Magda Szubanski criticised over Jenny Morrison ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ post

James Morrow - April 13, 2021

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint says Magda Szubanski’s “appalling” attack on Jenny Morrison is another example of the double standards shown to women on the centre-right.

The South Australian Liberal MP who announced earlier this year that she was stepping down from politics because of abuse she copped during the last election, was scathing of Ms Szubanski’s tweet about the wife of the Prime Minister.

“I cannot believe the appalling personal attacks on Mrs Morrison, especially by Ms Szubanski, a woman who has received one of our nation’s highest honours,” Ms Flint said.

“I will be writing to the responsible Minister to once again request a review of the standards to which Australian Honours recipients should be held.”

“More broadly, Ms Szubanski’s completely disrespectful comments are yet another example of the double standards demonstrated towards women on the centre-right of politics.

“The sisterhood need to stop picking and choosing which sisters to protect; all women deserve to be treated with respect,” Ms Flint said.

On Sunday, Ms Szubanski retweeted a photo of a conservatively-dressed Jenny Morrison standing to the side as her husband signed a condolence book for Prince Philip.

“I genuinely thought this was a photoshopped Handmaid’s Tale meme. But no. It’s 21st century Aussie life,” Szubanski wrote.

She retweeted the photo with a message from a left-wing Twitter account called MFWitches, which wrote, “Good morning to everyone else to whom this feels creepy, chilling, terrifying, ominous, enraging, despairing and utterly, completely f*cking depressing.”

Meanwhile a number of prominent female politicians who have been the target of online abuse were quick to hit out at Ms Szubanski for her attacks on Jenny Morrison.

“Ms Szubanski has herself been the target of obscene trolls, yet the hypocritical nature of the Left is here on display,” NSW Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes told The Daily Telegraph.

“This current cry on behalf of women, of supporting women, is of course only applicable if your politics is left of centre.”

Ms Szubanski was recently criticised for not standing up for women when she attacked conservative Queensland Senator Amanda Stoker’s appointment as assistant minister for women, calling her a member of “the small but noisy ‘Christian Soldiers’ faction hijacking the national agenda.”

She also retweeted a photo of the Morrison family posing with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, zooming in on Mrs Morrison’s hand, which showed her thumb and forefinger joined over one of her daughters’ wrists.

In some segments of the internet, the joined thumb and forefinger, as part of the traditional “OK” sign, is seen as an indication of support for white supremacy.

“What’s this little hand signal thingy??”, Ms Szubanski asked in her tweet, which prompted a number of replies from other Twitter users suggesting that Mrs Morrison was somehow signalling support for racist ideology.

Many others tweeted responses showing prominent left-wing politicians like US Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez making the “OK” sign.

In the past, Ms Szubanski has claimed that she herself was the victim of online trolling, most recently after she did a public service announcement supporting Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ draconian COVID lockdown restrictions.

At the time, Israel Folau defended Ms Szubanski, saying, “Please stop the anonymous online attacks on Magda Szubanski, who has entered this debate very respectfully.”

“She is entitled to express her views – let’s all have this important discussion with love in our hearts.”

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/magda-szubanski-criticised-over-jenny-morrison-handmaids-tale-post/news-story/c7d9ccefa6d58995146d01f1943b1f8d

https://twitter.com/MagdaSzubanski/status/1381084653205954560

https://twitter.com/MagdaSzubanski/status/1381095931404152833

>>13351022

Will Australia interfere with NZ’s China policy?

Qin Sheng - Apr 12, 2021

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Voices that accuse New Zealand of not being tough enough on China-related issues have been lately emerging in Western countries, especially Australia. New Zealand was even referred to as the "soft underbelly" of the Five Eyes alliance in a report written by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as early as 2018. The term has been recently hyped up again by Australian media - news.com.au, which said, "There are concerns from New Zealand Five Eyes' allies that it may be the weak link in dealing with China."

In the eye of the Five Eyes, there are many incidents that show Wellington's inconsistent acts with them. This January, New Zealand didn't issue a joint statement together with the other four members of the alliance to express "serious concern" about the situation in Hong Kong. Last month, New Zealand refrained from joining 14 countries, including the other four members of the Five Eyes, in questioning the WHO report on the origins of the novel coronavirus.

An Australian broadcaster even accused New Zealand of "backstabbing" Australia. Even though such a comment does not represent the attitude of the Australian government, it still reflects Australia's horrible mentality, as well as the country's diplomatic philosophy that puts ideology above everything else. As "the deputy sheriff of the US in the Asia-Pacific region," Australia has positioned itself as the hegemony of the South Pacific region. It sees New Zealand as its little brother who should be in line with it regarding China policies.

In fact, New Zealand, as a typical Western country, normally judges international affairs from the standpoint of developed Western countries. However, when Wellington has occasionally raised a different voice, it has caused Canberra deep confusion and discomfort.

Australia has an overwhelming advantage over New Zealand in terms of territory, population, and economic size. And it is New Zealand's second-largest trading partner. Thus, Canberra tends to consider Wellington's latest behavior as "backstabbing." However, this highlights the arrogance of some Australians, and also shows extreme disrespect for its neighbor.

On the other hand, in contrast to the deteriorating China-Australia relationship in recent years, the China-New Zealand relationship has been going well. In 2017, China overtook Australia as New Zealand's top trading partner. In January, China and New Zealand signed an agreement to upgrade their existing free trade pact.

(continued)

>>13414624

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During the same period, there was almost no substantive high-level dialogue between China and Australia, as the anti-China wave in Australia's domestic and foreign affairs was rising. The lack of communication and coordination has directly led to the escalating trade frictions between the two countries. Faced with the smooth development of China-New Zealand relations, Australia did not reflect on its own problems, but tried to use its influence to interfere with the foreign policy of its neighbors.

In the ongoing confrontation with China, Australia has repeatedly hurt Chinese companies and investments on the grounds of national security. This has been done at the expense of its own companies and people, and now Australia wants its neighbors to join in this lose-lose situation. After Australia issued the ban on Chinese tech giant Huawei, the company has terminated its millions of research and development investments in the country, and closed the research and development center there. High-tech workers lost their jobs, and the development of 5G technology in Australia lagged behind seriously. This decision has brought obvious negative effects on Australia's economic development and technological progress.

New Zealand, by contrast, attaches more importance to win-win cooperation and seeks the greatest common ground in bilateral relations from the perspective of development. This is also an important reason for the continuous development and breakthrough of China-New Zealand relations.

At present, the strategic competition between China and the US is becoming more and more complicated. As Washington increasingly pushes other countries to take sides, third countries besides China and the US are playing an increasingly important role in this game. Many countries have made an independent choice between following the US in containing China and deepening cooperation with China, in order to safeguard their vital interests.

Besides New Zealand, Germany, a critical US ally in Europe and the EU's largest economy, has not joined the US-led group challenging the WHO's report on global tracing of COVID-19 origins. More and more countries respect the facts and follow the trend of the times. In sum, the ideological diplomacy of countries such as the US and Australia is losing its market in international community.

The author is an assistant researcher at Asia Pacific and Global Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1220837.shtml

Trump receives 'Champion for Freedom Award'

Sky News Australia

13 Apr 2021

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, a group formed to help the GOP take back the Senate in 2022, has awarded Donald Trump with its inaugural 'Champion for Freedom Award.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11gekSn3n0A

>>13389623

Australia’s exports to China hit new highs

WILL GLASGOW - APRIL 13, 2021

Australia’s exports to China hit a new record in the first three months of 2021 as strong demand for iron ore continues to more than offset Beijing’s strikes on coal, wine, lobster, timber and barley.

The total value of goods exports from Australia rose by 20.7 per cent to $44.36bn ($US33bn) in the first quarter of the year, according to data released by China’s customs agency.

Exports in March were $17.4bn, the highest monthly total ever.

China’s exports to Australia for the three months to the end of March were up 50.5 per cent to $18.5bn.

The elevated prices of iron ore and liquefied natural gas — Australia’s two biggest exports to China — has undermined the campaign of economic punishment President Xi Jinping’s regime has waged on the Morrison government.

Australia’s ambassador in China Graham Fletcher last month said the lack of impact of the trade restrictions had contributed to the ongoing “stand off” between Beijing and Canberra.

“The total impact on the economy, and on [Australian] government policy frankly, is not delivering the result that China wanted,” Mr Fletcher told the Australia China Business Council at a briefing.

Beijing’s trade strikes — which Ambassador Fletcher described as “deliberate coercion” — began with a thumping 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley exports, imposed weeks after Foreign Minister Marise Payne last April called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus without forewarning her Chinese counterparts.

The barley tariff was followed by the suspension of licences for six Australian beef abattoirs, the imposition of a 200-plus per cent tariff on Australian wine that priced the industry out of what had been its biggest market, the banning of timber after Chinese officials said they had detected pests in Australian cargo, and a blacklisting of lobsters and coal which has never been made official.

Australia had been the dominant supplier of coking coal to China, the world’s biggest steel maker.

Beijing’s ban on coal — which had been Australia’s third biggest export to China, worth $14bn in 2019 — has increased the cost of the steel making ingredient for its local industry.

“It just shows the extent to which China is prepared to pay a price itself to make a political point,” Mr Fletcher said.

According to numbers by China’s customs, no Australian coal has entered China this year.

Despite reports that copper concentrate had also been blacklisted, China’s official numbers show the metal has continued to enter the world’s second biggest economy.

Industry in China has been concerned that copper from Chile — the world’s biggest — may be disrupted by a huge wave of coronavirus in the South American country.

The China Iron and Steel Association met on Tuesday to discuss the high costs of its resource inputs. Australia is China’s main supplier of iron ore, which continues to trade without interruption.

That meeting came a week after President Xi’s top economic adviser Liu He discussed the increase in the prices of bulk commodities with officials.

The new trade numbers show the deep complementarity between resource rich Australia’s resource and China, its biggest trading partner.

They come after new analysis by the Lowy Institute’s chief economist Roland Rajah found most Australian industries caught up in China’s trade campaign have been able to offset much of their lost income by finding new markets.

Australia’s lobster industry - which sold more than 90 per cent of its product to China - and the country’s most China-exposed winemakers have felt the most pain.

“Our friends had to bite the bullet,” China’s deputy head of mission at its Canberra Embassy Wang Xining told a separate Australia China Business Council function in February.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/australias-exports-to-china-hit-new-highs/news-story/dda05455c091f0507593a04a5afaa50d

Johnson & Johnson's one-dose COVID-19 vaccine won't be coming to Australia due to AstraZeneca similarities

Tom Lowrey - 13 April 2021

Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine will not be part of Australia's vaccine rollout, at least for now, after the federal government confirmed it would not purchase any doses from the company.

The vaccine is being widely used in the United States and has the advantage of only requiring one dose, unlike the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna alternatives which all require two doses.

The federal government had been in talks with the global pharmaceutical giant about potentially acquiring its vaccine, and the company had previously submitted an application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for provisional registration.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is based on similar technology to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Greg Hunt said those similarities were the reason the federal government had decided against pursuing the option any further.

"The [Johnson & Johnson] vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine, the same type of vaccine as the AstraZeneca vaccine," they said in a statement.

"The government does not intend to purchase any further adenovirus vaccines at this time."

The news comes despite the fact the federal government has been considering how to increase Australia's vaccine orders in response to changing advice around the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Under new advice, Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is the preferred option for Australians under 50 due to concerns over an extremely small number of cases of a rare blood clotting condition recorded in recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Late last week it was confirmed an order for a further 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been lodged.

Australia has deals in place with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novavax, but the Novavax vaccine is yet to be approved.

The federal opposition demanded further explanation about why the government was not pursuing a deal with Johnson & Johnson.

Shadow Health Minister Mark Butler said Australia needed to secure more vaccine deals.

"With this very important vaccine that's rolling out through the US, will start to roll out through the United Kingdom very soon, if there is a decision not to go with it, what are the reasons for that?" Mr Butler said.

"I think this is the problem Australians and Australian businesses are having right now — the communication channels from the government have shut down.

"We've got a Prime Minister that's retreated to Facebook and a minister who's making announcements through a spokesperson without clear background information."

Millions vaccinated abroad with a single dose

As of April 11, nearly 6.5 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been administered in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Because patients only require one dose, full vaccination of a population can be achieved relatively quickly.

The vaccine is approved for use in the European Union, and shipments to Europe reportedly began this week.

At a press conference with the Prime Minister last Friday, Health Department Secretary Brendan Murphy confirmed the government was "still exploring with Johnson & Johnson".

But he also noted that it was a similar type of vaccine to that produced by AstraZeneca.

Last week the European Medicines Agency said it was looking into four blood-clotting cases in the US associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

However, Johnson & Johnson said "no clear causal relationship has been established" between the cases and the vaccine.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-13/johnson-johnson-covid-19-vaccine-australia/100064454

>>13408002

QAnon Followers Excited by Mike Pompeo ‘Checkmate’ Photo

Sabrina Scotus - April 12, 2021

Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory have got excited in a way only they know how after Mike Pompeo tweeted a photo of him playing chess while eating dried pineapple.

The tweet from Pompeo on Sunday night appears to be in support of Taiwan after China banned Taiwanese pineapple imports citing “harmful creatures” that could affect its own crops, which Taiwan leaders argue is more of a political move than any agricultural concerns.

“As a proponent of freedom, enjoying some Taiwanese dried pineapple. Checkmate,” Pompeo tweeted while showing a photo of him playing a game of chess.

For QAnon supporters, the tweet and picture has nothing to do with international trade disputes, and instead is a coded reference which justifies their beliefs and proof that yet another prediction for their so-called “plan” may still come true.

A major part of the QAnon movement is deciphering coded messages which first appeared on 4chan, before later moving to 8chan and 8kun, from a mysterious figure known as “Q” who they believed to have high-level security clearance from the government.

These messages, also known as drops or “crumbs,” were seen as clues which were then interpreted to form the basis of what the conspiracy theorists believe, including that there exists a cabal of satanic pedophiles and “deep state” which Donald Trump would expose during his time as president.

Since October 2017, thousands of these messages appeared online, with the frequency drastically slowing down when Trump lost the election in November.

There hasn’t been a new message since December 8, with a recent HBO series on QAnon concluding that the person who played a major part in writing the messages was not someone with high-level security clearance from the government but actually Ron Watkins, the former administrator of 8kun.

The lack of new drops appearing, or the suggestion their leader is actually an infamous internet troll whose site hosted child pornography, has not affected QAnon.

Instead of waiting for new messages to guide them, their supporters merely decipher the catalogue of thousands already online to suit their needs, including attempts to suggest world events were long predicted by Q.

In this case, QAnon supporters were excited about Pompeo’s use of “checkmate” because the word appears in a drop from May 2020, albeit in a very vague passage about chess tactics.

Others also got excited about the placement of Pompeo’s pieces on the chessboard.

“If this isn’t comms, I don’t know what is. He literally won the game with his Knight on D5,” one widely shared post QAnon Telegram account with nearly 15,000 subscribers wrote.

The account later clarified his post to note that Pompeo has not in fact won the game despite his checkmate comment, but “the Queen is in danger.”

For QAnon, D5 is one of a number of phrases, slogans, and mixture of numbers of letters which they see in everyday life and interpret as a nod to their movement.

D5 is meant to reference December 5, a date which QAnon supporters believed for the past few years would see a day of reckoning to show they were right. Again, the reason for this is Q referencing D5 in a number of his drops in late 2018.

The specifics of what might occur on December 5 was never stated, but QAnon supporters still eagerly awaited the day each year since 2018.

Just like hundreds of failed predictions from QAnon, such as Trump carrying mass executions of satanic pedophiles at Joe Biden’s inauguration or returning as president on March 4, no such major QAnon event has happened in December.

Despite this, some influential QAnon advocates are still choosing to see Pompeo’s post on Twitter as significant using their own distorted interpretations of world events.

“If Mike Pompeo’s latest tweet isn’t comms then I don’t know what is,” wrote the Telegram account Pepe Lives Matter, which has more than 63,000 subscribers.

“Pompeo’s checkmate tweet increased my hopium levels by a factor of 17,” it added. The number 17 is significant in QAnon world because Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet.

“What Pompeo is showing is that his next move from D5 to F6 will give him total control of the board, including the most important center of the board to dictate the moves going forward to Checkmate!” another QAnon supporter wrote in a Telegram channel with more than 72,000 subscribers.

“The position of the board is also showing that no matter what the other side does, Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming…even though the other side has all their pieces still in the game!”

https://thelibertybuzz.com/qanon-mike-pompeo-checkmate-tweet/

New Victorian Catholic abuse process announced

AAP / thewest.com.au - 14 April 2021

Abuse survivors in Victoria are being urged to give feedback on the Catholic Church's proposed new process for handling complaints and redress.

Pathways Victoria will replace the widely-criticised Melbourne Response model, set up by Cardinal George Pell 25 years ago.

The Catholic Dioceses of Victoria have released details of the new scheme and survivors have until May 14 to comment.

"It is important that the voices of those who have experienced abuse are heard, and that their feedback helps to shape this new model," the church said in a statement.

"This new model will offer a set of compassionate, just and appropriately resourced processes to investigate complaints and respond to survivors, as an alternative to existing options such as the national redress scheme and civil litigation.

"It offers a pathway where survivors are listened to, acknowledged, compensated and given care."

The church added the proposed scheme would offer an "operationally independent structure" for implementing its national response protocol released earlier this year.

It says Pathways Victoria will be "person-centred and trauma-informed".

The child abuse royal commission had a series of criticisms about the Melbourne Response, saying it discouraged survivors from contacting police.

Cardinal Pell set up the program when he was Archbishop of Melbourne.

https://thewest.com.au/news/religion-and-belief/new-vic-catholic-abuse-process-announced-c-2589531

—

Public consultation opens on new model for complaints and redress in Victoria

Melbourne Catholic - 13 April 2021

The Catholic Dioceses of Victoria have announced the opening of a public consultation period for a new process of response to complaints and redress relating to abuse in the Catholic Church. It is important that the voices of those who have experienced abuse are heard, and that their feedback helps to shape this new model.

The proposed model, Pathways Victoria, will provide an operationally independent structure for implementing the Catholic Church’s National Response Protocol released earlier this year, and will provide a person-centred and trauma-informed response. This responds directly to Recommendations 7.7 and 16.37 of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Pathways Victoria will replace the Melbourne Response and Towards Healing processes that have been in place for nearly twenty-five years and will operate alongside the vital and ongoing services of Carelink.

This new model will offer a set of compassionate, just and appropriately resourced processes to investigate complaints and respond to survivors, as an alternative to existing options such as the National Redress Scheme and civil litigation. It offers a pathway where survivors are listened to, acknowledged, compensated and given care. For those who seek it, survivors have an opportunity to reconnect spiritually, with the restoration of links with the Church community.

Early notification of this announcement was shared with individual survivors and advocacy groups to enable support to be sought where needed, as well as with key stakeholders including the Acting Premier and the Commission for Children and Young People.

Survivors, their support persons and others who have lived with the effects of abuse, or have professional experience in this area, are strongly encouraged to be represented in this consultation phase, which will run from 13 April until 14 May 2021.

A website has been established for Pathways Victoria, providing background and updates on the proposal, as well as information on how to participate in the consultation phase.

https://melbournecatholic.org/news/public-consultation-opens-on-new-model-for-complaints-and-redress-in-victoria

>>13422589

PATHWAYS VICTORIA

Restorative Journeying with Survivors of Abuse within the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church and religious institutions in Victoria are committed to a safe environment for all children and vulnerable persons with safeguarding embedded within its culture and operations. Clergy, employees and volunteers are committed to upholding the right to safety of all persons, and participating in a creating a culture of safety supported by policies, practices and procedures that strive to prevent abuse in the first instance and to respond appropriately and effectively if abuse does occur.

Within the Catholic Church and participating religious institutions in Victoria there are currently two models that are available to respond to complaints of historic abuse: Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response. Nationally, there is also now the National Redress Scheme and civil litigation for those who seek compensation to redress past abuse.

In light of our contemporary understanding of the impact of abuse and trauma, the Catholic Church and participating religious institutions in Victoria have committed to the development of a consistent and state wide model of responding to complaints. The new approach, called Pathways Victoria, will implement a set of compassionate, just and appropriately resourced professional standards processes based on the National Response Protocol. It will incorporate features from Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response, effectively bringing their processes to a conclusion and providing a new process to investigate complaints and compensate and care for victims. Those who currently receive supports through Carelink will continue to do so. The Pathways Victoria model will offer an alternative to existing mechanisms such as the National Redress Scheme and civil litigation for those who may wish to engage in a pastoral response.

It is the hope that a sense of grace will be the light that shines through the new Pathways Model as it considers:

• the direct experiential feedback from victims, survivors and their families on the impact and effect of institutional abuse and redress processes

• the lessons from the multiple inquiries and report findings.

Consultation with victims and survivors who have engaged in the Melbourne Response or Towards Healing will be sought in addition to advice and input from related professionals, victim advocates and others who have been impacted in the community. This input will both inform and shape the way in which the Catholic Church in Victoria responds to future complaints of abuse with the voices of those with lived experience vital to our commitment of restorative journeying with adult survivors of abuse.

Through the Pathways Victoria model and processes, the Church and participating religious institutions seek to take responsibility for addressing wrongs that have been committed. The model responds to the need of those who wish to connect at a pastoral level with a one-to-one connection with a care coordinator who will walk alongside victims and survivors on their journey. It facilitates a compassionate approach with the opportunity to restore faith and trust with every step of engagement.

We look forward to providing you with further information as the project develops. If you would like to be involved in the Pathways Victoria project, please click the link below to add yourself to our mailing list.

https://www.pathwaysvictoria.com/

https://www.pathwaysvictoria.com/about-2

https://b1150120-7799-40a0-9f2b-795c5d78ff76.filesusr.com/ugd/af9da3_a39983accd314f309f135a4b72dd016a.pdf

We are in a crucial war: not against coronavirus but anti-vaxxers

JACK THE INSIDER (Peter Hoysted) - APRIL 14, 2021

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The Morrison Government’s decision to recommend the restricted use of the Astra-Zeneca vaccines was the right one. It was a good decision taken by the government based on expert advice.

It has caused problems, delays in the roll-out but it is easy to get caught up in the fear and anxiety of from a 24-hour news cycle. The success of the roll-out can only be measured a year from today, not in shrieking headlines on a daily basis.

Resist the urge to panic. Stay in touch with your general practitioner. Listen to the experts.

Most of all, we need to reject the misinformation that is spreading from the anti-vax industry who have found fertile ground for their conspiracy theories and outright lies in the wake of the government’s decision.

Last week, The Daily Telegraph caught out an anti-vaxxer “killing off” an intensive care doctor. The doctor was photographed having received her vaccine with an excited thumbs up. The photograph was posted on the doctor’s social media account.

The following day, an anti-vaxxer based in, guess where – Byron Bay posted, “Sadly, moments after her vaccination, this lady passed out and fell into a coma … she is still not conscious … doctors fear she will not recover.”

In reality, the doctor reported only a little fatigue in the 24-hour period after her shot of the vaccine. She didn’t miss any work. She continues to tend to the sick and injured in a hospital in the NSW’s northern rivers region.

This is more grist for the anti-vax mill. It is almost certainly true that anti-vaxxers have killed off more people than all of COVID-19 vaccinations combined.

Remember Margaret Keenan, the first woman to receive a COVID-19 vaccine? The anti-vaxxers initially claimed the now 91-year-old was a ‘crisis actor’. She had, the lies went, actually died in 2008 and obituaries were linked to the claims. It was an obvious con and anyone who bothered to read the obituaries in full would have realised the subject of the obit was another Margaret Keenan. Later, on social media they tried to kill her off again, but Margaret Keenan received her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on December 29, 2020 and she remains as fit as a fiddle.

In the distorted world of social media, it is easy to think of anti-vaxxers as almost insurmountable, millions of people, wringing their hands and swapping fictional horror stories online. Yes, it is a multi-billion dollar industry, surrounded as it is from the worst elements or the wellness industry who dismiss medical science, rational thought, and common sense all in one fell swoop.

But it would be a mistake to believe the numbers of anti-vax influencers are in the stratosphere.

In a report released last month, the Centre for Countering Digital Hate named the top twelve key entrepreneurs in the anti-vax industry, all of them US based, all of them generating anti-vaccine propaganda and exporting it to the world.

“Analysis of a sample of anti-vaccine content that was shared or posted on Facebook and Twitter a total of 812,000 times between 1 February and 16 March 2021 shows that 65 per cent of anti-vaccine content is attributable to the Disinformation Dozen,” the report said.

That’s 12 people flogging two thirds of the anti-vax lies. The trouble is that the anti-vax content of those twelve people hits millions of people, most of it indirectly through Facebook shares.

(continued)

>>13422670

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While it is true that social media companies have cracked down on anti-vax content and closed many accounts, it is a case of too little too late.

The so called “Disinformation Dozen” according to the CCDH are as follows: Joseph Mercola, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Ty and Charlene Bollinger, Sherri Tenpenny, Rizza Islam, Rashid Buttar, Erin Elizabeth, Sayer Ji, Kelly Brogan, Christiane Northrup, Ben Tapper and Kevin Jenkins.

Space does not permit a comprehensive analysis of each one, but they share many things in common. They are all grifters. They all have made repeated breaches of the terms of service of social media companies. They are often flogging products, sometimes supplements of little scientific value other than giving their addled consumers very expensive piss.

https://www.facebook.com/tycharlene.bollinger/posts/4033223516708014

Ty Bollinger is a body builder. He flogs supplements. He and his wife made their bones, literally, in the wellness industry by peddling pseudoscience around cancer treatment. In 2015, he urged a teenage girl to reject chemotherapy for Hodgkins Lymphoma. His influence led to her going to Mexico for an alternative treatment. She’s dead now.

Joseph Mercola is or was a trained physician. He gave up on medical science, preferring the profits to be made from dietary supplements. He is constantly facing fines and warnings from the US Food and Drug Administration. In 2016, Mercola agreed to pay $USD5.3 million in restitution to patients after federal regulators pulled him up over false claims and suggestions of miracle cures he had made about tanning beds he sold. Always the dollars. Always the grift.

Robert F Kennedy Jnr, the son of Bobby Kennedy and nephew of JFK is arguably the granddaddy of anti-vaxxers. Bearing the whiff of legitimacy from his days as an environmental lawyer, Kennedy has been caught out lying on multiple occasions when it came to the COVID-19 pandemic. Remember the nonsense about Bill Gates controlling us through a combination of vaccines and 5G technology? That laughable lie is directly attributable to Kennedy.

Christine Northrup is a qualified obstetrician who, like Mercola, prefers the riches to be made from direct sales of health supplements. She’s also dipped more than a toe into the QAnon rabbit hole - memo to QAnon influencers: You have been bilked by nerds, taken to the psychological cleaners by a couple of deeply disturbed human beings on a psychotic power trip.

The thing to remember about the anti-vaxxers is COVID-19 is their Alamo. An effective global roll out of COVID-19 vaccines and it is all over for them. Sure, they’ll keep hawking their own cons, but the recruitment drive will slow to a crawl and they’ll be left to shout their demented theories to the walls, flogging their worthless goods to shrinking markets.

Likewise, we have to see this as a war. A war against lies, a war against misinformation, a ferocious battle to safely get COVID-19 vaccines into enough arms so we can return to a form of pre-COVID-19 normal. The stakes are incredibly high and we cannot afford to give an inch.

Peter Hoysted is Jack the Insider: a highly placed, dedicated servant of the nation with close ties to leading figures in politics, business and the union movement.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/we-are-at-war-not-against-coronavirus-but-antivaxxers/news-story/9e7fb1bde60ba95d8d88e62b26859285

Spring forward: why Sinodinos is ready to mingle after a ‘hermit-like existence’

Matthew Knott - April 14, 2021

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Washington: Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s ambassador to the United States, was relaxing at home on a Saturday night last December when the text messages started streaming in.

It was Sunday morning in Australia and Insiders was airing on the ABC. Respected press gallery veteran Niki Savva used her appearance on the show to unveil a scoop: Sinodinos, a cancer survivor, was planning to return to Australia. The coronavirus pandemic, she said, had made it difficult for him to do the job and Foreign Minister Marise Payne was in line to fill his spot.

People wanted to know: was Sinodinos really leaving Washington after just 10 months? Savva had tried to check the story with him before going on air but Sinodinos missed her messages. So he jumped onto Twitter to correct the record: “Not going anywhere, happy in the service.”

“My ears pricked up because I’ve seen this sort of scenario before: people floating things,” Sinodinos says. “Having survived until late last year in this environment, it didn’t seem like a logical time to be going back just as things were about to turn the corner here.”

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have been told the story was driven by at least one ambitious cabinet member angling to take over the foreign ministry from Payne.

Even by the Machiavellian standards of Canberra, weaponising a former colleague’s cancer history for career advancement seems grubby. But Sinodinos, who served as John Howard’s chief-of-staff for a decade before eight years as a Liberal senator, shrugs it off as the stuff of politics.

“Comrade, in this business never rule out shenanigans,” he says. “I dealt with it and that was the end of that.”

Sinodinos is upfront that his status as a survivor of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma curtailed his ability to participate in the schmoozing that defined diplomatic life in pre-pandemic Washington.

As a bone marrow transplant recipient in a country with the world’s highest number of coronavirus cases, he had to take social distancing seriously. Most of his interactions were limited to phone calls and video meetings.

“I would go out for the odd gathering but very limited - involving one or two people - and very rarely,” Sinodinos, 64, says of his past year in the US capital.

“There was an element of it being a hermit-like existence. It would have been nice to have had more ambassadorial things to do.”

That’s rapidly changing. Sinodinos has received both doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, making him one of the 73 million people in the US to be fully vaccinated.

On Tuesday (AEDT) he welcomed the Herald and The Age to White Oaks, his official residence in Washington, for his first in-person interview since the pandemic began. Most officials in the Biden administration are also fully vaccinated, meaning real-world meetings are an option once again.

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Although cooped up at home more than he would have liked, Sinodinos has seen plenty of drama since succeeding Joe Hockey in the role last February. As well as the pandemic, he lived through the drama-filled election campaign, the storming of the Capitol on January 6 and the arrival of Joe Biden’s new administration.

At first, there were fears in Australia’s foreign policy community that Australia would lose influence in Washington after Donald Trump’s defeat. Trump’s abrasive relationship with many traditional allies allowed Australia’s cachet to rise: Scott Morrison and Emmanuel Macron were the only two leaders to be granted a state dinner by Trump.

There were also worries that Biden would turn away from the Asia-Pacific as he focused on rebuilding alliances in Europe.

Such anxieties proved unfounded. In March, Biden held his first multilateral meeting since his inauguration with the leaders of “the Quad” nations: Australia, Japan and India. Sinodinos had lobbied hard for the meeting to take place.

Soon after, Kurt Campbell, Biden’s “Asia tsar”, announced in The Herald and The Age that US-China relations will not improve until Beijing stops its economic coercion of Australia.

The Asia-Pacific region is clearly the Biden administration’s number one foreign policy priority, Sinodinos says.

“This administration has put a much greater focus on allies and partners than the previous administration,” he says. “We’ve felt from the beginning more drawn into their processes, particularly when it comes to the Indo-Pacific and China. They are committed to multilateral institutions like the World Trade Organisation.”

He continues: “People in our region are getting the message that the US is back and engaged. Under Trump I wouldn’t say the US necessarily went away but the ‘America First’ approach tended to suggest it was ‘America only’.”

Sinodinos adds that the Biden administration is more orderly - and usually more predictable - than the Trump White House.

Although Australians may be seeing and hearing less of Biden than his predecessor, Sinodinos dismisses the Fox News trope that 78-year old Biden is over the hill and Kamala Harris is running the government.

“Even though Biden is not on Twitter and doing press conferences all the time, he is very much in charge. He’s a very active chief executive, he’s not back in the basement in Delaware.”

While big functions and parties are still a while away, Sinodinos says he has can now host administration officials and members of Congress at the stately ambassadorial residence.

“I’m looking forward to some semblance of normality returning and being able to make use of the splendour of this place,” he says, looking out at the residence’s swimming pool and grass tennis court.

“People have adapted to circumstances but enough is enough.”

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/spring-forward-why-sinodinos-is-ready-to-mingle-after-a-hermit-like-existance-20210413-p57ite.html

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AFP confirms probe into Ben Roberts-Smith video allegations

Anthony Galloway and Nick McKenzie - April 14, 2021

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The Australian Federal Police has confirmed it has launched a fresh investigation into Ben Roberts-Smith for allegedly burying sensitive Defence files in his backyard and is treating an accusation he attempted to intimidate a witness in an investigation into war crimes “as a priority”.

Mr Roberts-Smith on Wednesday denied he hid the USB drives in his backyard or that he threatened witnesses to stop them from co-operating with the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force’s inquiry into war crime allegations.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed on Wednesday the alleged war criminal kept more than a dozen Department of Defence drone videos of Afghanistan military operations buried in his backyard, including videos watermarked as “secret” and only to be shared among certain NATO forces.

The files buried by Mr Roberts-Smith in a pink, child’s lunch box included 13 videos of drone vision taken by NATO military forces in Afghanistan as well as copies of classified operational reports from a Special Air Service mission in Southern Afghanistan and contained images of soldiers misbehaving at a makeshift bar.

In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, the former SAS Regiment soldier said the allegation he “hid” or failed to disclose material to the Inspector-General’s inquiry was false, saying he fully co-operated with the probe. Mr Roberts-Smith, now a senior executive with Channel Seven, also denied threatening any witness or potential witness to the war crimes inquiry.

“The allegation that he buried USBs in his backyard is false. This simply did not happen,” the statement said.

“Mr Roberts-Smith risked his life for his country, having served in Afghanistan over six years through scores of missions where his safety and that of other members of the SAS was in constant jeopardy.

“He does not seek any special treatment because of those facts, but only the same impartial reporting that is the right of any Australian whose acts may deserve public attention. Nine media’s reporting is a parody of responsible journalism, exhibiting both bias and prejudgment.”

In a separate email to employees at Channel Seven on Wednesday, Mr Roberts-Smith apologised for comments he made in leaked recordings in which he expressed disdain for colleagues and the business, saying he took “full responsibility” for the remarks where he described the company as dysfunctional.

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Appearing at a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday, AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney confirmed federal police opened a new investigation after the matter of the USBs was referred to his agency on March 25.

He said it was determined to be a “sensitive” investigation on March 29. The declaration means the probe will be overseen by the AFP’s Sensitive Investigations Oversight Board and new Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews may also be briefed on the matter.

Mr McCartney said the AFP had opened an investigation into “aspects of that media reporting” but cautioned he would “prefer not to provide a running commentary” on the probe.

He confirmed the AFP now has access to “some material” that was in the buried USB drives.

“Some of that material was actually … referred to the AFP by the journalist in question and also by his newspaper,” he said.

Mr Roberts-Smith has repeatedly denied committing war crimes or any other wrongdoing and is suing The Age and Herald for defamation.

But further evidence obtained by this masthead suggests Mr Roberts-Smith arranged to send at least one anonymous letter to a special forces soldier threatening him that he would “go down” if he did not recant war crimes allegations.

Mr McCartney said the allegation was “serious and it is being treated as a priority by the Australian Federal Police”.

Several security sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed the AFP is investigating the alleged threats to intimidate the witness.

The files that were in Mr Roberts-Smith’s backyard included one created by an American military specialist embedded with the SAS and altered by Mr Roberts-Smith in 2019. A second file also altered by Mr Roberts-Smith is marked as belonging to the “Department of Defence”.

Metadata on some of the documents suggest Mr Roberts-Smith may have shared sensitive files and images with others, including a former member of his SAS patrol team based in the US. The metadata suggests some of the files relate to a 2009 mission in which Mr Roberts-Smith is accused of unlawfully executing an Afghan man.

