>>13788675

Daniel Andrews releases video message ahead of return as Victorian Premier following back injury

'abc.net.au - 27 June 2021

The wife of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says she thought her husband might die on the day he broke several ribs and fractured his vertebra.

Catherine Andrews was speaking in a video message posted to social media the day before the Premier's return to work.

"It was awful because you were going blue," Ms Andrews said.

"I was thinking you are going to die here in Sorrento in this holiday house."

Flanked by his wife in the video, Mr Andrews said it was one of the hardest periods they had gone through.

Mr Andrews suffered at least five broken ribs and an acute compression fracture of the T7 vertebra when he slipped on the steps of a holiday house on March 9. He took the time since off work to heal, leaving James Merlino as Victoria's acting Premier.

But unsubstantiated rumours about his fall have been circulating for some time.

"We'd been down the beach, having a family weekend," Mr Andrews said.

"It was a bit of a chance to have some time together and to make up for the time that summer had been really busy and a holiday that had been planned hadn't happened.

"I am making my way to the car and head off to work and it had been raining … as I put my foot on the first step, I knew I was in trouble."

Mr Andrews said he didn't connect with the step, but slid right off.

"I became airborne almost … and all I could hear was this almighty crunch … when I heard the crunch, I thought, 'This is serious. We are in trouble here.'"

Mr Andrews thanked Victoria Ambulance, Victoria Police, the medical staff and the Victorian community for their support.

"We have seen some really vile stories being put around what happened," he said.

"Politics isn't always like that."

Merlino says Premier's return 'a great thing'

Acting Premier James Merlino said he was delighted Mr Andrews was "back on his feet" and would return to his role.

"We all know what a long and painful recovery it is for anyone who has suffered a serious back injury, and Dan needed that time to fully recover," he said.

Mr Merlino said he had been in touch with the Premier over the past few weeks to help prepare him for his return to the role.

"I've been in regular contact with Dan on the big issues, but in terms of the day-to-day running of the government, the budget, PAEC [Public Accounts and Estimates Committee] and responding to the pandemic, we wanted him focused on his recovery," he said.

"But obviously in recent days and weeks [there have been] more conversations and he'll hit the ground running tomorrow, and that's a great thing."

Mr Merlino said he was looking forward to being able to spend some days with his wife and children during the school holiday period.

The Deputy Premier's stint in the top job is officially due to come to an end at 10:00pm Sunday night.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-27/victoria-premier-daniel-andrews-return-back-injury/100247608

https://twitter.com/CathLAndrews/status/1408996530221060099

>>13788675

>>13995450

Dan Andrews Tweet

Before I come back to work tomorrow, I thought I would share what happened. In my own words.

https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1409017592665104385

Julian Assange plans to marry partner Stella Moris in prison

AAP / SBS - 26 June 2021

Julian Assange and his partner Stella Moris are planning to get married in prison in the UK, but will have to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to allow the nuptials.

Mr Assange, an Australian-born journalist, has spent more than two years in London's high-security Belmarsh prison.

His relationship with Ms Moris began during the period Mr Assange spent in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he claimed political asylum.

The couple now have two sons, aged four and two-and-a-half.

"We're looking into getting married in the prison because we've been engaged since 2016," Ms Moris told dpa ahead of the Wikileaks founder's 50th birthday on July 3.

He said the circumstances had not allowed them to go ahead with their plans yet.

"And if we get married in the prison, then I don't think that will be the only celebration," she said.

"The most likely thing is that we'll get married in the prison and then we'll have another kind of wedding celebration with friends and family once once he's free."

She said no date had been set yet but the two were working through the necessary bureaucracy and hoped to marry "soon."

"It's quite complicated," she said, noting that the pandemic had made it even more so.

"We have spoken to the Belmarsh chaplain services about it and they said they haven't seen a wedding in Belmarsh for as long as they've been there, which is 12 years. So it's not a straightforward thing to do."

She said the couple needed certificates from their respective countries to prove they had not been previously married, for example.

"So it's quite a long bureaucratic process, but we have started it."

Ms Moris said the plans also depended on the prison's governor allowing them to marry in prison, and noted that there could be concerns as Mr Assange is Australian and his visa had expired.

It was also unclear whether guests could attend during the pandemic, she said.

Technically, Belmarsh could allow Mr Assange out for a day but that planning this would be even more complicated, given the backlog after large numbers of people delayed their marriages during Britain's lockdown.

"We're just seeing how it goes."

Mr Assange has been accused of conspiring with former US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak a trove of classified material in 2010.

The secret documents relating to the military engagement of Allied forces in Afghanistan were released on Wikileaks while Mr Assange also collaborated with journalists at prominent news outlets.

His supporters and press freedom groups view him as an investigative reporter who has brought war crimes to light.

A total of 18 charges have been lodged by Washington, which argues he put the lives of US informants at risk. If found guilty, Mr Assange could be jailed in the US for 175 years.

A British judge recently denied an extradition request from the US for Mr Assange to face charges of espionage there, due to concerns about his health.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/julian-assange-plans-to-marry-partner-stella-moris-in-prison

Ghislaine Maxwell loses bid to ban depositions from trial

LARRY NEUMEISTER - June 26, 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — Two 2016 depositions of Ghislaine Maxwell in a civil case in which she was repeatedly questioned about financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual activities can be used at her criminal trial this year over the objections of her lawyers, a judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan in Manhattan rejected the request that she block prosecutors from using the interviews of Maxwell at her November sex trafficking trial.

Lawyers for the British socialite charged with procuring teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse had argued Maxwell only participated in the depositions because she was promised they would be kept secret.

The judge sealed her opinion explaining her reasoning until lawyers have time to recommend redactions.

Maxwell, 59, has been jailed since her arrest last July. The former girlfriend of Epstein has pleaded not guilty to charges that she recruited four teenage girls between 1994 and 2004 for Epstein.

Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, killed himself in his cell at a federal Manhattan lockup in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.

