - The US could do more to reassure partners Australia and the UK on the progress of AUKUS, says the country’s new deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. He admitted more effort was needed to counter China’s “propaganda” on the nuclear-powered submarine deal. “We could tell the story better,” Dr Campbell, who has also been the Biden administration’s top Indo-Pacific envoy, told The Australian Financial Review. “There’s a huge number of things that have happened, but I don’t think we’ve done enough to tell that story to the Australian people,” he said, “The truth is the steps that have been taken towards AUKUS in all three countries are very substantial.”

#35 - Part 61

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 3

>>20612813 AUKUS: Taxpayers fund Rolls Royce subs plan in $4.6bn bailout for British plant - Australian taxpayers will hand $4.64bn to Britain’s Rolls-Royce over the next decade so it can build nuclear reactors for the navy’s future AUKUS submarines, matching funds provided to the US to expand its submarine industry under the trilateral pact. The funding injection for the under-pressure British submarine sector will be announced on Friday, as Australian government submarine builder ASC is named as a joint venture partner to build the AUKUS boats with the UK’s BAE Systems.

>>20612852 Video: David Cameron says Aukus and Nato must be in ‘best possible shape’ ahead of potential Trump win - The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has suggested the Aukus pact and Nato alliance must get into “the best possible shape” to increase their chances of surviving Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House. Speaking after high-level talks in Australia, Cameron was careful to avoid criticising the former US president and presumptive Republican nominee for 2024, saying it was “up to America who they choose as their president”. “What we will do, as I am sure an Australian government would do, is work with whoever becomes the president,” Cameron told reporters in Adelaide, South Australia.

>>20617415 Video: Defence Minister Richard Marles confident Kevin Rudd can deliver AUKUS under Trump presidency, despite 'nasty' remarks - Defence Minister Richard Marles says he is still confident United States ambassador Kevin Rudd can deliver Australia's AUKUS nuclear submarine program, despite recent comments by former president Donald Trump throwing his future into question. Speaking on ABC's Insiders, the defence minister said he had no reason to believe AUKUS would be threatened by a Trump presidency. "We have seen Kevin working at a pace, lobbying in respect of legislation in Congress across the political spectrum with Democrats and Republicans alike, and he's doing a great job," Mr Marles said. "Obviously the relationship has experienced a Trump presidency before and the relationship went through that period of time well, so we do have a sense of confidence of being able to work across the political spectrum and we had a sense of confidence that Kevin would be able to do that, and he has."

>>20676443 AUKUS subs ‘could be deployed against China’, Kurt Campbell says - Joe Biden’s No. 2 diplomat says Australia’s future nuclear-­powered submarines could one day be deployed against China in a conflict over Taiwan. While the Albanese government has insisted the AUKUS pact won’t require Australia to join a US war against China, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Australia’s and Britain’s submarines could play a decisive role in a conflict across the Taiwan Strait. Dr Campbell told Washington’s Centre for a New American Security that the AUKUS pact boats, with their long-range missiles, had “enormous implications in a variety of scenarios, including in cross-strait circumstances”.

>>20686729 Japan to take part in AUKUS 'Pillar 2', America's ambassador to Japan tells Wall Street Journal - Japan is set to participate in the second pillar of the AUKUS pact with Australia, the United Kingdom and United States in the first expansion to date of the defence technology-sharing arrangement. Australia is working to develop nuclear-powered submarines under "Pillar 1" of AUKUS, utilising US and UK technology. But there has been persistent speculation that Japan will at some point join "Pillar 2" of AUKUS, which is being used as a mechanism for all three countries to share advanced defence technologies across a range of fields including quantum technology, hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence. On Friday, America's ambassador in Tokyo, Rahm Emanuel, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Japan was "about to become the first additional Pillar II partner" in AUKUS.

#35 - Part 62

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 4

>>20686736 Campbell bares AUKUS’ destabilizing nature - "Since its formation, AUKUS has been a wedge the US drives in regional peace and stability by luring allies into this process under the banner of military-technological cooperation. But let's talk about the elephant in the room: it's afraid that AUKUS won't even achieve its Pillar 1, which is to support Australia to acquire its nuclear-powered submarines, on time. Media reports on Friday show that US shipyards are running up to three years late in building new Virginia-class submarines for Canberra, raising even greater concerns about the future of AUKUS. Against this backdrop, it is hard not to suspect that by emphasizing AUKUS's role in the Taiwan Straits as a hook to the "already expected benefits," Campbell's words on Wednesday also aimed to give a shot in the arm into AUKUS in an attempt to prove the significance of AUKUS' existence and boost allies' confidence in the pact." - Xia Wenxin - globaltimes.cn

>>20691491 Aukus weighs expanding security pact to deter China in Indo-Pacific - The US, UK and Australia are to begin talks on bringing new members into Aukus as Washington pushes for Japan to be involved in the security pact aimed as a deterrent against China. The Aukus defence ministers will announce on Monday that they will launch talks related to Pillar II of the alliance, which involves collaboration on technologies such as undersea capabilities and hypersonic weapons, according to people familiar with the situation. They are not considering expanding Pillar I, which focuses on Australia’s procurement of nuclear-powered submarines.

>>20691508 Video: Senior US diplomat lets the AUKUS cat out of the bag - US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has once more torn away the veil of what the AUKUS submarines are actually intended for: a potential war with China over Taiwan. But he has gone much further. Campbell has criticised the Albanese government’s public emphasis -- and indeed that of his own President – on AUKUS’ capacity for domestic job creation, and says “more money” will be required to realise the audacious plan. Speaking in Washington last week, Campbell referred to the “practical circumstances in which AUKUS has the potential to have submarines from a number of countries operating in close co-ordination that could deliver conventional ordnance from long distances”. “Those have enormous implications in a variety of scenarios, including in cross-strait circumstances,” he said.

>>20691520 Japan set to join AUKUS tech pact - Australia, the US and Britain are poised to admit Japan to the AUKUS pact’s advanced technology partnership, in a move set to turbocharge the alliance’s development of hi-tech weapons aimed at deterring China. Defence Minister Richard Marles will within days have talks with his US and British counterparts on expanding the membership of AUKUS’s ‘Pillar II’, which is focused on hypersonics, AI and autonomous systems, quantum computing, advanced cyber capabilities and electronic warfare. The move, reported initially by Britain’s Financial Times, comes despite concerns among AUKUS members that Tokyo does not yet have sufficient security arrangements in place to prevent the theft of sensitive technology.

>>20700772 Vice Admiral David Johnston named new chief of the defence force - Vice Admiral David Johnston will lead Australia's armed forces as chief of the defence force, pending the approval of the governor-general. Vice Admiral Johnston will replace General Angus Campbell, who has served as defence chief since 2018. The appointment comes as Australia considers expanding its key partnership with the United States and United Kingdom, AUKUS, to include Japan in some of the alliance's military projects. The AUKUS agreement for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines will be one of the most significant projects Vice Admiral Johnston takes on, with the first stages of construction due to begin late this decade.

#35 - Part 63

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 5

>>20700778 ‘Safe pair of hands’ David Johnston the new Defence Force chief - A navy officer will lead the nation’s military for the first time in over two decades as Japan, Canada and other nations clamour to gain access to the technology-sharing benefits of the AUKUS pact. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was an “easy decision” to elevate Australian Defence Force vice chief David Johnston to the top job, while Defence Minister Richard Marles praised him as a “safe pair of hands”. However, critics questioned whether Johnston would be able to drive major reform inside the ADF given he will serve a truncated two-year term in the role at his request, rather than the usual four years. Johnston will be the first naval officer to helm the Australian Defence Force since Chris Barrie in 2002, and comes to the job as Australia commits up to $368 billion over 30 years to acquire a nuclear-powered submarine fleet through AUKUS, a security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom. The three AUKUS nations on Tuesday agreed to begin talks to allow other nations to join the so-called “pillar II” of the pact, beginning with Japan.

>>20700793 Vice Admiral David Johnston’s status quo promotion to ADF chief is a bad mistake from Anthony Albanese - "The government has made a mistake in promoting Vice Admiral David Johnston to be Chief of the Australian Defence Force. Johnston is a patriotic and distinguished Australian who has given his life to the military. He is still a bad appointment because, as the incumbent Vice Chief of the Defence Force, he is the status quo candidate, the continuity candidate. A better appointment, because it would have signalled at least the possibility of change, would have been Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond. The Albanese government, and especially Defence Minister Richard Marles, can’t have it both ways. They can’t tell us one minute that there are endemic cultural problems in the entire Defence establishment, civilian and military, and that this has led to wasted money, horrendous ­delays in projects and a gravely sub-optimal performance, and then go ahead and reward, promote and shower praise on everyone who has overseen that culture over the past decade." - Greg Sheridan, The Australian's foreign editor - theaustralian.com.au

>>20700849 Australia, US and UK confirm Japan could be brought into AUKUS fold on eve of Kishida's Washington visit - Australia and its AUKUS partners, the US and UK, are considering including Japan in some of the alliance's military projects, the three countries have confirmed. But they've stopped short of announcing a formal expansion of the AUKUS partnership, which has been the subject of ongoing speculation and was flagged by the US ambassador to Japan last week. China, which has long opposed AUKUS, responded by saying it was "gravely concerned" about the prospect of Japan joining the pact. Its foreign ministry warned such a move would "intensify the arms race in the Indo-Pacific region and disrupt regional peace and stability", the South China Morning Post reported.

>>20700866 Trump will see nuclear subs as a ‘win-win’, US foreign policy guru predicts - One of America’s leading foreign policy thinkers, Richard Fontaine, has played down fears that Donald Trump could discard the AUKUS pact or seek revenge against Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd if the former president is re-elected in November. Speaking as the US, Australia and United Kingdom begin talks to allow other nations such as Japan to enter the trilateral pact, Fontaine said he feels “pretty confident” that Trump would stick with AUKUS if he defeats incumbent Joe Biden. “There are grounds to worry about what Trump might do if he were back in office, but AUKUS is unlikely to be one of them,” said Fontaine, who served as a senior official on Asia policy in George W. Bush’s administration and is visiting Australia for a national security conference run by the Australian National University. “I think it’s such a win-win and I think would be perceived that way if a Trump administration was to come back into office. The chances that AUKUS would survive a political transition in the US - just as it survived one in Australia - are very high.”

#35 - Part 64

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 6

>>20715916 Trump flexible on AUKUS subs: Republicans - Republican members of Congress say presidential nominee Donald Trump is likely to back the AUKUS agreement to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia even if US production targets are not met. Congressman Rob Wittman, a Trump supporter, whose electorate includes a major submarine building yard in Virginia, said Mr Trump would likely back AUKUS and be flexible around the sale of submarines. “I think [Mr Trump] sees partnerships as being incredibly important to make sure that we have the wherewithal to deter malign forces like China. I think he sees the US cannot do it by itself, I think you’ll see that the strong strategic relationships are going to be key,” Mr Wittman said.

>>20736643 Bob Carr tells New Zealand: steer clear of AUKUS - Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has urged New Zealand not to acquiesce to American interests and join up to AUKUS as an associate member. Mr Carr is visiting Wellington this week to be part of a foreign policy symposium at Parliament House alongside former Prime Minister Helen Clark. The pair are strident critics of AUKUS, the military alliance between Australia, the UK and United States that will see Australia kitted out with nuclear-powered submarines. They also oppose New Zealand's involvement in pillar two of the pact, which aims to bring together a broader clutch of like-minded nations - like Canada, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand - with AUKUS members to share advanced military technologies.

>>20741593 AUKUS Pillar 2 is 'fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit' - Bob Carr - Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has continued to warn New Zealand against joining Pillar 2 of the AUKUS defence pact, saying it is "fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit". He says Australian taxpayers will also be forking out on the deal for decades, when the country could have got more non-nuclear submarines, faster - and for a fraction of the price. The government appeared, he said, to be "rushing headlong" into the Pillar 2 of the agreement without having articulated what it was. Carr, who was foreign minister in the Julia Gillard government, took a dim view of the deal. "It's pure bullshit," he said. "Pillar 2 is fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit … Why do I call it bullshit? Because it's been cobbled together to make it look like there's more to AUKUS than subs - there isn't."

>>20803334 New Zealand not yet invited into AUKUS camp: NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters - New Zealand is some way from deciding whether it will collaborate with AUKUS members under pillar two of the military alliance, primarily because it hasn't been asked. In a major speech on Wednesday night, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Australia, the UK and US had not decided whether they wanted New Zealand involved. "There is one crucial precondition and one consequential decision required before New Zealand could or would participate in pillar two," he said. "AUKUS partners need to want us to participate in pillar two and invite us to do so. "That precondition has not yet been met, which is why we are exploring with our traditional partners the scope of pillar two and seeking a much more detailed understanding of what this involves."

