Australia’s act that sparked feud, trade war and Twitter row with China

China destroyed its relationship with Australia this week, but those blaming our virus inquiry are missing something much bigger.

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This week China took a sledgehammer to what was left of its relationship with Australia when a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman posted a tweet that set the world on fire.

Things hadn’t being going well between China and Australia for quite some time, but even by this year’s bizarre standards the gruesome image and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s reaction to it, have pulled the two nations even further apart.

Professor Jane Golley from the Australian National University specialises in Sino-Australian relations and the Chinese economy.

She told news.com.au that the tweet could be seen as the next step after China leaked a bombshell dossier listing 14 reasons why it was “angry” at Australia in November.

She said the timing of the tweet is interesting given what has just happened across the Pacific – where Donald Trump, a US President who was hostile to China throughout his term, looks to be leaving the White House.

“China could have looked at the US election and decided that now is the time to signal to the rest of the world that if you treat Beijing like they perceive the way Australia has, you could be next in line,” she said.

However, she doesn’t believe that this is what was “top of China’s mind” when its government signed off on the now infamous tweet attacking Australia on Monday.

And, despite the commentary around the issue this week, she said the idea that this is all about Australia’s push for a COVID inquiry is misguided.

She believes the affair runs a lot deeper than simply to the confines of 2020, and that things really started to head south between Australia and China back in 2012.

It was then that a single Australian act planted a seed that has dogged the relationship ever since.

That year, we banned Chinese-owned tech giant Huawei from participating in the NBN due to concerns about cyber attacks.

Salt was rubbed in the wound again six years later when the Federal Government banned Huawei from taking part in the rollout of 5G mobile infrastructure, again over national security concerns.

In a paper to be published early next year, Prof Golley and her researchers found that these two incidents had a profoundly negative effect on our relationship with China.

But things took a another plunge after revelations of ASIO reports into foreign interference in 2017, which resulted in the introduction of a new Foreign Interference and Espionage Act in 2018.

“That’s one of the big ones,” Prof Golley said. “China was really unhappy with that.”

There were moments over the years where the perception was that things were getting slightly better, like when Mr Morrison met Xi Jinping at the G20 and APEC summits in 2019.

However, the overall trajectory showed that all was not well between the two nations and in 2020, as we all know, the proverbial really hit the fan.

Let’s break down just some of what’s transpired between the nations this year alone.

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The coronavirus pandemic took hold, with early reports indicating it may have originated from a wet market in Wuhan.

In April, Mr Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus, and China reacted with fury and warned of a boycott on Australian goods.

Since then, China has dealt a series of trade blows, with everything from barley to timber and rock lobsters being slapped with sanctions.

In August, Australia hit back when Treasurer Josh Frydenberg ended the prospects of Japan’s Kirin group selling its $600 million Australian Lion Dairy and Drinks business to Chinese dairy firm Mengniu – saying the sale “would be contrary to the national interest”.

This year has also seen Aussie journalists evacuated out of China and accusations of “spying” levelled against Australia, while the situation worsened in July when Australia rejected China’s claim to “historic rights” to parts of the South China Sea.

The following month, China’s Deputy Head of Mission, Wang Xining, made a stunning speech at Canberra’s National Press Club outlining how Australia had wronged the nation.

In November, a bombshell dossier listing 14 reasons why China was “angry” at Australia was leaked, claiming they were “poisoning bilateral relations”.

And this week, laws are set to be passed that will give the Government the power to scrap agreements struck with foreign governments by states, local councils and universities.

The Coalition says the changes are about protecting Australia’s national security and sovereignty and it effectively gives them the powers to tear up Victoria’s controversial Belt and Road agreement with China if they see problems with it.

Then we get to this week.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news whatsoever, you’ll have noticed that things have really hit rock bottom.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted a “repugnant” fake image of an Australian soldier holding a knife at the throat of an Afghan child, drawing condemnation from Mr Morrison.

China has refused to cave into Mr Morrison’s call for an official apology and, on several occasions through its state media, doubled down on the controversial tweet.

So what becomes of the fractured relationship?

Prof Golley said something needs to give. An olive branch needs to be extended and the brutal economic reality of the situation is that Australia needs China more than they need us – so it’s probably going to have to be Mr Morrison who breaks the stalemate.

“Think of conflict in friendships or marriage where neither party is prepared to back down because it makes you look soft,” she said.

“But I sometimes think it takes the bigger person to extend a genuine olive branch or find some way to break the tension,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s a sign of weakness to show you want a better relationship in the future. If you don’t, just keep on provoking and we can watch our economy crumble and we can watch political tensions escalate as Australians lose jobs.”

“A Chinese official has recently repeated a phrase once use by Alexander Downer, that if you make China your enemy, it will be your enemy,” she said.

“Do we really want to make an enemy of the country that is going to be the most economically powerful country in the world this decade?”

She said it wasn’t about bowing down to China, and Australians are right to pressure them about their human rights abuses — such as the disturbing mass incarceration campaign against Muslims in its Xinjiang province.

However, she said there would be a serious reduction in the standard of living for Australians if the relationship and the trade stand-off worsens.

“If you recognise a power imbalance, and you recognise the fact that they’re not going away surely the best solution is to find ways to cooperate where we can,” she said.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/australias-act-that-sparked-feud-trade-war-and-twitter-row-with-china/news-story/6db3d3052326205958531b2b07bb5815

World is watching as China tests Australia: Sharma

The Australian government must strap in for turbulence in the relationship with China for many years to come, and avoid over-reaction and panic in recognition that Beijing is trying to elicit such reactions, former diplomat and current Liberal backbencher Dave Sharma has warned.

The relationship reached a new low last week when a junior Chinese foreign official tweeted a photoshopped image of an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne reacted angrily, with Mr Morrison demanding an apology and calling the image "repugnant".

The question of how to handle the relationship with an increasingly aggressive China is being hotly debated, with some exporters already counting the cost of their product being rejected at Chinese ports.

In an essay released on Tuesday for China Matters, a thinktank focusing on the rise of China and its relationship with Australia, Mr Sharma said the Western world was looking to Australia for leadership, and must be rebuilt on the realities of 2020.

Australia maintaining course will strengthen resolve among similar nations, he wrote.

"Beijing sees Australia's behaviour as having a demonstration effect on other Western nations: If the PRC is successful in brow-beating our political class and constraining our policy choices, it will serve as a lesson to others," he wrote.

In what could be seen as a dig at his Liberal colleague Eric Abetz, who has been criticised for demanding Chinese Australians appearing at a parliamentary committee hearing denounce the Chinese Communist Party, Mr Sharma said Chinese Australians must be defended when their loyalty or patriotism is questioned.

"Not only are such attacks deeply offensive to our national character, they do us immense strategic harm," he wrote.

Australia's security agencies need to better engage with Chinese Australian communities, Mr Sharma wrote, including changing security clearance approaches to be able to actively recruiting Chinese Australians and Mandarin speakers.

"Many candidates are being turned away and others are leaving government service because of this issue."

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7044741/it-will-serve-as-a-lesson-to-others-sharma-says-china-is-testing-australia/

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Dave Sharma: What should Australia do about its relationship with the PRC?

In the latest editions of China Matters Explores, two Members of Parliament, one from each side of the aisle, pen their views on what Australia should do about its relationship with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Dave Sharma MP and Tim Watts MP both unequivocally oppose decoupling from the PRC. Both note that it is in Australia’s interests to have a “constructive”, “productive” relationship with the PRC.

Dave Sharma argues for greater frankness from our political leaders about the challenges in the relationship. He also thinks that Australia should encourage the United States to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); and include Taiwan in the CPTPP.

Dave Sharma is the Federal Liberal Member for Wentworth.

China Matters does not have an institutional view; the views expressed here are the author’s.

Read the brief here.

https://chinamatters.org.au/policy-brief/policy-brief-november-december-2020/

https://chinamatters.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CME-Nov-Dec-2020-PRC-Relations-Sharma.pdf

Police seize home of pedophile

The home of an accused pedophile has been restrained for the first time using proceeds-of-crime laws, in an “aggressive” new federal police strategy to target the assets of child sex ­offenders.

The $300,000 Adelaide home was restrained in the ­Supreme Court of South Australia in a case that is unique ­because the alleged offender is not accused of profiting from crimes against children.

Instead, police are attempting to confiscate the home on the grounds the man allegedly used the property when he ordered and instructed the abuse of children that he watched live and remotely online.

The man is alleged to have communicated with people in Southeast Asia to procure several children so he could watch them being sexually abused.

He is facing numerous charges, with penalties ranging from 15 to 25 years’ imprisonment.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the AFP-led Criminal ­Assets Confiscation Taskforce restrained the home on November 13. Mr Kershaw had ­announced in September that the homes, cars, cash and other assets of child sex offenders would be ­targeted in a “new and aggressive criminal asset-confiscation ­strategy”.

“This is the first time the AFP has restrained the home of an ­alleged child sex offender, who is not accused of profiting from his crimes, but of allegedly using his property to commit serious offences,” he said on Monday. “This significant civil action … should be a warning to anyone who preys on children.”

Federal proceeds-of-crime laws allow authorities to restrain a person’s property where there are reasonable grounds to suspect they have committed a serious ­offence.

Authorities can seize both proceeds and instruments of crime, using a civil standard of proof that does not require a criminal conviction. The police case is that by allegedly using the privacy and confines of the single-level brick home to commit offences, the property was an instrument in the crimes and could be confiscated.

If the court allows confiscation, the home will be sold and the proceeds will go towards crime prevention and other community initiatives.

“The commonwealth’s proceeds-of-crime laws are a powerful tool to target serious criminality,” Mr Kershaw said. “They have been used to restrain and then ultimately confiscate the homes, goods and cash of outlaw motorcycle gangs, serious ­organised crime syndicates and drug dealers.

“Committing sexual acts against children, and viewing and producing child exploitation ­material is a serious crime.

“If the homes of drug dealers are confiscated, so should the property of child sex offenders. In principle there should be no ­difference in the application of these laws.”

The investigation, Operation Tatsuta, began after Australian Border Force officers examined the man’s belongings in Melbourne on his arrival on a flight from Singapore in February.

Child abuse material allegedly discovered on his iPhone was referred to the AFP and the man was charged. The South Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team, comprising federal and state police, charged him with further offences in April. He is due in court again next year and is yet to enter a plea.

Other similar confiscation cases are expected to follow. Mr Kershaw said the AFP had this year charged 160 people with 1282 offences relating to child abuse, and had removed 106 children from harm. The average number of images seized from ­arrested ­offenders was on the rise, he said.

“In the early to mid-2000s, a child sex offender had about 1000 images, now it’s between 10,000 to 80,000 images and videos. This is not a victimless crime,” he said.

“I make no apologies for using the full force of the law to prosecute, disrupt and deter those who target our children, whether in Australia or abroad.”

Federal police recently succeeded in seizing the assets of a Belgian tourist, Bryan Loyson, who paid for his Australian holiday by selling child abuse videos and photos. Two bank accounts, camera equipment, a drone and scuba diving gear, worth a combined $30,000, were restrained in the Supreme Court of NSW by the CACT in October. Final ­orders allowing confiscation were granted on November 30.

Loyson is not connected to the man whose home has been seized.

The CACT is made up of the AFP, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Taxation Office, AUSTRAC, and Australian Border Force.

It restrained more than $250m in assets in Australia and overseas last financial year, the first step in the confiscation process. Proceeds from confiscated and sold assets go into the commonwealth’s confiscated assets account, used by the Home ­Affairs Minister to fund law enforcement-related and other community initiatives.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/police-seize-home-of-pedophile/news-story/7d2feb1da39bec10d30de3101315bb4c

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Statement from AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw

I outlined in September this year that under my leadership, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) would take a more aggressive strategy to fight the insidious crime of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Today, I can reveal the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) on 13 November restrained the Adelaide home of a man accused of ordering and instructing live-distance child abuse that he watched online.

The man, who is facing numerous criminal charges, is accused of communicating with people in South East Asia to procure several children so he could watch them being sexually abused.

Essentially, he is accused of pay-per-view child exploitation.

This is the first time the AFP has restrained the home of an alleged child sex offender, who is not accused of profiting from his crimes, but of allegedly using his property to commit serious offences.

This significant civil action by the CACT should be a warning to anyone who preys on children.

Should the CACT be successful in court, and orders are made to confiscate the man’s home, the proceeds of the sale of the home will be redistributed to support crime prevention and other community initiatives, including those which protect our children.

The Commonwealth’s proceeds of crime laws are a powerful tool to target serious criminality. They have been used to restrain, and then ultimately confiscate the homes, goods and cash of outlaw motorcycle gangs, serious organised crime syndicates and drug dealers.

Committing sexual acts against children, and viewing and producing child exploitation material is a serious crime. If the homes of drug dealers are confiscated, so should the property of child sex offenders.

In principle there should be no difference in the application of these laws.

The investigation into the man’s alleged criminal activity began in February 2020 when Australian Border Force (ABF) officers examined his baggage when he arrived on a flight into Melbourne from Singapore.

The ABF allegedly found child abuse material on his iPhone and referred the matter to the AFP. The man was charged for possessing the illegal content.

The case was allocated to the South Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (SA JACET), the specialist taskforce comprising AFP and South Australia Police officers who investigate child exploitation offences in SA.

The man was arrested and charged with further offences in April 2020. He has not yet entered a plea to the criminal charges and is next expected to appear in court in 2021.

Just last month, the CACT restrained the assets of a Belgian tourist who bankrolled his Australian holiday by selling online child sex abuse material. Two bank accounts; one in Australia holding about $16,400, and another in Germany holding €8000; plus camera equipment, a drone and scuba diving gear, with a combined estimated worth of AUD$30,000; were restrained in the Supreme Court of NSW.

The prevalence of child exploitation is a serious concern for law enforcement.

The average number of images seized when an offender is arrested has been steadily increasing. In the early-to-mid 2000s, a child sex offender had about 1000 images, now it’s between 10,000 to 80,000 images and videos. This is not a victimless crime.

Every child being abused online is someone’s son or daughter and should not be treated as a commodity for the abhorrent gratification of others.

As the Commissioner of the AFP, I make no apologies for using the full force of the law to prosecute, disrupt and deter those who target our children, whether in Australia or abroad.

This year alone, the AFP has charged 160 alleged offenders with 1282 offences and removed 106 children from harm, in Australia and overseas.

To parents, grandparents and caregivers, please know the AFP will never give up in the relentless fight to keep children and the community safe.

For more information and tips on how to keep children safe online visit accce.gov.au and thinkuknow.org.au

http://accce.gov.au/

http://thinkuknow.org.au/

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/statement-afp-commissioner-reece-kershaw

US intelligence chief slams China’s economic ‘domination’ plan

A senior US official has said China has a plan to unfairly dominate the world’s economy – and it can be summed up in just three words.

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China has a plan to “dominate” the world “economically, militarily and technologically” and a key way it will do it can be summed up in just three words.

That’s the conclusion of the US’ director of national intelligence who has furiously denounced the People’s Republic.

“China believes that a global order without it at the top is a historical aberration,” John Ratcliffe wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

He described China as the “greatest threat to America today” and said industrial espionage has been and continued to be the cornerstone of China’s power grab.

The warning comes as US military leaders have also sounded the alarm over the pace of development of Chinese weaponry.

This week retired general and Joe Biden adviser, Stanley McChrystal, told Axios “China’s military capacity has risen much faster than people appreciate.”

Meanwhile, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley has warned the US needs to face up to the rapid development of robotic weapons.

“They would like to not only match us but exceed us, dominate us, be able to beat us in armed conflict by mid-century,” he told the US Naval Institute this week.

But a leading Australian expert on China told news.com.au this characterisation of the nation’s growth as based solely on intellectual theft was “grossly unfair” and “beyond lazy’.

Mr Ratcliffe said three words encapsulated Beijing’s grand plan.

“I call its approach of economic espionage ‘rob, replicate and replace’.

“China robs US companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology, and then replaces the US firms in the global marketplace.”

Mr Ratcliffe cited Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Sinovel. In 2011, an employee of US technology company AMSC was bribed by Sinovel to steal key wind turbine software.

After the theft, Sinovel ceased paying the US firm for its technology. It was a good deal for the Chinese firm which bribed the employee just $US20,000 ($A27,000) to avoid paying potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in future payments to AMSC.

“Today Sinovel sells wind turbines worldwide as if it built a legitimate business through ingenuity and hard work rather than theft,” Mr Ratcliffe said.

Earlier this year, FBI head Christopher Wray said there were 1000 investigations underway regarding Chinese technology theft in the US. It’s estimated the crime costs American firms between $US300 and $US600 billion ($A200 billion and $A800 billion) a year.

Mr Ratcliffe also said there had been “frequent arrests” of Chinese nationals at US universities, and even of some US academics who have been charged with passing secrets to China.

China has been accused of hacking into and stealing information in Australia, from organisations as diverse as miner Rio Tinto and the Bureau of Meteorology.

Australia and China have signed agreements not commit cyber espionage. It’s also difficult to conclusively prove where any attack may have originated from or what information was taken.

But a 2018 report by think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said the strong suspicion was Beijing was still using espionage to steal technology secrets.

“Beijing doesn’t appear to have ceased commercial cyber espionage activities in Australia,” it said. “China has also improved its tradecraft, making detection harder and perhaps leading to a mistaken perception that activity has become more focused.”

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‘BEYOND LAZY’

Professor Jane Golley, of the Australian National University’s Centre on China in the World, told news.com.au there was no doubt China had snaffled trade and other sensitive secrets. But she said its role in China going from a third world to developing nation was overstated.

“It’s a view that is beyond lazy. While there has been some industrial espionage, to characterise China’s remarkable economic reforms in the last four decades as being purely down to robbery is grossly unfair.”

She nominated her own three Rs: revolution, resilience and resurgence.

The revolution was the country’s industrialisation, its resilience was dusting itself off when some of those initial economic reforms proved disastrous even leading to a deadly famine, and the resurgence was through the drive and determination of the country to change course into a more consumer based economy.

China’s embrace of elements of a capitalist economy, within a communist framework, has been widely seen as key to its economic rise.

Indeed, many overseas companies have happily shared their intellectual property with Chinese domestic firms in order to get a foothold into the country’s valuable market. US car firms, for instance, have long set up joint ventures with Chinese companies to build vehicles for that market within China.

China is vulnerable too. It still has massive shortcomings in crucial areas such as advanced electronics including semiconductors as well as more mundane commodities including soy beans and meat.

The US has also demonstrated that it can choke off access to the supply chain of hi-tech components. That realisation is thought to be behind Beijing’s embrace of a new economic model dubbed “dual circulation”.

The first “circulation” is the domestic economy and involves China becoming more self-sufficient in vital industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing.

The second circulation is the international economy that China still intends to engage in. However, if international trade breaks down the theory is the domestic market will be more able to carry on as normal in the future.

INFLUENCE WANING

Mr Ratcliffe’s missive was certainly bombastic. As well as warning of China’s propensity to indulge in intellectual property theft, he also said Beijing posed a once in a lifetime danger.

“The People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since World War II.”

He said he had shifted the intelligence budget towards China, which had in the past been more focused on Russia and counter terrorism.

But Mr Ratcliffe’s influence may not last for long. Appointed by President Trump to the intelligence chief role in May, he is known as a hawkish member of cabinet on international affairs yet supported Mr Trump’s criticism of the lengthy investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

It’s questionable that incoming president Joe Biden will want someone so outspoken and so closely aligned to his predecessor’s views in such a key position if the US wants to reboot the relationship with Beijing.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/us-intelligence-chief-slams-chinas-economic-domination-plan/news-story/66015ab31ddc796da97f51cc8a0dff5a

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China is national security threat No. 1

JOHN RATCLIFFE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - DECEMBER 4, 2020'

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As Director of National Intelligence, I am entrusted with access to more intelligence than any member of the US government other than the president. I oversee the intelligence agencies, and my office produces the President’s Daily Brief detailing the threats facing the country. If I could communicate one thing to the American people from this unique vantage point, it is that the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since World War II. The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically. Many of China’s major public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party.

I call its approach of economic espionage “rob, replicate and replace.” China robs US companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology, and then replaces the US firms in the global marketplace.

Take Sinovel. In 2018 a federal jury found the Chinese wind-turbine manufacturer guilty of stealing trade secrets from American Superconductor. Penalties were imposed but the damage was done. The theft resulted in the U.S. company losing more than $US1 billion in shareholder value and cutting 700 jobs. Today Sinovel sells wind turbines worldwide as if it built a legitimate business through ingenuity and hard work rather than theft.

The FBI frequently arrests Chinese nationals for stealing research-and-development secrets. Until the head of Harvard’s Chemistry Department was arrested earlier this year, China was allegedly paying him $US50,000 a month as part of a plan to attract top scientists and reward them for stealing information. The professor has pleaded not guilty to making false statements to US authorities. Three scientists were ousted in 2019 from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston over concerns about China’s theft of cancer research. The US government estimates that China’s intellectual-property theft costs America as much as $US500 billion a year, or between $US4,000 and $US6,000 per U.S. household.

China also steals sensitive US defence technology to fuel President Xi Jinping’s aggressive plan to make China the world’s foremost military power. US intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities. There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power.

China is also developing world-class capabilities in emerging technologies. Its intelligence services use their access to tech firms such as Huawei to enable malicious activities, including the introduction of vulnerabilities into software and equipment. Huawei and other Chinese firms deny this, but China’s efforts to dominate 5G telecommunications will only increase Beijing’s opportunities to collect intelligence, disrupt communications and threaten user privacy worldwide. I have personally told US allies that using such Chinese-owned technology will severely limit America’s ability to share vital intelligence with them.

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China already suppresses US web content that threatens the Communist Party’s ideological control, and it is developing offensive cyber capabilities against the US homeland. This year China engaged in a massive influence campaign that included targeting several dozen members of Congress and congressional aides.

Consider this scenario: A Chinese-owned manufacturing facility in the US employs several thousand Americans. One day, the plant’s union leader is approached by a representative of the Chinese firm. The businessman explains that the local congresswoman is taking a hard-line position on legislation that runs counter to Beijing’s interests — even though it has nothing to do with the industry the company is involved in — and says the union leader must urge her to shift positions or the plant and all its jobs will soon be gone.

The union leader contacts his congresswoman and indicates that his members won’t support her re-election without a change in position. He tells himself he’s protecting his members, but in that moment he’s doing China’s bidding, and the congresswoman is being influenced by China, whether she realises it or not.

Our intelligence shows that Beijing regularly directs this type of influence operation in the US. I briefed the House and Senate Intelligence committees that China is targeting members of Congress with six times the frequency of Russia and 12 times the frequency of Iran.

To address these threats and more, I have shifted resources inside the $US85 billion annual intelligence budget to increase the focus on China. This shift must continue to ensure US intelligence has the resources it needs to give policy makers unvarnished insights into China’s intentions and activities.

Within intelligence agencies, a healthy debate and shift in thinking is already under way. For the talented intelligence analysts and operators who came up during the Cold War, the Soviet Union and Russia have always been the focus. For others who rose through the ranks at the turn of this century, counter-terrorism has been top of mind. But today we must look with clear eyes at the facts in front of us, which make plain that China should be America’s primary national security focus going forward.

Other nations must understand this is true for them as well. The world is being presented a choice between two wholly incompatible ideologies. China’s leaders seek to subordinate the rights of the individual to the will of the Communist Party. They exert government control over companies and subvert the privacy and freedom of their citizens with an authoritarian surveillance state.

We shouldn’t assume that Beijing’s efforts to drag the world back into the dark will fail just because the forces of good have triumphed before in modern times. China believes that a global order without it at the top is a historical aberration. It aims to change that and reverse the spread of liberty around the world.

Beijing is preparing for an open-ended period of confrontation with the US Washington should also be prepared. Leaders must work across partisan divides to understand the threat, speak about it openly, and take action to address it.

This is our once-in-a-generation challenge. Americans have always risen to the moment, from defeating the scourge of fascism to bringing down the Iron Curtain. This generation will be judged by its response to China’s effort to reshape the world in its own image and replace America as the dominant superpower. The intelligence is clear. Our response must be as well.

Mr Ratcliffe is US director of national intelligence.

The Wall Street Journal

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/china-is-national-security-threat-no-1/news-story/307a0a61c0c08d1a0386f42586fcf9aa

Freedom Day Cairns: Founder slams QAnon conspiracy theory

The founder for Freedom Day has distanced himself from a Cairns rally that devolved into an open mic session for a bizarre far right conspiracy theory.

Pete Martinelli - December 8, 2020

THE national founder for Freedom Day has distanced himself from a Cairns rally that devolved into an open mic session for believers of the conspiracy theory QAnon.

Freedom Day’s Michael Sims said the weekend rally’s message was tainted by speakers espousing QAnon beliefs.

“It definitely isn’t something we are going for,” Mr Sims said.

“In Cairns it was a bit of an open mike session; I think that was a mistake.

“In Sydney, I hand selected the speakers.”

QAnon emerged on 4Chan in 2017 and was preceded by the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.

It is as a loose collection of discredited and disproved allegations, including, but not limited to, a global child trafficking ring controlled by a cabal of Satanist paedophiles, and that elite celebrities prolong their youth by drinking the blood of captive children.

The theory has been identified as a domestic terror threat in the US by the FBI.

“Personally I don’t support QAnon, I think it’s a load of crap,” Mr Sims said.

“I have lost friends because I wasn’t supporting QAnon.

“They are making us look silly.”

The Cairns rally, attended by at least 100 people and hosted by members of the Informed Medical Options Party (IMOP) featured a key note address by COVID-19 conspiracy theorist Dave Oneegs.

At least 100 people attended the rally.

Mr Oneegs alleged that coronavirus was a hoax and that a COVID vaccine had a darker purpose than to protect its recipients from the virus.

“They are getting ready to roll out the next stage of this take over,” Mr Oneegs said.

“It is no ordinary vaccine; nano technology will interface with the smart grid, it will change your DNA.”

Mr Oneegs’ appearance preceded a succession of speakers from the crowd, most of whom strayed from the rally’s freedom of speech and movement message and into Q territory.

One spoke of “underground tunnels” in Cairns being used to traffic children, leading to Uluru.

“We have it happening here in Cairns. Under our nose there are underground tunnels,” the speaker said.

“Live organ harvesting for the vaccines and all the elite, the politicians.”

Wearing a QAnon t shirt, a former political science lecturer said Australia was “at war” with a “criminal group of psychopaths,” and called for a branch of Ricardo Bosi’s Australia One party to be formed in the Far North.

Informed Medical Options Party’s Hill candidate Tara Garozzo, who posted QAnon posts on social media prior to her involvement with IMOP, urged the crowd to ignore COVID social distancing.

“Make sure you shake hands, hug people in public,” Ms Garozzo said.

A video of the event posted by IMOP Cairns candidate Adam Rowe was edited to remove the QAnon speakers.

“The IMO Party is not affiliated with QAnon,” event MC Paul Christie said.

“There was a whole lot of different people there all concerned about human rights, government over reach, and media propaganda.

“IMO is not affiliated with Australia One, however they do share some common goals.”

https://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/freedom-day-cairns-founder-slams-qanon-conspiracy-theory/news-story/1f6c0a6268e27dc6e1bd3366e2a6e9c8

Man sentenced to seven years in jail for historic child sex offences

NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE - ENGLAND

Humberside Police - 7 Dec 2020

A ‘perverted’ 78-year-old man has been sentenced to spend the next seven years behind bars and the rest of his life on the sex offenders register, after admitting to historic child sex offences dating back to the 80s and 90s which ‘stole the innocence’ of two girls and two boys.

Over a number of years, he integrated himself into families with the intention of abusing vulnerable children.

David Wilson of Yaru Street, Queensland, Australia pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecent assault on a male person and two counts of indecency with a child at an earlier court appearance and was sentenced in Grimsby Crown Court today (Monday 7 December) to seven years imprisonment.

He was the target of a 25-year manhunt by police, after failing to appear in Grimsby Crown Court in 1995 charged with indecent assault against the two now women, who were both under 14 when the abuse occurred.

Within that time, officers explored every possible avenue to try and track him down. In 2013, the two men, who had been abused by Wilson when they were less than 14-years-old, came forward to police, providing new lines of enquiry to investigate.

The painstaking investigation uncovered that David Wilson had changed his identity a number of times to avoid detection, holding a number of passports and driving licenses in Australia and New Zealand under different names and dates of birth. He travelled between the two countries on a number of occasions between 1995 and 2020.

After a coordinated effort between Humberside Police and Australian authorities, he was extradited to the UK in July 2020, seeing a team of detectives fly to Australia during a global pandemic to bring the ‘vile’ paedophile back to Grimsby to stand trial for the devastation he had caused to the four victims.

Detective Constable Nichola Oakley, who has been leading the enquiry since 2013, said: “Firstly, I would like to applaud the bravery and strength of the four victims for disclosing what had happened to them and working with us on what I know has been a long road to justice.

"The sentence reflects the serious nature of the abuse by a person in a position of trust and reinforces that the passage of time does not reduce the impact or severity of the crime.

“Despite him now being behind bars, I know that his actions will forever live with these victims.

“I would like to provide reassurance to others who may have suffered at the hands of sexual abusers that no matter when the abuse occurred, we will listen to you.

“I know that it is often incredibly difficult to come to terms with abuse, and victims can be too frightened to speak out, but as can be seen from this case, we are persistent and will make use of every resource and upgrade in technology to catch predators.”

https://www.humberside.police.uk/news/man-sentenced-seven-years-jail-historic-child-sex-offences

Federal Bureau of Prisons defends how it treats jailed Ghislaine Maxwell

The agency says Maxwell is treated the same as other inmates at her Brooklyn jail, rejecting lawyers' claims she's subjected to unduly restrictive conditions.

NEW YORK - The Federal Bureau of Prisons said Ghislaine Maxwell is being treated the same as other inmates at her Brooklyn jail, rejecting her lawyers' claim she was subjected to unduly restrictive conditions.

As Maxwell prepared a new bail application, the bureau's lawyers said in a letter released on Monday that the 58-year-old British socialite "remains in good health" despite a Covid-19 outbreak at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Maxwell has been jailed since July, when she pleaded not guilty to helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls in the 1990s and lying under oath about her role.

Lawyers for the prison bureau said Maxwell is served three normal meals a day and keeps her weight around 134 pounds.

They said she has access to recreation, computers and TV, can work on her defense for much of the day, and makes her allotted eight hours a month of social calls.

Maxwell's lawyers had complained of unequal treatment, saying she has been "excessively and invasively searched," and woken up every 15 minutes to ensure she was still alive.

In response, the letter said inmates "are subject to searches, including body scanners," and that Brooklyn jail officials check cells overnight with flashlights "to ensure inmates are still breathing and not in distress."

Maxwell's lawyers are expected by Tuesday to submit a new bail application to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan.

The judge had denied bail on July 14, agreeing with prosecutors that Maxwell posed a substantial flight risk.

Maxwell has been in custody since her July 2 arrest at a New Hampshire home where prosecutors said she had been hiding. She faces up to 35 years in prison at her scheduled July 2021 trial.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-bureau-prisons-defends-how-it-treats-jailed-ghislaine-maxwell-n1250299

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.539612.88.0_3.pdf

>>11932212

>>11932237

Richard George Aldinger: Sydney man jailed for child sex abuse videos

Married 64-year-old father Richard Aldinger has left court in handcuffs after admitting he received and sent sickening child abuse material from the Philippines over a Facebook group.

Child protection organisations have blasted a “slap on the wrist” given to a Sydney man for a string of child abuse charges, including paying to watch “depraved” videos of a 12-year-old Filipino girl being abused.

Richard George Aldinger, 64, admitted in 2019 to seven charges of procuring a child outside Australia and possessing, soliciting, accessing and transmitting child abuse images.

Even though the charges each carry a maximum penalty of 10 to 25 years in jail, Aldinger, was sentenced to at least two years and nine months in prison before he would be eligible for parole in September 2023, with a maximum of four years and six months.

Child protection organisation Bravehearts executive director Hetty Johnston said she was “disgusted” by the sentence.

“This type of character will never be different to who he is. I’m disgusted. There is nothing preventive about that sentence,” Ms Johnston said.

“It makes me furious the Commonwealth brings in these tough sentences and the courts disregard the intent.”

Registered charity Fighters Against Child Abuse Australia president Adam Washbourne questioned why there were maximum sentences when they were never used.

“He’s been given a slap on the wrist,” Mr Washbourne said.

Federal attorney general Christian Porter was contacted for comment.

District Court Judge Justin Smith said Aldinger’s acts became “more explicit and depraved” as time went on.

The married father-of-two used the aliases ‘Debbie Mendoza’ and ‘Ricky Nixon Jones’ on Facebook and sent payments of $80-100 to a Filipino woman in return for sexual photos and videos of her teen daughter, including one where she uses a sex toy.

The facts reveal Aldinger said to the mother: “I wish (the girl) was more sexual … I just masturbated looking at (the girl’s) pictures.

And in a message sent on March 22, 2017, Aldinger sent a video of him penetrating a sex doll.

“It became more explicit and depraved over time,” Judge Smith told the court.

Aldinger recorded a video chat with himself and a 12-year-old girl while she touched a woman’s breasts and in another, he is filmed on the floor masturbating while a young girl mimicked his hand movements.

Other videos found in raids on his home last year included one showing an eight-year-old girl being abused by a dog, a girl with her hands tied behind her head with thick yellow rope and wearing a collar while being abused, a boy being abused by a woman and a two-minute video of a man having sex with a girl between four and seven years old.

Despite all of this, Aldinger told authorities he did not have any sexual interest in children.

Aldinger told police the behaviour was his “dark secret” and a “fantasy world” where he could “escape from reality”, according to agreed facts.

In total, 1737 files were seized.

“Possession of child (abuse material) is a callous and predatory crime. The material can not come into existence without the exploitation and abuse of children,” Judge Smith said.

The young victim in the videos with Aldinger was rescued from Rizal and her mother was charged.

In a statement to the court, the girl said she was used by her mother who took money off foreigners because her father was unemployed.

Judge Smith said Aldinger’s acts were “unplanned and unsophisticated” and that he was remorseful and unlikely to reoffend.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/richard-george-aldinger-sydney-man-jailed-for-child-sex-abuse-videos/news-story/e1ec6fba9d56d0ca914647e5c203d391

Parliamentary inquiry to examine extremism in Australia amid increasing far-right threat

The parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security is set to examine extremist movements in Australia, including the rising threat posed by right-wing extremism.

An inquiry into extremism in Australia will go ahead following a push by Labor for the government to look at the rising threat specifically posed by right-wing extremists.

However, the inquiry will look at all forms of extremism in Australia, not just the increased threat posed by the far-right.

The parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security has signed off on an inquiry to examine the concerns following a referral from Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton.

This comes after vocal demands from Labor’s Home Affairs spokesperson Kristina Keneally for parliament to examine Australia’s preparedness against the increasing threat presented by right-wing extremism.

Senator Keneally said she welcomed the government’s move to back the inquiry.

“The emerging threat of right-wing extremism demands that we take seriously the advice of our national security agencies,” she told reporters in Canberra.

“And that we as a parliament take seriously our ability to keep Australia safe.”

Committee chair and Liberal MP Andrew Hastie said the committee would examine the nature, extent and threat posed by extremist movements and persons holding extremist views in Australia.

This includes examining the motivations, objectives and capacity for violence of extremist groups including - but not limited to - Islamist and right-wing extremist groups.

It will also look at how these have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic amid warnings far-right groups have attempted to exploit the crisis to recruit new members and push its ideology.

The committee will also review the geographic spread of extremists in Australia and their links with international organisations.

Another focus will be examining possible changes that could be made to the Commonwealth’s terrorist listing laws to address current and emerging terrorist threats.

Labor MP Anne Aly said it was important the differences between right-wing extremism and other forms were recognised.

“We know right-wing extremist groups [are] a real threat to Australia,” Dr Aly told reporters.

“We know that there are young people who are being radicalised here.”

Amid these concerns, the inquiry will review the role of social media, encrypted communications platforms and the dark web in allowing extremists to communicate online.

It will also examine the readiness of Australia's counter-terrorism strategy to prevent radicalisation to extremist views and what steps could be taken to disrupt and deter hate speech.

The rising right-wing extremist threat

Australia remains the only country within the five eyes intelligence network to so far avoid listing any right-wing extremist groups as banned terrorist organisations.

However, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation recently said up to 40 per cent of its counterterrorism caseload had become linked to right-wing extremism.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has also identified a “steady increase” in operations directed towards right-wing extremism.

An 18-year-old NSW man espousing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist was also arrested on Wednesday after allegedly encouraging a mass casualty terrorist attack.

He had been communicating on social media platforms, most of which were mainstream, about various extremist issues and had accessed material on bomb-making.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/parliamentary-inquiry-to-examine-extremism-in-australia-amid-increasing-far-right-threat

>>11804308

Pamela Anderson dons bikini, asks President Trump to pardon Julian Assange

Pamela Anderson is stripping down to a bikini in hopes of getting President Donald Trump’s attention.

The former “Baywatch” star and Playboy model shared two black-and-white photos on Twitter Monday, including one of herself in a two-piece swimsuit, while asking Trump to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

“@POTUS please #pardonjulianassange,” Anderson wrote as she held signs that said “Bring Julian Assange home Australia” and “I am Julian Assange.”

The 53-year-old actress was reportedly rumored to have dated Assange, an Australian citizen, when he was living in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy from 2012 to 2019. He sought refuge to avoid rape and sexual assault allegations in Sweden, as well as espionage charges in the United States.

Assange, 49, was evicted from the embassy last year and arrested on allegations he directed former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak classified information. The U.S. charged him with violating the Espionage Act by publishing thousands of documents, which included the identities of confidential sources for American armed forces and diplomats.

The Associated Press reports Assange, who has been in a London prison since April 2019, has argued that he is a journalist and entitled to First Amendment protections for publishing leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also say the conditions he would face in a U.S. prison would breach his human rights.

According to The Guardian, Assange’s lawyers said earlier this year that ex-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) claimed Trump offered Assange a pardon if Assange would say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic emails. The former Republican congressman later denied it, saying Trump had not offered the pardon but Rohrabacher said he would ask Trump to pardon Assange if he denied Russian ties.

Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, has also asked Trump to pardon the WikiLeaks founder.

“These are Julian’s sons Max and Gabriel,” she wrote on Twitter on Thanksgiving, along with a photo of their young children. “They need their father. Our family needs to be whole again. I beg you, please bring him home for Christmas @realDonaldTrump.”

https://twitter.com/pamfoundation/status/1336002200380698624

https://www.syracuse.com/us-news/2020/12/pamela-anderson-dons-bikini-asks-president-trump-to-pardon-julian-assange.html

Vatican risks going broke slowly, former treasurer Pell says

ROME (Reuters) - Former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell said the world’s smallest state risked slowly “going broke” unless it tamed ballooning deficits, and expressed hope his successor would be spared the resistance to reform that he said thwarted him.

Pell, 79, was cleared of sex abuse charges in his native Australia in April. His book “Prison Journal”, published this month, recounts his 13 months in solitary confinement in tiny cells following one of the most divisive trials in the country’s history.

In a 90-minute interview with Reuters in his Rome apartment across the street from a Vatican gate, Pell discussed his darkest moments, how his faith kept him from falling into despair, the harm the worldwide sexual abuse scandal had done to the Church and the current state of affairs in the Vatican.

“Look, it was bad, it wasn’t like a holiday, but I don’t want to exaggerate how difficult that was. But there were many dark moments,” he said late on Monday, wearing a black clergyman suit with a silver cross around his neck.

Pope Francis appointed Pell, the former archbishop of Sydney, in 2014 to head the newly-created Secretariat for the Economy and mandated him with cleaning up the Vatican’s murky finances.

Pell ran into resistance from some Vatican officials, particularly Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, then deputy secretary of state who wanted Vatican departments to continue controlling their own funds.