Judge Nathan has thrice rejected bail requests and a federal appeals court has twice agreed that Maxwell should remain incarcerated despite her willingness to pledge a $28.5 million bail package that would include 24-hour armed guards and an offer to reject her British and French citizenships. She is a U.S. citizen too.

Her lawyers had hoped to force the dismissal of two perjury counts stemming from her answers to questions during depositions in April and July of 2016.

In one count, she was charged with lying when she said “I don’t know what you’re talking about” when she was asked during the April 2016 deposition whether Epstein had a “scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages.”

In another count, she was charged with perjury for saying she did not recall whether she was aware of the presence of sex toys or devices in sexual activities at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, home, and for saying she wasn’t aware whether Epstein was having sexual activities with anyone other than herself.

The perjury charges stemmed from Maxwell’s comments during depositions resulting from a since-settled lawsuit brought against her by one of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre.

Redacted versions of the transcripts of the depositions were released publicly earlier this year by a judge in response to requests by the Miami Herald.

In arguing that the depositions be suppressed and unavailable for use at the criminal trial, Maxwell’s lawyers said their client had decided to answer questions during the depositions rather than invoke her privilege against compulsory self-incrimination because a court-approved agreement ensured evidence would stay confidential.

The lawyers noted that a judge cited the confidentiality promise in granting a request that Maxwell be forced to answer “highly intrusive questions” related to her own sexual activity and her knowledge of the sexual activity of others at the depositions.

Maxwell’s attorneys did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.

https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-trials-entertainment-2326e1e32e1b2838469a6dc394d6faf1

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

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.303.0.pdf

China’s terrifying virus warning

Warnings of the ‘threat to mankind’ came in Beijing’s declaration to a UN meeting under the Biological Weapons Convention.

SHARRI MARKSON and JACK HAZLEWOOD - June 27, 2021

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The Chinese government admitted research to create man-made viruses posed “a huge latent threat to mankind” – and said “accidental mistakes in biotech laboratories can place mankind in great danger” – in terrifying warnings contained in Beijing’s own declaration to a UN meeting under the Biological Weapons Convention.

Chinese authorities also spoke of the “increased threat of biological weapons” and discussed using viruses as “genetic weapons” saying systems biology “can also create the potential for biological weapons based on genetic differences between races”, making the comments in treaty documents unearthed for What Really Happened in Wuhan, a forthcoming book about the origins of Covid-19.

The People’s Republic of China’s submission to the Seventh Review Conference of the State Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Biological and Toxin Weapons – dated November 23, 2011 – includes the disclosure that biotechnology research presented challenges complying with the Biological Weapons Convention.

China’s submission to the conference, held in Geneva in December 2011, also raises the issue of how research could “significantly increase the destructiveness of biological weapons” by “making biological attacks more stealthy”.

The 2011 document is the last detailed submission from China relating to the convention – Beijing lodged a scaled-back paper in 2016 at the next, and last, review.

There is no evidence that Covid-19 was a biological weapon, nor that China has carried out a biological attack.

The Australian is reporting for the first time that the Chinese government included a discussion about these threats in its official submission to the UN meeting under the Biological Weapons Convention as relevant issues that could affect compliance with the Convention.

The discovery of the details of China’s declaration to the meeting comes as Joe Biden’s intelligence agencies probe whether Covid-19 has a natural origin or if it may have originated in a laboratory with links to the Chinese military.

Under the terms of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, a major international treaty which prohibits signatories from pursuing biological weapons, review conferences are held every five years to ensure the convention is upheld and examine new scientific developments of concern.

China, along with almost every other nation, has acceded to the convention where governments submit declarations on research and relevant developments in science and technology as well as assessments of the state of compliance with the convention.

China’s submission discloses the extreme risks of laboratories “synthesising man-made pathogens in the laboratory”.

“Accidental mistakes in biotech laboratories can place mankind in great danger,” it states.

“Synthetic biology in some civilian biotechnology research and applications may unintentionally give rise to new, highly hazardous man-made pathogens with unforeseeable consequences.”

Danger of lab accidents

This admission in their own document contradicts claims from scientists aligned with the Wuhan Institute of Virology that an accidental laboratory leak is a conspiracy theory that did not warrant investigation.

China’s submission suggests biosafety management controls and regulations should “tighten” especially around the virulent pathogens in laboratories.

“State parties should, in keeping with the purposes and principles of the Convention, apportion responsibility and assign tasks for biosafety regulation, constantly tighten biosafety management – especially of virulent pathogens – in their laboratories … and eliminate biosafety risks,” it states.

(continued)

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Man-made viruses

Chin states at the start of its declaration that since the sixth conference, held five years earlier in 2006, “there have been almost daily developments in biotechnology – rapid advances in synthetic biology, genomics, systems biology, drug targeting technology and microbial forensics, for instance – throwing up fresh challenges and opportunities for compliance with the Convention”.

The first section in China’s submission is on “synthetic biology enabling the creation of man-made pathogens”.

Man-made pathogens can be created through gain-of-function research which results in new viruses that are more infectious to humans than existed previously.

Richard Ebright, the board of governors professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University, said only two laboratories had reported conducting gain-of-function research on SARS-related coronaviruses prior to the pandemic: the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the University of North Carolina in the US.

The Australian has previously reported China’s coronavirus research was partially funded by the US National Institutes of Health through a sub-grant.

China’s submission to the UN conference says “the many technological strands of synthetic biology constitute a new science which is making rapid advances, from the chemical synthesis of the genome to the ability to create man-made living organisms” and notes American research in these fields. It says while this research can help with the development of new drugs, “they also have the potential to be used for evil ends”.

“Theoretically speaking, synthetic biotechnology poses a huge latent threat to mankind, as it could be used in the future to create pathogens of even greater toxicity and infectiousness than those currently known, and which are resistant to traditional vaccines and drugs as well as hard to isolate and identify with present day technology,” it reads. Medication to treat such pathogens that have been manipulated and synthesised would be rendered useless, the submission states.

“The sequencing of pathogen DNA has opened the way to the development of new diagnostic methods, drugs and vaccines. But the same data can also be used to synthesise new pathogens and modify pathogen antigenicity, infection specificity, toxicity, and resistance to drugs, causing traditional means of dealing with infectious disease to fail and rendering the prevention and control of such disease even harder.”