>>20803352 South Korea discusses participating in AUKUS tech pillar - The South Korean and Australian defense chiefs said Wednesday that Seoul was in talks to participate in the defense technology pillar of the AUKUS security pact, just weeks after Japan also said it was in discussions to join. "During today's meeting, we discussed the possibility of partnering with AUKUS Pillar II," South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said via an interpreter when asked about the pact at a live-streamed joint news conference following a meeting between South Korean and Australian defense and foreign ministers in Melbourne. "We do welcome that the members are considering Korea as a Pillar II partner.” The AUKUS pact, announced in 2021, involves Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Widely seen as a means of countering China’s growing military clout in the Indo-Pacific region, the grouping’s primary goal, known as Pillar I, is to provide Australia with its own fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines. But the pact’s second program, known as Pillar II, is centered around developing and sharing advanced capabilities across a broad swath of area including hypersonics, anti-submarine warfare and cyberweapons, as well as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

#35 - Part 65

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 7

>>20822460 Draft AUKUS laws would ‘allow disposal of British, US nuclear sub waste’, BAE concedes - The British company appointed to build Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines says the government’s draft nuclear safety laws leave the door open to the disposal here of high-level radio­active waste from British sub­marines. BAE Systems’ chief counsel made observation at a committee hearing examining the government’s naval nuclear power safety bill, which is due to be pushed through parliament after next week’s federal budget. The bill will impose strict safety rules on facilities to be used “for managing, storing or disposing of radioactive waste from an AUKUS submarine”. As its currently drafted, it defines an AUKUS submarine as a nuclear-powered, conventionally armed boat operated by Australia, Britain or the US. Under questioning by Greens senator David Shoebridge, BAE’s Peter Quinlivian agreed that the wording of the bill opened a pathway for the disposal of high-level British radioactive waste in Australia. “The legislation as drafted is in language that would accommodate that scenario,” he said.

>>20864839 AUKUS back on track as US congress set to double purchases of Virginia-class submarines - The US House of Representatives is on track to overturn the Biden administration’s surprise request to buy only one Virginia-class submarine in 2025, which had raised fears the US Navy wouldn’t be able to supply Australia with promised nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS security pact. The powerful House Armed Services Committee on Monday (Tuesday AEST) has doubled to two the number of Virginia-class submarines the US government will buy in 2025, putting congress on track to increase production of the critical vessels which Australia is meant to start purchasing in the early 2030s. The Biden administration in its March 2025 budget proposal had indicated it would purchase only one of the submarines in 2025, far below the annual number required (around three per year on average) to satisfy both the US and Australian navies’ future needs. “Authorising the second boat through incremental funding authority, which restores the two-per-year procurement rate and allows the Navy to contract for two submarines in FY25, will provide additional resources to ensure all suppliers are covered and increase the inventory of attack submarines for the Navy,” said Democratic Party congressman Joe Courtney.

#35 - Part 66

Australia / China Tensions - Part 1

>>20550378 Video: Yang Hengjun not that sick, says Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian - Hopes for the release of dissident writer Yang Hengjun on medical grounds have been dampened after the Chinese ambassador said the democracy advocate was not as sick as his family has claimed. Dr Yang, who is an Australian citizen, is facing a suspended death penalty in China after being found guilty of espionage and tried in a closed-door hearing in May 2021. But Xiao Qian, who has been the Chinese ambassador to Australia for the last two years, said fears that Dr Yang may die in custody due to sustained ill-health and a serious kidney condition were overblown. “His health is not perfect, but his health problems are not as serious as that has been described publicly,” Mr Xiao told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit.

>>20550390 Chinese ambassador says tariff discussions ‘on the right track’ - Beijing’s restrictions on imports worth some $2.5 billion are “on the right track” to be lifted by the end of the month, China’s ambassador Xiao Qian says, reassuring local companies that Australia’s largest trading partner would meet its ambitious growth target this year despite economic challenges.

>>20550396 Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu Meets with Ambassador of Australia to China Scott Dewar - "On March 8, 2024, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu met with Ambassador of Australia to China Scott Dewar, and they had an exchange of views on China-Australia relations and issues of mutual interest and concern." - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China - 2024-03-10

>>20560986 Australian wine back on the menu as China to remove tariffs - The Australian wine industry is one step closer to reclaiming ­access to the China market and more than $1bn in annual sales after the Chinese Ministry of Commerce released an interim draft determination that proposed a lifting of crippling tariffs on Australian wine imports. The largest exporter of Australian wine, ASX-listed Treasury Wine Estates, whose labels include Penfolds, Pepperjack and Wolf Blass, said on Tuesday night it had been advised of the draft ­determination. It noted it was not a final determination and was “subject to change” by the ministry.

>>20561052 Why this cyber chief thinks your electric car is a security risk - Chinese technology is “inherently suspect” and deserves much greater scrutiny, a top US cybersecurity official says, as warnings grow that Beijing’s stranglehold on the electric vehicle market poses a security threat to Western countries. In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency executive director Brandon Wales also flagged that Five Eyes members and other Western nations would step up co-operation to call out cyberattacks and act against adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

>>20561062 ‘Societal chaos’: US cyber chief sounds alarm on China threat - China is hacking into rival nations’ critical infrastructure networks so it can disrupt American military activities in the Asia-Pacific and unleash societal chaos, one of the United States’ most senior cybersecurity officials has warned. Brandon Wales, executive director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the US, Australia and other democratic nations needed to respond to an “extremely significant shift” in Beijing’s strategy from a focus on more passive forms of espionage to laying the groundwork for offensive cyberattacks.

>>20565284 Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to meet Penny Wong in Canberra - Foreign Minister Penny Wong will press her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to remove Beijing’s remaining trade sanctions on Australian exports and the need to prevent conflict in the region when she hosts him in Canberra on Wednesday. Two days after China flagged it would remove crippling tariffs on Australian wine exports, Senator Wong confirmed she would host Mr Wang for the Seventh Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue. Mr Wang will also meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Senator Wong is also expected to raise human rights and protest the jailing of Chinese-Australian pro-democracy blogger Yang Hengjun in her meeting with Mr Wang.

#35 - Part 67

Australia / China Tensions - Part 2

>>20575587 Fiji to stick with China police deal after review, home affairs minister says - Fiji will uphold a policing cooperation agreement with China after reviewing the deal, the country’s home affairs minister, Pio Tikoduadua, has confirmed, despite earlier concerns within the Pacific nation over the deal. The controversial agreement was signed in 2011 when Fiji was under military rule. Under the deal, Fijian officers have been trained in China while Chinese police have been embedded in the Fijian force. Beijing has also provided hi-tech equipment including surveillance gear and drones. The deal has been under review after Fiji’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, raised concerns last year over the countries’ differing values and judicial systems. Tikoduadua said the review had been completed and Fiji would be sticking with Beijing.

>>20580414 TikTok faces new calls for bans or curbs - Australia should pass new laws to curb the power of TikTok and protect the community from misinformation on the social media app, a leading security expert has warned after days of political dispute over Chinese control of the popular platform. Cybersecurity expert Fergus Ryan said it had become “trivially easy” for TikTok to influence Australian debate because it had swollen to 8.5 million users in this country while officials considered how to act on its growing power.

>>20584533 Paul Keating invited to meet China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on his visit to Australia - An “unofficial” meeting between Xi Jinping’s top foreign policy ­adviser Wang Yi and Paul Keating could overshadow the Albanese government’s diplomatic agenda during the Chinese envoy’s high stakes visit to Australia this week. The Australian can reveal Chinese officials have invited the former Labor prime minister to a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister this week in Sydney, a jarring addition to a trip that Beijing says is intended to send “positive signals” for the relationship. Mr Keating’s audience with Mr Wang, the most senior Chinese ­official to visit Australia in seven years, would be the most extraordinary intervention yet in the Labor legend’s public campaign against the Albanese government’s foreign policy.

>>20584558 Keating confirms meeting with Chinese envoy - Paul Keating has revealed he has accepted an invitation to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Sydney this week during a key bilateral visit by the senior Communist Party official. “As a matter of courtesy, let alone anything else, I was happy to advise the Chinese Foreign Ministry that, given I had the time, I would be pleased to sit down and discuss international matters with the Foreign Minister,” the former Labor prime minister said in a statement.

>>20584566 What’s behind Wang Yi’s meeting with Paul Keating? - "Paul Keating has accepted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s extraordinary invitation to meet on the sidelines of his official visit to Australia. It’s clear the meeting will overshadow the official diplomatic meetings Wang Yi will participate in this week, but it goes much further: China’s chief diplomat has found a novel way to insult his Australian host and advance his country’s interests at the same time. Beijing is fully aware that the former prime minister has been levelling personal and ungracious criticisms against Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Australian strategic policy more generally. That Wang Yi’s invitation was a calculated move to belittle his Australian host is obvious. He will be delighted Keating accepted. There is cunning and purpose behind Wang reaching out to Keating. From foreign interference to economic punishment, Beijing’s aim is to divide the Labor Party and the Australian community. This is attempted through seduction or coercion to encourage voices within the government to agitate for a softening of policies towards China." - John Leel, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC and former senior adviser to the Australian Foreign Minister - theaustralian.com.au

>>20589267 Business scrambles for Canberra audience with China’s foreign minister as Paul Keating confirms meeting - Senior Australian business figures are scrambling to get to Canberra for a secretive, hastily-organised event with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on a trip that has been overshadowed by a “pointed and somewhat insulting” meeting between Xi Jinping’s top international affairs adviser and Paul Keating. The Australian can reveal senior executives from mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP are expected to be at the closed-door lunch on Wednesday, which is being arranged by the Chinese government and the Australia China Business Council.

#35 - Part 68

Australia / China Tensions - Part 3

>>20589270 Paul Keating appears to be a willing partner in Chinese charade - "Wang’s request for an audience with Keating is straight out of the Chinese Communist Party playbook. Senior Chinese officials often call on sympathetic former leaders in the countries they travel to, just as they seek out supporters in the Australian-Chinese business communities. It sends a signal to the host government and the Chinese domestic audience about China’s wider influence. But it’s a particularly bold move in this case, given Labor’s relatively accommodating position on China and the scale of Keating’s attacks on Wong. As China watcher Clive Hamilton has observed, Keating is one of Beijing’s “most committed advocates”, arguing human rights are a Western concept that doesn’t apply to China, and lauding the CCP as “the best government in the world in the last 30 years”." - Ben Packham The Australian's foreign affairs and defence correspondent - theaustralian.com.au

>>20600307 Penny Wong downplays Paul Keating’s influence ahead of meeting with Chinese envoy Wang Yi - Penny Wong has sent a clear message to China that Paul Keating has no influence over government policy ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with the pro-Beijing former prime minister. In her first comment on Mr Wang’s scheduled audience with Mr Keating on Thursday, Senator Wong told The Australian: “Mr Keating is entitled to his views. He does not speak for the government nor the country.” The pointed remark follows Mr Keating’s repeated criticism of Senator Wong’s performance as Foreign Minister, and the government’s ongoing warnings over China’s destabilising influence in the region.

>>20600321 China-Australia relation not targeted at third party, nor should be influenced by any third party: Chinese FM Wang Yi - ''"Since the relationship between China and Australia is on the right track, we should not hesitate, deviate, or backtrack, and the development of the bilateral ties is not targeted at any third party, nor should it be influenced or interfered with by any third party, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Canberra on Wednesday. Wang said China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace, and our policy toward Australia has been consistent. The development of China-Australia relations is not directed against any third party, nor should it be influenced or interfered with by any third party."' - Global Times - globaltimes.cn

>>20600350 Paul Keating leaves Chinese consulate after meeting Wang Yi - Paul Keating says Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi showed a “keen understanding of Australia’s strengths” in their private meeting on Thursday, underlining China’s importance to Australia’s economy. Mr Keating said his hour and five minute meeting with Mr Wang was “very pleasant and engaging”. They had a largely “big picture discussion about the geostrategic balances and influences in the world”, he said. “The Foreign Minister was very positive about putting bilateral difficulties behind us as he was encouraged by the government’s efforts in restoring appropriate equilibrium between our two countries,” Mr Keating said in a statement after the meeting.

>>20600399 Wang Yi’s trip only worsens Australia’s biggest problem with China - "There are many questions Australian journalists would have liked to ask Mr Wang - but that would require China’s foreign minister to have fronted up to the media. Instead, Mr Xi s international affairs adviser slunk off to meet with a group of vetted China-focused business figures, along with two of Chinese state media’s favourite Australian academics: former Defence official Hugh White and ACRI head James Laurenceson. In the prelude to a question at the Wednesday press conference, one of the Chinese journalists remarked: “Many Chinese people believe that the bottleneck in Australia-China relations lies in Australia’s lack of trust in China.” They are spot on. Most Australians don’t trust China. And is unlikely this secretive trip by one of Mr Xi’s top advisers will change their minds." - Will Glasgow - theaustralian.com.au

#35 - Part 69

Australia / China Tensions - Part 4

>>20600485 Paul Keating diminishes himself with made-for-CCTV meeting with Wang Yi - "There is a Chinese term for someone who tries to promote the Communist Party, but does it so ineptly they embarrass China. They are called a dijihong, or “low-level red”. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating and the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have both earned the title this week. Keating has said there was nothing off about his summoning to the Chinese Consulate in Sydney on Thursday. His protests were about as convincing as his claim to being a supporter of the Albanese government’s foreign policy - “most, if not all the time”. Worst of all has been the spectacle Keating has allowed China to make of him. Ultimately though, this exercise in Chinese statecraft seems to have backfired. Its lasting effect will be to undermine trust between the government and Beijing - and to further diminish Potts Point’s most outspoken “low-level red”." - Will Glasgow - theaustralian.com.au

>>20600494 'No backward steps' as China-Australia ties are on right track - "Since China-Australia relations are on the right track, both sides should have no hesitation, no yawing and no backward steps, and China is willing to work with Australia to further prepare for high-level exchanges between the two countries, restart consultation and dialogue mechanisms, and manage differences based on mutual respect, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Wednesday. After bilateral relations enduring a tumultuous rollercoaster of ups and downs over the past decade, Wang embarked on a visit to Australia at a crucial stage of development of ties. Experts believe that his visit will not only help mend ties and foster mutual trust, but also push forward future development of bilateral relations." - Zhao Yusha - globaltimes.cn

>>20606226 Video: ‘Statesman’ Paul Keating voices Chinese lines after meeting with Wang Yi - Paul Keating has amplified Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s claims that his country is underwriting global living standards and Australia must integrate more closely with China to secure its economic future. The former prime minister said after his private meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister that Mr Wang underlined China’s importance to Australia’s economy, declaring Australia’s future lay in East Asia. In Chinese media footage of the encounter, Mr Wang told the pro-China former prime minister he was a “world-renowned statesman” who had “always cared about and supported China-Australia relations”.