Becciu forced out external auditors brought in by Pell as well as the Vatican’s first auditor general.

In September, Pope Francis fired Becciu, accusing him of nepotism and embezzlement. Becciu, who also has been caught up in a scandal involving the Vatican’s purchase of a luxury property in London, denies all wrongdoing.

Pell went to Australia in 2018 to face charges and never resumed his Vatican duties. He returned to Rome in September and has met quietly with his successor as treasurer, Jesuit priest Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves.

BALLOONING DEFICITS, SHAKY PENSION FUND

“I think we are much, much better placed than we were,” Pell said of the state of reform of Vatican finances, including new accounting and controls.

“The great challenge that lies before the Vatican is that it’s slowly going broke. Now that’s a bit of an exaggeration (but) it’s slowly happening,” he said, adding that he was basing his comments on public information.

Growing Vatican deficits - the 2020 shortfall is expected to be more than 50 million euros - and a looming deficit of hundreds of millions of euros in the Vatican’s pension fund means potential future trouble.

“You can’t go on like that forever,” Pell said. “The only thing that I’m keen on is that people, in a very clear-headed way, face up to the situation.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc with Vatican finances, forcing it to dip into reserves and implement tough cost controls. The Vatican Museums, a once-dependable cash cow, have been closed for months, resulting in a loss of millions of euros in revenues.

Pell said he had no doubt that Guerrero was honest and up to the job. “What is important is that he continues to have the support of the pope and that he is not thwarted the way I was thwarted,” he said.

He called the London deal “an absolute fiasco, even in terms of competence,” with “enormous losses” that will have to be written off. Vatican magistrates are investigating the deal.

Pell said the lowest point in his prison ordeal was when his first appeal was rejected in August, 2019.

“I was down. I was very disappointed. I came to be very cross,” he said. “(But) I said my prayers and got on with things.”

https://uk.reuters.com/article/vatican-pell/vatican-risks-going-broke-slowly-former-treasurer-pell-says-idINKBN28I2GS

>>11960061

Leading cardinal says Church needs rules on status of ex popes

ROME (Reuters) - Cardinal George Pell, a leading Roman Catholic conservative, said the Vatican needs clear rules to govern the status of future popes who resign rather than rule for life and that such a move would help Church unity.

Pell is one of the highest-ranking Church figures to speak publicly on the need for rules since 2013, when former Pope Benedict, 93, became the first pontiff in 700 years to abdicate.

Church law says a pope can resign, as long as he does so willingly and not under pressure, but it lacks specific rules on his status, title, and prerogatives.

“The protocols on the situation of a pope who has resigned need to be clarified, to strengthen the forces for unity,” Pell, 79, writes in his book, “Prison Journal”, which is being published this month and recounts 13 months he spent in solitary confinement.

Pell, who has always maintained his innocence, was cleared of sex abuse charges in his native Australia in April and has returned to Rome. He was Vatican treasurer until 2018.

Since stepping down, Benedict has occasionally allowed his views on specific subjects to be aired outside the Vatican, to the joy of some fellow conservatives who have used them as ammunition to contest his successor Pope Francis’ more open-minded and inclusive papacy.

“While the retired pope could retain the title of ‘pope emeritus’, he should be re-nominated to the College of Cardinals so that he is known as ‘Cardinal X, Pope Emeritus’, he should not wear the white papal soutane (cassock) and should not teach publicly,” Pell writes.

Days before Benedict abdicated on Feb. 28, 2013, he scripted his own rules, investing himself with the title pope emeritus, deciding to continue to wear white and to live in the Vatican.

But his presence has caused some confusion among the faithful, with some extreme right-wing conservatives still refusing to recognise Francis as pope.

“There is only one pope,” Pell said in a wide-ranging 90-minute interview with Reuters late on Monday in his Rome apartment across the street from a Vatican gate.

In the book, Pell writes that “probably the measures would be best introduced by a pope who had no surviving predecessor”. That means that in the present Vatican situation, Francis would have to wait until after Benedict dies.

Others have suggested that since a pope is also the bishop of Rome, a former pontiff should be called ‘bishop emeritus of Rome’.

He would then be subject to the same written rules, last updated in 2004, that cover retired bishops.

Those rules say any bishop emeritus “will want to avoid every attitude and relationship that could even hint at some kind of parallel authority to that of the diocesan bishop, with damaging consequences for the pastoral life and unity of the diocesan community”.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idCAKBN28I330

As relations with China worsen, Australia fears US abandonment under Biden admin

Professor of international security says relationship with US is 'fundamentally important' to Australia's ability to speak on the global stage

With Donald Trump’s presidency quickly coming to an end, countries like Australia, who find themselves at odds with an increasingly assertive China, fear a Biden administration will leave them high and dry.

John Blaxland, professor of international security and intelligence studies at the Australian National University, told Fox News that “the U.S. relationship with Australia is fundamentally important to Australia's confidence in its ability to speak its mind on the international stage,” and admitted, “There's always been in Australia a bit of a fear of abandonment” when it comes to the United States.

He went on to say that fear of abandonment is now at an all-time high with Joe Biden set to assume the presidency.

“There's undoubted concern about just how much the Biden administration will want to cut a deal that leaves friends and allies like Australia and Japan on the chopping block,” Blaxland said.

Joe Biden has nominated Antony Blinken, his top foreign-policy adviser during the 2020 campaign, to serve as his secretary of state.

As incoming secretary of state, Blinken has suggested one of his top priorities will be to restore relations with China, "Trying to fully decouple, as some have suggested, from China … is unrealistic and ultimately counterproductive," Blinken said in September. "It would be a mistake."

The world has seen the relationship between China and Australia slowly deteriorate over the past few years, and tensions have risen to new levels in recent weeks.

Australia has been aggressive in standing up to China, something Blaxland attributed to the U.S. strength against Beijing under President Trump.

According to the professor, “President Trump's approach towards China has given a degree of space for Australia to be more assertive and that is overall is a positive thing.” However, he admits the past four years could come back to haunt his country “if there isn't a continuity in that policy and if Australia is left exposed.”

The rift between the two nations has grown since the Australian government called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. China has since imposed tariffs and other restrictions on a number of Australian exports.

The conflict reached a head last week after a Chinese official posted a doctored image that showed a grinning Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanded an apology from the Chinese government. The communist regime refused to apologize.

Moving forward, Blaxland said what’s required from Australia is “to avoid responses to provocations and additional provocations from Australia's political class.” While at the same time, “what's critical is that we diversify our markets.”

At the moment the nation remains in limbo, waiting with bated breath to see how a Biden administration will handle China.

“China has been picking off anyone who dares to challenge it,” said Blaxland. “I think there's a growing consensus now that if we don't stand with Australia, we'll all be in the same position eventually.”

https://www.foxnews.com/world/australia-china-relations-fears-abandonment-biden

Child abuse victim says porn website Pornhub profited from her child rape

A 19-year-old spends hours every day trawling the internet trying to pull down images of her own child sex abuse – including from Pornhub.

Ginger Gorman- DECEMBER 9, 2020

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WARNING: Contains details of child sex abuse

“Pornhub actively profited from my rape,” says a tweet written by 19-year-old child sex abuse survivor-turned-activist *Avri Sapir.

It’s part of a horrifying thread posted in March this year in which she explains a portion of her traumatic personal story.

“I was abused & used in child porn from when I was a baby until I was 15,” Avri writes, “A few weeks ago, videos of me when I was a toddler … being raped were uploaded to Pornhub. The videos were left up for hours, days. One got over 600 views. They were monetised with ads.

“The more views they got, the more ads were put around and in front of the videos. I flagged the videos as ‘underage’ and filled out the ‘content removal request form’, but nothing happened. I watched the view count tick up faster and faster,” she continues.

These are the tweets that compel me to message Avri, who is based in the US, and ask if we can talk.

Over Zoom, I ask what life – and the future – looks like for Avri today. She refers to a recent suicide attempt, one of many over the years, and says: “I did not think I would still be alive at this point, so I didn’t really plan ahead this far.”

Frankly, it’s not surprising. Victims of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are known to suffer lifelong consequences including, but not limited to: depression, anxiety, feelings of shame, suicidal thoughts, problems with self-esteem and trouble maintaining intimate relationships.

Although Avri has managed to graduate from high school this year after missing years of school, she still spends hours each day trying to track down and remove images of her abuse from numerous online sites.

“I basically stay in the library until it closes and then go home and continue looking for my content until I fall asleep,” she says. “That is something I have to build into my schedule every day.”

Associate Professor Michael Salter, from the University of New South Wales, is an internationally known expert in child exploitation. He has been assisting Avri to access appropriate support in North America.

“There are actually a lot of Avris out there – girls and women trying to get their material offline, trying to police their own material. This makes sense because the platforms are not required to proactively search for CSAM (Child Sex Abuse Material), and only have to remove if they are notified,” explains Dr Salter.

“I know victims here in Australia in a similar boat. One was told by her abusers that her material was online, and if she could find it, then she could get it taken down. So, she went looking for abuse material. Which instantly discredits and compromises her, because she’s gone searching for illegal content.”

One of the reasons there are ever more victims like Avri out there is because the COVID-19 pandemic has seen an exponential rise in CSAM production and usage around the globe.

The latest statistics from the Australian Federal Police show that from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received 21,688 fresh reports of child exploitation.

This compares to 14,165 reports received from the previous financial year. In this same period, CSAM charges are up 226 per cent, from 372 last financial year to 1214 in this financial year

Detective Superintendent Paula Hudson heads up the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation in Brisbane – an agency led by the Australian Federal Police but comprised of all state and federal policing agencies.

According to Detective Superintendent Hudson, victims are getting younger and the CSAM is becoming more violent.

Pointing to recent cases the ACCCE has been working on, she says: “The children are two, three, four years of age. And the cases are more radical, involving animals as well. It’s like a competition to make it more violent and as extreme as they [perpetrators] can.”

Supt Hudson says that while the increase in reporting was partly related to growing public awareness, the global demand for CSAM was rapidly rising. “I don’t want to detract from the fact that the appetite is still extremely high, particularly in this last period,” she says.

(continued)

>>11960473

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As news.com.au reported in August, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen many people isolate and work from home, and therefore using our home computers more. Without bosses breathing down our necks, dark impulses, or even just curiosity, can play out in terrible ways.

Not only has the pandemic created more opportunity for perpetrators, but Supt Hudson says for victims, COVID has “created a perfect storm” and heightened what police call “the threat environment”.

“The market research that we recently conducted shows that only 52 per cent of parents know what their kids are doing online or what apps they use,” she says, “People are not supervising [their kids] enough.

“We have actually detected child exploitation networks dedicated to the COVID pandemic.” Predators were on the clear and dark web openly “discussing what they’re doing during the pandemic, discussing the opportunity that it’s giving them to create new material, and then how they can access relatives’ children that they have at hand,” Supt Hudson adds.

The dark web, often used for illegal activates, is only accessible using a special type of custom software. The clear web is the one most of us are familiar with. And surprisingly, this is where much CSAM is gathered and exchanged – on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WeChat and Twitter.

When social media platforms self-detect CSAM or the public reports it to them, those reports are passed on to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in US. Australian referrals are sent to the ACCCE.

Det Supt Hudson says they get referrals from all the social platforms listed above (and more). Shockingly, 40-60 pre cent of NCMEC reports are from the platforms owned by Facebook, including FB Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

In Avri’s case Pornhub did eventually take the videos down – but not before it caused her significant distress. Despite Pornhub’s supposed fingerprinting technique – which is meant to prevent problematic content being re-posted – some of Avri’s videos later reappeared on the site.

Avri believes Pornhub’s flagging system is “basically just for show” and take-down requests “aren’t taken seriously”.

Pornhub did not respond to news.com.au’s detailed questions about Avri’s case or how the platform moderates content and verifies the age and consent of users in their videos.

Meanwhile, more than two million people have signed a petition to shut down Pornhub due to sex trafficking and child rape.

In order to catch perpetrators, Supt Hudson explains that police use a suite of laws and methodologies, many of which can’t be disclosed here (in order not to assist those criminals exploiting kids).

However, Supt Hudson says a key device used to rescue victims is forensic victim identification: “All our victim ID investigators are Interpol trained and they absolutely go through every single image and video, literally pixel by pixel, looking for clues that will assist in identifying the victims.

“And they look for even things like school logos, clothing, it could be the pattern on the carpet. It’s absolutely an amazing job that they do to track and trace and locate both victims and offenders. And they do this internationally,” she says.

Although the internet has made CSAM production and sharing far easier, this isn’t a new crime.

Australian woman Bianca, who is in her 40s, will never forget the violent sexual abuse and torture she was subjected to over four-days during a summer camp she attended as an 11-year old. She calls the man who did this to her Martin.

Thinking back to the extreme physical and mental abuse, Bianca says: “I think I felt like I was going to die on quite a few occasions. I guess there was always a part of me that was really determined to survive. And I think that’s what’s helped me be a relatively functional human today.

“I don’t pretend to be completely functional. I’ve spent a lot of years in my teenage years, self-harming and I’ve been hospitalised with eating disorders and all kinds of things like that, just to cope.”

Bianca, who still carries injuries from that abuse, believes perpetrators like Martin seek out certain types of children – including a lonely kid like her childhood self who was seeking love and approval.

“I think that they’re very finely attuned to vulnerability in their victims and they know how to choose somebody. And I guess I’ve spent my whole life feeling like I have this ‘pick me’ across my forehead.”

(continued)

>>11960481

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These days, Bianca is a parole officer – and she’s sure her childhood abuse is the reason.

“I’ve spent my life, my career wanting to understand complicated people like Martin. I just want to understand.”

Just like Avri, Bianca never stops wondering if her images are out there somewhere, circulating.

“Every time I see somebody who’s been convicted of child exploitation type offences in my job, who I know has been exposed to child exploitation material, online or through other analogue means, I look at them and I think, ‘Have you seen [the pictures of] me?” says Bianca.

“It feels like I can’t ever fully put it away because … I know that there are groups of men, that are very organised, who swap images. Maybe I’m not out there anymore. But I might be, and I have no way of knowing that.”

Towards the end of our interview, she expresses a sentiment almost identical to one Avri has also voiced to me.

“The experience of being the subject of images that then go on to be used to pleasure men everywhere, there’s this dirtiness and this feeling of never being able to fully escape. And it’s a very lonely experience,” she says.

The person responsible for Avri’s abuse was her father. He’d separated from her mother and Avri lived with him, mainly due to her mum’s significant mental ill health. As a toddler, her dad firstly used her in CSAM videos and images, and then, from age eight, pimped her out in person to men for large sums of money. The abuse got increasingly violent.

“I thought it was normal. I didn’t know there was anything wrong with it. It had been happening my whole life and I thought that it happened to everyone,” she tells me.

These days Avri lives back with her mother, whose mental health has significantly improved.

“I started high school when I was 16,” Avri tells me, “The story we gave [the school] is that I had been home schooled my whole life.”

At school Avri started an Instagram account to fit in with her friends – mostly featuring photographs of nature. Occasionally she’d post a selfie, although she doesn’t like having her picture taken “for obvious reasons”.

“I got contacted by some paedophiles who recognised me. And that was when I realised that it wasn’t over and that it was never going to be over,” she says.

“I still have nightmares and flashbacks and there are so many ways that it still impacts my life today … but I’m safe now and the physical sexual abuse is no longer happening.

“That’s not the case with the videos and the images. They immortalise the abuse. They make it so that it’s never-ending. That trauma is still going on because people are going to be watching it, and sharing it and downloading it every second of every day of my life.”

Ideally, Avri wants legal controls over the platforms so they are forced to keep children like her safe.

CSAM expert Dr Mike Salter agrees: “Ideally, we want an agency in every country who provides case management – uses proactive detection like the Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s Project Arachnid which actively crawls the web to find CSAM, then works to get the material down, communicates with platforms, supports the survivor to get mental health care and redress. They take the burden off the survivor.”

* Names changed

Where to get help

If this story has brought up trauma for you, call 1800 RESPECT or Blue Knot 1300 657 380

• To report child sexual abuse material in Australia, to go the ACCCE website and click on the red “report abuse” button.

https://www.accce.gov.au/

• You can also report child exploitation via the esafety website.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/report

• If you are an innocent family member of someone producing or using CSAM and you need support, contact the PartnerSPEAK Peerline on 1300 590 589 (Check website for hours)

https://www.partnerspeak.org.au/contact

• For crisis support call Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/child-abuse-victim-says-porn-website-pornhub-profited-from-her-child-rape/news-story/7e3880aa4a94504acea7675bb8112cff

>>11960473

Ginger Gorman Tweet

In case you are interested, these are the questions Pornhub did not answer about child sex exploitation on their site:

CC @AvriSapir

https://twitter.com/GingerGorman/status/1336520644381458432

Miranda Devine: What was Bill Clinton doing on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island?

Bill Clinton may have some explaining to do now that a witness has placed him at Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious Caribbean retreat, writes Miranda Devine.

Miranda Devine - December 9, 2020

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A bombshell story vanished without a trace in the US last week. Naturally, it was about the Clintons.

Turns out former US President Bill Clinton visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, after all — according to one of his most trusted former aides.

For anyone keeping track of Epstein’s criminal exploits before he conveniently hanged himself in a Manhattan jail last August, allegedly, while awaiting prosecution on sex trafficking charges, Clinton was firmly in the frame as a frequent flyer on the sexual predator’s private jet, aka the “Lolita Express”.

Clinton’s name appears at least 26 times as a passenger between 2001 and 2003 in flight logs obtained by Fox News.

But while Clinton, 74, admits to indulging in a few private flights on the Boeing 727, and there are photos of him aboard, he always has denied it conveyed him to Epstein’s private ­Caribbean island, Little St James, also known as “Orgy Island”.

As recently as July, a Clinton spokesperson issued a statement denying allegations from Epstein’s one-time “sex slave”, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, that she once saw Clinton on the ­island with “two young girls” from New York. She also told a court that sexual orgies were a feature of life on the island.

Clinton has maintained he only took four trips on the Clinton Foundation donor’s jet and knew “nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to”, according to a 2019 statement from The Clinton Foundation.

But last week, in an interview with Vanity Fair, one-time Clinton “body man” turned “counsellor” Doug Band, who worked for the former president for nearly two decades, spilled the beans on his former boss.

Band, 48, corroborates Giuffre's recollection, and claims Clinton flew on the convicted sex offender’s jet to the island in January 2003.

“Confessions of a Clintonworld Exile,” chronicles the spectacular falling out between Band and the Clintons in 2015 that was triggered when Bill and his only daughter Chelsea wanted a bigger slice of the Clinton Foundation booty Band was profiting from with a lucrative global consulting business.

Band quickly went from Bill’s “surrogate son” to persona non grata and, five years later, now that the Clinton power is waning, has ­decided to unload on his former ­mentor.

His claims are all the more plausible because of photos which surfaced earlier this year of Clinton receiving a neck massage in an airport chair from one of Epstein’s air hostesses, then-22-year-old Chauntae Davies, who went on to accuse Epstein of rape.

Clinton also was photographed at the door of the jet with Epstein pal Ghislaine Maxwell, who currently is in jail on charges of grooming underage girls.

Maxwell also attended Chelsea’s wedding in 2010.

“Ghislaine had access to yachts and nice homes,” Band told Vanity Fair. “Chelsea needed that.”

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Band claims he grew leery of Epstein’s unsavoury reputation for underage sex and banned him and Maxwell from attending Clinton events from 2011 but he knew “Chelsea and her father would be very angry” about his intervention in the friendship.

The Clintons deny Band’s claims, issuing a statement to the magazine maligning him as a self-serving leech who cashed in on “his boss’s Rolodex” during Bill’s post-presidential life.

“He put the [Clinton] Foundation at risk by leveraging a world-class philanthropy for his own financial gain.”

But there’s no doubting Band and Bill once were close enough to share a lot of secrets.

“There were years that Clinton spent more time with Band than with any other person — including Hillary and Chelsea,” says the magazine.

These days, Band says he wants nothing to do with the family that made him so “fabulously wealthy” he lives in a $20 million town house in Manhattan that once belonged to David Rockefeller.

He describes Clintonworld as being “like a cult.”

The magazine quotes Band allies saying he was pushed out of Bill’s orbit because Chelsea, now 40, was jealous of his “favourite-son” status.

“Chelsea hated Doug because he was like a son to her father,” a friend said. “Band took offence that Chelsea treated him at times like hired help”.

The final straw, says Band, came in June 2011, when Chelsea allegedly demanded equity in his consultancy business, saying the $2.5 million cut he’d offered to her dad wasn’t enough.

“I thought she was kidding or deeply sick,” Band told the magazine.

Chelsea, eight years younger than Band, accused him of planting a gossip page story about her marital problems. He described her in emails as a “spoiled brat kid”.

Later that year, Band told Bill that if he “wanted to have girlfriends, he should divorce Hillary and move on with his life”.

Ouch.

Reportedly that was the end of a beautiful friendship.

Strangely enough, there has been less reporting of multiple claims of Clinton’s visit to Little St James and his Epstein links than there have been attempts to smear President Donald Trump for his past association with the pervert billionaire.

Video footage from 1992 repeatedly is played showing Trump, then a New York real estate developer, partying with Epstein in Florida.

In 2002, Trump notoriously told a magazine Epstein “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side”.

But two years later Trump fell out with Epstein over a Florida property deal and banned Epstein from his Mar-a-lago Club because of allegations he had sexually assaulted a girl there, according to a lawsuit filed by one of Epsteins’ victims.

As much as the media likes to play up Trump’s Epstein links, and downplay Clinton’s, the evidence keeps pointing in the opposite direction.

Miranda Devine is in New York for 18 months to cover current affairs for The Daily Telegraph

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/miranda-devine-what-was-bill-clinton-doing-on-jeffrey-epsteins-private-island/news-story/cf3f7fd1809320e3a87ebe29814bdb86

Nine Entertainment newspapers quit carrying China Watch supplement

The eight-page Communist party newspaper has been distributed in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian Financial Review

Nine Entertainment has quietly dropped an arrangement with China Daily to carry an eight-page Communist party newspaper each month in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian Financial Review.

Nine’s move to drop the propaganda sheet China Watch follows similar decisions by media organisations across the world, such as the UK’s Daily Telegraph, which shelved its own lucrative agreement as the pandemic hit in April.

The already strained relationship between Australia and China hit a new low last week with Scott Morrison demanding an apology after a Chinese foreign ministry official tweeted a digitally created image that appeared to show an Australian soldier cutting the throat of a child in Afghanistan.

Under previous owners Fairfax Media, in 2016 the newspapers began carrying the lift-out which is prepared by the Chinese Communist party’s official English-language organ.

At the time, the media company said the insert was a commercial printing arrangement purely for revenue and it was carried in other newspapers internationally including the Washington Post, the Telegraph and France’s Le Figaro.

It ran with the disclaimer that the supplement “did not involve the news or editorial departments” of the respective Australian newspapers.

Nine declined to comment on the ending of the relationship on Tuesday but Guardian Australia understands the contract was not renewed six months ago.

Rival publisher News Corp Australia publishes a Chinese language version of the Australian website with a limited number of its stories translated. The editor-in-chief of the Australian, Chris Dore, said the website was still operating but was not funded by the Chinese state.

“The Australian is not receiving money from China for its Chinese-language edition,” Dore told Guardian Australia. “Unlike the Nine Entertainment tabloids, the Australian has never taken sponsored content deals from the Chinese government.”

Early in the year, as the coronavirus took hold in China, Nine News’ political editor, Chris Uhlmann, said he found the insert “extremely disturbing”.

“Since the moment the decision was made [in 2016] to have the China Daily insert in the Sydney Morning Herald, I’ve made it clear that I’ve found it an extremely disturbing development that Communist party propaganda has the apparent endorsement of an Australian media organisation,” he told News Corp. “I said that before I joined Nine and I haven’t changed my opinion.”

In February, the supplement promoted the government and praised its response to Covid-19, quoting the state-run Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. “China has taken the most comprehensive and rigorous containment and mitigation measures and many go well beyond the requirements of the International Health Regulations,” it said.

https://twitter.com/CUhlmann/status/1228101347041370113

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/dec/09/nine-entertainment-newspapers-quit-carrying-china-watch-supplement

>>11931540

Tech giants forced into media deal

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Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for news content and share data collection methods with media companies and public broadcasters, under world-first laws that will deliver funding lifelines for community, regional and national outlets.

Josh Frydenberg said the government’s mandatory news media bargaining code was ­designed to level the playing field and ensure the “rules of the digital world mirror the rules of the physical world”.

The Treasurer, who will put legislation into parliament on Wednesday giving him the authority to designate other companies under the code, including YouTube and Instagram, warned of the need to arrest a free-fall in traditional advertising revenue sparked by digital disruption.

Mr Frydenberg said for every $100 of online advertising spend, $53 went to Google, $28 to Facebook and $19 to other participants. “This is a huge reform. This is a world first and the world is watching what happens here in Australia,” the Treasurer said.

“Our legislation will help ensure that the rules of the digital world mirror the rules of the physical world.

“That has been our intention all along … to sustain our media landscape here in Australia.”

After attacking the draft code Mr Frydenberg released in July, Google and Facebook secured concessions in the legislation. The government inserted a “two-way value exchange” clause factoring-in benefits media companies gained from “having eyeballs on their product”.

News Corp Australia, which publishes The Australian, said the code was a “significant step forward in the decade-long campaign to achieve fairness”.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said he was more “focused on the outcome of negotiations than the code itself”. He added that the two-way value exchange was a concession.

“I dare say we have differing views of that value," Mr Miller said. “They do push traffic to our sites, but it’s our content which drives people to their sites. In many ways, it’s a co-dependency.”

A Nine Network spokeswoman said: “The continued concessions to the digital platforms only entrench both their monopoly power and the significantly unfair imbalance in regulation.

“These companies pay little or no tax, contribute little and often negatively to our culture, and employ no creative teams.”

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the ABC had pledged to redistribute revenue raised from commercial deals with Google and Facebook into its regional journalism operations.

“ABC and SBS are included,” Mr Fletcher said. “That’s so they have the benefit of the remuneration provisions of the code. I should add that the ABC has given the commitment that revenue it earns under the code, it will dedicate to increased regional journalism.”

(continued)

>>11960610

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After the government released the draft code in July, Google Australia managing director Mel Silva criticised it as a “heavy-handed intervention” that threatened to hurt services “we can deliver to Australians”. Facebook said the code could reduce its “investment in the news ecosystem in Australia”.

A Google spokesman said on Tuesday the company had not “seen the revised code yet”.

Facebook Australia managing director Will Easton said the company would review the legislation when it was released on Wednesday.

The enforcement regime, which has received in-principle support from Labor and will initially apply to Facebook News Feed and Google Search, is the result of three years of work by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and Treasury.

Mr Frydenberg, who will review the code after one year of operation, said that, if the digital platforms were unable or unwilling to reach a commercial agreement, a final offer arbitration model, led by a panel of up to three, would kick in.

“This final-offer arbitration model will allow for what is called two-way value exchange,” the Treasurer said. “The money can only go one way: the money can only go from the digital platforms to the traditional news media businesses. But the arbiters need to take into account the benefits that traditional news media businesses get by having eyeballs on their product.”

Mr Frydenberg and Mr Fletcher called on media and tech companies to finalise deals outside the mandatory bargaining code and flagged that deals were already close to being struck.

Under the proposed laws, which will be referred to a Senate committee, two parties that reach agreement outside the code can “turn off” key elements of the governing rules. Google and Facebook must meet minimum standards including giving 14 days’ notice to news businesses of algorithm changes and explain the types of data provided to media companies.

Mr Fletcher said that, following discussions with the tech ­giants, the government had agreed to change the period of notice of algorithm changes from 28 to 14 days.

The code imposes obligations on Google and Facebook to ensure they cannot retaliate against media businesses or disadvantage content by favouring one company over another.

Mr Fletcher said the intention of the code was to support the long-term diversity of Australian media and address a “fundamental imbalance” in bargaining power.

Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said Labor was prepared to “support, in principle, efforts to ensure that the playing field is levelled between the tech platforms and the news media organisations”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/tech-giants-forced-into-media-deal/news-story/2390c97d98527b020cd68fdc657253cc

>>11872209

Canberra turns spotlight on Victoria's Belt and Road deal as veto laws pass

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The federal government will immediately examine whether it should scrap Victoria's Belt and Road agreement with China, as one of Australia's top national security academics says states must equip themselves with national security units to better manage foreign influence.

Powerful new foreign veto laws, which passed Federal Parliament on Tuesday, give Victoria three months to explain to the federal government why its deal with the Chinese government is in Australia's national interest.

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald can reveal the process of dissecting an agreement does not have to begin after the three-month period, and the Commonwealth will begin immediately scrutinising some foreign agreements that are of most concern to national security agencies.

Federal government sources confirmed Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative, which Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas again defended on Tuesday, would fall into this category.

The Andrews government has been seeking legal advice in recent months on whether its Belt and Road deal would fall foul of the new laws. Amid rising tension between Australia and China, the Commonwealth will now have the power to cancel or proactively block agreements reached by states, territories, local governments and public universities with foreign governments if they are deemed to compromise Australia's foreign interests.

Professor Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, will use a speech at Canberra’s National Press Club on Wednesday to warn of the "unsustainable absurdity" that state governments are underqualified for their level of international engagement – for example, Victoria and its Belt and Road deal.

Professor Medcalf will tell the Press Club that beyond the new legislation, it is now incumbent on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government to adopt a security ethos that loops in states and territories, business and the broader community.

"There is no hiding from the fact that state and territory governments can be seen by foreign powers as weak links in the protection of Australian sovereignty or the nation’s ability to present a unified foreign and security policy to the world," he will say.

"States and territories are where it gets real. They don’t deal with the abstractions of diplomatic talking points or strategic analysis, but the tangible day-to-day elements of national resilience and national vulnerability – critical infrastructure, front-line geography, and the daily decisions and livelihoods of Australian citizens."

A former senior analyst with the Office of National Intelligence, Professor Medcalf suggests every state should establish a national security unit within the premier’s department, led by a team of five or six officials with high-level security clearances, giving them access to classified Commonwealth security information.

He believes such units would have better informed decisions such as Victoria’s engagement in China’s Belt and Road strategy, signed in 2018 as a memorandum of understanding, and the NSW government’s 2016 deal to sell electricity distributor Ausgrid to two Chinese and Hong-Kong-based companies, which was later overturned by the Commonwealth, citing national security concerns.

"If state governments can afford to maintain quasi-diplomatic trade offices with highly paid trade commissioners in foreign cities, they can afford to invest in co-contributing to the nation’s security too," Professor Medcalf will say. "For its part, the Commonwealth needs to be willing to share security information and intelligence with the new state and territory units."

(continued)

>>11960645

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Professor Medcalf’s comments reflect Foreign Minister Marise Payne’s sentiment after the Foreign Relations Bill passed on Tuesday, when she conveyed a keenness to work with states and territories on foreign agreements to advance Australia's interests globally.

"This legislation will ensure stronger connection between the Commonwealth and states and territories on matters of foreign policy and foreign relations," she said.

Professor Medcalf will also tell the Press Club that federal security and intelligence agencies have started briefing state governments on foreign interference and cyber attacks, as they do to corporate chief executives and university vice-chancellors.

"But the clearance issue means these sometimes need to be sanitised or expressed in general terms," he will say.

"And, as we’ve seen from the Victorian Belt and Road controversy, not all the briefings are accepted, or taken as seriously as they should."

Australia’s relations with China hit a new low last week after a Chinese government official tweeted a fabricated photo showing an Australian soldier with a knife to the throat of an Afghan child, prompting an angry response from Mr Morrison.

Victorian Treasurer Mr Pallas acknowledged on Tuesday that it was possible his government's Belt and Road deal could be scrapped within months, and he called on the Commonwealth to start patching up relations with China.

"All I would advocate for is that the Commonwealth continue to repair the relationship with China as best we can, because it's about making sure that we have free and fair trade between us," he said.

"We do not support restrictions on trade, we do not support the actions that China has recently taken. But we definitely want to get back to a position where we can work co-operatively between our nations."

While Mr Pallas again defended the agreement, Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said he could not identify significant improvements for Victorian agriculture due to the Belt and Road Initiative.

"I’m not saying there aren't any, but I can’t see how it’s benefited Victorian farmers above and beyond any other agriculture sector in any other state," he said.

Victorian Rock Lobster Association president Markus Nolle – whose industry has been hit by Chinese export bans – went further, saying the benefit to the local industry had been "zero".

"Clearly that agreement was signed in good faith. While it wasn’t prescriptive, it was done with mutual obligation and benefit in mind," Mr Nolle said.

"We can’t think of a better time to open the dialogue through that agreement."

https://www.theage.com.au/national/canberra-turns-spotlight-on-victoria-s-belt-and-road-deal-as-veto-laws-pass-20201208-p56lpd.html

Etsy seller providing childlike sex dolls modelled off 14-year-old Instagram star

An online seller has given a disturbing justification for selling ‘vile’ sex dolls online, with Border Force revealing a spike in the products being sent to Australia.

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Vile child sex dolls are being sold brazenly on a popular online retail site, as authorities reveal more than 100 have been seized from Australians in the past five months alone.

One seller openly gloated on online sales platform Etsy that the sex doll they were providing was modelled off a 14-year-old Instagram star.

The seller, with the username Sexy Lady Fox, unwittingly revealed the horrific inspiration for the sex dolls when contacted by an Australian sexual assault advocacy group posing as an interested buyer.

The sex dolls are advertised as being 156cm tall — the average height of a 13-year-old girl — and are able to be customised to look like specific children if a photo is provided, according to disturbing texts sent to a member of advocacy group Collective Shout.

“We can change the wig,” Sexy Lady Fox said in reply when provided with two computer generated images of young children.

“I think it is very similar to the images you send me.”

After NCA NewsWire notified Etsy of the seller, it swiftly deactivated the shop from the sales platform.

When contacted by NCA NewsWire, ‘Sexy Lady Fox’ gave an extraordinary justification for providing the disturbing product, which is regarded as child sex material in Australian law and carries a penalty for importation of up to $555,000 and 10 years’ imprisonment.

“We are selling the most required real dolls on the market,” the seller said, who identified themselves simply as Federica.

When asked if it was the intention to make the dolls look underage, they said: “To be honest, if I think that somebody (will) buy and use a real doll instead doing something wrong with a young girl, I’m grateful.”

This horrific justification was rejected by Collective Shout as “self-serving”.

“Men who are found with child abuse dolls are also (often) found with other forms of child sex abuse material, including things like photos and videos of children and babies being raped and tortured,” said Collective Shout campaign manager Caitlin Roper, who is also completing a PHD at RMIT University researching sex dolls and robots.

“There are reported scenarios from this year of men still incorporating living children into their child sex abuse doll use.”

(continued)

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Ms Roper cited research from the Australian Institute of Criminology, which concluded there was no evidence these products prevented child sexual abuse.

“Instead, they present a risk of escalation and may actually increase the likelihood of child sexual abuse,” she said.

The providers of the childlike sex dolls have proved they will go to extraordinary lengths to supply customised material to abusers, Ms Roper told NCA NewsWire.

“Men could see a girl out in public, take a photo and say, ‘I want a doll modelled on her’,” she said.

“They could send in photos of children they know or have some kind of caretaking power over, so there’s lots of ways men can use this to victimise living children.

“It’s a new way they can be victimised and abused even without their knowledge and without their presence.”

The brazen criminality comes as new data provided to NCA NewsWire reveals a spike in the number of childlike sex dolls being imported into Australia.

Australian Border Force (ABF) seized more than 100 dolls in less than five months to November 18.

So far this calendar year, 191 dolls or parts of dolls were found, compared to 145 in the whole of 2019, with the majority found in packages sent from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Assistant Customs Minister Jason Wood said the ABF and law enforcement more broadly were “focused on combating the attempted import of these vile products into Australia”.

“Increased intelligence work undertaken across the Home Affairs portfolio and the ABF’s commitment to detecting this abhorrent material has ensured these items are stopped at the border,” he said.

Legislation introduced in June allows for a mandatory minimum sentence of four years’ imprisonment in situations where it is the person’s “second-strike” child sexual abuse offence.

“These penalties reflect the serious role that these products can play in normalising and desensitising offenders to child sexual abuse,” Mr Wood said.

“These products sexualise children and cause great harm. The ABF is committed to working closely with our law enforcement partners, both here in Australia and overseas, to combat this issue, and we will continue to pursue and prosecute.”

Other sites have appeared more proactive in eliminating the abuse material as the presence of childlike sex dolls becomes more common.

Earlier in the year, the ABF worked alongside major Chinese e-commerce marketplace Alibaba to shut down an offshore vendor importing dolls into Australia.

The border force’s superintendent in Queensland, Amanda Coppleman, said the increase of the crime was a huge concern and assistance from online retailers was crucial.

“Online e-commerce sites like Alibaba.com play a role in eliminating the supply of these childlike sex dolls and have the ability to shut down vendors,” she said.

“The fight against child exploitation is an ongoing and evolving one but each successful achievement is an important milestone.”

https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/etsy-seller-providing-childlike-sex-dolls-modelled-off-14yearold-instagram-star/news-story/5baac0a4b8c02dd3dd711d57e1bd9531

'Grave violations of human rights': Supermarkets, retailers uncover exposure to modern slavery

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Australia’s leading supermarkets, retail stores and mining companies have uncovered hundreds of cases of modern slavery throughout supply chains, severing ties with third-party contractors, negotiating pay increases and forcing the return of confiscated passports to migrant workers.

Woolworths Group has uncovered several instances of forced labour in its audits while Wesfarmers has acted on hundreds of critical breaches, including allegations of excessive overtime, unauthorised subcontracting and bribery.

The federal government's mandatory reporting system has forced the nation's biggest companies to investigate a range of serious exploitative practices such as human trafficking, slavery, forced labour and debt bondage in Australia and overseas.

It will on Wednesday build on laws that require companies with turnover of at least $100 million to report on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and the steps taken in response, with a new five-year action plan involving government, communities, unions and business to further crack down on worker exploitation.

Unions and humanitarian groups say the coronavirus pandemic, which has put unprecedented pressure on supply chains, has highlighted the importance of ensuring the human rights of workers are upheld.

About $US150 billion ($203 billion) a year is generated in the global private economy from forced labour alone, with almost 25 million people in the Asia-Pacific region estimated to be enslaved in global supply chains.

"Modern slavery has no place in our society. This is why we have been relentless in our opposition to these grave violations of human rights through implementing a strong program of initiatives to combat modern slavery in Australia and abroad," Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs Jason Wood said.

The government will outline its own efforts to fight slavery throughout its procurement activities, focusing on high-risk areas in investments, textiles, overseas construction, and cleaning and security services.

(continued)

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Woolworths Group, which includes its supermarkets, Big W and Dan Murphy's, revealed it had confronted six suppliers from Malaysia, where workers from Myanmar were reimbursed thousands of dollars each in recruitment fees.

The company said it was watching for increased human rights risks relating to climate change, cotton sourced from China and the management of COVID-19.

It also found its seafood, cocoa and nuts suppliers in Bolivia, Ivory Coast and Vietnam had exposed its companies to extreme risks of forced labour.

"This is due to the inherent risks in agriculture, high levels of product exported from high-risk countries and substantiated cases of forced and child labour associated with a product category," its report said.

It found five non-food categories had "extreme risks of forced labour" and following allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang province in China, it had started tracing its garment supply chain there.

"We have no direct suppliers producing goods in Xinjiang and are conducting further due diligence on cotton sourced as a raw material," it said.

Unchained founder and chief executive Stephen Morse said exploitation in Australia took on many forms, with the Australian Institute of Criminology estimating that between 2015 and 2017 there were up to 1900 victims of modern slavery in the country.

He said a recent report showed the overwhelming majority of international students were still subject to wage theft and poor employment conditions.

"There are some shining lights in leadership on this issue from some of our biggest companies but many are still falling short," Dr Morse said. "There is some way to go but we are taking some positive steps."