That killing, over which Mr Roberts-Smith has denied any wrongdoing, is the subject of a federal police taskforce that was launched in 2018 and which recently submitted a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/afp-confirms-probe-into-ben-roberts-smith-video-allegations-20210414-p57j6g.html

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>>13395860

>>13395882

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Family Launches Website as She Endures Over 280 days of Pre-Trial "Torture"

''Brother releases powerful video confirming appeal of third bail application rejection''

Maxwell Family - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 8, 2021

New York, NY – The family of Ghislaine Maxwell today announced the launch of RealGhislaine.com, a website developed and maintained by her brothers, sisters, family & friends, the people who have known the real Ghislaine all her life, not the fictionalized, one-dimensional character created by the media.

The website features on its Home Page a video message from Ghislaine’s brother Ian, filmed in response to the court’s recent rejection of her third bail application, detailing the “cruel and unusual” conditions of her detention and confirming her decision to appeal this latest ruling.

Visitors will find biographical information, interviews and articles, as well as answers to frequently asked questions, legal resources, and links to important bail reform initiatives. The site also details the punishing regime Ghislaine is being subjected to during her extraordinary pre-trial detention

“Because of the continuing misinformation, misrepresentation and mischief in much of the media, Ghislaine’s family started this website, an important resource for the public,” said David Oscar Markus, an attorney for the family and Ms. Maxwell. “Ghislaine is innocent and her treatment by the press and the prison is unconscionable.”

Ghislaine is currently a pre-trial detainee at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York facing allegations by anonymous accusers that date back 25 years. She has been held in this American prison in effective solitary confinement without bail for 280 days and counting, locked in a six-foot by nine-foot cell sometimes for 12 hours a day. She has a light shone in her face every 15 minutes during the night and endures multiple privations that are impacting her health and ability to properly prepare her defense and all this in the middle of the pandemic.

Like anyone else, she has the right to be presumed innocent, a constitutional right which is fundamental to the fairness of the American system of justice.

Ghislaine is a wife, a stepmother, a friend to many and a sister to a family that loves her very much. They believe in her innocence and that she will be exonerated at trial.

Pending the opportunity for Ghislaine to be able to defend herself in a court of law, RealGhislaine.com will be updated frequently with exclusive content, news, commentary and useful resources to help visitors form a more balanced view about the real Ghislaine Maxwell. Members of the news media and anyone else interested in following her status are encouraged to register for email updates.

-ENDS-

For more information:

Visit RealGhislaine.com

Follow @RealGhislaine on Twitter

Subscribe to the family YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtdTVeSuUSmSwEvL5RLL53w

Media and other enquiries: Justice@RealGhislaine.com

https://433da961-4072-4f62-a692-d989a9f700d0.filesusr.com/ugd/ba2454_d6f41f9f8aac4c15b947340db68e6f36.pdf

Anthony Fauci on what the US can learn from Australia's COVID-19 response — and vice versa

Tegan Taylor - 14 April 2021

While the United States likes to describe itself as the leader of the free world, the coronavirus pandemic has hit it just as hard, if not worse, than many developing nations.

No-one knows this better than Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert, who on Wednesday spoke to an Australian audience as part of an event hosted by the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales.

Dr Fauci contrasted the "inconsistent response" of the United States with that of Australia's tough border and lockdown policy, which has kept the virus largely at bay here.

"At least looking at it from a distance, and then discussing with my Australian friends and colleagues, you had the capability and the uniformity of your citizens that when you shut down, you really shut down very effectively," he said.

"I'm sure not everybody in Australia was excited about having to shut things down.

"But you did it in a way which was really quite uniform, but importantly, effective.

"We had an inconsistent response, which allowed us, unfortunately, to really do worse than essentially any other country."

What Australia can learn from the US vaccine rollout

In recent months though, the tables have started to turn.

The US has been vaccinating millions of people a day, while Australia — although virtually virus-free — has had a sluggish start to its vaccine rollout.

So what's changed? The president, for starters.

"It was very painful to do, but I had to come out and essentially contradict what [Donald Trump] was saying" — whereas "President Biden wants science to rule".

Dr Fauci says hitting the vaccine rollout from as many directions as possible at a grassroots level has been key.

"What [Joe Biden] has done, for example, is open up community vaccine centres, get vaccines to the pharmacies, develop mobile units to go out to get the people who are in poorly accessible areas," Dr Fauci said.

Mr Biden also got as many people administering the vaccine out into the field as he possibly could.

"Those are retired physicians, military personnel, nurses, medical students," Dr Fauci said.

"[Mr Biden] made it the very, very top priority. He made equity a very important part of this."

And while the US still has a long way to go to protect its citizens, and Australia's vaccine rollout is in its early days, Dr Fauci acknowledged that wealthy nations also have a role to play in ensuring vaccines roll out globally — to protect both rich and poor.

"As long as there's the dynamic of virus replication somewhere, there will always be the threat of the emergence of variants, which could then come back," he said.

"And even though most of the rest of the world is vaccinated, it can threaten the world that has felt that they've controlled the virus, when they're still quite vulnerable."

Lessons from HIV/AIDS

Dr Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, was speaking at the Inaugural David Cooper Memorial Lecture, honouring the late Australian HIV/AIDS researcher.

While Dr Fauci has become a household name during the coronavirus pandemic over the past year, he's held his position for 40-odd years, advising seven US presidents.

A defining moment in Dr Fauci's own career was the AIDS epidemic. And he said lessons learned in the early days of that epidemic in the 1980s have informed his work in the decades since, including his approach to coronavirus.

"[AIDS] impressed upon me that new infections have always emerged. They are emerging now. And they will continue to emerge," he said.

"So the lesson learnt is that, to the extent possible, prepare yourself as best as you possibly can."

Investment in good public health infrastructure and fundamental science is key, he says.

Advances in structural biology, X-ray crystallography and mRNA vaccine platforms, which have been quietly happening in labs for years, have made our understanding of the new coronavirus and the rapid development of vaccines possible.

He said continuing this investment was our best defence against the next inevitable pathogen that could spark a pandemic.

"It's that kind of investment in research so that when you get confronted with an outbreak, that outbreak doesn't turn into a global pandemic."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-04-14/covid-19-anthony-fauci-what-australia-can-learn-from-us/100068256

>>13422888

Inaugural David Cooper Lecture | Dr Anthony S. Fauci

University of New South Wales

14 Apr 2021

Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating in the USA, Dr Anthony S. Fauci has remained a voice of authority and reason, bringing scientific evidence to the fore.

Throughout an extraordinary career as a scientist, a physician and a public servant, Dr Anthony S. Fauci has been an adviser to seven US presidents on HIV/AIDS, and domestic and global health issues. A key figure in the global response to HIV/AIDS, his experience of this epidemic has informed his career ever since.

As the world struggles to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Anthony S. Fauci sits down with Tegan Taylor, co-host of the ABC’s Coronacast, to discuss the past, the present and the future – from what we learned from the HIV/AIDS epidemic to what the ongoing impact of COVID-19 will be.

The inaugural David Cooper Lecture honours the legacy of the Kirby Institute’s Founding Director. Professor David Cooper AC, who passed away in 2018, was an internationally renowned scientist and HIV clinician, who laid the foundations for Australia’s ongoing global leadership in the fight against the global HIV epidemic.

This event is co-presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas, Kirby Institute and UNSW Medicine & Health.

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

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Army officer facing sack over debauched party in Afghan bar

STEVE JACKSON and BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 14, 2021

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A high-ranking officer implicated in the debaucherous special forces antics at an on-base Afghanistan bar has been stood down and asked to “show cause” as to why he shouldn’t be sacked.

The officer, who was responsible for overseeing ethical standards for much of the army, was this week issued with a termination notice after photographs emerged of him partying with junior soldiers at the unauthorised Fat Lady’s Arms pub set up by Australian troops at their Tarin Kowt headquarters.

Now a colonel based in Sydney, he is the most senior figure to face repercussions over the cultural rot in the special forces since they were linked to dozens of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. The career soldier, whom The Australian has chosen not to name, was a major with the Special Air Services Regiment and commander of its disgraced 2 Squadron when the picture was taken at the bar during the special forces’ ninth rotation in Afghanistan in 2009.

In the photograph, he can be seen cheering on a non-­commissioned officer kneeling beside him and pretending to engage in a sex act with a piece of plastic protruding through his military fatigues.

The colonel was serving as the G1 of Forces Command — a senior human resources role with vast powers for enforcing cultural and ethical standards — when the photograph was revealed among a cache of images made public on Sunday night.

Some of the pictures were taken during a raucous fancy dress birthday bash for a senior non-­commissioned officer at the Fat Lady’s Arms and show one ­soldier in a Ku Klux Klan uniform and burning a cross while others featured off-duty troops simulating lewd sex acts on a separate night out at the bar.

The colonel had been poised to take on a highly influential, new position as the director of the Defence Special Operations Training Education Centre.

The high-profile role would have seen him given overarching responsibility for leading cultural reform across the army’s elite regiments as well as managing the selection process for ­aspiring special forces members.

It is understood he is considering his options.

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The disciplinary action comes after Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell last month told a Senate estimates hearing he had been unaware of the existence of the Fat Lady’s Arms at the coalition base in Afghanistan’s ­Oruzgan province and any soldier found to have drunk there should face the sack.

The Australian has been made aware of the identity of several ­officers who allegedly frequented the makeshift pub while on deployment in Afghanistan and who have gone on to hold high-level positions within the army.

Defence confirmed it was investigating the lewd exploits carried out by special forces troops at the Fat Lady’s Arms but would not detail how many members it had identified as having visited the bar nor what action had been taken against them.

“Defence acknowledges behavioural issues centering on the Fat Lady’s Arms in Afghanistan. The Australian Army is inquiring into these issues,” a spokeswoman said.

It comes just months after Justice Paul Brereton revealed the findings of his five-year investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops between 2005 and 2016.

The report, released in November, recommended 19 soldiers be investigated by police in connection with alleged murders of 39 prisoners and civilians and alleged cruel treatment of two others. It found “credible information” that 25 serving or former ADF personnel were involved in serious crimes or at least had been ­accessories to them.

It blamed a “warrior culture” within the SASR for creating an environment in which war crimes were allegedly committed and said the existence of the Fat Lady’s Arms demonstrated how the regiment’s ethical leadership had been compromised.

At least 10 Special Air Service Regiment soldiers have since been issued with termination notices, as Defence scrambles to respond to the damning report.

Justice Brereton did not find any credible information that special forces commanders had any knowledge of or were recklessly indifferent to crimes committed and concealed at patrol commander level, but he said senior officers ultimately bore “moral command responsibility and accountability for what happened under their command”.

The photograph of the colonel and revelations that other officers frequented the Fat Lady’s Arms have been seized on by furious SASR troops who believe they have been unfairly criticised in the Brereton report for the regiment’s “broken” culture.

They said it was proof that senior officers were not only aware of some of the regimental practices condemned in Justice Brereton’s findings but had also participated in them.

The images came to light after allegedly being found on USB drives at the home of decorated war hero, Ben Roberts-Smith, a former patrol commander with the SASR’s 2 Squadron.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/army-officer-facing-sack-over-debauched-party-in-afghan-bar/news-story/a2eb5c5a9bdfa2b0bafe1fa9e8f8abad

Joe Biden says it's time to 'end America's longest war', as final Afghanistan withdrawal announced

Andrew Greene - 14 April 2021

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US President Joe Biden says America will finally end its 20-year war in Afghanistan from May 1, with US and allied forces to completely depart no later than September 11 this year.

In a White House speech on Wednesday (local time), Mr Biden said there was little justification for the US's continued military engagement in Afghanistan, adding it was time to end the "forever war" launched in 2001.

"I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats," Mr Biden said.

"I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth."

There are roughly 7,000 NATO forces still in Afghanistan in addition to the remaining 2,500 US troops.

Australia's remaining military personnel in Afghanistan are soon expected to leave alongside their NATO-led coalition colleagues, in coordination with the withdrawal decision.

And according to the Defence Department, "Australia currently contributes around 80 defence personnel in Afghanistan" as part of Operation HIGHROAD.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed his government had been discussing withdrawal plans with the United States and other allies.

"Without going into national security matters you can be assured that the Australian government has been working closely with our American partners and allies on these issues," Mr Morrison said.

Military insiders believe Australia will continue to provide aid to the war-ravaged country through defence cooperation programs, but the federal government will no longer provide any "in-country support".

'Now it is time to bring our forces home'

While President Biden's decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by September breaks a May 1 withdrawal deadline set by the Trump Administration, it leaves no room for additional extensions.

The current withdrawal plan sets a firm end date on two decades of war that has seen more than 2,200 US troops killed, 20,000 wounded and cost as much as $US1 trillion ($1.3 trillion).

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he expected the allies to withdraw together but maintained that neither the US nor NATO would abandon the country despite the impending exodus of troops.

He and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin were meeting senior officials from the alliance's 30 members on Wednesday to discuss NATO's future presence in Afghanistan in light of Washington's announcement.

"Together, we went into Afghanistan to deal with those who attacked us and to make sure that Afghanistan would not again become a haven for terrorists who might attack any of us," Mr Blinken said.

"Now it is time to bring our forces home."

There is a summit planned about Afghanistan starting on April 24 in Istanbul that is due to include the United Nations and Qatar.

The Taliban, ousted from power in 2001 by US-led forces, said it would not take part in any meetings that would make decisions about Afghanistan until all foreign forces had left the country.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Wednesday called on Washington to stick with the deadline established by the Trump Administration.

"If the agreement is committed to, the remaining problems will also be solved," Mr Mujahid wrote on Twitter.

"If the agreement is not committed to … the problems will certainly increase."

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Withdrawal will diminish intelligence capabilities, CIA director says

Some analysts said the departure plan appeared to surrender Afghanistan to an uncertain fate.

"There is no good way that the US can withdraw from Afghanistan", said Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

"It cannot claim victory, and it cannot wait indefinitely for some cosmetic form of peace."

While successive US presidents have sought to extricate themselves from Afghanistan, these hopes were confounded by concerns about Afghan security forces, endemic corruption in Afghanistan and the resiliency of a Taliban insurgency that enjoyed safe haven across the border in Pakistan.

US officials can claim to have decimated terror group Al Qaeda's core leadership in the region years ago, including tracking down and killing the group's leader Osama bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan in 2011.

But CIA Director William Burns said the withdrawal would "diminish" the US's ability to collect intelligence and act on threats in the region, where ties between the Taliban and Al Qaeda still remain.

"When the time comes for the US military to withdraw, the government's ability to collect and act on threats will diminish. That's simply a fact," he told the US Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Biden Administration will keep "intelligence and military capabilities" in the region to deal with any emerging threats, though Al Qaeda "does not currently possess" the capability for attacks on the continental US, a senior administration official said.

'An unknown future awaits us'

There is also concern over the impact a withdrawal would have on human rights in Afghanistan given the gains, particularly for women and girls, during the past two decades.

"I am worried about my future," said Wida Saghar, a writer and women's rights activist in Kabul.

"An unknown future awaits us, when foreign forces leave and the civil war intensifies … then who will think about women's rights? Who will care about us?"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-14/australians-in-afghanistan-to-leave-with-us-troops/100070342

>>13429478

Australia to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan after Biden’s vow to end war

Anthony Galloway - April 15, 2021

All Australian troops in Afghanistan will leave the country by September this year after United States President Joe Biden announced an end to the 20-year war.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the final 80 Australian military personnel would return home in September, in line with the United States’ move. The US President decided to leave American troops in Afghanistan beyond the May 1 deadline negotiated between the Taliban and the Trump administration, but has instead set the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks as the new withdrawal date.

“Over the past two years we’ve been reducing our military presence in Afghanistan from a high of over 1500 personnel to around 80 personnel currently. In line with the United States and other allies and partners, the last remaining Australian troops will depart Afghanistan in September 2021,” Mr Morrison said in Perth on Thursday.

An emotional Mr Morrison read out the names of 41 Australian Defence Force personnel who had died in Afghanistan since 2001.

“This day we dedicate to their memories, we think of their families, their friends, the life they would have lived,” he said.

“The conflict has exacted an enormous toll, also, on the people in Afghanistan and to President [Ashraf] Ghani, once again, we stand with them and the complex task of making peace that lies ahead for those people.”

The United Nations and academics estimate more than 100,000 Afghan civilians and military members have been killed in the 20-year conflict.

Allegations of war crimes by Australian troops in Afghanistan sparked a wide-ranging review and investigation, but Mr Morrison would not say if Australia could have done better in the conflict.

“There will be time to talk about those things. Today is not that time,” Mr Morrison said.

Michael Shoebridge, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s defence program, said Australia had clearly made a decision to withdraw from the campaign.

“Everybody else is going to go. Biden has done what both Obama and Trump wanted to do - and that’s get a plan for a total US and partner withdrawal from Afghanistan,” he said.

Mr Shoebridge said Mr Biden’s announcement was an “emphatic statement” of the US’s re-ordering its priorities to Asia to deal with a rising and more assertive China.

“Trump was doing a unilateral approach, while Obama kept taking advice that it had to be conditions-based.

“You can’t say you are shifting priorities, without stopping doing something. This is Biden saying the 9/11 counter-terrorism era is over, and the era of strategic competition is here. So he is actually putting flesh on the bones of what he has been saying his priorities are.”

Mr Shoebridge said the early phase of the Afghanistan conflict was worth it because the Taliban was giving shelter to Al-Qaeda which was clearly the start of a new global terrorist phenomenon. But he said there was “mission-shift” and it became unclear what the objective was in staying in the country.

“The Afghanistan objectives became very mixed - was it about counter-terrorism, or creating a political future in Afghanistan to ensure it was free from the Taliban, or was it a broader nation-building mission? The mission became very muddy over time.”

Announcing his plan in a speech at the White House speech on Wednesday, Mr Biden said there was little justification for the US staying in Afghanistan, adding it was time to end the “forever war”.

“I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats,” Mr Biden said.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-to-withdraw-all-troops-from-afghanistan-after-biden-vows-to-end-war-20210415-p57jeb.html

The true story of how Jackie Chan and Kevin Rudd met as labourers

ALICE WORKMAN - APRIL 15, 2021

If Jackie Chan ever runs out of film ideas, he could turn to his own spooky family history for inspiration — surviving war, political upheaval and prime minister Billy McMahon. It could be Australia’s greatest untold spy story.

His parents, Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, worked as the live-in cook and housekeeper at the US embassy in Canberra for decades after immigrating in the 1960s to work under American ambassador Marshall Green.

Charles was a servant in the US embassy in Hong Kong under Green and later trained as a chef. Lee-Lee worked as a housekeeper and laundress at the Hong Kong embassy, where Chan lived as an ­infant.

According to Chan, his father was a Chinese nationalist agent who originally fled China for Hong Kong to avoid being captured by rival communists. “My father was a spy hiding in Hong Kong and hiding in Australia at the American embassy for so many years,” he said in 2017.

Charles, born in 1915, had a colourful career including time as a military aide, connections with Shanghai gangsters and spying for the ­nationalist Chinese who were eventually defeated by the communist army. After his first wife died from cancer, Charles relocated to Shanghai. There he met Lee-Lee (who once worked as an opium dealer during Japan’s occupation) and fled to Hong Kong, where Chan was born in 1954.

Chan was six when his parents left for Australia without him. While they navigated the roundabouts of our nation’s capital, Chan studied martial arts and acrobatics at a Hong Kong boarding school. He didn’t see his parents again until he was 18.

Some of the family’s secrets feature in the 2003 documentary Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family. Chan funded the film himself and shot scenes in Canberra with his pipe-smoking father (who reveals his real family name is Fang) before his death. Chan discovers he had two half-brothers (a postman and a pig farmer) living on mainland China from his ­father’s first marriage, and two half-sisters from his mother’s first marriage.

Charles and Lee-Lee are buried in Gungahlin cemetery, and the servants’ quarters of the US chief of mission’s residence are named the Chan suites in their honour. The action star’s punching bag still hangs in the attic. And it’s thanks to Australia the world knows Chan as Jackie and not Pao-Pao (his parents’ nickname, meaning cannonball) or by his birth name Chan Kong-sang.

While he was studying English at the ACT’s Dickson College in the 1970s, students called him Steve but when Chan took a job as a brickie’s labourer on a Canberra construction site, he recalled: “A guy said, ‘What’s your English name?’ And I said, ‘I don’t have one.’ My friend was a driver for the embassy, his name was Jack.” So Chan became Little Jack, Jacky, and then Jackie.

You know who also lugged bricks with tradie Chan? Kevin Rudd. “Jackie Chan and I have a lot in common,’’ Rudd once reflected. “No, we are not both movie stars. No, I am absolutely terrible at martial arts. But in the 1970s in Canberra, we both lived here and we were both builders’ labour­ers. He did the work of three men for one year. I lasted for 24 hours.”

The pair met for a rushed hour again during Rudd’s prime ministership when the Australian National University opened the Jackie Chan Science Centre for cancer research. “As my father told me, say less, do more,” Chan said at the opening of his generous donation.

“Australia and Canberra really took care of my family for more than 40 years. I have to do something to thank Australia and Canberra.’’

It’s part of Chan’s new life philosophy, now he’s worth an estimated $40m. “When I was a child, I was very poor and wanted everything. When I got money, I began buying things. Now I want to give away everything,’’ Chan told Forbes magazine in 2011.

“When I give somebody something and see their face, it just makes me so happy.’’

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/the-true-story-of-how-jackie-chan-and-kevin-rudd-met-as-labourers/news-story/3be8615b77ffa1cae0ac361f124a8b6a

>>13429488

PM holds back tears announcing withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan

Georgia Hitch - 15 April 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison became emotional as he read out a list of Australians killed in the war in Afghanistan and announced Australian troops would leave the country by September.

Mr Morrison said the 80 remaining troops would be withdrawn in line with the withdrawal of US troops as announced by President Joe Biden.

More than 39,000 Australians were deployed and 41 of them were killed during the decades-long conflict.

"The loss is great, the sacrifice immense ,the bravery and courage things we can speak of, but not know of personally," Mr Morrison said.

"Many more were wounded, some physically, others mentally and we'll be dealing with the scars, both mental and physical, of their service, for many, many years."

Australian forces first entered Afghanistan in October 2001 in support of US troops who were deployed in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

The Prime Minister said it was "an emotional day" but that despite the toll the conflict took, it was worthwhile.

"Freedom is always worth it," Mr Morrison said.

"Australians have always believed that.

"That is why Australians who have served in our defence forces have always pulled on that uniform."

When asked about the allegations some Australian troops committed war crimes while in Afghanistan, Mr Morrison said: "There will be time to talk about those things. Today is not that time."

Mr Morrison said the government would continue to support Afghanistan once the troops had left.

"Once again, we stand with them and the complex task of making peace that lies ahead for those people," he said.

"Australia continues to support the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

"We encourage both parties to commit to the peace process that so many Australians have died to provide for."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-15/scott-morrison-announces-withdraw-australian-troops-afghanistan/100071606

Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Tweet

Did you miss us, #Australia?

(Video by) @USMC Cpl Colton K. Garrett

#ADF #Marines #MRFD #USMC

https://twitter.com/MrfDarwin/status/1381902691320754178

>>13429802

U.S. Navy Tweet

It's a G'day to #SinkCOVID!

#USNavy Sailors & @USMC with Marine Rotational Force Darwin arrive at @AusAirForce Base after documenting negative #COVID19 tests throughout travel.

Those who had one #COVID19vaccine were able to receive their 2nd before departing to Australia.

https://twitter.com/USNavy/status/1382332875568263169

>>13429802

Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Facebook Post

13 April 2021

Did you miss us, Australia?

The U.S. Marines are back for a historical 10th iteration of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin. The MRF-D rotation demonstrates the U.S. commitment to combined readiness and shared regional security in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Colton K. Garrett)

https://www.facebook.com/MRFDarwin/videos/4061916473854956/

https://www.marforpac.marines.mil/MRFDarwin/

FBI director says bureau is not investigating QAnon conspiracy 'in its own right'

Zachary Cohen - April 15, 2021

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Washington (CNN) - For the second time in as many days, FBI director Christopher Wray acknowledged he remains concerned about potential violence incited by QAnon but despite telling lawmakers that the conspiracy theory is something "we look at very seriously" when it is tied to a criminal act, he made clear the bureau is not investigating the online movement itself.

It was a distinction Wray was careful to highlight while testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, where he was again pressed on whether the FBI is investigating elements of QAnon and asked to explain the threat it poses given its connection to the US Capitol attack earlier this year.

But despite characterizing QAnon as an online "movement" that in some instances "may be an inspiration for violent attacks," Wray reiterated that the FBI's investigative efforts regarding the conspiracy theory have been limited to instances where there are links to a federal crime.

"We're not investigating the theory in its own right," Wray told the House panel, echoing remarks he had made the day prior during a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

In both cases, Wray's comments underscore the complex challenge QAnon and other online conspiracy theories pose for the FBI as it investigates the January 6 attack and works with other federal agencies to address the threat of domestic extremism more broadly.

Both tasks are complicated by social media's role in spreading potentially dangerous conspiracy theories and domestic extremist messaging, Wray said Thursday.

"Social media has become, in many ways, the key amplifier to domestic violent extremism just as it has for malign foreign influence," Wray he told House lawmakers. "The same things that attract people to it for good reasons are also capable of causing all kinds of harms that we are entrusted with trying to protect the American people against."

Lawmaker reveals existence of QAnon threat assessment

On Wednesday, Sen. Martin Heinrich revealed that the FBI has provided lawmakers with an assessment of the threat posed by QAnon, the existence of which was not previously known until the New Mexico Democrat pressed Wray to explain why the details of that report have not yet been made public.

Heinrich, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, requested a threat assessment on QAnon late last year and received a response from the FBI in February, he said Wednesday before asking Wray why he "cannot or won't tell the American people directly about the threat."

Wray committed to providing an assessment that could be released publicly but his testimony offered little clarity about the FBI's investigative work, or lack there of, as it relates to QAnon.

"We focus on the violence and the federal criminal activity regardless of the inspiration. We understand QAnon to be more of a reference to a complex conspiracy theory or set of complex conspiracy theories, largely promoted online, which has sort of morphed into more of a movement," Wray said during Wednesday's worldwide threats hearing.

"Like a lot of other conspiracy theories, the effects of Covid, anxiety social, social isolation, financial hardship … all exacerbate people's vulnerability to those theories, and we are concerned about the potential that those things can lead to violence, and where it is an inspiration for federal crime, we're going to aggressively pursue it," he added.

Wray also noted that the FBI has arrested "at least five self-identified QAnon adherents related to the January 6 attacks specifically," acknowledging a clear link between the conspiracy theory and the insurrection.

Is the FBI working to identify 'Q'?

Frequently described as a virtual cult, QAnon is a sprawling far-right conspiracy theory that promotes the absurd and false claim that former President Donald Trump has been locked in a battle against a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles made up of prominent Democratic politicians and liberal celebrities.

Members of the violent pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol had ties to QAnon, and the conspiracy theory has made its way from online message boards into the political mainstream in recent years.

But what steps the FBI has taken to address the threat posed by QAnon, and potentially identify those behind it, remain unclear.

Specifically, questions continue to swirl around whether the FBI is working to confirm the origins of QAnon or the identity of its mysterious standard-bearer, known to adherents as simply "Q."

(continued)

>>13437997

2/2

The threat assessment provided to lawmakers does not delve into the identity of "Q," an anonymous figure whose baseless claim that they are someone with access to the nation's most closely held secrets has often been used to validate Q's cryptic and prophetic social media posts.

Heinrich told CNN on Wednesday that the assessment he was given does not cover Q's identity - for a simple reason, he believes, which is that if the bureau does know, it would have been uncovered by an investigation into the matter. So revealing to lawmakers that the FBI has identified the individual or individuals would expose the existence of the investigation, which of course the FBI does not do, he said.

Still, Heinrich asked Wray about the public speculation around two individuals who have been suspected of posting as "Q."

"You're no doubt familiar with some of the public speculation that Q is really Ron Watkins, the administrator of the internet message board 8con, formerly known as 8chan," Heinrich said Wednesday while questioning Wray on the issue.

"Whether or not Watkins is Q, he and his father, clearly, are responsible for hosting the sites and co-opted further in the QAnon conspiracy phenomenon … given the prominent role that QAnon did play in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, what are the potential legal repercussions for those who might be primarily responsible for propagating these sorts of dangerous, and in some cases, violent messages in these forums?" he asked.

Watkins and his father, Jim, were featured heavily in the recent HBO docuseries "Q: Into the Storm," in which both men deny being Q and posting from the account.

Wray declined to address Heinrich's question about Ron and Jim Watkins directly but did offer some insight into how the FBI views its role in investigating those behind QAnon or other potentially dangerous conspiracy theories.

"From the FBI's perspective, from a law enforcement perspective, we try to be very careful to focus on violence, threats of violence and associated federal criminal activity," Wray said.

"There may be certain instances where language becomes part of a conspiracy, for example, and there are instances where there are other federal statutes which may be violated, but again, those are complicated questions which I would refer to the lawyers over at the Justice Department," he added.

Court documents clearly indicate that QAnon has fueled beliefs of defendants who took part in the insurrection, but whether the conspiracy theory's origins merit criminal investigation has proved to be a difficult jump to make, and there is no indication to date that law enforcement officials are working to determine the identity of the person behind the original message or other similar anonymous social media posts that have emerged in recent years.

"Q is a problem, no question. But FBI has come a long way from Edgar Hoover days - they'd need a compelling investigative reason to care, and it's not clear there would be one here beyond gratification. That said, they are very much examining extent to which this content is being amplified (at a minimum) by foreign powers," a source familiar with the effort told CNN.

"But it's pretty clear that QAnon originated domestically, and the bar for examining Americans who haven't committed an actual crime is a little higher (and sharing conspiracies isn't usually a crime)," they added. "Obviously, the bar is lowered when it instigates real-life violence, but again there's not a clear line here between QAnon and the violence on Jan 6 - just a lot of dotted lines, maybe. But that could change, certainly."

While Wray's comments once again show the FBI's limited investigative bandwidth when it comes to online conspiracy theories like QAnon, other federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, are taking steps to address the issue within the context of a broader push to confront the problem of domestic extremism in the US.

"Domestic violent extremism poses the most lethal, persistent terrorism-related threat to the homeland today. In collaboration with our partners across every level of government and in the private sector, DHS is working to combat the spread of conspiracy theories and other false narratives on social media and other online platforms that can radicalize people to violence and fuel domestic violent extremism," a DHS spokesperson told CNN.

"DHS is also working with its partners to increase public awareness about and resilience to disinformation," the spokesperson added.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/15/politics/fbi-director-wray-qanon-threat/index.html

>>13437997

Senate Select Intelligence Committee Hearing on National Security and Global Threats

C-SPAN - APRIL 14, 2021

Intelligence agency leaders testified on the current global threats at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines discussed the intelligence community’s annual threat assessment report, emphasizing the national security challenges posed by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. In addition, lawmakers asked about cybersecurity threats, domestic violent extremism, China’s global influence, and the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Also testifying at the hearing was CIA Director William Burns, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the heads of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

https://www.c-span.org/video/?510592-1/senate-select-intelligence-committee-hearing-national-security-global-threats

01:07:56 - 01:12:24

Ghislaine Maxwell requests sex trafficking trial be delayed by three months

The British socialite's lawyer blamed prosecutors for belatedly adding more charges in March

Reuters News Agency / telegraph.co.uk - 16 April 2021

A lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell has asked a US judge to delay the July 12 criminal trial of Jeffrey Epstein's former associate by at least 90 days, blaming prosecutors for belatedly adding sex trafficking charges that frustrate her ability to be ready sooner.

In a Thursday night letter, the lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said prosecutors "effectively added a brand new case on top of the existing case" by adding the new charges in a March 29 indictment.

Maxwell, 59, has now been charged with eight felonies, and could face 80 years in prison if convicted.

"The new charges up the ante," Ms Sternheim wrote to US District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan.

"A continuance - the need for which is caused solely by the government - is reasonable and necessary in defence of Ms Maxwell. The denial of a continuance risks a miscarriage of justice."

A spokesman for US Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan declined to comment.

The new charges concern accusations that between 2001 and 2004, Maxwell groomed and paid a girl, starting at age 14, to give Epstein nude massages, engage in sex acts with the financier, and recruited others to offer erotic massages.

Maxwell is to be arraigned on those charges on April 23.

She previously pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit, groom and sexually abuse three other girls from 1994 to 1997, and to perjury for lying about her role in depositions taken in 2016 for a separate civil trial.

In seeking a delay, Sternheim cited the need to review "voluminous" materials including more than 2.4 million pages of documents, 214,000 photos and hundreds of hours of audiovisual files.

She also called it "laughable" for prosecutors to defend the indictment's timing by saying travel and safety concerns arising from the Covid-19 pandemic kept them from meeting the fourth Epstein accuser until January.

Maxwell was arrested last July, and is jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.

Ms Nathan has rejected bail three times. The federal appeals court in Manhattan is scheduled to hear Maxwell's latest bail appeal on April 26.

Epstein killed himself in jail at age 66 in August 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/16/ghislaine-maxwell-requests-sex-trafficking-trial-delayed-three/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.202.0.pdf

Google deceived some Australian mobile users about collection of location data, court finds

Jamie McKinnell - 16 April 2021

Google could face fines in the "many millions" after the Federal Court found the company misled some Australian mobile and tablet users about how it collects location data.

The tech giant was taken to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over on-screen representations it made on Android devices in 2017 and 2018.

The case centred on two specific Google settings that affected location data collection; 'location history' and 'web & app activity'.

The consumer watchdog claimed Google misled consumers because if 'location history' was disabled but the latter setting was left on, the company continued to collect and use location data.

The result represents a partial victory for the ACCC, because the watchdog identified specific user scenarios which constituted contraventions of consumer law.

"I am satisfied that Google's conduct assessed as a whole was misleading or deceptive of, or likely to mislead or deceive, ordinary members within the class identified by the ACCC, acting reasonably," Justice Thomas Thawley said in his judgment.

"I conclude that Google's conduct assessed as a whole conveyed a representation that having 'web & app activity' turned 'on' would not allow Google to obtain, retain and use personal data about the user's location."

The penalty will be decided at a later date and Google could face a penalty of up to $1.1 million per breach.

The court will need to decide what it considers a breach and how many occurred but ACCC chair Rod Sims said they will be seeking a penalty in the "many millions".

Mr Sims said he was "absolutely delighted" with the result and said it was the first ruling in the world in relation to location data issues.

It sent a "very clear message” to digital platforms about the need to be up front with consumers, he added.

“Data issues are only going to be more important. It's crucial we get some court rulings in relation to what platforms can and can't do," he said.

A Google spokesperson said in a statement the company is "currently reviewing options, including a possible appeal".

"We provide robust controls for location data and are always looking to do more - for example we recently introduced auto delete options for location history, making it even easier to control your data," the spokesperson said.

Google held 'oh shit' meeting

The court heard from experts with expertise in behavioural economics to understand how users approached the task of navigating various screens.

That involved a "cost-benefit analysis" and was subject to "behavioural biases", the court was told.

The experts engaged on behalf of the ACCC and Google agreed there was a "technological trade-off" between privacy and service quality.

The case was run by reference to "classes" of users in three different scenarios, also confined to particular time periods.

These included users who set up a Google account for the first time, others who altered their location settings after the initial set up, and those who later considered disabling the 'web & app' setting.

Justice Thawley found Google's conduct would have misled some but not all reasonable users in the specified categories.

"The number or proportion of reasonable users who were misled, or were likely to have been misled, does not matter for the purposes of establishing contraventions."

After an Associated Press (AP) media article covered the location data and settings issue in August 2018, Google urgently held what was internally referred to as the "oh shit" meeting, the court heard.

A Google director then circulated documents about what work was being carried out to reduce user confusion.