Genetic viruses

China’s declaration includes a discussion about a truly terrifying area of research involving weaponising genetic-specific viruses. It states that the Human Genome Project has helped “to reveal population-specific genetic variations across the genome”.

It says that there are variations in genes for susceptibility to infectious diseases among different populations.

It says this knowledge can “lay the theoretical foundations for an across-the-board improvement in levels of human health, but it can also create the potential for biological weapons based on genetic differences between races.

“Once hostile elements grasp that different ethnic groups harbour intrinsically different genetic susceptibilities to particular pathogens, they can put that knowledge into practice and create genetic weapons targeted at a racial group with a particular susceptibility.”

Under a section in the submission titled “Increased threat of biological weapons”, Beijing states that the rapid development of biological sciences “may significantly increase the destructiveness of biological weapons”.

“One way it may do so is by increasing the virulence of pathogenic micro-organisms … Another way is by rendering traditional medicines and vaccines ineffective,” it states.

“A third way is by making the target population more susceptible to pathogenic microbes. RNA interference can make inactive specific genes in the body, inhibit expression of important bodily proteins, disrupt physiological function and heighten the effects of a bioweapon attack.

“And a fourth way is by making biological attacks more stealthy. Foreign genes or viruses can be introduced into the target population asymptomatically by means of gene-therapy vectors, enabling a biological weapon attack to be mounted covertly.”

China’s declaration begins by noting that modern biological sciences play an “important role in helping mankind combat disease and improve health”.

“At the same time, the use of new kinds of biotechnology for hostile purposes, posing a latent threat to human society, is also growing,” it states.

It goes on to say: “The ‘dual use’ nature of biotechnology enables it, on the one hand, to pose many challenges to full and strict compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention.”

(continued)

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‘Chills up my spine’

The existence of China’s submission became known to Miles Yu when he was working for former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo as his top China adviser.

Yu came across a paper that featured the research fields China had spoken about in its submission. He raised it with Mr Pompeo and also alerted the State Department’s Arms, Control, Verification and Compliance bureau in December, 2020.

Neither Mr Yu nor the State Department were able to locate China’s full, original submission prior to the change of administration. When Mr Biden took office, the Pompeo-authorised State Department investigation into the origins of Covid-19 was shut down.

An investigation for What Really Happened in Wuhan led to the discovery of China’s original and full submission.

“It sent chills up my spine when I saw the PLA submissions and the type of research China’s biological weapons experts had been working on, as China proudly announced to a world biological weapons convention, right there in black and white,” Yu said the document in an interview for the book. “It bore macabre significance because anything China’s bio-labs do might well be connected to the PLA’s biological weapons of mass destruction of the most lethal and sophisticated kind.”

Bio-research road map

The US State Department’s former lead investigator into the origins of Covid-19, David Asher, who has previously investigated biological, chemical and nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea, said the submission “essentially laid out a road map of developments in biotechnology pertinent to the biological weapons convention that the Chinese indicated as particularly salient”.

“It wasn’t clear from their declaration whether this was for potential offensive use of synthetic biology and other techniques … but it certainly appears to lay out what they felt were going to be the drivers of a more potent offence in the future decade related to biotechnology,” he said.

“This is probably the most disturbing thing to note that there could be a type of population-targeting or ethnic targeting using biology, according to the Chinese,” he said. “That doesn’t mean they did it in the case of Covid-19 or anything else but it definitely implied that they were fully aware that this is feasible and possible.”

Asked how to interpret the document given China doesn’t specifically admit this is research it is engaged in, Mr Asher said: “They lay out the cookbook and they say ‘What’s the impact of the cookbook?’”

“They say (it’s the) increased threat of biological weapons using advanced technology. They talk about increased difficulty complying with the convention,” he said.

There is evidence China has been engaged in at least some of the fields of research it raised in its submission.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/covid19-chinas-chilling-warning-on-risks-of-manmade-viruses/news-story/47183702ef0d802c17101e9768715757

>>13788675

Fall rumours 'vile': Daniel Andrews

Benita Kolovos and Callum Godde - JUNE 28 2021

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has attacked his political opponents for spreading "vile" rumours about the nature of his fall on his first day back in the top job.

Mr Andrews held his return press conference at the site of one of his government's signature infrastructure projects, the Metro Tunnel.

Sporting a hard hat and hi-vis vest, he began by asking reporters if they were "right to go" - a nod to the 120 consecutive daily press conferences he held during the state's second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Andrews thanked Deputy Premier James Merlino for leading the state during his leave, his family, medical staff and colleagues, as well as the many Victorians who sent well wishes as he recovered.

"I am fit, I am back and make no mistake, we're here to get this done," he told reporters on Monday.

Mr Andrews fractured his spine and broke several ribs when he slipped and fell while getting ready for work in the Mornington Peninsula on March 9.

In his absence, various unfounded rumours circulated online and were fuelled by Shadow Treasurer Louise Staley when she called on Mr Andrews to answer 12 questions about his injury.

Asked why he didn't address the rumours surrounding his fall earlier, Mr Andrews replied: "Never get into an argument with a fool".

"People who make up their own facts, you're best not really to get into an argument with them. It's very difficult to win those arguments," he said.

Mr Andrews refused to mention Ms Staley by name but slammed the opposition for turning the rumours "into a political weapon".

"It is very, very hurtful when kids are being taunted at school. It is very hurtful when you see some of this stuff printed," he said.

"For people to try and turn that into a political weapon, well, I reckon they'll be judged harshly for that and I reckon they should be. But that's about the extent of the time I spend wasted thinking about people like that."

Mr Andrews said he was on a family weekend at a Sorrento holiday rental, which was rented through a private agency and paid for at his own expense.

He said he did not socialise with anyone outside of his family and did not have a late night before the accident.

Mr Andrews and wife Catherine on Sunday released a video on social media explaining how he slipped and fell.