Wesfarmers, whose stores include Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Officeworks, identified more than 340 "critical breaches" across 105 suppliers in the 2020 financial year.

Its audit found the biggest risk in its Australian workforce, usually through third parties, was migrant labour exploitation through cleaning contractors.

"There is both a moral and a business case for the steps we are taking to identify, report, address and ultimately eliminate any exploitation of vulnerable people with whom we may be involved, directly or indirectly, overseas or at home," Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney said.

The report found Wesfarmers' supply chains risked exposure to human trafficking through apparel purchasing in Cambodia, as well excessive overtime in Bangladesh and Vietnam. Four critical breaches related to three suppliers that were "exited" immediately and no further supply orders were placed at the remaining 17 suppliers with 40 critical breaches.

https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/grave-violations-of-human-rights-supermarkets-retailers-uncover-exposure-to-modern-slavery-20201208-p56ljm.html

Entering the grimy world of the dark web

RACHAEL FALK - DECEMBER 10, 2020

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To the outside world, Shannon McCoole was an ordinary guy — a good guy — a government-employed­ family carer to some of South Australia’s most vulnerable children. But on the dark web he was a king, head administrator of a hardcore child pornography site with more than 45,000 members worldwide.

It was here he posted images of children in his care, images such as that of a little girl naked on a bed with a handwritten sign next to her, “Aussie”.

McCoole’s youngest victim was an 18-month-old girl, who raised alarm bells when she began stomping on her doll’s head and grabbing its groin. Another victim, a little boy, has longstanding behavioural issues and hides under chairs if he feels threatened.

It took four years to uncover McCoole’s identity. Four years of gruelling police work before he could be charged and ultimately sentenced to 35 years’ jail. Four years during which thousands of children could have been saved.

When McCoole was caught, he had a choice. He could give consent­ for investigators to take control of his accounts or he could refuse. Ultimately, he handed over control to police, allowing them to operate covertly, which led to the arrest of numerous predators around the world. But if he had refused, authorities would have been powerless, because under our laws McCoole had the right to say “no”.

It is cases such as this that make legislation to combat dark web criminals, such as that introduced into the federal parliament last week, vitally important. Without such laws, child-sex predators, terrorists and drug-dealers can continue to operate unfettered on dark web forums and market­places. They are afforded the right to hide behind a veil of encryption and anonymisation. They have the power.

The proposed Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 seeks to introduce­ law-enforcement powers that will enhance the ability of the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intellig­ence Commission to combat ser­ious online crime.

While electronic surveillance powers do exist, they are simply not fit for purpose when it comes to the proliferation of dark web-enabled crime, which is increasing in scope and scale. It is difficult to detect and perpetrators are almos­t impossible to locate and identify.

The bill has three key compon­ents, allowing for warrants for data disruption, network activity and account takeover.

Put simply, police will no longer have to ask permission to access a paedophile’s accounts.

And to be clear — this is not about the government spying on innocent Australians. Ours is not a surveillance state. This is about breaking down the barbican shielding serious criminals.

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Despite what some keyboard warriors might say, these people do not deserve protection in the name of privacy. Such an asser­tion is morally obtuse and falls foul of other laws that have existed for decades, such as telephone interception powers.

Privacy is valuable but it must have limitations and these limitations must correlate with the social­ contract we have all entered into, upon which modern democracies such as Australia’s are built.

Social contract theory holds that for society to function properly, individuals must give up certain rights. This is for the common good and is as true today as it was 300 years ago. Hence, the social contract and all it stands for can no longer simply be applied to the physical world.

It is only natural that its meaning must be expanded and hold to account unacceptable behaviour in the digital domain.

In 2020, digital dualism — the belief that the online and offline worlds are clearly distinct, do not interact and do not intersect — is unfeasible. A digital identity is simply an extension of the indiv­idual and does not absolve serious wrongdoing that occurs online.

And these horrors are happening right here, right now. During the past 12 months, the AFP’s ­Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation has intercepted more than 250,000 child abuse material files online and 134 children — 67 in Australia — were removed­ from harm in the 2019-20 financial year.

During the COVID-19 pandem­ic, the ACCCE has identified new users of dark web child exploitation sites seeking advice and guidance regarding avoiding detection by law enforcement. Concurrently, the sharing of child exploitation material uploads tagged “original content” has increased substantially. The volume of livestreamed abuse is up too, with reporting of suspicious financial transactions indicating payment for such content increasing 32 per cent in the six months to June this year, as compared with the previous six months.

The time for action is now to ensure our laws can protect all Australians, especially our most vulnerable citizens, our children. We would not tolerate flagrant, horrific abuse of children next door. So why would we accept it on the dark web just because­ it is hidden from view? If we are complacent, we are just as culpable.

Rachael Falk is chief executive of the Cyber Security Co-operative Research Centre

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/entering-the-grimy-world-of-the-dark-web/news-story/056ed0f021c452524b6f054574dd02d7

Clearnet test

>>11705819

>>11838747

Global Times editor Hu Xijin lunches at Australia’s embassy in Beijing

Australia’s Ambassador to China Graham Fletcher had the editor-in-chief of the Global Times Hu Xijin over for lunch at the embassy on Wednesday, hours before the nationalistic tabloid decided that “China-Australia relations need to improve”.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Wednesday lunch with one of Australia’s most influential critics in China.

Editor Hu was less discreet, posting a lengthy account in Mandarin on his personal Weibo social media account.

“I was invited to have lunch with the Australian Ambassador to China Mr Graham Fletcher. China-Australia relations are so tense now, I believe it is not easy to be an ambassador to China now,” Mr Hu wrote in a note posted to his 24 million Weibo followers.

Not surprisingly, their discussion focused on the bilateral relationship, a subject the Global Times has covered stridently throughout China’s eight month long trade retaliation campaign against Australia.

According to Mr Hu, he told Australia’s ambassador: “In the eyes of the Chinese, Australia is currently the most unfriendly country to China besides the United States.”

“In particular, Australia has taken the lead in excluding Huawei from the construction of its 5G network, and has taken the lead in passing the ‘Anti-Foreign Interference Law’ against China. On the South China Sea issue, it has jumped higher as an extra-regional country than an intra-regional country,” Mr Hu recalled saying, using almost identical language used in his tabloid’s Thursday lead editorial titled: “Among US Allies, why is Australia keen to attack China?”

Ambassador Fletcher has not commented on the published exchange – or what Australian produce was served at lunch – but according to Mr Hu he said Australia was doing what was necessary to safeguard its interests.

The experienced diplomat, widely considered to be one of Australia’s top China hands, noted its policy towards Huawei was the same as Japan.

“He does not think that Australia has turned to the United States. He asked me to note that Australia’s attitude on many issues related to China is different from that of the United States. He emphasised that Australia hopes to improve relations with China. At the same time, he also said that Australia is an ally of the United States and this cannot be changed,” Mr Hu recalled.

Again echoing Thursday’s Global Times editorial on Australia, Mr Hu said many Chinese were bemused by the poor state of relations.

“I said: ‘Japan and South Korea are all allies of the United States, and so are many European countries. Japan and South Korea are very close to China and there are many frictions, while China and Australia are so far apart. There is no territorial friction. Australia’s relations with China should be better than Japan’s relations with China. But now, Australia-China relations are worse than Japan-China relations, and they are completely incomparable with South Korea-China relations,” Mr Hu recalled.

Ambassador Fletcher disagreed, according to Mr Hu’s recollection, with the Global Times’s world view that the Australia government’s attitude towards China is different from that of European countries.

Ambassador Fletcher, Mr Hu continued, added that Australian public opinion, including the opposition party, supported maintaining normal relations with China. That observation was also noted in Thursday’s editorial, albeit without attribution.

Published during the final sitting week of the federal parliament in 2020, the Global Times’s editorial finished optimistically, at least by its standards.

“2020 is almost over. Looking to 2021, China-Australia relations need to improve.”

However, the end of the editor-in-chief’s lunch recollection contained a sting to worry those Australian businesses worried about joining the $7b-and-growing list of victims of Beijing’s retaliatory trade campaign.

“I am afraid Australia needs to really change its attitude towards China and make adjustments in its actions, instead of helping the United States bite China while making a cheap statement of ‘take no sides’. Otherwise, I predict that China-Australia relations will hardly pick up, and Australia will continue to pay the price for its unreasonable China policy,” he finished.

Still, he turned up for lunch with Australia’s man in Beijing. By the end of 2020, that’s something.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/global-times-editor-hu-xijin-lunches-at-australias-embassy-in-beijing/news-story/6640f34457a6b214e17719bb54405320

>>11968449

Among US allies, why is Australia keen to attack China?: Global Times editorial

Global Times - 2020/12/9

China and Australia have been locked in strained ties, and exchanges at the ministerial level and above have been suspended for more than a year. Many voices in Australian public opinion portray China as a major external threat and challenge, while in the eyes of most Chinese, the image of Australia has been degraded to a US lackey at the forefront of the crackdown on China, from an important trading partner and a sound destination for overseas study and tourism. It's fair to say the mutual understanding of the two countries has undergone profound changes.

But what's surprising is that China and Australia have seemingly fallen afoul of each other for no reason at all. Even if many Chinese international relations scholars could find geopolitical reasons for this change, they find it inconceivable. Geographically, China and Australia are far away from each other. They have no historical feud or enmity, but have developed sound trade. There are enough reasons and resources for the two countries to maintain a friendly and cooperative relationship for a long time.

However, the reality is: In the eyes of the Chinese people, Australia is the most unfriendly country to China, second to the US. Australia took the lead in excluding Chinese tech company Huawei from the 5G rollout. It became the first developed country to pass laws against foreign interference that targeted China. Despite being an external country, it hyped the South China Sea issue harder than countries within the region. Chinese people generally believe Australia has returned China's goodwill with evil at Washington's prodding.

The Australian government said it won't pick sides between China and the US at the same time it intensified friction with China by issuing a series of policies that undermined China's interests and reputation. It argued it's a misinterpretation to say Australia is helping the US contain China.

Some Australian officials emphasized that Australia is doing what is necessary to safeguard its own interests, and its policy on Huawei is the same as Japan's. They also said Australia's attitude on many China-related issues is different from those of the US.

Australia thinks China should accept the reality that Canberra is an ally of Washington and any action taken by Canberra based on the alliance. It also believes China should respect Australia's freedom of speech and show no objection to Australia's attacks on China. It hopes it could interfere in China's internal affairs, while China should keep silent on Australia's affairs.

Not long ago a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson tweeted a cartoon showing the atrocities of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, which led to a strong reaction from Canberra.

As we see it, Canberra attaches too much importance to US allies and values, two factors which should not have led to the deterioration of Australia's ties with China. The US has many allies. There are also many Western countries who share the same values as Australia. Take Japan. Japan is a US ally who has territorial and historical disputes with China. The conditions for cooperation between China and Australia are far better than between China and Japan. But Australia has behaved more aggressively than Japan recently. Australia-China ties can't compare to ties between South Korea and China.

We hope Australia can reflect upon itself from this perspective. Many Western countries need to face the so-called challenges brought about by China's rise. But Australia is much more on guard than average Western countries. It is hard to find a justifiable excuse for its actions from whatever perspective.

We've noticed that there isn't much objection to Australia improving ties with China from Australian public opinion or the opposition party. Australian Prime Minister Morrison said recently that tension between Australia and China has been driven by incorrect assumptions shaped by the China-US rivalry.

2020 is almost over. Looking to 2021, China-Australia relations need to improve. The crux is that Australia should truly alter its attitude toward China and make adjustments rather than serving as a lap dog of the US while verbally saying it does not pick a side. Or else, it will continue to pay a price for its unreasonable China policy.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1209532.shtml

>>11959941

NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team arrests 18-year-old Albury man

A man from the southern NSW city of Albury is expected to be charged with terrorism-related offences following a NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) investigation.

The 18-year-old man was arrested earlier this morning (Wednesday, 9 December 2020) and is due to be charged with a range of criminal counter-terrorism-related offences.

He is expected to face Albury Local Court once charged, and an application will be made to have the matter heard in a Sydney court at a later date.

The investigation began in August 2020 after NSW JCTT investigators became aware of a number of online posts containing an extreme right wing ideology that indicated potential criminal activity.

It will be alleged in court that the man has regularly used social media forums and communications applications during 2020 to encourage other people to commit violent acts in furtherance of an extreme right wing ideology.

NSW JCTT investigators became concerned about the escalating content of some of the man’s communications, which allegedly indicated his willingness to commit a violent and criminal act. The decision was made to execute a search warrant on his Albury residence.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Counter Terrorism Scott Lee said NSW JCTT investigators were concerned about the man’s actions to date, and made a decision to act early to ensure community safety.

“The sole aim of today’s activity was to ensure the safety of the community by preventing further planning, preparations or advocacy by this man that could have resulted in an attack in Australia,” he said.

“The investigation into this matter remains ongoing, but we remain wary about the speed with which lone actors can progress from online activities to ones that impact the real world. It highlights the commitment and professionalism of the people and agencies involved in the JCTT, and their desire to protect the community by bringing people to account for their criminal actions.”

NSW Police Force Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Commander, Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton, said regardless of the nature of a person’s extremist views, there was no place for them within our community.

“The NSW JCTT will continue to work together to ensure the community is protected from those who seek to do us harm, and those who think they can exploit the online environment to spread their extremist ideologies.

“If we see activity that concerns us – as we have during the course of this investigation – we will act swiftly to ensure that activity does not escalate.

“I would like to take this opportunity to remind the community that they are our eyes and ears – so if you see something online, report it. Your information is often invaluable in assisting investigations such as this one.”

The man is expected to be charged with one count each of the following offences:

• Urging violence against members or groups, contrary to section 80.2A (1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). The maximum penalty for this offence is seven years imprisonment.

• Advocating Terrorism, contrary to section 80.2C (1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). The maximum penalty for this offence is five years imprisonment.

The NSW JCTT is comprised of members from the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police Force, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the NSW Crime Commission.

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

There is no ongoing threat to the community relating to this investigation.

Editor’s note: Footage and images of the arrest are available for media use - https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/pnPotHCiO7

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/nsw-joint-counter-terrorism-team-arrests-18-year-old-albury-man

Daniel Andrews staffer Nancy Yang linked to mysterious Chinese investment fund, Arem Pacific Corporation

A Daniel Andrews staffer with Chinese Communist Party links has served as the secretary, director and chief marketing director of a mysterious Chinese international investment fund which last year established a US-listed joint venture worth almost AUD$70m, and owns a massage chain with outlets at almost every major Melbourne shopping centre.

Nancy Yang, who works part time in the Victorian Premier’s Mulgrave electorate office in Melbourne’s southeast was listed in 2015 as holding a 1.8 per cent stake in Arem Pacific Corporation, which floated on the US stock exchange in 2019 as part of a $US50m joint venture.

The Australian is not suggesting any wrongdoing by Ms Yang, or Arem Pacific Corporation.

Ms Yang’s involvement in an international investment fund worth tens of millions of dollars is unusual given her relatively junior part time role in Mr Andrews’ office and that of neighbouring Labor MP Meng Heang Tak. The electorate officer role attracts a full time equivalent salary of approximately $80,000.

Arem Pacific Corporation’s website lists headquarters in Melbourne’s Collins Street, the US city of Scottsdale, Arizona where it was founded in 1990, and Guangzhou, China, where its NASDAQ-listed joint venture launch was held in September 2019.

The website also details the company’s ownership of the Zen Oriental Holistic Health and Green Palm Massage chains, which have outlets at major shopping centres across Melbourne including Chadstone, Melbourne Central, Victoria Gardens, Eastland, Northland and Highpoint, many of which demand cash only payment for services.

A document filed with the US stock exchange in 2015 lists Ms Yang among five company directors. “Ms Nancy Yang has been our Secretary and a Director since January 2014,” the document reads. “From 2010 to the present, she has been Chief Marketing Director of the Company.

“From 2008 to 2009, she was a Visa and Evidencing Officer for the Chinese Embassy in Melbourne, Australia. She graduated with double Masters in Commerce and Business/Information Technology from RMIT University, Australia. Ms Yang brings to our Board of Directors several years of management, administration and quality control.”

The Australian has previously revealed Ms Yang’s posting in March of articles on social media suggesting coronavirus was created by the US and taken to China by the US Army, as well as her role as founder and chair for a decade of the CCP United Front-linked Melbourne Chinese Youth United Association, during which she helped to mobilise thousands of Chinese who travelled to Canberra to participate in an at-times violent counter-protest against human rights campaigners at the Olympic Torch relay in 2008.

The other five directors of the company include Chinese-born, Melbourne-based medical doctor Thomas Tang, who is CEO and president, chairman Rocco Scarpari, who is described as owning a small vineyard and orchard near Shepparton in northern Victoria, chief financial officer Allan Qiu who the document says was also CFO of “affiliated Australian company” Arem Marketing Corp, and Shandong University-educated Xin Jin, who as company vice president is described as being responsible for managing the company’s “physiotherapy wellness business”.

“We take pride in building long-term relationships with our clients,” the company’s website boasts. “Our stock is currently held by more than 500 shareholders. Besides its current physiotherapy & health chained outlets in Australia, Arem keeps expanding its business into profitable areas.” Neither Ms Yang nor Arem Pacific Corporation responded to requests for comment.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/daniel-andrews-link-to-communist-massage-staffer/news-story/273ad5e30f5232afa4922fdb0f52f33c

China replies over latest wine tariffs after Australia’s Trade Minister Simon Birmingham lashes out

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China’s state media has described its latest move against Australian wine makers as a “destructive blow” that could see prices triple and shoppers ditch Aussie products in a new article overnight.

It comes after Trade Minister Simon Birmingham lashed out at China over its “false” claims surrounding the Australian wine industry in some of his harshest words against Beijing yet, saying he will continue to “call out” China’s bad behaviour.

In an article in Chinese state mouthpiece The Global Times, an importer of Australian wine claimed he has “he has started to explore wine from other countries, including Chile, and he expects the demand for Australian wine to crater.”

“Chinese customers chose Australian wines mostly because of the prices advantage compared with other countries’ wines, and I expect the volume imported Australia will drop sharply,” Long Guanyu, the general manager of a wine importer based in Xiamen, told the Global Times.

It comes as the world’s eyes focus on China’s tough action on Australia, with the BBC describing some of Birmingham’s comments his “strongest yet” against Xi Jinping.

Mr Birmingham warned this week the world is watching as China bans more Aussie products.

“Australia is not the only country that has seen these types of punitive measures and I expect the rest of the world will be watching quite closely what is happening in Australia,” he said.

Overnight the European Council on Foreign Relations said China’s recent actions against Australia “show how far it is already willing to go on economic coercion”.

Yesterday, China – which is Australia’s number one trading partner – slapped Australian wine makers with even more tariffs than the original 107-212 per cent rise it hit producers with last month.

China’s Commerce Ministry said it would impose temporary anti-subsidy tariffs on imported Australian wines of an added 6.3 per cent to 6.4 per cent, concluding “Australian subsidies have caused substantial damage to China’s domestic wine industry”.

The Global Times piece claims the move is “not linked to the deteriorating bilateral ties” but Australia has been singled out with a series of complicated and bitter trade disputes erupting in recent months.

In August, China launched an “anti-dumping investigation” into Australian wine exports, which accused Australia of flooding China with cheap wine at cost or below cost prices in an effort to skew the market in Australia’s favour.

Australia vehemently rejects the claims, with Mr Birmingham telling the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas that Beijing doesn’t have the evidence to support the claims and that “we appreciate there’s a bigger picture and issue here”.

“The idea that Australian winemakers dump their product in China, as was originally claimed by China, or that they are subsidised by government to some extent to export to China, is just false,” he said.

“The evidence is very clear in the Australian wine industry’s favour, and we will continue to defend the wine industry by using the domestic processes available in China and, ultimately, considering the appeal rights of the independent umpire through the World Trade Organisation.”

(continued)

>>11978719

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Almost 40 per cent of Australian wine is exported to China in a $1.25 billion industry. Australia ships more bottles to the country than other wine producing regions such as France, Italy and the US.

“These tariffs are a likely blow to Australian wine makers exporting to China, locking out price sensitive consumers,” The Global Times piece states.

A flabbergasted Mr Birmingham described China’s recent actions as “obviously another step in what has been a disappointing, a frustrating and a deeply concerning pattern of decisions by China over quite some period of time”.

“We have called out those behaviours and that pattern of behaviour. We’ve done so publicly. We’ve done so directly with China. We are continuing to do so through the WTO, and we will keep standing up for Australian industry.

“Any idea that our wine is dumped in the Chinese market doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Australian wine is the second highest price point in the Chinese market.

“And for Australia, it’s basically our highest-priced market, and so our producers are sending their premium product at premium prices into that market, and they’re doing so free of any government subsidy.

“Winemakers are more likely to complain about how much tax they pay than how much subsidy they get.”

Industry group Australian Grape and Wine have previously said they were “deeply disappointed” by China but the latest round of tariffs are likely to have little impact.

“It’s unlikely they’ll have any practical implication given the current tariffs are so high,” CEO Tony Battaglene told the ABC.

China’s investigation is expected to be completed by August 18, 2021, under normal circumstances, but could be prolonged until February 18, 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Chinese ministry statement said.

Mr Birmingham agreed there were “clearly impacts” on Australian wine producers and that “we recognise that some are now under stress and pressure as a result of the decisions China has taken”.

Already this year China has slapped tariffs on Australian barley and suspended some beef exports in what is a significant blow since almost 30 per cent of Australia’s total agricultural exports go to China.

Lamb joins a long list of Australian products sanctioned by China that also includes timber. A sixth Australian beef exporter was hit with a ban on Monday.

Australian wheat and cotton farmers have been put on notice they are next in China’s firing line in a move that could further strain tensions between the two countries.

“Our wine industry knows there’s something to see here. Our live seafood industry knows that there is. Our timber industry knows that there is. Our fresh meat industry knows that there is. Our barley and grain sector knows that there is,” Mr Birmingham said.

“The sectors that have seen the obvious, continuous accumulation of impacts throughout the course of this year, and, indeed, in the case of the barley processors that started a couple of years ago, clearly can see a pattern of behaviour, and that pattern of behaviour is inconsistent with both the intent and the spirit of the commitments China has made more broadly to the World Trade Organisation.”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/china-replies-over-latest-wine-tariffs-after-australias-trade-minister-simon-birmingham-lashes-out/news-story/861cfca08b507c848d5660bade77e60d

Australian COVID vaccine terminated due to HIV ‘false positives’

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A billion-dollar deal for the Morrison government to buy more than 50 million doses of the University of Queensland’s potential coronavirus vaccine has been abruptly terminated after several trial participants returned false positive HIV test results.

UQ, working in partnership with Australian global biotech company CSL, will abandon its current clinical trials following the discovery. It informed the federal government of the initial data on Monday, which was then referred to health authorities for urgent medical advice.

Sources with knowledge of the current trials said pathology tests had in the past weeks confirmed the positives were in fact false and the health of the participants has not been put at risk.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the national security committee of cabinet agreed to terminate the purchasing agreement on Thursday, following expert health advice and fears the revelation would severely damage the Australian public’s confidence in the COVID-19 vaccination program, which is expected to begin early next year.

"We have prepared for this. We have planned for this. And now we're making decisions in accordance with this," he said on Friday morning.

He said the government had "spread the risk" by entering into multiple agreements and had secured 20 million new doses from Oxford University-AstraZeneca and another 11 million from Novavax to cover for the 51 million doses the home-grown product was to supply.

"The net out-take of this is we are more likely to have the entire population vaccinated earlier rather than later by the ability to bring this manufacturing capability forward," Mr Morrison said.

The UQ vaccine candidate used a protein and adjuvant platform, containing the COVID-19 spike protein and a "molecular clamp". A small component is derived from the human immunodeficiency virus, known as HIV, that is not able to infect people or replicate.

A source with knowledge of the clinical results said although the HIV protein fragment posed "absolutely no health risk to people", they had identified that some trial participants who received the vaccine produced a partial antibody response to it.

The partial antibody response had the potential to interfere with some HIV screening tests that look for the antibodies – leading to a false positive test result. It is unclear how long participants would continue to return false positive results.

The source said although all participants had been told there was a remote possibility HIV markers could be found in tests during the trial, medical researchers had not expected it to occur.

(continued)

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Health department secretary Brendan Murphy said the risk of a false-positive was seen to be "extremely low at the outset".

"Everyone was very surprised at the unexpected prevalence of the false positive," Professor Murphy said.

More than 200 volunteers in two groups – aged 18 to 55, and 56 and over – were involved in the phase one trial with a proportion of the participants receiving a placebo.

Evidence publicly released so far from the clinical trials found the vaccine to be safe and said it produced a strong immune response able to neutralise the COVID-19 virus in laboratory based tests.

A government source said the Australian government’s Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group, headed by Professor Murphy and acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, had reviewed the findings this week and recommended ending the deal.

An industry source said CSL, Australia’s biggest company, will make a statement to the ASX 200 on Friday before the market opens. Both UQ and CSL will continue their research in the hope of creating a successful vaccine in coming months.

Neither CSL, the University of Queensland nor the Morrison government would comment when contacted by this masthead.

Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists around the world are racing to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by next year.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the decision showed the planning process was working.

"It's an honest explanation of some of the challenges we've had," Mr Hunt said.

"But, at the end of the day, 31 million new vaccines purchased for Australia, and the potential for a slightly earlier completion of the rollout with the commencement process still on track for March, subject to the approvals and the news on our vaccine candidates is strong."

The University of Queensland was tasked by the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus in January, which was supported by an initial investment of up to US$4.5 million.

The vaccine efforts reached a critical milestone in April, showing the ability to raise high levels of antibodies that can neutralise the virus in early pre-clinical testing.

Although the deal with CSL was expected to be worth up to $1 billion, the federal government was not required to pay unless the vaccine had received the green light from health authorities and large-scale production occurred. It means the funding commitment can be diverted to securing doses from other candidate vaccines.

Before the UQ-CSL termination, the Morrison government had signed five agreements securing potential access to 134 million doses from different vaccines at a total cost of $3.2 billion.

Researchers are testing 58 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, and at least 86 preclinical vaccines are under active investigation in animals.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/australian-covid-vaccine-terminated-due-to-hiv-false-positives-20201210-p56mju.html

Federal Government urged to close loopholes to ensure Australian children are protected playing sport

One of the sports named in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has called on the Federal Government to close a loophole that could affect child safety.

Tennis NSW chief executive Lawrence Robertson said local governments that lease out infrastructure such as tennis courts to clubs and coaches might not be demanding working with children checks, which could be putting children at risk.

"It's a little bit like providing a licence to run a kindergarten — a community service — but then not asking for any oversight on who's running it," he said.

Mr Robertson said there were council-run tennis venues that were not affiliated with his organisation and coaches without Tennis Australia qualifications that might not have done working with children checks.

"We know that sport — and particularly those one-on-one sports likes tennis — there is a risk when you have a coach and an individual on court together," he said.

"These are high-risk scenarios for young children.

"There are holes to the delivery of sport and in particular to ensuring we are providing a safe environment for our children to participate in sport.

"So, I'd really like to see the Federal Government step up and consider the role that local government can play in helping sport deliver a child-safe environment."

Tennis NSW this week became the first sporting governing body in Australia to sign up to the National Redress Scheme that was set up in the wake of the report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The state organisation was named in the 2016 Royal Commission report over the abuse of a 15-year-old girl by a tennis coach in 1997.

Mr Robertson said Tennis NSW felt it was important to sign up to the National Redress Scheme before the deadline at the end of this month.

"We felt that it was really an important step in acknowledging the mistakes of the past," he said.

But Mr Robertson warned sports and governments needed to close the potentially dangerous loophole around local governments who might not be protecting children.

Junior sport vulnerable

Mr Robertson said Tennis NSW demanded all volunteers and accredited tennis coaches at clubs to have working with children checks.

But he said some local councils might not be asking for those checks.

"We remain concerned that there are councils out there who are leasing or licencing courts to tennis organisations or directly to tennis coaches that have no oversight on their suitability, whether that be working with children checks, police checks and so on," he said.

Mr Robertson said all grassroots sports were potentially vulnerable.

"This may be the case for netball, for swimming, for gymnastics, where so many of our sporting facilities are owned by our local government and they have historically asked volunteer bodies to provide a community service," he said.

"We've seen what happened with USA Gymnastics," Mr Robertson added, referring to the widespread sexual abuse of young girls by coaches and staff in the United States.

The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission is currently holding an inquiry into safety in Australian gymnastics.

The lawyer representing many past and present gymnasts who claim to have suffered abuse, Adair Donaldson, said: "loopholes will be exploited by paedophiles, so anything we do to ensure the safety of children is a no-brainer."

Tennis NSW is calling on the Federal Government to work with local councils and all sports to protect children who might be preyed on by people who do not have a working with children check.

"We believe there should be a national register of qualified coaches across all sports," Mr Robertson said.

Mr Robertson also proposed local governments only lease out infrastructure to organisations that are affiliated with sport governing bodies.

"They hold the licence to allow grassroots sport access to playing fields, access to tennis courts, access to gym halls," he said.

The Tennis NSW proposals have been welcomed by Mr Donaldson.

"That's an incredibly proactive and sensible approach that is being taken," he said.

"And that is the type of response that you will hope will be coming from an institution in the wake of the royal commission."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-11/federal-government-warned-to-close-loopholes-to-protect-children/12970866

Almost 200 allegations against teachers reported to education regulator

Almost 200 allegations against Victorian teachers, including claims of physical and sexual misconduct, have been referred to the state education regulator over the course of a year.

The new figures also show allegations of child abuse reported to the Commission for Children and Young People doubled in January to March this year, which the commission attributed to publicity of the St Kevin’s College child-grooming case.

Liana Buchanan, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, said the number of allegations reported to her office showed offences against children did not stop with the child abuse royal commission.

“It tells us if we think institutional child abuse is a thing of the past, we are kidding ourselves,” Ms Buchanan said.

The figures are from the commission’s reportable conduct scheme, which requires organisations such as schools, religious bodies and the out-of-home care sector to notify the commission of allegations against workers and volunteers to enable independent oversight.

The education sector accounted for 23 per cent of reports to the commission for 2019-20, with the greatest increase in reports coming from Catholic schools, which rose by 59 per cent.

Sexual misconduct was the most prevalent allegation from independent and Catholic schools, while most reports from government schools were about physical violence.

The commission referred 191 allegations about registered teachers to the Victorian Institute for Teaching. More than 500 teachers have been referred since the scheme began in 2017.

More than a quarter of notifications from schools were about people who weren't registered teachers, such as school crossing supervisors, sport coaches and music tutors.

The number of reports from the public in January to March this year doubled from 30 to 60 compared with the same period last year.

The commission, while it didn’t name St Kevin’s, attributed the increase to the Four Corners report into the school’s handling of a child-grooming case.

“Certainly at that time we saw a surge in parents, past students and community members contacting us both about sexual misconduct in schools, but also about other forms of abusive behaviour to children in schools,” Ms Buchanan said.

The Toorak school's acting principal has been before the Fair Work Commission this week over the sacking of a veteran maths teacher while the school was in crisis over the Peter Kehoe case.

Mr Kehoe, a former volunteer coach, was convicted of grooming year 9 student Paris Street in 2015.

Ms Buchanan, who would not comment on the St Kevin's case, said though institutions could do better to protect children, many schools are trying to do the right thing.

“We have seen really significant improvements from a number of schools and a number of organisations in how they respond to child abuse,” she said.

Catholic Education Commission Victoria executive director Jim Miles said the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people were a central and fundamental responsibility that Catholic schools take seriously.

"No circumstance where there is reasonable suspicion of harm to children will be tolerated or should go unreported in a Catholic school," Mr Miles said.

"Mandatory reporting is not only a legal requirement in our schools but forms a vital component of our overall response to providing child-safe environments. It is non-negotiable."

Out of all the allegations reported to the Commission for Children and Young People since the scheme began three years ago, about 30 per cent have been substantiated. Almost 60 per cent were referred to Victoria Police for investigation.

According to the commission's latest annual report, charges were laid or are pending in only seven per cent of allegations referred to police. Almost half had investigations completed with no further action.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/almost-200-allegations-against-teachers-reported-to-education-regulator-20201210-p56mf1.html

Ghislaine Maxwell pledges $30 million bail in an attempt to secure freedom before Christmas

Lawyers for Ms Maxwell will go to court in the coming days to argue for her release ahead of trial next year

Ghislaine Maxwell and her new husband will pledge $30 million bail in an attempt to secure her freedom before Christmas.

Lawyers for Ms Maxwell will go to court in the coming days to argue for her release ahead of a trial next year.

Friends of Ms Maxwell have accused the US authorities of “demonising” Ms Maxwell to cover up their “incompetence and embarrassment” over the death of her former partner Jeffrey Epstein, who was found hanged in his cell last year while awaiting child sex charges.

Her husband Scott Borgerson, 44, a wealthy tech entrepreneur, is proposing a bail bond of close to $25 million as security which the couple would forfeit should Ms Maxwell then go on the run. Friends say Mr Borgerson is devastated that she remains behind bars.

Ms Maxwell’s siblings, including her brothers Kevin and Ian Maxwell, have agreed to post a further $5 million in bail guarantees. A private security company stands to lose an additional $1 million if Ms Maxwell evades its surveillance. Ms Maxwell wants to be bailed under a form of house arrest, in which she will also wear an electronic tag.

A friend told The Telegraph she is also willing to forfeit any right to prevent her extradition from France, given she has a French passport as well as ones for the UK and US, in a further undertaking designed to demonstrate she does not wish to flee but instead face trial.

Ms Maxwell, 58, the daughter of the disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell, is languishing in a detention centre in Brooklyn in effective solitary confinement in a 9ft by 7ft cell. She is subject to checks every 15 minutes even during her sleep. Her lawyers argue she is being treated worse than any terrorist or murderer. She has lost 15lbs in weight and her hair is falling out, according to her lawyers.

Ms Maxwell, a one-time socialite, was arrested in July after a dawn raid by the FBI and police at her home in New Hampshire and charged with enticement of minors, sex trafficking and perjury over her association with Epstein. She was denied bail by a judge who deemed her a flight risk and concerns that France does not extradite its citizens.

But Brian Basham, a close family friend who is orchestrating the Get Ghislaine Out campaign, said: “The State has reverse engineered the whole case, to mask its failure. There was no indication that Ghislaine was in the frame at all whilst Epstein was alive.

“She had plenty of opportunity to flee but she stayed put. Her lawyers knew where she was but she hid from the tabloid press who were hunting her – one even offered £10,000 for news of her whereabouts. She was never charged with anything.”

Mr Basham insists the attitude of the US authorities towards her changed after Epstein’s suicide. He said: “Through appalling mismanagement Epstein died in custody. The United States Attorney General William Barr has said he was 'livid' about that and vowed Ghislaine will not be allowed to die in jail. That’s why overzealous prison staff are waking her every 15 minutes throughout the night and shining a flashlight in her face.”

He added: “Having lost the opportunity to boast brilliance in an all-singing-and-dancing trial, the State is covering its incompetence and embarrassment by demonising Ghislaine, first in a show trial press conference and now by incarcerating her quite literally in worse conditions than even the most dangerous terrorist.

"The State is engaged in a near criminal conspiracy to mask its incompetence by keeping Ghislaine illegally imprisoned and by parading her as a proxy for Epstein, with whom she has had no relationship for years.”

He insisted Ms Maxwell had done nothing wrong and that the allegations against her are historic and not corroborated. “Maxwell is not Epstein and, definitively, she is innocent,” he said.

The size of the bail bond dwarfs that of other alleged high-profile sex offenders who were freed pending trial. Harvey Weinstein, who was subsequently convicted of sex crimes, was allowed to remain at large on $1 million bail and after surrendering his passport. Bill Cosby was also set free after posting $1 million bail. He was also subsequently convicted and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/10/ghislaine-maxwell-pledges-30-million-bail-attempt-secure-freedom/

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Tweet

#ASIO protects Australia and Australians from threats to their security. We keep Australians safe by operating 24/7, every day of the year.

Director-General of Security @MikePBurgess oversees a 24/7 operations centre.

https://twitter.com/ASIOGovAu/status/1336816409867784193

On Point: The power of information in the contemporary battlespace

Information is often described as the ‘oil of the 21st century’ and is a key enabler for civilians, businesses, government and militaries. Staying ahead of the curve and guaranteeing information supremacy is critical to the success of the ADF.

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Across the ADF, transformation, evolution and digitisation are at the centre of the development and modernisation of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

At the core of this process, beyond the next-generation mega platforms like the Army’s new fleet of Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles, man-portable unmanned aerial systems and integrated air defence capabilities, Navy’s Hobart Class air warfare destroyers and future frigates, and Air Force’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, is one key component: information.

Meanwhile, net operating concepts like ‘Accelerated Warfare’, Plan Pelorus 2022 and Air Force Strategy 2020, Plan Jericho and the development of a ‘Fifth-Generation Air Force’ all depend on the ADF and an allied capacity to gather, analyse and disseminate information from a range of inputs to inform decision-makers.

The scope of information sources, from traditional human intelligence (HUMINT), electronic and signals intelligence (ELINT and SIGINT, respectively), and increasingly the interconnected, digitised world of cyber space are all critical components of the next-generation ADF.

In this issue of On Point, Defence Connect speaks to the Australian Defence Force's Head of Information Warfare Division, Major General Marcus Thompson, AM, to discuss the power of information in this new era of conflict.

Defence Connect: For those who don’t know the history of the Information Warfare Division, could you give us a little background about the IWD and how it fits within the ADF?

MAJGEN Thompson: The Information Warfare Division was created in July 2017.

It came about as a result of a key recommendation from the first principles review that your [readers] might recall from 2015. And the observation was that defence hadn't paid appropriate attention to some of these capabilities that don't necessarily neatly fit within the Navy, the Army or the Air Force.

A lot of people would know them as glue capabilities, these are the essential combat functions that tie joint combat functions together.

Building on that, the observations related to emerging capabilities, such as cyber and electronic warfare and the proliferation of IP-based technology, the command and control systems, and of course how that all fits into intelligence, information operations, and other capabilities.

Our work is not operational, so to speak. The actual operations piece tends to be the responsibility of the Chief of Joint Operations, and of course the Australian Signals Directorate, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

Our role within Information Warfare Division is to develop and manage the capabilities that those people use on a day-to-day basis, on an as-required basis.

(continued)

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Defence Connect: How does Information Warfare support and protect the ‘digitisation’ of the ADF and its next-generation of capabilities and platforms?

MAJGEN Thompson: There’s billions of dollars of taxpayer investment in modernising the Australian Defence Force over the next couple of decades.

All of these new platforms are digital. The Air Warfare Destroyer, the Joint Strike Fighter, and the vehicles that will be acquired under Army's LAND 400 program will be digital platforms.

They are extensions of the network within the Australian Defence Force. The conversation around cybersecurity very quickly extends beyond a traditional view of computer networks to combat systems.

I am always at great pains to talk about networks and mission systems because, in this digital combat platform, the first thing that's going to happen when that ship pulls alongside, when that aircraft is towed into a hanger, or that vehicle pulls into a workshop, is that someone is going to plug in an electronic device.

I want to know where that device has been. Who's responsible for its hygiene. Is it a contractor who's using it?

Is it a Commonwealth official who's plugging it in? Was that device used with the free Wi-Fi at a restaurant for breakfast while the person was having breakfast that morning?

These are all the things that the entire Defence Force is now thinking about because those combat platforms, if they've got to be used, the operator needs confidence that it will perform to spec.

Defence Connect: How do you balance that strategisation of cyber and digital connectivity within the ADF?

MAJGEN Thompson: We know that there is a new piece of malware on the streets every 12 seconds, which is forecast to drop to every seven seconds over the next couple of years.

It is a real challenge to be casting forward with defence acquisition timelines and saying, "Well, what might the environment look like in three to five years’ time?" Let alone, say, 20 to 30 years’ time for some of the larger programs.

I don't know what the threat is going to be doing in three months’ time, let alone in three years’ time.