>>20617427 Raided, hooded and flown to China: Secret Fiji video reveals Beijing’s ‘rendition’ tactics - Fiji’s prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka has called on China to retreat from the South Pacific and warned that Beijing’s “unwarranted influence” risks the region’s stability. Rabuka’s comments - his most forthright on China since his election in December 2022 - came as Australian researchers unearthed an extraordinary Chinese security agency video, casting new light on a controversial police operation in Fiji that has become a case study of Beijing’s desire to operate beyond its borders. The video, obtained by 60 Minutes, shows dozens of Chinese police flying to Fiji in 2017, conducting raids and arresting and hooding 77 mostly young male and female Chinese alleged cyber scammers, who are then loaded onto a charter plane bound for China as Fijian police observe passively.

>>20622314 Fiji to Sign Ports Deal with Australia in Shipbuilding Boost - Fiji will strike a deal with Australia to upgrade ports and shipbuilding infrastructure, months after its prime minister said it was likely to partner with China on the project, the government of the Pacific Islands nation said on Thursday. Fiji’s government said its cabinet had agreed to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Australia for the project, after Australia committed to financing. “The revival of the shipbuilding industry in Fiji has been articulated as a key priority,” Fiji’s government said in a statement. Australia will provide initial grant financing to the Fiji Government and the Fiji Ports Corporation, it said. Australia, the largest aid donor to the Pacific Islands region, is stepping up its infrastructure support to counter China’s push to expand security and policing ties in the region.

#35 - Part 70

Australia / China Tensions - Part 5

>>20628528 UK set to declare China threat to national security after cyber attacks on politicians, electoral commission - Britain is set to declare China a threat to national security after two malicious cyber campaigns targeting Westminster parliamentarians and Britain’s 40 million voters. Australia’s Five Eyes spy network supported Britain in identifying China state-affiliated actors as responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting Westminster parliamentarians and Britain’s 40 million voters. Britain has raised the issue of China’s targeting of British democratic institutions and political processes with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and has made public its concerns about China so “other countries should see the detail of threats that our systems and democracies face”. Oliver Dowden, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, also indicated the UK would officially declare China a threat, The Times reports.

>>20628552 Coalition calls for sanctions against China after Beijing accused of cyber espionage in US and UK - The Coalition is pressing the federal government to hit China with sanctions after Australia joined with the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand to accuse Beijing of orchestrating a sweeping campaign of cyber espionage targeting voters, parliamentarians and companies in the West. The UK and the US have already unveiled sanctions on state-backed hackers they accuse of being behind "malicious" cyber attacks which hit Britain's electoral commission and British MPs critical of China, as well as a host of companies, individuals and politicians in the US. And on Tuesday morning New Zealand's Defence Minister Judith Collins announced that in 2021 hackers from a group linked to China's Ministry of State Security also managed to gain access to the country's Parliamentary Service, as well as the Parliamentary Counsel Office.

>>20628558 China-Nauru ties open a new chapter in history: Xi - "Nauru's political decision to adhere to the one-China principle and restore diplomatic ties with China in January is a move that conforms to the trend of history and the times, Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting Nauruan President David Adeang on Monday in Beijing Xi said China-Nauru relations have opened a new chapter in history, and China is ready to work with Nauru to create a better future of China-Nauru relations and bring more benefits to the two peoples. Friendship, whenever it is started, will have a bright future. Cooperation, whatever its size, will be productive as long as it is sincere, Xi said." - GT staff reporters - globaltimes.cn

>>20634693 Andrew Forrest says claims China poses a military threat are ‘complete rubbish’ - Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest says China is not a threat and his companies will continue investing in the world’s second-largest economy despite growing concerns about national security crackdowns, cyberattacks and Beijing’s stuttering economic recovery. Forrest, one of several global executives in China this week for the China Development Forum and the Boao Forum for Asia, said competition with the Asian giant had increased global living standards by forcing businesses to innovate, but that dynamic was now being threatened by “childish bickering” between Western governments and Beijing. “Worrying about China as more than a strong, determined and capable competitor is completely different to calling them a military threat,” the Fortescue chairman said in an interview on Tuesday. “The latter is just complete rubbish.”

>>20634702 The slander by the Five Eyes alliance is just a clumsy political farce - "On Monday, the UK and the US falsely accused China of carrying out cyber attacks and imposed sanctions on China. Subsequently, Australia and New Zealand also came forward to jointly accuse China of orchestrating a so-called sweeping campaign of cyber espionage. Last year, the Canadian Foreign Ministry slandered China for conducting cyber attacks against Canada. There is no doubt that this is another collective smear campaign against China by the Five Eyes alliance. This "witch-hunt," typical of Western zero-sum mentality, stirs up wave after wave of "China threat" theory for election purposes and is a tragedy for Western democracy." - Global Times - globaltimes.cn

#35 - Part 71

Australia / China Tensions - Part 6

>>20641684 Video: China's government officially abolishes heavy tariffs on Australian wine - China's government has officially abolished heavy tariffs on Australian wine, offering a potential lifeline to an industry struggling with low prices and global oversupply. Beijing agreed to review the tariffs five months ago as it gradually unwinds the trade barriers it placed on around $20 billion of Australian exports in 2020 and 2021, when the bilateral relationship was at its nadir. Earlier this month, China's Commerce Ministry handed down an interim decision all but confirming that the tariffs of up to 220 per cent on Australian wine would be dropped. Now, the Commerce Ministry in Beijing has announced it is "no longer necessary to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on the imports of the relevant wines originating in Australia."

>>20665469 China steps up business embrace even as Australian tension persists - Beijing has marked Australia a priority location for Chinese businesses to expand while calling for the Albanese government to be more “rational” in its treatment of investment from China. In a striking sign of the improvement in the bilateral relationship, Beijing’s influential China Council for the Promotion of International Trade declared over the Easter long weekend that many Chinese businesses were now looking to expand in Australia. The top Chinese government trade promotion agency - described by one business figure as “Austrade on steroids” – said China and Australia’s economies were “highly complementary and have huge potential”.

>>20665486 Video: Australian media urged to play a more positive role in promoting cooperation, peace as they enhance sneaky maneuvers in PICs to smear China - "Some Western media outlets have been sparing no effort to smear China's cooperation with South Pacific Island Countries (PICs). In a recent move, 60 Minutes Australia released a video program entitled "China's dirty tactics to control Pacific" on March 24 to further smear normal exchanges and cooperation between China and Fiji. The video alleges that behind this cooperation are China and Chinese businesspeople who are "supporting drug trafficking organizations in Fiji" and are seeking as much influence as possible in the island natThe video and the following reports are based on lies, speculations, and presumptions of guilt and are full of ideological bias and distortion of facts, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Fiji said in a statement on March 26. He firmly denounced the video and the subsequent reports in the statement." - Leng Shumei and Shan Jie - globaltimes.cn

>>20676406 Australia-China relations to be tested by parliamentary delegation visit to Taiwan - Australia is poised to anger China by sending a bipartisan parliamentary delegation to Taiwan to meet senior government leaders and reiterate Canberra’s support for the democratic nation in a time of rising regional tensions. The visit is certain to be criticised by Beijing at a time when the Australia-China relationship has been improving slowly despite tensions over cyber warfare, trade, human rights and defence. The five-member parliamentary delegation will be the first to visit Taiwan in six months and will meet with Taiwan’s outgoing President Tsai Ing-Wen, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, and a number of senior government, ­security and defence officials. The group will be led by the deputy chair of parliament’s powerful joint committee on ­intelligence and security, Andrew Wallace, alongside Labor’s Shayne Neumann, and will also ­include Liberal senator Dave Sharma, Liberal MP Angie Bell and Labor’s Julian Hill.

>>20676429 Japan, U.S., Australia, Philippines to hold drill in South China Sea - Japan, the United States, Australia and the Philippines are set to hold a joint naval exercise on Sunday off the Southeast Asian country's Palawan Island in the South China Sea, multiple government sources said Tuesday, amid China's continuing aggressive actions. It would be the first full-scale exercise involving the four countries aimed at enhancing interoperability among their forces, the sources said. The exercise will include anti-submarine warfare training, communication drills and sailing ships in formation. Sunday's planned drill would occur against the backdrop of China's assertiveness in the resource-rich South China Sea. The latest incident happened on March 23 when the Chinese Coast Guard fired a water cannon at a Philippine vessel on a mission to the Manila-controlled Second Thomas Shoal.

#35 - Part 72

Australia / China Tensions - Part 7

>>20676473 Top Gun pilot Daniel Duggan to face extradition hearing in May - A former US marine pilot will have one last chance to prove he shouldn’t be extradited to the US over allegations he illegally trained Chinese pilots - but he’s run out of funds to pay for a lawyer. Daniel Edmund Duggan has been in custody since October 2022 following a request from the US to extradite him for charges of conspiracy, arms trafficking and money laundering. American authorities allege the 55-year-old breached money laundering and arms export control laws while teaching foreign pilots at a flying academy in South Africa more than 12 years ago. On Thursday, he looked anxious as he beamed into court from maximum security prison wearing black rimmed glasses and a green prison-issued jumper. He then became visibly upset as Magistrate Daniel Reiss denied his application for an extension to prepare for a hearing to determine his eligibility for extradition to the US. The magistrate found he had been given “a reasonable amount of time” and a “reasonable opportunity” to prepare for the crucial hearing.

>>20695591 Australian-Taiwan partnership good for regional peace: Visiting lawmakers - A visiting Australian parliamentary delegation said in Taipei Monday that building stronger ties with Taiwan, including on security cooperation, is beneficial to peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. "We face a military buildup in this region," Shayne Neumann, a member of the Australian ruling Labor Party, told President Tsai Ing-wen during their meeting at the Presidential Office. The chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade in Australia's House of Representatives said his country is working with friends and allies "to preserve the regional balance here and preserve the status quo for Taiwan" "We're against any unilateral actions; maintaining the status quo is comprehensively superior to the alternative," he told Tsai.

>>20700815 Quad mire: ALP warned on China by former Japanese envoy - Former Japanese ambassador Shingo Yamagami says Anthony Albanese has allowed “the Quad” security dialogue to languish as he repairs ties with Beijing, and has revealed Labor sought to ­silence his criticisms of China when he was Tokyo’s top diplomat in Canberra. Writing in The Australian, Mr Yamagami laments Australia’s reluctance now to speak out against Beijing, accusing the ­government of staging photo ­opportunities with Chinese ­officials “while guns are being pointed at your head”. He says the weakening of the Quad - the key Indo-Pacific power grouping that includes Australia, the US, Japan and India - has undermined co-ordination by member nations on the common threat posed by China.

>>20700829 Distracted Quad leaders must refocus on bullies in Beijing - '"The world’s eyes, a few short years ago, were focused on Australia, when it stood tall under tremendous diplomatic pressure and economic coercion by the Middle Kingdom. It is no exaggeration to say Australia gained a prominent international status through its resilience and principled approach. That is the Australia I admired and respected. The emphasis on “stabilising” relations with China is fine, but stabilisation should not mean staging photo opportunities or smiling and shaking hands with China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, while guns are being pointed at your head - as they are in the South China Sea. Australia’s role is vital. When America’s most intimate Indo-Pacific ally (Australia) and its important Indo-Pacific ally (Japan) speak from a common position, the Americans are inclined to listen. I am now a private citizen but, as a long-time servant of the Japanese state and a recent ambassador to Australia, I feel compelled to plead that this common position be adopted and pressed energetically upon Washington - and Delhi."'' - Shingo Yamagami, Japan’s ambassador plenipotentiary to Australia from 2021-23 - theaustralian.com.au

#35 - Part 73

Australia / China Tensions - Part 8

>>20705313 Australia to join stepped-up patrols in South China Sea: US - More joint patrols can be expected in the South China Sea after drills by the United States, Australia, the Philippines and Japan last weekend, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), ahead of US summits this week with the Japanese and Philippine leaders. Warships from the four nations staged the exercises on Sunday following stepped-up Chinese pressure on the Philippines in the disputed strategic waterway. US President Joe Biden hosts Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) and the two and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos will meet the next day for talks that will include ways to push back against China. “On the naval patrols, we just saw trilateral plus Australia, a new form of quadrilateral joint naval patrols last week, so you can expect to see more of that in the future,” Mr Sullivan told a regular White House briefing while previewing the summits.

>>20710541 Australian politicians say the era of ‘invisible’ trips to Taiwan is over, shrugging off China warnings - Politicians from both the government and opposition say it is in the “national interest” to end the era of Australia’s “invisible” trips to Taiwan, signalling that Beijing should expect open visits to become routine as Canberra tries to help Taipei retain its limited diplomatic space. In a demonstration of the widening support for Taiwan in Canberra, the five members of a bipartisan federal parliamentary delegation visiting Taipei this week said that they will not be the last - however much China’s government might complain. “We are here. And we’ll have another one in the future, next year,” Liberal MP Angie Bell told The Australian in an interview in Taipei.