The AP article led to a 500 per cent increase in users disabling both settings, according to internal Google documents.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-16/google-misled-some-australian-mobile-users-over-location-history/100074292

Chinese national arrested for importing child-like sex doll parts

Australian Border Force Newsroom - 16-04-2021

A 22-year-old Chinese national was arrested yesterday after Australian Border Force (ABF) officers executed a search warrant at a residential address in Toorak, Melbourne.

During the execution of warrants, ABF officers located and seized a silicone lower torso of a child-like sex doll, items of infant clothing, and a flesh-like apparatus consistent with child-like appearance. Six mobile phones and several computers were also seized.

The man appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court and was charged with Import a Prohibited Tier 2 Good, contrary to section 233BAB(5) of the Customs Act 1901 (Cth) (the Act). The Act provides that child-like sex dolls are a form of child abuse material.

Acting ABF Superintendent Investigations, Kelly-Anne Parish, commented on the critical function of the ABF in protecting the community.

“Importing child-like sex dolls is prohibited by law, and can attract a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment,” she said.

“When it comes to child exploitation materials, we have a zero tolerance policy,” Superintendent Parish said.

Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs Jason Wood thanked the ABF for its role in making Australia a safer place.

“This kind of material has no place in Australian society,” Assistant Minister Wood said.

“ABF officers should be commended for their focus on stamping out the importation of abhorrent child exploitation material.”

The man has been remanded in custody until the committal mention on 22 July 2021.

Note to media:

USE OF TERM ‘CHILD ABUSE’ MATERIAL, NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’

Use of the phrase ‘child pornography’ benefits child sex abusers because it:

• indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and

• conjures images of children posing in ‘provocative’ positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.

https://newsroom.abf.gov.au/releases/chinese-national-arrested-for-importing-child-like-sex-doll-parts

Pell prison journals should fascinate friend and foe alike

Peter Craven - April 16, 2021

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What a strange episode in our history the trials of George Pell were.

It is just over a year since the full bench of the High Court in a unanimous decision upheld the appeal of the former Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney over the historic sexual offences of which he had been accused, initially found guilty of in December 2018, and which resulted in his spending more than a year in prison before his release on April 7 last year.

The lawyers always doubted that there was a substantive case against Pell and when he was found guilty by the second jury (the first trial yielded a hung jury) his barrister Robert Richter said (risking contempt of court) that we had convicted an innocent man and it didn’t happen very often. He also said that George Pell was a spiritual man and a humorous one and that he would cope with prison like the man he was.

Recently, we have seen the publication of two volumes of the Cardinal’s prison journals that may come as a surprise to people who think of him as a thug of Catholic conservatism who deserved everything he got even if he was innocent, for not having done more to prevent the sexual abuse of children by the church.

But here is the response of the man who might have played for Richmond to the news of the death, borne of depression, of the former AFL St Kilda captain Danny Frawley: “The more I’m in jail, the more I miss being able to celebrate mass. I knew him as a friendly teenager from my Ballarat years. I so much regretted not being able to offer mass for the repose of his soul and the consolation of his family. My own poor prayers are so inadequate in comparison with the Eucharist. May he rest in peace.”

That’s from the second volume of the journals published on Monday, April 19. He sounds like a man of God trying to make the best of his own ordeal, passionately concerned about human souls and “offering up”, as Christians used to say, his own trivial sufferings for the redemptive sufferings of Christ.

These prison journals will fascinate friend and foe alike. Who would have imagined that they would read George Pell, brooding on war – he supports the idea of the just war, as in the one against Hitler – quoting Ezra Pound from memory. “There died a million,” he writes, whereas Pound wrote “a myriad”.

He also notes that, for all his own support for the Vietnam war in his Oxford days, the poet and sometime Jesuit classicist Peter Levi wiped the floor with his justifications.

He also mentions, early on, in the first volume, that – again, at Oxford – he saw philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe (“probably the most formidable intellect I have ever encountered”) kneel publicly outside the Sheldonian Theatre saying the rosary during the awarding of an honorary doctorate to US president Harry S. Truman because she considered the dropping of the atom bomb on Japan a war crime.

You don’t go to these prison diaries for anecdote, though, of course, it’s fascinating – not least given anti-war positions – that this warrior-like Catholic conservative who revers Churchill’s speeches lets drop “Bobby was my favourite Kennedy, whom I met on Capitol Hill … full of Irish American charm and respectful of a young Aussie priest. When he was shot my love affair with America was over. It returned, but changed.”

(continued)

>>13443082

2/3

David Marr said to me once, without rancour, that he thought George Pell had the temperament to be a first class headmaster and it’s a bit amazing to see a man of such natural authority wrestling with his God and his wretchedness.

It’s Richter (“who is not a theist but Jewish” the Cardinal reminds himself) who tells him to read the Book of Job, that blackest and most tragic book in the Hebrew Bible. When Pell does revisit it, he argues for the superiority of the Christian vision of redemption compared to the Jewish conception of human identity disappearing as a cloud dissolves when it goes down to Sheol.

This is par for the course and so is his description of the Book of Ecclesiastes (“vanity of vanities … the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl is broken”) as the most pagan book in the Bible. This is not incompatible with the tough cleaner up of Vatican finances or the unyielding bishop who refused communion to those rainbow-sashed gay activists.

What does hit the heart strangely is this kind of thing: “God … give me strength and peace of mind and help my fellow prisoners, especially those who are bad or disturbed or desperately unhappy.”

We expect to cop the George Pell who believes in judgment and damnation and the church’s God-given right and duty to preach traditional morality including what should and should not be done in the bedroom. But we don’t expect this kind of prayerfulness or rigour, this implicit compassion.

Each of the daily journal entries of some thousands of words ends with a prayer of Pell’s own composition or a quotation of his breviary or from some spiritual classic.

So we get Augustine’s yearning to look into the eyes of the most High. “Hide not your face from me. Let me see your face even if I die, lest I die with longing to see it.”

And Thomas More’s prayer: “To think my most enemies, my best friends; for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favour as they did him with their malice and hatred.”

There is a constant emphasis on mercy and forgiveness, even though these journals are the work of a naturally forceful man who is both politically and religiously conservative. He says, eloquently enough, “God will forgive any crime” and adds, not unconvincingly, “If Christianity continues to decline, society will be less forgiving.”

He’s sometimes inclined to sound like a high and mighty Catholic version of Israel Folau (“A decent man of simple Christian faith, an old type Protestant”) and admits “starting the Christian defence of freedom of speech and freedom of religion with Folau is not ideal”. But he does want to argue that the promiscuities of sexual liberation are not on.

For some of his co-religionists – including those masters of the manners of the world, the Jesuits – Pell probably represents the challenging paradox of how to tolerate the intolerant.

He thinks that Donald Trump is “a barbarian” but he’s “our barbarian”: though Trump’s election makes him as opposed to the direct election of an Australian president as he was back at the Constitutional Convention in 1998 when he was a republican of the minimalist Turnbull/Keating variety.

(continued)

>>13443089

3/3

On the other hand, he sees little to rejoice at in nominally Catholic politicians. “The selective and superficial Catholicism of politicians like Daniel Andrews, and Malcolm Turnbull, to some extent, even helps them implement their un-Christian ambitions. The Trudeaus also come to mind.”

Pell is nothing if not militant in his moralism and he’s also an enthusiast for Bob Santamaria and Robert Menzies, even though he liked Bob Hawke as a politician with “a Labor heart” and “a Liberal head” and admits that we owe our current prosperity to Hawke and Paul Keating. He says, too, of Hawke that he loved Australia and much is forgiven him because he loved much.

All of this pales compared to the horror of losing his appeal in Victoria. “I was astonished and badly upset,” he writes.

It’s fascinating to learn that his appeal barrister, Bret Walker SC, asked his permission to show the draft of the appeal to Tom Hughes, and that Hughes, brother-in-law of Robert the art critic, and father-in-law of Malcolm Turnbull, had offered to appear for Pell, though the man who was attorney-general for John Gorton must have been 95 at the time.

Fascinating, too, that Marr said to Frank Brennan during the Victorian appeal that the presentation of the prosecution case was “a f—ing train wreck”.

These journals have a thousand facets. The Cardinal and his close associates take a dim view of the progressivist German bishops with their liberal attitudes to faith and morals, in the news earlier this year for initiating a two-year series of talks on what The Wall Street Journal describes as “rethinking church teaching and practice on topics including homosexuality, priestly celibacy and the ordination of women”.

And the Australian prince of the church who supports Brexit takes the dimmest possible view of Vatican financial corruption, which he did everything in his power to clean up.

Pope’s dreaded interviews

At the end of volume two of the prison journals, there is an implicit criticism of Pope Francis: “The Holy Father has given an interview once again on his return flight from Japan. The journalists love these encounters (they have told me so) but I and many others dread them.”

If he sometimes sounds in his diaries half-inclined to justify the burning of heretics, that’s part of his general bullishness.

These journals are notable for the way a vigorous administrative personality, born to rule, not only keeps himself sane in jail by watching Australian Rules and cricket and every possible variety of religious service including the American evangelicals but also by reading War and Peace (which he thinks is the greatest novel he’s read) and by praying strenuously for the insulted and the injured.

He answers the letters of his fellow prisoners, including James Gargasoulas, who drove through a crowd in Bourke Street Mall, and talks calmly of the screams and cries and the Muslim chants.

He’s often funny. He writes to an English friend that he feels greater shame at Australia’s cricket loss to England than he does at being in prison. He puts up with strip searches and being spat at. He’s tough as they come but he believes in the good and the quality of mercy.

How odd of God to choose George Pell as the medium for this portrait of a good priest. Should that be a good enough priest? Hard to imagine he would claim more.

Prison Journals Volume II: The State Court Rejects The Appeal is published by Freedom Publishing on April 19.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/pell-prison-journals-should-fascinate-friend-and-foe-alike-20210415-p57jll.html

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

https://qanon.pub/?q=cardinal-george-pell

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

Liberal Party stalwart Andrew Peacock dies

Natasha Rudra - Apr 16, 2021

Political tributes have poured in for former Australian Liberal leader Andrew Peacock, who has died in the United States at the age of 82.

Mr Peacock was an MP for the Liberal stronghold of Kooyong for 28 years and served as a cabinet minister in three governments.

He also led the party in opposition twice in the 1980s.

Mr Peacock’s death was announced on Friday night by his daughter Ann. She posted a tribute to her “beautiful, loving, most caring, thoughtful, generous and brilliant father” on Instagram.

“You will be so greatly missed, your guidance and deep love for us will live in my heart, we are absolutely devastated,” Ms Peacock wrote.

“You will live within us forever and ever.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Mr Peacock was a great Australian and a treasure of the Liberal Party.

“He was one of our greatest Liberals who helped shape Australia and the Liberal Party over three decades,” Mr Morrison said.

The Prime Minister also praised Mr Peacock’s “thoroughness, intellect and capacity to make friends far and wide.”

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who now holds the seat of Kooyong, paid tribute to his predecessor as one of the nation’s political greats.

“He championed Liberal ideals and provided strong and good government. He was authentic, tough and possessed a dry sense of humour.

“He will be remembered fondly by those on both sides of the political aisle as he played his politics as he pursued life - with vigour, dignity and decency,” Mr Frydenberg wrote.

“I will be forever grateful to him for his generous friendship, advice and support.”

Mr Peacock was appointed Australia’s ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2000.

He was good friends with Democratic first couple Bill and Hillary Clinton and credited another former US president, George HW Bush, for setting him up with the woman who would become his third wife, American diplomat Penne Korth.

The couple later retired to Austin, Texas, the city where Ms Korth went to university.

Despite his reputation as a moderate Liberal, Mr Peacock supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election - he told The Australian Financial Review later that he was disquieted by Trump’s performance but still had hope that he would improve.

The tributes did not all come from one side of politics. Former Victorian Labor deputy premier Rob Hulls wrote:

“As a new and very nervous federal MP for Kennedy in 1990, I remember giving my first speech in Parliament. ALP members in the House, as is the practice, came up and congratulated me. Then, to my surprise, a Liberal MP did as well. It was Andrew Peacock.

“Vale Andrew. A decent man.”

Mr Peacock is survived by Penne and his daughters Ann, Jane and Caroline, his children with his first wife Lady Susan Renouf.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/liberal-party-stalwart-andrew-peacock-dies-20210416-p57jzh

Ghislaine Maxwell's claims case against her is 'prejudiced' because Jeffrey Epstein would have cleared her if he was still alive

DANIEL BATES - 17 April 2021

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Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed that the case against her is prejudiced because Jeffrey Epstein is dead - and he would have cleared her of wrongdoing if he was alive.

The British socialite, who is accused of being Epstein's top recruiter, said that Epstein would have 'testified that (she) did not engage in the criminal activity with which she is charged'.

The claim was ridiculed by federal prosecutors who said it assumed that Epstein would have agreed to testify and that his testimony would 'help rather than hurt the defendant (Maxwell)'.

The prosecutors are dismissive about each of Maxwell's claims, calling them 'conspiracy theories', saying they 'strain common sense' and are made up of ' bare assertions and conclusory allegations'.

Prosecutors said such an assertion was 'speculative at best'.

The claim was in a document filed to the federal court in New York by prosecutors in response to Maxwell's attempt to have the case dismissed.

Prosecutors dismiss Maxwell's claim that Epstein's non prosecution agreement he signed in 2007 for having sex with underage girls applies to her as well.

Under Maxwell's reading of the agreement, it 'immunized her for future crimes including, for example, perjury offenses that she is charged with committing', the prosecutors said.

Such an interpretation would be 'illogical', the document states.

The prosecutors say that it is a 'false factual narrative' to suggest that a meeting between lawyers for Epstein's victims and their office in 2016 led to them beginning their investigation of Maxwell.

In fact the investigation began two years later after the last known contact between the two parties.

However the notes from the prosecutor who attended the meeting do reveal some details about the case against Maxwell.

Assistant US Attorney Lara Pomerantz wrote down that based on the conversations she had with the lawyers, who represented Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Maxwell was the 'head recruiter' for Epstein.

One note states there were 'photos of naked girls on Maxwell's comp (computer)'.

Giuffre claimed there were cameras all over Epstein's New York mansion which were used for 'extortion' on his powerful and wealthy friends.

She had to 'report back' whenever she was loaned out to anyone for sex - she claims the men included Britian's Prince Andrew, allegations he denies.

Another note says: 'Maxwell + (blank) took sexually explicit photos of her (Giuffre) regularly'. The document says that 'Maxwell gave photo (of Giuffre) to Epstein for bday @ age 16', apparently meaning Giuffre's 16th birthday.

In January, she outlined 12 arguments as to why the charges should be dismissed against her. Her lawyers and the prosecution filed extensive legal documents outlining their arguments.

After weeks of debate about redactions those documents are now being made public, with the 239-page rebuttal from the prosecution being released first.

Judge Alison Nathan dismissed Maxwell's request to dismiss the indictment, meaning she will have to stand trial.

But she did grant Maxwell's request to sever two of the six counts, both for perjury, for a separate trial.

(continued)

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Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said that in Maxwell's submissions she argued she has suffered 'substantial prejudice' as a result of the delay in indicting her.

During that time Epstein hanged himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell was arrested in July last year and has been in federal custody since.

The document states: 'She (Maxwell) contends that the loss of Epstein demonstrates actual prejudice because Epstein 'would have' testified that the defendant did not engage in the criminal activity with which she is charged.

'That assertion is speculative at best'.

The prosecution memo dismisses the claim by adding: 'To credit Maxwell's argument is to assume that Epstein, after being indicted with federal sex trafficking charges, would have taken the stand, would not have invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, and would have provided testimony that exculpated Maxwell, which a jury would have credited in the face of contradictory trial evidence.

'This is an exercise in chain upon chain of conjecture that comes nowhere close to meeting the burden of demonstrating actual prejudice.

'The defendant has not and cannot establish that Epstein would have been available to testify in the first instance, much less that he would have voluntarily agreed to testify at her trial in a way that would help, rather than hurt, the defendant'.

Earlier this week Maxwell requested to delay her trial, which is due to start in July, to early 2022 to give her time to prepare her defense.

Maxwell, 59, is due to appear in court next Friday to be arraigned on the two new charges, trafficking a minor and sex trafficking conspiracy.

She has already pleaded not guilty to six counts related to enticing underage girls to Epstein to abuse and perjurying herself in a separate civil case.

In her ruling Judge Nathan sided with the prosecutors and said that Epstein's non prosecution agreement, or NPA, 'does not bar this prosecution'.

She noted that the deal was 'unusual in many respects, including its breadth, leniency, and secrecy'.

But it does not apply to federal prosecutors in New York as the deal was negotiated by US Attorneys in Florida.

Nor does the plea agreement cover the charged offenses as it relates only to offenses from 2001 to 2007.

Judge Nathan wrote: 'Maxwell contends that the NPA's co-conspirator provision lacks any limitation on the offenses covered. The Court disagrees with this improbable interpretation.

Addressing Maxwell's claim that Epstein would have cleared her, Judge Nathan wrote: 'Courts have generally found that vague assertions that a deceased witness might have provided favorable testimony do not justify dismissing an indictment for delay…

'…there are also serious doubts under all of the relevant circumstances that a jury would have found testimony from Epstein credible even if he had waived his right against self-incrimination and testified on her behalf'.

Judge Nathan wrote that the perjury allegations must be tried separately because trying them with the criminal allegations is likely to be 'unduly prejudicial'.

She wrote that it would expose the jury to a 'wider swath of information that is remote from Maxwell's charged conduct'.

The judge wrote: 'This presents a significant risk that the jury will cumulate the evidence of the various crimes charged and find guilt when, if considered separately, it would not do so'.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9480697/Ghislaine-Maxwell-claims-case-prejudiced-Epstein-cleared-wrongdoing-alive.html

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.204.0.pdf

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.204.5.pdf

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.207.0.pdf

Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers cannot challenge plea agreement - U.S. appeals court

Jonathan Stempel - April 17, 2021

A federal appeals court rejected a challenge by a Jeffrey Epstein accuser to an agreement not to prosecute the financier, and to shield his associates from criminal liability for aiding his sexual abuses.

By a 7-4 vote, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled on Thursday that Courtney Wild and other accusers lacked standing under the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act to disturb Epstein's 2007 nonprosecution agreement, though they had been kept in the dark while it was being negotiated.

Judges in the majority said they were "constrained" to rule against Wild, despite having "the profoundest sympathy for Ms. Wild and others like her, who suffered unspeakable horror at Epstein's hands, only to be left in the dark - and, so it seems, affirmatively misled - by government attorneys."

A decision favoring Wild could have permitted accusers to discuss with prosecutors why Epstein's associates should be charged.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and former Epstein associate, has said Epstein's agreement required the dismissal of criminal charges in Manhattan accusing her of aiding his sexual abuse of girls.

Epstein killed himself in jail at age 66 in August 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking.

Wild, now in her 30s, was 15 when Epstein first sexually abused her, according to court papers.

"We are disappointed but not surprised," her lawyers, Paul Cassell and Bradley Edwards, said in a joint statement.

They pledged to press Congress for changes to ensure that "the rights of crime victims are never again trampled on in this disturbing way again."

Epstein's agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida arose from his alleged sexual abuses at his Palm Beach mansion.

In exchange for immunity, Epstein pleaded guilty to Florida state prostitution charges and served just 13 months in jail. The arrangement is now widely considered to have been too lenient.

In court papers made public on Friday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said the agreement did not bind them and did not give Maxwell complete immunity from prosecution for federal crimes.

Maxwell's lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

'TRAVESTY'

Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom wrote Thursday's majority opinion. Six of the seven judges in the majority were men, while the four dissenting judges were women.

One dissenter, Circuit Judge Frank Hull, said the majority opinion created a "two-tiered justice system" that exacerbated disparities between wealthy defendants and others.

She said limiting protections of the victims' rights law to the period after people like Epstein are charged leaves federal prosecutors "free to engage in the secret plea deals and deception pre-charge that resulted in the travesty here."

Last April, a divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit said prosecutors had no obligation to disclose Epstein's nonprosecution agreement. It later set aside that ruling so the full appeals court could consider the matter.

"I don't see this as a loss," Wild said in a statement provided by her lawyers. "The judges agreed that the way were treated was wrong. Without this lawsuit, that wrong would have been swept under the rug and would have repeated itself."

In opposing Wild's appeal, the U.S. Department of Justice nonetheless expressed regret for its handling of the matter, and said Wild should be commended for shining a light on Epstein's misconduct.

Epstein's agreement had been negotiated by prosecutors led by then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta in Miami.

A Justice Department investigation found in November that Acosta exercised "poor judgment" but did not recommend sanctions.

Shortly after Epstein's July 2019 arrest, Acosta resigned as then-President Donald Trump's labor secretary under pressure over the agreement.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jeffrey-epsteins-accusers-cannot-challenge-plea-agreement-us-appeals-court-2021-04-16/

https://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/

https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201913843.enb.pdf

Chief of Navy Australia Tweet

#HMASAnzac and #HMASSirius took part in the French-led Exercise La Perouse. This rewarding training opportunity has been successfully undertaken by (France, India, Japan and the U.S.). Strengthening Navy-to-Navy relations in the region is vital to enhance #AusNavy’s interoperability & our continued success.

https://twitter.com/CN_Australia/status/1382830007614017538

Congressman Mike Gallagher Tweet

Thanks to Ambassador Sinodinos and @AusintheUS for this awesome poster, which I will proudly display in my office.

In light of the CCP's insane tariffs on Australia, we have a duty as mates to drink Australian wine (and Wisconsin beer).

https://twitter.com/RepGallagher/status/1383144537699328003

—

Arthur Sinodinos AO Tweet

Australian wine and Wisconsin beer, an unbeatable combination. Thanks Mike Gallagher a great friend of Australia and decent, humane universal values.

https://twitter.com/A_Sinodinos/status/1383187463515029504

—

About Mike Gallagher

First elected in 2016, Congressman Mike Gallagher represents Wisconsin’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mike is a 7th generation Wisconsin native, born and raised in Green Bay.

Mike joined the United States Marine Corps the day he graduated from college and served for seven years on active duty as a Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence Officer and Regional Affairs Officer for the Middle East/North Africa, eventually earning the rank of Captain. He deployed twice to Al Anbar Province, Iraq as a commander of intelligence teams, served on General Petraeus’s Central Command Assessment Team in the Middle East, and worked for three years in the intelligence community, including tours at the National Counterterrorism Center and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Mike also served as the lead Republican staffer for Middle East, North Africa and Counterterrorism on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prior to taking office, Mike worked in the private sector at a global energy and supply chain management company in Green Bay.

After earning his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, Mike went on to earn a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University, a second in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and his PhD in International Relations from Georgetown.

Mike currently serves on the House Armed Services, and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees.

https://gallagher.house.gov/about

>>13429802

Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Tweet

Cleared for Landing

@USMC UH-1Y Venoms and MV-22B #Ospreys for MRF-D 21.2 have officially landed!

#USwithAus

https://twitter.com/MrfDarwin/status/1382998979323973634

QAnon congresswoman blasts Rupert Murdoch's newspaper over incest story: 'Shame on them'

Bob Brigham - April 17, 2021

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) rushed to defend Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) over allegations of underage sex trafficking, but apparently draws the line at incest.

The controversial Republican on Saturday linked to a story by the New York Post, which is owned by far-right billionaire Rupert Murdoch of Fox News infamy.

The story was on an Australian named Richard Morris who is seeking to change incest laws in 60 countries, but who has received little support.

"We haven't moved any mountains yet," he told the tabloid.

But reporting on the topic was enough to draw condemnation from lawmaker known as the "QAnon congresswoman."

"This repulsive article really just says everything about the media. It just sums it up to exactly what the media is. And what low disgusting level many of them exist on. No wonder everyone is so sick of the news," she wrote.

"Shame on them," she said.

https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-2652620788/

—

Marjorie Taylor Greene Tweet

This repulsive article really just says everything about the media.

It just sums it up to exactly what the media is.

And what low disgusting level many of them exist on.

No wonder everyone is so sick of the news.

Shame on them.

https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1383612009766211594

New York Post @nypost

'Consensual incest' should be decriminalized, advocates say trib.al/URxC6xC

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1383483200081567751

—

‘Consensual incest’ should be decriminalized, advocates say

Kathianne Boniello - April 17, 2021

Consensual incest advocates are rooting for an anonymous New York parent who wants to marry their own adult child.

Australian Richard Morris, who is pushing to change incest laws in about 60 countries, said he supports the legal push in Manhattan Federal Court and that such behavior between consenting adults “should not be criminalized.”

He and other advocates have launched about 130 petitions, mostly on change.org, seeking to change incest laws around the world. Most have received little support.

“We haven’t moved any mountains yet,” he told The Post.

Morris was inspired to fight for those in consenting incestual relationships, he said, after learning about a Scottish case in which a long-separated father and daughter were reunited, started an affair and were then criminally convicted.

Fighting for true “marriage equality” is “the right thing to do, isn’t it?” Morris said.

“It seems to be as unjust as the law that used to imprison gay people, and the law that used to stop people of different races marrying,” he added.

Keith Pullman, who runs the blog Full Marriage Equality, also cheered on the New York lawsuit.

“It is absurd to say that an adult can’t consent to marry their parent. That same adult can be sent to war, take on six or seven figures of debt, operate heavy machinery, be sentenced to death by a federal court, and consent to sex with five strangers (and marriage with one of them) but can’t consent to marry someone they love?” he told The Post. “In some of these cases, the genetic parent didn’t raise them and they met for the first time two years ago. Allegations of ‘grooming’ are laughable attempts to deny someone their rights even though it will have no impact on the person objecting.”

https://nypost.com/2021/04/17/consensual-incest-should-be-decriminalized-advocates-say/

Alexander Downer Twitter Thread

9News Australia @9NewsAUS

Former High Commissioner @AlexanderDowner was there when the Queen bestowed the Duke of Edinburgh with his Australian knighthood – an event that stirred great controversy in our country. #9News

Special coverage, LIVE on @Channel9.

https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1383405291895607304

—

Shawn Simpson @HomerShawn

Was also there when foreign governments tried to spy on Trump campaign for the Democrats!

https://twitter.com/HomerShawn/status/1383423970259599371

—

Alexander Downer @AlexanderDowner

Sure!!! What’s happened to that conspiracy btw. It seems to have died

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1383525873706422275

—

koenig13091999 @koenig13091999

Indeed. It was a clever Papadopoulos misdirection to reinvent himself as the victim hero. Quite an effective technique,keep asking a series of questions that seem to cast doubt, don’t seek to answer them & keep asking more. I’m surprised you didn’t pursue this actually, was rough

https://twitter.com/koenig13091999/status/1383549787543277568

—

Alexander Downer @AlexanderDowner

Not worth the trouble. It died out as it wasn’t true!

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1383554221811793923

—

Shawn Simpson @HomerShawn

You keep telling yourself that!

https://twitter.com/HomerShawn/status/1383564172768595973

Canberra prepares for Taiwan conflict as tensions escalate

Jacob Greber, Michael Smith and Andrew Tillett - Apr 16, 2021

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The Australian government has sharply escalated its internal preparations for potential military action in the Taiwan Strait.

This is part of a broader show of force by the US and its allies at forcing China to back down on its incursions into the island state’s air space and isolate its economic partners.

Sources have told AFR Weekend that the Australian Defence Force was planning for a potential worst-case scenario if the United States and China clashed over Taiwan, prompting debate over the scope and scale of Canberra’s contribution to what would be an unprecedented conflict in the region.

Options include contributing to an allied effort with submarines, as well as maritime surveillance aircraft, air-to-air refuellers and potentially Super Hornet fighters operating from US bases in Guam or the Philippines, and even Japan.

The intensification has been welcomed as long overdue by seasoned Taiwan watchers, who warn that China’s growing aggression towards the island and the renewed US resolve to help Taipei defend itself could spiral out of control and into a catastrophic open conflict.

Concern is mounting throughout the region, and Taiwan accuses China of sending 25 military aircraft into its air defence identification zone this week – a record incursion.

The chief of Australia’s Defence Force, Angus Campbell, cautioned that conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be “disastrous” and urged Beijing to resolve its differences with Taiwan’s leaders through dialogue.

‘Disastrous experience’

“Conflict over the island of Taiwan would be a disastrous experience for the peoples of the region,” General Campbell told an Indian foreign affairs conference known as the Raisina Dialogue. “It is something we should all work to avoid.”

At the same forum, the heads of the Indian and Japanese militaries were asked if they were collectively planning, as part of a “Quad” effort, to counter China in Taiwan. None responded to the question.

US President Joe Biden was preparing to meet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Washington on Friday, where the two leaders are expected to “present a united front on Taiwan” according to a top US official.

Long downplayed as one of the more peculiar anomalies of international relations, Taiwan’s disputed status is becoming a big flashpoint between Beijing and Washington. China regards the island as its territory and President Xi Jinping, who successfully quashed anti-China protests in Hong Kong last year with limited push-back from the West, has made “reunification” of the island with the mainland a top long-term priority.

At the same time, anti-China sentiment in the US is pushing the Biden administration to take a tougher line against any undermining of Taiwan’s self-rule.

Sources and academics said that while a military conflict remained unlikely, Australia wanted to send Beijing a signal that further incursions by Mr Xi’s forces into Taiwan’s territory would not be tolerated.

“There is a lot of development and scenario planning going on,” said a diplomatic source of Canberra’s effort. “It is intended to signal you are not going to blink. It is intended to demonstrate you don’t lack commitment.“

(continued)

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The push coincides with a desire in China to “normalise” incursions into Taiwan and discourage people from investing in the island, which is the world’s most important maker of semiconductor microchips – currently in the grip of a global supply shortage.

Coming off last month’s historic Quad meeting between the leaders of Australia, Japan, India and the US, analysts believe Canberra is under greater pressure to anticipate issues that collectively hurt the members of the grouping.

“A big issue for Australians to realise is that the US and Japan have said they share our problems,” said Michael Shoebridge, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s defence program. “The flip side to that is we have to share their problems.”

This includes Japan’s direct sovereignty concerns in the East China Sea – one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

“The only way we can push back on Beijing is for us not to be splintered and not see problems the Americans and Japanese have as their problems,” Mr Shoebridge said. “We can’t expect partners like the US and Japan to support us if we don’t stand with them.”

One Defence official confirmed to AFR Weekend that planning had been under way, describing the prospect of conflict over Taiwan as a highly complex question for the government.

The source said that while the Defence Force had capabilities that could contribute to a Taiwan crisis, the make-up of forces committed would be dictated by the military effects the government sought to make or contribute to. “There has been a lot of thinking done on this and other contingencies – but nothing that you wouldn’t expect the department would be doing as part of prudent military planning,” the source said.

A former Defence official said there would be questions in the department and the government over whether the ANZUS pact applied in the event of a strike against Taiwan.

Incorporating Air Warfare Destroyers as part of US aircraft carrier groups and deploying Collins-class submarines to bottle up the Chinese navy could be an option but there could be some hesitation to commit naval assets because of the threat to them.

The former official said Australia was more likely to contribute air cover, such as maritime surveillance aircraft, air-to-air refuellers, the Wedgetail airborne radar plane and Super Hornet fighter jets, operating from US bases in Guam or the Philippines.

A former senior Australian diplomat said that while the possibility of conflict was not zero, it was unlikely because the Chinese were not prepared yet. Occupation of the island would also turn the whole world against China. “And if your ambition was to get through the middle-income trap and consolidate the Communist Party, that might be a dramatic step to take,” the person said.

Mark Harrison, senior lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Tasmania, said that while a full-scale military invasion by China was unlikely and would be signalled weeks in advance, there were also risks if the US and its allies backed China into a corner.

“Beijing can also use the threat of war itself as a multiplier of more limited action and from which it might attempt to extract incremental concessions from Taipei.

“There are very complex politics in play in Beijing and Taipei with a very weighty history and Canberra policy-makers will need to be fully across all those issues,” he said.

https://www.afr.com/world/asia/canberra-prepares-for-taiwan-conflict-as-tensions-escalate-20210416-p57jqv

From having 'hot curries poured over her head' to being 'held under the stairs like Harry Potter': Fate of 'slave torture' couple hangs in the balance as jury enters its 10th week in epic trial

WAYNE FLOWER - 18 April 2021

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A jury of 12 is expected to finally retire to consider its verdict in Melbourne's engrossing 'slave trial' next week after 10 long weeks.

It was still summer when the husband-and-wife, accused of keeping an elderly slave, first faced the jury on February 10.

The couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will spend an uneasy weekend and could learn their fate as early as Tuesday.

Defence barristers for the pair finished their closing arguments on Friday, with Justice Andrew Tinney delivering his final 'charge' throughout the day.

The jury has endured months of evidence, which has included shocking allegations of abuse by the couple against their elderly 'slave'.

When Justice Tinney ends his directions of law - either on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning - the jury will at last retire to consider its verdict.

The couple has been accused of committing 'crimes against humanity' by keeping the woman captive and working her near to death.

The jury has heard allegations their slave had 'hot curries' poured over her head as punishment and lived off just an hour a sleep for years at a time.

The elderly woman was found by paramedics in 2015 in a pool of her own urine and weighing just 40kg.

The husband and wife have pleaded not guilty to intentionally keeping the woman as a slave between July 2007 and July 2015.

The woman was discovered after she collapsed inside the couple's home and they called her an ambulance.

Traumatised and with serious medical conditions, she spent more than two months in hospital recovering - and for much of that time nobody knew her real identity.

In closing the Crown case, prosecutor Richard Maidment QC said the couple's payments to the woman amounted to just $3.39 a day in exchange for childcare, washing, cleaning and preparing meals.

He told the court the pair had fudged their elderly captive's visa documents to allow her to stay in Australia illegally.

The woman had hoped to earn enough money in Australia to help support her family in India, the jury was told.

'By 6 August 2007 she had become an unlawful non citizen with the full knowledge and connivance of (the couple),' Mr Maidment said.

Police believed they were dealing with a real-life Harry Potter when they rescued the woman, the jury heard.

Mr Maidment told the jury there was no need to ponder the motive why the couple would risk their reputations and liberty to keep the woman illegally for so long.

'The Crown says that is crystal clear. It was crystal clear that they wanted essentially to import a true, tried and tested child carer and domestic servant, knowing that they could pay her next to nothing so that they could continue to live and maintain a five-bedroom home, that they could maintain their lifestyle, that (the female accused) could contemplate a part-time job, three days a week, and also to afford family trips overseas pretty much every year and interstate also on a regular basis,' he said.

(continued)

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Mr Maidment said the couple made sure they had treated their alleged slave well in front of the children she had been enslaved to raise.

'The children were very fond of her and the notion that they would always be unkind to her or that they wouldn't essentially treat her as part of the household, is ridiculous,' he said.

'Clearly, they were going to be concerned about her relationship with the children. Her willingness to work hard. It was important for them to treat her, in many respects, as a member of the household.'

But Mr Maidment said it didn't alter the level of control that they had for her.

'Or the deep down, disrespect they had for her situation, or their willingness to exploit her in terms of paying her so far below the appropriate remuneration as to amount to an indicator of slavery,' he said.

The jury heard the woman had been effectively stranded in her captive home, unable to even use a bus or call for help from her family back in India.

'Her world, other than that which the (couple) exposed them to by actually taking her to places like Sydney, like Phillip Island, like Cape Woolamai … was the immediate area of the house, Gillian Road Park and that's about it. So that was her world and the backyard,' Mr Maidment said.

'They effectively controlled every aspect of her life, where she went, who she met, controlled her work and her leisure to the extent that she had any and in every practical sense.'

The alleged female slaver, who has been painted for weeks as the brains behind the alleged atrocity, maintains the woman is a rotten liar.

On Monday, barrister Dr Gideon Boas - for the female accused - told the jury his client's accuser was 'not a witness of truth'.