It is a constant challenge and what we've done, quite deliberately, is left some of these requirements and some of these descriptions fairly broad.

This means that we're not tying ourselves to something that might very quickly become irrelevant or be superseded by technology or, indeed, by the emergence of a particular threat.

You can listen to the full Insight podcast with Major General Marcus Thompson here.

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/key-enablers/5977-insight-cyber-and-information-warfare-majgen-marcus-thompson-am-department-of-defence

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/intel-cyber/7376-on-point-the-power-of-information-in-the-contemporary-battlespace

https://www.defence.gov.au/jcg/iwd.asp

>Information Warfare.

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>>11494902

New powers to put foreign spies under microscope

New laws will give Australian intelligence officers power to probe suspected spies in a bid to tackle foreign interference.

Australian intelligence officers now have the power to compulsorily question suspected foreign spies after new laws passed on Thursday.

The Director-General Security of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Mike Burgess welcomed the new powers and said there had been multiple occasions this year when it would have helped investigations into espionage and foreign interference.

ASIO already had the power to compulsory question terror suspects.

“Attempts at foreign interference and espionage are at extreme levels – foreign spies and their proxies from a range of countries are trying to steal our secrets, undermine our sovereignty and intimidate diaspora communities.” Mr Burgess said.

“The Bill contains strong safeguards, imposes rigorous oversight, and will meaningfully assist us to protect Australia and Australians from threats to their security.

“I anticipate circumstances will require us to use some of the new powers within months.”

In November Melbourne man Di Sanh Duong was charged with foreign interference offences.

Mr Duong was charged with planning an act of foreign interference following a 12-month investigation by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police.

Police suspect he was involved with a foreign intelligence agency.

“ASIO already has the power to compulsorily question suspected terrorists; allowing us to compulsorily question suspected spies will close a critical intelligence gap,” Mr Burgess said. “There have been multiple occasions already this year when compulsory questioning would have assisted ASIO investigations into alleged espionage or foreign interference.”

On December 2 last year a new taskforce was created to hunt foreign spies.

The Federal Government announced $87.8 million would be ploughed into the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce.

The taskforce is led by a senior ASIO officer and includes AFP investigators and representatives from AUSTRAC, the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Geospatial Intelligence Organisation.

“I acknowledge ASIO is granted extraordinary powers – but they are rightly subject to strict safeguards and oversight,” Mr Burgess said.

“Australians should be confident that ASIO acts in a targeted, proportionate, ethical way, and wherever possible, uses the least intrusive method available to collect security intelligence.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/new-powers-to-put-foreign-spies-under-microscope/news-story/431dcb35348297638870f473806c3dab

Casino junket operators 'exploited, infiltrated' by crime syndicates, foreign spies

Junket tour operators are being targeted by organised criminal syndicates and foreign spies to move dirty cash through Australian casinos and make political donations.

Tax evasion, visa misuse, links to sanctioned entities and possible corruption are among the activities uncovered by financial crime watchdog Austrac.

A new risk assessment by Austrac identified a number of junket tour operators with links to criminal organisations including drug traffickers, and others with links to foreign political parties or governments, raising concerns about the threat of foreign interference.

Transactions indicated foreign spies or their proxies could be using money held in casino accounts to make political donations with a link to foreign interference activities.

Money launderers were also exploiting casinos' reliance on junket operators to launder dirty funds through casino bank accounts and high-roller rooms.

Junkets bring wealthy Chinese high rollers to overseas casinos and extend them credit with which to gamble, circumventing Beijing's tight capital controls. They have become an important part of Crown Resorts and Star Entertainment's businesses in recent years.

Junket operators have been a focus of this year's explosive NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) inquiry into Crown. The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes last year revealed many of Crown's junket partners had links to organised crime syndicates, triggering the ILGA inquiry, which is reassessing Crown's suitability to hold a licence for its new Sydney casino.

ILGA ordered Crown to delay opening the Barangaroo casino until the inquiry delivers its recommendations, which are due by February 1. Junket operations have in effect been suspended since Australia shut its international borders in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The ILGA inquiry into Crown's junket partnership has prompted the James Packer-backed group to say it won't work with junkets again unless state gambling authorities agree to licence them.

It was also revealed in October that Austrac was investigating Crown for potential breaches of Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.

In its latest risk assessment, Austrac did not identify any links between junket tour operations and terrorism financing but said there was a risk of being targeted.

"Some junket tour operations have been exploited, and in some instances infiltrated, by serious and transnational criminal entities, including by individuals reported to be engaged in activities that could possibly be regarded as foreign interference," the Austrac report states.

"The use of offsetting arrangements used by some junket tour operators to facilitate junket-related fund flows is highly likely to be exploited by criminal entities and in being conducted can circumvent international funds transfer reporting requirements and facilitate the laundering of domestically generated proceeds of crime."

Austrac chief executive Nicole Rose said the agency expected Australian casinos and associated sectors to "use this assessment to protect their businesses and the Australian community from criminal threats".

She said it showed junkets were "highly vulnerable" and casinos needed to do more to address the risks.

“Money laundering and financial crime enables serious criminal activity such as drug trafficking and human trafficking, which causes harm to our communities," she said. “I urge casinos to take prompt action by assessing their levels of risk posed by junket operations, strengthening their controls and reporting suspicious activity to Austrac."

Earlier this year, it was revealed a Crown vice-president authorised a junior casino staff member to wire $500,000 to a Melbourne drug trafficker, while Crown withheld details of the transaction from authorities for a year.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/casino-junket-operators-exploited-infiltrated-by-crime-syndicates-foreign-spies-20201211-p56mpl.html

Marise Payne warns China over fishing in Torres Strait

Marise Payne has warned Australia won’t tolerate Chinese vessels plundering Torres Strait fisheries under a $200m fisheries operation in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province.

China’s Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Company signed a memorandum of understanding in November with the PNG government and the Western Province administration to build a “multifunctional fishery industrial park” on the island of Daru.

The prospect has alarmed Australian border and national security officials, given the track record of Chinese vessels in illegal fishing and maritime militia operations.

The Foreign Minister told the Senate on Thursday the Australian government had been in contact with PNG to ensure Australian interests “are fully safeguarded” under its deal with the Chinese company.

She said Australian Border Force vessels would strictly police the Torres Strait’s traditional-only fishing rules.

“We expect all fishers in the Torres Strait region to follow respective Australian and Papua New Guinea laws, and international obligations,” Senator Payne said.

“Commercial scale fisheries would not be considered a traditional activity under the Torres Strait Treaty and would not be permitted.

“Only residents of the protected zone are able to undertake such activities, which is intended to protect the air, the sea, the land of the Torres Strait, including the native plant and animal life, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild flora and fauna such as dugong and turtles.”

Independent Senator Rex Patrick, who raised the matter in the Senate, said the establishment of a permanent Chinese fishing operation in Daru, on the edge of the Torres Strait, “would be contrary to Australia’s national interests, including our security”.

“Such a facility in Daru would provide a new foothold for Chinese government influence in resource-rich PNG and would raise significant security issues for Australia.

“Chinese fishing fleets also have a well-known tendency towards over exploitation of marine resources, so there is also a potential threat to the delicate marine ecosystems of the Torres Strait.”

He urged Senator Payne to work with PNG to develop an alternative proposal that would not jeopardise Australian interests.

Chinese Ambassador to PNG Xue Bing said the new fisheries-focused industrial park was “a vast opportunity for Papua New Guinea”.

But Jeffrey Wall, a former adviser to PNG’s government, said the waters around Daru were “not known for an abundance of fisheries”, raising questions about China’s motives.

“The fact that the plant will lie just a few kilometres from Australian island communities is a likely reason,” he said in an article for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute site, The Strategist.

“It’s hardly comfortable, and certainly not in Australia’s strategic interest, to have a major Chinese government resource exploration project right on our northern doorstep.”

The project falls under Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“If Australia is to stop the project from proceeding any further, it will need to move fast,” Mr Wall said.

“Whatever Australia opts to do, its response will have to be substantial, people focused and readily achievable.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/marise-payne-warns-china-over-fishing-in-torres-strait/news-story/51015ec26c81d0b331f1eca7047811b5

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On China, we've sold ourselves out

Communist China, a repressive regime with diametrically opposed strategic objectives, now dominates our research horizons.

PETER JENNINGS - December 10, 2020

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Here’s a priority list for Marise Payne’s foreign arrangements taskforce to apply the government’s new veto power: Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative memorandum of understanding with China; a dozen Confucius Institutes at Australian universities (NSW removed one from its Department of Education last year); and, at last count in 2018, 1741 agreements between Australian and Chinese universities.

According to peak body Universities Australia, there were 488 Australia-China university agreements in 2007. Close to a fourfold increase in little more than a decade should have sounded warning bells. By comparison in 2018 there were 996 agreements with US universities, 568 with Japan, 558 with Germany and 502 with the Britain. We have co-operated with these countries for decades, have comparable university systems and research cultures that are proudly independent of government, similar values and shared strategic outlooks.

Yet in a mere 10 years, co-operation with communist China, an authoritarian and repressive regime that does not share our values and has diametrically opposed strategic objectives, has come to dominate our universities’ international research horizons.

Under a policy known as military-civil fusion, Xi Jinping has subordinated much of the science and technology research effort of Chinese universities to the priorities of the People’s Liberation Army and China’s wider security and intelligence sector.

Research led by Alex Joske at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute shows that thousands of PLA researchers have studied at Western universities and disproportionally at Australian institutions compared with our Five Eyes intelligence partners.

Can anyone be surprised that the Morrison government saw a pressing need to review the international engagements pursued by our universities? Apparently so. UA chief executive Catriona Jackson says “(We) remain concerned that the laws will deter international partnerships, which are the lifeblood of research, knowledge and job creation.”

One test DFAT may like to apply in assessing these agreements is whether they advantage the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus more than our own. There are likely to be rich research funding opportunities for the first Australian universities that break away from the China income stream to focus on science and technology supporting Australian and allied security.

No doubt there are areas of research taking place between Australia and China that are benign, but across time Australians will probably be shocked to learn how tightly we have linked research activities in areas that have obvious military application.

That is because Beijing, through its Made in China 2025 plan, has a laser-like focus on buying or stealing the best science and technology knowledge from democracies to give it an unassailable lead in critical areas.

Was it ever intelligent to link our university sector so closely to that of the People’s Republic of China? In a world where China wants to supplant the US as the dominant military power in the Indo-Pacific and Beijing angrily will reject any Australian expres­sion of sovereign independence, how can it be good for our universities to be connected like this?

(continued)

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While unpicking research connections will be the toughest task under the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020, pushing Confucius Institutes off campus should be an easy decision; universities never should have agreed them in the first place.

Confucius Institutes act to stifle debate on campus about Beijing’s behaviour by holding their continued funding over the heads of university administrators.

As for Victoria’s BRI memorandum, this confection is a fixation of Premier Daniel Andrews. How any state would think it intelligent to deepen its economic dependence on the wolf warriors of Beijing defies rational analysis.

The federal government’s determination to work its way through state, territory and university agreements with foreign entities is necessary. It shows to the world that Australia will not let itself be compromised and is prepared to end agreements unwisely entered in earlier times.

That said, there is scope for improvement. The bureaucracy sticks to the line: “This is a country-agnostic and an arrangement-agnostic framework that has been proposed.” The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade can stand ready to repel interference from Uganda, but make no mistake: 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the problem comes from the Chinese Communist Party. Pretending this is country-agnostic is what allows UA to claim, incorrectly in my view, that collabora­tion even with Five Eyes countries could be subject to “can­cel­­la­tion by any future foreign minister”.

We must also hope DFAT’s foreign arrangement taskforce won’t go the way of the Foreign Investment Review Board and conclude that its core task is to facilitate keeping and making foreign agreements as the most important objective. We need a tough national security mindset to look after Australia’s interests. DFAT will need help on that front.

Here is another task that DFAT must be better funded to perform: democracies everywhere are looking at Australia’s struggle with China and wondering if we have the bottle to stick with the fight. We need to persuade those countries that our battle is their near-term future. All democracies have an interest in strengthening their internal and external arrangements against Beijing’s relentless predation. Canberra has lessons to share and a need to bring the democracies further into our camp so Beijing understands we are not alone.

Peter Jennings is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s executive director and a former deputy secretary for strategy in the Department of Defence.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/exclusives/on-china-weve-sold-ourselves-out/news-story/1a89a1c66161e1cfc0299a04f8bd35c0

Xi Jinping knows who has the real power in trade dispute; it’s not him

ROBERT GOTTLIEBSEN - DECEMBER 10, 2020

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Chinese officials invited into the office of President Xi Jinping in the Zhongnanhai (the Chinese equivalent of the White House) know not to mention that dreaded word, “Australia” and Xi’s plan to bring our nation to its knees so we would seek forgiveness for our sins.

In simple terms Xi’s “Australia plan” is not going well and China is being hit harder than Australia

It’s true that Australia’s largest wine maker, Treasury Estates, is being hit hard by the China tariff along with many other wine makers. A number of reports had Treasury marketing some its wine into the Taiwan market under the label “freedom wine”. Somewhat sadly I report that Treasury says very firmly that it is not doing that and will investigate whether wine brand counterfeiters in Taiwan are the culprits. I fully accept their statement.

In Beijing many of Xi’s friends enjoy a Penfolds and the wine from Chile is not quite the same. And ordinary Australians are enjoying cheaper wines.

China’s coal bans have hit Australian coal exporters but the Chinese steelmakers have also been impacted because the price of inferior non-Australian coal has jumped. Some of Xi’s rural bans are going well but, sadly for China, Australia’s gigantic wheat exporters have been smart and China is a relatively small part of their markets.

And then comes what for Xi is the saddest situation of all — iron ore. When Xi was planning his Australian attack as punishment for a series of criticisms of China from Australian ministers and public servants, the iron ore price was around $US80 a tonne. Now it is soaring above $US140 a tonne.

The China dispute is pumping almost $A600 million a month in extra revenue into the Australian coffers and it’s going a long way to funding the massive JobKeeper program and swamping any impacts China’s trade blows have created.

The reasons for the iron ore price rises are straightforward. To get China through the COVID-19 pandemic Xi stepped up public works on top of a large set of investments as part of the Belt and Road initiative.

That substantially increased the demand for steel and at the same time Brazil did not produce the amount of iron ore that that Xi had expected. To date overall, Australian has been conciliatory, looking to find a way to normalise relations, although the doctored imagine of Australian soldiers enraged the Australian Prime Minister, who is clearly not buckling to China’s pressure.

(continued)

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Morrison is able to tell countries in the region that they need to limit their dependence on China or they too may be punished and they will not have iron ore to nullify the blows.

Xi Jinping knows what he would do if he was Scott Morrison - as Australian PM Xi would curb iron ore exports to China and send the price above $US200, crippling the Chinese steel industry. Morrison has never even hinted at taking such an action and it’s not on his agenda.

But both men know who has the ultimate power in this trade war.

At the moment Australian iron ore producers led by BHP and Fortescue plus the Londoners at Rio Tinto are basking in the increased revenue and profits being generated.

The share market forecasts depend on how long this boom will keep going. All the indications are that it will last well into 2021. But shareholders in The Big Australian, BHP, needs to be aware that Xi is very angry at what happened in iron ore and in coming years will work extremely hard to reduce China’s dependence on Australia and get the iron ore price down. The measures taken by Xi will include boosting Brazil; increasing the amount of scrap used as a raw material; curbing infrastructure expenditure in exchange for more money for consumers; and boosting African and local Chinese iron ore output (not easy).

Iron ore has traditionally had booms which are followed by busts and there’s no reason to believe that this boom won’t be similar to previous ones. But what makes 2020 different is that iron ore is completely nullifying the overall impact of Xi’s trade war on Australia. Australia is moving around the region with more confidence knowing that on the trade front, at least for the moment it has China’s measure.

Meanwhile Japanese and South Korean steelmakers, while also being buffeted by the iron ore price are enjoying the advantages that come from lower priced Australian coal. And, because of Xi’s ban on Australian coal, China’s steel makers are being forced to bid up the price of the inferior product. So once again Chinese officials entering the Zhongnanhai are reminded not to mention Australia unless the great leader brings up the subject.

But Australians should not get too cocky because in recent years our defence protector, the United States, has fallen behind China in many areas of defence.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/xi-jinping-knows-who-has-the-real-power-in-trade-dispute-its-not-him/news-story/fbafb635d2493632ac0f4a771fbdd76b

Scott Morrison defiant as UN bans Australia from climate conference

Scott Morrison claims he’s not bothered by the UN snubbing his bid to attend a global summit just days after he said he would be there to ‘correct the record’.

Scott Morrison is sure an international climate summit that banned Australia will be “very nice” but insists he is not bothered by the snub.

The Prime Minister will not be among 70 world leaders invited to speak at the UN’s virtual Climate Action Summit this weekend after Australia’s climate ambitions were deemed unacceptably weak to be offered a place.

Countries were invited to make a proposal before the summit, outlining concrete steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Morrison had planned to announce Australia would ditch its controversial use of Kyoto carry-over credits to meet its Paris Agreement commitments. But the pledge was not considered significant enough to warrant an invitation.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will co-host the online forum, and the snub has reportedly angered the Morrison government. But Mr Morrison said Canberra and London had agreed on the need for a consensus on energy technology.

He told reporters on Friday his government would “continue to just get on with the job” despite the rejection.

“I wish them well for the summit. I’m sure it’ll be very nice,” he said.

“What matters here is what you get done, not what you talk about. Australia’s getting it done, and I’m very proud of what Australians are achieving.

“I’m very thankful for the support that we’ve had both from households around the country as well as industry and farmers.”

The government had argued it was entitled to use “carry-over credits” from the Kyoto agreement but has since signalled it would reverse course on the policy. The credits are from overachievements under the Kyoto Protocol between 2008 and 2012.

Christiana Figueres, who ran negotiations for the historic Paris Agreement in 2015 at the UN, described their use as “cheating” last week.

“It is just a total lack of integrity and not something that does Australia proud,” she said.

But Mr Morrison said the credits had been “earned” and reiterated the government was “well on track” to meet its 2030 targets.

Labor climate spokesman Mark Butler said the snub showed the Morrison government had become increasingly isolated on the world stage.

The incoming Biden administration has committed a net zero emissions target by 2050, and the opposition has urged the government to join the President-elect’s commitment.

Mr Morrison has so far resisted the demand.

He told parliament last week he would attend the summit to “correct mistruths” about his government’s climate change policies.

But he revealed on Thursday that Australia had not been invited, saying he was not fixated on international approval.

“The only approval I seek apologies from for my side of government is for the Australian public. That’s it,” he said.

“The only people I answer to in this place is the Australian people. Our government stands to serve the Australian people.”

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/scott-morrison-defiant-as-un-bans-australia-from-climate-conference/news-story/ec7e824ccdac5c08678069b2fe9b6595

Depraved, defiant Qld father’s nine-year incestuous abuse of teen daughter

A father who had incestuous sexual relations with his own daughter over nine years treated her like a ‘prostitute’, a court has heard.

A depraved Queensland father jailed for an illicit nine-year sexual relationship with his teenage daughter has remained defiant to the end, refusing to apologise for his conduct on the day of his sentencing.

Even prior to learning his fate on Thursday the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, protested from the dock as the court was told of the awful treatment of his child.

On Friday, he showed little emotion as Judge Vicki Loury handed down a sentence of nine years’ jail for the relationship, described as exploiting and corrupting the girl.

Asked if he had anything to say before sentencing, he answered: “No, Your Honour”.

The father pleaded guilty to thirty counts of incest and one count of maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.

The court was told the father commenced a relationship with his daughter, 14, in 2009.

Judge Loury said the offending began the day before he found out the girl was his biological daughter via a DNA test.

Over the next 9.5 years, he repeatedly had sex with her, with Judge Loury saying he treated the girl as if she was his wife or partner.

When she said she wanted to tell someone about the relationship, he threatened to kill himself.

Judge Loury said he also threatened to have sex with the girl’s sister to ensure her compliance with the relationship.

Even when the girl moved out of his home in 2016, when she was aged 22, the father continued to provide support and had sex with her in return.

“You treated your own daughter as if she was a prostitute,” Judge Loury said.

The offending stopped after September 2018 and the offending was reported to police.

The father described it as the “best thing in his life” and said he didn’t care if she was his daughter.

Judge Loury noted the father’s lack of remorse as he had insisted on proceeding to trial, even changing legal representatives.

“I saw your conduct yesterday (Thursday), despite my clear indication to you that I could see you were mouthing ‘That is crap’ … (and) you continued to shake your head and say things under your breath,” she said.

The court was told the father had a condition that meant he did not understand the gravity of his offending but had developed better insight into his conduct in the years since.

A psychologist report revealed he had a mild cognitive impairment with a deficit in verbal skills, reasoning and comprehension.

However, the psychologist noted he was remorseful for his actions.

Judge Loury said the father otherwise had a consistent employment history in labouring.

She sentenced him to nine years’ jail.

“You betrayed the trust of your own daughter in a very grave way,” Judge Loury said.

“You were her father, it was your role to protect her and to nurture her, but instead you had incestuous sexual relations with her.”

Where to find help

If you or someone you know is experiencing sexual abuse or family violence contact:

• National Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence Counselling Service 24-hour helpline 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732

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

• 24-hour Emergency Accommodation helpline on 1800 800 588

• Safe At Home helpline on 1800 633 937

• SHE (free and confidential counselling and support) on 6278 9090

• Sexual Assault Support Services on 6231 1811, or after hours 6231 1817

• Family Violence Crisis and Support Service on 1800 608 122

• Bravehearts – Sexual Assault Support for Children on 1800 BRAVE 1

Don't go it alone. Please reach out for help by contacting Lifeline on 13 11 14

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

Men who have anger, relationship or parenting issues, should contact the Men's Referral Service on 1300 766 491

https://www.ntv.org.au/

https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/depraved-defiant-qld-fathers-nineyear-incestuous-abuse-of-teen-daughter/news-story/04f093044056d8e7c7651e10054df762

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts: the explosive dossier: The Mail has spent months investigating Virginia Roberts' claims she slept with Prince Andrew three times. The results are troubling and deeply revealing…

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A blustery, wet Saturday morning and St Swithun's, a girls' public school in Winchester, is about to host a lacrosse fixture against St George's School, Ascot.

It is always a keenly fought affair. But there is a heightened anticipation in the home changing rooms on that morning of March 10, 2001. Among the Swithunites' opponents in a junior match will be a genuine VVIP: she is Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, elder daughter of the Duke of York. The Queen's granddaughter, no less.

The result of this clash has been lost in the mists of time. It is no longer of any consequence. But the same cannot be said of other events involving the York household as that Saturday unfolded.

For this was the 'day of days' as far as the Duke's involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein paedophile scandal is concerned. In London early that evening Andrew is said to have been introduced to a 17-year-old American called Virginia Roberts.

Miss Roberts was less than five years older than Beatrice. But unlike the Princess, her childhood had not been one of great privilege; rather she suffered sex abuse, homelessness and drug problems before being recruited by the Wall Street billionaire as his personal 'masseuse' and ultimately became one of his groomed 'sex-slaves'.

That evening, she says, she and Andrew danced together at Tramp nightclub. She claims they then returned to the Belgravia home of Andrew's old friend and Epstein's then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, where HRH put his arm around the teenager's bare midriff to pose for that photograph.

'Foreplay' in the bathroom led to royal 'ecstasy' in an adjoining bedroom.

In short, the ruin that is the Duke's reputation, his banishment from public life and the U.S. Department of Justice's ongoing desire to question him about his part in the Epstein affair, can be traced back to Saturday, March 10, 2001.

The Duke emphatically denies having had sexual relations with Miss Roberts or any minor. He has said he cannot recall ever having met her, not least in an infamous interview last year with Newsnight's Emily Maitlis.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Miss Roberts was a victim of Epstein. She distressingly recounts how she was groomed and pressured by him into having sex with numerous men, all of them strangers. One can only imagine what a devastating effect this would have had on a 17-year-old girl.

BUT WAS SHE ALSO A VICTIM OF THE DUKE?

Over a number of months the Mail has conducted a forensic investigation of her allegations against Andrew.

We have secured the testimonies of previously unheard eyewitnesses, found new top-level sources and confidential documents, and analysed thousands of legal exhibits from Epstein cases that have been released into the public domain.

The Mail has examined the as-yet unexplained variations and discrepancies within Miss Roberts' various accounts.

Commenting on any inaccuracies, she has said: 'You are left with a foggy memory sometimes, you really are,' and: 'I might be wrong on dates absolutely and I might be wrong on places even, sometimes.'

Given the awful trauma that she suffered at Epstein's hands, this is entirely understandable. And what she alleges took place almost 20 years ago. Memories fade.

Nonetheless she has accused the Duke of having had three sexual encounters with her in 2001. Public opinion is against him and his protestations of innocence. At the heart of this hostility are the alleged events of March 10, 2001, and the infamous photograph which appears to corroborate her claims of intimacy between them.

Now, for the first time, the story of that day can be told up to the point where their two narratives collide.

(continued)

>>11989583

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FERGIE'S BRUNCH AND SCHOOL SPORTS

In his disastrous interview on BBC Newsnight last year, the Duke said of March 10, 2001, 'The Duchess was away (and) we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other (parent) is there. I was on terminal leave at the time from the Royal Navy so therefore I was at home'.

He was pressed on this by Maitlis: 'So you're absolutely sure that you were home on the 10th March?'

'Yeah,' he answered.

Before we examine the Duke's recollection, let us confirm the whereabouts of the Duchess and the reason for her absence from Sunninghill Park (the couple's much-derided, ranch-style mansion near Ascot).

The Mail has learned of the existence of a private document which appears to set out the Yorks' expected schedule for that day.

It is in effect a household diary and the entries were purportedly handwritten by the Duchess sometime before March 10, 2001. It is not possible for the Mail to verify exactly when they were written. But, as we shall see, the diary's existence today does offer an explanation for the provenance of one of the most remarked upon claims put forward by the Duke during his Newsnight interview.

The Duchess's commitments in the diary are covered by the single cryptic entry 'NY Brunch 11.'

The entry is a reference to a meeting which the Duchess was to undertake in Manhattan that morning, New York time.

Since her separation and divorce from the Duke, her lifestyle had seen her run up enormous personal debts, said to be as much as £4 million.

In an attempt to close this huge deficit, the Duchess had entered into a number of lucrative commercial partnerships, trading on her royal connection. Her attendance at that brunch on March 10 was part of her deal with the chinaware firm Wedgwood, which was paying her a salary of more than £500,000.

On March 7, she had been boosting the firm in Atlanta, Georgia. The Mail has located a contemporary flyer which shows that by March 9 the Duchess had moved on to the state of Virginia.

The advertisement promised the Duchess would show 'how she resists routine and bends the rules of home entertaining. With a dash of imagination she creates a memorable table'. She would also share 'glimpses of her own private life'.

Afterwards she would autograph Wedgwood pieces in the women's department. Attendees were advised seating should be reserved, along with purchases to be signed by the speaker.

Meanwhile, the Duchess was also appearing in a U.S. TV advertisement (another £400,000) for investment firm Schwab in which she talked to the 'putative bride for a prince about the importance of understanding how money works.'

Someone else who certainly knew how money worked was Jeffrey Epstein, from whom the Duchess borrowed £15,000 to cover a debt.

So the Duchess was 3,000 miles from home, repairing her financial catastrophe. Back at Sunninghill Park — which he still shared with his ex-wife and daughters, then aged 12 and ten — the Duke was the sole parent in charge.

Sources say the girls' weekday nanny had taken the Saturday and Sunday off, her supervisory role taken by a weekend housekeeper and butler. How would the day progress under the Duke's direction?

'B — lacrosse match vs St Swithun's (away),' says the first entry.

Then 'E — netball trophy 10-12.' Princess Eugenie was also in sporting action, though the entry does not say where. Nor can the diary confirm the Duke's attendance at either event.

Whether he did cheer from the touchlines or not has no impact on Roberts' own account of the day. But the narratives of accuser and accused were approaching the collision point.

(continued)

>>11989604

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NOISES OFF AND THAT PIZZA 'ALIBI'

In the Newsnight interview, the Duke volunteered what he claimed to have been one of his (blameless) domestic tasks during the late afternoon of March 10.

'I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party, at I suppose sort of four or five in the afternoon,' he said.

'Why would you remember that so specifically?' asked Maitlis. 'Why would you remember a Pizza Express birthday?'

'Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do,' he replied. 'I've only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly. As soon as someone reminded me of it, I went: 'Oh yes, I remember that.' But I have no recollection of ever meeting or being in the company or the presence.'

The idea of 'Air Miles Andy' hanging out at a branch of Pizza Express in the M25 commuter town of Woking attracted scepticism, if not ridicule. So did the Duke's lack of recall of any other detail about this occasion. It also failed to pass muster as an alibi for his denial of having been at Tramp in London that night.

But he had mentioned the episode only because someone had 'reminded' him. Presumably that someone had access to the same household diary described more recently to the Mail.

There are three entries in that document which apparently relate to the afternoon of March 10, 2001. The first reads 'B — xxxxxx's party @Ambassadors Theatre, Woking.' Mail inquiries have found the party host, whose name we have redacted, was a girl at Beatrice's school. The Ambassador Theatre Group owns the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. That Saturday the New Victoria was hosting a touring production of Michael Frayn's classic backstage farce within a farce, Noises Off. Patricia Hodge was among the cast. Saturday matinees at the New Victoria usually begin at 2.30pm.

This is the exact time listed alongside the next entry in the diary. That entry is a single word: 'Manicure.'

According to the diary, this beauty treatment was not booked for the Duchess or her daughters. The manicure was for 'A' — Andrew, the Duke himself. It was to be carried out by a woman called 'Jeanne', the entry says.

This clash in timings suggests that the Duke did not drop Beatrice at the theatre, which was more than ten miles from their home, if she was to make it there in time. In any case, the Princess had her own police bodyguard who would have accompanied her to the event.

What then of the Duke's 'weirdly' distinct recall of his time in Woking that afternoon?

The third and final entry in the diary for that Saturday afternoon offers some explanation if not salvation. It says 'Pizza Express'.

The Mail understands that the branch on Goldsworth Road, Woking is where the birthday party-goers went for a post-theatre meal.

Noises Off is not a long play, typically lasting no more than two hours and ten minutes including interval. The Woking branch of the restaurant is only half a mile from the New Victoria Theatre. The schoolgirls might therefore have been expected to arrive at the venue a little after 5pm. At best, the Duke's Newsnight recall — 'I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party, at I suppose sort of four or five in the afternoon' — was a guesstimate based on the diary entry and a faint memory. But if the Princess had attended the matinee, as the diary suggests, she should have arrived in Woking several hours earlier than that — just when the Duke was due for his manicure.

(continued)

>>11989620

4/4

It's possible that for some reason she had only attended the meal and not the theatre, dropped off by her father at 5pm, as he recalled. Or was she perhaps picked up by the Duke after the meal had finished, despite his specific Newsnight claim that he had 'taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express'?

We understand he now has a 'vague recollection' of being parked up and 'waiting under a railway bridge' nearby. The main Waterloo-to-Exeter railway line runs through Woking. It crosses over a main road some 300 metres from Pizza Express. Still, it is an odd detail for the Duke to remember, when he forgets so much else.

What of Princess Beatrice? Alas for the Duke, according to an impeccable source she has 'absolutely no recall whatsoever' of this Pizza Express party or her father picking her up. She qualifies this inability to support her father's account, by stating that as a schoolgirl she went to 'any number' of meals at the Woking Pizza Express. She cannot remember every single one, two decades after the event.

The Mail has also received a statement from the parents of the girl who threw the Pizza Express party. The family were anxious to help the Yorks. But while they said that Beatrice did go to their party they have no pictures nor a recall of the event.

'We had made a deliberate decision from the outset not to take photographs of, or around, Bea as it seemed to be permanently open season among some parents who indulged in this sport,' the parents explained.

'The party was almost 20 years ago. We were living in Woking and had two daughters at prep school there. Not only were their birthdays celebrated in Pizza Express but almost every beginning of term, end of term and half-term. Pizza Express was just the place they liked to go for their treats.'

They added: 'Bea was one of our daughter's friends at school. There were no special arrangements or formalities regarding her parents, they were frequently around the school and the girls' social lives. They were informal and unobtrusive.'

There is a point to this close examination of the Duke's vague recollections of what he claims was his innocently spent day.

What if the Duke didn't play any direct part in Beatrice's attendance at the birthday party, leaving the fetching and carrying to her bodyguards or his domestic staff?

Once 'Jeanne' had completed his manicure, he could have been driven to Central London before 5pm.

If the Duke was only in Woking briefly, between 4-5pm as he said, then conceivably he could also have reached the capital in time for late tea with Epstein and his entourage.

But if the Duke had been present as a hands-on father to pick up his daughter at the end of the birthday meal, and then taken her back to Sunninghill Park, he could not have been in Central London that night much before 8pm.

This last scenario is the only one of the three incompatible with his accuser's own account of what happened that afternoon and evening.

And as we shall see, there are more troubling issues ahead.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9045123/Prince-Andrew-Virginia-Roberts-explosive-dossier-results-deeply-revealing.html

Inside the house where Virginia Roberts and Prince Andrew had 'sex in the bath' - so is the tub REALLY too small for two people to fit like Ghislaine Maxwell claims?

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Four doors opened onto the first-floor landing of Ghislaine Maxwell's London pied-a-terre. Viewed from the top of the stairs to the ground floor, the door on the right led into a master bedroom.

That is where Epstein and Maxwell slept together that Saturday night, a source claims. The door on the left (against which the Duke and Miss Roberts are seen in the photograph) led to the study-cum-second bedroom. That was Miss Roberts's room.

Directly opposite the top of the stairs were two further doors; an airing cupboard and the entrance to the bathroom. The latter was 'where I led (the Duke)', Miss Roberts recalled in the manuscript of her memoir. 'It was a beige marble tiled floor with porcelain Victorian-style bathtub in the middle of the room and nowhere near the size of Jeffrey's residences.'

She wrote: 'I turned on the taps for the tub and the heat from the water began to steam up the small room . . . Trying to do the best of my youthfulness to try and act seductive, I gradually began to strip off my clothing, piece by piece . . . He loved every second of it as I went over to where he was waiting and watching, then began to undress him . . . We kissed and touched each other before submersing into the hot water, where we both continued to re-enact foreplay. He was adorning (sic) my young body, particularly my feet . . . It wasn't hard to get him wound up to the point where he just wanted to have the rest of me.'

The explosive conclusion to this encounter took place in her 'bedchamber', she said. But it is the bathroom and, in particular, the bath and its dimensions, that has been the focus of legal interest.

Under oath during Miss Roberts' defamation action against her, Maxwell said: 'The tub is too small for any type of activity whatsoever.'

In his book Relentless Pursuit, Miss Roberts' lawyer Brad Edwards wrote that the bath was discussed when he met Epstein in a Starbucks in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2015. The tycoon had contacted him out of the blue.

He claimed that Epstein had said to him: 'If I could show you how small Ghislaine's tub was in that apartment, it would be tough for two people to fit in there.'

Edwards said he dismissed the comment, suggesting it was a weak legal point to force. But other lawyers have tried. Are trying.

The Mail understands that Miss Roberts' legal team has not had access to the disputed bathroom. But two members of Maxwell's legal team — she still owns the property — have climbed into the bath together, fully clothed, to test the physical possibility of an assignation such as that described in Miss Roberts' account.

They claimed not to be persuaded, a source said.

BATH CRAMMED INTO AN ALCOVE

So the Mail conducted our own inquiries. We have found a floorplan of the bathroom, taken from a 1987 planning application. We have also had access to much more recent images of the room.

There are two observations. One is that the bathroom is indeed 'small', as both sides agree; cramped, if one wished to perform anything other than solo ablutions.

The second? There is not a free-standing Victorian bath tub in the middle of the room, as described by Miss Roberts, in either iteration of the bathroom designs.

The historic plan shows a 'standard size' — 5ft 6in by 2ft 4in — alcove bath, boxed in on two sides by walls and on a third by the back of the airing cupboard.

The remaining 36 sq ft is largely taken up by a bidet, a lavatory and large sink. It is very bijou.

The recent images show almost the same layout. A sink still faces the door, a shower stall has replaced the bidet on the left, next to a lavatory. An alcove bath is on the right.

(continued)

>>11989681

2/2

We have also received testimony from an old acquaintance of Maxwell's who said: 'I have visited the property on several occasions over the years. Even by the standards of a small mews house, the bathroom would be described as compact. There is no more than a couple of inches between the lavatory, sink and bath . . . to manoeuvre.'

She said that others who had regularly visited the property over the past two decades all agreed that 'no changes have taken place to (the bathroom's) essential layout.'

THE DEAD 'KEY WITNESS'

Aside from his own poor memory, the Duke's fundamental problem in proving his innocence of the March 10 allegations is this: of the four sources who should be best able to provide an alternative eyewitness account of that evening, one — Epstein — was a convicted paedophile who has since committed suicide, while another — Maxwell — is on remand in a U.S. prison facing charges of perjury and assisting the tycoon in sex-trafficking, charges that she denies.

But what of the Duke's duty police bodyguards for that night? It was their job not only to observe the Duke's movements, but to log them for the official record.

Sources close to the Duke say it has been difficult to identify the relevant personal protection officers (PPOs) from 2001. This has been blamed variously on 'chaotic Met Police records' and the events taking place so long ago, in what was still, largely, an analogue era.

But a 'breakthrough' of sorts has been achieved. When he was at home at Sunninghill Park on a weekend evening, the Duke was protected by one rather than two PPOs, sources claim.

They say the relevant PPO has now been identified. The Mail has been given a name. It has also been confirmed to us by a former senior colleague that this officer has since died. If so, he has taken the Duke's alibi to the grave — if such an alibi would have been provided.

The fourth first-hand eyewitnesses that night were the domestic staff at Sunninghill.

Through intermediaries, the Mail was told by the duty housekeeper: 'I worked at Sunninghill Park the weekend of March 10, 2001, with (name withheld) as butler.

'My duties were housekeeping and help with the Princesses as required. The Duchess and Duke had a rule that one parent was present if the other had to be away. (The butler) and I both helped. I went home after the children's baths, (the butler) catch (sic) a train to London. The nanny would return for duty on Mon morn'.

But, crucially, the housekeeper cannot remember whether this bath night took place on the Saturday (the evening in question) or Sunday — or whether the Duke was home on both nights.

His only defence against Miss Roberts' detailed accusations remains blunt denial. He has not been able to offer up a credible and corroborated alternative narrative. There has also been a corporate loss of memory as far as those around him are concerned. One is minded of his horribly complacent remark at the end of his Newsnight interview. 'I think you've dragged out of me most of what is required,' he said.

That is simply not the case. And in Part Two of this series on Monday, the Mail will fill in more of the holes in the royal narrative — including a confession that explodes another of his Newsnight claims altogether.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9045081/Inside-house-Virginia-Roberts-Prince-Andrew-sex-bath-tub-small.html

>>11989583

>>11989681

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweets

The layout of the bathroom in the floor plans is wrong unless Ghislaine had it remodelled. The bath tub was a deep long tub in the middle of the bathroom adjacent from the shower. I remember everything of that night- can Prince Andrew say the same? #pizzagate #ChildTrafficking

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1337551429016322049

—

Check his “fake” hands- do they look like they’ve just been manicured??

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1337552284692058112

Zodiac killer code cracked by Australian mathematician Samuel Blake more than 50 years after first murder

Melbourne mathematician Samuel Blake and two fellow cryptologists have been officially recognised by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation for solving a 50-year-old cryptic message written by an as yet unnamed serial killer, known only as the Zodiac.

Dr Blake worked on decoding the message known as the "340 cipher" with two other cryptologists and a University of Melbourne supercomputer called Spartan to eventually reveal its content.

The cipher bears a distinctive circle with a cross through the middle and was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on November 8, 1969 by a man who called himself "Zodiac".