>>20710546 China Premier Li Qiang set to visit Australia in June, live lobster import ban expected to be lifted - Chinese Premier Li Qiang is scheduled to visit Australia in June, a move set to consolidate improving economic relations between Beijing and Canberra following last month’s trip by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to two sources with knowledge of the issue. Li’s trip is planned for the third week of June, one of the sources said, and it would represent his first visit to Australia since he was sworn in as premier in March 2023. “It is also expected that the unofficial ban on Australian live lobsters will be lifted as a signal of resuming a normal and friendly trade relationship for both sides,” the source said, with the curbs having been in place for more than three years.

>>20715815 Solomon Islands election watched by US, China amid Pacific influence contest - A national election in the Solomon Islands, the first since Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare signed a security pact with Beijing, will be watched next week for its potential to jolt the U.S.-China rivalry in the South Pacific. The United States and Australia are concerned about China's naval ambitions in Pacific countries, as tensions rise over Taiwan. Opposition parties said they would scrap the China security pact or hold a national referendum on it, and reduce China's influence by accepting more infrastructure support from U.S. allies.

>>20741559 Defence funding strategy: Long-range billions to counteract China - Labor will boost Defence spending by $50bn over the next decade and claw back $72bn from dumped weapons programs to pay for new submarines, ships, missiles and drones, as the government seeks to deter an increasingly aggressive China. The swath of cuts includes a ­decision not to proceed with an extra squadron of F-35 joint strike fighters, saving $3bn, and the cancellation of two large support vessels for the navy that would have cost $4.1bn. Defence will get $330bn worth of new weapons systems over 10 years, including long-range missiles, air and maritime drones, and enhanced air ­defences, to deny potential adversaries the ability to attack the Australian mainland or deployed Australian forces.

>>20741567 China’s aggressive behaviour underpins beefed-up defence stance - Australia’s strategic outlook is getting worse, with China increasingly using coercion -- including dangerous confrontations with rival warships and planes – to alter the strategic power balance in the region, according to the new ­National Defence Strategy. The highly critical assessment of China’s assertive military posture in the region underpins the government’s justification in its new strategy for a major increase in defence spending and long-term expansion in the navy and in long-range strike capability. The assessment comes despite the recent tentative stabilisation of relations between the two countries, with China having removed most of the $20bn in trade sanctions it imposed during the previous government.

#35 - Part 74

Australia / China Tensions - Part 9

>>20741574 Beijing tells Canberra to ‘stop buzzing about China’ in first response to Australia’s National Defence Strategy - Beijing has told Australia to “stop buzzing about China” and blamed America and its allies for creating what Canberra has called the most challenging and complex strategic environment the country has faced since World War II. In its first comments on Australia’s just released National Defence Strategy, the Chinese government was entirely dismissive of Canberra’s criticism of Beijing’s behaviour in the region. “China is committed to peaceful development and a national defence policy that is defensive in nature,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian. “We stay committed to the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region and the wider world, and pose no threat to any country,” he said.

>>20741576 Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian’s Regular Press Conference on April 17, 2024 - '"We hope Australia will correctly view China’s development and strategic intentions, abandon the Cold-War mentality, do more things to keep the region peaceful and stable, and stop buzzing about China." - fmprc.gov.cn

>>20785423 Chinese-backed hackers Volt Typhoon are targeting Australia’s critical infrastructure - A Chinese state-sponsored hacking group called Volt Typhoon is targeting Australia’s critical infrastructure and may have already accessed some systems, after infiltrating essential services in the US. Confirmation by The Weekend Australian that the group is active in Australia has triggered fresh calls from cyber security ­experts for the Albanese government to be transparent about the risks to business and the community, while critical infrastructure entities have been told to “harden their systems”. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess referenced the attacks in his latest threat assessment, saying one nation state was conducting “multiple attempts to scan critical infrastructure”. Government sources confirmed that the aggressor was China and that its hacking group called Volt Typhoon - which has successfully compromised American companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors – was the culprit.

>>20785526 China’s cyber traps already inside the castle wall - "The landmines for a future war have likely already been laid inside our borders. The cyber battalions of the People’s Republic of China have compromised parts of our critical infrastructure and are hunting for weaknesses in all of it. The bombs may never be detonated but the intention is clear, and hostile. If Australia does find itself in conflict with China the first sign may be when the lights go out and the dams empty. Volt Typhon uses malware to exploit vulnerabilities in thousands of home and business routers in the target country to build an interconnected zombie battalion called a botnet. The computational muscle is then harnessed to punch a hole in the defences of a company’s public-facing computer system. Our security agencies are doing their job but have become cautious, muted by a government desperate to remarry an unrepentant, abusive partner. In a triumph of optimism over experience it believes this bad relationship is best managed by hiding the bruises. The mantra for managing Beijing is “co-operate where we can, disagree where we must”. But if you aren’t going to violently disagree when virtual bombs are planted on home soil, then when are you going to do it?" - theaustralian.com.au - Chris Uhlmann

>>20785616 Scott Morrison prayed with former US vice-president Mike Pence over China’s military build-up - Scott Morrison has blasted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for deceiving Australia about his militaristic ambitions and says he once prayed with US vice-president Mike Pence about combating China in the region. In his strongest comments yet about China’s attempts to coerce and bully Australia during his prime ministership, Mr Morrison said the country would have “lived in fear” if his government had not stood up to Beijing. Mr Morrison, a committed Christian, reveals that at the 2018 APEC leaders’ summit in the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby, the then prime minister asked to be alone in a room with Mr Pence, a fellow Christian and Donald Trump’s vice-president so that the two men could pray for solutions to “the increasing assertiveness of China in our region”. “I was aware of Mike’s faith and asked for us to pray together over the things we had discussed, which included the increasing ­assertiveness of China in our ­region,” Mr Morrison writes in his new book, Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness.

#35 - Part 75

Australia / China Tensions - Part 10

>>20798679 Solomon Islands opposition parties combine in race to form government - The two major opposition parties in the Solomon Islands struck a coalition deal on Saturday as they vie with former Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare's party to form a government after an election delivered no clear winner. Last week's election was the first since Sogavare struck a security pact with China in 2022, inviting Chinese police into the Pacific Islands archipelago and drawing the nation closer to Beijing. The election is being watched by China, the U.S. and neighbouring Australia because of the potential impact on regional security.

>>20798689 Solomon Islands: Unexpected defeat for Sogavare - The Solomon Islands election of 17 April was widely anticipated to result in a sweeping victory for Manasseh Sogavare’s government. Sogavare, who has been prime minister on four separate occasions, is only the second head of government in his country’s history to serve a full term. He fended off an opposition no-confidence challenge in late 2021, extended his parliamentary term for seven months to 2024, and presided over a diplomatic switch from recognising Taiwan to links with China in 2019. A subsequent security deal with Beijing in April 2022 and the deployment of Chinese police to the capital, Honiara, led Australian media reporters to warn of an emerging Chinese-assisted authoritarian regime. Yet what transpired on 17 April was an emphatic defeat for the ruling party.

>>20798708 Pro-China Solomons leader Sogavare steps down after ‘awful’ election result - The most pro-China leader in the Pacific, Manasseh Sogavare, has conceded his prime ministership is over after suffering a bruising voter backlash in this month’s Solomon Islands elections, a development that will come as a major relief to Australian officials. Sogavare has been the dominant figure in Solomon Islands politics over more than two decades, holding the prime ministership on four separate occasions since 2000. Sogavare has often had an antagonistic relationship with Australia, alarming Australian officials when he switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019 and again in 2022 when he agreed to a secretive security pact with Beijing. Sogavare announced he was standing aside from the prime ministerial leadership contest on Monday to allow Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele to run for the position on behalf of a coalition led by his Ownership, Unity and Responsibility (OUR) Party.

>>20798716 Manasseh Sogavare exits Solomon Islands’ PM race - Solomons Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has called time on his five-year rule of the ­Pacific nation after losing his ­majority in parliament, in a move which may reset the Solomons’ pro-China direction. Mr Sogavare on Monday conceded he would not have the numbers in a hung parliament to stay on and will instead leave his Foreign Minister, Jeremiah Manele, to attempt to put together a coalition to keep his Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party in power. Voters had rejected a Sogavare re-election platform anchored by a “look north” strategy that would deepen security and ­economic ties with China despite Australia’s heightened efforts to strengthen ties with the Pacific nation. The Prime Minister, who is on his fourth separate stint in the Solomons’ top job, on Monday said it was time for new leadership and blamed local media for the backlash he suffered from voters.

>>20798733 Manasseh Sogavare was China's man in the Pacific. Will his exit as prime minister reverberate across the region? - After switching the country's diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China in 2019, Mr Sogavare led Solomon Islands in an entirely new direction. He signed a security pact with the country and was seen as China's man in the Pacific, openly embracing the Chinese Communist Party's governing style - even going as far as saying it felt like "home" when visiting China. He consistently amplified combative stoushes with Western democracies, such as Australia and the United States - whether they were real or not - and last week even made unsubstantiated claims of influence by the US in the Solomon Islands election. Heading into this month's national election, for many Solomon Islanders, it seems, all this was an unnecessary distraction. They were dealing with other issues: the terrible roads, high rates of unemployment, a health system on its knees, access to education and the constant dark clouds of corruption. Mr Sogavare's party lost more than half of its 37 seats at the April 17 election. And last night he resigned. With Mr Sogavare now gone, what does it mean for Solomon Islands and the region?

#35 - Part 76

Australia / China Tensions - Part 11

>>20808099 Solomon Islands chooses China-friendly ex-diplomat Jeremiah Manele as new prime minister - Solomon Islands lawmakers have elected as their new prime minister Jeremiah Manele, a former foreign minister who has pledged to continue the Pacific country’s policy of embracing China. Manele said outside parliament on Thursday “the people have spoken” and called for calm. “I humbly stand before you, as your elected prime minister. We must respect and uphold the democratic process,” Manele said. The previous PM, Manasseh Sogavare, withdrew from the contest this week and backed Manele after failing to secure a majority in last month’s election. Manele was foreign minister in 2019 when Sogavare’s government turned its back on Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with Beijing.

>>20808144 Bob Carr accuses Winston Peters of defamation after NZ deputy PM calls him a ‘Chinese puppet’ - Australia’s former foreign minister and New South Wales premier, Bob Carr, says he intends to sue New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, for allegations made about Carr’s closeness to China as debate about Aukus ramps up. Peters called Carr “nothing more than a Chinese puppet” on the national broadcaster RNZ on Thursday morning. Carr shared his criticisms of the pact on a visit to Wellington in April, calling it “bullshit” and saying he admired New Zealand foreign policy as it wasn’t as “gullible to the Americans” as Australia’s. “What on earth does he think he’s doing walking into our country and telling us what to do?” Peters told RNZ. “We would no more do that in Australia than he should do here. That’s the kind of arrogance we don’t like.” In statement to the Post, Carr said these comments were “entirely defamatory” and he would be taking legal action.

>>20813748 Allies unite as Beijing pushes the boundaries in South China Sea - Australia will ramp up participation in joint naval exercises with the US, Japan and The Philippines under a co-ordinated security plan to deter increasingly aggressive Chinese incursions into Filipino waters. Defence Minister Richard Marles travelled to Hawaii to flesh out the strategy with counterparts on Friday. He said afterwards that Australia was “utterly committed to asserting freedom of navigation”. The commitment will place Australian sailors on the frontline of maritime tensions in the South China Sea amid repeated clashes between Chinese and Filipino vessels. On Tuesday, China’s Coast Guard damaged two Filipino vessels en route to the Scarborough Shoal, prompting the 20th diplomatic protest by Manila against such conduct this year. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin blasted China over the ­“irresponsible behaviour” of its ships, saying the action breached international law.

>>20813816 Bob Carr sues NZ Deputy PM Winston Peters over ‘Chinese puppet’ insult - New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has appeared to dig in over comments about Bob Carr, for which the former Labor foreign minister is suing him. Mr Carr’s lawyers have written to Mr Peters, who is also NZ Foreign Minister, confirming their intention to sue for defamation after Mr Peters called Mr Carr a “Chinese puppet,” on NZ radio. But on Friday morning, just half an hour before he was due to address the NZ China Council, Mr Peters went back on the attack, lashing out at an “irrelevant, ill-informed shill from some other country.” Without naming his target, Mr Peters wrote on X: “We should never be accepting of any irrelevant ill-informed shill from some other country to walk into New Zealand and try to tell us what to do.

#35 - Part 77

Australia / China Tensions - Part 12

>>20827002 Video: ‘Unsafe and unprofessional’: Australian Navy helicopter in near miss with Chinese fighter jet - A Chinese fighter jet dropped flares in front of an Australian Navy helicopter in international waters, in an incident Defence Minister Richard Marles has condemned as unprofessional and unacceptable. The near-catastrophic incident occurred about 7.30pm (AEST) on Saturday during a routine operation in the Yellow Sea off South Korea. A navy Seahawk operating off HMAS Hobart was intercepted by a Chinese J10 Air Force jet. “The PLA Air Force plane dropped flares about 300 metres in front of the Seahawk helicopter about 60 metres above it, requiring the helicopter to take evasive action in order to not be hit by those flares,” Marles told Nine News. Defence sources have told Nine News only the quick reflexes of the Australian pilot averted disaster - the Seahawk normally operates with a crew of four to six. No one aboard the helicopter was hurt. Marles condemned the incident and said Beijing had been formally notified of Australia’s concerns HMAS Hobart was taking part in Operation Argos, a United Nations mission to prevent North Korea smuggling sanctioned goods across the sea. “This was an incident which was both unsafe and unprofessional,” Marles told Nine News.