'I do suggest to you that it is only in an alternate universe that the evidence that she gave that she was being woken up by (the accused) every night by having lights switched on, oil poured on her head every night at 4am,' Dr Boas told the jury.

'She’ll be drinking hot coffee and then she will just, you know, pour it on my face … and then she will be grab the gravy and pour it on my head,' the woman said.

'She will say 'curries not nice' and then she will just throw it on me.'

Dr Boas told the jury the federal agents who interviewed his client had believed the alleged victim had been held like the fictional wizard, whom was famously imprisoned under the stairs of his captors in the J.K. Rowling hit books and movies.

'So, no doubt the police had in their minds at this stage they were dealing with somebody like Harry Potter being, you know, held under the stairs or something, right?' he told the jury.

(continued)

>>13452539

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Dr Boas dismissed the woman's claims the alleged slave had been kept confined within the family home for years and insisted she had instead been treated like a beloved member of the family.

'You recall this was a Tamil tradition of feeding somebody cake and she acknowledged that was an expression of love and affection,' he told the jury.

'Well, there's a photo on p.34, depicts (his client) doing that for (the woman on her) birthday. Love and affection, Tamil tradition. Well, the narrative that she came to give about (his client), as we know, is very different. That was then, this is now.'

The jury had heard the woman say under cross examination by Dr Boas that her female captor had bashed her so hard that she had broken her skull.

'(She) kicked, broke my skull'. That was the first time she said that,' Dr Boas said.

'Of course, there's no evidence whatsoever that (she) had a broken skull.'

When the trial opened in February, Dr Boas made it clear the alleged slave had cooked-up the story to avoid being deported back to India after overstaying her temporary visa.

Dr Boas told the jury his client actually considered the woman as family and referred to her affectionately as 'grandmother'.

He claimed the only crime his client had committed was harbouring the woman after her one-month travel visa had expired.

It was fear of prosecution over the visa violation that not only caused the woman to lie to authorities, but the alleged victim to lie about her captivity, the court heard.

The Case Against Alleged Slavers

A couple accused of keeping an Indian woman as a slave before she was discovered with no teeth and emaciated with sepsis claimed she was treated 'like a king'.

The couple are both charged with intentionally possessing a slave and intentionally exercising the right of ownership over a slave between 2007 and 2015.

The pair claim they have been framed and have become embroiled in an elaborate extortion attempt.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard the couple had been heard by police discussing the allegations over phone taps.

'“It seems the suggestion is a letter would be produced which would suggest an extortion attempt had been made to extort 10 laks, the equivalent of $18,000 or $19,000 in order to drop the allegations,' Prosecutor Richard Maidment told jurors.

The court has heard the alleged victim had no teeth when found by police in 2015.

When asked why by police, her alleged keeper claimed she had pulled them out herself and ate only mash.

The woman had allegedly been enslaved after two previous visits with the family.

The alleged slave was found after she became sick and the woman called her an ambulance.

Paramedics found her shivering in a pool of urine in the bathroom.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/melbourne/article-9477927/The-fate-Melbournes-slave-torture-couple-hangs-balance.html

>>13228625 (pb)

How a panicked phone call to the ABC newsroom led to a Four Corners investigation and the dismantling of an alleged sex slave cult

Elise Worthington - 18 April 2021

1/3

It started with a panicked call to the ABC switchboard asking to speak to someone in the newsroom.

The desperate voice on the other end of the line was begging for help.

That initial conversation was the first of dozens that followed a similar pattern — describing how a sex cult was allegedly harming vulnerable young women and despairing that authorities seemed unable or unwilling to intervene.

Weeks later, producer Kyle Taylor and I found ourselves at a dodgy regional New South Wales pub being heckled by the locals who had no idea what was going on as we frantically photographed hundreds of pages of tattered "slave journal" entries.

They were brought to us in a black bum bag by a woman who alleged she was enslaved, forced into sex work, abused, coerced and threatened by a man she was forced to call her "Master".

This is how a five-month investigation by ABC Investigations and Four Corners into former Australian army soldier James Davis and his acolytes, the so-called 'House of Cadifor', began.

It ended with a dramatic police raid after Four Corners provided information to the Australian Federal Police.

Davis was arrested in the car park of the local hardware store by plain-clothed AFP officers and charged with sexual slavery offences.

The journals belonged to Felicity Bourke, Davis's former partner of three years.

Her bravery in speaking out and trusting us with her story is what dozens of women and the families of those still living with Davis had been waiting for.

We spoke with Felicity many times and met with her on three occasions, each over several days, before we filmed a sit-down TV interview.

We spoke to her family, friends and her social worker.

We connected her with lawyers and offered counselling.

Eventually, we would pass her details, with her permission, on to the Australian Federal Police.

Her testimony is what finally led to Davis being charged.

For months, we had agonised over how to investigate and navigate such a complex and traumatic story.

We spent many hours on the phone and in person, meeting and hearing the stories of dozens of women and several men who had known Davis and his associates over the years.

As we continued our research, we came to believe that Davis was using classic cult tactics to indoctrinate the women who followed him.

A complex and challenging story

We found ourselves surrounded by a fog of trauma, stories of horrendous sexual abuse, rape and violence allegedly perpetrated by a number of different men.

Complicating the situation was that many of the alleged incidents they described had occurred within the context of BDSM relationships, which sometimes involved consensual violence.

"There's a clear line between BDSM and abuse and that line is consent," one woman told us.

But we soon realised that the line between consenting and not consenting had been blurred by power imbalances, peer pressure and coercion, as well as by drugs and alcohol.

Some of the women we spoke to had signed contracts consenting to particular sex or violent acts or had agreed in writing to become submissives or slaves to men.

They felt trapped, ashamed and like they couldn't say no because they believed they had signed away their rights.

That was just one reason they'd never come forward about their treatment.

Many were also sex workers with a profound mistrust of law enforcement.

We were faced with people who had complex histories of trauma and who were themselves still coming to terms with difficult questions around what had happened to them, often when they were still quite young.

Had they consented?

Were they able to?

Was it an abuse of power?

What would it mean for them if they were assaulted?

We later learned that there is no such thing as consent to certain offences such as slavery and trafficking.

(continued)

>>13452610

2/3

Many of those we spoke to had never told anyone about their experiences before. Some seemed completely numbed to the pain and horror of what they told us.

They recalled in graphic detail what had happened to them.

Sometimes once they started speaking it was hard to interrupt or get them to stop.

They held back little, disclosing the most explicit and violent details.

Few wanted to be interviewed formally or go on the record but every person we spoke to helped us open up a dark and murky world that was difficult to comprehend.

What we uncovered was a BDSM sex cult allegedly targeting vulnerable young women and coercing them into participating in increasingly violent sexual situations, sometimes filmed and sold for profit.

Some of the women went to group sex parties where they were blindfolded, numbered and given drugs and alcohol.

Others participated in elaborate ceremonies and signed contracts of enslavement to men, they wore slave collars and were controlled by men who allegedly instructed them to have sex with others for money.

A traumatic story takes its toll

In the months we spent working on the story, we were sent photos and videos of women being physically assaulted, screaming and crying in pain.

They were sometimes tied, bound and gagged, unable to escape.

This kind of horrific material would be delivered in emails and texts at all hours of the day and night.

There was call after call from women recounting in graphic detail horrendous sexual assaults perpetrated by different men in the BDSM community.

Some of these incidents were totally unconnected to the story we were focused on but word had gone around that there were journalists who were investigating and they wanted to help.

It felt selfish to cut the call short or react emotionally when I wasn't the one who had suffered.

Sometimes I hung up the phone and just cried in despair.

I could hear the pain in their voices and knew there was little I could do to help.

I received calls and texts late at night. Sometimes from women saying they didn't want to live.

I lay awake worried about the impact of our work on the women we spoke to.

What if we made things worse?

How could we be sure that they were supported after they shared their traumatic experiences?

I wasn't a sexual assault counsellor. How was I supposed to respond correctly to what I was hearing?

There were guidelines for dealing with survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence but in many situations, there seemed to be no rule book for exactly how to navigate the complexities involved in this kind of story.

I started seeing a specialist trauma psychologist early in the project when I realised I would need support to be able to keep working on such distressing subject matter.

One day, sitting at my desk at Four Corners, I was told a detail so horrendous I ran to the bathroom and threw up before crying as I struggled to process the horror of what I had been told.

Some days I felt like I was working in slow motion, reading the same sentence over and over again, unable to process it.

I was annoyed at myself for being weak, lazy and unproductive.

I now understand that was a natural reaction to being repeatedly exposed to traumatic material.

I noticed I would sometimes emotionlessly recount graphic details to shocked colleagues who enquired how the story was going.

I became keenly attuned to any perceived power imbalances or signs of abuse in society or social situations.

At times I felt as though I was viewing the world through a completely different and dark lens that few people could understand.

How could such horrendous things be happening with such apparent regularity?

How could the world be so bleak?

How could so many men do such horrendous things to women?

Through therapy, I can see that these are overgeneralisations and thought distortions, which can be a symptom of vicarious trauma.

(continued)

>>13452615

3/3

Journalists need to take vicarious trauma seriously

Vicarious trauma can happen through indirect exposure to traumatic events and can manifest in a range of physical and psychological symptoms.

If not addressed, it can lead to ongoing PTSD and other mental health problems.

Journalists are regularly exposed to crime scenes, the aftermath of natural disasters, violence, raw emotions from grieving families and other traumatic situations.

Many of us have witnessed our colleagues suffer from trauma and PTSD related to their work.

Some have been so profoundly affected they've been unable to continue working.

To journalists working with traumatic subject matter, I implore you to seek help early and speak openly and honestly about how your work is affecting your mental health.

I'm aware I am in the extremely fortunate position of being a journalist in a secure job with supportive bosses and colleagues.

I don't know how I would have coped without having access to a qualified professional to debrief.

When I started seeing a psychologist, the first thing I naively wanted to know was how I could just simply "not be traumatised" by what I was hearing and seeing.

The answer was that without dropping the story altogether, that wouldn't be possible.

Instead, I needed strategies to mitigate the trauma from my exposure.

The obvious and boring ones I deployed with mixed success were eating and sleeping well, exercising and not using alcohol as a coping strategy.

I worked on drawing boundaries around when I would answer calls and respond to texts and tried to clearly separate work and home time, although this wasn't always possible.

Kyle and I shared the load when it came to limiting our exposure to traumatic material.

There were things I found I simply could not watch or read.

Sometimes there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to what I would find triggering.

We tried to work on different content during set time periods with breaks in between.

There would be something wrong with us if we weren't moved and upset by what we were seeing.

But the lesson I learned is that there's no way to not be profoundly affected by horrendous material.

What kept us going was the determination of the women who wanted to tell their stories.

Authorities often say that they are powerless to act in these matters without people being willing to come forward and to speak up.

When we set out to discover what was going on for this story we found something different.

We had to make sure we were ready and able to listen.

If you have more information contact the AFP on 131AFP (131 237) or email NOSSC-Client-Liaison@afp.gov.au

If you are a victim of trafficking or know someone who is contact the AFP on 131AFP (131237) or email NOSSC-Client-Liaison@afp.gov.au

https://forms.afp.gov.au/online_forms/human_trafficking_form

You can also contact the Red Cross Support for Trafficked People Program on 03 9345 1800

https://www.redcross.org.au/get-help/help-for-migrants-in-transition/trafficked-people

https://www.abc.net.au/news/backstory/2021-04-18/abc-four-corners-alleged-sex-slave-cult-vicarious-trauma/13303834

>>13452610

Escaping a sex cult: How Australian women were enslaved in plain sight | Four Corners

ABC News In-depth

15 Mar 2021

Warning: This story contains descriptions of extreme violence and sexual abuse that may disturb some readers.

On an isolated property in regional Australia, a sex slave cult has been operating in plain sight.

A five-month long investigation by Four Corners has found the man running it has a long history of physically and sexually abusing women.

James Davis was living with six women he called his slaves until he was arrested and charged with slavery offences by the Australian Federal Police last week.

Now, women are speaking out in a bid to help them and encourage others to come forward.

Sexual assault support services:

1800 Respect national helpline: 1800 737 732

Lifeline (24-hour crisis line): 131 114

Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636

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

https://www.lifeline.org.au

https://www.beyondblue.org.au

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFn3YRQ-puI

GuidoFawkes Tweet

As you lay asleep in your bed remember there are children who are being tortured and killed for their blood. I am sorry if this upsets you! Honestly I am not sorry! Wake Up you sheep and become Lions! The War is real! The time is Now!

https://twitter.com/GuidoFawkes1976/status/1383689258695729161

—

Q Post #4908

Oct 21 2020 13:41:31 (EST)

Sometimes you can't TELL the public the truth.

YOU MUST SHOW THEM.

ONLY THEN WILL PEOPLE FIND THE WILL TO CHANGE.

Crimes against children unite all humanity [cross party lines]?

Difficult truths.

Q

https://qanon.pub/#4908

>>13459791

Lin Wood OK conference

Roadrunner Girl

19 Apr 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElW1wXGnh1Q

>4:31

Dutton pulls rank on ADF medal ban

BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 19, 2021

1/2

Australia’s special forces veterans who served in Afghanistan will retain their Meritorious Unit Citations unless convicted of war crimes or sacked for poor conduct.

Peter Dutton, in his first major public decision in the Defence portfolio, will officially overrule Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell’s decision to strip the citations from more than 3000 special forces soldiers as a “collective punishment” for the alleged crimes uncovered by the Brereton inquiry.

Mr Dutton will announce the move on Monday – just a week out from Anzac Day – declaring “99 per cent of our ADF personnel serve, and have served, our country with distinction”.

Mr Dutton told The Australian the nation would remember the original Anzacs on April 25, “but my focus will be on those who have returned from recent conflicts”.

“We honour these young men and women and they will be wearing their unit citation medal with pride,” he said.

“Almost 40,000 honoured our country with their service in Afghanistan and Iraq and I couldn’t be more proud of their sacrifice. We honour them and their loved ones this Anzac Day.”

In a show of support, Mr Dutton will visit the Special Air Service Regiment – the unit at the centre of the war crimes allegations – at Perth’s Campbell Barracks on Monday afternoon. His ruling will mean soldiers will retain their unit citations unless they are found guilty of a war crime, are sacked as an accessory to an alleged crime, or dismissed for failing to uphold army standards.

The SASR’s 2 Squadron, which was linked to the majority of the alleged war crimes, was abolished earlier this year on the CDF’s orders. But Scott Morrison put General Campbell’s revocation of the unit citation on hold after an outpouring of anger from veterans and their families.

In one case, the father of a commando killed by a Taliban rocket attack said if the CDF wanted to take his son’s service award, he could ­“collect it himself from my son’s gravestone”.

Mr Dutton’s decision follows a distressing week for some veterans with the decision to withdraw Australia’s remaining troops from Afghanistan along with those of the US, amid fears the pullout could pave the way for a Taliban takeover.

The Meritorious Unit Citation was awarded to special forces soldiers for “sustained and outstanding warlike operational service in Afghanistan from 30 April, 2007 to 31 December, 2013, through the conduct of counter-insurgency operations in support of the International Security Assistance Force”. General Campbell accepted Justice Brereton’s recommendation in November that the citations be revoked, declaring “units live and fight as a team”.

However, he faced immediate pushback from veterans and politicians alike.

A petition to overturn the decision attracted more than 50,000 supporters, while the Prime Minister made it clear he was unhappy with the decision.

(continued)

>>13459865

2/2

Lawyer and former RSL NSW president Glenn Kolomeitz, who was attached to the special operations taskforce in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010, described the move at the time as a “knee-jerk reaction by those who are supposed to be strategic leaders”.

“I’m happy to hand mine in as long as the senior leadership – who all got distinguished service medals for their leadership – hand back their awards,” he said.

Justice Brereton’s report for the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force found up to 25 special forces soldiers were involved in the alleged murders of at least 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners, recommending charges be pursued against 19 of them.

Mr Morrison said the government would ensure the actions of a small number of soldiers facing war crimes allegations “do not reflect on the many thousands of others who serve today and who have served before”. “That is how we deal with these issues in Australia … according to the rule of law, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and in accordance with the administrative processes that ­operate within the Defence Force.”

Chief of Army Rick Burr told a Senate estimates hearing last month 17 Defence personnel had been issued “show cause” notices asking why they shouldn’t be sacked in relation to the Brereton report findings. Eight had since been dismissed, he said. A further “show cause” notice was issued last week to an army colonel after a pixelated photo was published by Nine newspapers showing him partying with junior soldiers in an unauthorised on-base bar in Afghanistan.

The now-colonel, who was due to take up a key position overseeing cultural reform within Special Operations Command, is understood to be considering his options.

Lieutenant General Burr will tell a symposium in Brisbane on Monday that “good character and sound ethical grounding” are vital aspects of “good soldiering”.

“We create strong teams who actively include others and bring people together to be effective and achieve their mission,” he will tell the event.

If you are a current or former ADF member, or a relative, and need counselling or support, contact the Defence All-Hours Support Line on 1800 628 036 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046

https://www1.defence.gov.au/adf-members-families/health-well-being/services-support-fighting-fit/need-help-now/all-hours-support-line

https://www.openarms.gov.au

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/dutton-pulls-rank-on-adf-medal-ban/news-story/1fd405366965a34d73dedaf94aaab58e

>>13459865

Peter Dutton and PM 'strongly of the same view' on citation stripping reversal

Sky News Australia

19 Apr 2021

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says he and Prime Minister Scott Morrison are “strongly of the same view” when it comes to overruling a decision to strip soldiers who served in Afghanistan of their unit citations.

“The prime minister very strongly supports this position,” Mr Dutton told Sky News.

The ruling will mean only individuals who are dismissed for failing to uphold standards or are found guilty of a war crime will be disciplined.

Three thousand special forces soldiers were set to be have their citations removed as collective punishment for alleged crimes uncovered by the Brereton Inquiry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf9Vl8FEyQw

Government announces royal commission into veteran and serving Defence member suicides

abc.net.au - 19 April 2021

A royal commission into veteran and serving Defence personnel suicides has been announced, after the government relented to pressure to support the broad-ranging and powerful inquiry.

In March, a motion passed both chambers of Parliament supporting the creation of the royal commission.

While Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not oppose the motion, the government previously said it wanted to look into the issue through its plan to establish a permanent national commissioner for veteran suicides.

Announcing the royal commission today, Mr Morrison said he hoped the commission would be a "healing process".

"The royal commission will have a mandate to examine the systemic issues and any common themes and past deaths by suicide of Australian Defence Force members and veterans," he said.

"[It will examine] the experience of members and veterans who may continue to be at risk of suicide.

"And it will examine all aspects of service in the Australian Defence Force and the experience of those transitioning from active service."

Mr Morrison said the royal commission would look at past confirmed and suspected suicides.

"Given the sensitive and personal nature of the issues that witnesses may face, the royal commission will be authorised to hold private sessions," he said.

"The inquiry will not be about making findings of civil or criminal wrongdoing."

In February last year, Mr Morrison announced a plan to create a permanent National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention.

At that time there were more than 400 known veteran suicide cases dating back to 2001, but that figure has soared over the past 12 months.

By comparison, 41 Australian defence personnel have died during the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.

Despite introducing the legislation to establish the National Commissioner last year, it has stalled in the Senate.

The PM said the royal commission would work alongside the National Commissioner, who he hoped would have a "forward-looking role" and would implement any recommendations from the inquiry.

The announcement comes after sustained lobbying by family members of veterans who have taken their own lives, including Julie-Ann Finney.

Ms Finney's son, David, was a petty officer in the Royal Australian Navy.

He took his own life in February 2019 after being medically discharged, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, in 2017.

Ms Finney said she welcomed the announcement, saying it was a "long time coming".

"Finally, the voices of veterans will be heard. Finally, families can stand up and share their stories," she said.

"Today is about veterans. The veterans fighting every day to make it through to the next.

"The veterans who we have lost too soon, who live on in too many broken hearts."

When asked why it had taken the government so long to support a commission, Mr Morrison said he was "just seeking to get things done".

"I'm pragmatic to get the right outcomes for veterans," he said.

Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O'Connor supported the announcement, saying the government's National Commissioner plan was always "flawed".

"We are glad to see the government has made a decision but it does seem it has done so begrudgingly, belatedly and because of the pressure that has been brought to bear upon them by the veterans community [and] the veterans' families," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-19/australian-veteran-suicide-government-announces-royal-commission/100078292

Former Australian prime minister puts Rupert Murdoch on blast

CNN

19 Apr 2021

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks to CNN's Brian Stelter about Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born American media mogul whose global empire includes Fox News.

#CNN #News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P7RkWpS1Wc

>>13460196

George Papadopoulos Tweet

Very interesting that the former Australian PM has reared his head again. His governments conduct is reportedly under investigation by John Durham’s team, and Senator Graham called out the Australian ambassador in the US for Alexander Downer’s dubious role in obamagate

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1383973257364180995

—

Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org @froomkin

The former Australian PM told @brianstelter earlier today that the Murdoch media empire no longer operates as a conventional news operation. They have "created a market for crazy”.

Agree.

https://twitter.com/froomkin/status/1383914484373155842

—

Malcolm Turnbull @TurnbullMalcolm

It isn’t any longer a matter of right or left leaning media. The problem is media, like Murdoch’s, which are propaganda, that make stuff up, run vendettas, promote conspiracy theories and deny science.

https://twitter.com/TurnbullMalcolm/status/1383912020177604623

>>13460196

Greg Kelly Tweet

SO @TurnbullMalcolm doesn’t KNOW anything about what happened in the Nov. election. Malcolm, real quick: describe for us the constitutional issues surrounding Absentee voting in Pennsylvania, esp regarding the State Constitution. DON’T LOOK IT UP, just SPEW (like u did on CNN)

https://twitter.com/gregkellyusa/status/1383956803667460105

—

Malcolm Turnbull @TurnbullMalcolm

Replying to @gregkellyusa

There are Courts to do that. And they did. But here's the thing: a democracy should ensure that every adult eligible to vote is on the roll and is encouraged to vote. And to that end make it easy for people to vote - including by mail - not throw obstacles in their way.

https://twitter.com/TurnbullMalcolm/status/1383994150077419520

Prince Andrew offered $7 million to take Epstein lie detector test

Emily Smith - April 18, 2021

Britain’s Prince Andrew is being offered millions to come to the US and take a public polygraph test about his relationship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Investigative journalist Ian Halperin is offering £5 million pounds (or roughly $7 million US dollars) to Andrew “to come clean and take a polygraph test with a world-leading polygraph examiner,” he tells Page Six.

Halperin wants to quiz Andrew, 61, about claims from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who says she was brought from the US to Britain at age 17 to have sex with the Prince in 2001.

In an interview with The BBC’s “Newsnight,” Giuffre said of Andrew, the Duke of York, “I knew I had to keep him happy, because it’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine [Maxwell, Epstein’s then-girlfriend] would expect from me.”

Halperin alleged in his latest book, “Controversy: Sex, Lies, Dirty Money,” that the British royals deliberately threw the media glare on Meghan Markle and husband Prince Harry to divert from Andrew’s links to Epstein.

Halperin explained to Page Six of his lucrative offer to Andrew — who despite not having worked in a while doesn’t appear to need the money: “I am giving Andrew a chance to finally clear his name.

“I am offering 5 million pounds to Prince Andrew to come clean and take a polygraph test with a world-leading polygraph examiner.

“If he passes, my investment group will hand him over £5 million pounds.”

Halperin insists he has the cash and alleged, “I’m part of a global investment group to stop child sex trafficking.”

Halperin’s book had alleged Andrew was a “sex addict” and a “daring lover,” according to women who claim they were intimate with the British royal after being introduced by Epstein.

Halperin said, “One of Andrew’s ex-lovers said he had a sex addiction because he was always second to Prince Charles … He compared his relationship with his brother … to William and Harry.

“William is looked at as royal material, just like Charles, whereas he and Harry were the bad boys … This led to his playboy lifestyle. He wasn’t getting attention; it made him feel special to get these beautiful women in his bed.”

Halperin has said he uncovered no evidence that Andrew — who has strongly denied allegations that he slept with Giuffre — had sex with underage women, but “there is no doubt that Epstein provided girls to Andrew, and that was the reason they were friends.”

In late 2019, Prince Andrew issued a public statement saying he would be willing to help American law enforcement with their investigation into allegations of sex trafficking by Epstein and his associates.

FBI agents and federal prosecutors in New York reached out to his lawyers and asked to interview him, but there was no response.

Then in January 2020, the United States attorney in Manhattan publicly called out the Prince for breaking his commitment.

“To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation,” prosecutor Geoffrey S. Berman said.

A spokesperson for Prince Andrew did not immediately get back to us.

https://pagesix.com/2021/04/18/prince-andrew-offered-7m-to-take-epstein-lie-detector-test/

Moreton Bay man charged with child abuse material offences

A man from Queensland’s Moreton Bay who allegedly sent a photograph of a naked boy to someone online and discussed abusing the child is expected to face Caboolture Magistrates Court today (19 April 2021).

The 29-year-old Morayfield man was arrested by the Brisbane Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET) on 15 April 2021 and charged with four offences, after police allegedly found child abuse material and records of a sexually explicit chat on his mobile phone.

The investigation was launched after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States about an online user uploading child abuse material to the Kik Messenger platform.

Brisbane JACET, which consists of officers from the AFP and Queensland Police, allegedly identified the 29-year-old man as the person using the account.

Police arrested the man at a shopping centre and allegedly found child abuse material on his mobile phone.

During a search of his home it will be alleged child abuse material was located on a second mobile phone.

The man was refused police bail and has been charged with:

• One count of using a carriage service to access child abuse material, contrary to section 474.22 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth);

• Two counts of possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service, contrary to section 474.22A of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth);

• One count of making child exploitation material, contrary to section 228B of the Criminal Code 1899 (QLD).

The maximum penalty for these offences range from 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment.

AFP Detective Superintendent Child Protection Operations Paula Hudson said the AFP works with partners across Australia and around the world to keep a watch online to protect children.

“It takes a network to break a network, which is why these national and international partnerships are so vital to the work of the AFP in stopping child exploitation and sexual abuse,” she said.

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

You can also make a report online by alerting the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation via the Report Abuse button.

http://www.accce.gov.au/report

If you or someone you know are impacted by child sexual abuse and online exploitation there are support services available, visit the ACCCE to learn more.

https://www.accce.gov.au/support

Note to media:

USE OF TERM ‘CHILD ABUSE’ MATERIAL NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’

The correct legal term is Child Abuse Material – the move to this wording was among amendments to Commonwealth legislation in 2019 to more accurately reflect the gravity of the crimes and the harm inflicted on victims.

Use of the phrase "child pornography" is inaccurate and benefits child sex abusers because it:

• indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and

• conjures images of children posing in 'provocative' positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.

Every photograph or video captures an actual situation where a child has been abused.

Editor’s note: Vision from this arrest is available via Hightail - https://spaces.hightail.com/space/oJmpSjKdoL

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/moreton-bay-man-charged-child-abuse-material-offences

Gold Coast man to face court over allegedly possessing child abuse material and child-like sex doll

A 43-year-old Gold Coast man is due to appear in court today (19 April 2021) to face child exploitation offences following an Australian Federal Police (AFP) child protection investigation.

Officers from the Brisbane Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET) executed a search warrant at an address in Southport on the Gold Coast on 19 March 2021, after receiving a report from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States.

The report indicated a person, believed to be in Queensland, was uploading child abuse material using a Google account.

During the search of a Southport unit officers located two mobile phones and two external hard drives allegedly containing child abuse material, as well as a child-like sex doll.

The man was arrested and ordered to appear before court to face three counts of possessing child abuse material and one count each of using a carriage service to access child pornography, making child exploitation material, possessing a child like sex doll and bestiality.

The maximum penalty for this offence is 15 years imprisonment.

He is due to appear in Southport Magistrates Court today.

AFP Detective Superintendent Child Protection Operations Paula Hudson said the AFP sees a wide spectrum of child exploitation offences before court and this is a timely reminder that child-like sex dolls and child abuse material could desensitise anyone who used them to the physical, emotional and psychological harm caused by sexual abuse.

“These dolls are not harmless and the AFP will investigate any activity that reinforces or represents the sexual abuse of children,” Detective Superintendent Hudson said.

“This includes sexual gratification using items depicting children, which is why these dolls are legally considered to be a form of child exploitation material.

“This arrest highlights the continuing collaborative work undertaken by the AFP and its partners to protect children and identify and prosecute anyone who seeks to exploit and harm them.”

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

https://crimestoppers.com.au

You can also make a report online by alerting the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation via the Report Abuse button.

https://www.accce.gov.au/report

Note to media:

USE OF TERM ‘CHILD ABUSE’ MATERIAL NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’

The correct legal term is Child Abuse Material – the move to this wording was among amendments to Commonwealth legislation in 2019 to more accurately reflect the gravity of the crimes and the harm inflicted on victims.

Use of the phrase "child pornography" is inaccurate and benefits child sex abusers because it:

• indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and

• conjures images of children posing in 'provocative' positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.

Every photograph or video captures an actual situation where a child has been abused.

Editor's Note: Images related to this investigation are available via Hightail - https://spaces.hightail.com/space/SbMGKVwGRR/files

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/gold-coast-man-face-court-over-allegedly-possessing-child-abuse-material

Do allies still have strong trust in US security commitment?

Tian Jingling - Apr 18, 2021

"Why is Australia building missiles? Because America might hoard all its missiles for itself." This was the title of an article published by Forbes on April 14. "If there is one lesson that nations have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's this: If you don't make a product, then you have to depend on others to make it for you," the author said, adding that "If nations can hoard vaccines, they can also hoard missiles." By hoarding vaccines, Washington has raised allies' doubts against its security commitments.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on March 31 that the country would begin building its own missiles in close collaboration with Washington. This included potential commercial partners, such as large US weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

During the four years of the Trump administration, the US was constantly weakening its alliance system. This being the case, US allies are not sure whether or not the US would still be a reliable ally in emergency situations such as wars. To some extent, US allies have lost their trust in US' security commitments.

Due to the "America First" policy, US allies may have wanted to improve their strategic autonomy and their own defense capabilities. However, the US has many allies, who still rely heavily on the US as a security umbrella. Not all of them have the ability to develop defense capabilities on their own.

Take Australia. It will rely on US companies in building missiles because there is a large technological gap between Australia and the US. Technology is the most critical part of building missiles. Therefore, Australia will heavily depend on the US during their cooperation.

US allies are in a state of unequal strength in their security alliance with Washington. For example, according to an Associated Press report in March, it has been decades since Australia last manufactured advanced missiles. It currently relies on importing them from allies, including the US. In fact, it is very difficult for US allies to rid themselves on dependency from Washington. They are also very unlikely to have their own security policies or autonomy with weapons or equipment.

US allies depend on US' shelter in order to maintain their own security. Some observers in Australia said that Canberra develops its own missiles to cope with the so-called China threat and an ever more unstable situation in the Indo-Pacific region. But when US allies have their own independent security policies, it could become a variable for stability in the region. More importantly, the US will not allow its allies to have their own autonomy - all of the US maneuvers are aimed at serving its alliance system as well as its global hegemonic status.

In February, a report by a task force from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs argued that "fraying American alliances and a rapidly changing security environment have begun to call into question the continued America's nuclear security guarantees and threaten the long-term viability of the 50-year-old nuclear nonproliferation regime." Washington's leadership role and US allies' confidence toward the US security commitment did not fall in one day. They were gradually eroded by the "America First" doctrine and many moves of the Trump administration.

The US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, combined with its inconsistent behaviors, has had a major impact. US' previous positive reputation will not resume with Biden taking office. The US will find it hard to restore its leadership role and rebuild the confidence of its allies. Time is needed as the US fulfills its promises to the international community and its allies under a multilateral world, and as it takes on the responsibility as a major power.

The author is a deputy director of South Pacific Research Study, Institute of Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1221364.shtml

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2021/04/14/why-is-australia-building-missiles-because-america-might-hoard-missiles-for-itself/

New Zealand 'uncomfortable with expanding the remit' of Five Eyes, says Foreign Minister

Stephen Dziedzic - 19 April 2021

New Zealand's Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, has sent a clear signal that the country will chart a more independent foreign policy, directly criticising efforts to pressure China through the Five Eyes intelligence sharing group.

The comments are likely to further inflame tensions in New Zealand's relationship with Australia, which believes the Ardern government is undermining collective attempts to push back against increasingly aggressive behaviour from Beijing.

The Five Eyes group – which includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – was originally formed as an intelligence sharing network but has expanded its scope in the past few years.

Ms Mahuta today said the group should focus on intelligence.

"That's a matter we have raised with Five Eyes partners. We are uncomfortable with expanding the remit of the Five Eyes relationship," she said.

"We would much rather prefer to look for multilateral opportunities to express our interests on a number of issues."

The comments come only days before Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne visits New Zealand for formal talks with Ms Mahuta and New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.

Beijing has responded furiously to recent joint statements from the Five Eyes group criticising crackdowns on Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and threatened reprisals.

In the last six months New Zealand has joined many of those statements, but has been conspicuously absent from some.

Tensions have also flared between Australia and New Zealand over how to handle Beijing, although most of the frustrations have been kept behind closed doors.

Earlier this year New Zealand's Trade Minister, Damien O'Connor, irritated Australian ministers and officials after suggesting that the Morrison government should show China more "respect" in order to avoid campaigns of economic punishment.

Ms Mahuta has not held back from criticising China — including over its treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang – since taking over the role.

But the Foreign Minister said Five Eyes had a "specific purpose" and New Zealand would issue its own statements – or look to "other partners" in the region – when it wanted to lay out its position.

"New Zealand has been very clear, certainly in this term since we've held the portfolio, not to invoke the Five Eyes as the first point of contact on messaging out on a range of issues," she said.

"They really exist outside of the remit of the Five Eyes. We don't favour that type of approach and have expressed that to Five Eyes partners."

The Foreign Minister's comments also cast doubt on moves to expand the diplomatic architecture of Five Eyes.

In recent years ministers from all five countries across several different portfolios – including defence, treasury and foreign affairs – have held Five Eyes meetings.

Minister outlines new approach to China

Ms Mahuta made the comments after giving a major speech designed to reframe New Zealand's approach to its relationship with China.

She said New Zealand wanted to diversify its exports in order to reduce its dependence on China, saying "in terms of thinking about long-term economic resilience … there is value in diversity".

"Resting our trade relationship on just one country, long term, is probably not the way we should be thinking about things," she said.

She said New Zealand wanted mutually respectful ties with China, comparing the relationship to a "dragon and taniwha", in reference to a water-dwelling serpent in Maori mythology.

The Foreign Minister stressed the two countries would not always agree, but needed to deal with each other fairly and honestly.

"There are some things on which New Zealand and China do not, cannot, and will not, agree," Ms Mahuta said.

"It is important to acknowledge this, and to stay true to ourselves, as we seek to manage our disagreements mindful that tikanga [culture, values or customs] or underpinning how we relate to each other must be respected."

She also issued a thinly veiled warning about rising debt levels in the Pacific, although she did not single out China.

"It's no secret there's a significant level of economic vulnerability across the Pacific," she said.

"New Zealand certainty invests in the Pacific … by way of grants, not loans."

"If we're really focused on regional stability and opportunity we need to tackle this particular challenge. I hope that conversation can take place with those who seek to invest in the region."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-19/new-zealand-five-eyes-intelligence-sharing-china-australia/100078834

1st MAW Marines Tweet

A UH-1Y Venom assigned to @MrfDarwin arrives after conducting an air movement from East Arm Wharf to Royal Australian Air Force Base, Darwin, NT, Australia. VMM-363 and HMLA-367 joined MRF-D and are prepared to respond to crisis and contingencies in a #FreeAndOpenIndoPacific

https://twitter.com/1stMAW_Marines/status/1383372289006206983

Feeding Hate With Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods

Focus on conflict. Feed the algorithm. Make sure whatever you produce reinforces a narrative. Don’t worry if it is true.