The correspondent killer sent letters to newspapers over several years up until 1974, including proof he was responsible for the deaths of at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The official cracking of the 340-character cipher provides insight into the killer's thoughts and actions but does not reveal a name as promised in separate letters sent to newspapers.

Dr Blake told the ABC he had been working on finding a solution to the 340 cipher, considered one of the holy grails of cryptography, since contacting Zodiac cryptologist David Oranchak early in 2020.

Mr Oranchak hosts a website dedicated to cracking the Zodiac ciphers and has posted several YouTube videos detailing the work he has done over 15 years trying to solve them.

In a statement released on social media Dr Blake paid tribute to US-based Mr Oranchak and software programmer Jarl van Eycke, based in Brussels.

"During the year we tested, by trial and error, around 650,000 different reading directions through the cipher. This search turned up — more or less — nothing," he said.

"However, one of these searches uncovered a surprising combination of words: GAS CHAMBER. That such a macabre phase should pop up in a sea of noise warranted further attention.

"From this fragment, David, Jarl van Eycke and I reworked the key and corrected an error Zodiac made in his diagonal enumeration of the second vertical segment of the cipher.

"Jarl's fantastic program, azdecrypt, was essential in this process."

Dr Blake is a visiting fellow at the University of Melbourne and described how the university's supercomputer, Spartan, solved the cipher after processing 650,000 other possible solutions.

Eventually a solution that drew out a message that included the phrase "GAS CHAMBER" was revealed.

Mr Oranchak sent the proposed solution to the Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit of the FBI and within a day they officially approved the solution.

In a statement released on Friday, US time, the FBI confirmed that the cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer was recently solved by "private citizens."

"After 50 years of active research, this cipher has finally been solved. We now understand why it resisted attacks for so long," Dr Blake wrote on social media.

"The reading direction through the cipher was so obscure, that the only way it could be found was with a massive search through many candidates using sophisticated software which can efficiently solve homophonic substitution ciphers.

"Not only were we lucky enough to find the needle in the haystack, but we were lucky enough to pick the right haystack in order to start searching for the needle."

Dr Blake and his colleagues have dedicated their work to the murder victims and their families.

The Melbourne mathematician now hopes the solution he and his colleagues have revealed will help crack the two remaining unsolved short ciphers: one with 13 symbols and the other with 32.

In correspondence, the killer hinted that these ciphers contain his name.

"I find the Zodiac case intriguing, but I'm far from a Zodiac killer expert," Dr Blake said.

"Perhaps my lack of knowledge of the case helped as it wasn't a distraction.

"It would be fantastic if this helps the investigation in some way, now it's over to the experts in interpreting the meaning of his message."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-12/zodiac-killer-code-cracked-by-australian-mathematician/12977342

>>11990893

FBI SanFrancisco Tweet

#Breaking - Our statement regarding the #Zodiac cipher:

The FBI is aware that a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer was recently solved by private citizens. The Zodiac Killer case remains an ongoing investigation for the FBI San Francisco division and our local law enforcement partners. The Zodiac Killer terrorized multiple communities across Northern California and even though decades have gone by, we continue to seek justice for the victims of these brutal crimes. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not be providing further comment at this time.

https://twitter.com/FBISanFrancisco/status/1337477701825925120

Rita Panahi Tweet

Meanwhile, in the Australian senate…

https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1336938281267732485

>>11990893

>>11990910

Repost from Q Research General #15307

>>11991623 (pb)

Zodiac serial killer code solved more than 50 years on by team including Aussie mathematician

An Australian mathematician working with a team of three has helped crack the coded message sent more than 50 years ago by the infamous San Francisco Zodiac Killer.

The serial killer has never been caught over five murders in the Northern California area in the late 1960s and early 1970s but became known by his pseudonym in taunting letters sent to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.

Some of the notes came in the form of a code, including the complex 340 cipher that has remained unsolved until now.

Melbourne mathematician Samuel Blake worked in a team with codebreakers David Oranchak and Jarl Van Eycke to crack the enigmatic code.

“We tried several hundreds of thousands of indirect ways of solving the cipher and just by chance we happened to stumble upon a fragment of how it could be solved,” Dr Blake told ABC News on Saturday.

“Using that fragment we reverse engineered the entire solution and got the entire message out from the Zodiac.”

The decrypted message reads as follows:

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH

Dr Blake, a visiting fellow at the University of Melbourne, said the message does not reveal the killer’s identity but could help authorities track down who he is.

The university’s supercomputer, Spartan, helped solve the message after processing more than 600,000 possible solutions.

Dr Blake revealed the cipher had multiple symbols and was written in a different way to normal codes, which made it more difficult to crack.

“The reading direction we are normally used to is left to right and top to bottom on a page,” he said.

“Whereas what the Zodiac did in this cipher was write it diagonally.

“He went one row down, two columns across, wandering down, two columns across.

“To write it out and try to stumble across that correct enumeration was one of the main difficulties here.”

No-one has been charged over the Zodiac case but speculation has been rife for years as to the killer’s true identity.

In a statement, the San Francisco division of the FBI said the Zodiac Killer case remains an ongoing investigation and declined to comment further out of respect for the victims and their families.

“The Zodiac Killer terrorised multiple communities across Northern California and even though decades have gone by, we continue to seek justice for the victims of these brutal crimes,” a spokesman said.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/breaking-news/zodiac-serial-killer-code-solved-more-than-50-years-on-by-team-including-aussie-mathematician/news-story/53110a38b8c741290400dbeacaefa8cc

New ‘high-level push’ to free Julian Assange

Sky News Australia

12 Dec 2020

As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains imprisoned - awaiting a decision on his extradition case related to the publication of confidential documents - there is a new “high-level push” to have him released, says Sky News host Brent O’Halloran.

This week marks 10 years since the WikiLeaks founder was first detained in the UK; he is currently held in London’s Belmarsh prison and is fighting against extradition to the US to face charges.

If convicted, the charges, which include the new allegations of conspiring to hack government computers and espionage, could lead to a maximum sentence of 175 years behind bars.

Interpretations of Mr Assange’s actions vary greatly as a result of the sensitivity of the confidential documents at hand; exposing wrongdoing earned him and his company many awards, but also put him under scrutiny from US officials.

Mr O’Halloran said he can now exclusively reveal a new “high-level push to bring him home – with the help of US President Donald Trump”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2zHaH2YrrA

>>12000402

Nationals MP George Christensen heads campaign to have Julian Assange pardoned by Donald Trump

Sky News Australia

12 Dec 2020

Nationals MP George Christensen has exclusively told Sky News about his campaign to have US President Donald Trump pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange before he leaves the White House.

Mr Assange is currently held in London’s Belmarsh prison, awaiting a decision on his extradition case related to the publication of confidential documents.

Many believe his exposure of wrongdoing is not something he should face charges for.

Mr Christensen has created a website which features a letter directed to President Trump and an e-petition which will be sent to the White House.

“Julian Assange has been a target of the Democrats actually,” Mr Christensen told Sky News host Brent O’Halloran.

“Hillary Clinton hates his guts, obviously for exposing who the real Hillary was.”

Mr Christensen said President Trump pardoning the WikiLeaks founder is “one way which he can stand up for free speech”.

“I’m hoping that he will pardon Julian Assange, it’s the right thing to do and I’m encouraging people to do that with this website.”

https://www.georgechristensen.com.au/pardon-julian-assange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3SS5XjPN5w

Australian government must ‘pick up the phone’ on Assange case

Sky News Australia

12 Dec 2020

Julian Assange’s partner, Stella Morris, has told Sky News the Australian government needs to “pick up the phone and speak to its closest allies” to express appropriate concern about the case and secure the release of the WikiLeaks founder.

Mr Assange is currently held in London’s Belmarsh prison, awaiting a decision on his extradition case related to the publication of confidential documents.

Ms Morris told Sky News host Brent O’Halloran her partner is “very unwell”.

“He’s in atrocious circumstances; the prison is a dangerous place, suicides and murders are commonplace.”

Discussing the involvement of Australian officials in the situation, Ms Morris said none of them have come to Mr Assange with any advice.

“I know that Marise Payne supposedly raised the case with Mike Pompeo … but no one came to us to ask what’s the latest in the case, we haven’t been contacted after that meeting,” she said.

“The Australian government should just pick up the phone and speak to its closest allies and show its concern and secure his safe release.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F-BwcSC5Ks

>>12000437

Chinese media use Julian Assange saga as a 'propaganda tool' against Australia

Sky News Australia

12 Dec 2020

The partner of Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange has backed a new push to have President Donald Trump pardon the Wikileaks founder and argued the high-profile legal case is being used against Australia by China.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News host Brent O’Halloran, Stella Morris said she has reached out to key figures in the United States regarding a possible release 10 years after Mr Assange was first detained.

Ms Morris said, “the Australian government should just pick up the phone and speak to its closest allies and show its concern and secure his safe release”.

She also suggested Chinese state television networks were using the Julian Assange saga as a “propaganda tool” to undermine trust in Australia’s commitment to freedom.

Mr Assange is currently held in London’s Belmarsh prison, awaiting a decision on his extradition case related to the publication of confidential document which included information regarding war crimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTXoAaufgG0

Five Eyes partners mull joint sanctions as allies hit back at China trade coercion

The Five Eyes allies are quietly discussing a plan to retaliate against China’s aggressive new trade tariffs that have hit Australia hard.

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Exclusive: The Five Eyes allies are quietly discussing a plan to fight back against China’s aggressive new trade tariffs by introducing joint retaliatory sanctions on Chinese goods and produce.

News Corp understands officials from some of the Five Eyes nations have been discussing how best to respond to China’s attempts to pressure Australia by harming some of our export markets, notably beef, wine and coal.

One option is that all five nations – Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand – respond with their own sanctions on Chinese goods and services.

A second option would be for Australia to respond with retaliatory tariffs on inbound products from China, and the four allied nations support the move by refusing to buy extra product from China if Beijing looked to make up its losses elsewhere.

Talks are at a preliminary stage, but the idea is gaining traction in Canberra, and is being seriously considered in Washington.

News Corp has been told the problem had been discussed at high levels within the Morrison Government, but that talks so far remained at the level of officials.

The discussions come as the Five Eyes alliance, formed decades ago as an intelligence-sharing agreement, continues to expand into diplomatic and economic policymaking, largely in response to concerns about Chinese aggression.

“Five Eyes co-operation is off the charts at the moment,’’ a source said, pointing out even the Social Services Minister Anne Ruston had a recent Five Eyes link-up with her fellow ministers.

Under options being discussed to respond to China’s trade hostilities, the Five Eyes security agencies would jointly conduct an intelligence assessment of each new sanction announced by Beijing on Australian exports.

If the agencies deemed the sanctions to be a coercive economic move designed to pressure Australia for political purposes, a retaliatory sanction would be imposed, to the same or a higher value than the one imposed on Australia.

The other Five Eyes nations would then ensure China could not turn to them to make up any shortfall in sales.

Alternatively, each Five Eyes nation could respond with sanctions of their own.

Fergus Hanson, the director of the International Cyber Policy Institute at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, authored a report in September which recommended the Five Eyes consider a “collective economic security measure’’ along the lines of NATO’s article 5, which states that an armed attack against any one NATO country would be treated as an attack against them all.

“The Chinese Communist Party is trying to cause political pain in Australia to attempt to get the Australian government to change some of their decisions,’’ he told News Corp.

He said retaliatory sanctions would “look to do the same thing in China to make sure the CCP realise it’s a two-way street.’’

The aim was to “push the CCP into normal ways of doing business’’ and resolve trade disputes through recognised channels such as the World Trade Organisation or formal negotiations.

“I think it’s pretty clear our current approach is not a solution to this problem. What we are doing now is a failing strategy,’’ he said, of Australia’s current decision not to take China to the WTO or publicly accuse Beijing of economic coercion.

“It is absolutely critical we turn the tide on this.’’

“You’d only have to do it once to demonstrate coercive diplomacy was now too costly.’’

(continued)

>>12001900

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ANALYSIS: WHAT IT MEANS

The Five Eyes alliance is expanding beyond the boundaries of its original mission, which was to share intelligence gathered by the security agencies of Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.

The agreement, which has been running for more than 70 years, has helped maintain the close ties between the five countries, all democracies with similar values and respect for the rules-based international order.

In recent years the Five Eyes alliance has strayed beyond intelligence sharing and into domestic and economic policymaking.

A shared determination to push back harder against Chinese expansionism and aggression is turbocharging the evolution of the Five Eyes. Japan has even suggested it could be included and become part of a new Six Eyes agreement.

Using the might of the Five Eyes to push back against China’s blatant use of coercive financial sanctions is an attractive proposition for Australia. As a relatively small economy and middle power, it can be more easily bullied than the United States or the UK.

And Australia has weakened its position by allowing itself to become too dependent on China as a main market for our exports.

Retaliatory sanctions would not be popular with free trade supporters and those who still believe in the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, despite China trampling all over it. Those with a more hawkish view on how Australia should assert itself in the face of Beijing’s bullying would be delighted to have the support of our big northern allies, who bring the might of their enormous economies with them.

The US seems particularly enthused by a potential Five Eyes bloc at the ready to tackle sanctions, with hints appearing in the US media in recent weeks about an “informal alliance’’ of western nations prepared to jointly retaliate against Beijing.

The US has already had a bona-fide trade war with China, while Canada and the UK have clashed with Beijing, as Australia has, over security concerns involving Chinese telco Huawei.

New Zealand, with its more neutral position on China, would likely find a collective retaliation more uncomfortable.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/five-eyes-partners-mull-joint-sanctions-as-allies-hit-back-at-china-trade-coercion/news-story/2daf66b724190fdf577ab5882d1b0364

Party insiders in the ranks: communists infiltrate Western consulates

SHARRI MARKSON - DECEMBER 14, 2020

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The Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated the Australian, British and US consulates in Shanghai, with a government-run recruitment agency placing advisers into Western embassies for more than a decade.

A leak of official membership records — the first in the world — has exposed details of 1.95 million CCP members, including their position, birthdate and ethnicity, after being extracted from a Shanghai server by whistleblowers.

An investigation by The Australian has found that at least 10 consulates in Shanghai have CCP members employed as senior political and government affairs specialists, clerks, economic advisers and executive assistants.

Foreign affairs experts warn the employment of CCP members in the consulates, some for up to 16 years, could be part of a “state-sponsored spy ring”, while intelligence officers labelled it a breach of protocol and a risk to national security.

The database has also revealed CCP members working in global companies such as Boeing — which has billions of dollars in ­defence contracts — inside Pfizer and AstraZeneca, pharmaceutical companies which are developing coronavirus vaccines, and at Western universities.

Even ANZ has at least one CCP branch — with 23 members — in its Chinese operations. An ANZ spokesman said the bank did not interfere with its employees’ ­involvement in political groups. While there is no evidence that anyone on the party membership list has spied for the Chinese government — and many become members to boost their career prospects — the new revelations have raised concerns about what safeguards are in place at consulates and major corporations. But CCP members, of which there are 92 million, must pledge an oath that puts the party’s interests above all and “be ready at all times to sacrifice my all for the party”.

Thirty British MPs, including former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, will soon table an urgent question about the issue in the House of Commons.

The database shows CCP members have been or are currently employed in Australian, US, British, German, Swiss, Indian, New Zealand, Italian and South African missions in Shanghai.

An investigation by The Australian has uncovered how the ­Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade directly hires local staff through a Chinese government agency, the Shanghai Foreign Agency Service Department.

According to the database, the SFASD has at least 12 active CCP branches with 249 members.

DFAT has been hiring staff through the SFASD for at least five years, with the most recent advertisement for an Australian consulate-general public diplomacy, research and visits officer placed on the agency’s website in September, offering an annual base salary of 160,840 yuan ($32,526).

Australian job advertisements indicate that hires of local Chinese nationals all need to go through the SFASD.

A 2016 job placement advert for a consulate “research, visits and public diplomacy manager”, which “reports to the deputy consul general” stated: “The successful applicant will need to meet the requirements of, and be employed through the Shanghai Foreign Agency Service Department.”

SFASD’S website currently lists job vacancies for the Australian, US, Czech, Ethiopian, Brazilian, Chilean and Hong Kong consulates in Shanghai from July 2020.

A senior executive assistant who worked for the Australian consulate in Shanghai, and has been involved in organising parliamentary delegations, is listed on the database as a CCP member. The Australian has chosen not to publish the assistant’s name but sent DFAT questions about the security clearance undertaken.

A spokesman said: “DFAT is used to operating within different overseas contexts … Our recruitment, security and risk-management processes are robust.”

“There is a clear distinction in the roles, responsibilities and work of Australians who are posted and locally engaged staff at our embassies and high commissions.

“We value the contributions of our locally engaged staff members. We do not comment on the ­details of individual security clearances.”

(continued)

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Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, the chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said not every member was a concern but it was “a huge conflict of interest for CCP members to be working on projects that have national significance for Australia”.

“China is a one-party state. Many people would join the CCP just to get ahead in life,” Mr Hastie said. “Transparency and sunlight are the best weapons for defeating the challenges posed by authoritarian regimes.”

But an intelligence officer interviewed by The Australian said CCP members working in consulates, even in junior positions, posed a serious security risk.

“Any CCP member who is ­allowed to work in a foreign country’s embassy or consulate is a ­potential spy,” he said.

“Even at a low level they would have access to information on visas, or be able to grant visas to people who might otherwise not get into the country.

“At a higher level, they may have access to information such as the identities of intelligence officers operating in the country, or even cipher traffic.

“It is extraordinary that some countries have persisted in employing locally engaged staff in China when these threats have been clear for some time.”

Samuel Armstrong, a spokesman for the British Henry Jackson Society foreign policy think tank, said “the SFASD looks and smells like a well-organised, state-sponsored spy ring”.

“The Australian government has done a good job at eliminating long-term security risks from China but Foreign Minister (Marise) Payne will need to urgently explain how such a glaring intelligence threat came to be normalised in one of DFAT’s missions,” he said.

“Embassies handle information of the gravest security risk, ASIO must now investigate what sensitive material has been disclosed to a hostile government by virtue of this arrangement.”

The leaked database also shows one CCP member worked for the NZ Consulate in Shanghai for four years as policy adviser for trade and economics.

A NZ Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman declined to comment, citing privacy obligations. There are also six CCP members who have worked at the US Consulate in Shanghai in roles including a political specialist, a procurement supervisor and ­an assistant.

One official has spent 12 years as an employee and, according to Linked In, is still working at the US consulate, while another has spent 13 years at the Consulate, according to Linked In.

There is a current senior officer at the British consulate in Shanghai, who according to security sources, works near MI6 officers operating under diplomatic cover, with concerns intelligence could be passed back to the CCP.

A senior British security source said of the revelations there of CCP members being hired in foreign agencies was “a massive security risk and complete breach of protocol.”

“There will be serious questions asked about the Secret Intelligence Service team’s vetting procedures. In that station (the person) will be sat one floor away from the SIS team,” he said.

“Anybody walking past her office and up the staircase she could identify as an intelligence officer to pass back to the Chinese Communist Party.”

“There is an awareness that information could be passed to the CCP by local consular staff but we are working all the time to eliminate those problems.”

The Swiss Embassy has a trade officer and deputy head of station who are CCP members while the German Consulate has a clerk who is a CCP member.

One CCP member spent 12 years in the Italian consulate, another spent 16 years in the South African consulate.

Another CCP member spent eight years as a senior political and government affairs specialist at the US consulate before moving to the British consulate.

Australian consulate staff also participate in many social activities organised by the SFASD including cooking classes, photo competitions and a trampolining event. The agency maintains an active alumni database and networking events.

Details from the CCP database have been sent to each embassy but only the Australian, New Zealand and British governments responded to a request for comment by publication.

Mr Smith said: “The government must now move to expel and remove any members of the Communist Party from our Consuls throughout China.

“They can either serve the UK or the Chinese Communist Party. They cannot do both.”

(continued)

>>12015527

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The leak of the Communist Party membership database from Shanghai has laid bare how the party structure under President Xi Jinping operates — by setting up branches inside companies and government agencies.

The database has details of over 79,000 branches, with 62.8 per cent of the members male and 98.9 per cent from the dominant Han Chinese ethnic group.

The database was leaked in mid-September to the newly-formed international group, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which is made up of 150 legislators around the world.

It was then provided to an international consortium of four media organisations: The Australian, The Mail on Sunday in Britain, De Standaard in Belgium and Swedish journalists.

The Australian was able to independently obtain a more complete version of the same database from a confidential source which allowed cybersecurity firm, Internet 2.0, to track the data back to its original leak and conduct metadata analysis and verification.

The data was originally extracted from a server on April 16, 2016, and was likely taken locally from the data server by a dissident who risked their life to access it.

“We assess with high confidence that the data was extracted from the server across a local network which suggest the activists possibly had physical access to the local network,” Internet 2.0’s report states. “In other words, this data was not taken over the Internet but rather physically close to the server.”

After the original source extracted the data, a second source — who has been dubbed “the Data Cleaner” — uploaded it to private chat rooms frequented by activists from a range of backgrounds, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Falun Gong and others with anti-CCP agendas.

The “Data Cleaner” converted the database to a Microsoft Excel file on July 3, 2016, where, screenshots show, it was shared in other activist chat rooms on July 6, 2016.

It was “used as a counterintelligence tool by activists,” according to Internet 2.0 co-founder Robert Potter. “We found that the list had been used by a range of institutions. Activists of various stripes used the data internally as a source of counterintelligence,” he said.

“Intelligence analysts in our team matched the data to several high profile cases where people had been identified through agency investigations.”

A spokesman for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China said it had received the database from a non-governmental source, “but was not in a position to verify it, so handed it to experts”.

“Journalists have since investigated and their findings are disturbing indeed,” he said. “IPAC will push for governments and companies to respond setting out how they intend to safeguard their values in the face of infiltration.”

The database details the names, dates of birth, ethnicity, national ID numbers and some phone numbers of 1.95 registered Communist Party members.

The Australian has tracked some members to Australia; there is a UNSW academic who has registered dozens of patents in China, a female logistics worker in Victoria who could not explain how her name and phone number was on the list and a former Labor Party adviser who strongly denies he has ever been a member of the CCP.

Shanghai based Australian scholar Chen Hong — who had his Australian visa revoked in September after the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation assessed him as a possible security risk to Australia — is also listed on the database.

Charles Sturt University public ethics academic and China specialist Clive Hamilton said the leaked CCP membership list would provide important insights into spying and influence operations in Australia, and elsewhere.

“Shanghai is the main hub in China for organising spying on western nations,” he said.

“There’s a lot of overlap in the Chinese system between spying and foreign interference operations. The Ministry of State Security often uses the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences to recruit foreign academics.”

Two Western intelligence agency sources said they would be keenly interested in having access to the data. It is understood that ASIO already has access. It has provided insight into how the CCP embeds branches inside foreign companies operating in China.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/exclusives/party-insiders-in-the-ranks-communists-infiltrate-western-consulates/news-story/f49ab7049d3ede3752589e0aaba9b783

Names, positions of Chinese Community Party operatives revealed in major security leak

By SHARRI MARKSON - DECEMBER 14, 2020

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Global companies that hold billions of dollars worth of sensitive defence contracts in Australia and the US, along with companies developing coronavirus vaccines, have hundreds of Chinese Communist Party members in their employ, an investigation has revealed.

The Australian has obtained a leaked database listing the personal details of almost two million CCP members — including their party position, birthdate, national ID number and ethnicity — in a major security breach expected to embarrass Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It is the first time a list of its scale has been leaked and it unveils the secrecy shrouding CCP operations and exposes how party branches are embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies, with intelligence experts warning China is using the structure to achieve global dominance.

This list has revealed many major companies — from manufacturing giants Boeing and Volkswagen to financial services firms including HSBC and ANZ — not only employ CCP members but also have branches embedded within their Chinese operations.

While there is no evidence anyone on the party membership list has spied for the Chinese government — and many become members to boost their career prospects — the new revelations have raised concerns about what safeguards are in place at consulates and major corporations.

China experts and intelligence agents interviewed by The Australian have warned that the employment of CCP members — even in their Chinese subsidiaries — risks sensitive information falling into the hands of Beijing’s intelligence services and intellectual property being stolen.

The revelations come after the US imposed tight visa rules on CCP members and their families — allowing them to visit for one month, down from 10 years.

The leaked database of CCP members includes academics in Australia and Britain, including at the University of NSW and employees in private companies working in Australia.

Shanghai-based Australian scholar Chen Hong — who had his Australian visa revoked in September after the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation assessed him as a possible security risk — is listed on the database.

Professor Chen’s listing states that he is a “party member whose membership is reserved at CCP Working Committee for the Organ of the East China Normal University”. Reserved party membership occurs when a CCP member has left the country for more than six months, but can be restored when the member returns.

(continued)

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The Australian has chosen not to name individual members on the Communist Party register who are still in Australia, only the companies and organisations they are working for. The Australian understands ASIO has obtained a copy of the database, which is from the Shanghai region.

An intelligence officer who declined to be named told The Australian the presence of members of the CCP in government, and in organisations that do business with government, “is a totally unacceptable security risk”.

“Party members are often expected to do the bidding of the state, and especially when they are overseas,” he said.

“In some cases, they go beyond being a security risk, and actually do the bidding of China in attempting to influence governments overseas. The recent raids in Sydney are an example of this.”

The intelligence officer said over the past 20 years, “Chinese nationals have compromised the security of global companies which form part of the military supply chain for the West”.

“Allowing members of the CCP to work for such companies risks their stealing technology, providing intelligence to China on forthcoming weapons systems and capabilities, or on force structures built around those capabilities,” he said. “Imagine if a CCP member was allowed to work on the new Australian submarine project, and got technical data on the performance of the subs. This would give the Chinese navy a massive advantage and put Australian lives at risk.”

One of the biggest suppliers to the Australian government and Defence Department, aerospace giant Boeing, in 2016 had 287 CCP members working for it across China in 21 branches.

Boeing is one of the biggest suppliers to the Australian government, winning 2874 contracts worth $12.2bn in the past decade. In July, one of its local subsidiaries, Boeing Defence Australia, signed a $287m sustainment contract for the Royal Australian Air Force’s fleet of 12P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft.

Boeing also has billions of dollars in defence contracts with the US, including a $3.9bn contract to build two 747-8 aircraft for use as Air Force One by the US president, due for delivery in 2024.

Boeing did not respond to questions from The Australian.

US company QualComm, which makes hardware for intelligence and quantum computing globally and has patents on computer chips all around the world, including for Australia, has 229 CCP members

The CSIRO awarded another employer of CCP members — Hewlett-Packard — the $48m contract to build a “supercomputer” that allows scientists to analyse hundreds of terabytes of data to perform tasks such as scanning more than 10 million stars.

Despite the sensitivity of the project, The Australian can reveal Hewlett-Packard has 390 CCP members in its employ signed to 14 branches across its China operations. Overall, the commonwealth has awarded Hewlett-Packard 2946 contracts worth $1.02bn in the past decade, including Defence Department IT projects. Hewlett-Packard did not respond to questions.

(continued)

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The Australian can also reveal that ANZ Bank had 23 members listed in one branch embedded in its China operations. But a spokesman said it did not interfere with its employees’ involvement in political groups, including the CCP.

“ANZ doesn’t place restrictions on people’s freedom of association. As long as employees’ behaviour is consistent with ANZ’s policies, we respect this right,” an ANZ spokesman said.

HSBC, which had 345 employees listed as CCP members, declined to comment.

Two major pharmaceutical companies working on the coronavirus vaccine, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, both have CCP members working for them, the database shows. Pfizer’s subsidiary in China, Pfizer Investment Co, has 69 members; AstraZeneca has 54.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warned in August there had been an increase in attempts by other countries to steal medical information relating to COVID-19, with hackers targeting laboratories developing vaccines.

The federal government has sourced 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which ASX-listed company CSL will manufacture, and another 10 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, which was cleared for use by the US Food and Drug Administration at the weekend.

A Pfizer spokeswoman declined to comment.

The list also contains the name of an academic, whom The Australian has chosen not to name, working at UNSW.

A UNSW spokeswoman said the researcher had told the university they were not a member of the CCP. “UNSW takes our security and compliance obligations very seriously,” she said. “We recognise foreign interference is a significant threat to Australia’s national interest, including advice provided by ASIO that foreign governments seek information about leading research and technology.

“The university works closely with relevant federal government agencies and is keen to pursue greater transparency, as well as increased government collaboration and assistance, to ensure our operations are always in line with the national interest and to ensure our students and research are protected … (the professor) has advised (they are) not a member of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Volkswagen had more than 5700 employees listed as CCP members across 131 branches. Volkswagen said it respected the political freedom of its employees, despite concerns about human rights violations and the use of slave labour. Last month the German car maker defended its decision to continue operating its car plant in Xinjiang — an autonomous territory in northwest China that has drawn allegations of large-scale human rights abuses by authorities on its Uighur Muslim population.

Volkswagen China chief executive Stephan Wollenstein told the BBC the company had come along way since its founding by the German Nazi Party in 1937 and the use of forced labour — including concentration camp prisoners — in factories during WWII.

But a spokeswoman for Volkswagen Group China told The Australian: “A party membership including the Communist Party is a personal decision from each employee in which we as a company do not interfere. Like in other countries we do not have knowledge about party memberships of our employees. This does not affect our business activities.”

While the Morrison government is trying to maintain diplomatic channels with Beijing the US has been more direct in criticising the world’s second-biggest economy. Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe in November wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Beijing “intends to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically”.

“I call its approach of economic espionage ’rob, replicate and replace’. China robs US companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology, and then replaces the US firms in the global marketplace,” Mr Ratcliffe wrote.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/exclusives/chinese-communist-party-ghosts-in-the-global-machine/news-story/d4c2af18e984c43a025486159043e873

>>12015508

Major leak 'exposes' members and 'lifts the lid' on the Chinese Communist Party

Sky News Australia

13 Dec 2020

A major leak containing a register with the details of nearly two million CCP members has occurred – exposing members who are now working all over the world, while also lifting the lid on how the party operates under Xi Jinping, says Sharri Markson.

Ms Markson said the leak is a register with the details of Communist Party members, including their names, party position, birthday, national ID number and ethnicity.

“It is believed to be the first leak of its kind in the world,” the Sky News host said.

“What's amazing about this database is not just that it exposes people who are members of the communist party, and who are now living and working all over the world, from Australia to the US to the UK,” Ms Markson said.

“But it's amazing because it lifts the lid on how the party operates under President and Chairman Xi Jinping”.

Ms Markson said the leak demonstrates party branches are embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies and even inside government agencies.

“Communist party branches have been set up inside western companies, allowing the infiltration of those companies by CCP members - who, if called on, are answerable directly to the communist party, to the Chairman, the president himself,” she said.

“Along with the personal identifying details of 1.95 million communist party members, mostly from Shanghai, there are also the details of 79,000 communist party branches, many of them inside companies”.

Ms Markson said the leak is a significant security breach likely to embarrass Xi Jinping.

“It is also going to embarrass some global companies who appear to have no plan in place to protect their intellectual property from theft. From economic espionage,” she said.

Ms Markson said the data was extracted from a Shanghai server by Chinese dissidents, whistleblowers, in April 2016, who have been using it for counter-intelligence purposes.

“It was then leaked in mid-September to the newly-formed international bi-partisan group, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China - and that group is made up of 150 legislators around the world.

“It was then provided to an international consortium of four media organisations, The Australian, The Sunday Mail in the UK, De Standaard in Belgium and a Swedish editor, to analyse over the past two months, and that's what we've done".

Ms Markson said it, “is worth noting that there's no suggestion that these members have committed espionage - but the concern is over whether Australia or these companies knew of the CCP members and if so have any steps been taken to protect their data and people”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OumhrE6JV3A

>>12015557

Major leak has provided an 'unprecedented view' into the Communist Party of China

Sky News Australia

13 Dec 2020

The leak exposing nearly two million members of the CCP has provided an "unprecedented view" into the structure and method of operations of the Communist Party of China, says cyber security analyst and co-founder of Internet 2.0 Robert Potter.

"It's not something that's easily seen. It's not something that becomes available every day," Mr Potter told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

"It shows how the party has increasingly taken on a global view the way that it interacts with foreign companies, the way that it seeks to influence and engage in operations abroad," he said.

The major leak of official records from the Chinese Communist Party comes at a time of rising tensions in the relationship between Australia and China.

The leak contains a register with the details of Communist Party members, including their names, party position, birthday, national ID number and ethnicity.

Mr Potter said the leak provides a view "into the operations of an institution that you don't always get to see".

"It does give us insight into how a rising power on planet Earth is seeking to exercise its power globally, and the degree to which it influences and permeates all degrees of Chinese society".

Ms Markson said the leak demonstrates party branches are embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies and even inside government agencies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLY-h3kGJM

Victoria’s contact tracing system was unfit for purpose during coronavirus second wave, parliamentary inquiry finds

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The use of manual data entry processes until part-way through Victoria‘s second wave of coronavirus “meant that the system for contact tracing and recording of testing was not fit to deal with any escalation of cases and led to significant errors,” a state parliamentary inquiry has found.

The Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee found that “greater transparency” from the Andrews government and ”a willingness to acknowledge and take responsibility for failings” would increase public trust and confidence in Victoria‘s contact tracing and testing regime.

Victoria‘s Department of Health and Human Services had just 57 people working in the state’s public health team when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and less funding in the 2019-20 budget than was provided in 2016-17, prompting public health experts to warn in July that Victoria’s was the worst-resourced health system in Australia.

The department conceded during the committee‘s hearings that some positive cases were never contacted at the height of Victoria‘s second wave of coronavirus, with one elderly woman’s family contacted by contact tracers a month after she contracted the virus and a week after she had died.

As a result of the second wave, more than 18,000 people contracted the virus and 801 died.

During the course of the second wave, Victoria‘s contact tracing team was boosted to more than 1000 people, who have been contracted until June next year.

The IT system, which initially involved pens, paper and fax machines, has also been overhauled and replaced with a client management system designed by Silicon Valley software company Salesforce.

“The overarching issue for many stakeholders was a perceived reluctance from the Victorian government to appropriately prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic,” the multi-partisan committee found.

“This meant that much of the government’s responses have been crisis built and reactive leading to several mistakes and shortcomings that significantly impeded the effective operation of the system.”

The committee noted the Andrews government‘s engagement of IBM to create an analytics platform in July, finding it was a “misguided and costly mistake given the platform’s known lack of AI capacity”. The IBM system is no longer being used.

Upper House MPs who contributed to the work of the committee, chaired by Reason Party leader Fiona Patten, include Liberals Georgie Crozier, Edward O‘Donohue and Matthew Bach, National Melina Bath, Labor MPs Harriet Shing, Lee Tarlamis, Enver Erdogan and Sheena Watt, Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, Liberal Democrat Tim Quilty, Hinch Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley, Transport Matters MP Rod Barton, and independent Catherine Cumming.

(continued)

>>12017586

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The committee made 47 findings and 19 recommendations, including establishing a trained reserve workforce for future public health emergencies, embedding GPs into the system of management of contact tracing and testing “as part of a localised, collaborative and more person-centred approach”, and developing clear and accessible guidance for businesses on their obligations for contact tracing record keeping, particularly around setting up and using digital systems such as QR codes.

Australian Medical Association Victoria Council chairman Mukesh Haikerwal highlighted concerns about what he perceived as DHHS's reluctance to work collaboratively with GPs like him working on the ground in COVID hot spots on numerous occasions throughout the pandemic.

Victoria finally introduced an official COVID-safe QR code check-in system a fortnight ago, more than two months after NSW and the ACT.

The committee also found that culturally and linguistically diverse residents of Victoria “were neglected” in the Andrews government‘s response to the pandemic.

Half of Victoria‘s coronavirus cases were in people born outside of Australia, despite that group comprising 30 per cent of the Victorian population, with insecure work in essential roles, low socio-economic status, low literacy and high density living highlighted as key risk factors.

The committee found that the state‘s overhauled COVID-19 testing regime is fit for purpose to monitor, identify, record and communicate up to 15,000 results per day within a 24-hour window.

It noted that the Victorian government is investing in additional capacity which would allow 35,000 tests to be processed per day.

“Lessons have been learnt by government and the health department about how we deal with emerging threats to public health particularly infectious disease control,” Ms Patten said.

“Victoria’s processes are robust and have been implemented in response to what has been learnt over the last months.

“We are now far better prepared should Victoria face a similar situation in the future.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Ms Crozier said the findings showed Victorians had paid a “sad and huge price” for Premier Daniel Andrews’ “arrogance and incompetence”.

“Labor’s botched hotel quarantine program caused Victoria’s second wave but Daniel Andrews’ woefully inadequate contact tracing system prolonged the second wave,” Ms Crozier said.

“If Andrews had listened to the experts and invested in the contact tracing system Victoria needed, the second wave would not have been so long and deadly.

“Reckless decision-making processes, lack of transparency and multiple errors contributed to the Andrews Government’s botched contact tracing regime which has led to catastrophic outcomes.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/victorias-contact-tracing-system-was-unfit-for-purpose-during-coronavirus-second-wave-parliamentary-inquiry-finds/news-story/db1423edd3b8a5d04558789fc273534a

https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/lsic-lc/inquiry/1005

Alan Dershowitz interview: I can prove Prince Andrew's accuser is guilty of perjury

Harvard law professor was accused by Jeffrey Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts of having sexual relationships with minors

Camilla Tominey - 13 December 2020

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Boasting what the local estate agent describes as “stunning coastal opulence”, the picturesque and peaceful Ocean Reef complex is one of Perth, Australia’s most prestigious addresses.

Offering breathtaking 180-degree panoramic views of the Pacific ocean, the latest property to be sold on the sought-after estate provides luxurious accommodation over 450 square metres including six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a powder room and entertainment room.

Outside there is a below-ground solar-heated swimming pool, surrounded by a cedar-lined English-thatch gazebo with sprawling views all the way to Freemantle.

Last week, it was revealed that the £1 million property has become home to Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 37, the most prominent and outspoken survivor of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after she posted a picture on Instagram posing in front of the sold sign with her husband Robert and their three teenage children.

The family’s relocation 4,400km from Cairns where it is thought they also own a £800,000 property comes after the couple became equal shareholders in a proprietary company named Witty River Pty Ltd in October.

The timing has become a source of intrigue to those closely following developments in the on-going Epstein saga, after Ms Giuffre (pictured below) settled for an undisclosed sum with both the billionaire financier’s estate and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell following a defamation action in 2017.

Ms Giuffre claims Ms Maxwell “pimped” her out to a string of high-profile men including Prince Andrew and the retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Both men vehemently deny the claims.

Yet in spite of starting a new life in Western Australia, the legal wrangling is far from over Ms Giuffre. Following her arrest in July, Ms Maxwell is facing trial charged with enticement of minors, sex trafficking, and perjury over her association with Epstein.

On Friday, The Telegraph reported Ms Maxwell and her husband Scott Borgeson, 44, a wealthy tech entrepreneur, will pledge a £22.5 million bail in an attempt to secure her freedom from a detention centre in Brooklyn before Christmas.

Ms Giuffre also has her own high-profile trial next year after launching a defamation suit against Mr Dershowitz for calling her a “certified, complete, total liar.”

She has said of the case: “I know he’s going to put up a good fight. But, at the end of it, I know we’re gonna win. We’ve got the truth on our side.”

In his countersuit, Mr Dershowitz alleges Ms Giuffre has a history of extorting prominent men in Epstein’s circle, among them the billionaire owner of lingerie firm Victoria’s Secret Leslie Wexner.

Having granted Epstein power of attorney over his vast fortune when he was a little-known money manager, the reasons for Mr Wexner’s close association with Epstein have long been unclear amid suggestions Epstein abused his position by posing as a recruiter to exploit young underwear models.