"As I put my foot on to the first step. I knew I was in trouble. I didn't really connect with the step it just slid straight off, I became airborne almost," Mr Andrews said in the four-minute video.

"Then all I can hear is just this almighty crunch.

"When I heard the crunch, I knew. I thought this is serious, we're in trouble here."

Mr Andrews said he couldn't call out to his wife because he couldn't breathe. She found him moments later.

"It was awful because you were going blue, and we were looking at each other and I was thinking, you are going to die," Ms Andrews said in the video.

"You're looking at me and you felt the same."

X-rays revealed Mr Andrews sustained an acute compression fracture of the T7 vertebra and broke several ribs, which caused the lower section of his lungs to collapse.

Mr Andrews said he avoided permanent, life-changing spinal cord damage by "1mm".

His spine has now healed but it will take another three months for his ribs to do so.

The premier said he is no longer on strong painkillers and has been taking daily walks and doing physiotherapy and personal training as part of his recovery.

Opposition spokesman David Davis said the opposition's questions on Mr Andrews' fall had been "put to bed" following his press conference.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7315710/fall-rumours-vile-daniel-andrews/

Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment

A major witness in the United States’ Department of Justice case against Julian Assange has admitted to fabricating key accusations in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder.

Bjartmar Oddur Þeyr Alexandersson and Gunnar Hrafn Jónsson - 26. júní 2021

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A major witness in the United States’ Department of Justice case against Julian Assange has admitted to fabricating key accusations in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder. The witness, who has a documented history with sociopathy and has received several convictions for sexual abuse of minors and wide-ranging financial fraud, made the admission in a newly published interview in Stundin where he also confessed to having continued his crime spree whilst working with the Department of Justice and FBI and receiving a promise of immunity from prosecution.

The man in question, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, was recruited by US authorities to build a case against Assange after misleading them to believe he was previously a close associate of his. In fact he had volunteered on a limited basis to raise money for Wikileaks in 2010 but was found to have used that opportunity to embezzle more than $50,000 from the organization. Julian Assange was visiting Thordarson’s home country of Iceland around this time due to his work with Icelandic media and members of parliament in preparing the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a press freedom project that produced a parliamentary resolution supporting whistleblowers and investigative journalism.

The United States is currently seeking Assange’s extradition from the United Kingdom in order to try him for espionage relating to the release of leaked classified documents. If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison. The indictment has sparked fears for press freedoms in the United States and beyond and prompted strong statements in support of Assange from Amnesty International, Reporters without borders, the editorial staff of the Washington Post and many others.

US officials presented an updated version of an indictment against him to a Magistrate court in London last summer. The veracity of the information contained therein is now directly contradicted by the main witness, whose testimony it is based on.

No instruction from Assange

The court documents refer to Mr Thordarson simply as “Teenager” (a reference to his youthful appearance rather than true age, he is 28 years old) and Iceland as “NATO Country 1” but make no real effort to hide the identity of either. They purport to show that Assange instructed Thordarson to commit computer intrusions or hacking in Iceland.

The aim of this addition to the indictment was apparently to shore up and support the conspiracy charge against Assange in relation to his interactions with Chelsea Manning. Those occurred around the same time he resided in Iceland and the authors of the indictment felt they could strengthen their case by alleging he was involved in illegal activity there as well. This activity was said to include attempts to hack into the computers of members of parliament and record their conversations.

In fact, Thordarson now admits to Stundin that Assange never asked him to hack or access phone recordings of MPs. His new claim is that he had in fact received some files from a third party who claimed to have recorded MPs and had offered to share them with Assange without having any idea what they actually contained. He claims he never checked the contents of the files or even if they contained audio recordings as his third party source suggested. He further admits the claim, that Assange had instructed or asked him to access computers in order to find any such recordings, is false.

Nonetheless, the tactics employed by US officials appear to have been successful as can be gleaned from the ruling of Magistrate Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser on January 4th of this year. Although she ruled against extradition, she did so purely on humanitarian grounds relating to Assange’s health concerns, suicide risk and the conditions he would face in confinement in US prisons. With regards to the actual accusations made in the indictment Baraitser sided with the arguments of the American legal team, including citing the specific samples from Iceland which are now seriously called into question.

Other misleading elements can be found in the indictment, and later reflected in the Magistrate’s judgement, based on Thordarson’s now admitted lies. One is a reference to Icelandic bank documents. The Magistrate court judgement reads: “It is alleged that Mr. Assange and Teenager failed a joint attempt to decrypt a file stolen from a “NATO country 1” bank”.

(continued)

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Thordarson admits to Stundin that this actually refers to a well publicised event in which an encrypted file was leaked from an Icelandic bank and assumed to contain information about defaulted loans provided by the Icelandic Landsbanki. The bank went under in the fall of 2008, along with almost all other financial institutions in Iceland, and plunged the country into a severe economic crisis. The file was at this time, in summer of 2010, shared by many online who attempted to decrypt it for the public interest purpose of revealing what precipitated the financial crisis. Nothing supports the claim that this file was even “stolen” per se, as it was assumed to have been distributed by whistleblowers from inside the failed bank.

More deceptive language emerges in the aforementioned judgment where it states: “…he [Assange] used the unauthorized access given to him by a source, to access a government website of NATO country-1 used to track police vehicles.”

This depiction leaves out an important element, one that Thordarson clarifies in his interview with Stundin. The login information was in fact his own and not obtained through any nefarious means. In fact, he now admits he had been given this access as a matter of routine due to his work as a first responder while volunteering for a search and rescue team. He also says Assange never asked for any such access.

Revealing chat logs

Thordarson spoke with a journalist from Stundin for several hours as he prepared a thorough investigative report into his activities that include never before published chat logs and new documents.

The chat logs were gathered by Thordarson himself and give a comprehensive picture of his communications whilst he was volunteering for Wikileaks in 2010 and 11. It entails his talks with WikiLeaks staff as well as unauthorized communications with members of international hacking groups that he got into contact with via his role as a moderator on an open IRC WikiLeaks forum, which is a form of live online chat. There is no indication WikiLeaks staff had any knowledge of Thordarson’s contacts with aforementioned hacking groups, indeed the logs show his clear deception.