Cade Metz - April 15, 2021

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In 2018, a far-right activist, Tommy Robinson, posted a video to YouTube claiming he had been attacked by an African migrant in Rome.

The thumbnail image and eight-word title promoting the video indicated Mr. Robinson was assaulted by a Black man outside a train station. Then, in the video, Mr. Robinson punched the man in the jaw, dropping him to the ground.

The video was viewed more than 2.8 million times, and it prompted news stories across the right-wing tabloids in Britain, where Mr. Robinson was rapidly gaining notoriety for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic views.

For Caolan Robertson — a filmmaker who worked for Mr. Robinson and helped create the video — it was an instructional moment. It showed the key ingredients needed to attract attention on YouTube and other social media services.

The video played into anti-immigrant sentiments in Britain and across Europe. It also focused squarely on conflict, cutting rapidly between shouts and shoves before showing Mr. Robinson’s punch. It also misrepresented what had actually happened.

“We would choose the most dramatic moment — or fake it and make it look more dramatic,” Mr. Robertson, 25, said in a recent interview. “We realized that if we wanted a future on YouTube, it had to be driven by confrontation. Every time we did that kind of thing, it would explode well beyond anything else.”

Mr. Robertson would go on to produce videos for a who’s who of right-wing YouTube personalities on both sides of the Atlantic, including Lauren Southern, Stefan Molyneux and Alex Jones.

The videos were tailored for the “echo chamber” that is often created by social media networks like YouTube. To keep you watching, YouTube serves up videos similar to those you have watched before. But the longer someone watches, the more extreme the videos can become.

“It can create these very radical people who are like gurus,” said Guillaume Chaslot, a former YouTube engineer who has been critical of the way the company’s algorithms pushed people to extreme content. “In terms of watch time, a guru is wonderful.”

Tech companies, regulators and individuals across the globe are struggling to understand and control the enormous power of YouTube and other social media services. In 2019, YouTube made “important changes to how we recommend videos and prevent the spread of misinformation and hateful content,” Farshad Shadloo, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement. It barred Mr. Molyneaux and Mr. Jones. But extreme videos continue to spread.

In time, Mr. Robertson said, he realized that the videos he worked on stoked dangerous hatred. And in 2019, at a conference in Britain run by a left-wing newspaper, The Byline Times, Mr. Robertson distanced himself from his work with the far right. His change of heart was met with some skepticism.

“He was presented as a prodigal son,” said Louise Raw, an antifascist activist who was onstage for Mr. Robertson’s mea culpa. “But he has not been held to account.”

(continued)

>>13462856

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Now, Mr. Robertson is detailing the ways he and his collaborators searched for confrontations to gain popularity on YouTube.

Efforts to contact Mr. Robinson were unsuccessful, and Mr. Jones did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Ms. Southern said she should not be described as a far-right activist, saying she is merely a conservative. She was not involved in “some horrible far-right grift that tried to deceive people into watching our content,” she added. “We were just doing what any other YouTuber does.”

Raw footage of the episode in Rome, provided by Mr. Robertson and reviewed by The New York Times, shows that the YouTube video was edited to give the false impression that Mr. Robinson was threatened. The full footage shows he was the aggressor.

When the man noticed he was being filmed from across the street, he approached the camera, and Mr. Robinson shoved him into an oncoming car. As the man protested, called Mr. Robinson crazy and told him to live his own life, Mr. Robinson escalated the argument.

“There’s one way this is going to go,” he told the man. “You’re going to end up knocked down unconscious.”

Over the more than two years he helped produce and publish videos for Mr. Robinson and others, Mr. Robertson learned how making clever edits and focusing on confrontation could help draw millions of views on YouTube and other services. He also learned how YouTube’s recommendation algorithm often nudged people toward extreme videos.

“It meant that we did more and more extreme videos,” Mr. Robertson said.

Mr. Robertson grew up in Ireland, and after his parents divorced, he moved with his father to a predominantly working-class area in the north of England. Realizing from a very young age that he is gay, he often felt like an outsider. But he said he encountered more overt homophobia when he moved to London for college and walked through the largely Muslim neighborhoods at the East End of the city.

After the 2016 shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. — where a Muslim man pledging loyalty to the Islamic State killed 49 people and wounded 53 more — Mr. Robertson developed an extreme animosity toward Muslims, particularly immigrants. His anger was fueled in large part, he said, by videos he watched on YouTube.

He began watching videos from mainstream outlets, like an episode of the HBO show “Real Time With Bill Maher” in which Sam Harris, an author and a podcast host, advocated greater criticism of Muslim beliefs. YouTube’s recommendation algorithm suggested more-extreme videos involving personalities like Mr. Robinson, a former member of the neo-fascist and white nationalist British National Party who was born Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

In 2017, Mr. Robertson contacted Mr. Robinson and soon began working with him as a video producer. By the end of the year, he was also collaborating with Ms. Southern, an activist from Canada.

Knowing what garnered the most attention on YouTube, Mr. Robertson said, he and Ms. Southern would devise public appearances meant to generate conflict. That December, they attended a women’s march in London and, with Ms. Southern playing the part of a television reporter, approached each woman with the same four-word question: “Women’s rights or Islam?”

They often received a confused, measured or polite response, according to Mr. Robertson. They continued to ask the question and sharpened it. Ms. Southern, for example, said it would be difficult for Muslim women to answer the question because their husbands wouldn’t let them attend the march. That caused anger to build in the crowd.

“It appears in the videos that we are just trying to figure out what is going on, gather information, understand people,” Mr. Robertson said. “But really, we were trying to find the most incendiary way of making them mad.”

(continued)

>>13462866

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The thumbnail image for the YouTube video was indicative of a confrontation: a woman screaming as Ms. Southern walked away. As he often did, Mr. Robertson sharpened the video’s visual contrast — lightening the white colors and darkening the blacks — to subtly make the scene seem more dramatic.

Ms. Southern described the situation differently. “We asked the question because we knew it was going to force people to question their own political views and realize the contradiction in being a hard-core feminist but also supporting a religion that, quite frankly, has questionable practices around women,” she said. And, she added, they used video techniques that any media company would use.

The next year, Mr. Robertson and Ms. Southern traveled as far as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to create similar videos. Over the lifetime of Ms. Southern’s YouTube channel, according to channel statistics reviewed by The Times, her videos were viewed over 63 million times.

More than 71 percent of people who viewed these videos had not subscribed to her YouTube channel. In 2018, at the height of her popularity, at least 30 percent of the views occurred after the videos were automatically recommended to the viewer by YouTube’s algorithms.

Mr. Molyneux shied away from the kind of conflict that Ms. Southern embraced. He fashioned himself as an online philosopher. But the material Mr. Robertson edited slipped in “far-right ideas that appealed to the ethnonationalists — the extreme right-wing audience,” he said.

In 2018, the pair traveled to Poland for a video that painted the country as a place free of hardship and strife. The subtext was that it was because Poland is predominantly white. In an email to The Times, Mr. Molyneux said, “It was nice being in a country wherein I didn’t have to hire protective security.” He added that he felt the same way when he visited Hong Kong.

By early 2019, Mr. Robertson said, he grew disillusioned. There was a noticeable drop in traffic on Ms. Southern’s YouTube channel. Around the same time, YouTube began to remove more videos the company thought encouraged violence and spread misinformation.

After an Australian man killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand — driven in part by anti-immigrant beliefs propagated by YouTube — Mr. Robertson realized, he said, that the videos he had made led to the same kind of violence in the Orlando nightclub in 2016.

“I felt like I had gone full circle that day,” he said.

Now, Mr. Robertson oversees Byline TV, a video offshoot of The Byline Times. He also runs a new organization, Future Freedom, which seeks to de-radicalize right-wing extremists. He is still counting YouTube views.

Mr. Robertson recently boasted in a text that in one day a video targeting Mr. Jones, the conspiracy theorist he once worked with, had been viewed over 250,000 times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/technology/alt-right-youtube-algorithm.html

China and Russia 'weaponised' QAnon conspiracy around time of US Capitol attack, report says

CNN / 9news.com.au - Apr 20, 2021

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Foreign adversaries such as Russia and China "weaponised" QAnon messaging to sow further discord among the American population in the months leading up to, and following, the January 6 Capitol attack, according to a new report.

The document released on Monday suggests how these countries are not only utilising the same false narratives to peddle disinformation on social media, but also fuelling a conspiracy theory that could incite more violence by domestic extremists.

The findings, which are detailed in a report produced by the Soufan Centre, suggest "that foreign states are utilising the QAnon conspiracy theory to sow societal discord and even compromise legitimate political processes," the independent non-profit group, which is focused on global security, said.

US officials are keenly aware that state-backed actors from countries like Russia have been amplifying QAnon messaging and federal agencies are investigating that foreign nexus as part of a broader effort to address the threat posed by domestic extremists in the wake of January 6, multiple sources told CNN.

FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated last week that the bureau is not looking into the QAnon movement "in its own right" but tracking how foreign actors are amplifying the conspiracy theory is one of the few areas US officials have been able to explore in an otherwise limited investigative effort.

Sources previously told CNN that Russia has been pushing QAnon narratives as part of its long-standing disinformation campaign targeting the US, but Monday's report reveals new evidence that China, Iran and Saudi Arabia have also engaged in similar activity as recently as this year.

"Our data collection and analysis has demonstrated that QAnon has been weaponised by America's adversaries," according to Zach Schwitzky, founder of a research company that partnered with the Soufan Centre to produce the report.

"Actors from Russia, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have all entered the fray amplifying QAnon messaging, most likely as a means to sow further discord and division among the American population."

China emerges as top foreign QAnon promoter

While the QAnon movement is widely believed to have originated within the US, the report notes that these foreign actors were incredibly active in pushing the conspiracy theory in late 2020 and during the first two months of this year."

In both 2020 and for the first two months of 2021, almost one-fifth of all QAnon posts on Facebook originated from administrators overseas," the report states.

While the report found that Russian actors were behind the majority of this activity last year, it says China emerged as "the primary foreign actor touting QAnon-narratives online" in 2021, timing that coincides with Beijing's ramp up of disinformation efforts targeting the US more broadly.

"Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran also contribute to amplifying the QAnon conspiracy theory online to reach a broader audience," the report adds.

"Such activity blurs the line between domestic and foreign disinformation, representing a significant challenge for the US government and international action."

That problem is compounded by the fact that QAnon "has the potential to incite more acts of violence in the foreseeable future," according to the report, an assessment that echoes concerns raised by officials from various federal agencies, including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and elements of the intelligence community.

(continued)

>>13468267

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A complicated challenge

Frequently described as a virtual cult, QAnon is a sprawling far-right conspiracy theory that promotes the absurd and false claim that former US President Donald Trump has been locked in a battle against a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles made up of prominent Democratic politicians and liberal celebrities.

Members of the violent pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol had ties to QAnon, and the conspiracy theory has made its way from online message boards into the political mainstream in recent years.

A DHS spokesperson previously told CNN that the department is working with its federal partners and those in the private sector "to combat the spread of conspiracy theories and other false narratives on social media and other online platforms that can radicalise people to violence and fuel domestic violent extremism."

During her confirmation hearing in January, President Joe Biden's Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, also committed to investigating any foreign connections to QAnon, though acknowledged that DHS and FBI are in the lead on such issues.

But Mr Wray's testimony last week before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees underscore how the FBI is largely restrained in its ability to investigate elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory despite acknowledging it poses a national security threat.

"Like a lot of other conspiracy theories, the effects of Covid, anxiety social, social isolation, financial hardship … all exacerbate people's vulnerability to those theories, and we are concerned about the potential that those things can lead to violence, and where it is an inspiration for federal crime, we're going to aggressively pursue it," he told House members during last week's world wide threats hearing.

Mr Wray also noted that the FBI has arrested "at least five self-identified QAnon adherents related to the January 6 attacks specifically," acknowledging a clear link between the conspiracy theory and the insurrection.

Monday's report also notes that as of February 8, "at least 27 individuals who participated in the Capitol insurrection on 6 January 2021 were affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy."

But while court documents clearly indicate that QAnon has fuelled beliefs of defendants who took part in the insurrection, whether the conspiracy theory's origins merit criminal investigation has proved to be a difficult jump to make, and there is no indication to date that law enforcement officials are working to determine the identity of the person behind the original message or other similar anonymous social media posts that have emerged in recent years.

https://www.9news.com.au/world/qanon-conspiracy-weaponised-by-russia-and-china-capitol-violence/d005e2ba-5c9b-4152-96da-7b13aad0577f

>>13468267

The Soufan Center

ABOUT

The Soufan Center (TSC) is an independent non-profit center offering research, analysis, and strategic dialogue on global security challenges and foreign policy issues, with a particular focus on counterterrorism, violent extremism, armed conflict, and the rule of law. Our work is underpinned by a recognition that human rights and human security perspectives are critical to developing credible, effective, and sustainable solutions. TSC fills a niche role by producing objective and innovative reports and analyses, and fostering dynamic dialogue and exchanges, to effectively equip governments, international organizations, the private sector, and civil society with key resources to inform policies and practice.

OUR MISSION

The Soufan Center’s mission is to equip key stakeholders – governments, international organizations, the private sector, media, communities, and individuals – with the knowledge and resources needed to understand and address contemporary global security challenges.

OUR WORK

The Soufan Center engages in research, projects, and events across a broad spectrum of violent threats including terrorism, counterterrorism, violent extremism, disinformation, geopolitical dynamics, and armed conflict, including the impact on civil society, humanitarian action, and the rule of law. Through our daily IntelBrief, we provide focused analysis on specific global security issues. In our comprehensive Research reports, we contribute in-depth analysis and evaluate evolving challenges. With our Events, we engage diverse audiences to drive changes in policy and practice. Through our Projects, we seek to amplify voices and perspectives from the field and build capacities for more nuanced analyses of – and responses to – regional and international challenges. Working closely with a wide range of Media, we share our findings and insights on current events, risks, and responses.

OUR HISTORY

Founded in 2017 by former FBI special agent Ali Soufan, The Soufan Center is an independent, non-partisan, and registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Led by Executive Director Naureen Chowdhury Fink, our Team is strengthened by diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, including experience in human rights; international development; federal, state, and local government; international organizations; law enforcement; and the military. Each year, The Soufan Center organizes the Global Security Forum, an annual international conference to address evolving security challenges and bring together senior officials and practitioners for innovative exchanges. Through TSC Arabic, The Soufan Center ensures critical research and analysis is available to Arabic-speaking audiences in the Middle East, North Africa, and across the globe.

https://thesoufancenter.org/about

—

Quantifying The Q Conspiracy: A Data-Driven Approach to Understanding the Threat Posed by QAnon

APRIL 19, 2021

A May 2019 intelligence bulletin from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Phoenix office labeled conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorism threat for the first time. The bulletin mentioned QAnon by name specifically and described the broader movement of “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists” as deserving particular attention. “Conspiracy theories promoting violence” was designated one of the most serious aspects of the domestic violent extremism threat in a recently released unclassified report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). QAnon is a far right conspiratorial movement that creates and co- opts “theories” to fit an evolving narrative underpinned by the core notion that the “Deep State,” led by a cabal of elitist pedophiles, is leading the United States. These ideas are fueled by occasional messages from an anonymous individual, known as Q.

https://thesoufancenter.org/research/quantifying-the-q-conspiracy-a-data-driven-approach-to-understanding-the-threat-posed-by-qanon/

https://thesoufancenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/TSC-White-Paper_QAnon_16April2021-final-1.pdf

>>13460325

George Papadopoulos Tweet

Learn all about the “five eyes.” It’s at the core of Obamagate and all the headlines moving forward that will break about it

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1384317601136865284

Washington Examiner @dcexaminer

Explainer: What is Five Eyes? washex.am/2QBX1ll

https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1384298063859093509

>>13468343

Explainer: What is Five Eyes?

Joel Gehrke - April 19, 2021

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New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s new speech on her country’s relationship with China attracted international attention, much of which centered on her statement that New Zealand is “uncomfortable” with the idea of criticizing China under the auspices of the Five Eyes.

“New Zealand has been very clear … not to invoke the Five Eyes as the first point of contact on messaging out on a range of issues that really exist outside of the remit of the Five Eyes,” Mahuta told the New Zealand China Council. “We’ve not favored that type of approach and have expressed that to Five Eyes partners.”

Her comments give a glimpse of debates within a key network of U.S. allies about the purpose of those relationships in a moment of heightened geopolitical tensions.

What is the Five Eyes alliance?

The Five Eyes network is a bloc of English-speaking countries that share intelligence about potential threats and security issues with a high degree of candor, unusual even among allies. The agreement was signed between the United States and the United Kingdom in 1943 at the height of World War II, but it expanded, as that conflict gave way to the Cold War, to include Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The group’s geographic reach thus extends from Europe and North America to the Indo-Pacific — across several of the major dominions of the old British Empire, with the most notable exception of India.

What do the Five Eyes do?

Alliance priorities change with the history of geopolitical threats, but rapid information-sharing is central to the mission of the Five Eyes. “The parties agree to the exchange of the products of the following operations relating to foreign communications: collection of traffic, acquisition of communication documents and equipment, traffic analysis, cryptanalysis, decryption and translation, acquisition of information regarding communication organisations, practices, procedures, and equipment,” the declassified 1946 agreement states.

The cooperation is eased by the fact that all five countries speak English and enjoy democratic systems of governance. “The Five Eyes is the closest intel-sharing relationship group that exists,” said former Senate Intelligence Committee deputy staff director Emily Harding, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Our relationship with the Brits is so close that we share a lot of stuff even before we process it.”

The fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the end of the Soviet threat, but the collapse of the World Trade Center at the hands of al Qaeda inaugurated a new mission. “Throughout its history, the Five Eyes alliance allowed its members to pool their complementary capabilities for mutual benefit,” researchers RAND wrote in 2017. “But the alliance may now be facing its greatest challenge — precisely because it no longer faces a single predominant threat.”

(continued)

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Could Five Eyes membership ever change?

China’s intensifying rivalry with the U.S. could heighten the value of the network for strategists in Washington and clarify the purpose of the alliance, but Beijing also puts pressure on the bloc.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei’s low-cost offer of 5G wireless technology threatened to embed communist spy agencies in the communications networks of U.S. allies around the world, but Australian officials banned the company from their 5G network in 2018, followed by New Zealand imposing a security "test" that Huawei couldn't pass in 2019. Those allied steps strengthened the argument, made by American officials, that the U.K. should also reject the company — a step British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to take in 2020.

China has made a rigorous effort to cultivate political influence in both Australia and New Zealand, but the Australian government has taken a stronger stance in response, showing a greater willingness to oppose Beijing in international fora. New Zealand’s meeker posture has alarmed some analysts, but Harding cautioned against over-interpreting diplomatic statements at the expense of understanding the intelligence cooperation underway.

“One of the things that's most valuable about the Five Eyes partnership is that we all speak the same language and we all have the general same approach to the world, but there is still some variety in the approach and the thinking in each place,” Harding said. “And the Kiwis are always pretty good about saying, ‘Well, you know, maybe that’s how you guys see things. This is how we see things.’ … A good counterbalance, making you question assumptions. Their analytical service is really quite strong.”

As China’s geopolitical ambitions take shape, the U.S. and other allies in the network will have to innovate — and perhaps even expand. Then-Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono suggested last year that Tokyo’s intelligence agencies join the bloc as a Sixth Eye, but that idea remains under debate, even as Japan works more closely with the U.S. and other democratic allies to manage potential threats from Beijing.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/explainer-what-is-five-eyes

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Finally.’ Crews begin razing Jeffrey Epstein’s former Palm Beach house

Home of late sex-trafficker Epstein finally meets bulldozer

Darrell Hofheinz - Apr. 19, 2021

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“Finally.”

That’s the one-word comment developer Todd Michael Glaser offered as crews on Monday began knocking down the infamous Palm Beach mansion that was home to the late sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein — a place where he sexually assaulted underage girls and young women in what prosecutors said was a multi-year sex-trafficking scheme.

The lakeside mansion at 358 El Brillo Way is being razed to make room for a new house to be developed on speculation by Glaser, who paid a recorded $18.5 million for the property in March.

Glaser previously told the Daily News that it would be personally satisfying to him to knock down and replace the house.

Palm Beach real estate broker Lawrence A. Moens, who represented Glaser and helped put together the sale, broke his customary rule about not commenting publicly on transactions in which he was involved.

“I only got involved in the sale of Jeffrey Epstein's residence to ensure it would be wiped off the map of Palm Beach,” Moens told the Palm Beach Daily News.

Permits were issued for the demolition late last week, Town Hall records show.

Early Monday, demolition crews from BG Group of Delray Beach used heavy equipment to began pulling down the walls of the mansion. They tore into it again and again, starting on the east side — where vines still clung to the walls, blooming with flowers that were soon crushed — and eating through the house toward the waterfront.

By noon, debris littered the ground, as broken windows pierced walls that remained standing. And still intact was much of the second-floor balcony that overlooked the water, connected to the pool patio below by a graceful spiral staircase.

The residence had stood since 1952 on an acre facing 170 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway at the end of a quiet dead-end street in the Estate Section. With a total of 14,223 square feet, the three structures being razed include the main house, a pool cabana building and a separate building used by household staff. The swimming pool also is being demolished and filled in.

Epstein hanged himself in August 2019 in a New York City jail cell after he was arrested on federal charges of conspiracy and sex-trafficking of underage girls.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Brad Edwards represents about 50 clients — in various legal actions — who say they were abused by Epstein. The demolition can be viewed in some ways as cathartic, he said.

“I think that the symbolic power of destroying the house of horrors cannot be overstated,” Edwards said. “I can imagine there is going to be some amount of relief that the nightmare of what went on at the house been buried to some degree.”

Epstein paid $2.5 million for the Palm Beach house in 1990, Palm Beach County courthouse records show. In 2011, he transferred its ownership from his name to an entity named Laurel Inc., a company registered in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The house was designed in West Indies-style architecture by the late John L. Volk, a prolific Palm Beach architect. Epstein extensively remodeled the house in the mid-1990s, records show.

(continued)

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‘A white box’

When designer Daniel Menard of LaBerge & Menard presented the demolition request to the board in December, he said little remained of Volk’s interior detailing.

“I spoke to a person who worked on the … renovation and it appears everything was gutted. So there's nothing left — or very little — of the John Volk period. It's essentially a white box," Menard said.

The property offers views of Tarpon Island and Everglades Island, smaller islands that lie just west of the barrier island that comprises Palm Beach.

Epstein was initially booked in Florida in 2006 after police said he had sex with underage girls whom he paid for massage sessions at the Palm Beach house.

Michael Reiter — the former Palm Beach police chief who years ago led the initial investigation into the accusations against Epstein at the house on El Brillo Way — responded to a request for comment Monday:

“The former owner of this house did unmeasurable damage to the lives of countless children and was able to corrupt the legal system to the point that the courts have called it a national disgrace. While it is critical that we learn from this tragedy, it is nearly as important that we follow with doing everything possible to erase any connection of him from our community,” said Reiter, a Palm Beach resident who today runs his own security and investigative firm.

In 2008, Epstein entered a controversial plea deal that led to his conviction on two state felony counts that included solicitation of a minor. He served nearly 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail before being released for a year of probation on house arrest until August 2010.

His plea deal let him avoid harsher federal charges similar to the ones he was facing in New York when he died.

Last week, justices of the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeal issued a 7-4 ruling that said Epstein victim Courtney Wild had no legal recourse to unravel the 2008 no-prosecution agreement that stemmed from his arrest in Florida.

Epstein could have faced a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison had he been convicted on the federal charges he was facing when he died.

In July, authorities arrested Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in New Hampshire on multiple charges related to Epstein's alleged sexual abuse. She remains jailed without bail.

New house in the works

Glaser spent much of his career in real estate development, restoration and renovation in Miami-Dade County before entering the Palm Beach market about three years ago. Among his most prominent projects in Miami is the 1000 Museum condominium tower downtown.

In Palm Beach he has remodeled and sold landmarked houses, and built and sold houses on speculation.

Acting opposite Lawrence A. Moens Associates in the March sale was listing agent Kerry Warwick of the Corcoran Group, who represented the executors of Epstein’s estate.

The Architectural Commission has not yet reviewed plans for the house Glaser wants to build on the lot. But he told the Daily News last fall it would likely measure about 13,000 square feet. Any design must be signed off by the architectural board.

The Palm Beach house was among several homes Epstein owned across the country and in the Caribbean. His historic Upper East Side townhouse at 9 E. 71st St. in New York City sold in March for $51 million after being listed at $88 million, according to published reports. The townhouse sold to an ownership entity linked to retiring Goldman Sachs executive Michael D. Daffey and his wife, Blake, property records show. They plan to renovate the residence, the New York Times reported.

An independent victims’ compensation fund has been established. But in addition to victims, others are pursuing money from the Epstein estate, including creditors, according to media reports.

https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/story/news/2021/04/19/work-has-begun-raze-late-jeffrey-epsteins-palm-beach-home/7073935002/

Ghislaine Maxwell attorneys to 2nd Circuit: She’s no monster

LARRY NEUMEISTER - 19 April 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — Defense lawyers insisted Ghislaine Maxwell is “no monster” as they asked an appeals court Monday for her release on bail so she can better prepare for trial on charges she procured girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.

The lawyers told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the British socialite has not been given an adequate opportunity to prove that she would not flee if she was allowed to await trial at home under 24-hour armed guard and with collateral posted to support a $28.5 million bail.

The attorneys have thrice failed to convince a Manhattan federal judge to release their 59-year-old client. Maxwell faces an arraignment Friday on sex trafficking charges added to an indictment last month.

Her trial is set for July 12 on charges alleging she recruited and groomed teenage girls from 1994 to 2004 to provide sexual massages to her one-time boyfriend. Last week, her lawyers requested that the trial be delayed until next January, saying the new charges require months of investigation.

Maxwell has pleaded not guilty. Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan federal lockup as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

As they have repeatedly argued before, lawyers for Maxwell wrote that she is being punished in part because Epstein is out of reach.

“She is no monster, but she is being treated like one because of the ‘Epstein effect,’” they wrote.

The lawyers urged the 2nd Circuit to “test the actual strength” of the government case by insisting on a more thorough bail hearing where they could prove that each story told by the four people who say they were victims of Epstein and Maxwell “has dramatically changed over the years.”

“At first, none of the anonymous accusers even mentioned Ms. Maxwell. As they hired the same law firm, sought money and fame, joined a movement, and only after Epstein died, did the accusers start to point the finger at Ms. Maxwell. Far from corroboration, this is fabrication,” they wrote.

A spokesperson for prosecutors declined comment.

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-jeffrey-epstein-trials-ghislaine-maxwell-courts-d65e143493bb4eeaeb50897ce464e3f1

>>13459791

>>13459798

Elise Thomas Tweet

Prominent QAnon figure Lin Wood is openly calling for "them", a them which includes liberal politicians, anti-Trump conservative politicians, journalists, celebrities and opponents of QAnon, to be killed, in front of a cheering crowd.

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1384094296266067970

PatriotTakes @patriottakes

“Every lie will be revealed. They are killing our children, send them to jail. Put them in front of the firing squad. They are committing acts against humanity. The penalty for an act against humanity is death. Take them out.”

-Lin Wood

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1383709884114341892

China diplomat’s stinging attack over Huawei

NICHOLAS JENSEN - APRIL 21, 2021

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Xining has launched a blistering attack on Australia’s involvement in banning Huawei in other countries, saying “Australia connived with the United States in a very unethical, illegal, immoral suppression of Chinese companies”.

“Australia has no glorious role in this regard… Australia was among the first to forcefully accuse Huawei of possible security threat,” Mr Wang said in a National Press Club address.

In an effort to ban Huawei, Mr Wang said “the US has mobilised a state power to suppress a particular Chinese company in order to prevent any challenges to traditional businesses.”

“They (the US) even went so far as framing and detaining senior executives… such dirty tactics took place in France and also from Toshiba in Japan.”

Mr Wang accused Australia of turning other countries against China on the rollout of Huawei, saying “Australia was the first to ban Huawei in the domestic telecommunication industry building and then persuaded others”.

“This bewildered me because as far as I know there’s not a single Australia tech communication equipment company that’s on par with Huawei or any other internationally-renowned company in terms of technological advancement… Australia ranked second from the bottom in terms of market digitisation among OECD countries and broadband speeds.”

Mr Wang said Australia must resist “the monolithic presentation of China” and embrace a more truthful, objective and sophisticated understanding of Beijing.

He also rejected claims that China no longer welcomes foreign journalists, saying “those journalists who we have been reprimanded failed to present a truthful image of China. We never discriminate against any journalists. We only hope foreign journalists in China will present a truthful view of China”.

“I think China represents the positive force because we adhere to science, adhere to radical thinking and practice to building social solidarity domestically, and resorting to international collaboration,” Mr Wang said.

Mr Wang said he was proud that China had continued to grow and develop, despite the effects of the pandemic, suggesting a strong China translates to a strong Australia.

“We like to share our yoke with all partners through the difficulties caused by COVID-19 and sail through this trying time,” he said.

However, he warned: “China is not a cow. I don’t think people should fancy the idea of milking China when she’s in her prime and then plot to slaughter it in the end.”

Mr Wang defended China’s foreign policy approach to Australia, saying it has always been consistent.

“We have done nothing intentionally to hurt this relationship,” he said. “We have seen too many incidents over the past few years that China’s interest has been hurt.”

China’s deputy head of mission in Canberra has insisted that relations between Washington and Beijing remain stable and consistent, saying “we don’t have a bad relationship with the US”, adding China’s policy has always remained the same.

“What we want is non-confrontation and mutual co-operation and have that principle be adhered to by both sides, China and the US,” Wang Xining said.

Asked about the Five Eyes relationship, Mr Wang said China had good relations with its members, highlighting its present links with New Zealand.

“We have issues but the issues should be handled according to a standardised, mechanised, bilateral or international forums, like the WHO and WTO.”

“Why don’t we follow the mechanism and get things done within that mechanism?,” Mr Wang asked. “You want a rules-based international system and you want rule-abiding countries … So what we (China) do is just follow the rules.”

Mr Wang also railed against journalists and the shallow understanding of China that prevails throughout much of Australia and the west.

“I want to say the correct wording in English is the Communist Party of China. It’s CPC, not CCP… You make (the mistake) because there is a very shallow understanding of the role of – the Communist Party of China.

“It’s amazing to see how the western journalists love to see more trouble and more unrest in China, where my party, my government, my people, look forward to a peaceful influence in society and in the country.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/china-diplomats-stinging-attack-over-huawei/news-story/edcad65db09246c8c28fff51151f4c79

>>13477187

Senior Chinese diplomat accuses Australia and US of ‘conniving’ on Huawei ban

Sky News Australia

21 Apr 2021

A senior Chinese diplomat has sensationally accused Australia and the United States of collaborating in a “very unethical, illegal, and immoral” way to suppress Chinese state-owned companies.

China’s Deputy Head of Mission in Australia Wang Xining attacked the US and Australia for “suppressing” Huawei.

Mr Wang told the Press Club on Wednesday Australia was one of the first to ban Huawei from the 5G rollout and actually “persuaded others to follow suit”.

Australia blocked the massive state-owned telecommunications company from the 5G rollout under former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull over security concerns.

Former president Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2018 prohibiting federal agencies or contractors from using the Huawei network which sparked mass backlash in Beijing.

Mr Wang said Australia “connived” with the United States in an “unethical, illegal, immoral suppression of Chinese companies”.

The deputy head of mission then went on to attack Australia’s telecommunications industry and claimed Huawei’s “technological advancement” contributed to its banning in the Australian market.

“I wonder why your intelligence and security operators has the guts to claim that they know what the threat is posed by Huawei,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_GiH5RiSwg

>>13477187

Chinese diplomat quotes Churchill while defending Chinese sovereignty

Sky News Australia

21 Apr 2021

Chinese diplomat Wang Xining says Beijing hopes to see a “nirvana” of the relationship between between Australia and Chia but delivered a strong warning to those seeking to undermine the interests of the communist government.

He said Beijing was open to “collaboration and cooperation” with Australia but would remain “very strong” in defending their national interests.

Speaking at the launch of the 2020 China Story Yearbook, Deputy Head of Mission Wang Xining said he does not agree with “all the analysis” but commended the authors for presenting a “multi-dimensional image of China”.

“It is of particular importance at this moment to have truthful objective and sophisticated understanding of China for Australia as a country and for the Australians as a people," he said.

Mr Wang pointed to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s quote “never let a good crisis go to waste” and said the Chinese understood the word to encompass both “peril and opportunity”.

He added China hopes to see a global “nirvana” in relation to the economy and welfare in the wake of the pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byRMMPpTrf8

>>13460325

New Zealand backs “Five Eyes” alliance, but wants human rights raised in broader group

Kirsty Needham - Apr 20, 2021

SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand expressed support for its Five Eyes alliance with Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, calling it a "vital security and intelligence partnership", a day after saying it didn't support broadening the group's role.

Following a speech on China on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said New Zealand was "uncomfortable" with expanding the remit of the Five Eyes, raising speculation that Wellington didn't back recent Five Eyes statements critical of Beijing.

China, New Zealand's largest trading partner, has accused the Five Eyes of ganging up on China by issuing statements on Hong Kong and the treatment of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

In a statement to Reuters on Tuesday, Mahuta said the Five Eyes remained vital for New Zealand for intelligence, police, border security, defence and cyber cooperation.

"New Zealand is a real beneficiary of the arrangement and will continue to actively engage with the Five Eyes alliance as we always have," she said.

"There will be some areas on which it's useful to coordinate through the Five Eyes platform; but there will be other areas - human rights for example - where we want to look to building a broader coalition of countries to take positions."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters on Tuesday that New Zealand was "absolutely reaffirming our commitment to that Five Eyes partnership".

Ardern added that sometimes the Five Eyes will make collective statements, and in other cases New Zealand would make statements with Australia, or on its own.

"Not every issue we speak as New Zealand is a security and intelligence issue," she said.

Australia's foreign affairs minister Marise Payne will travel to New Zealand on Wednesday for meetings with Mahuta and Ardern, the first diplomatic visit between the neighbouring countries since borders reopened both ways.

https://whbl.com/2021/04/20/new-zealand-backs-five-eyes-alliance-but-wants-human-rights-raised-in-broader-group/

>>13460325

Japan should join Five Eyes intelligence network, says ambassador

Peter Hartcher - April 21, 2021

Japan is making progress toward joining the Anglophone world’s post-war spying network known as Five Eyes, according to Japan’s ambassador to Australia.

“I am very much optimistic about the near future,” said Shingo Yamagami, who took up his post in December, 2020. He said he “would like to see this idea become reality in the near future”.

Australia and New Zealand in 1956 joined the US, Britain and Canada to complete the Five Eyes group and that was the last time any new member was admitted.

“Logically, in terms of interests and capability, Japan is the best candidate,” said the head of ANU’s National Security College, Rory Medcalf.

“If there’s a country with a fine-grained understanding of China, Japan is it. For most of its life, the Five Eyes has been seen as one unchangeable bloc but I think it’s important to move with the times.”

The idea of Japan becoming the “sixth eye” is gaining traction just as New Zealand is expressing reservations about any increase in the network’s reach.

Yamagami, formerly the head of the intelligence branch of Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said: “We keep building specific blocks with the Australian intelligence community and Japanese intelligence community and with the rest of the Five Eyes community.

“So this is something that’s really going on on the ground and Japanese politicians and officials are becoming increasingly aware of its importance,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in an interview.

“It’s a sign of these countries sharing universal values and strategic interests,” he said. All six are democracies and all six see China as a strategic rival.