Mr Dershowitz’s lawyer Howard Cooper issued broad subpoenas to both Mr Wexner and his attorney John Zeiger earlier this year, prompting the latter to insist: “No extortion demand was ever made, no settlement was entered into, and not a penny (or other consideration) was ever paid.”

Ms Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies has since described Mr Dershowitz’s assertion that there was an extortion attempt as a “smokescreen.”

The forthcoming case is certainly clouded by a number of factors. When The Telegraph spoke to Mr Dershowitz at his New York home on Wednesday, he continued to both protest his innocence and accuse Ms Giuffre of making up claims that first surfaced in a December 30, 2014, Florida court filing alleging that he was one of several prominent figures, including Prince Andrew, who had participated in sexual activities with a minor.

Insisting he has never even met Ms Giuffre, Mr Dershowitz, 82, said of his ongoing litigation, which is thought to have already cost in excess of £2 million: “The reason I can do this is I have nothing to hide. I have no secrets. They picked on the wrong, innocent person.”

(continued)

>>12017829

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Mr Dershowitz points to an independent investigation carried out in 2015 by Louis Freeh, former head of the FBI, which said that investigators had “found no evidence to support the accusations.”

He also claims he can account for his whereabouts on each of the seven occasions Ms Giuffre has accused him of having sex with her.

Pointing to Carolyn, his second wife of 34 years, he added: “From the day I met Jeffrey Epstein, in 1998 until today, I have only touched sexually one woman, my wife. I don't hug, I don't kiss, I don't touch people's hair. Over a 50-year career, practicing as a lawyer and teaching at Harvard, I have had hundreds and hundreds of female students, research assistants, secretaries and colleagues and I have never been accused of anything. Not ever. I am not that guy.”

Yet, in the post #MeToo era, Mr Dershowitz certainly appears to have been found guilty by association. When The Telegraph approached Ms Giuffre’s spokeswoman and lawyers for comment, they all declined.

Instead The Telegraph was pointed towards a “well-researched” August 2019 New Yorker profile of Mr Dershowitz headlined The Devil’s Advocate. Strap-lined with the Dershowtiz quote: “Every honest criminal lawyer will tell you that he defends the guilty and the innocent,” it details a career spent aggressively airing “hawkish” views on subjects such as feminism and Israel, and defending controversial clients including Claus von Bülow, OJ Simpson, Mike Tyson, Donald Trump and of course, Jeffrey Epstein.

Many Epstein survivors will never forgive Mr Dershowitz for helping to secure a deal for his client following the first criminal case in 2008, in which Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge (one of two) of procuring for prostitution a girl below the age of 18 in spite of sworn accounts from more than a dozen women.

Although Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison, he was instead housed in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade and, according to the sheriff's office, was allowed to leave the jail on "work release" after three months, for up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.

On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges, and held at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City, where he was found dead in his cell a month later.

Yet, even the supportive New Yorker piece raises questions about the timeline Ms Giuffre originally gave, in which she suggested she first met Ms Maxwell, and consequently, Epstein, when she was 15.

The article states: "In 2000, Giuffre, then not quite seventeen, was outside Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where she had recently got a job as a locker-room attendant.

Ms Maxwell, pulling out of the parking lot in a chauffeured car, spotted her and told the driver to stop. Ms Giuffre was reading a book about anatomy and massage therapy.

“This nice older lady came up to me,” she recalled. “She had an awesome English accent, and she started conversing with me about what I was reading.

She said, ‘Wow, you’re really interested in massage. That’s so interesting! Because I actually know somebody who’s looking for a travelling masseuse.’”

In a previous interview with the Mail on Sunday, Ms Giuffre claimed: “After about two years, he (Epstein) started to ask me to "entertain" his friends.”

That would have made her 19 when the alleged sex trafficking took place and therefore not under the age of consent in regards to the allegations made against both Mr Dershowitz and Prince Andrew, which she claims occurred in 2001 when she was 17.

Buckingham Palace has stated "any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue", later repeating the denials.

According to Ms Giuffre’s timeline, she finally “escaped” Epstein in 2002 when she travelled to Thailand, aged 19. The Telegraph asked Ms Giuffre’s representatives to clarify the dates of her association with Ms Maxwell and Epstein but they declined.

Her lawyers have always acknowledged because Ms Giuffre had used drugs throughout the time she was with Epstein, she is hazy on dates.

Her supporters say she has never claimed to be a perfect witness.

(continued)

>>12017846

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Mr Dershowitz appears an equally imperfect alleged victim of a false accusation. Branded a “misogynist” by supporters of the #MeToo movement for branding Ms Giuffre a “prostitute”, over the years he has gained a reputation for airing provocative opinions about sex and the law, such as lowering the age of consent to 15 and his penchant for representing seemingly violent men.

Yet, Mr Dershowitz points to the hypocrisy of his opponent having previously been represented by Mr Boies, who defended Harvey Weinstein after he was accused of sexually harassing, assaulting, or raping dozens of women in October 2017.

Mr Boies’ law firm Boies Schiller Flexner reportedly directed private intelligence company Black Cube to spy on alleged victims and reporters who were investigating Weinstein's actions.

Black Cube is a private intelligence company founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus.

The historic acrimony between Mr Boies and Mr Dershowitz is another intriguing aspect of the case.

Mr Dershowitz says he has tape recordings of Mr Boies in which Mr Boies suggests he will advise Ms Giuffre that her conclusion about Mr Dershowitz abusing her is “simply wrong”.

Mr Boies told the New Yorker the conversation was a “hypothetical” way of exploring how he might persuade an aggrieved client to accept a settlement, if Mr Dershowitz could offer definitive proof. (Mr Boies is not representing Giuffre in the forthcoming defamation trial because he and Mr Dershowitz have previously settled a defamation claim out of court).

Mr Boies did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Dershowitz cites a TV appearance by another of Ms Giuffre’s former lawyers, Brad Edwards, as further evidence of his innocence.

Speaking to the US network CBS following Epstein’s reincarceration in July 2019, Mr Edwards said: “I have personally been investigating this for 11 years and don’t know of any high-profile person that would be implicated.”

Mr Edwards did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Dershowitz also has Ms Giuffre’s close friend Rebecca Boylan on tape claiming Ms Giuffre was pursuing him under pressure from lawyers, and that “I’ve never heard her mention you as [sic] when we were kids.”

And, he claims to have evidence which undermines Ms Giuffre’s claims about meeting both former President Bill Clinton and his deputy Al Gore on Epstein’s Caribbean island, Little St James.

Also submitted in evidence in the forthcoming defamation trial is a transcript of a taped conversation between Sharon Churcher the journalist who originally interviewed Ms Giuffre in 2011, and Tony Lyons, who published Mr Dershowitz’s recent book Guilt By Association: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the age of #MeToo.

In the recording, made in October 2019, Ms Churcher alleges: “These lawyers, remember, they do everything on contingency. And they all have these fantastic offices. And there's all these ads now. There's one in which you can say, you just remembered you were abused? Call us.”

Mr Dershowitz will also be relying on an email exchange from May 2011, in which Ms Giuffre asks Churcher to clarify the names of the men she claimed “JE had sent me to” during the interview to help her with a book pitch.

The transcript of the email suggests Ms Churcher responds six days later saying: “Don't forget Alan Dershowitz. JE's buddy and lawyer … We all suspect Alan is a peado … ”.

Mr Dershowitz claims this was evidence he was “set up”. He is so determined to expose Ms Giuffre’s “lies” that he is preparing a letter inviting the US Department of Justice to investigate them both for perjury.

He said: “The FBI should come to the trial, because they will hear perjury committed in the federal courthouse. Either I will be committing perjury because I will swear under oath that I never met this woman, or she will be committing perjury because she will be swearing her oath that she had sex with me on multiple occasions. Only one of us can be telling the truth.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/13/alan-dershowitz-interview-can-prove-prince-andrews-accuser-guilty/

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweet

After many many years and against all odds the truth continues to surface. When will it be enough for #PrinceAndrew to acknowledge me & apologise for his partaking in Epstein’s & Maxwell’s sex trafficking ring? Us survivors want answers. #DemandJustice #EndCSAandSexTrafficking

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1338265139682787329

Neil Henderson @hendopolis

MAIL: New Andrew bombshell #TomorrowsPapersToday

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1338248758455361541

>>12018098

Proof Prince Andrew misled Emily Maitlis: Duke DID stay at Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion, and secret itinerary shows hours of 'private time' during trip when Virginia Roberts claims he slept with her

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Prince Andrew did stay at Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion during a trip when it is alleged he slept with a trafficked teenager, the Daily Mail can reveal for the first time.

Contradicting his car crash TV interview, sources have confirmed the Queen's second son was indeed a guest at the paedophile tycoon's Manhattan home in April 2001, raising questions about his other recollections of the time.

Andrew, 60, told Newsnight's Emily Maitlis last year: 'I wasn't staying there. I may have visited but definitely didn't, definitely, definitely no, no, no activity.'

But a Mail investigation has discovered both the duke and a Scotland Yard bodyguard did spend a night at Epstein's townhouse, the largest in the city.

It was during this three-day trip to the United States that the prince's accuser, Virginia Roberts, alleges she slept with the father-of-two for a second time after a previous encounter in London – claims the duke has always vehemently denied.

Well-placed sources have confirmed Andrew stayed at Epstein's £60million home on the final night of his pre-Easter visit to the US in 2001 'to save taxpayers' money'. But the insiders stressed that neither Epstein, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell nor Miss Roberts were at the property at the time.

An official itinerary seen by the Daily Mail shows that the duke spent the first night of his US trip at the residence of the British consul general in New York, then flew to Boston for 24 hours, before returning to New York where he slept 'at a private address'.

That address was Epstein's home near Central Park, the sources have confirmed.

Our investigations have also uncovered a gap of a few hours set aside in New York for what was called 'Private Time' in the duke's confidential tour itinerary.

Andrew has not been able to explain what he was doing during this time but Miss Roberts and another Epstein 'masseuse' have both said they met him in the city.

Miss Roberts, now a mother of three living in Australia, claims she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the duke on three occasions in 2001, including in New York around Easter that year, when she was 17.

Andrew strongly denies all her allegations and says he cannot even recall meeting her, despite the pair being apparently pictured together at Miss Maxwell's London home on March 10, 2001.

(continued)

>>12018112

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The duke is alleged to have had sex with Miss Roberts in New York at the same time he was accused of a bizarre groping incident involving a 'Spitting Image' puppet and another young female at Epstein's mansion.

The other woman, Johanna Sjoberg, has not alleged any improper conduct by Andrew.

When asked by Miss Maitlis on Newsnight about Miss Sjoberg's Spitting Image account, the prince seemed to concede that he might have visited the property.

Andrew told her: 'I probably did…because of what I was doing I was staying with the consul general which is further down the street on Fifth so I wasn't…I wasn't staying there. I may have visited but definitely didn't, definitely, definitely no, no, no activity.'

Details of how the prince gave an inaccurate account of his New York sleeping arrangements during his bumbling BBC interview follow a major investigation by this newspaper into the claims made against him by Miss Roberts.

On Saturday – in the first part of our exclusive four-part series on the case – we exposed new doubts over the prince's extraordinary 'alibi' that he was at a party at Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey on the day he allegedly first slept with Miss Roberts in London. We revealed that according to a family diary, the duke had booked a manicure at home on the afternoon he says he dropped off Princess Beatrice at the party and that neither she nor the party hosts can recall if he attended.

But our investigation also raised questions about the accuracy of Miss Roberts' claims that she went clubbing in London with the duke that evening and her description of the bath tub where she says they later had sex.

The Mail asked Andrew's spokesman a series of questions about his trip to New York in April 2001 and the allegations made by Miss Roberts.

A spokesman for the duke said: 'It would not be appropriate to comment on any of these matters.'

Miss Roberts's representatives in New York have not responded to repeated requests to comment.

(continued)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9049237/Proof-Prince-Andrew-misled-Emily-Maitlis-Duke-DID-stay-Jeffrey-Epsteins-New-York-mansion.html

>>12018112

'I sat on Andrew's lap… Ghislaine put the Spitting Image puppet's hand on Virginia's breast. Then he put his hand on mine': Duke's visit to the puppet master Epstein's mansion… this time for the night

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After Jeffrey Epstein had admitted in court in 2007 to procuring underage girls, Johanna Sjoberg told a Sunday newspaper of an alleged encounter with the Duke at the East 71st Street mansion at 'Easter 2001'.

She had been asked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to go to New York.

She recalled that she returned to the apartment after some 'sightseeing' and 'Prince Andrew was there and a couple of other girls my age. Andrew was very charming . . . She (Ghislaine) came down with a present for him — a latex puppet of him from Spitting Image.'

She added: 'We had a picture taken. Virginia, another girl there, sat on a chair and had the puppet on her lap. Andrew sat on another chair.

'I sat on his lap — and he put his hand on my breast. Ghislaine put the puppet's hand on Virginia's breast. Then Andrew put his hand on mine. It was a great joke. Everybody laughed . . . Ghislaine . . . had a very dirty sense of humour.'

This was the Duke in the world of Jeffrey Epstein before the advent of #MeToo.

Ms Sjoberg recalled this episode again in a deposition she gave under oath in 2016. Only fragments of this testimony have been released into the public domain, but the similarity is clear.

Ms Sjoberg said the Duke had thought the puppet 'funny because it was him'.

Then 'I just remember someone suggesting a photo and they told us to get on the couch. And so Virginia and Andrew sat on the couch and they put the puppet on her lap.

'And so I sat on Andrew's lap, I believe of my own volition, and they took the puppet's hands and put it on Virginia's breast and so Andrew put his on mine.' It was all done in 'a joking manner'.

According to her accounts, the Duke, while being inappropriately tactile to say the least, had not caused offence. She had sat on the lap of this famous stranger of her own volition. She thought him 'charming'.

'THEY RETIRED TO THE DUNGEON'

But what took the alleged encounter into a whole new sphere were the subsequent testimonies of Virginia Roberts.

In interviews with a Sunday newspaper in 2011, her unpublished memoir written in the same year, a deposition under oath given in 2015 and various later TV interviews, she corroborated Ms Sjoberg's 'Spitting Image' story (though on Panorama she says the puppet was put against Johanna's breast rather than her own).

But she also went on to claim that after the puppet photograph interlude she and Andrew retired to a massage room — 'the dungeon' — where they had sex. She claims they had first had sex in London, a month before this.

Miss Roberts has previously said, 'You are left with a foggy memory sometimes, you really are,' and, 'I might be wrong on dates absolutely and I might be wrong on places even, sometimes.'

Given the length of time that has elapsed since these alleged incidents, that is only natural.

However in the deposition she said: 'I had sex with Prince Andrew . . . in Epstein's New York mansion in spring 2001. I was 17 at the time. Epstein called me down to his office. When I got there Epstein was there, along with Maxwell, Johanna Sjoberg and Andy. I was very surprised to see him again. Epstein and Maxwell were making lewd jokes about 'Randy Andy'. 'I had the impression that Andy had come there to see Epstein and to have sex with me. There was no apparent purpose for Andy to be there.'

She said Epstein paid her $400 for this service.

(continued)

>>12018222

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None of these accounts suggest a time of day for the alleged encounter. But another, unlikely, alleged independent eyewitness has just come forward to go some way to corroborating the puppet story.

Steve Wright, a 55-year-old puppeteer from Yorkshire, says he met the Duke at a Buckingham Palace reception in 2003. When he told Andrew what he did, the Duke allegedly said: 'Oh my God, puppets! Spitting Image — do you know that my friend bought my Spitting Image puppet and you'll never believe it, he played a trick on me'.

Wright explained: 'The Prince told me he went to an apartment in New York and saw the 'bloody thing' sitting up on the sofa and that he 'nearly had a bloody heart attack' as he was there looking at himself.'

The Epstein mansion was only six minutes' stroll via Fifth Avenue, from the consul general's Residence.

It was not forbidden for the Duke to be at the Epstein mansion. Nor even noteworthy — at the time. Epstein was still a man of apparently spotless character. He was also a good friend and mentor of the Duke. Why wouldn't the Duke pop over to see Epstein during his 'Private Time'? Why otherwise would they contrive to miss each other given the opportunity?

When asked by Emily Maitlis on Newsnight about Ms Sjoberg's account, the Duke even seemed to concede he might have visited.

Maitlis: 'There was a witness there, Johanna Sjoberg, who says you did visit the house in that month.'

Duke: 'I probably did . . . because of what I was doing, I was staying with the consul general which is further down the street on Fifth so I wasn't . . . I wasn't staying there. I may have visited but definitely didn't, definitely, definitely no, no, no activity.'

Maitlis didn't press the point further. Which was good for the Duke. Because within that stumbling reply we can reveal he had made at least one statement which was patently inaccurate.

BODYGUARD STAYED AT EPSTEIN'S TOO

The Duke's schedule over the next 36 hours was packed with formal duties. That evening he was 'escorted' by his security detail and equerry from the Residence to a dinner at the five-star Mark Hotel, five hundred yards beyond the Epstein mansion along Fifth Avenue. The Duke's host was Bill Phillips, head of Outward Bound International.

The following morning after breakfast the itinerary shows the Duke was to leave for 'The School for the Physical City', where he was scheduled to be met by Richard Stopol, director of the New York Outward Bound Schools.

There followed a two-hour tour of the facilities and further discussions with Mr Stopol, before the Duke left for lunch at the New York Times building, hosted by Arthur Sultzberger, chairman and publisher of the newspaper. The Duke then met another Outward Bound patron called Charlie Stetson before leaving for LaGuardia Airport. At 4.30pm, he and his full entourage departed for Boston.

He spent most of the next 24 hours at an Outward Bound facility on an island in the middle of Boston harbour. There are a number of photographs which support this. By 4.30pm on April 11 his formal duties with Outward Bound had been discharged.

According to sources, Sir Michael Hobbs and Captain Dilworth raised glasses of Guinness in one of the city's many Irish pubs to toast the 'great success' — as they saw it — of the royal visit, before they caught an evening flight back to London.

Such is hubris. Because the Duke wasn't going home with them. In fact, he and his PPOs were already heading back to New York on Flight DL1841. The Duke paid for his own ticket this time because he was no longer 'working'.

In fact, he was about to demonstrate just how close he was to Epstein. The Mail can reveal that despite his denial during the Newsnight interview, Andrew did spend the night of April 11 at the Epstein mansion.

(continued)

>>12018237

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In a fax sent from London shortly before his trip, a royal aide states only that 'His Royal Highness will return to New York on the evening of 11th April after his visit to Boston. He will spend that evening at a private address in New York and will depart for Miami the following day'.

That 'private address' was 9, East 71st Street, sources close to the Duke have conceded. Epstein's mansion. They say that HRH and Policeman A were alone there, apart from domestic staff. They insist that Epstein, Maxwell and Roberts had already left the city before the Duke arrived.

The Mail understands that Policeman A has confirmed this account and added that he stayed in his 'usual' guest bedroom on the fourth floor — an intriguing phrase in itself — with the Duke in a room nearby. (It is worth recalling that the Duke has admitted staying with Epstein in New York in 2010, the final time they met).

David Rodgers' pilot log also suggests that Flight 1490 left Teterboro Airport for St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands, the nearest landing ground to Epstein's private island, on April 11.

On board were Epstein, Maxwell, Banu, Virginia Roberts and Ms Sjoberg. The logbook does not say when the flight left New York.

RIDDLE OF THE MISSING MEMORIES

So are there other witnesses who can testify to the Duke's whereabouts? The Mail has learned Captain Dilworth sent a polite letter to Bill Phillips, head of Outward Bound International, dated April 30, 2001, thanking him for his hospitality.

Mr Phillips died two years ago. But approached by the Mail this week his widow Barbara had no recollection of him mentioning any such royal visit: 'I would have known if he had dined at The Mark, let alone with an English prince. He would have delighted in telling me as we regularly discussed his work and Outward Bound.

'He met a lot of famous people and there are lots of photos of him with those people. But none with the Prince.'

While there is pictorial proof that the Prince attended Outward Bound events in Boston, Richard Stopol, who is the current CEO of Outward Bound New York and was due to have hosted the Duke in the city on that second morning, equally said he couldn't remember Andrew visiting at Easter 2001.

'Neither I nor any other NYC Outward Bound Schools staff met with Prince Andrew or were even aware that he was visiting New York City,' he said.

He then checked with the man who was principal of The School for the Physical City in 2001.

Mr Stopol reported: 'He's a friend and we speak regularly and I was intrigued. I thought it was my memory which was failing, but he doesn't recall this visit either.'

More bizarrely still, Tom Harris, UK Consul General in 2001, can't recall a visit by the Duke that Easter. Nor could two of his three deputy consuls. Louise Redmond, the New York Consulate General's visits officer, is still in post.

It was almost 20 years ago. Memories are hazy. Though not as hazy as the Duke's has been.

The Mail asked representatives of Andrew a series of questions about the allegations made by Miss Roberts. A spokesman for the Duke said: 'It would not be appropriate to comment on any of these matters.'

However, the Mail understands that the Duke now recalls he stayed at the Epstein mansion that third night to 'save taxpayers' money' — rather than stay at a hotel, while on his way to join the Duchess and their two daughters for a family holiday in the Bahamas.

The several hundreds of pounds 'saved' pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands so far paid in legal and consultancy fees and the reputational catastrophe to him and the Royal Family that his relationship with Epstein has caused.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9049271/Prince-Andrews-visit-puppet-master-Epsteins-mansion-time-night.html

>>12001900

Five Eyes alliance plotting against China will backfire on themselves

Global Times - 2020/12/14

With Australian exporters suffering from mounting pressure amid increasingly fraying relations with China, the Five Eyes Alliance still refuses to de-escalate the tensions.

Under a seemly unified effort to push back against China with trade and economic sanctions, the Five Eyes members are reportedly cooking up a "lesson" for China, however, this overrated cabal of allies should watch for backstabbers in its own midst.

Five Eyes members are plotting "fight-back" against China, considering options such as launching sanctions on Chinese exports, or Australia rolling out retaliatory tariffs with others showing support by refusing to make up the shortfall in Chinese exports, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

It may not be China that needs to be taught a "lesson". Canberra, obviously, has not realized that its allies are benefitting from its poorly managed relationship with its largest trade partner. For instance, Canada's Teck Resources is looking to boost shipments of steelmaking coal to China next year, hoping to seize the chance of Australia's declining coal export to China, Reuters reported.

China has been the largest trade partner for over 120 countries and regions across the world. Combined Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand together represent about 6 percent of China's export, according to data from China's General Administration of Customs in 2019. Australia, who has been shipping over 30 percent of its export to China, purchased less than 2 percent of Chinese exports in 2019.

While the US, the only one of the Five Eyes countries with a purchasing proportion over 16 percent, is in no state to endorse the Five Eyes' lesson for China given its own grim domestic situation, including its chaotic power transition to a new administration amid a rocketing number of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

Hanging onto the cold-war mentality, the US-led anti-China clique has been promoting its decoupling campaign for years, and the nations have already proved how ineffective they could be and how unrealistic the campaign was.

Even with governmental subsidies, only a handful of foreign enterprises showed intention to relocate their businesses out from China, industrial surveys from the US and Japan showed. As global firms are coping with their supply-chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, China remains the most attractive market place for cross-border trade and production, according to the latest survey by credit insurer Euler Hermes. The survey found that 30 percent of UK companies that are considering changing suppliers put China in the top three.

The Five Eyes are looking at different directions based on varied interests, it is hard for the global industries to omit the Chinese market, especially as China may be the only major economy to mete out a positive economic growth this year.

What's really worth discussing is that as China increasingly holds a pivotal role in the international supply chain, it is also facing increasing responsibility to improve and safeguard free trade and multilateralism.

Thanks to decisive government actions and concerted efforts of 1.4 billion Chinese people, China managed to get the pandemic under control in less than three months and is now busy finalizing its next Five-Year Plan (2020-25).

In responding to the purposeful assaults from the Five Eyes Alliance, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian in November told a press conference in Beijing that "the Chinese people will not provoke troubles, but we never flinch when trouble comes our way. No matter how many eyes they have, five or ten or whatever, should anyone dare to undermine China's sovereignty, security and development interests, be careful not to get poked in the eye."

The article was compiled based on an interview with Gao Lingyun, an expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing closely following the China-US trade tensions. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1209938.shtml

>>12015508

>>12015557

Five Eyes turn blind by fantasizing CPC infiltration: Global Times editorial

Global Times - 2020/12/14

According to UK and Australian media, a Chinese "dissident" passed on a document through an encrypted instant messaging app to the anti-China group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. The leaked database has the personal information of 1.95 million registered members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), including their names, data on birth and ethnicity and some with their addresses and phone numbers. The Australian media said CPC members have "infiltrated" the US, British and Australian consulates in Shanghai and foreign companies. The UK media asserted that many CPC scholars have studied in British universities and taken part in research of sensitive areas.

Is this list real? We have no idea. But if foreign embassies and consulates in China do not especially exclude CPC members, it is highly likely that their employees include CPC members. For one reason, CPC members constitute a high proportion in the Chinese population. For another, CPC members are more likely to be talents. If a foreign embassy employs dozens of Chinese, none of whom are CPC members, then the average level of those people may be below the medium level of Chinese society.

The US-launched smear campaign against the CPC has become more and more pointless. What is even more absurd is that it appears poker-faced and turns an upright thing into Five Eyes-style fiction.

The CPC has more than 90 million members. Besides meeting the political requirements, one has to be morally integrated and motivated and have a collective sense to become a CPC member. They are ordinary people in society. They also play a positive role at the grass-roots level. They are everywhere to contribute to society.

If foreign entities expand their staff in China, they are bound to have CPC members. There is no need for China to launch any "infiltration." As long as these entities are operating legally in China, they are part of China's opening-up process. CPC members are more likely to harmoniously co-exist with their employers and make more contributions than non-CPC members.

Viewing CPC members as infiltrators and spies is the result of the US' hysterical and ideological campaign against China. The Chinese people will only mock the ignorance of the countries of the Five Eyes alliance and find it unbelievable when they see their neurotic behavior.

Suppose Chinese institutes in the US hire local staff. If they check whether their employees are Republicans when the Republican Party takes the rule to avoid infiltration risks, isn't it ridiculous?

The Washington-led smear campaign against the CPC has clear political goals. It deliberately distorts the reality of Chinese society and violates the basic logic of exchanges between Western countries and China. It is stabbing the relations between China and Five Eyes countries. In the end, such a smear campaign could only convince the Western world with deceit.

It is such a pity that Western opinion allows such a deceptive trick to brew, with no force having the courage and ability to inform the Western public of the true story of the CPC. Some Western opinion agencies, with the instigation of politicians, even take an active role in framing China and the CPC. It is pathetic to see the West's degradation.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1209955.shtml

China extends full open gesture to imported coal except for Australia

Domestic, overseas suppliers will take up share with easier clearance

Chi Jingyi, Global Times - 2020/12/13

China's top economic planner on Saturday gave approval to power plants to import coal without clearance restrictions, except for Australia, in a bid to stabilize coal purchase prices.

Analysts said that China has various sources of coal, including Mongolia, Indonesia and Russia. Moreover, China is reducing coal use to curb carbon emissions, which will mean lower demand for coal in the next few decades.

The National Development and Reform Commission said in a meeting with 10 major power enterprises that the coal purchase price should not exceed 640 yuan ($97.8) per ton and it ordered power plants to share inventory to reduce the purchase of high-priced coal in the market. At present, the inventory of coal at key power plants is about 86 million tons.

Wang Yongzhong, director of the Institute of Energy Economy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China has stable and sufficient domestic coal supply, while having rich import sources.

"China's major coal import source countries used to be Australia, Indonesia, Russia and Mongolia. Since Mongolia has a geographic advantage that allows lower transportation costs than any other exporters, it could take a large share from Australian coal, as the relationship between China and Australia has been deteriorating and Australia is gradually losing the Chinese market. Domestic suppliers can also grab some market share," Wang told the Global Times on Sunday, adding that even the US and Canada could be import sources, though they are the last choices as transportation costs would be very high.

China has been the biggest coal importer in the world for over 10 years, with imports of 299.674 million tons in 2019, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier. From January to November, China's coal imports were 264.826 million tons, down 10.8 percent year-on-year, according to statistics of the General Administration of Customs.

A manager surnamed Chen at a company that provides carbon emission reduction solutions told the Global Times that some clients with businesses related to coal only use domestic sources, while some others have up to 50 percent supply from imports. So far, no clients have reported any shortage.

"China planned to reduce 100 million tons of coal consumption annually by 2030 to finally accomplish its carbon-neutral goal before 2060, which means fading demand in the coal market. An absence of Australian coal in China is actually beneficial to all other market suppliers," said Wang.

Contracts for a total of 740 million tons of coal were signed at the China Taiyuan Coal Trade Fair on Tuesday in North China's Shanxi Province, a major domestic coal production base.

Apart from domestic coal suppliers, exporters are also eyeing the Chinese market. The latest example is Indonesia, which struck a $1.46 billion coal deal with China in November. The Indonesian Coal Mining Association said in 2021, coal exports to China will increase by 200 million tons.

Russian suppliers plan to increase production to export more to China.

In addition to traditional exporters, newcomers like Kazakhstan have emerged. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development announced plans to increase coal output to 120 million tons this year, with 38 million tons for export.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1209840.shtml

>>12033786

'Unacceptable': Australia accuses China of diplomacy by media over coal ban

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has labelled China's diplomatic treatment of Australia unacceptable after Chinese state media confirmed a ban on Australian coal had been formalised by Beijing.

Declaring Australia would pursue every avenue of restitution, Senator Birmingham said on Tuesday that banning Australian coal imports would harm China's emissions reduction commitments and was potentially a breach of World Trade Organisation regulations.

The weekend decision, taken by China's National Development and Reform Commission at a meeting with 10 Chinese power plants and reported by The Global Times on Monday, meant Australian coal would be blocked indefinitely while China ramps up imports from Mongolia, Indonesia and Russia.

Senator Birmingham accused China of abandoning diplomatic protocols.

"It is certainly unacceptable to see a circumstance where governments, businesses find out about decisions of other businesses or other governments purely via media outlets," he said.

"I can assure everyone that, when the Australian government makes decisions that affect other governments, we work through the proper diplomatic channels to inform those governments and we do so in a manner that is respectful and appropriate."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that, if the reports of a ban were accurate, that "would obviously be in breach of WTO rules" and it "would be obviously in breach of our free-trade agreement".

Australia exports $14 billion of coal each year to China. The directions from China's planning agency appear to target power-generating thermal coal, which is worth $4 billion a year. But ships carrying Australian coking coal, which is used to make steel, have also been stuck off the coast of China unable to offload their cargo.

"Australian coal is around 1.5 times more efficient in terms of energy production than most other competitor nations, including Chinese domestic coal," Senator Birmingham said.

"That means that, to get the same level of energy generation, China will end up having to use more coal from other sources and generate more emissions from those sources, which will do anything but help China in terms of meeting some of the commitments it has made to the world around emissions reduction as well."

Australia has been criticised for not adopting a net-zero emissions target by 2050 or 2060, while its major trading partners, including China, Japan, Europe and South Korea, move towards the goal.

More than half-a-dozen Australian industries have been hit with trade strikes by Beijing since Australia called for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus in April. The dispute has accelerated since Australia criticised China's actions in Hong Kong and the South China Sea and now covers more than $20 billion in Australian exports across beef, barley, wine and coal.

Senator Birmingham said Australia's WTO case on barley was "imminent" after China accused Australian farmers of dumping their product and receiving an unfair advantage through government subsidies.

"We have been working within government to build the strongest possible case in defence of our industry, which, frankly, is pretty easy to build because Australian grain growers and farmers are not subsidised," he said.

"They don't dump their products on global markets and we clearly have the evidence to mount a strong case in that regard."

The WTO has been plagued by delays after the Trump administration blocked key appointments to its dispute resolution panel. Any recourse for Australian farmers is likely to take years to resolve.

Mr Morrison said Australia would not change its values in response to economic pressure from Beijing.

"We decide who invests in Australia. We have a free liberal democracy where members of Parliament can speak their mind and you as a journalist can report in a free press," he said.

"I don't think these are things [over which] we should be bargaining. I think Australia has a long-term position when it comes to human rights issues that this government and many other governments … have all held a consistent position on [and is not] something that we should be trading away."

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/asia/unacceptable-australia-accuses-china-of-diplomacy-by-media-over-coal-ban-20201215-p56nk7.html

TIME - HEROES OF 2020

Australia's Volunteer Firefighters Risked Everything to Keep Their Country Safe

AMY GUNIA - DECEMBER 10, 2020

In November 2019, Luke Summerscales and Jessica Jacobs were in a remote mountain range of New South Wales, fighting some of the worst bushfires on record in Australia, when another disaster struck: a fellow firefighter collapsed from a heart attack. The nearest ambulance was more than an hour away and the terrain was too steep for a rescue helicopter to land, so the pair started doing CPR on 53-year-old John Kennedy.

Fires burning around them, Summerscales and Jacobs struggled to get defibrillator pads to stick to Kennedy’s chest. They performed CPR for 45 minutes before Kennedy was able to breathe on his own.

“We lost him three times, but we got him back every time,” Jacobs says. “We’re so lucky to have been able to really make a difference.”

In November 2020, the Country Fire Authority, a fire-management organization, recognized their actions by giving them both Chief Officer Commendation awards. But Summerscales and Jacobs aren’t professional firefighters—they’re volunteers. Summerscales builds houses for a living; Jacobs works as a university lab technician. Starting in late 2019, as record fires raged across their nation during its summer season, they joined tens of thousands of Australians who set aside their usual lives to help stop the spread of the blazes.

As climate change heightens both the frequency and intensity of bushfires, firefighters are being tested to new extremes. Australia is unusually reliant on volunteer labor—in the state of New South Wales, which suffered some of the country’s most severe fires during the 2019–2020 bushfire season, close to 90% of the men and women fighting fires were volunteers. It’s been this way for more than a century in Australia, with ordinary citizens working together to protect the land. But last year especially, their service came with incredible sacrifice: they gave up the holidays with their families, took time off work, and lost income to fight infernos that burned for several months in 2019 and early 2020. Three volunteer firefighters lost their lives.

2019 was Australia’s hottest and driest on record, and the resulting fires all but exhausted the men and women constantly called to battle them. Peter Holding, 66, who has been a volunteer firefighter for 43 years, says he’s never seen anything as severe as last summer’s bushfire season—a devastating period now known as the Black Summer. “There’s going to have to be some very serious effort put into reducing emissions if we’re going to stop this from getting any worse,” he says.

Still, as Australia’s fire season intensifies in late 2020, its volunteer firefighters are preparing to do battle again. “It’s about the impact we have on the community and the people we help,” Summerscales says. “It’s that feeling that you made a difference.”

https://time.com/collection/heroes-of-2020/5916451/australias-firefighters/

Alexander Downer cautions business on China

Alexander Downer has warned business leaders that they risk alienating the public, their customers and their staff if they side with China against the Morrison government to “push up their share prices”.

The nation’s longest-serving foreign minister said Australia’s relationship with China was ­“extremely bad”, but businesses needed to “play the long game” rather than undermining Australia’s national response.

In a podcast with Asialink at the University of Melbourne, Mr Downer said China had behaved in a “childish” manner in circulating its list of 14 grievances with Australia, abandoning its “great traditions of diplomacy”.

He urged Australian CEOs to remain “quietly patriotic”, as Japanese companies did during decade-long tensions between the neighbouring countries that finally eased in 2006.

“The Australian business community needs to be careful too because they don’t want to alienate the Australian population,” Mr Downer said.

“They don’t want to alienate their own workers by sticking up for China just for pecuniary interests, so they can push up their share prices. Seriously, they have to think this through. And that’s what the Japanese business community did. It thought it through.”

Australian businesses have become increasingly agitated over the state of the Australia-China relationship, amid a barrage of targeted trade sanctions at Australian exports.

Former Business Council of Australia president Graham Bradley said last month that he didn’t know “any business leader who thinks the Australian government has handled the China relationship well”.

Mr Downer said such “tut ­tutting” by business leaders was unhelpful. “Little do they realise that that is extremely damaging to their own interests because in the end that will make it harder for this wave to break,” he said.

He said Australia couldn’t stay quiet on issues such as the security crackdown in Hong Kong simply to maintain good trading relations with Beijing.

“Money isn’t everything. Making the rules-based international system work, making sure that there is an appropriate balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region … making sure that Australia maintains its networks around the world with countries which are its natural friends and allies — all these things are more important than just money.”

Mr Downer warned the one-side trade war could get worse, as China tried to reduce its reliance on Australia as much as possible.

The lesson for Australia was to diversify its trading relationships to avoid being “vulnerable to the vagaries of what might happen in Chinese politics”.

He said business leaders could help by maintaining their personal links with Chinese counterparts as best they could.

Back channel “Track Two” diplomacy, which can involve business figures, academics and retired government figures, was “much more important than governments often realise”, Mr Downer said, adding: “I made ­extensive use of those sorts of lines of communication.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/alexander-downer-cautions-business-on-china/news-story/ccce10696b088c2840497cf15038f2de

https://asialink.unimelb.edu.au/insights/asialink-milestones-alexander-downer-on-china-and-playing-the-long-game

>>11979016

Jeffrey Epstein's ex Ghislaine Maxwell proposes bail package in effort to secure jail release

Ghislaine Maxwell — a British socialite charged with procuring girls for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse — has forcefully proclaimed her innocence and proposed a $US28.5 million ($37.9 million) bail package.

It's part of Ms Maxwell's renewed effort to be freed from a New York jail this year.

In a filing with the US District Court in Manhattan on Monday, Ms Maxwell also disclosed that she has been married since 2016.

She proposed that her husband would post a $US22.5 million ($29.9 million) bond, mirroring their combined assets, to support her bail application.

Most of the remaining bail would be guaranteed by friends and family.

The filing also said Ms Maxwell was not a flight risk and that she "vehemently maintains her innocence".

"Ms Maxwell is not the person the media has portrayed her to be, far from it," the filing said.

"Ms Maxwell wants to stay in New York and have her day in court so that she can clear her name and return to her family."

Ms Maxwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sexual acts in the mid-1990s.

She has also pleaded not guilty to perjury for having denied involvement under oath.

Her trial is scheduled to begin in July 2021, and she faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.

US District Judge Alison Nathan could rule on Ms Maxwell's bail application this month.

The judge has previously denied bail, agreeing with prosecutors that Ms Maxwell posed a substantial flight risk, citing her opaque finances and "sophistication" in hiding her wealth and herself.

Authorities arrested Maxwell on July 2 at her New Hampshire home, which prosecutors said she used as a hideout and concealed her identity to buy.

Twitter comments 'particularly galling'

Ms Maxwell's lawyers said she has suffered weight and hair loss while in detention and had been subjected to repeated and invasive searches.

They also claim she lacks adequate protection from COVID-19, which now affects 80 inmates and staff.

Jail officials have said Ms Maxwell's health is good and that she is treated like other inmates.

In Monday's filing, Ms Maxwell proposed living under home confinement with an acquaintance in New York City, with 24-hour security and electronic monitoring.

The filing said Ms Maxwell waived her extradition rights and therefore "could not seek refuge" in the United Kingdom and France, where she holds citizenships.

In a letter to the judge, Ms Maxwell's husband said his partner had faced "increasingly frightening" media interest.

"Twitter comments have been particularly galling," he added.

Prosecutors have until December 16 to respond to Ms Maxwell's bail application.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-15/jeffrey-epstein-ex-ghislaine-maxwell-proposes-bail-package/12986372

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.539612.97.0_4.pdf

>>12015508

ASIO probes Chinese Communist Party members in Shanghai consulate

SHARRI MARKSON - DECEMBER 15, 2020

1/2

The nation’s top spy agency has begun investigating revelations that Chinese Communist Party members have been working in Australia’s consulate in Shanghai for years.

An investigation by The Australian found at least 10 consulates in Shanghai had CCP members employed as senior political and government affairs specialists, clerks, economic advisers and executive assistants.