>>20831574 Video: Australian PM Albanese says China military air incident unacceptable - A Chinese fighter jet endangered an Australian military helicopter during an unsafe and unacceptable confrontation over the Yellow Sea, Australia said on Monday. The Chinese air force J-10 jet dropped flares above and several hundred meters ahead of an Australian MH60R Seahawk helicopter on a routine flight on Saturday in the Yellow Sea as part of an operation to enforce sanctions against North Korea, Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Monday evening. In a television interview, Albanese said China had not yet responded publicly to Australia's representations over the incident. "This issue, we have made public in order to be able to speak out very clearly and unequivocally that this behaviour is unacceptable," he told Nine's Today Show. The Australian Defence Force personnel were "in international waters, international airspace, and they're doing work to ensure that the sanctions that the world has imposed through the United Nations on North Korea, due to their intransient and reckless behaviour, are enforced". "They shouldn't have been at any risk," he said. The Australian public expected an explanation from China about the incident, and Australia had made "very strong representations at every level to China", he added.

>>20831586 ‘Stop provocations’: China fires back at Australia over Yellow Sea flare incident - The Chinese government has fired back at Australia over a dangerous military incident in the Yellow Sea, accusing Australia’s military of behaving in a provocative and threatening way by operating in international waters near China. “The Australian military aircraft flew near China airspace in a threatening way,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a press briefing on Tuesday, insisting the Chinese military took the necessary steps to warn Australia. “What truly happened was that an Australian military aircraft deliberately flew within close range of China’s airspace in a provocative move which endangered China’s maritime air security. China has launched serious protests with the Australian side on these risky moves. We urge Australia to stop provocations to prevent misunderstanding and miscalculation.”

>>20836899 ‘Stop shifting blame’: Australia, China trade barbs over helicopter incident - China and Australia have escalated the blame game over a dangerous aerial encounter above the Yellow Sea, with China’s Defence Ministry claiming the Australian military acted provocatively by conducting short-range reconnaissance of its military assets. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood by Australia’s explanation of the incident, accusing Beijing of offering a contradictory rationale for the interception, in which a Chinese fighter jet set off flares near an Australian navy helicopter on Saturday night, forcing the helicopter pilot to take evasive action. Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Defence, said the Australian air warfare destroyer HMAS Hobart had dispatched a ship-borne helicopter three times to conduct close-in reconnaissance and disturb the normal training exercises of the Chinese naval fleet. He said Chinese troops sent a “vocal warning” to the Australian helicopter before conducting “legitimate, reasonable, professional and safe operations to expel it”.

#35 - Part 78

Australia / China Tensions - Part 13

>>20836959 China changes story on military confrontation, accuses Australia of spying - Beijing has shifted its story on the latest confrontation between Chinese and Australian forces, claiming that one of its fighter jets intercepted an Australian helicopter because it was trying to spy on naval exercises in the Yellow Sea. Australia lodged diplomatic protests with Beijing after a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares just in front of an Australian Seahawk helicopter enforcing UN sanctions on North Korea, with Defence Minister Richard Marles warning the incident endangered Australian personnel. A spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Australia of "provocative" behaviour but seemed to confirm the confrontation occurred over international waters, saying the helicopter simply flew "within close range of China's airspace". But in a later statement, the Chinese Ministry of Defence issued a different account, accusing Australia of spying on military exercises being conducted by China in the region. "A Chinese naval fleet conducted training in relevant waters of China's Yellow Sea from May 3 to 4, during which the Australian guided missile destroyer HMAS Hobart dispatched a ship-borne helicopter for three times to conduct close-in reconnaissance and disturb the normal training activities of the Chinese side," said Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang.

>>20836962 Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian’s Regular Press Conference on May 7, 2024 - "What truly happened was, an Australian military aircraft deliberately flew within close range of China’s airspace in a provocative move that endangered China’s maritime and air security in the name of enforcing UN Security Council’s resolutions. The Chinese military took necessary measures at the scene to warn and alert the Australian side. The way the situation was handled was consistent with our laws and regulations, professional and safe. China has lodged serious protests to the Australian side on its risky moves. We urge Australia to immediately stop the provocations and hypes to prevent misunderstanding and miscalculation."

>>20836962 Australia should stop all dangerous provocations: Defense Spokesperson - "The operations of the Chinese side are legitimate, reasonable, professional and safe, and are fully in line with the international law and international practice. Australia's statement confuses right and wrong and shifts the blame. We're firmly opposed to that," said a Chinese defense spokesperson on Tuesday. Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks when rebutting the claims made by Australian defense minister Richard Marles saying that Chinese fighter jet's interception of an Australian helicopter in the international waters of Yellow Sea on May 4 was "a very serious incident." The spokesperson noted that the Chinese troops sent a vocal warning to the Australian helicopter and conducted legitimate, reasonable, professional, and safe operations to expel it, which are fully in line with the international law and international practice. "We urge the Australian side to truly respect China's sovereignty and security concerns, cease spreading false narratives, strictly constrain the operations of its naval and air forces, stop all dangerous provocations, and avoid undermining the overall relationship between the two countries and the two militaries," stressed the spokesperson in the end." - China Military Online - eng.mod.gov.cn

>>20836971 Chinese military takes legal, professional and safe operations to warn against provocations by Australian helicopter: FM - "In refuting accusations from Australia which claimed that a Chinese fighter jet fired flares into the path of an Australian naval helicopter last weekend over the Yellow Sea, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday clarified that the truth is that an Australian military aircraft deliberately flew within close range of China's airspace in a provocative move that endangered China's maritime and air security in the name of enforcing UN Security Council's resolutions. Chinese military experts pointed out that Australia's actions under the guise of implementing UNSC sanctions against North Korea are in fact provocation, probing, and reconnaissance against China. Military expert Zhang Xuefeng told the Global Times on Tuesday that the fact that Australian warships have travelled so far into the Yellow Sea, so close to China's territorial waters and inland seas, is itself a sign of the growing aggressiveness." - GT staff reporters - globaltimes.cn

#35 - Part 79

Australia / China Tensions - Part 14

>>20836979 Here’s the proof that China holds Australia in contempt - "Beijing has made it absolutely clear that it holds the Albanese government in contempt. All the happy talk from the Prime Minister and his senior ministerial colleagues about a newly stabilised relationship with China is shown to be worth absolutely nothing. The Chinese air force, which harassed a helicopter launched from HMAS Hobart in the Yellow Sea, was just as hostile, just as dangerous, just as irresponsible as any similar action the Chinese military took against Australian forces when Scott Morrison was prime minister. The Chinese have trained the Albanese government now to regard the mere existence of high level meetings, the dialogue, the so-called normalisation, as the ­object of Australian policy. What on earth is the point of erecting this architecture of ­dialogue if the Australians are so timid and scared that they cannot even raise the most serious matters with the Chinese, in case they once more get banished ­diplomatically? That’s not dialogue, that’s subservience." - Greg Sheridan - theaustralian.com.au

>>20836991 PM’s rinse-and-repeat response to China jet incident will do little to deter aggression - "Since the Albanese government came to power two years ago, its approach to China relations has been summed up by one word: stabilisation. But how stable are relations if China’s People’s Liberation Army is regularly putting the lives of Australian military personnel at risk? Australian naval divers suffered minor injuries last November after being subjected to sonar pulses from a Chinese warship while supporting a United Nations mission in international waters. Their injuries could easily have been much worse. At the time, Anthony Albanese called China’s behaviour “dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional”, adding that Australia had lodged complaints through “all the forums that are available”. Four months later, a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares near an Australian navy helicopter flying in the Yellow Sea. Once again, the Australian navy personnel were operating in international waters and supporting an important UN mission - this time helping to enforce sanctions on the rogue state of North Korea. Once again, it was lucky no one was seriously hurt. As the United States’ top official for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, pointed out during a visit to Canberra this week, these incidents are not isolated. Instead, they form part of a pattern of behaviour in which China tries to intimidate democratic nations from enforcing international law." - Matthew Knott - theage.com.au

>>20841256 ‘Legitimate, peaceful’: Anthony Albanese hits back at China spy claims - Anthony Albanese has pushed back against China’s claims an Australian helicopter was spying on a PLA-Navy exercise when a Chinese jet dropped flares in its flightpath, declaring the ADF was engaged in “legitimate, peaceful activity” at the time. A Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman alleged on Wednesday the Seahawk helicopter was trying to conduct “close-in reconnaissance and disturb the normal training activities of the Chinese side”. But Mr Albanese said the Australian aircraft did nothing wrong. “It was legitimate, peaceful activity, which should be respected and … I’m proud of the role that Australian Defence Force personnel play in upholding international law and international sanctions, and the appropriate processes as determined by the United Nations. “This action by China was unprofessional and unacceptable. We’ve made that very, very clear going forward.” Beijing on Wednesday changed its story on the confrontation, accusing the Seahawk’s crew of trying to spy on a PLA-Navy ­exercise in the Yellow Sea.

>>20841263 Video: Defence chief rejects China's spying accusation after helicopter's near miss in confrontation - Beijing's claim that an Australian helicopter was attempting to spy on the Chinese military has been rejected by Defence chief Angus Campbell, who insists the Seahawk was behaving "professionally" when it was targeted by flares. In his first comments since last weekend's military confrontation in international waters, General Campbell has hit back at suggestions the Australian military was provoking China while operating in the Yellow Sea on a UN mission. "The incident involving our helicopter was unsafe and unprofessional," he told reporters after addressing the Air and Space Power Conference in Canberra. General Campbell insists it was China who acted inappropriately. "The helicopter was behaving in a correct and disciplined fashion, and I don't accept that the response was anything but unsafe and unprofessional," he said. "In the circumstances that occurred we were not satisfied, and very reasonably not satisfied with regard to both safety and professionalism."

#35 - Part 80

Australia / China Tensions - Part 15

>>20841268 Beijing’s bullying needs to be called out, loud and clear - "Defence Minister Richard Marles was absolutely right to call out China publicly for the “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” in which a People’s Liberation Army jet dropped flares in the flight path of an Australian helicopter operating off the air warfare destroyer HMAS Hobart in international waters near the Korean Peninsula. China’s action could have downed the helicopter if the flares had damaged rotor blades or been ingested by the engine. This follows an incident last November when two divers from the frigate HMAS Toowoomba were injured by a Chinese use of a sonar system. Both ships were enforcing internationally agreed sanctions against North Korea and looking to prevent the north from exporting weapons by sea. Apart from the risk to Australian Defence Force people and platforms it is noteworthy that China is aggressively undermining sanctions enforcement against North Korea -- now a major supplier of artillery ammunition to Russia for use in Ukraine. That should lend extra weight to the strength of Australian protests against Beijing’s bad behaviour. It may be unsafe and unprofessional but you can be certain these military actions, in a strategic if not tactical sense, are centrally directed from the top in Beijing. China’s military leaders are seeking to push the military forces of all other countries (bar Russia and North Korea) as far away as possible from their claimed territories." - Peter Jennings - theaustralian.com.au

>>20841340 Video: SNEAK PEEK: Daniel Duggan - Hero or traitor? - Hero or traitor? SUNDAY on #60Mins, why an Australian citizen, a former Top Gun fighter pilot, is wanted by the United States government. - 60 Minutes Australia

>>20859919 Former spy for China's secret police reveals operations targeting dissidents in Australia and overseas - The inner workings of China's notorious secret police unit and how it hunts down dissidents living overseas - including in Australia - have been exposed by a former spy in a Four Corners investigation, raising tough questions about Australia's national security. It is the first time anyone from the secret police - one of the most feared and powerful arms of China's intelligence apparatus - has ever spoken publicly. The investigation also found the existence of an espionage operation on Australian soil only last year and the secret return of an Australian resident to China in 2019. The spy - who goes by the name Eric - worked as an undercover agent for a unit within China's federal police and security agency, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) between 2008 and early 2023. The unit is called the Political Security Protection Bureau, or the 1st Bureau. It is one of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) key tools of repression, operating across the globe to surveil, kidnap and silence critics of the party, particularly President Xi Jinping. "It is the darkest department of the Chinese government," Eric said. "When dealing with people who oppose the CCP, they can behave as if these people are not protected by the law. They can do whatever they want to them."

>>20859967 Video: Daniel Duggan - Why is a former fighter pilot wanted by the US government? - To his family, Daniel Duggan is a hero, but in the eyes of the US Government, he's a traitor. "One man against the US, it's disgraceful," Daniel's wife Saffrine told 60 Minutes. For 19 months, the former US Marine fighter pilot turned proud Australian citizen has been sitting in maximum security jail, accused of sharing top secret military information with China. But that's nothing compared to the 65 years he could be locked up for, if the Americans get a hold of him and prove the father-of-six sold them out. "It's a death sentence for my husband," Saffrine said. "We will never see him again and my kids will never grow up with a father."