The communications there show a pattern where Thordarson is constantly inflating his position within WikiLeaks, describing himself as chief of staff, head of communications, No 2 in the organization or responsible for recruits. In these communications Thordarson frequently asks the hackers to either access material from Icelandic entities or attack Icelandic websites with so-called DDoS attacks. These are designed to disable sites and make them inaccessible but not cause permanent damage to content.

Stundin cannot find any evidence that Thordarson was ever instructed to make those requests by anyone inside WikiLeaks. Thordarson himself is not even claiming that, although he explains this as something Assange was aware of or that he had interpreted it so that this was expected of him. How this supposed non-verbal communication took place he cannot explain.

Furthermore, he never explained why WikiLeaks would be interested in attacking any interests in Iceland, especially at such a sensitive time while they were in the midst of publishing a huge trove of US diplomatic cables as part of an international media partnership. Assange is not known to have had any grievances with Icelandic authorities and was in fact working with members of parliament in updating Iceland’s freedom of press laws for the 21st century.

On the FBI radar

Thordarson's rogue acts were not limited to communications of that nature as he also admits to Stundin that he set up avenues of communication with journalists and had media pay for lavish trips abroad where he mispresented himself as an official representative of WikiLeaks.

He also admits that he stole documents from WikiLeaks staff by copying their hard drives. Among those were documents from Renata Avila, a lawyer who worked for the organization and Mr. Assange.

Thordarson continued to step up his illicit activities in the summer of 2011 when he established communication with “Sabu”, the online moniker of Hector Xavier Monsegur, a hacker and a member of the rather infamous LulzSec hacker group. In that effort all indications are that Thordarson was acting alone without any authorization, let alone urging, from anyone inside WikiLeaks.

What Thordarson did not know at the time was that the FBI had arrested Sabu in the beginning of June 2011 and threatened him into becoming an informant and a collaborator for the FBI. Thus, when Thordarson continued his previous pattern of requesting attacks on Icelandic interests, the FBI knew and saw an opportunity to implicate Julian Assange.

(continued)

>>14003660

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Later that month a DDoS attack was performed against the websites of several government institutions.

That deed was done under the watchful eyes of the FBI who must have authorized the attack or even initiated it, as Sabu was at that point their man. What followed was an episode where it seems obvious that Icelandic authorities were fooled into cooperation under false pretenses.

Ögmundur Jónasson was minister of interior at time and as such the political head of police and prosecution and says of the US activities: “They were trying to use things here [in Iceland] and use people in our country to spin a web, a cobweb that would catch Julian Assange”.

Jónasson recalls that when the FBI first contacted Icelandic authorities on June 20th 2011 it was to warn Iceland of an imminent and grave threat of intrusion against government computers. A few days later FBI agents flew to Iceland and offered formally to assist in thwarting this grave danger. The offer was accepted and on July 4th a formal rogatory letter was sent to Iceland to seal the mutual assistance.. Jónasson speculates that already then the US was laying the groundwork for its ultimate purpose, not to assist Iceland but entrap Julian Assange:

“What I have been pondering ever since is if the spinning of the web had already started then with the acceptance of the letter rogatory establishing cooperation that they could use as a pretext for later visits,” says Jónasson.

Icelandic policemen were sent to the US to gather further evidence of this so-called imminent danger and Jónasson says he does not recall anything of substance coming out of that visit and no further attacks were made against Icelandic interests.

But the FBI would return.

Icelandic officials deceived by the US

Towards the end of August, Thordarson was being pursued by WikiLeaks staff who wished to locate the proceeds of online sales of WikiLeaks merchandise. It emerged Thordarson had instructed the funds be sent to his private bank account by forging an email in the name of Julian Assange.

Thordarson saw a way out and on August 23d he sent an email to the US Embassy in Iceland offering information in relation to a criminal investigation. He was replied to with a call and confirmed that he was offering to be an informant in the case against Julian Assange.

The prosecutors and FBI were quick in responding and within 48 hrs a private jet landed in Reykjavik with around eight agents who quickly set up meetings with Thordarson and with people from the Icelandic State Prosecutors office and the State Police Commissioner.

Mid day, Mr. Jónasson, then Minister of Interior got wind of this new visit and requested confirmation that this related to the same case as earlier in the summer. “I asked on what rogatory letter this visit was based and if this was exactly the same case”, Jónasson says in an interview with Stundin. “I then found out that this was of a totally different nature than previously discussed”. He says he put two and two together and said it was obvious that the intention was to lay a trap in Iceland for Assange and other staff members of WikiLeaks.

Such actions were according to Jónasson way outside the scope of the agreement and thus he ordered that all cooperation with the agents be stopped and that they would be informed they were acting in Iceland without any authority. Only days later he learned that the agents and prosecutors had not yet left the country so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the US embassy with the demand they halt police work in Iceland and leave the country.

They did, but left with the new informant and “star witness”, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson who flew with them to Denmark.

Not a hacker but a sociopath

Thordarson has been nicknamed Siggi the hacker in Iceland. That is actually an antonym as several sources Stundin has talked to claim that Thordarson's computer ability is menial. This is supported by several chat logs and documents where he is requesting assistance from others doing rather uncomplicated computer jobs. Once he even sought FBI expert help in uploading a video from his own phone.

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The meeting in Denmark was the first of a few where the FBI enthusiastically embraced the idea of co-operation with Thordarson. He says they wanted to know everything about WikiLeaks, including physical security of staff. They took material he had gathered, including data he had stolen from WikiLeaks employees and even planned to send him to England with a wire. Thordarson claimed in interviews he had refused that particular request. It was probably because he was not welcomed anymore as he knew WikiLeaks people had found out, or were about to firmly establish, that he had embezzled funds from the organization.

After months of collaboration the FBI seem to have lost interest. At about the same time charges were piling up against Thordarson with the Icelandic authorities for massive fraud, forgeries and theft on the one hand and for sexual violations against underage boys he had tricked or forced into sexual acts on the other.