The expose has been labelled a “wake-up call” by one member of the US Homeland Security Committee, while Australian parliamentarians are calling for an urgent probe.

The investigation, based on a leak of official CCP membership records from Shanghai — the first of its kind in the world — also revealed how CCP branches were embedded in major companies, ­including those holding sensitive defence contracts with the Australian and US governments.

Two sources familiar with the matter said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had begun investigating the revelations that the CCP had infiltrated the diplomatic missions through a government-sponsored recruitment agency, the Shanghai Foreign Agency Service Department.

The database shows CCP members have been or are currently employed in Australian, US, British, German, Swiss, Indian, New Zealand, Italian and South African missions in Shanghai.

“There’s intelligence-gathering going on,” one source said.

The second source said: “ASIO uses a lot of sources as part of its counterintelligence efforts and things like this don’t come along everyday.”

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings warned there was an ­“intelligence risk within the consulate itself” and said Australia had dismissed the significance of the CCP as not being important.

“I think that’s been a fundamental mistake,” said Mr Jennings, a former Defence Department deputy secretary.

“Being a member of the party is not just a casual thing. What that means is that if you want to ­become a member, the party will have an ability to call on you to do what they want you to do.

“If you work at a consulate, you can be guaranteed the party will be aware of that and expecting their party member to furnish them with any info that is useful.”

“You’ve really got to make sure your locally engaged staff are not engaged in anything that involves providing policy advice and are essentially kept away from the inner core of embassy functions.”

The Australian’s investigation followed a leak of official CCP records that exposed the personal details of 1.95 million members. It found members and even party branches at some of the world’s largest companies including vaccine manufacturers AstraZeneca and Pfizer, aerospace giant Boeing and at ANZ.

While there is no evidence that anyone on the party membership list has spied for the Chinese government — many became members to boost their career prospects — the revelations raised concerns about safeguards in place at consulates and major corporations.

CCP members, of whom there are 92 million, must pledge an oath that puts the party’s interests above all and “be ready at all times to sacrifice my all for the party”.

(continued)

>>12034483

2/2

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, co-chairwoman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said she expected ­intelligence agencies would be examining the report.

Republican Party senator Joshua Hawley, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, said the reports should serve as a wake-up call.

“CCP agents have no place in US government facilities, and this report should serve as a much-needed wake-up call to Washington DC and corporate executives, who continue to welcome the Chinese government with open arms,” Senator Hawley said.

Liberal MP Dave Sharma, Australia’s former ambassador to Israel, said it was “a well-known secret in diplomatic circles that your missions in some countries are selectively targeted for staffing by the governments of those countries”.

“This has been our working assumption for some time, and the operations of Australia’s diplomatic missions factor this in and have a range of protective measures in place to guard against this,” Mr Sharma said.

“We’ve got to worry about the people who are CCP members, but even those who are not are nonetheless susceptible to ­pressure and suasion from their government.

“That’s the reality of the political system in China — the state is supreme to the individual.”

Australia’s former ambassador in China, Geoff Raby, said it was common knowledge that members of the CCP were in embassies and companies.

“Within the embassies, there’s ample and very good separation between sensitive areas and non-sensitive areas,” Mr Raby said.

“And most of what the ­embassy does is non-sensitive … what you do is you have hard defences within the embassy and a hard separation. Everyone is aware of that.”

The database was leaked in mid-September to the newly formed international group, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which is made up of 150 legislators around the world.

It was then provided to an international consortium of four media organisations: The Australian, The Mail on Sunday in Britain, De Standaard in Belgium and Swedish journalists.

The Australian was able to obtain independently a more complete version of the same database from a confidential source which allowed cyber­security firm, Internet 2.0, to track the data back to its original leak and conduct metadata analysis and verification.

Rex Patrick, a key crossbench senator, said Foreign Minister Marise Payne, who declined to comment on the revelations, needed to answer questions about why DFAT used an employment firm that recruited CCP members to consular roles.

He said Senator Payne must ensure that sensitive or classified information was not available to any embassy or consulate staff who are CCP members. If she failed to do that, he would call on the Senate to investigate.

“I think it would give rise to legitimate questioning of the minister through normal parliamentary processes and then subject to those answers, perhaps an inquiry,” Senator Patrick said.

“The key question that needs to be asked is: do these people in the positions they hold have access to sensitive or classified information? And if that is the case, it does raise a concern.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/asio-probes-chinese-communist-party-members-in-shanghai-consulate/news-story/2268179f485f5e778f626258f80abe7a

>>12001900

Five Eyes alliance considers sanctioning China

The members of Australia’s international intelligence network — including the US and UK — are set to team up to take on China.

1/2

Australia’s largest allies may come to its aid in its escalating trade war with China.

The Five Eyes alliance has reportedly held discussions over how to respond after Beijing added coal to a growing list of sanctions imposed on Aussie goods.

The group – made up of Australia, the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand – has reportedly touted retaliatory trade and economic sanctions.

Mike Green, a former special assistant to ex-US president George W Bush, said the international response needed to be broader than the Five Eyes and should include NATO and the European Union.

“China’s market is so huge (that) it’s unlikely the rest of us will have, in a democratic society, the ability to completely boycott it,” he told ABC Radio.

“The Chinese have a slight advantage there. But what we have is numbers, and we have more and more countries that are alarmed at what China is doing.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin appeared to confirm a ban on Australian coal imports on Wednesday.

“The Chinese authorities have recently taken measures against some imported Australian products in accordance with law and regulations,” he said.

“I have repeatedly heard some people from the Australian side claim to be the so-called victims, constantly accusing and attacking China by innuendo, which is completely making a countercharge, confusing right and wrong. China will never accept this.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government was yet to receive formal notification from Beijing but said it was taking the reports “very seriously”.

“If that were to be true … then that would be in direct contravention to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. It would also be a complete breach of the free trade agreement,” he told Channel 7.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has urged Beijing to rectify the situation. He warned making an example of Australia was a “dangerous” thing to do because China needed to trade.

“The world is watching very closely to the actions of China, not only on coal, but on other matters that they have dealt with the Australian government and Australian exporters,” he told Sky News.

(continued)

>>12047897

2/2

The ban has sparked deep fear in the Australian coal industry, but Mr Green conceded international intervention would have been “an open question” if the dispute was simply about trade.

He said Beijing’s sanctions were part of a broader assault on Western liberalism.

“This is more than just a dispute over tariffs or intellectual property rights, in other words. It goes to the heart of what we share as values as open democracies,” he said.

“This is China using mercantilist tools to punish Australia … for exercising free speech, for exercising open and accountable government.”

Mr Morrison insisted Australia would not be cowed into compromising its values.

“Australia will still be Australia. Our values will still be ours. We will still continue to set our laws hear about foreign investment,” he said.

“We will have a free press and parliamentarians will be able to speak freely. We have our positions on how to deal with world health issues.”

Mr Green revealed an international emergency fund was being discussed in Washington, softening the blow for farmers impacted by Chinese sanctions.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has also left open the option of taking China to the WTO, arguing Beijing’s sanctions were discriminatory.

Gillard government trade minister Craig Emerson encouraged the government to “cool” its public rhetoric on Beijing and work through back channels and the embassies to resolve the issue.

But he accused China of breaching WTO rules by linking the ban on coal to diplomatic tensions and called on Beijing to reaffirm its commitment to rules-based trade.

“If they don’t want to negotiate these trade barriers with Australia, if they think that they are justly based, then let’s go almost hand-in-hand to the WTO,” Dr Emerson said.

Mr Green backed the idea of a WTO complaint, saying China had been using coercive trade sanctions with impunity for more than a decade.

He claimed the US had “failed in leadership” by allowing smaller countries to stand on their own against Beijing.

“I think the Australian case is the last one that many countries will allow to happen,” he said.

“That said, we have a lot of things we have to figure out if we’re going to respond consistent with international law in our own domestic laws.”

Chinese state mouthpiece The Global Times has warned Canberra to watch for “backstabbers in its own midst”.

In an editorial posted on Tuesday, it said other Five Eyes powers would jump at the chance to supply the trade void created by Beijing’s dispute with Canberra.

“The Five Eyes are looking at different directions based on varied interests. It is hard for the global industries to omit the Chinese market, especially as China may be the only major economy to mete out a positive economic growth this year,” it read.

“Hanging onto the Cold War mentality, the US-led anti-China clique has been promoting its decoupling campaign for years. The nations have already proved how ineffective they could be and how unrealistic the campaign was.”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/five-eyes-alliance-considers-sanctioning-china/news-story/828f488272f5fdc6202f3fddfb171dc4

>>12047897

Australia to take China to the WTO over barley tariffs

Australia has launched its first World Trade Organisation investigation in a year-long $20 billion trade fight with China, taking an increasingly bitter dispute to the multilateral level.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham on Wednesday said Australian officials had notified Beijing and asked the WTO in Geneva to begin the investigation into tariffs that have wiped out Australia's barley trade with China.

The step is largely symbolic and could take years to resolve. The WTO has been rendered mostly inoperable by the Trump administration, which has blocked appointments it views as unsympathetic to US trade interests, leaving only one out of seven judges on the appeals court.

But it is a significant formal escalation in Australia's ongoing stoush with China, which now covers beef, barley, wine and coal among half-a-dozen industries after a diplomatic dispute over the coronavirus inquiry, human rights and national security.

Senator Birmingham did not rule out taking Beijing to the WTO over the trade hits to other sectors, including tariffs of up to 212 per cent on wine, but said barley was the logical first step.

The $600 million-a-year export to China, which is used to make beer and animal feed, was one of the first Australian exports hit after the Morrison government called for a coronavirus inquiry.

The 80.5 per cent tariff was applied by Chinese customs authorities in May over allegations that Australian producers had dumped the product in the Chinese market at a discount rate.

The Australian government and local industry have strongly denied the allegations.

"We are highly confident that based on the evidence, data and analysis, Australia has an incredibly strong case to mount in relation to defending the integrity, and proprietary of our grain growers and barley producers," Senator Birmingham said.

"WTO dispute resolution processes are not perfect, and they take longer than would be ideal, but ultimately, it is the right avenue for Australia to take at this point in time."

China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday night said any measures it had taken were in line with its regulations and international practices.

"They are also responsible steps to safeguard the interests of domestic industries and consumers," ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

"We hope that the Australian side will reflect upon its own conduct, match its words with deeds, and provide favourable conditions for bilateral practical cooperation in various fields, instead of the opposite."

The dispute has been characterised by vague threats and sudden trade restrictions on different sectors since Australia called for a coronavirus inquiry in April.

In recent weeks the Morrison government, frustrated by a shutdown in ministerial communication from Beijing, has increasingly been referring to the perception of economic coercion created by China's "discriminatory actions".

Senator Birmingham on Wednesday went further and described the trade strikes as sanctions. He warned it would turn other countries off doing business with China, which remains Australia's largest trading partner, accounting for more than $150 billion in exports each year.

"The fact that China has accumulated a series of decisions that look like sanctions against Australia, obviously changes that risk proposition for Australian businesses and industries as they choose to consider doing business with China," he said.

"It also has a knock-on effect in relation to others around the world."

Senator Birmingham said Australia had no intention of changing its position on human rights, Huawei, the coronavirus inquiry, nationals security or foreign investment decisions.

"We are right to stand by our values which include the principles of supporting China's economic prosperity, which has achieved the miracle of our lifetime and lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty and improving living standards for many as a result," he said.

"Ultimately what is going to be required here from Australia, a period of calm, consistency and patience and for China, we hope, to be willing to come to the table."

The press conference is likely to be one of the last for Senator Birmingham after more than two years as trade minister ahead of a cabinet reshuffle this week. The South Australian senator will move full-time to the Finance Ministry.

Education Minister Dan Tehan and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash are the leading candidates to take on the trade portfolio.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/australia-to-take-china-to-the-wto-over-barley-tariffs-20201216-p56nzf.html

>>12015557

The Australian 'turned' me into a CPC member overnight

Chen Hong, Global Times - 2020/12/16

Through the kind offices of The Australian and some other media outlets, I became a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) without even knowing it.

An "exclusive" news story published in The Australian's website in the middle of the night of December 13 leaked an alleged database, containing a list of 1.95 million CPC members, including me.

The following day's follow-up report further disclosed that "(my) membership (to the Party) is reserved at CCP Working Committee for the Organ of the East China Normal University." The report then officiously enlightens readers saying, "reserved party membership occurs when a CCP member has left the country for more than six months, but can be restored when the member returns."

I have never joined the CPC. I have no party membership for any CPC committee to reserve or to restore. Since late 1994, I have never stayed outside of China for over four consecutive months.

I was a member of a minor political party called the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party for three years.

The sensational "revelation" of the purloined database that The Australian proclaimed to have verified is a list of names of staff for foreign diplomatic missions and international businesses employed through the Shanghai Foreign Agency Service Department, or SFASD. My name and alleged other personal details is on the list.

The simple fact is that I have been a member of the teaching faculty of East China Normal University since 1990, with employment contracts signed directly between me and the university. I do not need, nor am I allowed by the law, to be hired through an HR agency.

Sensationalist report stated the data was acquired by a dissident "risk(ing) their [sic] life to access it." The report also maintains that The Australian "independently obtain(ed) a more complete version of the same database from a confidential source."

With such cloak n' dagger theatrics and "painstaking" verification, how could the most basic facts about me be so erroneous? Anyone with common sense would naturally cast serious doubt about the veracity of the rest of the information of that mysterious database.

The craze and ferocity of the fierce hunt for "the red witches" are now rampaging in Australia beyond belief. Even Chinese citizens in their own country are been questioned and suspected by McCarthyists for their political involvement and activities.

Some members of the Australian government and parliament are chorusing for an investigation because CPC members have been employed by Australian foreign services and other organisations. Is the CPC regarded by Australia as an adversary political organisation, so that members of the party should be suspected and treated as enemy agents?

Such a mind-set and acts are bullying by nature. The hunters for "reds under the bed" had better heed the kind advice by the sagacious Australian literary critic A. A. Phillips who said "the opposite of the Cringe is not the Strut, but a relaxed erectness of carriage."

Author's note: The article was written in response to The Australian's erroneous reports about my alleged CPC membership. It was submitted to The Australian for publication with the purpose of clarification of basic facts. The Australian, however, did not publish this article in full, but only ran a news story containing truncated parts of this article, which regretfully does not completely reflect my thoughts at all.

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

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1210070.shtml

>>12047991

I have never been a member of the Chinese Communist Party: Chen Hong

JARED LYNCH - DECEMBER 15, 2020

Shanghai-based Australian scholar Chen Hong, who had his Australian visa revoked after ASIO assessed him as a possible security risk, says he has never been a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

He said, however, he had been a member of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party.

His name was among almost two million in a leaked database of official CCP membership records from Shanghai obtained by The Australian.

Professor Chen, the director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, told The Australian his entry in the database was “totally wrong”. “Throughout my life, I have never joined the (CCP),” he said.

“I have been … a member of a minor political party in China, the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, for three years.”

The Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, founded in 1930, is one of the officially sanctioned minor parties aligned with the CCP under the United Front.

In 2015, President Xi Jinping described the United Front as “an important magic weapon” for strengthening his party’s rule, and central to the aim of realising the dream of the “Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation”.

Professor Chen’s visa was revoked in September when he was out of the country after ASIO said it had assessed him and another academic as security risks.

“The craze and ferocity of the fierce hunt for ‘the red witches’ are now rampaging in Australia beyond belief.

“Even Chinese citizens in their own country are been questioned and suspected by McCarthyists for their political involvement and activities,” Professor Chen wrote in an email.

“Such mindset and acts are bullying by nature. The hunters for ‘reds under the bed’ had better heed the kind advice by the sagacious Australian literary critic AA Phillips that ‘the opposite of the Cringe is not the Strut, but a relaxed erectness of carriage’.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/i-have-never-been-amember-of-the-chinese-communist-party-chen-hong/news-story/aa79e59651a163453c77e2414ec6b4c3

>>12015508

CCP members in foreign embassies ‘the reality in China’: Foreign Minister

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has hit back against Australia’s concerns that CCP members have been employed in diplomatic missions in China, declaring that “this is the reality in China.”

The Australian reported on Wednesday that Australia’s embassy in Beijing is using a Chinese government agency to recruit senior staff into the consulate, with intelligence insiders warning this practice is the equivalent of paying China to “put spies into our consulates”.

However Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that “states should follow basic norms governing international relations and respect each other’s system and national conditions.”

He argued that the CPC had striven for the “wellbeing of the Chinese people, the peace of the world and the progress of humanity” and argued the party was “open and above board in all its actions.”

“This is no other than hysterical slanders made by certain anti-China elements to tarnish the image of the CPC. Such (an) allegation is logically absurd and has no factual basis, nothing but another version of the ‘China threat theory’.

“China is a country that adheres to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

“The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. Our 92 million CPC members are playing an exemplary role in various areas.”

The Australian’s investigation exposing the infiltration of Chinese Communist Party members across foreign embassies and companies has triggered a warning from the US State Department of a “wide array of malign activities that the Chinese Communist Party undertakes to influence our societies”.

The Australian revealed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade used the Beijing Service Bureau for Diplomatic Missions — a Chinese government-controlled agency — as recently as last month to hire a head of mission senior adviser and interpreter, reporting to Australian ambassador Graham Fletcher.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/ccp-members-in-foreign-embassies-the-reality-in-china-foreign-minister/news-story/da50d0674ae957cb086d7968d9c7e939

George Pell: Senior Vatican figures framed me on pedophilia charges

1/2

Cardinal George Pell has confirmed for the first time that he believes senior Church figures conspired to frame him on pedophilia charges in Victoria due to his work trying clean up the Vatican’s murky finances.

In a candid and wide-ranging interview on the flagship program, ‘Sette Storie’ broadcast on the Italian public broadcaster, RAI 1, Tuesday night (AEDT), Cardinal Pell said that historically, every senior figure who has to reform the Holy See’s financial management systems has been subjected to reputational attacks – and worse.

“Every single one, with very few exceptions, has been publicly attacked in one way or another … let’s not forget what happened to [Vatican banker Roberto] Calvi who committed suicide under a bridge in London with his hands behind his back … which is a very strange way to hang yourself,” he told the interviewer, Monica Maggioni.

“And we shouldn’t forget what happened to that other one, Sindona, who was found poisoned in prison …. tempi antichi [ancient times.] Today, more often than not they attack by destroying reputations.”

(Michele Sindona was an Italian banker and member of the so called ‘Propaganda Due’ who died after being served a coffee laced with cyanide while in prison.)

Cardinal Pell said his family are convinced that if the Mafia or the Masons had attempted to destroy his reputation, it would have been preferable to being attacked internally, from inside the Catholic Church: “It is much worse if someone inside the Church wishes to destroy you,” he said.

“It’s for this reason that I hope that there will never be enough evidence to prove that Vatican money was used if not to corrupt directly, at least to poison the public atmosphere against me. I hope there is no proof of this for the good of the Church.”

Cardinal Pell also disclosed that Danny Casey, the Sydney Diocese former business manager who had worked with him in Rome, had had his car set on fire and destroyed: “Of course that was a coincidence because we all know that cars suddenly catch fire all by themselves. Everyone believes there is a connection [between the financial reforms] and what happened in Australia, everyone I work with has no doubt either,” he said.

“We have some evidence but no proof yet but certainly there is a lot of smoke … we have criminals who have been heard to say ‘Pell is out of the game now and we’ve got a clear highway ahead now’. And when the Auditor General [Libero Milone, a former partner with the multinational accounting giant, Deloitte] was sacked, another described that as ‘a second bomb along the road.’”

(continued)

>>12048071

2/2

Cardinal Pell, who will launch his jail memoir, titled ‘404 days’ in the United States next week, also spoke openly about his daily prison routine, revealing that he began his day watching Sunrise on Channel 7 after showering, being given his medication and having his breakfast.

Asked if he felt the weight of being a convicted paedophile from other prisoners, he said “absolutely, yes” but insisted that he suffered no violence and while he found himself in a horrendous situation, promised himself he would not indulge in tears or recrimination.

He said he had been supported by his family and close friends throughout his time in prison and comforted himself with the knowledge that the great majority of churchgoers “did not believe the stories” against him.

“Let’s not forget either, that Christian teachings tell us that good things can be born of suffering. This is a major point of difference between those who have faith and those who don’t … offering my suffering to God had good purpose and this gave me some consolation.”

Asked his views on the legal system in Australia and the behaviour of the public and media during the trial, Cardinal Pell said legal processes are not infallible, adding with irony that “only the Pope is infallible” and only “in a limited number of occasions”.

He said public opinion had been both poisonous and hostile to the Church because of pedophilia crimes and for the “inadequate way in which they had been confronted on some occasions.”

He said his legal team had been consistently confident that he would not be found guilty and when the verdict was handed down it was a “huge blow, huge”: “I could understand why public opinion was against me, but I simply could not understand why the two expert judges could come to those conclusions.”

Cardinal Pell said that when you face a situation as terrible as the one he found himself in, the worst thing would be to deny or pretend it hadn’t happened. He said he tried to “continue to live” because in the end, he knew he had another legal avenue to pursue.

“It hadn’t ended there and also, I knew that if things went really bad in this life, I knew I could argue my case in the next life before God. But yes, it was a huge blow, huge.”

Before his return to Australia, Cardinal Pell said he would see Pope Francis once every two weeks or so to update him on his team’s activities. He said the Pope had thanked him for his testimony and been supportive during the trial, telling him on his return that he had been “correct about a number of things”.

“I believe he was referring to the economic issues on which I really think there is no doubt … there was disorganisation, holes in information, accounting methods were primitive and all this opened spaces which allowed people to steal and to corrupt. This lack of sophistication was ideal territory for this,” he said.

“Five years ago, in Germany, Princess Gloria Turn und Taxis told me that the Vatican reminded her of an old aristocratic family that was falling slowly into ruin. They were extravagant, incompetent, and represented ideal territory for robbers. Perhaps this is a little harsh, it is not the whole story but it certainly describes part of the story.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/george-pell-senior-vatican-figures-framed-me-on-pedophilia-charges/news-story/0d3bc46902d069c64c6df3574ec27a30

Survivors reflect on Australia sex abuse inquiry, three years on

The landmark inquiry gave survivors a chance to talk, while legal changes have allowed them to seek redress.

Ali MC - 15 Dec 2020

1/2

Melbourne, Australia – Kym Krasa was just eight years old when she was first sexually abused by a member of the Catholic Church.

A so-called “part” Aboriginal child, she had been taken from her impoverished family and placed in an orphanage.

But instead of being cared for, she was abused, and the abuse would continue for the next decade at the hands of a priest and church parishioners, and as a teenager, by a man for whom she was forced to work as a domestic servant.

It was not until the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was established in 2012 that Krasa, now 67, could finally talk about her experiences. It is now three years since the commission completed its work.

“You couldn’t talk to the nuns because they would not believe you,” she said.

“Do we believe that person – that child – or do we believe a priest? So that’s why I could not talk to anybody about it.’

Abusive experiences were not uncommon for children in Australia in the 20th century, with a 2004 report stating that upwards of 500,000 Australian children were placed into church-run and state institutions. Another inquiry found that at least one in 10 Aboriginal children were removed from their families and made state wards of the government.

The children were put into orphanages, foster homes, missions and other charitable institutions, only to be abused by the very people who were supposed to look after them.

The reasons were varied. Some were child migrants sent from Europe. Some had suffered neglect at home. Some were simply the children of young single mothers who were deemed to be “unfit” to raise their own children.

Aboriginal children, in particular, were removed from their families due to racist laws.

Systemic abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse confronted the sexual abuse of children such as the young Krasa and how the institutions had been able to cover up systemic abuse for so long.

The precise number of children who suffered sexual abuse will never be known, but in five years the royal commission handled more than 42,000 phone calls, received 26,000 letters and emails, and heard more than 8,000 personal stories. Prime Minister Scott Morrison formally apologised to the survivors after the report came out.

Krasa was one of those who told their story in a “private session” with a government-appointed commissioner.

“It was hard to talk about stuff like that to [the commissioners],” she said. “It sort of eased the pain. I still think about things, but it was good to talk to somebody about it.”

Private sessions provided an opportunity for survivors of sexual abuse to tell their story. For many – like Krasa – it would be the first time they would disclose their traumatic secrets.

As well as collating stories of abuse the royal commission also investigated the issue of compensation for survivors.

Historically, churches and other institutions had largely avoided compensation claims, mostly protected by the “Ellis defence” which meant that due to their legal status churches could not be sued.

However, the royal commission helped overturn these and other laws of limitation that had previously prevented survivors from accessing justice.

“What we are seeing now is, whereas survivors literally had no option in the past other than to go begging cap in hand to these institutions, these days survivors have got options,” said Angela Sdrinis, a lawyer who first started working with abuse claims in 1997.

“In the last couple of years, it has been possible in some of the strong cases to achieve million dollar-plus settlements.”

‘We all suffered’

Sdrinis says the investigations and research conducted by the royal commission greatly developed the legal system’s understanding of sexual abuse and the cover-ups that were instigated by churches and other institutions.

“The royal commission produced masses of evidence regarding cover-ups and moving perpetrators around,” she said. “And that information just wasn’t available to us before.

“If we didn’t have the royal commission there would be a whole lot of people missing out because of the nature of these [legal] claims.”

(continued)

>>12048190

2/2

Despite these legal changes, such cases remain difficult to win given the level of proof required to substantiate a claim of sexual abuse.

As such, a National Redress Scheme was established in July 2018 to compensate those people who might not have enough evidence to support their claim in court. It will remain in operation for a decade.

However, far from the million-dollar settlements that Sdrinis has sometimes been able to achieve for her clients, the average payment from the National Redress Scheme is 82,000 Australian dollars ($61,864).

Leonie Sheedy is the CEO and co-founder of the Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN), a community organisation that advocates on behalf of people who had been placed in institutions and made wards of the state.

She is also a survivor of institutional abuse.

Sheedy is positive about the work of the royal commission, and says its legacy was that it “exposed the terrible crimes committed on Australian children who had no one to turn to”.

“We were believed, we were validated and listened to, and that is a wonderful legacy that the royal commissioners and the team did for this nation,” she said.

But Sheedy says the National Redress Scheme payment is too small to help survivors.

“That is a most insulting amount to give to children whose lives were shattered,” she said.

“We’re not like the middle classes of this nation. We didn’t get an education. We don’t become the lawyers, the politicians, the doctors, the GPs, because of our limited education. The churches and charities exploited us and they wanted us to be farmhands and domestic slaves in wealthy peoples’ homes.”

Sheedy also says other forms of abuse, such as psychological and physical abuse, neglect and unpaid child labour, should have been addressed in the royal commission.

“There’s a whole group of care leavers in Australian society who feel extremely ignored because they were not sexually abused but suffered all the other indignities,” she said.

This also means that many institutional abuse survivors will miss out on the National Redress Scheme.

“Everybody deserves to be given redress for the crimes and the neglect and the child labour they did in orphanages. We all suffered.”

To date, the National Redress Scheme had received 8,577 applications with 4,117 payments made, totalling around 340.3 million Australian dollars ($256.6 million).

A spokesperson for the National Redress Scheme stressed the 82,000 Australian dollar ($61,864) payment was higher than the average payment of 65,000 Australian dollars ($49,023) that the royal commission recommended.

They also noted that because the scheme was established in line with the recommendations and mandate of the royal commission, it was only able to provide compensation for survivors of sexual abuse, and not for physical, psychological or emotional abuse or for child labour.

As well as the national scheme, other institutions have enacted their own forms of redress that do not require court claims.

Krasa received 60,000 Australian dollars ($45,252), a written apology and access to continuing counselling under the Catholic Church’s national “Towards Healing” redress scheme.

“I wasn’t worried about the money,” she said. “I just wanted someone to listen to my story, about what they did to me.”

Despite the compensation offered, Krasa still suffers from the effects of the abuse that she experienced as a child and teenager, and regularly sees a specialist therapist and the counsellor at her local Aboriginal health service.

She does not work and has had little formal education.

“The apology was late – it came really too late,” she told Al Jazeera. “I accepted it, but I’ll still never forget what the nuns and [the priest] and other people did to me when I was younger.”

Still, Krasa says without the royal commission she would never have told anyone about the sexual abuse she suffered.

“I reckon I’d still be carrying it until I’d be gone off this Earth. I’m glad I got my story out there.”

The Federal Attorney-General’s Department which oversaw the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was contacted for comment but declined to do so because of the commission’s closure in 2017.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/15/royal-commission-reflections-of-sexual-abuse-survivors

>>11889146

Dassi Erlich Tweets

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!

EXTRADITION APPEAL HAS BEEN DENIED!!

A STAGGERING CONCLUSION TO 74 COURT HEARINGS!

Only one more step - Justice Minister Nissenkorn's signature and Leifer is on the plane to Australia!!!

#nomoreisraelicourtrooms

https://twitter.com/dassi_erlich/status/1338770542933905409

—

The Justice Minister responds to the latest decision

"I welcome the supreme court ruling to extradite Leifer to Australia. After many long and torturous years the time has come to do justice to Leifer's victims. I intend to sign the extradition order without delay.

https://twitter.com/dassi_erlich/status/1338775691165253633

>>12048340

Malka Leifer, former Melbourne principal and accused child abuser, loses appeal against extradition from Israel to Australia

Israel's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer against a ruling to extradite her to Australia to face 74 charges of sexual abuse.

It's the last time — after six years of legal battles — the former principal of Elsternwick's Adass Israel girls school can appeal to the Supreme Court to attempt to stop the extradition.

"Since the petition was filed, it appears that there is no proceeding that the appellant has not taken and that there is no claim that she missed, in an attempt to prevent her extradition," Supreme Court Judge Anat Baron ruled.

"As is well known, extradition agreements signed by the State of Israel, the purpose of which is international cooperation for the eradication of crime, must be respected, and anyone who seeks to escape himself will know by law that he will not find a city of refuge in Israel."

The country's Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn can now sign the extradition order to have her returned to Melbourne to face trial.

"I welcome the Supreme Court's ruling declaring extradite Malka Leifer to Australia," he wrote on Twitter.

"After long and torturous years, the time has come to do justice to Leifer's victims. I intend to sign the extradition order without delay."

That signature can also be subject to an administrative appeal.

Malka Leifer's alleged victims, three sisters who were her pupils, expressed relief at the judgement.

"To understand that this point has finally been reached from the day we gave our police statements in 2011, it's really staggering," Nicole Meyer said.

"It's just huge because it is something we have been fighting for, for 74 court hearings and every single day in between."

Australia's Attorney-General Christian Porter, who discussed the case when he travelled to Israel last year, welcomed the decision.

"Although this latest development is a significant step forward — possibly the most positive steps thus far — in what has been a long process, there are still steps to be undertaken in Israel," he said.

"Nevertheless, this is a significant milestone which should provide alleged victims some hope that this part of the process to bring Ms Leifer to justice in Australia is edging closer to a conclusion."

Victoria Police sought Malka Leifer's extradition in 2014, but proceedings stalled two years later when an Israeli court ruled she was mentally unfit to face trial.

But when evidence emerged Malka Leifer was lying about being catatonic and incapacitated by anxiety, Ms Meyer and her sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper began a public campaign called "Bring Leifer Back", asking for the extradition proceedings to recommence.

An organisation dedicated to stopping child abuse in the tight-knit orthodox community, Jewish Community Watch, commissioned a private investigator to secretly film Malka Leifer enjoying a normal life: shopping, travelling to Tel Aviv on public transport and attending Jewish religious festivals.

Their evidence triggered an Israeli police investigation and a recommendation Malka Leifer be charged for obstruction of justice.

She was put in jail on remand and extradition proceedings restarted in 2018, with fierce opposition from her top-shelf legal team and backers within her orthodox community.

Israel's deputy health minister Yaakov Litzman, from the same ultra-orthodox sect, was also accused of interfering by pressuring the state psychiatrist to change his assessment of Mrs Leifer's mental state to block her extradition.

He denied wrongdoing but police recommended he also be charged.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-15/malka-leifer-appeal-australian-extradition-face-abuse-charges/12987394

>>12048340

'We never gave up hope': Alleged victims relieved as Malka Leifer set to face court in Australia

An alleged victim of former Melbourne school principal and accused pedophile Malka Leifer has expressed relief after the Israeli Supreme Court threw out an attempt to block her extradition.

A Melbourne woman who is an alleged victim of accused paedophile Malka Leifer has expressed her relief after the former school principal failed to block her extradition from Israel to Australia.

Three Melbourne sisters - Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer, and Elly Sapper - who have filed police reports about Leifer were pleased with the news.

"It is incredible to reach this point after so many years," Ms Erlich told AAP.

"A decision that we dreamed of happening and never gave up hope. We await the justice minister's signature and facing Malka Leifer in court in Australia."

All three sisters are alleged victims of Leifer, a former Melbourne school principal who has been accused of 74 charges of child sexual abuse.

On Tuesday the Israeli Supreme Court threw out a last-ditch attempt by Leifer’s lawyers to block her extradition to Australia.

Shortly after the verdict, Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn tweeted he welcomed the ruling and would sign off on the extradition order “without delay”.

“After many long and torturous years, the time has come to do justice … I intend to sign the extradition order without delay,” he said.

Leifer's offending is alleged to have occurred at the ultra-orthodox Adass Israel school more than a decade ago. Leifer has denied the allegations against her.

Leifer left Australia when the allegations against her surfaced in 2008 and has remained in Israel since.

Australia lodged an extradition request for Leifer in 2014, but her case has been repeatedly delayed.

Leifer's lawyers have continually argued she is unfit to face extradition due to poor mental health.

Two years later she was re-arrested, after a police investigation cast doubt on those health claims.

Leifer’s lawyer says that, if she is convicted, any sentence handed down against his client should be served in Israel.

"We note that the Supreme Court acknowledged both Malka Leifer's mental health issues and that the unique nature of her religious way of life will present considerable difficulties for her in an Australian prison,” Nick Kaufman said.

“These are considerations which, in our opinion, fully justified the long battle to safeguard her basic human rights," he told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Voice Against Child Sexual Abuse chief executive Manny Waks praised the three sisters for their efforts to extradite Leifer to Australia.

“This has been a battle which these sisters should never have had to fight. They have done so with grace and dignity at all times.

"They are heroes in every sense of the word,” he said.

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline crisis support on 13 11 14, Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged 5 to 25). More information is available at BeyondBlue.org.au and lifeline.org.au.

Anyone seeking information or support relating to sexual abuse can contact Bravehearts on 1800 272 831 or Blue Knot on 1300 657 380.

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

http://lifeline.org.au/

https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1338793476549308416

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/we-never-gave-up-hope-alleged-victims-relieved-as-malka-leifer-set-to-face-court-in-australia

>>11687680

Pete Evans Has Gone Full QAnon By Dropping Pedophilia Accusations Against A CNN Anchor On FB

Cam Tyeson - December 16, 2020

Despite loudly declaring that he would be shutting his page down, thereby leaving the platform for good, Pete Evans has not only been on a Facebook posting tear across the past 24 hours, but has now fully enmeshed himself in blatant QAnon posting by dabbling in the movement’s oft-pedalled and deeply bizarre pedophilia accusations.

Evans, in earnest, never actually left Facebook at all, despite stating that he was going to back on November 20th.

Over the course of December, Evans has posted in excess of 200 times to his Facebook page, which maintains a following of just under 1.5 million people.

One post today has risen above the rest as particularly noteworthy, as it shows Evans, now free of the limitations posed by his remaining corporate contracts, fully embracing QAnon posting, heavily inferring baseless claims of pedophilia against CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

The line of thought connecting Cooper to QAnon’s accusations has tenuous links to anything based in reality, and is rooted in the same conspiracy-laden nonsense that lead to the infamous Pizzagate incident.

That unrestricted style of posting is notable, as QAnon and QAnon-related posts were put in the firing line by Facebook back in October. The baseless, and frequently ridiculous, movement has been classified as a domestic terrorist threat by the FBI in the US, although no such official classification has been officially disclosed by any Australian law enforcement body.

Regardless, Evans’ furious posting on Facebook paints a picture of a man who spends practically every waking moment entrapped in an online bubble of lies, dangerous misinformation, and shameless self-promotion.

A cursory glance of his feed reveals 212 posts have been made to the Chef Pete Evans page on Facebook in December, with the frequency breakdown as follows:

• December 1st: 8 posts

• December 2nd: 8 posts

• December 3rd: 10 posts

• December 4th: 13 posts

• December 5th: 16 posts

• December 6th: 15 posts

• December 7th: 15 posts

• December 8th: 16 posts

• December 9th: 12 posts

• December 10th: 12 posts

• December 11th: 15 posts

• December 12th: 12 posts

• December 13th: 8 posts

• December 14th: 21 posts

• December 15th: 19 posts

• December 16th: 12 posts (so far)

Contained within are an increasingly unhinged pile of pandemic-related memes, anti-vaccination and pseudo-science rhetoric, smug grandstanding, and shilling for products from the barest of bare few companies that maintain a working relationship with him.

Interestingly enough, of those 212 posts, just seven have been flagged by Facebook’s vaunted fact-checking program as being either false or misleading.

The ones flagged as false remain active, but place a disclaimer curtain across the post that people can easily click through.

However the ones merely labelled “misleading” or “missing context” are barely touched; a banner warning is placed below the post, but not in such a way that it is immediately recognisable upon first viewing.

Across December, Evans had one post flagged by Facebook on the 1st, two on the 7th and two again the following day, and one each on the 9th and 13th.

Despite repeatedly sharing material that Facebook’s own internal systems have been flagging as either false or misleading, Evans appears to have suffered no restrictions or consequences from the platform. As his posting frequency clearly shows, he is quite free to post literally what he wants, when he wants.

That Facebook seemingly doesn’t see any of this – from a verified page with a follower count nearing 1.5 million – as much of a problem is, you’ve gotta say, extremely bloody concerning.

https://www.pedestrian.tv/online/pete-evans-qanon-anderson-cooper-cnn/

>https://qanon.pub/#344

>https://qanon.pub/#1894

>https://qanon.pub/#1901

>https://qanon.pub/#4163

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweets

I am reaching out to my supporters for some love. My life isn’t just a story, this is real life pain & I can’t stop crying. It hurts. I’m supposed to be strong all the time but I am human and I am suffering. Any tools to help me deal is appreciated. Love to you all. #Help #Love

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1338760242918608898

—

Replying to @Tiredcascade

Sometimes it just feels like I’m reliving all these horrible memories and the only hope I have is to help others, our kids, our future gens. Am I really helping? I’ve been bullied by the worst society has to offer- I’m 1 against many. Feeling outnumbered & powerless.

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1338763804864200704

—

The real me. No makeup, no press- just me talking to those who have been through this journey with me. I cannot thank you all enough for your kindness & support. All my love- V #StrongerTogether #LoveWins #BeKind

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1338770236917477377

>>12048889

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweets

Canadian Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Indicted on Sex-Trafficking Charges - Times are changing!! Keep the monsters off the streets and away from our kids!! #SexTrafficking #ModernSlavery #EveryVoiceMatters @elizableu @pink

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1338978571176427521

Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Indicted on Sex-Trafficking Charges

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/world/canada/peter-nygard-sex-trafficking-charges.html

—

Duke of York visited Nygard at his private Bahamas resort in 2000- just around the same time he was besties with Ghislaine Maxwell & Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t be surprised if they swapped victims. #TimesUp Prince Andrew- #OwnIt @jebrittan2 @KirbySommers @elizableu @SDNYnews

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1339050752388427776

its time for change @pomeinnz

@VRSVirginia

Fashion mogul Peter Nygard is held over alleged sex-trafficking

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9057111/Fashion-mogul-Peter-Nygard-held-alleged-sex-trafficking-teenagers.html

Resignations in the news

Attorney-General Hennessy quits to spend more time with her children

The Andrews government lost its sixth minister in just nine months on Wednesday with the surprise resignation of Attorney-General Jill Hennessy, who cited family reasons for stepping down from cabinet.