The Five Eyes nations share their electronic intelligence with each other in a continuous, top-secret exchange. Professor Medcalf said that “it’s really about intelligence agencies trusting each other with some of their most sensitive material”.

Japan would be a useful addition because it “is believed to have a substantial intelligence collection and assessment capacity of its own”.

He said it would be a “major institutional challenge” for Japan to meet the Five Eyes rules and protocols necessary to be fully embraced. It was more realistic to imagine Five Eyes plus one before developing into a formal Six Eyes group.

At the same time, NZ’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, said that her government was not interested in using the Five Eyes group as a diplomatic platform.

“We are uncomfortable with expanding the remit of the Five Eyes,” she told the NZ China Council on Monday.

“We would much rather prefer to look for multilateral opportunities to express our interests.” Mahuta appeared to be deferring to complaints from Beijing.

A Chinese government spokesperson criticised the Five Eyes countries for issuing a joint statement deploring Beijing’s repression of pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong in November.

“No matter if they have five eyes or 10 eyes, if they dare to harm China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, they should beware of their eyes being poked and blinded,” said China’s Foreign Ministry’s Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing in November last year.

Japan is a longtime treaty ally of the US and hosts major US military bases. Yamagami said that for Japan to join Five Eyes the group would require Tokyo to “make a lot of preparation” in “improving Japan’s intelligence community and legislation”.

Yamagami described Japan’s relationship with Australia as “excellent” and said that “the sky is the limit”.

He said that “the eyes of the world are now on Australia going through tremendous difficulties” under punitive trade sanctions imposed by China’s government.

He said that the weekend summit between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga “was a good meeting for Australia” because the two leaders specifically condemned use of economic coercion in their joint statement.

“Everyone understands what they are referring to, so this is a good step forward”, Yamagami said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined Biden and Suga and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the inaugural leader-level meeting of the Quad group in March.

The four democratic leaders committed to “a free and open Indo-Pacific” in an indirect rebuke of Beijing’s territorial ambitions in the region.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/japan-should-join-five-eyes-intelligence-network-says-ambassador-20210420-p57kv6.html

>>13460325

>>13477249

Washington the one undermining Five Eyes solidarity

Zhou Fangyin - Apr 20, 2021

New Zealand is opposed to the Five Eyes alliance's expand its remit and take positions on issues such as China's human rights record, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said on Monday. She also said Wellington will not provoke or engage with China through the Five Eyes alliance apart from intelligence matters.

Mahuta's remarks show Wellington is pragmatic, and has a clear knowledge of the issue. New Zealand is also a member of the West and may have different views on human rights from China. However, New Zealand believes that it is reasonable to raise questions, but it is inappropriate to for the US to build up the Five Eyes alliance into a joint anti-China mechanism.

Washington is purely using "human rights" as a cover to suppress and contain Beijing with its allies. The US now sees everything in terms of competition with China, which is very different from New Zealand. Wellington believes that containing Beijing is not beneficial to its national interests. It will be vain to follow the US' lead. Nor does Wellington want its moves and narratives to be hijacked by wily Washington.

The New Zealand foreign minister's remarks also serve as a reminder to the other three members that the Five Eyes alliance itself is merely an intelligence-sharing mechanism. Now the US, for its own needs, especially for containing China's development, has expanded the contents of the cooperation among the five countries. It wants to intimidate its members to go along with its anti-China activities. If they indulge the US in doing so, the three countries' relations with China will be fully mastered by the US. This is definitely not the result they want to see.

New Zealand's foreign policy, particularly its China policy, differs from the other four members of the Five Eyes. It has to do with how Wellington positions itself. New Zealand has no great geopolitical ambitions. Instead, the country is pragmatic in pursuing its own interests.

There are some noises saying New Zealand is undermining the solidarity of the Five Eyes. This reflects the domineering side of Washington. According to its logic, following the US is to maintain the unity of the alliance. Otherwise, it is to destroy the solidarity.

The one which impairs the solidarity of the alliance is Washington, which forces other Five Eyes members to join its anti-Beijing chariot. If these countries disagree, they may encounter suppressions from the US. This will increase tensions within the alliance.

The Five Eyes is merely an intelligence-sharing alliance. The US now wants other members of the alliance to join the boycott of Huawei, as well as to take a stand on China's so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. It is not what an intelligence-sharing alliance should do. Mahuta's narrative is actually an attempt to return the alliance to its original position. Wellington does not refuse to share intelligence, but it disagrees with Washington's desire to steer the Five Eye in the direction it wants to go.

Although New Zealand sometimes expresses ideas different from other members of the Five Eyes, especially when it comes to China, this country is unlikely to exit from this alliance in the short-run. But in regard to matters of national interest, Wellington tends to be independent and persistent.

The US is reluctant to see New Zealand's withdraw from the Five Eyes. When the US attempts to pursue Five Eyes' expansion, New Zealand's quitting would be negative for the US' plans and designs for the alliance. It is expected the US will, to some extent, appease and rope in New Zealand instead of strong arm it.

As a response to US' attempts to expand Five Eyes, Japan has expressed its intent to become the "sixth eye" of the alliance. The Five Eyes is traditionally an alliance consisting of five "Anglo-Saxon" countries. From the perspective of ethnicity, it will be difficult for members of the alliance to accept Japan. Furthermore, even if Tokyo is not a member of the Five Eyes alliance, this country will proactively cooperate with Washington's policy. The US will not receive much more gains because Japan becomes a member of the intelligence-sharing alliance. Therefore, Washington may not approve of Japan's membership.

The author is a professor at the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1221599.shtml

Former US intelligence director backs Turnbull and Rudd’s call for Murdoch media inquiry

James Clapper says royal commission into Rupert Murdoch’s empire in Australia a ‘good idea for the sake of transparency’

Katharine Murphy - 21 Apr 2021

1/2

The former US director of national intelligence James Clapper has backed a call by former Australian prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull for a royal commission into the Murdoch media, saying Australia needs to take preventative steps to avoid any slide into “truth decay”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Clapper, a retired lieutenant general in the US air force and the top intelligence official for seven years under former US president Barack Obama, said Fox News was a “megaphone for conspiracies and falsehoods” in America. He said the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January had demonstrated a clear connection between truth decay and the risk of civil disobedience and unrest.

“I have spoken a lot about a phenomenon that is not just in the United States but in other places as well of what the Rand Corporation has very aptly and cleverly called truth decay,” Clapper, who is a CNN analyst, said. “This is the whole business of disregarding facts and objective analysis and empirical data.

“Unfortunately, in this country we’ve fallen into two separate reality bubbles, one of which is fomented and amplified by Fox News.

“Rupert Murdoch and Fox is part of a larger issue we have in this country. To the extent that anyone feeds, amplifies, expands, embellishes truth decay – that is insidious and dangerous to democracy.”

Clapper said his view was an inquiry into the activities of the Murdoch-owned media led by credible people in Australia would be “a good idea for the sake of transparency and objectivity”.

The former top US intelligence official entered the fray after Turnbull was interviewed this week by the US cable news network CNN and, in his remarks, drew a link between the “assault on democracy” on 6 January in Washington and the hyper-polarisation “delivered by Fox News and by other players in the right-wing populist media echo system”.

“The question you have to ask yourself is, ‘Is America a more divided country than it was before thanks to Murdoch’s influence?’, and the answer must be ‘yes’,” Turnbull said on CNN.

The two former Australian prime ministers have spearheaded the royal commission campaign as a means of highlighting the need for greater media diversity in Australia.

(continued)

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Clapper said there had been an effort in the US after the riot in Washington to put together a bipartisan commission to study the causes and events surrounding the insurrection on 6 January, “but that [had] run into all kinds of difficulty”.

He said Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the United States House of Representatives, had wanted to establish the commission “a la 9/11 to do a detailed critique of what led to the insurrection and the events of that day – but that [had] run into partisan headwinds because Republicans don’t want to do that”.

“We should have, in my mind, and the minds of many other people, we should have a commission similar to what was done after 9/11 for what happened on January 6, and I would certainly think [a commission] would be a good thing for Australia to do.”

Clapper said, having watched the storming of the Capitol by enraged supporters of the former Republican president Donald Trump, he was struck by “the fanaticism of the people, the ferocity of their fanaticism – they believed the big lie [that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by the Democratic party] and that’s why what I’m calling truth decay is so dangerous to the fabric of a democracy”.

He said Fox News was “the principal media component of this general trend towards truth decay” in the US, and the trend was “quite threatening to the basis of our country and society”.

He said the main challenge of establishing any inquiry either in the US or Australia would be “putting together a group of people who would be viewed as objective, and not partisan, to do that”.

“But I think it’s absolutely crucial.”

Clapper – a regular visitor to Australia – said Australia would be well placed to bolster its institutions and examine any corrosive forces because the country still had time to counter truth decay.

“It appears to me from afar that the case of truth decay that Australia might have is not nearly as severe as what we have.”

Half a million people signed a petition supporting a royal commission into the Murdoch media and broader issues of media diversity.

Both Rudd and Turnbull have appeared before a Senate inquiry into media diversity examining the dominance of News Corp Australia and its impact on democracy – a probe triggered by that petition.

News Corp executives hit back strongly against the campaign when they fronted the media diversity inquiry in February.

Michael Miller, the executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, dismissed what he termed “sloganeering” about the outsized influence of the editors in the organisation, noting Australia currently had nine federal, state and territory governments – four of them Coalition-run and five Labor-run.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/21/former-us-intelligence-director-backs-turnbull-and-rudds-call-for-murdoch-media-inquiry

>https://qanon.pub/?q=clapper

Australia’s ambition on climate change is held back by a toxic mix of rightwing politics, media and vested interests

Two former prime ministers, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, write the world shouldn’t give up hope on Australia just yet

Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull - Wed 21 Apr 2021

1/2

It was always expected that Joe Biden’s election would be a massive shot in the arm for international climate action, but the scale of that boost has been genuinely surprising.

The new president has now invited 40 world leaders to a virtual climate change summit coinciding with Earth Day this Thursday. China’s Xi Jinping will be there, following productive face-to-face talks last week between Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, in Shanghai. Even Vladimir Putin is attending, despite divisions between Washington and the Russian leader over new sanctions.

Japan, South Korea and Canada are all expected to announce new medium-term 2030 emissions reduction plans this week, after earlier refusing to do so. Even China – the world’s largest emitter – last week signalled they may also be prepared to do more this decade above and beyond commitments they made at the end of last year.

Our country, however, continues to bury its head in the sand, despite the fact that Australia remains dangerously at risk of the economic and environmental consequences that will come from the climate crisis barrelling towards us.

Prime minister Scott Morrison’s refusal to adopt both a firm timeline to reach net zero emissions and to increase its own interim 2030 target leaves us effectively isolated in the western world. It also goes against what we signed up to through the Paris agreement – which both our governments worked so hard to secure.

According to our independent Climate Change Authority (CCA) and the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo), not only should Australia be doing much more as “our fair share” towards global efforts to reduce emissions, but importantly we also now have the capacity to do more.

The reality is Australia’s current target, set in 2015, to reduce emissions by 26 to 28% on 2005 levels by 2030 is now woefully inadequate – and was always intended to be updated this year. The Obama administration had exactly the same target as Australia, but aimed to achieve it five years earlier than us, which in reality made it much more ambitious than ours. And this week, the Biden administration is expected to announce a new 2030 pledge twice as deep as Australia’s current effort. This will set a new global litmus test for Australia’s own ambition, which as the CCA has said should be at least a 45% cut by 2030.

But, as two former prime ministers representing our nation’s centre-left and centre-right parties, the world shouldn’t give up hope on our country just yet. Thankfully, there is some cause for optimism. Our sun-drenched country has the highest per capita penetration of rooftop solar in the world. And with the right approach, Aemo has said that renewables could go from providing a quarter of electricity market demand on our populous eastern seaboard today to 75% in less than five years. The fact we are in a position to even be able to seize this technological opportunity is in large part due to the introduction in 2009 of a 20% clean renewable energy target for 2020 and the launching of the largest renewable clean energy project in our nation’s history (Snowy Hydro 2.0) by our respective governments.

The national consensus for climate action in Australia has also shifted markedly in recent years. Every state and territory government is now committed to net zero emissions, so too are our peak industry, business and agriculture groups, as well as our national airline, and even our largest mining company.

The main thing holding back Australia’s climate ambition is politics: a toxic coalition of the Murdoch press, the right wing of the Liberal and National parties, and vested interests in the fossil fuel sector.

(continued)

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Sadly, instead of seizing this technological opportunity and embracing this newfound national consensus, the government remains hell-bent on a “gas-fired recovery” from Covid-19. Old coal plants still generate around 75% of Australia’s electricity. But these are being replaced by renewables plus storage because they are a cheaper form of generation than the alternatives on offer.

Gas has a role to play in the transition, but that role is to steadily diminish as renewables continue to grow. To bet big on the future role of gas is to bet against the best engineering and economic advice coming out of Aemo, and to ignore the scientific advice that more gas in the grid will simply lead to more emissions. The only long-term gas-fired future we should be planning is green hydrogen made by electrolysing water with renewable energy.

Australia may be able to get away with showing up empty-handed to this week’s summit, but will find it even more difficult to do as a special guest of the British at the G7 leaders’ summit in June. We would be the only developed country in the room that is not committed to net zero by 2050. And we will find it even harder again to show up empty-handed at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow at the end of the year, given more than 100 countries in the world have pledged to increase their ambition.

There are also consequences for this inaction.

As the rolling apocalypse of fires and floods in our country demonstrates, Australia is on the global frontline of this climate crisis. Last year’s wildfires claimed dozens of lives, destroyed thousands of homes, wiped out billions of animals, and cost billions of dollars.

With more than 70% of Australia’s trade now with countries committed to net zero, the prospect of carbon border taxes being introduced – beginning with the European Union – also leaves us economically exposed. So too does our continued faith in coal as a leading export commodity, especially with many of the 50 proposed new coalmines in Australia already struggling to attract finance. Instead of expanding coal, we should be increasing our support for ground-breaking projects such as the Asian Renewable Energy Hub in the Pilbara region which could allow us to become a green hydrogen supplier for Asia’s clean energy transition. There are also promising new hydrogen projects planned for Queensland centred on Gladstone, a traditional coal port. Building dozens of new coalmines won’t set Australia up for the future; it will lock us into the past.

Australians like to think we “punch above our weight” on the global stage. We certainly do when we come to climate change: we emit more than 40 other countries with larger populations, and our per capita emissions are the highest of any advanced economy. This is not a record we should be proud of at all.

It’s often fatuously claimed that what countries like Australia do make no difference to the global climate because we account for only about 1.2% of emissions. The reality is that Australia is the third-largest fossil fuel exporter in the world. Our own environment is especially vulnerable to global warming as the recent massive bushfires demonstrated. Our economy is also vulnerable to the transition away from fossil fuels. Denial of the reality of global warming and the need to transition to a prosperous clean energy economy is abandoning our responsibilities as much to Australian workers as it is to the world.

Hopefully, at this week’s summit the prime minister will receive the wake-up call the government needs. In the meantime, the rest of the world should not give up on us yet. If our country’s last decade has demonstrated anything – with five prime ministers in just eight years – it’s that political winds can change very quickly.

• Kevin Rudd, from the Australian Labor party, was Australia’s prime minister between 2007 and 2010, and again in 2013. Malcolm Turnbull, from the Liberal party of Australia, was prime minister between 2015 and 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/21/australias-ambition-on-climate-change-is-held-back-by-a-toxic-mix-of-rightwing-politics-media-and-vested-interests

>SHADOW GOVERNMENT.

Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers are upset that media outlets keep talking about the accused sex-trafficker's sex life

Jacob Shamsian - 21 April 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers are annoyed that media outlets have reported on the accused trafficker's sex life, asking a judge to keep evidence related to her criminal case sealed.

In a new filing in the case — where Maxwell faces sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and perjury charges — her lawyers argue the testimony prosecutors seek to unseal is "undeniably private" and should remain under seal.

"Every sentence that is publicly released in this case has been widely publicized, in print, broadcast and online media, both within and without this jurisdiction," the lawyers write in the filing. "Quotations from testimony concerning 'three-way sexual' activity and 'sex toys' 'cater to a "craving for that which is sensational and impure"' rather than serve a legitimate issue of public interest."

Prosecutors have accused Maxwell of acting as the late Jeffrey Epstein's right-hand woman in an alleged sex-trafficking ring of girls between the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as participating in sexual abuse herself.

In the new filing, Maxwell's lawyers bemoan the widespread media coverage of her sex life since a judge unsealed old deposition transcripts from Maxwell and other people in her circle. Maxwell's lawyers ask that Judge Alison Nathan, who is overseeing the case, limit any further unsealing of disposition transcripts.

"The testimony at issue is undeniably private: it relates exclusively to Ms. Maxwell's consensual adult sexual activities involving 'sex toys or devices used in sexual activities' and a 'three-way sexual' encounter involving an adult 'blond and brunette,'" the filing says.

Maxwell's lawyers also take aim at prosecutors for using a pseudonym for an accuser who says Maxwell sexually abused her as a teenager. They say the accuser has given interviews to the New York Times and ABC News, and for a Netflix documentary.

The criminal case, scheduled for trial in July, has involved a long battle over unsealing deposition transcripts from Maxwell.

The depositions were taken as part of a civil lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre, who accused both Epstein and Maxwell of sexual misconduct. Prosecutors say Maxwell lied during the depositions, warranting a perjury charge. This week, Nathan granted Maxwell's request to have a separate trial over the perjury accusations.

Nathan has in the past refused some of the prosecutors' requests to unseal parts of the transcripts, ruling they were too "sensational and impure."

In an earlier round of arguments over unsealing, Maxwell's lawyers argued she didn't understand what questioners meant by "sexual activities" during one of the depositions.

"It is entirely unclear how someone may 'be aware of the presence' of these, apparently, spectral objects," the attorneys wrote. "What exactly is a 'device' used in 'sexual activities?' Would bath oil, a tub, or a table qualify?"

https://www.insider.com/ghislaine-maxwell-lawyers-upset-media-coverage-sex-life-2021-4

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.217.0.pdf

Resignations in the news

John Osborne: Dreamworld CEO unexpectedly resigns

DREAMWORLD boss John Osborne has resigned as head of Ardent Leisure’s theme parks division, effective immediately.

In a statement to the ASX Wednesday morning, Ardent said chief operating officer Greg Yong would step into the $550,000-a-year role.

The statement said Mr Osborne had agreed to consult to the company “on several projects considered to be of strategic importance for Ardent”.

Long-time Gold Coaster Mr Yong has held the role of Chief Operating Officer of Ardent Leisure Theme Parks and Attractions (COO) since May 2019.

Ardent Chairman Gary Weiss said Mr Osborne was leaving for personal reasons.

“Since John’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer of our Theme Parks and Attractions division in November 2018, he has overseen not only the resolution of the many legacy issues facing the business but also skilfully and expertly led the business through the significant challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr Weiss said.

“During his tenure, John has built an outstanding leadership team and positioned the business to restore value for Ardent shareholders over the coming years.

“We fully understand John’s wish to spend more time with his family after such a tumultuous period, and we are pleased that he has agreed to remain as a consultant to Ardent to assist in the delivery of several significant projects that are currently underway.

“We are delighted that Greg has accepted the offer to become Chief Executive. Greg has substantial experience in the theme parks industry in Australia and overseas and has played a critical role, as a key member of the leadership team, in restoring the performance of Dreamworld and SkyPoint. We are confident that Greg will build on all that has been achieved in the business over the last few years”.

Mr Osborne said his tenure had been “challenging and transformational”.

“I believe it is an optimal time for me to hand the reins over to Greg so I can spend more time with my family,” he said.

“I am incredibly proud of the fantastic leadership team that has been put in place over the last three years.

“Greg is an outstanding executive and leader, and I know that he and the team will build on the platform we have put in place and ultimately restore Dreamworld to its rightful position as the best and most successful theme park in Australia.”

https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/business/john-osborne-dreamworld-ceo-unexpectedly-resigns/news-story/3f14355f999aa8f79e3036c58bb63ed6

Child sex doll offender Terry Dunnett pleads guilty, released on supervised probation

Talissa Siganto - 21 April 2021

A Brisbane man has been the first person in Queensland to be convicted and sentenced for the "heinous crime" of possessing child sex dolls, after new federal laws were introduced to combat child abuse offences.

Terry Dunnett, 45, today pleaded guilty in the District Court in Brisbane to two counts of possessing a child sex doll, one count of attempting to possess a child sex doll, and possessing child exploitation material.

The court heard that in January last year the state's Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team started investigating Dunnett when Australian Border Force (ABF) officers detected an "anatomically-correct doll" in a shipment from China addressed to him.

Several days later, officers raided Dunnett's home at Riverhills in Brisbane's west and discovered two other female dolls depicting estimated age ranges of between four and five years old.

Child-exploitation material was also found on a laptop belonging to Dunnett.

During a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, the court heard Dunnett had admitted to police on the day of his arrest that the dolls and the exploitation material belonged to him.

The court heard he told officers he had purchased the dolls, including the one intercepted by ABF, between 2014 and 2020 from the Chinese e-commerce website AliExpress, with the latest costing him about $400.

The prosecution told the court Dunnett should serve an actual term in custody, while his defence lawyer argued a community-based sentence would be more suitable as a psychologist determined he was a "low risk" of actually offending against a child.

Judge Orazio Rinaudo sentenced Dunnett to two years in jail, but ordered he be immediately released under probation supervision.

He also placed him on a good behaviour bond for two years and ordered that he pay a $2,000 recognisance surety only if he reoffends.

In handing down his sentence, Judge Rinaudo said it was "a heinous crime to be involved in the exploitation of children" and that such offences could cause "desensitisation" to child sexual abuse or lead to an escalation of offending against a child.

"They are life-like dolls depicting female children with cavities," Judge Rinaudo said.

"The risk of the sale of such items objectifying children as sexual beings could be used to groom children for sex."

However, Judge Rinaudo said he had to take into consideration Dunnett's early guilty plea and remorse, when determining his sentence.

"I'm satisfied that you now understand that possession of these dolls and other items was wrong," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-21/child-like-sex-doll-court-terry-dunnett-brisbane/100084650

>>13477187

A top China academic has cast doubt over Chinese human rights abuses in Xinjiang

BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 21, 2021

The chair of parliament’s intelligence and security committee has blasted the head of Australia’s top China-focused academic institution after she cast doubt over Chinese human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Professor Jane Golley, the director of ANU’s taxpayer-funded Centre on China in the World, told the National Press Club on Wednesday she had read a “convincing” but anonymous paper contradicting media reports of China’s widespread mistreatment of Uighurs.

“Just last week I received a scholarly article that debunks much of what you have read in the Western media on this topic, including the figure of one million Uighurs in detention camps, the pervasive use of forced labour, and of calling it genocide,” she said, standing along China’s deputy ambassador to Australia Wang Xining.

“The authors sent it anonymously because they fear the reaction here in Australia by those who are committed to the dominant narrative, fact or not.

“This tells me that threats to academic freedom are not confined only to China.”

Professor Golley, an economist, conceded she was not an expert on Xinjiang, so could not make a judgment on the report’s veracity.

“I have to wait for it to be peer-reviewed by other experts. But what it did tell me is there are some convincing elements of what I read that would run against the dominant narrative that we read in the press.”

Senator James Paterson, the Joint intelligence and security committee chairman, said he was astonished Professor Golley would endorse an unverified report over extensive evidence of grave human rights abuses against Chinese Uighurs.

“It is concerning to see any academic publicly elevate an anonymous, unpublished article, which has not been peer-reviewed, above the years of scholarly evidence, investigative journalism and reports from reputable human rights organisations, which has exposed what is happening in Xinjiang,” he said.

“It’s even worse that the head of one of our pre-eminent taxpayer-funded university centres should do so at the National Press Club. Taxpayers are entitled to expect much higher standards of academic rigour than that.”

China strongly denies human rights abuses against Uighurs, arguing that facilities branded detention camps in the West are in fact vocational training centres.

Mr Wang told the National Press Club that China was “a positive force in the world”, dismissing a question about an Australian Uighur family seeking information on a relative who had been sentenced to 25 years jail in Xinjiang.

“I don’t know every case … whether they are of any particular ethnic group,” he said.

Mr Wang said China wanted “every ethnic group to live a good life — and we know how to deal with that”.

Human Rights Watch’s Australian director Elaine Pearson said she was “shocked” at Professor Golley’s comments, which came just a day after a Stanford University report found “the Chinese government has committed — and continues to commit — crimes against humanity against the Turkic Muslim population”.

Ms Pearson said: “While the Chinese government is in denial about these abuses, and refuses to allow access to UN human rights monitors, it is critically important that foreign governments do act and take strong, co-ordinated action.

“This is why we need a UN commission of inquiry to ensure an impartial investigation into alleged violations in Xinjiang.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/a-top-china-academic-has-cast-doubt-over-chinese-human-rights-abuses-in-xinjiang/news-story/d3db923ab37d3b4d476de5ce2fe113d2

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6249585315001

Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China torn up

Anthony Galloway and Eryk Bagshaw - April 21, 2021

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The Australian government has torn up Victoria’s controversial Belt and Road agreement with China, saying it falls foul of the country’s national interest, in a move that will further inflame tensions between Canberra and Beijing.

China’s foreign mission reacted swiftly on Wednesday night, warning the decision would put any recovery in the relationship between Australia and its largest trading partner in jeopardy.

“This is another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China,” said a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy.

“It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself.”

Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced on Wednesday night that the Belt and Road Initiative deal – which tied the state to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature initiative to bankroll infrastructure projects around the world – has been cancelled under the Commonwealth’s new foreign veto laws.

The federal government also announced it was cancelling two Victorian government education agreements – one struck with Iran in 2004 and another with Syria in 1999. They have been ruled unlawful under the laws passed late last year.

Senator Payne said she considered the agreements to be “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been locked in an ongoing feud with the Morrison government over its decision to sign on to the $1.5 trillion global infrastructure initiative, which would have allowed for Chinese investment in Victoria and for Victorian companies to participate in Chinese government projects overseas under the BRI banner. Mr Andrews has always defended the deal on the basis it would provide more jobs and economic opportunities for the state.

The federal government and national security experts were concerned that China was using the Victorian agreement as a propaganda win to claim the Victorian government had broken ranks with Australia’s China policy. They are also worried that China was using the BRI to load up poorer countries with debt and reduce Australia’s influence in the region.

The Chinese government has maintained the BRI is an economic co-operation initiative, which “upholds the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and transparency”.

“It has brought tangible benefits to the participating parties,” the Chinese embassy spokesperson said. “The BRI co-operation between China and the Victoria state is conducive to deepening economic and trade relations between the two sides, and will promote economic growth and the well-being of the people of Victoria.”

No financial commitments had been made under the arrangement, which was largely seen as symbolic, but it had driven foreign policy disputes between Victoria and the federal government after more than a year of tension with Beijing. Diplomatic sources in Canberra, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the scrapping of the deal could set a precedent for other countries attempting to balance the economic firepower of China with its international ambition.

(continued)

>>13485007

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State governments had until last month to provide a list of all of their agreements with foreign governments and Victoria listed its two BRI deals with the Chinese government as potentially falling within the new regime.

The Commonwealth ruled that both agreements contradicted Australia’s foreign policy, which has been reworked to compete with China’s infrastructure spending blitz in the region.

The new foreign veto scheme requires the Foreign Minister to cancel agreements that states, territories, local governments and universities enter into with an overseas government if they contradict Australia’s national interest.

Announcing the new laws last year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was “vital that when it comes to Australia’s dealings with the rest of the world we speak with one voice and work to one plan.

“Australians rightly expect the federal government they elect to set foreign policy. While many agreements and partnerships are of a routine nature … Where any of these agreements undermine how the federal government is protecting and promoting our national interests they can be cancelled.”

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed last year that Victoria did not consult the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade before signing a key “framework agreement” with the Chinese government for the BRI on October 23, 2019.

While Victoria briefly consulted DFAT on an earlier memorandum of understanding with Beijing in 2018, and made some changes based on its advice, the Andrews government decided not to show the draft version of the more substantial framework agreement to the Commonwealth a year later before signing it. Both agreements have now been ruled invalid.

A spokesperson for the Victorian government said the Foreign Relations Act was “entirely a matter for the Commonwealth Government”.

“The Victorian Government will continue to work hard to deliver jobs, trade and economic opportunities for our state,” the spokesperson said.

Previously Mr Andrews had repeatedly defended the deal, saying last year that it was all about Victorian employment and that Australia’s relationship with China might improve if the Commonwealth focused on jobs.

“The agreement, like all agreements that Victoria enters into, and I expect the Commonwealth and other states are no different – it’s all about making sure that more Victorian product is sent to our biggest and smallest customers,” the Premier said in December.

“Whether it’s to China or any other part of the world, it’s all about jobs.

“We would be probably better off in our relationship if all of us focused on the fact, and I think the Prime Minister and all of us … are all about having the best economic partnerships with customers, large and small, in every part of the world because that means jobs and prosperity and profitability for families back home.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/victoria-s-belt-and-road-deal-with-china-torn-up-20210421-p57l9q.html

>>13485007

Decisions under Australia’s Foreign Arrangements Scheme

Senator the Hon Marise Payne

Media release

21 April 2021

Australia's Foreign Arrangements Scheme has been in operation since 10 December 2020. The Scheme requires states and territories, local governments and Australian public universities to notify the Minister for Foreign Affairs of existing and proposed foreign arrangements. I have so far been notified of over 1,000 arrangements.

States and territories have now completed their initial audit of existing arrangements with foreign national governments.

The more than 1,000 notified so far reflect the richness and breadth of Australia's international interests and demonstrate the important role played by Australia's states, territories, universities and local governments in advancing Australia's interests abroad.

I thank the states and territories for their cooperation and for what is developing as a cooperative approach under the Scheme.

Following review and consideration of arrangements, I can advise that the following four will be cancelled:

• Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Education and Training (Victoria) and the Technical and Vocational Training Organisation, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Islamic Republic of Iran, signed 25 November 2004.

• Protocol of Scientific Cooperation between the Ministry of Higher Education in the Syrian Arab Republic and the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Training of Victoria, signed 31 March 1999.

• Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Victoria and the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China on Cooperation within the Framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, signed 8 October 2018.

• Framework Agreement between the Government of Victoria and the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China on Jointly Promoting the Framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, signed on 23 October 2019.

I consider these four arrangements to be inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations in line with the relevant test in Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020.

I have also decided to approve a proposed Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Human Resources Development in Energy and Mineral Resources Sector between the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation of the Government of Western Australia and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia.

I will continue to consider foreign arrangements notified under the Scheme. I expect the overwhelming majority of them to remain unaffected. I look forward to ongoing collaboration with states, territories, universities and local governments in implementing the Foreign Arrangements Scheme.

https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-release/decisions-under-australias-foreign-arrangements-scheme

>>13485007

Federal government swoops in and cancels controversial Belt and Roads deal

Sky News Australia

22 Apr 2021

The federal government has torn up Victoria's Belt and Road agreement with China because it was inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy.

The Commonwealth used its new veto laws to cancel four agreements — all negotiated by Victorian authorities — including a 2004 deal between the state's Education and Training Department with Iran and a 1999 scientific co-operation agreement with Syria.

The move is expected to further escalate tensions between Canberra and Beijing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kwfWkPFhNY

>>13485007

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

Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's Remarks

2021/04/21

We express our strong displeasure and resolute opposition to the Australian Foreign Minister’s announcement on April 21 to cancel the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation within the Framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and the related Framework Agreement between the Chinese side and Government of Victoria.

The BRI is an initiative for economic cooperation, which follows the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and upholds the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and transparency. It has brought tangible benefits to the participating parties. The BRI cooperation between China and the Victoria state is conducive to deepening economic and trade relations between the two sides, and will promote economic growth and the well-being of the people of Victoria.

This is another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China. It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself.

http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/sghdxwfb_1/t1870484.htm

>>13485007

China criticises Australia's 'provocative' decision to tear up Victoria's Belt and Road agreement

Foreign Minister Marise Payne's decision to scrap Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure deal with China has angered Beijing.

22 April 2021

China has slammed Australia's "provocative" decision to tear up Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative agreement with Beijing, warning the move will further damage bilateral relations.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced on Wednesday night that the infrastructure deal had been cancelled under new foreign veto powers.

China's embassy in Australia responded swiftly, expressing "strong displeasure and resolute opposition" to Senator Payne's announcement.

"This is another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China," a Chinese embassy spokesperson said in a statement.

"It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations.

"It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself."

The Morrison government in December granted itself the ability to torpedo deals between individual states and foreign powers under the Foreign Relations Act.

The foreign minister can assess such arrangements to check if they align with Australia's foreign policy goals.

Senator Payne said four agreements would be cancelled, two of which related to Victoria's Belt and Road deal for infrastructure investment.

"I consider these four arrangements to be inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations," she said in a statement.

Victoria signed a memorandum of understanding in relation to the Chinese regional infrastructure initiative in 2018 and then signed a "framework agreement" with Beijing in 2019.

Areas of cooperation included increasing participation of Chinese companies in Victoria's infrastructure program and promoting cooperation of Victorian businesses in China.

It also allowed Victoria's engineering and design firms to bid for contracts for Belt and Road Initiative projects around the world.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has previously advised against the cancellation of the deal, saying it would place Victorian jobs at risk.

A state government spokeswoman told AAP the Foreign Relations Act was a matter for the Commonwealth.

"The Victorian government will continue to work hard to deliver jobs, trade and economic opportunities for our state," she said in a statement on Wednesday.

Beijing has previously raised Canberra's veto power as one of 14 grievances damaging to bilateral relations.

China has in the past 12 months launched a series of damaging trade strikes against Australia after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chinese government also remains furious with Australia over foreign interference and investment laws and the decision to ban Huawei from the country's 5G rollout.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/china-criticises-australia-s-provocative-decision-to-tear-up-victoria-s-belt-and-road-agreement

>>13485007

Beijing hits back as Marise Payne cancels Daniel Andrews’ Belt and Road agreements

BEN PACKHAM and JOE KELLY - APRIL 22, 2021

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Foreign Minister Marise Payne says she expects more deals to be scrapped following the tearing up of Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with China.

Speaking in Wellington alongside her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta, Senator Payne said she anticipated there would be “further decisions” made on agreements between Australian institutions and foreign powers.

“They will be informed by my department on the consistency of all of those arrangements with the relevant legal test as it’s set out in the legislation,” she said.

She said there was a “fundamental difference” between the governance of New Zealand and Australia.

“We are, of course, a federation so states and territories that enter into those agreements are now required to consult and to advise the commonwealth as they do that. The process that I’m going through now is addressing those that have been made in the past.”

Senator Payne spoke of her decision to tear up four agreements entered into by the Victorian government concerning Syria, Iran, and China. “The determination that we have formed is that they are not consistent with Australia’s approach to foreign policy and under the legislation will be terminated,” she said. “I do expect there will be further decisions to be made in due course.”

China hits back over BRI

Earlier, Beijing has hit back after Senator Payne tore up Victoria’s controversial Belt and Road agreements with China, warning the “provocative” move could throw relations between the two countries “into the abyss.”

In the first use of new powers allowing the commonwealth to unilaterally veto deals it views as contrary to the national interest, Senator Payne revealed on Wednesday night she had cancelled four agreements — all negotiated by Victorian authorities — including a 2004 deal between the state‘s Education and Training Department with Iran and a 1999 scientific co-operation agreement with Syria.

The two BRI deals include the 2018 Memorandum of Understanding between the Andrews’ government and the National Development and Reform Commission of China, and the 2019 Framework Agreement, which built on the earlier deal.

“I consider these four arrangements to be inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations in line with the relevant test in Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020,” Ms Payne said.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy said the move was “another unreasonable and provocative move… against China.”

He added: “It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself.”