After long investigations Thordarson was sentenced in 2013 and 2014 and received relatively lenient sentences as the judge took into account that he changed his plea at court and pleaded guilty to all counts.

According to a psychiatric assessment presented to the court Thordarson was diagnosed as a sociopath, incapable of remorse but still criminally culpable for his actions. He was assessed to be able to understand the basic difference between right and wrong, He just did not seem to care.

Incarceration did not seem to have an intended effect of stopping Thordarson from continuing his life of crime. It actually took off and expanded in extent and scope in 2019 when the Trump-era DoJ decided to revisit him, giving him a formal status as witness in the prosecution against Julian Assange and granting him immunity in return from any prosecution.

The New York Times Problem

In the month following Assange's arrest in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on April 11th 2019 a new rogatory letter arrived in the Ministry of Justice in Iceland. This time the request was to take a formal statement from Thordarson in Iceland in the presence of his lawyer. The Ministry had a new political head at the time, who had limited knowledge of the prior history of the case.

Although the Department of Justice had spent extreme resources attempting to build a case against Julian Assange during the Obama presidency, they had decided against indicting Assange. The main concern was what was called “The New York Times Problem”, namely that there was such a difficulty in distinguishing between WikiLeaks publications and NYT publications of the same material that going after one party would pose grave First Amendment concerns.

President Donald Trump's appointed Attorney general William Barr did not share these concerns, and neither did his Trump-appointed deputy Kellen S. Dwyer. Barr, who faced severe criticism for politicizing the DoJ on behalf of the president, got the ball rolling on the Assange case once again. Their argument was that if they could prove he was a criminal rather than a journalist the charges would stick, and that was where Thordarson’s testimony would be key.

In May 2019 Thordarson was offered an immunity deal, signed by Dwyer, that granted him immunity from prosecution based on any information on wrong doing they had on him. The deal, seen in writing by Stundin, also guarantees that the DoJ would not share any such information to other prosecutorial or law enforcement agencies. That would include Icelandic ones, meaning that the Americans will not share information on crimes he might have committed threatening Icelandic security interests – and the Americans apparently had plenty of those but had over the years failed to share them with their Icelandic counterparts.

In any event, Assange has never been suspected of any wrongdoing in Iceland. Stundin has seen confirmation of this from the District Prosecutor in Iceland, the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police. Assange has no entry in the LÖKE database of any police activity linked to an individual collected by the Icelandic State Police Commissioner from 2009-2021.

Assange's lawyer also inquired in the Icelandic Foreign Ministry if the points in his updated indictment where Iceland is referred to as NATO country 1 meant that his case had any relevance to Icelandic membership to NATO, the bilateral defense agreement between USA and Iceland or any national security interests. All such connections were dismissed in a reply from the defense attache at the Ministry.

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>>14003672

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Immunity and a new crimespree

According to information obtained by Stundin the immunity deal between DoJ and Thordarson was presented at the Headquarters of the Reykjavik police where the only role of the Icelandic policeman was to confirm the identity of Thordarson before leaving him alone with his lawyer in the back room where he met the US delegation.

It is as if the offer of immunity, later secured and sealed in a meeting in DC, had encouraged Thordarson to take bolder steps in crime. He started to fleece individuals and companies on a grander scale than ever; usually by either acquiring or forming legal entities he then used to borrow merchandise, rent luxury cars, even order large quantities of goods from wholesalers without any intention to pay for these goods and services.

Thordarson also forged the name of his own lawyer on notices to the Company House registry, falsely claiming to have raised the equity of two companies to over 800 thousand US dollars. The aim was to use these entities with solid financial positions on paper in a real estate venture.

The lawyer has reported the forgery to the police where other similar cases, along with multiple other reports of theft and trickery, are now piling up.

When confronted with evidence of all these crimes by a Stundin journalist he simply admitted to everything and explained it away as normal business practice. He has not yet been charged and is still practicing this “business”. Local newspaper DV reported last week that Thordarson had attempted to order merchandise on credit using a new company name, Icelandic Vermin Control. Despite using a fake name and a COVID face mask he was identified and the transaction was stopped. He was last seen speeding away in a white Tesla, according to DV.

https://stundin.is/grein/13627/key-witness-in-assange-case-admits-to-lies-in-indictment/

>>13922273

Expand terror status to include all of Hezbollah

JAMES PATERSON - JUNE 28, 2021

In 2020 a NSW man convicted of violent offences escaped being listed a ‘high-risk terrorist offender’ because Australia only lists the External Security Organisation of Hezbollah – and not the whole entity – as a terrorist organisation. The judge in the case said it wasn’t possible to determine whether Ali Haidar merely supported the political wing of the movement.

This is just one practical example of why Australia should no longer persist with the fiction that Hezbollah can be neatly divided into discrete entities and should be listed in its entirety as a terrorist organisation, as recommended in a unanimous bipartisan report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security this week.

The ESO is responsible for attacks around the world, including a 2012 bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria which killed six people. Last September a dual Australian-Lebanese citizen was convicted in absentia for his role in this attack. That’s why Australia has just listed it for the seventh time since 2003 as a terrorist organisation.

But given the ESO’s relationship with Hezbollah leadership, it’s concerning the entire organisation wasn’t listed. Haidar’s case demonstrated the complications of this shortcoming in applying anti-terrorism laws.

Experts overwhelmingly reject the idea the ESO operates independently from Hezbollah’s leadership which oversees all the organisation’s activities.

Terrorism expert, Emanuele Ottolenghi, claims Hezbollah disseminates funding centrally, indicating a command structure “aware of, and … responsible for, operational costs on the military side.”

Australia’s position is isolated internationally. 22 countries and two regional organisations list all of Hezbollah including Five Eyes allies like the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada; like-minded countries including Germany and Japan; and Arab groupings like the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League.

The European Union, France and New Zealand at least proscribe the military wing, which provides operational support to terrorist entities like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas’ al Qassam Brigades.

While broadening the listing may have implications, agencies like the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation believe it wouldn’t impact their operations. The Australian Federal Police agree the status quo makes it difficult to prosecute someone for terrorism if an organisation isn’t listed.