#35 - Part 81

Australia / China Tensions - Part 16

>>20864771 Video: Unmasking the man who’s been spying for China | Four Corners - For the first time ever, a former spy for China’s notorious secret police - one of the most powerful arms of the country’s intelligence apparatus - goes public, exposing the covert and illegal operations he was ordered to carry out on foreign soil and the dissidents he was tasked with tracking, including in Australia, Canada, India, Cambodia and Thailand. In a major investigation reported by the ABC’s Echo Hui, the spy - who goes by the name Eric - comes out of the shadows at great danger to himself, revealing his face to expose how China has used its global network over the last two decades to surveil, silence and kidnap those its government and president Xi Jinping deems enemies of the state. The spy divulges his double life and the secrets he’s been guarding. He reveals the inner workings of the secret police, including the companies they use as cover, who his targets were, and the tactics he used to hunt them down. It raises tough questions about China’s global reach and Australia’s national security.

>>20864786 AFP must explain deal allowing Chinese ‘secret police’ to conduct operations in Australia, Coalition says - The Australian federal police must explain why it renewed a cooperation deal with China’s ministry of public security (MPS) after “gravely concerning” reports about the agency’s activities on Australian soil, the Coalition has said. The opposition has identified at least seven active agreements relating to AFP cooperation with Chinese agencies, three of which were extended only last month. The agreements are in the spotlight after an ABC Four Corners investigation found that Chinese police had been permitted to enter Australia in 2019 - when the Coalition was still in power - to question a 59-year-old Chinese-born Australian resident. Four Corners reported that the MPS officers had approval to visit Australia under an agreement with the AFP, but then “breached protocol and returned to China with the woman”. The Coalition’s home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, said the AFP must now “justify why they recently re-signed a bilateral law enforcement cooperation treaty with the MPS now we know for sure they [the MPS] cannot be trusted”. “The revelations that the Australian Federal Police allowed the Ministry of Public Security to apparently operate with impunity on Australian soil is gravely concerning,” Paterson told Guardian Australia on Tuesday. “No one should be surprised the MPS did not adhere to their end of the deal. You cannot trust the secret police of an authoritarian state, particularly one which is the primary source of foreign interference and espionage in our country.”

>>20868896 Aaron staged a protest in Australia, then Chinese police paid his parents a visit - Aaron, an international student studying in Sydney, knows all too well that the industrial-scale surveillance deployed by the Chinese government on its citizens doesn’t stop at the border. In March, ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Australia, Aaron received a flurry of missed calls from his parents in China. When he answered, their voices were strange and unusually monotonous. “It was like they were reading a script. They told me not to attend any protests or organise any protest, and don’t use Twitter from Monday to Friday,” said Aaron, a University of Sydney student who prefers to be known only by his Western pseudonym. He suspects that a Chinese police officer was standing over his parents while they gave him the instructions. His experience reflects the price paid by many CCP critics who, in exercising their democratic rights in Australia, cannot escape the long arm of the Chinese government - particularly on university campuses. A 2021 Human Rights Watch report compiled one of the most comprehensive accounts to date of CCP influence stifling free speech on Australian campuses. It found that Chinese students would often self-censor comments critical of the Chinese government for fear they would be reported to authorities or harassed by their pro-Beijing peers. Universities, in collaboration with Australia’s security agencies, have since beefed up foreign interference guidelines aimed at countering CCP influence on campuses, and have adopted free speech charters - though some have been more proactive than others in tackling on-campus intimidation. The surveillance of Chinese international students in Australia is part of the broader picture of what Amnesty International has called “transnational repression”.

#35 - Part 82

Australia / China Tensions - Part 17

>>20868933 Beijing warns MPs’ Taiwan trip threatens Australia-China ties - Beijing has blasted Australia over an upcoming parliamentary ­delegation to Taiwan, saying the bipartisan trip violates Australia’s “One China” policy. The five member delegation departs for Taipei on Saturday to attend next week’s inauguration of Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te. Labor’s Raff Ciccone and Luke Gosling will be joined on the four-day visit by the Coalition’s David Fawcett, Claire Chandler and Scott Buchholz. The Chinese embassy in Canberra issued a statement on Wednesday warning Australia that Taiwan was “an inalienable part of China’s territory”, and urging the Albanese government not to deviate from its recognition of the People’s Republic of China as the country’s sole legal government. “The visit to Taiwan by the Australian parliamentarians and their attendance of the president-elect’s inauguration violates the One China principle, blatantly emboldens and supports the ­Taiwan independence separatist ­activities,” the embassy said. “We hope that relevant members of the Australian parliament will adhere to the fact that Taiwan is a province of China and respect the sentiments of the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”

>>20878221 WA iron resources ties key to Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip - Plans are firming for Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip to Australia next month, with the country’s No.2 leader expected to stop in Canberra and Perth and make a site visit to a West Australian resources project. Officials in both countries are negotiating the final details of the mid-June visit, which is set to go ahead despite Chinese fury over an upcoming trip by to Taiwan by a delegation of Australian MPs, and an Australian protest over a Chinese jet’s unsafe encounter with a navy helicopter. Anthony Albanese is expected to meet Mr Li for bilateral talks in Canberra around June 16, before Mr Li heads to Perth for meetings with business leaders and Premier Roger Cook.

#35 - Part 83

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 1

>>20550432 Cult leader William ‘Little Pebble’ Kamm and wife arrested over historical child grooming charges - A young girl was allegedly told by notorious cult leader William “Little Pebble” Kamm that she had been “selected” by God to procreate with him, during what police say was a decade of grooming. Kamm, 73, and his wife Sandra Costellia, 58, were arrested by NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad on Monday six months after the now adult woman came forward to claim she had been groomed by the couple ever since she was six years old. A convicted pedophile, Kamm is best known for being the leader of a cult-style religious group called the “Order of St Charbel”, who claims the Virgin Mary visits his home on the NSW south coast every day.

>>20575610 Video: How two of Australia’s most vile pedophiles used childcare centre - The crimes of two of Australia’s most vile pedophiles who abused dozens of young victims in country NSW will learn their fates next month, as details of their heinous acts - including exploiting children through their access to a childcare facility - can be revealed for the first time. The two men, who cannot be named due to a court order, faced Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday and are facing the prospect of being sentenced to decades in prison. Their heinous crimes reverberated through the idyllic small country town where they lived after a major police investigation unmasked them as key players in a national pedophile ring. They were arrested as part of Operation Arkstone, the country’s biggest ever law enforcement crackdown on online child abuse material networks. Their crimes can be revealed for the first time after a court released documents, as the two men prepare to be sentenced by Judge Sarah Hopkins next month.

>>20612936 Loud Fence ribbons set to be removed from prominent Ballarat cathedral fence - Thousands of colourful ribbons tied to the fence of a regional Victorian cathedral as a show of support for survivors of child sexual abuse are set to be removed. The Diocese of Ballarat says it will remove ribbons tied outside St Patrick's Cathedral on Saturday morning, for the ageing wrought-iron fence to be painted. It is unclear at this stage whether the ribbons will be returned to the fence or how they may be stored into the future. Bishop Paul Bird's office says the parish will continue to consult with survivors of sexual abuse and Loud Fence organisers to decide the best outcome. The Loud Fence movement began in Ballarat in 2015 during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Childhood Sexual Abuse. It has since spread worldwide.

>>20622417 Meta’s encryption to ‘conceal the worst crimes’ against kids - Child abuse investigators are bracing for expanded encryption on Facebook and Messenger to have crushing impacts that may be disguised by a rise in meaningless tips that lead nowhere. Tech giant Meta revealed in December it had begun a global rollout of default end-to-end encryption for messages and calls across its Facebook and Messenger platforms, but would not detail progress in individual countries. While privacy advocates welcomed the move, crime-fighting agencies and charities said it would have a devastating effect on the ability to detect and prevent child abuse.

>>20660654 Tasmanian man jailed for AI child abuse material - A Tasmanian man has been sentenced to two years in jail for uploading and downloading AI-generated child abuse material. The 48-year-old was charged with possessing hundreds of files of child abuse material as part of a Tasmania Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (TAS-JACET) investigation. Included among the files was a significant amount of AI-generated content. The Gravelly Beach man was subsequently arrested and charged, pleading guilty to possessing and accessing child abuse material on March 26, 2024. The Australian Federal Police said it is believed to be the first conviction in Tasmania’s history relating to child exploitation material generated by AI. AFP Detective Sergeant Aaron Hardcastle said the investigation had been significant as it marked the first time police had located and seized AI-generated child abuse material in Tasmania. “Child abuse material, is still child abuse material, no matter what form it takes,” Det. Sgt Hardcastle said.

#35 - Part 84

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 2

>>20660667 Paedophile ex-teacher who runs Scots B&B 'should be put on sex offenders' register' - A convicted paedophile who runs a Scottish B&B should be placed on the sex offenders’ register, insists one of his victims. Gary Bloom, 69, was a primary school teacher in Australia in 1985 when he sexually assaulted 10-year-old Stewart Carter. Bloom later emigrated to Scotland but after he returned to Australia for a family visit in 2021, he was arrested. Despite being found guilty to three separate charges of indecent assault, he walked free and was able to return to Scotland. Stewart, now 49, said: "The fact that Bloom has been allowed to lawfully return to Scotland means it would be sensible for him to be placed on the sex offenders’ register. "That would be an ideal. I can't see why he should escape those obligations by simply being in another country. He's a convicted child sex offender who has unfettered access to children who stay at the B&B."

>>20681437 Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale facing scores of new historic child abuse charges - Police have laid new charges against notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, alleging further cases of historic sexual assaults against boys in central and south-west Victoria. Ridsdale, 89, has been in prison since 1994 for the abuse of more than 70 children in Victoria and was sentenced for the eighth time last year. Victoria Police said the Sexual Crimes Squad brought a further 62 charges against him following an investigation into a number of alleged historical sexual assaults. The new charges of sexual penetration of a person aged between 10 and 16 and indecent assault relate to alleged incidents involving six male victims in Inglewood and Mortlake between 1973 and 1981. Police charged Ridsdale with 24 sexual offences in March 2022 as part of the same investigation, which related to two male victims in Mortlake in 1981 and 1982.

>>20686765 Bestiality references allegedly made during presentation at Renmark High School - The South Australian Department for Education is investigating a presentation delivered to year 9 girls in a regional high school that allegedly referenced bestiality as being accepted by the LGBTQIA+ community. Female students said teachers at Renmark High School told them to leave their lessons and attend a presentation in a separate classroom. Students who attended the presentation on March 22 say two staff from the Headspace centre in the neighbouring town of Berri introduced a "third-party" presenter who facilitated an hour-long presentation focused on relationships. Parents said they were not notified about the presentation, nor was it consented to. Students say they were then given an explanation of the initialism LGBTQIA+, with each word and its meaning displayed on the screen. "There was a slide for what the 'plus' means, and they just started randomly saying words that no-one knew, like bestiality," Fourteen-year-old Emelia Wundenberg said. The students said bestiality was then explained in detail and the presenter seemed to imply it was something practised by people who identified as LGBTQIA+. "They said [the queer community] just accepts all of it, even though … isn't it illegal?" Emelia said.

>>20686801 Cult leader granted bail on child grooming charges - Despite police claiming they have phone recordings of an alleged child abuse victim describing sexual acts she was forced to perform, her accused groomer has been granted bail. Self-professed prophet William Kamm has been charged along with his wife Sandra Susan Mathison with the sexual abuse of the child since she was six years old. While police say the 73-year-old never met his victim, they claim he phoned her, wrote her letters and sent presents intending to groom the girl to become a "queen" in his church. Magistrate Scott Nash granted Kamm bail under strict conditions which require him to wear electronic monitoring and reside at a supervised correctional complex in Sydney's eastern suburbs. He acknowledged that while the case against the 73-year-old was not weak, the delays in reaching a trial plus the onerous conditions Kamm already had to follow under an extended supervision order warranted his release. That order was imposed after Kamm was released on parole, being convicted of the child abuse of two separate complainants.

#35 - Part 85

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 3

>>20686820 Pope seeks immunity in Australian court over notorious paedophile priest - Pope Francis is claiming legal immunity as a head of state to fight a damages claim brought by two Aboriginal men over the Vatican’s failure to protect them from the priest who sexually abused them as children. Documents filed in the Victorian Supreme Court last month by lawyers representing the Pope flag the church’s intention to rely on the Vatican’s unique status in international law to stop the pontiff from being drawn into a civil lawsuit involving one of Australia’s most notorious paedophile priests. The case centres on the abuse of two Aboriginal boys by Michael Glennon, a serial child rapist who despite being convicted and jailed for the indecent assault of a girl in 1978, remained an ordained priest for the next 20 years. At the time of Glennon’s death, he was in jail for crimes against 15 children. The plaintiffs are seeking to hold Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli and Pope Francis vicariously responsible for the alleged failings of their predecessors which enabled Glennon to keep accessing and abusing children for years after senior figures in the church, both here and in Rome, knew he was a paedophile. Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson KC said the case raised questions about the Vatican’s century-old claim to statehood and technical legal defences it has previously employed to escape accountability for crimes against children committed by its priests. Speaking to this masthead from London, he said the case was likely to gain international attention. “If it does reach the stage of answering the vexed question of whether the Vatican is in practice a state, it could have considerable consequences,” Robertson said.

>>20695618 Sextortion pushed a NSW teen to suicide, cops traced culprits to Nigeria - A teenager’s suicide has been revealed as a sextortion plot, run by a global crime gang that hounded the NSW schoolboy to death over just $500. The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal cybercrime detectives traced the plotters to a sprawling Nigerian slum in the latest fatal case of a “hidden pandemic” targeting children across the world. AFP Commander Helen Schneider said the arrests showed how law enforcement agencies needed to work together to combat “borderless crime” like that carried out by online fraud syndicates. “The sextortion of children is a borderless crime, as these arrests show,” Schneider said. “The partnerships between law enforcement here in Australia and around the world are vital as we work together to protect children online.”