The Global Times, Beijing’s mouthpiece, went further, quoting Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Centre at the East China Normal University that the move marked a “significant escalation that could push icy bilateral relations into an abyss.”

The newspaper reported: “The latest move appears to be a calculated and deliberate step taken by Australia against China and could prompt a response from Beijing”.

Senator Payne on Thursday said the new powers weren’t aimed at “any one country” and that Australia would continue to emphasise its commitment to engaging with China.

“It is most certainly not intended to harm Australia’s relationships with any countries,” she told ABC AM.

“I hope that if there are any concerns they will be raised with the government.”

Senator Payne rejected the assertion that Australian producers should prepare for more retaliation from China – despite wine and barley producers being slapped with tariffs, and seafood, coal and timber facing customs issues last year.

“Australia is operating in our national interests, we are very careful and very considered in that approach,” she said.

“It’s about ensuring we have a consistent approach to foreign policy.”

(continued)

>>13485047

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Asked this morning if the Biden administration had been in touch with Canberra over the issue, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: “How we can work together as a global community and in a coordinated fashion as it relates to China is part of nearly every discussion the President has with a European partner or country in the region”.

Senator Payne’s move follows an examination of more than 1000 agreements with foreign countries struck by states and territories, local government and universities.

Announcing the new powers last year, Scott Morrison said Australia’s foreign policies and relationships “must always be set to serve Australia’s interests”.

“One of the most important jobs of the federal government is to protect and promote Australia’s national interest,” the Prime Minister said.

“It is vital that when it comes to Australia’s dealings with the rest of the world we speak with one voice and work to one plan.”

Senator Payne said she had decided to approve a proposed MOU between Indonesia’s Energy Ministry and Western Australia’s Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation.

The agreements examined “reflect the richness and breadth of Australia’s international interests”, and the role played by Australia’s states, territories, universities and local governments “in advancing Australia’s interests abroad”, she said.

Senator Payne said she would continue to examine foreign arrangements notified under the scheme, which commenced in December last year, but expected the “overwhelming majority” to be unaffected.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews last year defended his state’s deal with China after the Morrison government announced in August that it would push through its Foreign Relations legislation, saying Victoria relied heavily on international students due to its lack of natural resources.

“I dare say that given the announcements the Prime Minister’s made … he’ll no doubt very soon be able to list a full range of other free-trade agreements and other markets that we’ll be sending Victorian products to. I look forward to that,” he said.

President Xi Jinping’s BRI program is used as a vehicle by the Chinese Communist Party to expand Beijing’s soft power reach into the region, but the deals have raised alarm in intelligence and security agencies over heightening levels of Chinese espionage and coercive influence.

Victoria’s BRI framework – deepening co-operation between the state and Beijing on infrastructure, innovation and trade development – was always expected to be one of the first major agreements to fall under Mr Morrison’s Foreign Relations Bill.

The Victorian government’s 2019 framework agreement with the National Development and Reform Commission of China saw both sides agree to the establishment of a working group to promote the BRI, to be jointly chaired by Mr Andrews and Vice Chairman Ning Jizhe of the NDRC.

Both sides agreed to closer communication – including visits and video conferences – to increase the “participation of Chinese infrastructure companies” in Victoria’s construction program; deepen research and innovation in high-end manufacturing, biotechnology and agriculture; enhance two way trade and strengthen co-operate in the management of ageing populations.

Under the agreement, Chinese infrastructure firms were encouraged to establish a presence in Victoria with a view to “participating in the tendering process for Victoria’s significant projects” while the state agreed to send regular delegations of local infrastructure companies to China.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/maris-payne-cancels-daniel-andrews-belt-and-road-agreements-with-china/news-story/9a1056e93952a9d5ba45df47de783e4c

>>13485007

>>13485031

Scrapping BRI deal will hurt Australia: Chinese Embassy

Global Times - Apr 21, 2021

The Chinese Embassy in Australia on Wednesday criticized a move by the Australian government to cancel an agreement signed between the state of Victoria and China to cooperate under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), warning that the move will bring further damage to bilateral ties and will only hurt Australia.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that a memorandum of understanding and framework agreement Victoria signed with China in relation to the BRI had been cancelled under new Commonwealth veto laws, claiming "the arrangement is inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or hurts its foreign relations."

It is the first time the Australian federal government has used the new veto law, which permits it to cancel agreements states and territories strike with other countries, media reports. The law has been widely regarded as a move targeting China.

Responding to the move, a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Australia said that the move is another "unreasonable and provocative" move taken by Australia against China.

"It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself," the spokesperson said.

The Australian move came as China-Australia bilateral relations is at near freezing point, and trade and economic ties have also been seriously disrupted, after Canberra launched a series of anti-China policies.

The latest move could further plunge already-frosty bilateral relations into an even lower abyss and threatens further serious disruptions to trade and economic ties, analysts said. That might warrant a corresponding response from China, they added.

"To tear up the BRI cooperation agreement from the federal perspective is a gross intervention in the development policy of the state, which will inevitably have a negative impact on the economic development of Victoria in the future," Song Wei, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Joining the BRI has brought considerable economic benefits to Victoria and created a large number of employment opportunities for the region. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also defended the agreement as "more jobs and more trade and investment for Victorians."

Furthermore, economic and trade relations between China and Australia will plunge even further, Song noted.

Following serious damage to Australian businesses due to tense diplomatic relations, Australian officials have said that they have been reaching out to Chinese officials to address trade issues but have not received any response. Chinese officials criticized Australia for its anti-China policies and urged Canberra to take concrete actions to rectify its mistakes.

The latest move is in the opposite direction and could further complicate the relationship, Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday, noting that it completely disregarded the mutually beneficial and comprehensive strategic partnership between Australia and China.

"It was of major benefit to Victoria that the agreement at the time did not deal with any sensitive sectors or national security," noted Chen.

While the Australian government's decision is very damaging, it was expected, experts said.

"There was a belief that the agreement was targeting the BRI agreement when the federal government passed its Foreign Relations Bill, which allows the federal government to override any state agreement under the so-called national security threat," Chen said, adding that if Australia continues on the wrong path, "China will surely respond accordingly."

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1221757.shtml

>>13485007

>>13485031

Australia faces serious consequences for unreasonable provocation against China over BRI deals: observer

Global Times - Apr 22, 2021

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Australia has essentially fired a major shot in what could lead up to a potential trade conflict with China and could face serious consequences for its "unreasonable provocation" against China, Chinese experts said on Wednesday after Canberra moved to use what has been viewed as an anti-China law to revoke agreements signed between Victoria state and China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

By tearing up the agreements, Australia's federal government is not only going over its head to provoke China but also stepping over its state jurisdiction for its own political interests which could be a serious blow to both federal and local economies, observers said.

Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said that a memorandum of understanding and framework agreement the state of Victoria signed with China in relation to the BRI had been cancelled under the new Commonwealth veto laws, claiming that "the arrangement is inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or hurts its foreign relations."

It was the first time the Australian federal government used the new veto law, which allows it to cancel agreements states and territories strike with other countries, according to media reports. The law has been widely regarded as a move primarily targeting China.

Responding to the Australian move, a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Australia expressed on Wednesday a "resolute opposition" to the Australian move, calling it another "unreasonable and provocative" action taken by Australia against China.

"It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations and will only end up hurting itself," the spokesperson said.

"The move is not only unreasonable to China but also to Victoria. It is also a deliberate provocation that goes beyond Australia's strength and could result in serious consequences," an observer told the Global Times on Wednesday.

While bilateral relations have already plunged to a near frozen state due to a series of hostile actions from Australia against China, including banning Chinese firm Huawei and interfering into China's internal affairs regarding Xinjiang and Hong Kong, the latest move marks a significant escalation that could push icy bilateral relations into an abyss, experts noted.

"By using this domestic law, Australia basically fired the first major shot against China in trade and investment," Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at the East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

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>>13485065

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Chen said that despite previous moves by Australia against China, Beijing has not taken "official response" in terms of trade and investment. However, the latest move appears to be a calculated and deliberate step taken by Australia against China and could prompt a response from Beijing. "China will surely respond accordingly," he said.

Australian officials have repeatedly claimed that they have been reaching out to Chinese officials to resolve issues but have not received any response from the Chinese side. Chinese officials criticized Australia for its anti-China policies and urged Canberra to take concrete actions to rectify its mistakes.

"Australian officials are fully aware of the consequences of the move, but they went ahead with it… that clearly shows Australia's intention to further escalate tensions with China rather than deescalate," Chen said.

That could inflict damage on not only Victoria's local economy but also bilateral trade between China and Australia, experts said.

"To tear up the BRI cooperation agreement from the federal perspective is a gross intervention in the development policy of the state which will inevitably have a negative impact on the economic development of Victoria in the future," Song Wei, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday adding that "it would also worsen the China-Australia trade relationship."

Joining the BRI has brought considerable economic benefits to Victoria and created a large number of employment opportunities for the region, officials have said. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also defended the agreement as offering "more jobs and more trade and investment for Victorians."

Some Australian businesses, including winemakers and timber firms, have already reported losses in trade with China due to tense diplomatic relations. Last month, China imposed up to 218 percent anti-dumping duties on Australian wines for five years. China also suspended imports of timber and beef from Australia, citing violations of Chinese regulations.

Chinese officials stressed that those measures were taken in accordance with its domestic law and regulations to protect Chinese consumers.

"China has not officially responded to Australia's actions against China in terms of trade and investment," Chen said. However, Australia's intention to pick up a trade conflict with China is clear which warrants a response from China, according to Chen.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1221766.shtml

>>13485007

Belt and Road Initiative: Inside Daniel Andrews’ secret China deal

DAMON JOHNSTON - APRIL 22, 2021

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In the midst of the first coronavirus lockdown, one of Daniel Andrews’ senior lieutenants walked into a room where public servants managing the government’s relations with China were sitting, and declared: “We need to get some positive stories up about the BRI! Find some!”

If the bureaucrats found some gold, Victorians were never told, because the “positive stories” were never sold to the public. Given the imprecise nature of the Belt and Road Initiative, it is possible the Andrews government didn’t promote them because they didn’t exist.

Last May, concern was taking hold within the Victorian government as the Premier’s BRI agreements were catching a dose of coronavirus, the pandemic which started in China.

In 2019, Andrews believed breaking ranks with the federal government and signing up to the BRI was a global economic coup for a state. Billions would flow into Victoria, and jobs would boom, he predicted.

But by 2020, with COVID-19 sweeping the world, and growing fears of China’s expansionism, Andrews found himself out beyond the wire. Concerns about the real agenda of the communist regime’s global investment initiative were now front and centre.

As diplomatic tensions exploded between the Morrison Government and China, Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas made an astounding intervention to take the side of the communist dictatorship.

He said the “vilification” of China by the Australian government was “dangerous, damaging and probably irresponsible”.

It emerged the next day, on the front page of The Australian, that the Pallas intervention came as Victoria was locked in critical final negotiations with Beijing to sign the next stage of the BRI.

The “framework agreement” underpinning the Victoria-China deal was signed by the Premier and Vice-Chairman Ning Jizhe of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China on October 23, 2019.

The “framework agreement” had gone largely unnoticed. But in 2020, in the grip of the pandemic, it made extraordinary reading.

The “co-operation principles” in the nine-page agreement — entitled Jointly Promoting the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road — used exceptionally reverential language to mandate how Victoria should conduct its state-to-superpower relationship.

Article 1 states Victoria and China must: “Adhere to the principle of mutual consultation, joint efforts and shared benefits. Bearing the Silk Road spirit of peace, co-operation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit.

“Adhere to the principles of business-dominated, market-orientated and government-guided.

“The governments of both sides should strengthen co-ordination and guidance, as well as policy support to ensure long-term and sustainable co-operation … stick to all-round co-operation … with a focus on pushing forward important areas and major projects that have a bearing on the long-term interests of the two sides.”

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>>13485072

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Andrews’ decision to side with Beijing can, in part, be explained by his longstanding close relations with the communist regime. For a progressive Labor leader, Andrews had spent years flirting with Beijing. In opposition, he toured the Great Wall and other sites. Then as premier, he inked the BRI deal.

With a dismissive wave of his hand, he set aside the brutality of the communist regime, compartmentalised the human rights abuses of the Uighurs and turned his back on the repression of the democratic protests in Hong Kong. This was all about investment and jobs, and nothing else mattered.

Adding to the intrigue of the Premier’s dealings with China was the emergence of a young Chinese-born self-proclaimed global influencer by the name of Jean Dong.

Dong, aged in her early 30s, who in 2011 was crowned the Miss Chinese Cosmos Pageant winner, had established the Australian China Belt and Road Initiative organisation and managed to get VIP access to the Premier to lobby him to sign the BRI.

In fact, he agreed to attend one of her promotional events. She had recruited former Liberal federal trade Minister Andrew Robb and former Labor Minister Lindsay Tanner to the organisation too.

And in taxpayer-funded contracts never fully explained, Andrews’ government paid Ms Dong’s company more than $36,000 to advise it on China’s global commercial play.

Ms Dong claimed, in a self-made YouTube promotional video, that she played a key role in getting Victoria to sign up as she embarked on what she described as her “journey of influence”.

Many questions about the BRI have been left unanswered by Andrews. While there is no shortage of Chinese links to some of the firms building the Premier’s major roads and tunnels, the actual investment deals that would flow from the BRI were never detailed.

It is likely, the BRI memorandum of understanding and the later framework agreement were all about laying down the broad parameters of the China-Victoria relationship, and Andrews hoped this would be the first steps to billions of dollars.

For China, landing the Premier’s signature, may well have been the main game because signing a state-based leader delivered the communist regime a global diplomatic victory.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/belt-and-road-initiative-inside-daniel-andrews-secret-china-deal/news-story/b40e9ef9c398d420d31727fe1f77a02b

>INFILTRATION NOT INVASION.

>https://qanon.pub/?q=infiltration

>https://qanon.pub/?q=china

>>13485072

>>13485075

Dan Andrews and China’s Aussie influencer

RACHEL BAXENDALE, REMY VARGA and DAMON JOHNSTON - MAY 25, 2020

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Meet Jean Dong. She is the 32-year-old Chinese-Australian ­businesswoman who by her own description is on a global “journey of influence”.

A professionally filmed and ­edited YouTube biography provides an extraordinary insight into the life of the young woman who is emerging as a key player in the unfolding political row over Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews’s controversial decision to sign up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

In the short promotional film, Ms Dong claims to have played key roles in bringing about the China-Australia free-trade agreement, and Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative deal, telling the story of her journey from student journalist in Beijing, to rubbing shoulders with Australian prime ministers and premiers and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Australian can reveal that Ms Dong, director and chief executive of the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative company, was part of a youth delegation sent to China in 2014, alongside Mike Yang, a former adviser to Mr ­Andrews.

Mr Yang is credited with being the architect of the strong and ­enduring relationship between Mr Andrews and China’s communist government.

Asked whether the pair met each other on the trip, and ­whether they had an ongoing ­association, Ms Dong’s spokesman said only: “Mike Yang had left the ­Victorian government when ACBRI was asked to advise on BRI opportunities.”

Mr Yang, who was photographed with Mr Andrews on the Great Wall of China in 2013, has been a vice-president of the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, an organisation criticised as being a front for spreading pro-Community Party policies and messages in Australia. Mr Yang has defended the group, describing it as nothing more than another Chinese community group.

The Australian revealed on Monday that ACBRI was awarded two taxpayer-funded contracts valued at $36,850 to advise the Andrews government on the Belt and Road Inititiative.

Ms Dong’s 2015 promotional video, entitled Journey of Influence, shows her standing on a ­bayside promontory with Melbourne’s skyline behind her, speaking of the people she says have been inspirational “sparks” in her life.

It was recorded during her time as managing director of Spark Corporation Group — a business she has described as being focused on Chinese investment in Australian agriculture and resources and “expansion of Australian businesses into Chinese markets through strategic partnerships”.

“It was my mother that first inspired me that nothing comes easy, but never give up. At the age of three, I started playing the piano,” Ms Dong says, as the video cuts to her engaged in a musical performance.

“It was the first female journalists who lived in war zones and promoted peace through reporting the truth that inspired me to understand that having courage and purpose to always keep me motivated to fight for what I believe.

“At the age of 11, I challenged the old Chinese media rules and opened the doors for thousands of youth to raise their voice.”

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>>13485161

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Ms Dong’s profile when she attended the Australia-China Youth Dialogue in Beijing with Mr Yang in 2014 said she had “enjoyed a rich experience as the editor of Youth newspaper (China) and national reporter for CCTV television station (China)”.

China Central Television is the predominant network in mainland China, owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

It is not clear which newspaper Ms Dong was describing in her reference to “Youth”. Asked whether she was referring to the China Youth Daily — run by the Communist Youth League of China — a spokesman for Ms Dong played down her role. “Jean has never been a career journalist,” he said. “She was briefly a volunteer reporter for a high school student newspaper before she came to Australia as a teenager.”

Ms Dong studied commerce at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 2009, and gained employment with consulting firm PwC.

“At the age of 21 I presented and convinced the PwC Australian leadership to consider Asia growth as a priority strategy and to achieve a clear advantage over its competitors,” Ms Dong says in her video as photos are displayed of her with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, then Tasmanian Liberal premier Will Hodgman and former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr.

“At the age of 26 I successfully facilitated a mutual and long-term economic collaboration agreement through China-Australia free-trade agreement for both countries,” she says as a photo appears of then prime minister Tony Abbott, Mr Xi and then trade minister Andrew Robb signing ChAFTA. The Australian has established that in 2014 Ms Dong entered the orbit of Mr Yang. The two emerging influential figures in the Chinese-Australian community were delegates at the 2014 Australia-Chinese Youth Dialogue in Beijing.

Mr Yang worked for Mr Andrews while he was opposition leader, from 2011 to 2013, and is credited with being the architect of the now Premier’s pro-China strategy. There were only 30 delegates to the Beijing conference.

While it is unclear if the pair interacted during the conference, it is the first known association between Ms Dong and someone close to the Andrews camp.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/dan-andrews-and-chinas-aussie-influencer/news-story/1e1763bf4fd699f3eecafa7d27830913

>>13485072

>>13485075

>>13485161

Chinese pageant winner Jean Dong’s meteoric journey to influence

DAMON JOHNSTON, REMY VARGA and RACHEL BAXENDALE - MAY 28, 2020

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“We’ve now reached the most excitin­g part of the competition — we are about to award the crown of Miss Chinese Cosmos Pageant 2011, and the winner is … contestant No 5, Dong Jin.”

The Crown casino ballroom in Melbourne erupts and the newly crowned queen radiates confid­ence, waving and soaking in the adulation. A sash, tiara and a giant $10,000 cheque are handed to Dong Jin, the young woman who, the hosts note, prevailed after an exhaustive five rounds of questions that “definitely weren’t easy”.

As the victor, she would go on to represent Australia in the Asia-­Pacific finals of the pageant in New Zealand. Dong Jin’s crowning glory was an important step in her transformation into Jean Dong, who in 2011 was getting ready to embark on a self-proclaimed “journey of influence”.

It’s a road that in the past week has seen her emerge as a central figure in the political row over Victori­an Premier Daniel And­rews’s decision to sign up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chinese-born former Adelaide­ University commerce student always seemed destined for bigger things. Her vanity biopic on YouTube says she started playing the piano at the age of three, and was soon playing at the “highest level”.

By 11, she was, by her account, challenging old Chinese media rules and opening the doors “for thousands of youth to raise their voices”.

And at 21, Dong says she was an emerging figure within consultancy PwC and “convinced the PwC Australian leadership to consider Asia growth as a priority strategy”.

Intelligence, drive, dynamism and relentless networking were Jean Dong’s door-openers as she moved to Melbourne and rapidly made her dream of becoming a successful businesswoman and ­influencer come true.

She easily rubbed shoulders with political leaders, including Malcolm Turnbull and former NSW premier Bob Carr, during this period.

Among the opportunities that winning the 2011 pageant afforded the 24-year-old was a return ticket to the following year’s event to hand over the crown to the next winner.

New alliances

In 2012, as she sat in the audience as the reigning pageant queen, Dong was in the company of two other Chinese Australians emerging in Victorian politics — Mike Yang and Gladys Liu.

Yang was the China adviser to then opposition leader Daniel ­Andrews.

He held the job from 2011-13, and is credited with being the ­architect of the now Premier’s strong and enduring — and now controversial — bond with the Chinese communist government.

The next year, Yang would accompany a youthful Andrews on an official trip to China, the pair photographed smiling on The Great Wall.

Liu, now the federal Liberal MP for the eastern Melbourne seat of Chisholm, was then an adviser to Victorian premier Ted Baillieu.

Two years later, while Liu was working for Baillieu’s successor, Denis Napthine, Dong would describe herself in a profile for the October 2014 Australia-China Youth Dialogue as being “heavily involved in advising (the) Victorian state government on ­Australian-Chinese engagement”.

(continued)

>>13485169

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Liu worked for the Victorian Liberal Party from 2007-2014, running as an upper house candidate at the 2010 and 2014 state elections, having become known for her prodigious ability to raise funds and mobilise support from Melbourne’s Chinese community.

She came under fire last year after she failed to explain why she had been listed as a member of ­organisations linked to the Chinese government’s foreign interference operations when nomin­ating to run for Chisholm.

In an interview with Sky News host Andrew Bolt, Liu refused to condemn Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea and continually evaded a question about whether she believed Chinese President Xi Jinping was a dictator.

Yang and Liu may have shared a Chinese heritage but they were drawn to different sides of politics. Ultimately, though, they would share very similar political problems: being at the centre of accu­sations they were pushing a pro-Chinese Communist Party agenda through Australia.

Chinese-language reports place them both at the 2012 gala event with Dong.

It is unclear if they met that night. While Dong, Yang and Liu were in the room, several other Chinese-Australians, who have since emerged as characters of interest in Chinese-Australian relations, were also involved in the pageant and its broadcast.

The year Dong was crowned Miss Cosmos, the event was organised by then general manager of Ostar, Holly Zhenghong Huang, who would later become one of ­exiled billionaire Huang Xiangmo’s key lieutenants.

Xiangmo was barred entry to Australia after the government rescinded his permanent residency in December 2018 following advice from ASIO over possible foreign political interference.

Huang later became general manager of Xiangmo’s property development company Yuhu Group.

Media mogul Tommy Jiang had taken the reins of Ostar by the time Dong returned to the Miss Cosmos pageant as the reigning queen.

The political donor until last year also ran a global Chinese-­language media company in conjunction with the Chinese Communist Party.

Company records show Global CAMG Media Group is 60 per cent owned by Guoguang ­Century Media Consultancy, a subsidiary of state-owned media company China Radio International.

Jiang seems to have taken a move back from his media empire, stepping down as director of Ostar and CAMG last year, according to company records, although 10 radio licences remain in his name.

As well as being behind the Miss Cosmos beauty pageant, Jiang is credited as co-producing a video of Dong that championed her as an example of Chinese student excellence.

The Ostar-run Australian China Elite Business Awards donated $260,000 to the Labor Party in 2013-14, but Jiang is quoted in a Fairfax media article as saying he had donated to both sides.

China meeting

In 2014, it can be said with certainty that Dong and Yang had come into each other’s orbit again.

Both attended the Australia-Chinese Youth Delegation in Beijing. Yang had left Andrews’s office in 2013 but maintained good relations with his former boss, who in 2014 would be elected premier.

Dong, who says she worked as a “volunteer” journalist, presented to the delegation on the future of media.

She has dodged questions this week as to whether she met Yang on this trip, which was attended by up to 30 young people, saying only: “Mike Yang had left the Victorian government when ACBRI was asked to advise on BRI opportunities.”

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Belt and Road

On November 2, 2015, the 28-year-old established one company whose mission statement was crystal clear — Australia-China One Belt and One Road Initiative Ltd. Dong was the director, shareholder and secretary of this ­company.

Australian businessmen were appointed to the advisory board, and later two former federal ministers — then Liberal trade minister Andrew Robb and Labor finance minister Lindsay Tanner — would join the board.

Both, according to Dong, are paid nothing for their roles on ACBRI.

In 2016, trading as ACBRI, it quickly started building a profile from scratch.

Its rise to prominence was, in fact, exceptionally fast.

By May 2017, a little under 18 months after Dong formed ACBRI, she was flying, moving in the same circles as Andrews.

Dong boasted on a website linked to the Chinese consulate that ACBRI had been appointed as a consultant by Andrews to advise his government on what at that stage were secret negotiations to sign up to China’s global investment scheme, which critics claim is more about spreading ideology and power.

The website post states: “In May this year (2017), the centre (ACBRI) was appointed as a consultant unit by the Premier of ­Victoria.

“The next step will be to assist the state government to sign a co-operation agreement with the Nat­ional Development and Reform Commission and to set up the ‘belt and road initiative’ office.

“The centre will be responsible for planning and implementing specific projects, and strive to make Victoria a model for Sino-Australian ‘belt and road initiative’ co-operation.”

Dong even pulled off a coup, getting the Premier to address an ACBRI event. The company’s website shows photos of Andrews and Dong ­together.

While the date of the event is unclear, the website, which was pulled down this week, quoted the Premier talking about a “new energy” in Chinese-­Victorian relations.

Government grants

The blossoming relationship between Dong’s company and the Labor government was cemented with the granting of two taxpayer-funded, and undisclosed, consultancies totalling $36,850.

By now, Dong’s company was promoting China’s mega global play to the Premier and also being paid by his government to provide advice on the deal.

The ACBRI website says in 2015 Dong was invited to meet Mr Xi and was also invited by Aus­tralia’s then trade minister Robb to witness the signing of the ChAFTA trade deal.

By her own measure, Dong was rocketing along.

Experienced China watchers in Australia have been watching Dong’s progress closely over the past few years.

They describe her self-­promotion as “brazen” and consistent with someone wanting to impress decision-makers in Beijing with her network of contacts in Australia.

One observer said she had gained a reputation in parts of the federal public service as being “pushy” and had a reputation for trying to “insinuate herself into meetings”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/chinese-pageant-winner-jean-dongs-meteoric-journey-to-influence/news-story/469e8bab247899a089f05f19f138e2b0

>>13460325

Australia was blindsided when Five Eyes ally New Zealand backed away from China criticism

Anthony Galloway - April 22, 2021

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Australian officials were blindsided when New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta criticised efforts to pressure China through the 70-year-old spy alliance known as the “Five Eyes”.

“We would much rather prefer to look for multilateral opportunities to express our interests on a number of issues,” Mahuta said on Monday.

The language is carefully couched but it has real consequences. Our nearest neighbour did not inform Australia of its position before Mahuta this week voiced her government’s discomfort about the “expanding remit” of Five Eyes. While Wellington’s conspicuous absence from a few joint statements had caused unease in Canberra over the past year, Australian officials did not know about New Zealand’s official opposition to using the spy network to exert diplomatic pressure on Beijing.

While there have been other incidents over the past year demonstrating how strained trans-Tasman relations have become, this development is likely to cause diplomatic friction in the coming weeks.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal Prime Minister Scott Morrison will visit New Zealand in two weeks to meet with his counterpart Jacinda Ardern. The future of Five Eyes will be a hot topic of discussion. The issue will be discussed at senior levels before then, with Foreign Minister Marise Payne and International Development Minister Zed Seselja flying to New Zealand on Wednesday to meet their counterparts.

While no one in the Australian government is seriously suggesting New Zealand is at risk of being booted out of the intelligence-sharing network, Canberra and Washington are concerned by Wellington’s attempt to curtail its expansion. In Canberra, joking references to the “Four Eyes” have only increased in recent months.

The Five Eyes group – which includes the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – was formed in 1941 to share secrets and signals intelligence during World War II.

Over the past few years, it has gradually expanded into a diplomatic grouping, issuing joint statements criticising China over crackdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang . While New Zealand has joined many of these statements, it was notably absent from some over the past year.

Tensions between Canberra and Wellington have been building for years, with Ardern repeatedly criticising Australia for deporting Kiwi citizens and cancelling the citizenship of dual citizens accused of terrorism. But it is the question of how to handle the growing assertiveness of China that has caused the biggest frictions.

In December last year, Mahuta offered to mediate a truce between Australia and China and said both parties needed to “concede in some areas where they are currently not seeing eye to eye”. Months later, New Zealand’s new Trade Minister Damien O’Connor suggested Australia should speak with more “respect” and “diplomacy” towards China.

Senior officials in the Australian government repeatedly put these interventions down to rookie ministers still learning their brief, and did not necessarily see them as the views of Ardern. However, the latest comments from Mahuta are different.

Australian officials were put off by the suggestion that New Zealand was charting a more “independent” course; they believe there’s nothing independent about using your trade relationship with China as a justification for not criticising Beijing. It is Australia, they argue, who has been the one standing on its two feet: the first to ban Chinese telecom giant Huawei from next-generation networks, first to enact foreign interference laws and ahead of the curve on blocking foreign investment in critical national infrastructure.

Some Australian officials also dispute Wellington’s assertion that there has been a significant “expansion” of Five Eyes, saying it has always been a diplomatic grouping.

(continued)

>>13485324

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But there is also sympathy for Wellington’s position in Canberra. New Zealand has not yet faced the economic coercion, or the widespread espionage and foreign interference activity, that Australia has endured. Wellington is at least three years behind where Canberra is at and may only just be waking up to the threat.

While Ardern spoke with a more conciliatory tone on Wednesday, she backed in her foreign minister by suggesting that Five Eyes was not the most appropriate forum for issuing joint statements criticising China. She said the statements could be issued by wider groupings of countries or could be as narrow as Australia and New Zealand.

“Is that best done under the banner of a grouping of countries around a security intelligence platform, or is it best done around a group of countries with shared values – some of which might not belong to that five eyes partnership?” Ardern said.

Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, said Five Eyes was an “extremely trusted and long-serving intelligence-sharing arrangement” and that was always going to translate into co-ordinating policy as well.

“If you trust countries enough to share your most sensitive secrets with them, then surely you are going to often co-ordinate with them on areas of shared interest,” he said.

“The point that Mahuta made, and Ardern has reinforced, is that New Zealand would look at other arrangements for co-ordinating policy arrangements. Well of course that’s the case, and Australia has been doing the same thing, whether it’s through the QUAD, bilaterals, trilaterals, etc. If that’s New Zealand’s position then that’s not so gravely at odds with Australia’s position or anyone else’s.”

New Zealand’s bid to contain the Five Eyes goes against the grain of where the group is headed. Not only is the grouping being expanded into a strategic and economic partnership to counter China, but countries including Japan want to join it.

Professor Medcalf said an ideal future arrangement would be “Five Eyes-plus” whereby other countries such as Japan and France are incrementally brought into the intelligence-sharing arrangement but cautioned “you can’t substitute for 70 years of trust overnight”.

“Although Japan is a logical place to look, you have 70 years of institutionalised and highly personalised trust among intelligence and security agencies in the existing Five Eyes countries,” he says. “Our intelligence and security agencies trust the agencies of their Five Eyes partners almost as much as they trust themselves.”

Jonathan Pryke, director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program, said New Zealand had been “more insulated” to some of the more serious threats of China’s growing assertiveness than other Fives Eyes nations.

He said there were clearly tensions in the relationship between Australia and New Zealand and he hoped face-to-face meetings between ministers and prime ministers could sort out the differences.

“Maybe these are strongly held convictions from the New Zealanders and it may reflect the start of a growing schism in the Five Eyes community,” he said.

For the time being, Canberra wants to ensure that does not eventuate.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-was-blindsided-when-five-eyes-ally-new-zealand-backed-away-from-china-criticism-20210421-p57l5d.html

>>13460325

Australia reminds Kiwis of Five Eyes value

Daniel McCulloch - APRIL 22 2021

Australia has reminded New Zealand of the importance of the Five Eyes alliance during a meeting of trans-Tasman foreign ministers.

Marise Payne met with her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta in Wellington on Thursday.

Ms Mahuta raised eyebrows ahead of the diplomatic trip by arguing the Five Eyes group should focus solely on intelligence sharing.

She does not want the network straying to other matters, such as speaking out against China for human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

Senator Payne stressed the importance of the Five Eyes alliance during the bilateral meeting.

"Australia will continue to emphasise the vital nature of the Five Eyes alliance in security and in intelligence," she told ABC radio ahead of the meeting.

The foreign minister refused to say whether Ms Mahuta's comments had placed a strain on the coalition.

"There is a depth of commitment in the relationship between Australia and New Zealand that is very significant," she said.

"In terms of the Five Eyes, what I have found in the last year in particular and certainly in the last little while, is a very significant level of engagement across counterparts."

However, during a joint press conference after the meeting, Senator Payne played down the starkly different approaches to the alliance between Australia and New Zealand.

She did not criticise New Zealand for its unwillingness to support moving Five Eyes "out of the shadows" and expanding its remit into public diplomacy.

"What we see in Five Eyes, which I think is very much shared across the members, is a vital strategic alliance that is key to our security and intelligence interests," Senator Payne told reporters.

"A lot of issues with which we deal are dealt with in the shadows, but not all, and some have been able to be dealt with openly and publicly through the Five Eyes process."

Ms Mahuta said while the five countries shared common values and principles, the alliance was primarily focused on intelligence and security.

"It's not necessary all the time on every issue to invoke Five Eyes as your first port of call in terms of creating a coalition of support around particular issues in the human rights space," she said.

Senator Payne said the allies could address issues of concern in whatever forum they deemed appropriate and consistent with their national interests.

"But our respect for each other - Australia, the United States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada - is enduring and continuing."

At a separate media conference, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country's relationship with the alliance had not changed.

"Five Eyes remains our most important security and intelligence partnership and that has not changed," she told reporters.

"New Zealand also has an independent foreign policy, and that equally has not changed."

https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7220154/australia-reminds-kiwis-of-five-eyes-value/?cs=9676

>>13460325

>>13485327

Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet

Today’s Foreign Ministerial Consultations in #Wellington, our first face-to-face meeting since COVID-19, allowed for a deep discussion as friends about shared priorities, including our Pacific partnerships, as we navigate 2021 together.

Statement bit. ly/3xhN3qj

https://twitter.com/MarisePayne/status/1385098085072662530

>>13460325

>>13485327

>>13485332

Strengthening trans-Tasman ties: Australia-New Zealand Foreign Minister Consultations

Senator the Hon Marise Payne

Joint statement with

The Hon Nanaia Mahuta

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Minister of Local Government

Associate Minister of Maori Development

New Zealand

22 April 2021

New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, met in Wellington today for biannual Australia-New Zealand Foreign Minister Consultations.

Minister Payne’s visit is the first official visit to New Zealand by Australia since both countries imposed border restrictions in response to COVID-19 in March 2020.

The Ministers welcomed the chance to meet in person for the first time, following the commencement of two-way quarantine-free travel on 19 April.

The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss ways to continue and deepen cooperation between Australia and New Zealand to meet the shared challenges facing our region.

New Zealand and Australia stand together in facing a challenging global environment. Ministers discussed the importance of promoting our shared interests in an open, resilient and prosperous Indo-Pacific. They reaffirmed their intent to work together to preserve the liberal international order that has underpinned stability and prosperity in the region, and to foster a sustainable regional balance where all countries- large and small – can freely pursue their legitimate interests.

The Ministers discussed responses to increasing pressure on the international rules-based system and rising protectionism, and agreed on the need for coordinated regional and global action on issues such as human rights and climate change, including work Australia and New Zealand are doing together to strengthen the climate resilience of our Pacific island partners.

The Ministers also highlighted the importance of strengthening gender equality, including promoting women in leadership in the Pacific and initiatives on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Minister Payne and Minister Mahuta agreed on the value of coordinating with other likeminded countries and building broad coalitions on issues of common interest.

Ministers also reiterated both governments’ commitment to a resilient and united Pacific region underpinned by robust regional architecture, and to continuing to help Pacific island countries manage the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, including support for the rollout of vaccines.