Importantly, international experience show listing all of Hezbollah hasn’t impacted relations with Lebanon. In 2019, the UK listed all of Hezbollah, after previously listing only the ESO like Australia and extending it to the military wing in 2008. Evaluating that decision, then UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the UK’s relationship with Lebanon is as strong as ever.

It’s clear Australia can no longer give credence to the superficial notion the ESO is somehow separate from Hezbollah. Hezbollah, in its entirety, should be on Australia’s terror listing.

Senator James Paterson is the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and a Liberal Senator for Victoria.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/expand-terror-status-to-include-all-of-hezbollah/news-story/9e8bc5423f49072cc46814ea915e2f65

Opera Australia and tenor sued over child sex offences

Kate McClymont - June 28, 2021

The nation’s principal opera company and a convicted child sex offender are being sued for the sexual abuse of a former member of the children’s choir, the Supreme Court has heard.

Now in her early 40s, the woman was aged 14 and 15 when she was a member of the children’s chorus for Opera Australia in the mid-1990s.

Opera tenor David Lewis, then 34, befriended the teenager who confided in him about her traumatic childhood. He then proceeded to groom the girl and to sexually abuse her.

The singer was released from jail in December last year after serving a two-year sentence for two counts of sexual intercourse with a person aged between 10 and 16 and three charges of aggravated indecent assault.

At his sentencing in 2018, the judge said Lewis had only stopped offending because he had been caught.

The first time Lewis touched the teenager, he put his hand inside her underwear as they were standing behind the stage while a performance was going on, the court heard.

On one occasion the production’s dance captain saw Lewis receiving oral sex from the teenager in a stairwell at the Sydney Opera House. He said Lewis “immediately took off” in such a hurry he left his shoes behind.

According to court documents, the crew member informed the chorus master. Soon after Opera Australia hired a childminder who was told by the company: “The most important thing is that you keep the children away from the adults and the adults away from the children.”

The opera company now finds itself being sued for breaching its duty of care to the young singer.

Employees at Opera Australia have previously complained to the Herald that concerns about Lewis’s behaviour had fallen on deaf ears. “Opera Australia is like the Catholic Church in miniature,” said one.

However, Opera Australia has maintained that when police requested Lewis’s personnel records, his files “did not contain any information relating to any complaints against Mr Lewis during his time with the company”.

For 25 years, up until his arrest in 2017, Lewis had been a permanent member of the opera’s chorus.

Last week Justice Christine Adamson ordered Lewis to disclose all of his assets. The court heard he had $10,000 in his bank account, a superannuation fund worth about $75,000, a car valued at $12,000, a $5000 camera and a $2500 wine collection.

But he failed to inform the court about the $500,000 he had received as his share of his matrimonial home which was sold in November 2018 while he was in jail.

Lewis was “plainly in a position” to know what he did with the $500,000, said Justice Adamson but “he has chosen not to disclose this matter.”

Lewis was given two weeks to disclose all of his assets worldwide and to account for his share of the proceeds from the sale of his Lewisham home.

The matter will return to court on July 15.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-and-tenor-sued-over-child-sex-offences-20210627-p584mb.html

SA pedophile Geoffrey William Moyle voluntarily pays Cambodian former child sex slave $84,000 for abusing her in overseas brothel

He was a foreign aid worker, she was a helpless child sex slave – now this SA man has agreed to pay his former victim more than $80,000 compensation.

Sean Fewster - June 28, 2021

A former child sex slave has been paid $84,000 compensation by the Adelaide pedophile and foreign aid worker who repeatedly abused her – all without having to file a lawsuit.

In an Australian legal first, Geoffrey William Moyle has surrendered to a Cambodian woman’s request that he make financial reparations in addition to serving time behind bars.

He has voluntarily paid her the equivalent of 259 million Cambodian riel – understood to be the single largest payment made by a foreigner to a child sex slave in that country’s history.

On Monday, Heath Barklay SC, for Moyle, asked the District Court to “give great weight” to that payment when determining Moyle’s inevitable prison term.

He argued it could be seen as both a sign of Moyle’s remorse and a reason to show mercy to his client – by reducing the length of his non-parole period.

“He should get full credit for the steps he has taken to compensate his victim … he really is doing everything he can to rehabilitate himself,” Mr Barklay said.

“This court should want to encourage people to take the same course that Moyle has taken and compensate people whenever possible.

“It should take the view this compensation was very generous and reflects his contrition, remorse and good prospects for rehabilitation.”

Moyle, 47, of Westbourne Park, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing child slaves held in Cambodian brothels over a three-year period.

At that time, he worked as a manager in poverty alleviation and economic progress in developing countries.

Moyle filmed his acts and then shared them with others online – those videos secured his arrest, identifying him by the distinctive “skin tag” or growth on his inner thigh.

In January, the Cambodian woman made legal history by asking the court to order compensation as part of Moyle’s sentence.

Though Commonwealth law permits such a decision, no overseas person had ever made such an application.

The woman’s lawyers said ordering compensation was preferable to her launching an expensive civil lawsuit, as many Australian victims do after a court case.

On Monday, Mr Barklay said Moyle – who consented to the freezing his assets – had “already made” the payment voluntarily.

He asked Judge Paul Cuthbertson to unfreeze Moyle’s other assets, now that negotiations with the victim’s lawyers had concluded.

“It’s very much to my client’s credit that he did engage with solicitors for the victim and that he did engage with them meaningfully,” Mr Barklay said.

“The reparation is very much a matter on which Your Honour can rely, in conjunction with other evidence, to extend mercy to Moyle in the setting of his non-parole period.”

Judge Cuthbertson remanded Moyle in custody for sentencing in August.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-sa/sa-pedophile-geoffrey-william-moyle-voluntarily-pays-cambodian-former-child-sex-slave-84000-for-abusing-her-in-overseas-brothel/news-story/7f67c617810faa94d78aa584ba49a8f1

Man accused of slavery lived ‘strange’ but not illegal life, court told

Sarah McPhee - June 28, 2021

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A man accused of enslaving a young woman and coercing her into sexual servitude says she was able to take her collar off with an Allen key and had broken her eardrum while he was training her in mixed martial arts, a court has been told.