>>20715831 AFL great Carl Ditterich charged over alleged historical indecent assault of underage girl - Australian Football Hall of Famer Carl Ditterich has been charged with a string of child sex offences for allegedly assaulting a girl who was under his care in 1985. Detectives charged the 78-year-old with three counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency last Friday following an investigation into the alleged historical incident. The alleged incident occurred five years after Ditterich retired from the league in 1980, following a near 20-year career which later earned the ruckman an induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Police allege that in August 1985, Ditterich forced a girl under the age of 16 to touch his penis. They also allege he molested the young girl, groped her breast and masturbated in front of her. The alleged victim was under Ditterich’s supervision at the time, police stated in the charge sheet.

>>20715849 Former St Kilda and Melbourne star Carl Ditterich charged with sexual offences - Footy legend Carl Ditterich has been charged with historic child sex offences. The 78-year-old former St Kilda and Melbourne Football Club player is facing multiple charges, including three counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency in the presence of a child under the age of 16. It is alleged Mr Ditterich assaulted the child in Heatherton in Melbourne’s southeast in August 1985. At this time, Mr Ditterich - known during his playing days as the ‘Blonde Bombshell’ - had recently finished his professional sporting career and was aged in his early 40s. Mr Ditterich, from Echuca, has hired renowned criminal defence lawyer Tony Hargreaves to represent him.

#35 - Part 86

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 4

>>20726720 60 Minutes Special Investigation -The Mackeys’ non-verbal daughter was trying to tell them something. A hidden camera revealed the abuse- When Lee-Anne Mackey began screaming in pain, her mother and father did what any parent would - they began asking questions. Rob and Lorraine Mackey’s daughter, however, has a profound disability and is extremely vulnerable. The 53-year-old Melbourne woman has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and is non-verbal. Lee-Anne uses her eyes to communicate, gazing at pictures on what is known as an e-tran board to convey her thoughts. Left for “yes”, right for “no”. She complained of rough treatment at the Scope-run residential house where she had lived independently with other clients for more than two decades. The Mackeys kept complaining to Scope, which initially dismissed the mistreatment after it ordered an investigation into the complaint in 2019. It was then that the Mackeys took matters into their own hands. They decided to place a covert camera in their daughter’s room despite not knowing if it was illegal. What the camera captured horrified them. It revealed multiple incidents of bullying, vile behaviour and physical abuse. The videos reveal that the complaints made by Lee-Anne, who is not cognitively impaired, only worsened the behaviour of her carers, Lisa Wilson, Monika Paniczko and Anastasia Moutsos. Police Detective Senior Constable Travis Kinghorn, who investigated the case, urged people to report abuse in the disability sector. “There’s no excuse for this type of behaviour,” he said.

>>20726780 60 Minutes Investigation Preview -Secret videos show sickening abuse of woman by her carers- A 60 Minutes investigation has obtained footage of vile treatment meted out at a Scope residential home to client Lee-Anne Mackey, who has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair, is non-verbal and has osteoporosis. Lee-Anne, who is not cognitively impaired, complained to her parents, Rob and Lorraine Mackey, of rough treatment by Scope staff in early 2019 by communicating with her eyes. The Mackeys' complaints to Scope only worsened the behaviour of her carers, Lisa Wilson, Monika Paniczko and Anastasia Moutsos. The mistreatment of Lee-Anne, now 53, was initially dismissed by Scope after they ordered an investigation into the complaint in 2019. In frustration, Lee-Anne's father, Rob, decided to install a hidden camera in his daughter's room, despite not knowing if it was illegal. The footage, captured over 18 months, revealed Wilson - then aged 25 - sticking her finger and then a cylinder into Lee-Anne's mouth for her own amusement and yelling, "aw, she hasn't got a gag reflex." Minister for the NDIS, Bill Shorten, who was provided the footage by 60 Minutes to view, said the actions of her carers were "dehumanising" and made him "angry". He said Scope, a large not-for-profit provider of disability services in Victoria and New South Wales, would be watched. "I thought it was just evil," Shorten said. "I don't want to believe that there are people who will treat other people in the manner in which I saw in that video. These people acting with such callous indifference to Lee-Anne, it's just shocking. It's cruel. It's a betrayal of Lee-Anne and it's actually a betrayal of the good people who work in disability. It was shocking."

>>20751690 Video: Inside the police unit unmasking child predators - "It's like putting together a puzzle. A horrible, sickening puzzle. One where some of the key pieces are missing. And the finished product isn't a picture you'd ever want to see. "We can be looking at child abuse material six, seven, eight hours a day, day in and day out." It's a remarkable statement about a standard day in the office, delivered in a remarkably matter-of-fact fashion by acting detective sergeant Kate Laidler. She leads the Australian Federal Police's Victim Identification Team, based in the nation's capital. Sitting behind computer screens, they scour hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of photos and videos, trying to find any tiny clue that could help save a vulnerable child suffering at the hands of depraved predators." - Matthew Doran - abc.net.au

>>20751727 Child sex abuse cops alarmed by Meta move - Global law enforcement chiefs have gathered in Brisbane and strategised on how to fight a recalcitrant Meta’s decision to expand encryption at the expense of protecting children. The Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of 15 agencies including the Australian Federal Police, workshopped how to respond to the tech giant’s encryption plans and its expected severe impacts on child abuse investigations. Vital reports of children being abused will plummet following Meta’s global rollout of default end-to-end encryption on Facebook and Messenger, investigators have warned.

#35 - Part 87

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 5

>>20751795 Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders faces two new indecent assault charges - The former Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders is facing two new indecent assault charges after his home in Western Australia's north was raided on Wednesday morning. The 74-year-old is already facing 26 charges, including two counts of sexual penetration without consent, three counts of indecent dealing with a child and 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault. WA Police confirmed on Wednesday a 74-year-old Broome man is facing two charges of indecent and unlawful assault. While police have not named the man, the ABC has confirmed he is the former Broome Bishop. It will be alleged Bishop Saunders sexually assaulted a man who was 21 or 22 years old in 2016.

>>20751933 60 Minutes Full Episode:Couldn't Care Less - Secret videos show sickening abuse of woman by her carers- Hours and hours of secret video recordings reveal the terrible scandal of how a woman was abused by the carers who should have been looking after her. It’s not a proud boast, but this is without doubt some of the cruellest, most horrific vision ever seen on Australian television. It’s part of a major investigation by Tara Brown focusing on shocking accusations that disability support workers were mistreating a vulnerable person they were employed to look after. However, instead of caring for the woman, their attitude and actions screamed that they couldn’t care less. As Brown reveals, the workers smugly assumed that because the victim was unable to speak, their abuse would go undetected. But they were proved wrong when, in an extraordinary act of love, the woman’s elderly parents took the law into their own hands and used a hidden camera to expose the terrible truth.

>>20798867 Catholic college ordered to remove paedophile priest from honour roll - A Catholic college will remove disgraced former teacher Father Bill Edwards from its honour roll and hall of fame years after it became aware of shocking child abuse allegations against Edwards, and only when this masthead approached it for comment. The victim, who asked not to be identified because he is a victim of sexual abuse, sent a letter to Salesian College Chadstone principal Mark Ashmore almost two years ago, asking the Catholic college to stop eulogising Edwards, who died in 2010. “Your school website describes his ‘fifty years of incredible service’ and refers to him as ‘a great man’,” the letter from July 2022, seen by The Age, says. The letter also quotes the former head of the Salesians describing Edwards as “perhaps the Australian Salesian who most closely resembled [Salesians founder] Don Bosco himself”. It continues: “Actually, Edwards was a paedophile. I know that because he violently sexually assaulted me on a year 7 camp when I was a student at another Salesian school in the early 1990s.” The new Australia-Pacific provincial of the Salesians, Father Peter Hoang Kim Huy, made an order on Monday to “remove all references and recognitions to Fr Edwards across all Salesian schools”. “Any allegation of harm to a child is profoundly distressing, and while this has been a complex issue, it is deeply regrettable that this action was not taken sooner,” he said.

>>20803391 Video: ‘Beast Boy’: NSW Police charge one of state’s worst alleged bestiality offenders - Sexual gratification and financial advantage motivated a man labelled by police as one of the state’s worst alleged bestiality offenders, who was arrested in a raid on his remote Mid North Coast home this week. The sex crime squad’s child exploitation internet unit began targeting those creating and distributing child abuse material through the internet in February this year, coming across a man using the pseudonym Beast Boy online. Police allege the profile had a large online presence and used encrypted messaging apps to share and sell bestiality material. In their investigation, police uncovered videos showing the alleged sexual abuse of various animals including dogs, sheep, goats and chickens. One video featured a dead kangaroo. Detectives were able to identify the man allegedly behind the disturbing account as 38-year-old Colin Baker, with police swarming a rural property in Moorland, 30 kilometres north of Taree, at 7.30am on Tuesday. As the man was being arrested, accompanying RSPCA inspectors found a small dog on the property. Police say the Jack Russell cross named Locky was among the animals abused by the man for the purposes of creating online videos.

#35 - Part 88

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 6

>>20831652 Video: Operation Arkstone - Childcare worker, partner jailed for decades - ‘Most evil crimes imaginable’ - A former childcare worker and his partner, who abused dozens of children over nine years and filmed the acts, have been jailed for decades for hundreds of the “most evil crimes imaginable”. The men’s maximum sentences of 37 years and 26 years are the culmination of a multinational investigation into a child abuse ring, which led to the arrest of 25 men, including a soccer coach, teacher and disability worker. The former couple, who were aged between 18 and their early 20s at the time of their offences against 30 children, cannot be named for legal reasons. One man worked in a leadership role at a NSW daycare centre for two years of his nearly-decade-long paedophile crime spree, taking young children outside on “play dates” or when being the only carer in a room. His undoing began when a parent complained he had kissed one child on the lips. Much of his crimes are too graphic to publish. Some took place at his parents’ home. He groomed a young child he met on Facebook, convinced the child to sneak out of home and abused him. When the parents reported him missing to police, who knocked on the man’s door, he told the child to hide inside. He pleaded guilty to 248 offences, including sexually abusing a very young child and using a young child to make child abuse material. He admitted to abusing more than 20 children over nine years and exchanging the material on chat platforms such as Snapchat to other paedophiles. His former partner pleaded guilty to 106 child abuse offences against at least eight children. Hundreds more charges were dropped against both men during a plea deal.

>>20831682 Video - Operation Arkstone: child abuse material network kingpins sentenced - A NSW childcare educator and his boyfriend who committed some of the most vile, protracted child abuse ever uncovered by the Australian Federal Police will spend decades behind bars for their appalling crimes. The childcare educator and his boyfriend were netted in 2020 by the AFP’s Operation Arkstone, which smashed a domestic online network of child sex offenders. They were charged with sexually abusing a number of children over several years, photographing and recording the abuse, and distributing it to an online pedophile network. The offenders cannot be identified, as the childcare educator committed crimes against infants and toddlers at his workplace, and the boyfriend against children known to him. The highly invasive sexual crimes - which are too distressing and graphic to repeat - were committed against babies aged one up to children aged 17. After the sentences, AFP Commander Kate Ferry said the AFP was relentless in its pursuit of anyone producing and sharing child abuse material. “Operation Arkstone began as a result of one small piece of information,” she said. “What the AFP and its domestic and international law enforcement partners uncovered in the weeks and months that followed was truly some of the worst offending we have ever seen.” Commander Ferry said the pair’s behaviour might be the “most disturbing” representation of what child sex offenders are capable of. “Some of those arrested during Operation Arkstone were meant to keep our children safe - instead, they used their position to commit some of the most evil crimes imaginable,” she said. “Operation Arkstone should serve as a warning that there is no dark corner of the internet that is safe for offenders to hide, and there is nowhere the AFP and its law enforcement partners won’t go to hunt you down and drag you out into the light.”

>>20855565 Six former inmates of Magill Youth Training Centre sue SA government over alleged sexual abuse in the former facility - A demolished SA youth detention centre once reported to the United Nations as “a living human rights abuse” was “a pedophile’s playground” where children were sexually abused on a nightly basis, former inmates claim. The Advertiser can reveal six men held, as children, in the Magill Training Centre have sent letters of demand to the state government, seeking compensation for repeated sexual assaults. Each of the men was remanded to the centre, which operated from 1869 to 2012, at different times and were unknown to one another - but each alleges near-identical abuse. They also accuse the same guards of perpetrating that abuse, claiming it began immediately upon their arrival and continued each night until they were released. The men further claim they were warned, by other and longer-serving detainees, not to complain “otherwise it will just get worse”.

>>20676473 (pb)

Former US fighter pilot accused of giving military secrets to China

60 Minutes Australia

May 12, 2024

A former US Marine fighter pilot and current Australian citizen is facing extradition to America, accused of sharing military secrets with China.

Who is the real Daniel Duggan? It’s a simple question, but the answer is highly contested and has enormous consequences. For his family and a large group of supporters, he’s a hero. A former US Marine fighter pilot turned proud Australian citizen; a loving husband and devoted dad. For others though, namely the United States government, he’s a traitor, accused of supplying China with top-secret military information. For the past 19 months, Duggan has been sitting in Australian prisons fighting attempts to send him back to the United States. As Dimity Clancey reports, a decision about his extradition is expected within weeks, but if the Americans get a hold of him and can prove the allegations, he faces up to 65 more years locked up. It’s a thought his wife Saffrine and six children are struggling to comprehend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTi7Lw6wTXU

ICC chief prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli PM and Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes

Reuters/AP/ABC - May 20, 2024

1/2

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over alleged war crimes.