The two Ministers welcomed progress on the Australia-New Zealand Single Economic Market agenda. They acknowledged the contribution quarantine-free travel would make to the economic recovery in both countries, especially in the travel and tourism sectors. The Ministers also discussed the situation of New Zealanders living and working in Australia.

The Ministers reaffirmed the closeness and importance of the Australia-New Zealand relationship.

“Australia is New Zealand’s closest and most important international partner. It’s appropriate that Minister Payne was the first counterpart I have welcomed from overseas since becoming Foreign Minister” said Nanaia Mahuta.

“New Zealand also looks forward to welcoming Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for our annual leaders’ talks.”

Marise Payne expressed appreciation for New Zealand’s warmth and hospitality. “I look forward to continuing our strong tradition of trans-Tasman partnership, working closely with Minister Mahuta to promote even closer economic ties and personal connections between Australia and New Zealand.”

https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-release/strengthening-trans-tasman-ties-australia-new-zealand-foreign-minister-consultations

Former NSA boss says misinformation a threat to democracy

Max Mason - Apr 22, 2021

A former director of America’s National Security Agency says misinformation is one of the greatest threats to democratic governments, and social media companies need to take more responsibility for content being pushed out on their platforms.

Admiral (retired) Michael Rogers, who is also a former commander of US Cyber Command within the Defence Department, said the challenge presented by misinformation – or fake news – campaigns, largely through social media, can’t be solved by governments or private business alone.

“The one that is hardest for a democracy to deal with is the disinformation side, and the Russians are the best there,” Admiral Rogers said in a streamed video chat with Alastair MacGibbon, former cyber-security adviser to Australia’s Prime Minister and now chief strategy officer at local cyber security firm CyberCX.

“They’re the most aggressive about it – you saw it play out in their attempts to influence the 2016 presidential cycle for us,” Admiral Rogers said.

“They’ve acted very aggressively to use cyber as a tool to keep us in somewhat of a disarray internally against each other, to keep us so we’re destabilised, to undermine our institutions.

“That is hard to deal with in a democracy.”

Admiral Rogers, who worked under former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, joined CyberCX’s global cyber-security advisory board in November 2020.

Government slow to grasp fake news

Facebook, Twitter and Google have been heavily criticised since the 2016 US election, which brought the surprise victory of Mr Trump.

The social media sites and search engine were blamed for circulation of false stories before the election, and the continued spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories such as QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory that claims a ring of Satan-worshipping paedophiles are battling Mr Trump.

Facebook and Twitter, among other social media platforms, have been widely criticised after they were used by Trump supporters to organise riots and the storming of Capitol Hill in Washington in January 2021.

Admiral Rogers said that when Facebook, Twitter and Google were founded there was little appreciation of how ingrained they would become in society.

“In the United States, we have these series of conventions, for example, that says if you are electronic media or print, a newspaper or a television station, there is a series of broadcast standards you must adhere to.

“When we looked at this for social media companies, and you have to go back 20 years now, we said to ourselves ‘Well, people don’t really rely on social media as the primary distribution of content, as their primary way of getting information, as their primary way of developing views of the world around them on different issues. So we don’t really need to put any conventions or standards in place, because it’s secondary, everyone is going to continue to focus on newspapers and television.’

“Well, how’s that played out for us?

“I do think we need to acknowledge in the social media world, those who host platforms, who project content, have some responsibilities here in this. It can’t be just ‘Hey, it’s not my job, I’m just a host, the content is up to others, I just provide the forum.’”

Admiral Rogers said the US, until 2016, did not fully appreciate the level of misinformation that Russia was, and continues to, execute.

“It’s not just about a single event like an election. You’re watching them sustain this effort over time. I would argue you see it in Australia and other nations around the world.

“Backlash may be too strong a characterisation, but there’s definitely a discussion now that didn’t exist 10 years ago about what is the role of tech within our societies, and what kind of oversights or regulator regimes should be considered for them,” he said.

Another major concern was the use of cyberspace to disrupt day-to-day activities in nations across the world, including critical infrastructure such as power, water and finance, Admiral Rogers said.

In December 2017, Russian government-backed hackers were credited with a major cyber attack on the Ukraine, which cut power across the northern area of its capital Kiev.

“We’ve seen unsurpassed economic activity, huge growth, great economic prosperity powered by this hyper-connected world we live in,” Admiral Rogers said.

“The flip side is this dependency makes us ever more vulnerable.”

https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/former-nsa-boss-says-misinformation-a-threat-to-democracy-20210421-p57l77

>>13485346

CyberCX Cyber Dialogue: In conversation with Admiral Michael Rogers and Alastair MacGibbon

CyberCX

21 Apr 2021

CyberCX Chief Strategy Officer Alastair MacGibbon is joined by Admiral Michael Rogers (ret.) for an in-depth conversation about key trends in the global cyber security threat landscape, predictions for how the behaviour of cyber criminals and nation-state actors will evolve in the year ahead and the latest findings from the CyberCX Annual Threat Assessment.

Mike was a four-star Admiral who served under Presidents Obama and Trump, headed the US National Security Agency, commanded the US Cyber Command and was chief of the Central Security Service.

He has a unique understanding of the world’s most advanced cyber security technologies and tactics, an intimate knowledge of international threat actors and behaviours, and deep insights into how geopolitical security trends are impacting public and private organisations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S565KEuUAgw

>https://qanon.pub/?q=rogers

>>13485007

Hu Xijin 胡锡进 Tweet

China state-affiliated media

A formal agreement has been cancelled so easily. Australians, is your country a uncivilized rogue that deserves stern admonition and punishment?

https://twitter.com/HuXijin_GT/status/1384905850423291912

AFP News Agency @AFP

#BREAKING Australia cancels state's Belt and Road deal with China

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1384821548826177538

>>13485007

>>13493224

Australia leads the world confronting China, for better or worse

Eryk Bagshaw - April 21, 2021

There will be those who dismiss the scrapping of Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement as merely the end of a memorandum of understanding – a deal that commits no funds and no projects while offering nothing but trouble for its two major players.

But nothing could be further from the truth. For China, the BRI represents its greatest global project. It’s a multi-trillion dollar investment vehicle through which Beijing projects its influence and prestige throughout the world.

“The East is rising and the West is declining,” China’s President Xi Jinping said in March. The BRI, which sweeps across Asia, the Pacific and into Europe, connecting trade, transport, digital networks and infrastructure, is the embodiment of that ethos.

Australia has already infuriated China by banning Huawei and implementing world-leading foreign interference legislation. On Wednesday it set a global precedent by tearing up an agreement similar to one that China has signed with dozens of other countries.

Australia’s relationship with China was already broken. This decision pushes the repair job out by years, if not decades.

Witness China’s deputy ambassador Wang Xining at the National Press Club on Wednesday three years after the Huawei decision: “Australia was the first to ban Huawei in the domestic telecommunication industry and then Australia even persuaded others to follow suit,” he said.

“By doing so I think Australia connived with the United States in a very unethical, illegal, immoral suppression of Chinese companies.”

Beijing’s wrath over the BRI decision will be sharper and longer. After nearly four months of relative calm in the rollicking Australia-China relationship, the temptation for the Morrison government must have been to let the agreement sit and gather dust.

But this also misstates the fundamental judgment of Australia’s foreign policy leaders. The BRI deal should never have been signed. In doing so, Victoria ventured ignorantly into the waters of sovereignty. Treasurer Tim Pallas subsequently questioned Australia’s foreign policy and Beijing revelled in the disunity.

After the government legislated the ability to tear up the agreement if they wanted to, some in diplomatic circles in Canberra believed it had achieved what it desired. It had reasserted control over rogue state policies and sent a signal to Beijing that no more such deals were to be done.

Canberra could have gone through the New Zealand and European models. These countries told their telecommunications operators that they should not use Huawei, but they did not explicitly ban the Chinese company. They are likely to take a similar tack with many of their approaches to the BRI.

But Australia, which knows the dangers of Chinese Communist Party influence better than most, chose not to take that path. Now, more trade strikes are on the table. Half a dozen industries covering $20 billion in trade have already been hit. Education and yes - even iron ore - could be in the firing line.

Australia is once again a world leader. And its exporters will pay the price.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/australia-leads-the-world-confronting-china-for-better-or-worse-20210421-p57laj.html

‘Bankable’: Morrison promotes Australia’s climate record at US summit

Matthew Knott - April 23, 2021

Washington: Scott Morrison has told a summit of world leaders that Australia is on a pathway to achieve net zero emissions as he hit out at carbon taxes for destroying industries and eliminating jobs.

Suggesting that other countries may make impressive climate pledges while failing to deliver on them, Morrison said the international community could rely on Australia because it only made “bankable” promises on emissions reduction.

The beginning of the summit, which is being held virtually, was marred by technical glitches. Morrison’s microphone was muted for the early part of his speech, meaning those watching could not make out what he was saying.

“Mr Prime Minister, I’m not sure we’re hearing you here,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said before the sound was restored.

Morrison’s speech followed an announcement by US President Joe Biden of an ambitious new target of a 50-52 per cent cut in America’s emissions by 2030 based on 2005 levels.

The Japanese, British and Canadian prime ministers also used the summit to commit to new 2030 targets.

Morrison struck a different tone from many other leaders by saying that Australia was focused on the question of how it could reduce greenhouse emissions through technology rather than setting targets.

“Future generations will thank us not for what we have promised but for what we deliver and on that score Australia can be relied upon,” Morrison said.

“It’s right to speak to our ambitions at this summit, it’s also right to focus on performance.”

Morrison assured Biden and the other world leaders that they could “always be sure the commitments Australia makes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are bankable”.

“We have proven performance, transparent emissions accounting and transformative technology targets to unlock pathways to net zero,” he said.

Without announcing a specific timeline, Morrison said: “Australia is on the pathway to net zero.

“Our goal is to get there as soon as we possibly can through technology that enables and transforms our industries, not taxes that eliminate them and the jobs and livelihoods they support and create – especially in our regions.”

Other leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, stressed the importance of carbon price mechanisms, such as carbon taxes, in their speeches to the summit.

Morrison said that Australia was well on its way to “meet and beat” its Paris Accord commitments and that it would update its emissions reduction strategy before the November climate summit in Glasgow.

In his opening speech to the summit, organised by the White House, Biden described climate change as the “existential crisis of our time”.

“This is the decisive decade,” he said.

“The United States isn’t waiting. We are resolving to take action.”

Biden said the world faces a “moment of peril but also extraordinary possibilities” when it comes to tackling climate change.

“The countries that take decisive action now to create the industries of the future will be the ones that reap the benefits of the clean energy boom that’s coming,” he said.

“We really have no choice. We have to get this done.”

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that Japan would strive to cut its 2030 emissions by 46 per cent from 2013 levels, up from its earlier goal of 26 per cent. Suga said Japan would try to push the reduction as high as 50 per cent.

“It will not be easy,” Suga said.

Trudeau announced that Canada would aim to reduce its emissions by 40-45 per cent by 2030 based on 2005 levels, up from 30 per cent previously.

Canada was on track to “blow past” its previous climate target, he said.

Many speakers at the summit praised Biden for again claiming a leadership role for the US on climate change after his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Paris Accords.

“I’m delighted to see the United States is back,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/bankable-morrison-promotes-australia-s-climate-record-at-us-summit-20210422-p57lo4.html

>>13493355

Scott Morrison resists pressure for new emissions target at Joe Biden climate summit

Barbara Miller - 23 April 2021

1/3

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to bow to pressure from the US to use a global climate summit convened by President Joe Biden to announce an increased target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"We are well on the way to meet our Paris commitments," Mr Morrison told the summit, which laid bare the gulf between Australia and many of its key allies in how best to tackle the climate crisis.

"We'll update our long-term emissions reduction strategy for Glasgow", he said, referring to the COP26 climate action conference to be held in Scotland in November.

That leaves Australia aiming for a reduction of between 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, an ambition about half the size of the revised US goal.

Mr Biden announced the US would aim to increase its Paris target to a reduction in emissions of between 50 to 52 per cent by 2030 on 2005 levels.

He told the 40 countries invited to the virtual gathering that there was a "moral imperative" to take action.

"The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable. But the cost of inaction keeps mounting," Mr Biden said.

"The United States isn't waiting."

Ahead of the meeting, US officials had said they expected all countries, including Australia, to come to the table with increased ambitions on reducing emissions if there was to be a chance of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius and ideally closer to 1.5 degrees on pre-industrial levels.

"It's insufficient to follow the existing trajectory and hope that they [Australia] will be on a course to deep decarbonization and getting to net zero emissions by mid-century," a senior official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The official said Australia now "recognises that there's going to have to be a shift".

If the running order at the summit was anything to go by no-one was truly expecting that shift to be announced anytime soon.

Morrison's speech plagued by technical difficulties

Mr Morrison was called on as 21st of 27 speakers, well behind China, Russia, Japan, the UK, South Korea and Canada.

Despite the late hour in Canberra, Bangladesh, Brazil and Bhutan were all afforded the opportunity to speak ahead of Australia.

State Department spokesman Ned Price later told the ABC the he "wouldn't read more into the order or the sequence than is necessary".

"I do not think order was indicative of anything other than temporal sequencing," he said.

By the time Mr Morrison's turn came, Mr Biden had already excused himself from the session.

When Mr Morrison did begin speaking some of his words were lost due to technical difficulties that plagued a number of segments in the summit.

"Mr Prime Minister I'm not sure we are hearing you," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ventured, before another long pause as Mr Morrison was seen but not heard.

Mr Morrison outlined his stated belief that technology trumps climate action targets.

He did not commit Australia to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, as more than 100 nations have now done, including the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.

China has said it hopes to reach net zero emissions by 2060, an aspiration President Xi Jinping repeated at the summit, telling world leaders that "to protect the environment is to protect productivity, and to improve the environment is to boost productivity".

"The truth is as simple as that", Mr Xi stated, saying China was looking forward to working with the US and the international community, "to jointly advance global environmental governance".

(continued)

>>13493366

2/3

Beeps, echoes and leaders on mute

Technical glitches arose from the beginning of the summit. US Vice-President Kamala Harris's voice echoed as she kicked off the two-day summit by introducing Mr Biden.

That set a tone for the event, which also featured random beeps, still more echoes and the accidental disclosure that French President Emmanuel Macron's speech seemed to be taped.

Mr Macron was just minutes into a speech about the urgency of climate action when Mr Blinken cut in, saying: "Thank you very much Mr President, I now turn the floor to the President of the Russian Federation, his Excellency Vladimir Putin."

Mr Macron's voice continued, however, while the camera switched to the Washington meeting room where Mr Biden, climate envoy John Kerry and Mr Blinken were looking at Mr Putin on a big screen.

The sound then cut as a puzzled-looking Mr Putin could be seen consulting with an aide as he waited for his microphone to be opened.

For more than a minute, the Russian leader was silent on screen, staring forward and not talking except to turn his head toward aides.

"The floor is now to the President of the Russian Federation, Mr Vladimir Putin. Mr President," Mr Blinken continued, inviting Mr Putin to speak.

Mr Putin kept waiting as Mr Blinken could be heard saying off-screen: "We may be getting a tape, because that was a tape of Macron."

Moments later, Mr Putin delivered his speech, after which Mr Macron's speech started again from the beginning.

"We had some technical difficulties," Mr Blinken said.

Mr Macron's office confirmed that his speech had been pre-recorded, as he would be travelling to Chad to attend the funeral of late President Idriss Deby.

During several leaders' talks, phone-dialling beeps intruded and there were several times when stray voices talked over leaders.

Australia creating 'hydrogen valley'

On net zero emissions Mr Morrison said the goal was "to get there as soon as we possibly can, through technology that enables and transforms our industries.

"Not taxes that eliminate them and the jobs and livelihoods they support and create, especially in our regions.

"For Australia, it is not a question of if or even by when for net zero, but importantly, how."

In the run-up to the summit Mr Morrison announced investments of $275 million in regional hydrogen hubs and $263.7 million for carbon capture and storage projects and hubs.

He told the meeting Australia aspired "to produce the cheapest green hydrogen in the world".

"Mr President in United States, you have the Silicon Valley. Here in Australia, we are creating our own hydrogen valley," Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison said future generations would "thank us not for what we have promised, but what we deliver. And on that score, Australia can always be relied upon."

Earlier this week the Prime Minister suggested the desire for climate targets was strongest among urban elites, when he said Australia would "not achieve net zero in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities."

(continued)

>>13493368

3/3

'Nothing wrong with bunny hugging'

UK leader Boris Johnson indirectly addressed this vein of thought when he told the summit: "This is not all about some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging."

"There's nothing wrong with bunny hugging but you know what I'm driving at friends and colleagues. This is about growth and jobs," Mr Johnson said, after this week announcing his country would aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 78 per cent on 1990 levels by 2035.

"'Cake have eat' is my message to you", Mr Johnson said.

Jobs, jobs, jobs was also the mantra Mr Biden was attempting to drive home as he addressed the summit, outlining a vision where workers were gainfully employed building a cleaner energy grid, capping abandoned oil and gas wells and building the next generation of electric vehicles.

The summit was an attempt within his first 100 days in office for the US to re-assert itself as a leader and reliable partner in action on climate change, following a disastrous four years on that front under former US president Donald Trump, who walked away from the Paris agreement.

"It is so good to have the US back on our side in the fight against climate change", said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution, said the summit had been a success for the US.

"I think the most important thing that this summit did was that it happened, it's a coming-out party in a sense for the US," she said.

"[It's] saying that we're back."

A number of countries did come to the table with increased targets, including Japan which announced that it aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46 per cent by 2030 compared with 2013 levels, up from 26 per cent; and Canada, which was aiming for a 40 to 45 per cent reduction by 2030 on 2005 levels, up from 30 per cent.

Ms Gross said "there's time" for other countries including Australia to follow suit ahead of the much-anticipated COP26 in Glasgow.

If Australia doesn't, it may find itself slipping even further down the speaking order.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-23/scott-morrison-rejects-us-calls-for-new-climate-change-target/100087492

>>13389479

Israeli minister to be prosecuted over alleged interference in Malka Leifer extradition

Cait Kelly - Apr 23, 2021

A former Israeli Health Minister is set to be prosecuted for interfering in the Malka Leifer case by attempting to prevent her extradition to Australia.

Ms Leifer, 54, fronted the Melbourne Magistrates Court earlier this month and is facing 74 charges of child sex abuse, including multiple counts of rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a child.

She is accused of abusing three sisters – Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper – during her time as headmistress of Adass Israel School in Elsternwick between 2001 and 2008.

Israeli media is now reporting the former health minister Yaakov Litzman will be prosecuted for trying to prevent Ms Leifer from being extradited to Australia to face justice.

The Israeli police fraud unit has been investigating Mr Litzman for several months after it was alleged he pressured psychiatrists to state Ms Leifer was unfit to stand trial in Australia while the extradition case was ongoing.

It is alleged he contacted the three senior psychiatrists who were assessing Ms Leifer on multiple occasions, offering them promotions to find her unfit to travel.

Dassi Erlich previously told AAP she had long believed he had tried to interfere with the case, saying she had met him in Israel.

“He did not seem to want to talk to us until [he was] repeatedly asked to have a word,” Ms Erlich said.

“He looked us in the eye and said – ‘I do not support extradition, and I will not, But I will not intervene.’”

Manny Waks, chief executive of VoiCSA, said his organisation had concerns Mr Litzman had been interfering with the case.

“Having sat through most of the 70 plus court hearings in Israel, it was clear to me, and to many others, that something was amiss,” Mr Waks said.

“When it was announced that Israel Police was investigating Litzman for interfering in this prolonged case, and ultimately recommended that he be indicted, it all made sense.”

The sisters are among 10 witnesses set to give evidence against Leifer in a five-day Melbourne Magistrates Court committal hearing scheduled for September.

Ms Leifer has long maintained her innocence.

Last year the deputy health minister’s office released a statement denying any wrongdoing, continuing to say Mr Litzman was cooperating fully with police.

Ms Leifer flew to Israel 2008 but was arrested there in February 2018 over allegations of child sexual abuse linked to her time as head of the school in the 2000s.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/04/23/israeli-health-minister/

>>13389479

A-G leaning toward indicting UTJ MK Ya’acov Litzman

If the accusations are true, Litzman’s meeting with a key witness in the Malka Leifer extradition case would constitute witness tampering.

YONAH JEREMY BOB - APRIL 22, 2021

Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit is leaning toward indicting top United Torah Judaism MK and Construction and Housing Minister Ya’acov Litzman for fraud, witness tampering and breach of public trust for allegedly interfering in the extradition of alleged pedophile Malka Leifer, subject to a pre-indictment hearing.

Officials would not confirm the leak, though there was a clear sense that the decision was impending.

In August 2019, police recommended indicting then-deputy health minister Litzman.

In a second case, the police had recommended indicting Litzman for bribery, while police had closed a third case against Litzman due to a combination of insufficient evidence and charges which had expired due to the statute of limitations for when a case could be brought.

Despite police recommendations, Mandelblit makes the final decision about whether or not to accept the prosecution’s and the police recommendations.

In 2019, the police said that they found sufficient evidence to charge Litzman with trying to influence the opinion of psychiatrists appointed by the Ministry of Health in order to aid Leifer and prevent her extradition to Australia where she was wanted for dozens of cases of sexual abuse that she is accused of committing while serving as a head of school in Melbourne.

In a statement, the police said that Litzman, a Gur hassid, attempted to pressure the Jerusalem district psychiatrist into falsely stating that Leifer was mentally unfit to be extradited to Australia to stand trial.

The same psychiatrist who originally filed an opinion stating that Leifer was competent to stand trial, allegedly switched his opinion completely after pressure by Litzman.

If true, Litzman’s meeting with the key witness in the extradition case would constitute witness tampering.

He also is accused of threatening other medical professionals at the ministry if they did not write reports in a way favorable to Leifer.

Leifer fled to Israel in 2008 amid allegations that she had sexually abused students at the Adass Yisroel school in Melbourne.

She is wanted on 74 charges of child sexual abuse.

Leifer was arrested in Israel in 2014, but was released after being deemed mentally unfit for the legal proceedings. She was later rearrested after an undercover investigation found that she lived a normal life and was mentally fit to face extradition.

In January, Leifer was finally extradited.

A second case investigated by police was about Litzman’s alleged involvement in trying to influence officials in the ministry to work on behalf of a food establishment whose owner is close to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) politician.

Litzman allegedly frequented the establishment during the period in dispute and allegedly tried to prevent the closure of the company, which had been found to pose a health hazard to the public after several people became sick by consuming its products.

After health ministry inspectors initially closed the establishment, Litzman ordered a new on-site tour including both him and the officials who had closed it.

As part of the tour he told the officials that it should be reopened and that he personally had been eating the food and was fine.

Allegedly Litzman even asked about the officials’ salaries in order to probe whether they could be bribed.

Though the officials did not go for this offer, Litzman could still be indicted for attempted bribery.

The police said that the investigation found sufficient evidence against Litzman to charge him with bribery, fraud, obstruction of justice and breach of trust.

The third case, which was closed by police, included potential charges that Litzman tried to influence officials in the health and other ministries to help various prisoners, especially those with sex-crime convictions, to get early releases.

While many convicts get early releases, ministers are prohibited from involvement in the process which is based on a series of recommendations by professionals about different issues coming from different ministries.

Multiple officials on Litzman’s staff who were also suspects in some of the above cases will also reportedly get off.

After the 2019 police recommendation, Litzman’s office responded, “[Deputy] Minister Litzman has worked throughout his years for the benefit of Israeli citizens, with complete transparency and by law. The office of Litzman has a clear, open-door policy to assist the public. This is without discrimination against anyone, and without clarifying the status of those who call for assistance, except under the law and [with] integrity.”

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/ag-leaning-toward-indicting-utj-mk-yaacov-litzman-666080

>>13485007

We will never surrender to Beijing: Peter Dutton

GEOFF CHAMBERS, OLIVIA CAISLEY and WILL GLASGOW - APRIL 23, 2021

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Defence Minister Peter Dutton says Australia will never surrender its sovereignty to appease China after the Morrison government tore up Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative agreements with Beijing.

Mr Dutton told Nine’s Today show on Friday that Australia has been clear with China from the start and would not “surrender” to threats of retaliation after Beijing threatened to take legal action over the scuppered deal.

“We’re not going to have our values compromised, we aren’t going to surrender our sovereignty,” he said.

It comes as Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne on Wednesday announced that two Belt and Road agreements would be axed under new laws because they were not in the national interest.

Mr Dutton also lashed Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for “doing the wrong thing” by signing the agreement with China in the first place.

“He shouldn’t be entering into agreements that aren’t in our national interest…,” he said. “We are standing up for who we are. We’ve got very important diplomatic relations with many countries including China, but we aren’t going to be compromised by the principles of the Communist Party of China.”

Mr Dutton warned that China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour in the region was a “real problem”.

“It is a real problem when you look at our part of the world, you look at military bases, when you look at the cyber attacks, all of that is not the action of a friend,” he said.

“We need to make sure that, yes, we have an important trading relationship, but China and others need to understand that Australia is not going to be bullied and we’re standing up for our beliefs and that will continue. It will not change.”

Mr Dutton was joined on the show by deputy Labor leader Richard Marles who warned that the relationship between Canberra and Beijing needed to be “carefully managed.”

Scott Morrison will stare down Chinese threats to launch fresh action against Australia, saying he would always protect the nation’s interests and a world that “seeks a balance in favour of freedom”.

As government officials and business leaders braced for retaliation, Beijing on Thursday night said it would “reserve the right to take further actions” after lodging a formal protest with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The decision by Foreign Minister Marise Payne to scrap the BRI deals sparked a furious response, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accusing the Morrison government of “political manipulation and bullying”.

He called Senator Payne’s order under the Foreign Arrangements Scheme a “bad” global precedent.

“The federal government wantonly cancelled the two sides’ agreement and disrupted and undermined the two sides’ normal exchanges and co-operation and harmed China/Australia relations and mutual trust,” he said. “China rejects and deplores this. We have lodged solemn representations with Australia and reserve the right to take further actions.”

He said China urged Australia to “abandon their Cold War mentality and ideological bias”, and “avoid making the already strained China-Australia relations worse”.

Following criticism from the Chinese embassy, which claimed termination of the BRI agreements was “provocative” and “unreasonable”, the Prime Minister said “there is one foreign policy of this country”.

“The Foreign Relations Act … was designed to protect our national interests by ensuring that there were no other agreements entered into by any other level of government that would conflict with Australia’s national interest,” he said. “What we have done is we have followed through. There have been four agreements the Foreign Minister has terminated in line with that Foreign Relations Act. We will always act in Australia’s national interest to protect Australia, but to also ensure that we can advance our national interests of a free and open Indo-Pacific and a world that seeks a balance in favour of freedom.”

(continued)

>>13493500

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The Australia-China relationship has been deteriorating since 2017, with Beijing imposing tariffs, and bans on Australian exporters and increasing aggression in the Indo-Pacific region, fanned by Chinese-backed foreign interference and cyber attacks. Mr Wang accused the Morrison government of targeting China and adopting tactics that ran “counter to our comprehensive strategic partnership”, suggesting that previous actions by Australia, such as banning Huawei from 5G and implementing world-leading foreign interference laws, were made using “dubious and groundless reasons” that had poisoned “mutual trust”.

“The Australia side reviewed more than 1000 deals and only decided to cancel four; two of them are agreements with China, so Australia’s claim that the decision doesn’t target any particular country does not hold water,” he said.

“China has signed BRI co-operation documents with 140 countries and 31 international organisations. Australia is the first and only country to tear apart an agreement.

“It has set a bad precedent.”

Leading Australian industrialist Malcolm Broomhead on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the Morrison government for cancelling the Victoria’s BRI deal with China. The chairman of mining, oil and gas giant Orica, BHP board member and former head of a pro-BRI organisation said the dramatic axing would damage the nation’s trade relations with China.

“Like many people in business, it is just a complete mystery as to what the Australian government is trying to achieve here,” Mr Broomhead told The Australian.

“I just don’t understand the deliberate provocation of China which sits at odds with ‘we want to be friends’.

“You get mixed messages.

“The reality is that every time we do something, we do it in the most antagonistic way and it has got major trade implications for us. I would hope the government understands that.”

Mr Broomhead was the chairman of the Australia China Belt and Road Initiative, founded by self-proclaimed Chinese-born influencer Jean Dong, which lobbied Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to sign the BRI.

In recent years, China has slapped a range of sanctions on Australian exports, including coal, wine, barley, timber and seafood, valued at more than $2bn.

Under the Foreign Arrangements Scheme, any deal between foreign national governments and universities, local and state governments deemed to be against the national interest can be cancelled by the federal government.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said Australia would not be “bullied by anyone” in exerting its sovereign rights.

Mr Dutton said the government would be “very disappointed” if China did retaliate against the decision to abolish the BRI deals signed by Mr Andrews in 2018 and 2019.

“We, like China, exert our sovereign rights, and as a proud country, we’re not going to allow our policies, our principles, our values, to be undermined and if you are involved in that activity, then there is going to be pushback by the Australian government,” he told 2GB radio.

The Chinese embassy had earlier released a statement expressing its “strong displeasure and resolute opposition” to Senator Payne’s decision to cancel the BRI agreements.

“This is another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China. It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations,” an embassy spokeswoman said.

Mr Broomhead, a veteran business leader, predicted the decision to scrap the Victorian deals would further damage Australian-Chinese business relationship across education, tourism, agriculture and mining. “Where (China) has the ability to source elsewhere, it will be damaging to us. I would hope the government understands that,” he said.

“I really want the government to tell us what the strategy is.

“They probably have good ideas, I am sure they’re not doing this because they think there is a couple of votes in it, I am sure they have got sound strategic reasons, but they just need to help us understand that.”

While the move was being viewed in business circles as yet another blow to political relations, the Australia-China Business Council played down the importance of Senator Payne’s move, saying it was “not unexpected.” Australia-China Business Council national president David Olsson said Australian business leaders had “for some time been preparing for more challenging times ahead.”

The Morrison government is expected to announce funding in the budget to aid diversification away from Chinese markets to shield key industries from future measures imposed by Beijing.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/scott-morrison-defies-beijings-cold-war/news-story/880de3c496cb10ccf9f6f4d4332bbcc4

https://9now.nine.com.au/today/belt-and-road-peter-dutton-defends-decision-to-scrap-deals-with-bullying-china/cbbeb811-e29e-4896-89de-ab80689133bc

Alexander Downer Twitter Thread

Sorry to read the New Zealand FM has downgraded NZ role in 5 eyes arrangement. And they upgraded FTA with China in February while China was imposing sanctions on Australia. Used to be our best mates. Not now.

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1384627862133739521

—

Aussiebrother-Q.L.D @steven_aus

Weren't you apart of the 5eyes agenda when Obama got you to try and frame @GeorgePapa19?

https://twitter.com/steven_aus/status/1384804501077389316

—

Alexander Downer @AlexanderDowner

No

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1384807864900931584

—

Aussiebrother-Q.L.D @steven_aus

“The meeting I had with Alexander Downer … was probably the most bizarre meeting I’ve had in my entire life and I remember it in very vivid detail,” he said.

https://twitter.com/steven_aus/status/1384809549119377409

EXCLUSIVE: Trump aide speaks of fateful meeting linked to Russia investigation

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6232808667001

Ghislaine Maxwell sues publishers of a new book on her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, saying it portrays her as 'already guilty'

PETER ALLEN - 23 April 2021

Alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is suing the publishers of a new book that portrays her as 'already guilty'.

The legal action against Vice Island - which appeared on French bookshelves last month - comes as the 59-year-old socialite awaits trial in New York while on remand.

She has been indicted for the sex trafficking of underage girls, and the enticement of minors, but the case has not been proved.

This is why she is suing Albin Michel, the Paris publishers, for gross violation of the presumption of innocence, and is demanding significant damages.

There was no immediate comment from Albin Michel after news of the writ broke on Thursday.

Their book, L'île de tous les vices (Vice Island) is by the French writer Jean-Gabriel Fredet and focuses on Maxwell's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late multi-millionaire businessman who was found dead in his New York prison cell in August 2019.

The convicted paedophile was said to have been involved with Maxwell in running a global sex trafficking ring.

Maxwell denies all charges, after being arrested by the FBI in July 2020.

Her lawyer Olivier Laude said: 'The publication of this book by Albin Michel constitutes an unacceptable attack on the presumption of innocence of Ms. Maxwell.

'Given the imminence of her criminal trial, to present her as already guilty - which this book does - is as repugnant as it is irresponsible.'

Mr Laude said Vice Island ignored the fundamental right of the presumption of innocence, and this was why a writ was served on April 15.

Maxwell's legal team is calling for Paris judges to pulp all existing copies of Vice Island, and to order that any future copies state clearly that she is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

In addition, Maxwell is seeking financial damages for the prejudice suffered, Mr Laude added.

Maxwell, the daughter of the later publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, is half-French and was a frequent visitor to Epstein's £7million Paris property in Avenue Foch, close to the Arc de Triomphe.

There have been allegations that young girls were regularly abused inside the apartment, and it is currently considered a crime scene by French prosecutors, who have opened an enquiry.

It is claimed that the sex trafficking ring also included 12-year-old twin girls that had been 'recruited' in Paris.

Prince Andrew, who was a close personal friend of both Maxwell and Epstein, is believed to have visited the Avenue Foch apartment.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an American woman, has told lawyers she was forced to sleep with the Duke after being trafficked to him at least three times when she was 17.

The claims have always been vehemently denied by Prince Andrew, but Ms Roberts Giuffre has said she is prepared to testify against him in court.

The Duke has not been to France since a judicial enquiry was launched into the sex ring in 2019.

In the United States, prosecutors have said they want to interview Prince Andrew, but he is yet to speak to them.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9501427/Ghislaine-Maxwell-sues-publishers-new-book-saying-portrays-guilty.html

https://www.realghislaine.com/media

https://433da961-4072-4f62-a692-d989a9f700d0.filesusr.com/ugd/ba2454_2011ec531dbc4892850f4b69246dba75.pdf

Ghislaine Maxwell to appear in person for first time since her arrest as she pleads to new charges

On Friday it will become clear what toll the last nine months in prison have taken on the British socialite

Josie Ensor - 23 April 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell is set to appear in person for the first time since her arrest last year in a New York court on Friday, where she is expected to plead not guilty to new sex trafficking charges.

Ms Maxwell was granted rare permission to attend the usually procedural court hearing by Judge Alison Nathan.

The 59-year-old British socialite has already pleaded not guilty to charges of recruiting and grooming teenage girls from 1994 to 2004 to provide sexual massages to her one-time boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein. The latest allegation are more serious, involving the sex trafficking of a minor.

Ms Maxwell’s lawyers have been claiming for months that she has lost weight and that her hair has been falling out as a result of the “Kafkaesque” prison conditions in a Brooklyn federal prison. On Friday it will become clear what toll the last nine months in prison has taken.

Should they attend, it will also be the first time she sees her husband and members of her family since she was arrested in a dawn raid on her home in New Hampshire last July.

It is not known who will attend, but her twin sisters, Isabel and Christine, are both residents of the US. Her brother, Ian, who after months of silence last month launched a PR campaign to get his sister freed from custody, was unable to travel from the UK due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Little has been seen of Ms Maxwell's husband Scott Borgerson since the 44-year-old stepped down from his tech company CargoMetrics to avoid being a “distraction”.

Due to the coronavirus most hearings in the Southern District of New York are taking place via Zoom or through a dial-in phone line.

However, Ms Maxwell requested to appear in person after a January hearing held by videolink was hijacked by 14,000 QAnon conspiracy theorists who illegally streamed the proceedings on YouTube.

Those present in the courtroom are required to undergo strict temperature checks and made to wear two masks.

Sources close to the Maxwell family also told The Telegraph that Friday’s appearance was about her wanting to “face her accusers head on”, as well as it being a welcome break from her prison cell at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.