Ms Hennessy's decision is effective immediately with several up-and-coming Labor frontbenchers – including Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes, Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll and Women's Minister Gabrielle Williams – potentially ready to step into the sensitive attorney-general portfolio.

The vacant cabinet spot will be filled by a Labor MP from Ms Hennessy’s Socialist Left faction with three women – Harriet Shing from the upper house and lower house MPs Vicki Ward and Mary-Anne Thomas – likely to be in contention.

Ms Hennessy issued a statement just after 3pm on Wednesday, saying she had decided to step back from her cabinet role to be more involved in the lives of her two daughters, Lily Rose and Ginger, who are in their last years of high school.

The former health minister says she will stay in Parliament and contest the 2022 state election for her western suburbs seat of Altona.

Ms Hennessy has been regarded as one of the Andrews government's more effective operators in the two high-profile portfolios she has held and was seen as a potential successor to Premier Daniel Andrews.

Her departure comes at the end of a dramatic political year for the Andrews government which began with the resignation of one of its key members Gavin Jennings from cabinet and the Parliament in March.

The "faceless man" branch stacking scandal sparked the sacking of local government minister Adem Somyurek in June, followed quickly by the resignations of his close factional allies and fellow ministers Marlene Kairouz and Robin Scott.

October brought the resignation of Ms Hennessy's successor in the health portfolio, Jenny Mikakos, as the official inquiry into the hotel quarantine debacle plunged the government into serious crisis.

Ms Hennessy said on Wednesday that she had made her decision with the help of Mr Andrews.

"We have discussed this for some time," she said. "He has demonstrated his support for colleagues through various stages of their life journeys before and I am particularly grateful to him for his wise counsel, compassion and understanding about my decision."

Soon after Ms Hennessy's announcement, Mr Andrews issued a statement of his own praising his colleague's performance in the ministry.

"Our cabinet has been stronger, and our state made fairer by her outstanding contribution," the Premier's statement read.

"I know Jill will bring that same intellect and energy as she continues to represent the people of Altona and I am pleased that she has indicated she intends to stand again at the 2022 state election."

Ms Hennessy said she had been discussing her future with Mr Andrews for some time before deciding to resign.

"Political life can be hard on families," she said.

"Mine is at a stage where they need more of me and even more importantly, I need more of them.

"Like everyone, managing the collision between work and family life, sometimes something has to give, at least for a little while."

During Ms Hennessy's time as health minister, Victoria became the first Australian state to pass assisted dying laws.

The bill was one of the most contentious pieces of legislaton in the Parliament's history and split the Labor Party, with Deputy Premier James Merlino and his factional allies opposing the bill. It passed after an emotional 24-hour debate in Parliament.

Ms Hennessy said the time was right to step down from the Attorney-General's role having overseen the Gobbo Royal Commission, legislative reforms to decriminalise public drunkenness, the spent convictions scheme and the legislation banning gay conversion therapy.

Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien said on Wednesday that ministers resigning or being sacked was no help to Victorians as they tried to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis.

"Jill Hennessy is the sixth Labor minister to resign or be sacked this year," the Liberal leader said.

"With Victoria facing a jobs and budget crisis, Labor’s ministerial musical chairs won’t help the economic recovery."

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/jill-hennessy-quits-as-victoria-s-attorney-general-20201216-p56o1x.html

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/statement-attorney-general-jill-hennessy

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-12/201216%20-%20Statement%20From%20Attorney-General%20Jill%20Hennessy.pdf

Facebook faces multimillion-dollar penalties for ‘misleading’ Australian users with spying app

Thousands of Australians downloaded an app from Facebook to keep their data ‘secret’ but the consumer watchdog claims it did the opposite.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians downloaded an app from Facebook promising to keep their private information “secret” even though it was actually harvesting “significant amounts of users’ personal activity data” for the social network’s “commercial benefit,” Australia’s consumer watchdog claimed today.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched legal action against Facebook over the issue in the Federal Court, claiming consumers were misled into using the app, and seeking a penalty that could run into millions of dollars.

But the tech giant has rejected claims it misled users and has pledged to “continue to defend our position” in court.

The watchdog claims Facebook promoted the Onavo Protect app to its users as a virtual private network with the tagline “keep it secret, keep it safe,” even though the app “collected, aggregated and used” huge amounts of private information from users, logging every app they accessed and how long they spent using it.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims said Facebook used the data for the company’s own purposes, such as identifying potential takeover targets.

“Through Onavo Protect, Facebook was collecting and using the very detailed and valuable personal activity data of thousands of Australian consumers for its own commercial purposes, which we believe is completely contrary to the promise of protection, secrecy and privacy that was central to Facebook’s promotion of this app,” Mr Sims said.

“Consumers often use VPN services because they care about their online privacy, and that is what this Facebook product claimed to offer. In fact, Onavo Protect channelled significant volumes of their personal activity data straight back to Facebook.”

Mr Sims told News Corp the lawsuit was subject to the ACCC’s older penalty regimen, with a maximum fine of $1.1 million per breach, but the Court could find Facebook was guilty of multiple breaches leading to a “significant” cost even for the multibillion-dollar social network.

But he said the main purpose of the lawsuit was to establish guidelines for the behaviour of tech giants in Australia.

“The reason we took this case is we wanted to send a message that you can’t sell a product on one basis, that you’re protecting information, when the reality is that consumers are being exposed to a significant gathering of data, particularly their internet and app activity,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do with these cases is get some boundaries from the Court on what platforms can and can’t do when they’re interacting with consumers.”

Facebook promoted the Onavo Protect app as a privacy solution to Australian consumers between February 2016 and October 2017, the ACCC claimed.

But Apple removed the app from its App Store in 2018 for breaking its rules about collecting data on the use of other apps, and Facebook discontinued the app last year.

Experts told News Corp at the time they were “baffled and a little bit appalled” that any social network would attempt to collect users’ data in this way.

Despite the app’s removal, a Facebook spokesperson said the social network would defend its actions.

“When people downloaded Onavo Protect, we were always clear about the information we collect and how it is used,” the spokesperson said.

“We’ve co-operated with the ACCC’s investigation into this matter to date. We will review the recent filing by the ACCC and will continue to defend our position in response to this recent filing.”

Australia’s legal action against Facebook is expected to be watched closely by American lawmakers after the Federal Trade Commission launched a landmark case against the company last week, alleging it was “illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anti-competitive conduct”.

The FTC is seeking a permanent injunction that could break up Facebook, and force it to sell assets Instagram and WhatsApp.

The US lawsuit also mentioned Facebook’s use of the Onavo Protect app.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/facebook-faces-multimilliondollar-penalties-for-misleading-australian-users-with-spying-app/news-story/7d075c86c5aaa2a554252d5e3fa5eb71

NEW Assange recording reveals WikiLeaks founder tried to WARN Washington about damaging release, defying claims of carelessness

With calls mounting for President Trump to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a new tape reveals that despite being smeared as a foreign agent, Assange tried to limit the release of damaging information to the US.

Days after a former WikiLeaks employee circulated the password to a tranche of classified US State Department cables in 2011, Julian Assange tried to get in touch with Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state. The phone call was originally captured in the Showtime documentary ‘Risk’, but a newly-released tape reveals both sides of the fateful conversation.

In the tape, released by conservative outlet Project Veritas on Wednesday, Assange allegedly speaks to Cliff Johnson, an attorney at the State Department. The WikiLeaks founder warns Johnson that an archive of 250,000 department cables – containing classified information – was being “spread around” the internet.

Assange assures Johnson that WikiLeaks was not behind the release, blaming a rogue employee for making off with an encryption key to the documents. Assange expresses concern for US government employees who may be ‘outed’ in the leak, and asks Johnson to warn “any individuals” who “should be warned.”

Assange went as far as suggesting that the US government covertly remove the files from the internet, and offering to help track down these files.

A Guardian journalist, David Leigh, would eventually release the stash a month after Assange and Johnson’s conversation.

A year later, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Britain, fearing prosecution for alleged sexual assault in Sweden as pretext to eventual extradition to the US. He was under active investigation by US authorities at the time for his role in publishing documents revealing possible US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, but was only charged with espionage in 2019, a month after British police dragged him from the embassy.

Assange had by this stage angered the US intelligence community by releasing a stash of Hillary Clinton’s emails before the 2016 election, and was baselessly accused of working with Russia to ensure President Donald Trump’s election.

Critics of WikiLeaks have long been arguing that the outlet has been careless with the way it handled the leaked documents, allegedly endangering US officials and troops abroad by publishing the information without a proper editorial process. However, the latest leaked call between Assange and the State Department seems to demonstrate the opposite.

Assange’s supporters have been lobbying President Trump to pardon the WikiLeaks founder since Trump took office, and a growing number of conservatives have joined them. To them, Assange was unjustly persecuted by the same ‘deep state’ that did its utmost to derail Trump’s presidency.

Pardoning him, they argue, would be a slap in the face to the political establishment, the intelligence agencies and the media that accused Assange of “election meddling,” while accusing Trump of “Russian collusion,” none of which has ever been proven.

Project Veritas acknowledged this, with founder James O’Keefe writing on Wednesday that “political pressure is building for President Donald Trump to pardon Assange at the end of his first term and this tape goes a long way to rebooting how he has been portrayed.” A day before releasing the tape, Project Veritas tweeted “WHISTLEBLOWERS ARE HEROS. (sic!) PASS IT ON.”

Trump has watched and retweeted Project Veritas’ videos on alleged election fraud by Democrats and on liberal bias at Silicon Valley’s biggest tech firms. As such, the president is highly likely to see the Assange tape.

The tape also caught the eye of Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower who revealed the agency’s mass surveillance program in 2013. Like Assange, Snowden is currently facing espionage charges, and has been floated as the potential recipient of a pardon from Trump.

Hounded by his critics for sharing the Project Veritas video, Snowden snapped back: “I don't care if James Clapper released it – I care if it is true. I know first-hand that just as credible sources sometimes get things wrong, terrible sources can get things right. What matters most is the evidence.”

Snowden too has asked Trump to pardon Assange, while many of the same commentators seeking clemency for the WikiLeaks founder want Trump to extend the same courtesy to Snowden. Trump has not yet given any indication whether he will pardon either.

Snowden has lived in Moscow since the US State Department canceled his passport as he was transiting through the Russian capital in 2013. Assange is currently languishing in a British prison, awaiting a judge’s decision on his extradition to the US.

https://www.rt.com/usa/509889-project-veritas-assange-pardon/

>>12048071

Cardinal Pell on Trump, Benedict XVI and a plot against him

NICOLE WINFIELD - December 16, 2020

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis’ former treasurer, Cardinal George Pell, praised President Donald Trump’s “splendid” Supreme Court appointments and defense of Christian values but questioned his effort to sow doubt in the integrity of the U.S. presidential election.

“It’s no small thing to weaken trust in great public institutions,” Pell told reporters Wednesday in launching his book, “Prison Journal,” about the 404 days he spent in solitary confinement before his sexual abuse conviction was overturned by Australia’s High Court.

In the book, Pell muses on his court case and current events in the Catholic Church and around the world, and at one point says Trump is unfortunately “a bit of a barbarian, but in some important ways, he is ‘our’ (Christian) barbarian.”

During the virtual press conference, Pell said Christians have an obligation to bring their values to the public sphere and said Trump had made a “positive contribution” particularly with his three Supreme Court picks, two of whom are Catholic.

“In other areas, I’m not sure that he’s been sufficiently respectful of the political process and it’s important that people believe they’re getting a fair go,” Pell said. “And if that’s not the case, it needs to be established very, very clearly because it’s no small thing to weaken trust in great public institutions.”

Pell left his job as prefect of the Vatican’s economy ministry in 2017 to face charges that he sexually molested two 13-year-old choir boys in the sacristy of the Melbourne cathedral in 1996. After a first jury deadlocked, a second unanimously convicted him and he was sentenced to six years in prison. The conviction was upheld on appeal only to be thrown out by Australia’s High Court, which in April unanimously found there was reasonable doubt in the testimony of his lone accuser.

Pell again suggested there was evidence — but not proof — that his prosecution was related to his work trying to reform the Vatican’s murky finances. Pell ran into stiff resistance from the Vatican’s Italian old guard during the three years he tried to impose international financial transparency, budgeting and accounting standards on the Holy See bureaucracy.

He repeated unsubstantiated and unsourced Italian media reports suggesting that money was sent from the Vatican to Australia to influence his prosecution. There is no indication an active investigation is under way in either Australia or the Vatican.

“I myself am quite confident that money did go from Rome to Australia about that time, but I’ve got no proof about where that finished up,” he said. “Another image I’ve used is there’s smoke, but we don’t have proof of fire. But I come from a bushfire country, and sometimes the entire state is covered with smoke.”

Pell said he had no intention of seeking damages from the Australian government for his incarceration and said he intended to split his time between Sydney and the Vatican, where he said he has met with many of his old collaborators and friends since returning this fall, including emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

Pell said he believed Benedict should be made a doctor of the church one day — the church’s highest honor that is bestowed after someone is made a saint, to recognize his or her contributions to Catholic teaching.

But he said going forward, the Vatican must quickly adopt regulations governing resignations of future popes. It was a reference to the unprecedented situation of having two popes living in the Vatican, with Benedict still a point of reference for traditionalists nostalgic for his doctrinaire papacy, some of whom have refused to recognize Francis as pope.

“The unity of the church is not automatic,” Pell said. “I haven’t found a single person here in Rome who doesn’t think there must be protocols for a pope who retires. Obviously we love the popes, we have great respect for them. But the needs of the situation — the unity of the church — is on another level that goes beyond a personality.”

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-australia-george-pell-elections-rome-229c1d267fbc81b26101dc59dfc04b49

>>12048340

Malka Leifer set to return to Australia as Israeli minister signs extradition order

Israel's Justice Minister said he has signed an extradition order to send former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer back to Australia to face 74 charges of sexual abuse.

Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn said that after a years-long legal saga, it was Israel's "moral responsibility" to extradite Ms Leifer.

Mr Nissenkorn signed the order a day after Israel's Supreme Court rejected what appears to be Ms Leifer's final appeal.

Ms Leifer, an Israeli citizen, is accused of abusing three sisters during her time as headmistress of the Adass Israel School between 2001 and 2008.

She allegedly fled Australia for Israel in 2008 when she learned the women were planning to file a complaint with police.

Australia lodged an extradition request for Ms Leifer in 2014, but the case has been repeatedly delayed.

In January, a panel of psychiatrists concluded the 54-year-old was faking her mental illness to avoid extradition, which led to the finding in Israel's District Court.

Ms Leifer maintains her innocence and the six-year legal battle surrounding her extradition has strained relations between Israel and Australia.

Mr Nissenkorn did not announce an extradition date.

But Manny Waks, an activist who has represented the victims, said he expected it to take place within 60 days.

"An amazing day for justice!" he tweeted.

Nick Kaufman, a lawyer for Ms Leifer, accused the Israeli Justice Minister of acting hastily.

"The Minister of Justice was meant to exercise his discretion in a considered manner after hearing submissions from the defence and not impetuously in a flagrant attempt to appeal to popular sentiment," he said in a statement.

Mr Kaufman said Ms Leifer would not appeal the decision, but would seek to serve her sentence in Israel if she is convicted in Australia.

"By then, we can only hope to deal with a new minister of justice who will adopt a different attitude to the basic principles of due process and look favourably on such a request," Mr Kaufman said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-17/malka-leifer-to-return-to-australia-as-israel-signs-extradition/12992346

>>12048340

Dassi Erlich Tweet

9 LONG YEARS TO WRITE THESE WORDS….

The extradition order has been signed, there are no more appeals.

Leifer is coming back to Australia.

NOW, IT'S NOT ABOUT IF - BUT WHEN.

https://twitter.com/dassi_erlich/status/1339310678197239808

Trump 'penned political suicide note' at every Covid press conference, former Australian PM says

If US president handled coronavirus pandemic ‘half-decently’ he would have won election, John Howard says

Katharine Murphy - 17 Dec 2020

The former Australian prime minister John Howard has said Donald Trump penned a lengthy “political suicide note” with his “terrible” handling of the coronavirus pandemic, without which the Republican would have prevailed against Joe Biden.

Howard, who led a conservative Coalition government for nearly 12 years, made the remarks on Wednesday night during a question and answer session at the Menzies Research Centre at the conclusion of a lecture delivered by the former National party leader John Anderson.

“If Donald Trump had handled the pandemic half-decently he would have won the election,” Howard said.

“He was headed towards a victory until the pandemic hit. It was his mishandling of that because, in the end, the public, when threatened, want their leaders to defend them against the threat.”

Howard said competent public health responses had increased the popularity of political leaders across Australia.

“That’s why Scott Morrison has very high approvals, Gladys Berejiklian has, our friend [Mark McGowan] in Western Australia has, and even our friend in Victoria [Daniel Andrews] is surviving – he’s more than surviving, politically, he is quite perpendicular at the present time,” the former Liberal leader said. “Now part of that is a perception that difficult as it all was, and so forth, he got the show through.”

Howard noted that Andrews, the Labor premier in Victoria, had been “open to a lot of political attack”.

“I know this is not a political occasion so I shouldn’t join in that attack,” he said.

“But I think there’s something to be said for the proposition – and this is an optimistic thing in a way – that the side of politics in America that embraced identity politics far more, namely the Democratic party side, sure Biden won, but given how appallingly Trump handled the pandemic how could he not win?

“Every time [Trump] had a news conference he was penning a political suicide note.”

Howard, Australia’s prime minister from 1996 to 2007, said Trump’s handling of the pandemic was “terrible” but still the Republicans did “far better than many people expected” in Congress.

Anderson’s lecture to the Liberal-aligned thinktank on Wednesday night railed against “wokeness” and identity politics.

Despite Biden’s resounding victory both in the electoral college and the popular vote, Howard said he detected a backlash in “middle America” which prevented the Democrats from gaining control of the legislature.

“I draw a little bit of encouragement from that, not in a partisan sense – I am more sympathetic to the Republicans than I am to the Democrats – but I think probably there was a middle America rejection to be found in that election outcome, notwithstanding the fact that [Biden] won and I think you are starting to see it reflected in Biden’s choice of people who will serve in his administration – they are not as leftwing and embracing of political correctness as you might expect.”

Anderson agreed with Howard’s thesis and declared the media in Australia and the US were preoccupied with characterising Trump as a “terrible person” rather than analysing his policies.

The former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister did not reflect on Trump’s habitual lying while in office or the scandals that ultimately defined his presidency.

Anderson noted that an “astonishing” number of Americans voted for Trump despite the mismanagement of Covid-19. Howard said in response to that observation: “He did have a number of flaws.”

And Anderson said the looming runoff election in the state of Georgia was “a very important runoff for the globe – I mean what happens in American politics at this point in history is probably as important to us as what happens here”.

“I’m so motivated by what I see as the real potential for us to lose our freedoms,” Anderson said. “I’m so despairing at our lack of, am I allowed to say, manning up.”

After deciding he should instead say “humanising up” – “there’s a touch of wokeism in everyone” – Anderson concluded by stating that when it came to the defence of freedom “it’s all hands to the wheel”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/17/trump-penned-political-suicide-note-at-every-covid-press-conference-former-australian-pm-says

China's treatment of Australia is a 'sign of things to come' for world, says John Bolton

London: Donald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton says the way China is treating Australia is a "sign of things to come" for the rest of the world.

Bolton was speaking to the Henry Jackson Society, a Westminster think tank which takes a hawkish line on China, on Thursday morning AEDT.

Describing China as "the existential international affairs question for all of us for the 21st century", Bolton was asked by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age how the West could respond to China's increasing economic and diplomatic aggression toward Australia.

"The way China has treated Australia has been a clear effort to intimidate them and, by brute force, get them to back away [from calling for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic,]" Bolton said.

China was trying to separate Australia from its strategic ally the United States, just as it had attempted to do with Canada, when it detained the two Michaels more than two years ago, following the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, at the United States request, Bolton said.

"It was obviously intended to split Canada from the United States, to split Australia from the United States."

"This is the way China behaves now. How are they going to behave when they become more powerful? This is a sign of things to come."

He said the West should be "emulating" China and producing a long-term strategy exploiting Beijing's dependence on energy.

He apologised for the Trump Administration's failure to make enough progress on this work and agreed that President-elect Joe Biden was better suited to the task.

"I think Trump was congenitally unable to do that sort of coalition building. I think Biden is probably better at it."

"We've got to act now, we can't really waste any more time. It's an opportunity for Biden but it's a big test for him too."

China has hit Australia with huge tariffs on barley and wine and banned coal imports, as well as stopped lobster imports from Australia ever since Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Embassy officials in Canberra produced a list of 14 grievances they gave to Nine journalists that they said were the reason the bilateral relationship has broken down. At the same time, Chinese officials have refused to accept phone calls from the Australian government.

The 14 point list included Australia's world-leading Huawei ban which Bolton said the West was grateful to Australia and New Zealand for, as they were the first to identify the threat the Chinese firm could pose to 5G networks.

The World Health Organisation has begun investigations into the source of the virus which emerged in Wuhan, China but Bolton said he doubted the truth would ever be known because of Beijing's cover-up.

Bolton backed the idea of demanding China pay for some of the trillions of dollars in costs incurred by governments in trying to fight the virus which originated in Wuhan, China, possibly by funding some of the cost of vaccinating the world's population.

Bolton, a loyal Republican who fell out with Trump after a year-and-a-half as his national security adviser, has a reputation not just for his hawkish foreign policy views but willingness to speak frankly about the shortcomings of the President he served.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/china-s-treatment-of-australia-is-a-sign-of-things-to-come-for-world-says-john-bolton-20201217-p56o62.html

>>11604576

>>11702658

Former federal court judge named as special investigator for Afghanistan war crime allegations

A former Commonwealth director of public prosecutions and federal court judge has been appointed as a special investigator to pursue allegations of war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has announced Mark Weinberg QC, who sits on the Victorian Supreme Court, will take up the role of special investigator to examine the findings of last month's Brereton inquiry into alleged Afghanistan war crimes.

Justice Paul Brereton found there was credible evidence Australian special forces committed up to 39 murders, with 19 current and former soldiers facing criminal prosecutions.

The current Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, Chris Moraitis, will also move to the Office of the Special Investigator to serve as its director-general, while former Queensland Police deputy commissioner Ross Barnett will take up the role of director of investigations.

Mr Dutton said the Office of the Special Investigator would start work on January 4.

"The task for these eminent appointees will be challenging and, as the Prime Minister has noted, difficult for Australia," Mr Dutton said.

"They bring a wealth of experience to the very important work this office will do.

"Their combined wealth of experience will serve the office well in undertaking the significant task ahead."

Mr Moraitis has been secretary of the Attorney-General's department since 2014. He was previously a deputy secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

"Mr Moraitis is a highly regarded public servant with significant experience in complex policy and legal matters," Mr Dutton said.

"He will provide strategic oversight and leadership to the operations of the Office of the Special Investigator."

He said Mr Barnett was "one of the most distinguished officers in the Queensland Police".

"He led the State Crime Command of that service and he has considerable criminal investigative and major case experience," Mr Dutton said.

Last year Justice Weinberg came to national prominence when he offered a dissenting view in the Victorian Court of Appeal's decision to uphold George Pell's historical child abuse convictions.

"Having had regard to the whole of the evidence led at trial, and having deliberated long and hard over this matter, I find myself in the position of having a genuine doubt as to [Pell's] guilt," he wrote.

"My doubt is a doubt which the jury ought also to have had."

The High Court later quashed all convictions against Cardinal Pell.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-16/afghanistan-war-crime-allegation-investigators-appointed/12991386

Notables

are not endorsements

#11 - Part 1

2020 US Presidential Election - Australian Perspectives - Part 1

>>11415138 Donald Trump’s path to victory narrow, not impossible - Troy Bramston - theaustralian.com.au

>>11421409 Q Post #4948 - https://twitter.com/TimMurtaugh/status/1323313186259480577

>>11421409 Tim Murtaugh Tweet: Dems plan to call @realDonaldTrump's Election Day surge a "Red Mirage" to delegitimize his wave of support

>>11421593 How Trump could push button on 'red mirage' strategy and send US election to Supreme Court - Mark Saunokonoko - 9news.com.au

>>11422013 If there's a disputed US election result, Australia must take action: Rudd, Turnbull

>>11444864 Video: ABC News (Australia) live: 2020 US Election Coverage

>>11444907 Video: 7NEWS Australia - America Decides 2020: US Election LIVE results

>>11447433 President Donald Trump Tweet: We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!

>>11447533 Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who endorsed QAnon, wins uncontested seat of Georgia in US election - "Wires" - abc.net.au

>>11448871 Video: Live: Trump speaks from the White House on election night - Fox Business

>>11450331 Video: Donald Trump claims 'major fraud' on American public, flags Supreme Court challenge - ABC News Australia

>>11459503 Australian politicians react as votes continue to be counted - Malcolm Turnbull, Penny Wong, Chris Bowen, Mehreen Faruqi, Janet Rice

>>11473349 Scott Morrison says Australia will ‘respect the decisions’ of the American people as other government members call for all votes to be counted

>>11474232 US electoral counting system is a ‘complete dog’s breakfast’: Joe Hockey - Sky News Australia

>>11474294 US election 2020: Joe Hockey’s voter fraud comments are dangerous - Caroline Overington - theaustralian.com.au

>>11494320 Biden will be more nuanced on China: Former foreign ministers Bob Carr and Julie Bishop

>>11494378 Australian politicians watching US count - Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton, Richard Marles, Simon Birmingham

>>11494538 Video: Greens Leader Adam Bandt calls on Morrison to condemn “lying” and “deflated” President Trump - Sky News Australia

>>11504726 US election: Idiot genius Donald Trump’s forces will continue their wrecking - Bob Carr - theaustralian.com.a

>>11508936 US election 2020: Voter suppression rife in deeply flawed system - Joe Hockey - theaustralian.com.au

>>11512005 Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he won't be calling Trump over poll

>>11529203 Q Post 3387 - You were told what was going to happen. You were told what battles we face. Strategic. Pre_planned. Patriots in control.

>>11529230 Video: This Video Will Get Donald Trump Elected - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2qIXXafxCQ

>>11529687 Australian leaders past and present congratulate Joe Biden on historic US election win - Malcolm Turnbull, Anthony Albanese, Tanya Plibersek

>>11531906 US election 2020: Trump supporters need to accept defeat - Troy Bramson - theaustralian.com.au - ("Biden’s victory is one for the ages." - NOVEMBER 6, 2020)

>>11532579 Video: Scott Morrison congratulates President-elect Joe Biden - 9 News Australia

>>11532635 Video: Albanese reacts to Joe Biden US election win - 9 News Australia

>>11534583 Scott Morrison says he has ‘great confidence’ in US democracy as Trump refuses to concede

>>11534975 Video: Scott Morrison thanks Donald Trump, congratulates Joe Biden on US election victory

>>11535052 Video: Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull - "If Trump wants to go to the courts in the United States, well that's a matter for him."

>>11536055 'G, what a memory: The day Joe Biden became an AFL footy fan

>>11536070 (2011) When Prime Minister Julia Gillard instructed Barack Obama on the finer points of AFL football

>>11537585 Anthony Albanese calls on Scott Morrison to ‘dissociate’ himself from colleagues spreading Trump fraud claims

>>11550773 Aussie Artist Scottie Marsh Unveils Savage Donald Trump Graffiti In Sydney

>>11551365, >>11551396 How the world has reacted to Donald Trump’s tantrums over US election result - newspaper front pages

>>11551701 Opinion: President Biden has no option but to govern from the centre - Alexander Downer - afr.com

>>11552852 Americans need a hug to get through the months ahead - Joe Hockey - theaustralian.com.au

>>11552885 Video: President-elect Biden 'had a convincing victory' - Bondi Partners CEO Alex Tureman - Sky News Australia

>>11553435 Video: Albanese probed over US election comment, "democratic processes must be respected" - Sky News Australia

>>11553702 Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet and video: Statement on the enduring Australia-US Alliance

#11 - Part 2

2020 US Presidential Election - Australian Perspectives - Part 2

>>11553979 Bob Carr Tweet: Biden’s team tell me Hockey’s outrageous comments about fake votes have appeared in excited Trumpian conspiracy online exchanges

>>11553979 Bob Carr Tweet: Joe’s very persona non grata with the Biden team. He can always offer lobbying services for Steve Bannon enterprises

>>11559490 Video: ‘Extraordinary’ that poll workers were sent home amid 'dubious' election result - Commentator Mark Steyn - Sky News Australia

>>11570888 Alexander Downer Tweet: @realDonaldTrump should concede gracefully. He’s lost.

>>11571040 Video: Alexander Downer: Joe Biden will be a 'ceremonial president' - Sky News Australia

>>11571777 Video: John Podesta: Trump 'Is Interfering With The Orderly Transition Of Power' | Andrea Mitchell | MSNBC

>>11572041 Bob Carr Tweet: More Biden advisors and Washington insiders than I imagined have picked up the 7 (!) op-eds…our former ambassador authored

>>11572041 Bob Carr Tweet: They are staggered by his 2GB comment that there had “for sure” been voter fraud because of the high Democrat vote in Washington DC

>>11572041 Bob Carr Tweet: I’m told established lobbyists are delightedly circulating our former ambassador’s remarks to transition team and likely appointees

>>11587380 "Arrr! Shipmates wana good view from the crow's nest? BigMikeAnon Gives Thee The Current." Video: Secretary Pompeo's Remarks to the Media - 14 Oct 2020

>>11587406 Two Lanterns Burning Bright; Foreign & Domestic. What Be 'Shared Values?'. We Are On A Ship.WATCH YE THE WATERS…

>>11587416 Prime Minister Scott Morrison Tweet: Congratulations to @joebiden and @kamalaharris - Australia wishes you every success in office. The Australia-US Alliance is deep and enduring, and built on shared values. I look forward to working with you closely as we face the world’s many challenges together.

>>11587503 Video: Scott Morrison congratulates Joe Biden on his election win, as former PM Malcolm Turnbull expresses 'relief'

>>11587503 Scott Morrison: "The United States is one of the world's greatest democracies, alongside Australia and many others, and democracy has proven, not just in the times of still waters but when the waters can get choppy and of course we have seen that in recent times in the United States, but democracy is the process they have always stood by to resolve such differences."

>>11587541 'Breathtaking': Marise Payne praises US Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris - "This is the time of challenge for which our alliance is suited, because it is based on the enduring shared values which transcend parties or individuals in the White House or the Lodge."

>>11587570 Video: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo - 'There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump term' - "“We’re ready, the world is watching what’s taking place" - Sky News Australia

>>11605082 Video: Donald Trump fans furious as Scott Morrison congratulates Joe Biden on election win

>>11605082 Prime Minister Scott Morrison Facebook Post: There are no greater friends and no greater allies than Australia and the US

#11 - Part 3

2020 US Presidential Election - Australian Perspectives - Part 3

>>11623384 Australia will share its COVID plan with incoming Biden administration

>>11649032, >>11650436 Sydney’s skies plastered with pro-Trump skywriting slogan - TRUMP 2020

>>11650745 Video: 'Trump 2020' emblazoned across Sydney skyline as thousands rally in the US

>>11650745 (2017) Donald Trump inauguration: Supporters pay for Trump skywriting over Sydney

>>11651093 Video: Trump thrills protesting supporters with motorcade drive-by outside White House amid ongoing legal challenges - 9news.com.au

>>11666129 President Trump Tweet: those responsible for the safeguarding of our Constitution cannot allow the Fake results of the 2020 Mail-In Election to stand. The World is watching!

>>11666148 James Woods Tweet: My friend had two Australian shepherds, which she would bring to these big Sunday afternoon parties I had years ago

>>11668503 Scott Morrison wears Australian Flag face mask upside down - comms? The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

>>11690073 Tough China stance here to stay under Biden: Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, Arthur Sinodinos

>>11690130 Video: What Biden’s presidency will mean for Australia: Former Australian Ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey

>>11694954 Australia to await final decision from Trump on Afghan troop withdrawal

>>11724118 Scott Morrison logs on with Donald Trump one last time at G20 and APEC virtual summits - Richard Ferguson - theaustralian.com.au - November 20, 2020

>>11776341 Video: Biden administration won't be a 'very exciting one' - Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer

>>11868137, >>11868149 Don’t listen to Donald Trump’s delusions, they aren’t yours to bear - JACK THE INSIDER (Peter Hoysted) - theaustralian.com.au

>>11898720 Video: Obama branded General Michael Flynn ‘public enemy number one’ - Sky News Australia

>>11991248 Rita Panahi Tweet: Meanwhile, in the Australian senate… (Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick - 'This election is not over in the States')

>>12061715 Trump 'penned political suicide note' at every Covid press conference, former Australian PM John Howard says

#11 - Part 4

Australian Politics and Society - Part 1

>>11439500 CIA agents claim they were targeted by a 'microwave weapon' in Australia

>>11418486 Every single Queenslander should be stoked with the results of the state election, the winner was democracy - Ann Wason Moore - goldcoastbulletin.com.au

>>11423039 South Australian police are targeting known firebugs in a bid to prevent bushfires as the danger season begins

>>11423657 US Embassy Canberra Tweet: “The alliance with Australia…will continue regardless of the outcome of the election.” - Ambassador Culvahouse #USwithAUS

>>11471969 MESSAGE OF ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÒ TO AMERICAN CATHOLICS AND TO ALL AMERICANS OF GOOD WILL

>>11474040 Carl Lentz, Hillsong pastor who baptised Justin Bieber sacked due to a series of ‘moral failures’ - Hillsong founder Brian Houston

>>11536955, >>11536988 Video: The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: spying for Australia

>>11550993 New critical infrastructure laws oblige companies and institutions to strengthen cyber defences amid increasing threats from state-based actors

>>11552325 Dead bears, knives in pens: Inside an Australian Border Force mailroom

>>11571119 Video: Q+A: Malcolm Turnbull clashes with News Corp's Paul Kelly over Murdoch media climate coverage

>>11572111 U.S. Pacific Fleet Tweet: USS John S. McCain, Japan's JS Onami and Australia's HMAS Ballarat…with India's INS Shakti - exercise #Malabar

>>11572274 Australian War Memorial Tweet: At 11am on the 11th of November, we ask you to observe a minute’s silence

>>11572274 Remembrance Day 2020 - One Minute's Silence - By observing one minute's silence we pay tribute to the men and women who have served and are still serving in our defence forces and remember those who have died or suffered in conflicts, wars and peacekeeping operations.

>>11577187 Remembrance Day poems - For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon (1914), In Flanders Fields by John McCrae (1914) and We Shall Keep the Faith by Moina Michael (1918)

>>11622774 Carl Lentz's Former Hillsong Church Branch Is Under Investigation

>>11622774 Brian Houston Tweet: We are launching an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/ East Coast. We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning. The best is yet to come.

>>11646899 Scott Morrison cancels trip to Papua New Guinea amid political crisis

>>11651831 Senate to investigate media bias and ownership after Kevin Rudd petition

>>11676926 The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: 007 - a blessing and curse

>>11676948 Video: The ASIS Interviews - No 4. Australia’s James Bond: finding jewels for the country

>>11677548 Video: ASIO launches first public awareness campaign to warn Australians of foreign spies on social media

>>11677585 Foreign spies are targeting Australians online—be aware, be discreet and be responsible

>>11677585 ASIO Tweet: Director-General of Security, @MikePBurgess, introduces #ASIO’s new campaign, Think Before You Link

>>11677585 Video: THINK BEFORE YOU LINK - ASIO Director-General's introduction - Not everyone you meet online is who they say they are

>>11678238 Scott Morrison and Murdoch's News Corp empire 'operating like a team', former PM Malcolm Turnbull says

>>11688306 U.S. Space Force: Air Force Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt takes charge of unit during first change of command, references “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance

>>11690170 Google and Facebook rejected 1 in 5 data requests from Australian law enforcement bodies in 2019

>>11690463 The fake and the furious: Kevin Rudd’s Bangladeshi ‘bots’ in media royal commission petition

>>11690555 Kevin Rudd Tweet: The Murdoch smear of our petition calling for a Royal Commission continues

>>11703336 Kevin Rudd may have to register as ‘an agent of foreign influence’ due to vast overseas connections

>>11703554 'We do not deny climate change': Rupert Murdoch addresses son's exit from board

>>11747175 Facebook and Google must pay for news and should not be able to evade new laws, Australian media argues

>>11761410 Video: Inaugural Grotius Prize presented to Scott Morrison in recognition of his work in support of the international rules based order

>>11761629 Australia leads Five Eyes with new cyber security laws

>>11762029 Malcolm Turnbull says Scott Morrison will give in to international climate pressure - November 24, 2020

#11 - Part 5

Australian Politics and Society - Part 2

>>11781942 Iran releases Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert in prisoner swap deal, state TV says

>>11782224 Tributes for Donald Trump’s steady envoy, US Ambassador to Australia Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr

>>11792840 US Embassy Canberra Tweet: A #Thanksgiving message from Ambassador Culvahouse: I am confident our best decades are yet to come

>>11793001 United States Studies Centre Tweet: "Its been a biblical year for Australians and Americans alike. Biblical as in the Old Testament. - Ambassador Culvahouse

>>11796334 Video: Thanksgiving with Ambassadors Culvahouse and Sinodinos - United States Studies Centre

>>11796622 Video: Inside the secret mission to bring jailed Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert home from Iran

>>11798838 Video: Australian Corruption - THE ARC WITH RICCARDO BOSI E13 - The Empire Strikes Back

>>11823054 Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher move to Sydney permanently, join growing number of celebs now calling Australia home

>>11837239 Konnech Australia Election Management System - delays and scrutiny issues in Queensland local government elections

>>11851639 Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Julian Assange are cousins, connections reveal

>>11852738 Video: Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton - Australia in the 'midst of the most significant strategic realignment since WW2' - Sky News Australia

>>11852841 'My freedom truly is your victory': Kylie Moore-Gilbert's first words since Iran freedom

>>11868755 Video: Iran targets Kylie Moore-Gilbert in sick propaganda video, claims she and her secret Israeli husband were spies

>>11868770 Iran targets freed academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert and her husband Ruslan Hodorov - an Israeli of Russian origin - claiming both are spies

>>11868882 Iranian-American Trial Lawyers Association Tweet: Who is #KylieMooreGilbert? Beyond Propaganda & Disinformation Part I

>>11868891 Iranian-American Trial Lawyers Association Tweet: Who is #KylieMooreGilbert? Beyond Propaganda & Disinformation Part II

>>11868897 Iranian-American Trial Lawyers Association Tweet: Who is #KylieMooreGilbert? Beyond Propaganda & Disinformation Part III

>>11872321 Good Samaritan anonymously pays $16k worth of customer lay-bys at Gold Coast toy store

>>11884275 Witness K lawyer Bernard Collaery wins international free speech prize for his efforts exposing Australia’s spy operation in Timor-Leste

>>11898644 Corrupt former SA magistrate Bob Harrap imprisoned for at least a year, but his accomplices won’t serve jail time

>>11899213 Sweeping review of Australia's spy laws calls for overhaul of convoluted and outdated laws governing digital surveillance

>>11911127 U.S. Cyber Command Tweet: First-ever #cyber agreement between U.S. & Australia means we can both evolve our virtual cyber training range

>>11911127 U.S. Cyber Command Tweet: Australia and the U.S. have a strong history of working together to develop our cyber capabilities

>>11911127 U.S. Cyber Command Tweet: This project arrangement is a milestone for U.S.-Australian cooperation

>>11911147 US and Australia sign first-ever cyber agreement to develop virtual training range - the Persistent Cyber Training Environment

>>11931540 Google, Facebook and Twitter panned for proposing “watered down” version of European Union Code of Practice on Disinformation for Australia

>>11959941 Parliamentary inquiry to examine extremism in Australia amid increasing far-right threat

>>11960610 Google and Facebook forced into world-first Australian media deal - Tech giants forced to pay for news content and share data collection methods

>>11968549 NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team arrests 18-year-old Albury man - charged with Advocating Terrorism, Urging Violence