ICC prosecutor Karim AA Khan KC has made applications for the warrants, claiming he has reasonable grounds to believe Mr Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant bear responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Israel-Gaza war.

Arrest warrants have also been sought for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Both Israel and Hamas have previously dismissed allegations of war crimes.

The prosecutor must request the warrants from a pre-trial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence and determine if the proceedings can move forward.

The allegations against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant include bearing responsibility for starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering and wilful killing or murder as a war crime.

Speaking of the Israeli actions, Mr Khan said in a statement that "the effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known.

"They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women."

Mr Netanyahu said the decision to seek an arrest warrant against him was absurd, and that the move was meant to target all of Israel.

"I reject with disgust the comparison of the prosecutor in the Hague between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas," Mr Netanyahu said.

"With what audacity do you compare Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, decapitated, raped and kidnapped our brothers and sisters and the IDF soldiers fighting a just war?"

The Hamas leaders face allegations of bearing responsibility for crimes including extermination and murder, the taking of hostages, torture, rape and other acts of sexual violence.

Of the Hamas actions in Israel on October 7, Karim Khan said that he saw for himself "the devastating scenes of these attacks and the profound impact of the unconscionable crimes charged in the applications filed today".

"Speaking with survivors, I heard how the love within a family, the deepest bonds between a parent and a child, were contorted to inflict unfathomable pain through calculated cruelty and extreme callousness. These acts demand accountability," he said.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the decision "equates the victim with the executioner".

He also said the move encouraged Israel to continue its "war of extermination" in Gaza.

International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney served on a five-member expert panel that advised Mr Khan.

She said the panel had agreed unanimously there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that both the Hamas and Israeli leaders had committed war crimes, according to a statement.

Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution.

(continued)

>>20886492

Julian Assange wins right to appeal US extradition

JACQUELIN MAGNAY - MAY 21, 2024

1/2

Julian Assange has won the right to appeal his extradition to the US to a full British appeals court.

The significant legal win for the WikiLeaks founder came after the High Court judges ruled they were not satisfied that Assange, 53, would not face discrimination under the US Constitution’s first amendment because of his Australian citizenship.

But Assange, who was too ill to attend the court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, will face many more months in Belmarsh jail as a remand prisoner until the courts can find time for the full appeal to be heard.

The two judges hearing the case said they had carefully considered the submissions in writing and orally.

“We have decided to give leave to appeal,’’ they said.

Outside the court a bevy of supporters with placards and some waving Palestinian flag cheered loudly as the news filtered along The Strand with cars honking their horns after being held in traffic.

Stella Assange said outside the court that the US administration “should drop these shameful charges immediately”. She called for her husband’s release saying that the ongoing legal battles was imposing a dreadful toll on his health.

Mrs Assange said that as well as being immediately freed, her husband should receive compensation as well as the Nobel Peace Prize.

She said the only time her children had been able to see their father, including their eldest son Gabriel, who just turned seven, was in the visiting room of Belmarsh prison.

“We are relieved as a family that the courts took the right decision today but how long can this go on for, our eldest son just turned seven,’’ she told supporters.

“All our memories of their father is in the visiting hall of Belmarsh prison.”

She demanded that the Biden administration distance itself “from this shameful prosecution”, adding, “Julian must be freed, the case should be abandoned, there should be compensation, he should be given the Nobel prize and he should walk freely with his feet in the sand and should be able to swim in the sea again.”

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Krstinn Hfrafsson said the US had a losing case. “Drop the case now, you are losing,” he said.

“It is quite something that a high court in this country has told the US ‘we just don’t believe you’,”.

Further details about the upcoming appeal will be decided on May 24.

Assange’s legal team had successfully argued that US assurances given to the High Court in London “is not a knockout” and that the WikiLeaks founder should be refused extradition to face trial on espionage charges even though the death penalty had been taken off the table.

The two High Court appeal judges had asked the US government to provide three assurances before authorising any extradition. These were based around removing the death penalty and whether Assange would not be discriminated because of his Australian nationality and whether he could rely on the US Constitution’s first amendment for protections.

Monday’s ruling means Assange will not face immediate extradition to the US and the case, which has been ongoing for five years, will be fully argued again.

(continued)

>>20676399 (pb)

>>20736640 (pb)

>>20808182 (pb)

‘Heading for trial’: Linda Reynolds, Brittany Higgins mediation talks break down

PAIGE TAYLOR - MAY 21, 2024

Senator Linda Reynolds has told the Albanese government it must accept that it paid $2.45m to Brittany Higgins based on claims identified as untrue in the civil court judgment that also found Bruce Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House in 2019.

Senator Reynolds made the comments outside court on Tuesday as she pressed on her with her defamation case against Ms Higgins, her former media adviser, and Ms Higgins’ partner David Sharaz.

She is suing them over social media posts from 2022 and 2023.

In court, Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett has previously described those posts as attacks on Senator Reynolds and as a “concerted plan”.

A long day of mediation to avoid a trial failed in March. A second attempt at mediation on Tuesday also failed after three hours.

Senator Reynolds emerged from the David Malcolm Justice Centre in the centre of Perth shortly after 1pm local time on Tuesday and told waiting media: “Unfortunately, it appears at this stage that we still will be heading to trial in July.”

Tuesday’s mediation was the first attempt at a settlement since Network Ten successfully defended itself in a defamation case brought by Mr Lehrmann over a story on The Project.

That story featured Ms Higgins’ rape allegation and claims of a political cover-up in which Ms Higgins was forced to choose between her career and justice.

In a lengthy judgment in that case in April, Justice Michael Lee found that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins in the ministerial suite of Senator Reynolds in the early hours of March 23, 2019. At the time, Senator Reynolds was the defence industry minister.

Ten won the case because Ms Higgins’ rape allegation was found to be true. However Justice Lee said “the cover-up allegation was objectively short on facts, but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies – trying to particularise it during the evidence was like trying to grab a column of smoke”.

On her way in and out of the mediation on Tuesday, Senator Reynolds said all of Justice Lee’s findings must be accepted by all parties. She said this included the Finance Minister, the Attorney-General and his department.

“It’s time for them to admit they got it wrong,” she said before the mediation began.

Senator Reynolds later confirmed she was talking about Ms Higgins’ payout, which – according to documents made public in court – included $400,000 for the way she was treated at work.

“Justice Lee made some very comprehensive findings in his judgment and it is time for all parties to accept all of his comments and I think that will help us all move forward,” she said.

When Senator Reynolds was asked which findings, her lawyer Mr Bennett referred to six paragraphs about the Commonwealth deed that underpinned Ms Higgins’ payout.

Justice Lee said it was evident several things being alleged were untrue and gave examples, including that “minister Reynolds did not engage with [Ms Higgins] at all during the election campaign. She avoided [Ms Higgins] and made clear that she did not want the claimant attending events with her”.

Standing outside court with Senator Reynolds after the failed mediation, Mr Bennett said the relevant paragraphs of the judgment were “where Justice Lee identified that the warranties given by Ms Higgins in the deed of settlement were false”.

A reporter then asked Senator Reynolds: “But in saying that the Attorney-General was wrong … is that in terms of awarding her the payout?” Senator Reynolds replied: “Yes”.

Mr Sharaz and Ms Higgins were not present for the mediation in Perth. Ms Higgins’ and her lawyer may have participated by video link, The Australian has been told.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/admit-you-got-it-wrong-reynolds-fronts-court-ahead-of-higgins-mediation-talks/news-story/543d2487783b56448e0374090ca20a59

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PP4sN9duys

>>20890891

>>20903719

‘No obligation’ to go to war under AUKUS, US general says

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 23, 2024

One of the US military’s top Indo-Pacific commanders says America will not “kidnap” Australian sailors serving on its nuclear submarines if it finds itself in a war with China, declaring there was “no expectation” that Australia would follow the US into such a conflict.

As Beijing launched “punishment” exercises in the Taiwan Strait following the inauguration of the territory’s new president, Lieutenant General Stephen Sklenka said the US was on the alert for a Chinese invasion of the self-governing island within the next three years.

General Sklenka, the deputy commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, said the Chinese were “bullies” harassing other nations’ ships and aircraft with “dangerous behaviour” that could escalate into conflict.

The heightened security environment comes as the US pushes to get 440 Australian sailors serving on its nuclear-powered subs to prepare them to operate Australia’s promised Virginia-class and AUKUS boats.

Joe Biden’s No. 2 diplomat Kurt Campbell in April suggested that Australia’s future nuclear-­powered submarines could one day be deployed against China in a conflict over Taiwan but General Sklenka told the National Press Club that the AUKUS pact did not obligate Australia to fight alongside the US in any future conflict.

“When they’re on our submarines, we don’t kidnap them,” he said. “There’s no expectation of anybody participating in any conflict with us because those decisions are national sovereign decisions. The US can’t, and we don’t, dictate that.”

China launched two days of military drills near Taiwan on Thursday, describing the move as “strong punishment” for the swearing-in of the territory’s new President, Lai Ching-te.

The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command said the drills, involving army, navy, air force and rocket force troops, were being conducted in the Taiwan Strait and around the Taiwan-­controlled islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin.

General Sklenka said the drills were expected but “just because we expect that behaviour does not mean we should not condemn it, and we need to condemn it publicly”.

He said the US took seriously Xi Jinping’s direction to his forces to be prepared for an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.

General Sklenka said China’s sustained pressure campaign against Taiwan was evidence of its intent, but the US did not see conflict as inevitable.

Australia has been subject to repeated unsafe intercepts by Chinese forces in recent times.

In an incident earlier this month, a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares in front of an Australian Seahawk helicopter in the Yellow Sea, forcing the aircraft to take evasive action.

The Australian government opted against releasing video of the recent helicopter incident but the US commander said such footage was important to “show the rest of the world what they’re up to”.

General Sklenka said the incident was part of “a pattern of revisionism” by China to claim territory that wasn’t theirs, believing it would create a new status quo.

He said the US had tracked 300 such “risky and coercive” intercepts by Chinese forces in the region since 2021.

“They not only contravene rules and norms governing behaviour by militaries, but they also frankly endanger lives and create conditions for escalation,” he said.

These incidents included China’s hostile use of water cannons against Filipino sailors, injuring six sailors in one recent encounter.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/no-obligation-to-go-to-war-under-aukus-us-general-says/news-story/b0818e2cdd11e97146a87bae87ed1315

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N57uCsJdMjA

>>20909138

NSW magistrate rules ex-marine pilot Daniel Duggan can be handed over to US over claims he trained Chinese pilots

Ethan Rix - 24 May 2024

A former US marine pilot accused of unlawfully aiding the Chinese military has been deemed eligible for surrender to America by a NSW court, leaving his hopes of avoiding extradition in the hands of the federal attorney-general.

Daniel Edmund Duggan, an Australian citizen, denies allegations by the US he helped train Chinese military pilots more than a decade ago, which relate to his work at the Test Flying Academy of South Africa.

US authorities allege Mr Duggan was paid about $100,000 for his services but had not sought permission from the US government to provide the training.

The 55-year-old has been held in a maximum-security jail in NSW for the past 19 months after he was arrested in October 2022 at the behest of the US.

Duggan found eligible for surrender

At Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Friday, Magistrate Daniel Reiss told Mr Duggan he was eligible for surrender to the US and made an order for the father-of-six to be committed to prison.

Mr Duggan's legal team were expected to make submissions against his extradition earlier on Friday, but his high-profile barrister, Bret Walker SC, told the court they would not be making any argument in the hearing to fight the 55-year-old's eligibility for surrender.

"I am submitting there are no arguments that I can properly put against the way in which our friend's written reply dealt with the written response on behalf of Mr Duggan," Mr Walker said.

Mr Duggan now has 15 days to appeal for review.

Speaking outside court after the ruling, Mr Duggan's wife, Saffrine, said her husband still denies all the allegations and called for the attorney general to "take another look at this case and bring my husband home".

His daughter Molly added that the decision was essentially a "death sentence".

"I'm mainly concerned about my three younger siblings who as a result of that will grow up without a father, which is just a horrible alienating thing to do," she said.

The ruling does not initiate Mr Duggan's transfer to the US because the federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus KC, must now decide whether the surrender should proceed.

According to the Extradition Act, there is no set time frame for the attorney- general to make this decision following a magistrate's ruling, but the act states a decision should be made as soon as practical.

That decision can also be appealed for review by the Federal Court.

In a statement provided to the ABC, a spokesperson for the attorney general said the government does not comment on extradition matters.

Mr Duggan sat calmly in the dock behind a glass panel, smiling and waving to his family and supporters in court.

At one point he mouthed "I love you" to his wife and blew her a kiss.

He also made a heart shape with his hands.

A petition calling for the Australian government to release Mr Duggan has received 25,000 signatures.

Supporters gather outside court

Before the hearing began, Mr Duggan's wife, children and supporters gathered outside court calling for his immediate release.

Friday's ruling comes after Mr Duggan failed to delay his extradition hearing last month, claiming he had already spent up to $800,000 in legal fees and couldn't fund his future defence after his wife was prevented from selling their multi-million-dollar estate near Kiama in October

Mr Duggan faces US charges of conspiracy, arms trafficking and money laundering.

He faces up to 65 years in jail if found guilty.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-24/nsw-ex-pilot-loses-legal-battle-for-surrender-to-us/103890232

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRiVQzd9pWk