James Robert Davis, 40, was arrested in March in Armidale, in northern NSW, by Australian Federal Police officers and charged with reducing a person to slavery, intentionally possessing a slave, and causing a person to enter or remain in servitude. This allegedly occurred between 2013 and 2015.

Mr Davis, a former soldier, styles himself the patriarch of the “House of Cadifor”, a group of women living in a relationship with him. He was living with six women at the time of his arrest.

Mr Davis was on Monday refused bail in the NSW Supreme Court by Justice Mark Ierace, who was concerned about an automatic rifle and ammunition police say they discovered on the property he co-owns, concealed under corrugated iron and in a buried trunk.

Officers allegedly found an F88 Steyr rifle – property of the Australian Defence Force – an attached sight, nine magazines each containing 30 rounds, a box containing 175 rounds and three smoke grenades. The judge said no charges had been brought in relation to the discovery.

Justice Ierace was also concerned about an allegation that Mr Davis had threatened a witness with retribution if that person approached authorities and said the prosecution case was “reasonably strong”, citing evidence in the complainant’s journal.

He said the young woman was initially a “willing participant” in the BDSM lifestyle but, over time, alleges the relationship became abusive and she was “often assaulted against her will”.

“The journal entries suggest to me that their author was experiencing a significant degree of psychological coercion,” the judge said.

Defence barrister Ian Lloyd, QC, had argued that while his client lived a “strange life … there was nothing illegal about it”. He said the polyamorous relationships were “completely consensual”.

“The major complainant only years later made her complaints which are now being categorised by the AFP as slavery,” he said. “My client’s defence is that the lifestyle he led with the major complainant … could never have been categorised in law as slavery.”

He said the allegation that the woman, who is the subject of the three charges, “was being pimped out” and forced into prostitution would be categorically denied.

“There’s no doubt my client was in a relationship with this lady, but she has grossly exaggerated things in her assertions to the court,” Mr Lloyd said.

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He said the lengthy statement from the AFP suggested she was forced to wear a “slave collar” that she could not take off but she also stated she removed the collar when she attended work training elsewhere. Mr Lloyd said the collars were “affectations” and “part of play-acting”, and all the women had Allen keys to take them off when they wanted to.

He noted that, while Mr Davis was not charged with any assault offences, the complainant alleged she was assaulted and suffered a broken eardrum.

Mr Lloyd said that, according to medical notes before the court, a doctor noted the woman “was wrestling with her boyfriend” and his client’s defence would be “he was training her in mixed martial arts”.

“She, of course, puts a different spin on this,” he said.

Mr Lloyd also said that Mr Davis had been in custody for 3½ months. The barrister did not expect the case to leave the Local Court this year, and anticipated a lengthy trial in 2023.

He said a 36-page statement from a journalist referred to 180 hours of filming of Mr Davis, which the defence would want played to the jury “because it shows that none of these ladies were slaves”. At four hours shown a day, the video itself would take nine weeks, the barrister said.

Mr Lloyd said Mr Davis’ sister-in-law had offered a surety of $30,000.

Crown prosecutor Rebekah Rodger said concerns about Mr Davis’ access to firearms had escalated after the discovery of the items recently hidden or disposed of on the Armidale property.

In opposing bail, she said some witnesses who had given signed statements to police since Mr Davis’ arrest, “may be the subject of retribution from the applicant when previously there was no cause or any risk of violence by the applicant towards those witnesses”.

She submitted the complainant had been “forced into sex work” by Mr Davis who allegedly retained all the payment for the services.

Ms Rodger said there was also evidence of “complete subjugation”, with the woman allegedly held in a cage against her will and required to wait by the front door of the premises until Mr Davis’ return.

“The Crown case is that the allegations by [the woman] go well beyond the parameters of what is acceptable in terms of BDSM, in terms of appropriate,” she said.

A trial would hear evidence from the BDSM community regarding safe words and red zones, the prosecutor added.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/man-accused-of-slavery-lived-strange-but-not-illegal-life-court-told-20210628-p584vl.html

Sydney couple who kept woman like ‘slave’ will repay $70,000 and face jail time

Laura Chung - June 27, 2021

A couple who made a Filipina woman feel like a “slave” by making her work almost six days a week as their nanny, maid and in their shop face lengthy jail sentences and will be forced to repay her $70,000.

Husband and wife Joshua and Shiela McAleer, from Rockdale in Sydney’s south paid for the woman’s tourist visa - which included a condition that she did not work for three months - flight and passport. She arrived in May 2013 under the impression she would assist around the couple’s home following the birth of their child.

Despite her visa conditions, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, began working as a cleaner and carer for the family. When her visa expired, the couple told her she was unable to return to the Philippines until she repaid her initial travel costs.

Mrs McAleer told the woman words to the effect of: “If you go back before you pay me back I know people in the Philippines in the police and higher up and who I can hire to harm you or your family if you go home early.”

The woman continued her duties and, from November 2014, she also began working in the Filipino grocery store owned by the couple.

During this time, she was regularly working six to seven days a week. The couple also imposed strict restrictions on her, including limiting her movements and who she socialised with.

The woman was paid $580 a month and from that, $480 went to her family overseas. When the victim complained about her workload she was given an additional $200 per month.

In October 2016, the woman fled from the Rockdale home and in July 2017, the federal police received a tip-off from Anti-Slavery Australia.

The couple was subsequently issued court attendance notices in October 2019. The pair pleaded guilty to charges relating to their treatment of the woman earlier this year, including conducting a business involving the forced labour of another person between November 26, 2014, and October 30, 2016, and harbouring an unlawful non-citizen.

Mrs McAleer also pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in conduct causing another person to enter into or remain in forced labour.

On Friday, Judge Tanya Smith delivered her judgment in the Sydney Downing Centre in which she said the couple showed little remorse and their motivation was the “enhancement of their lifestyle”.

Judge Smith said the seriousness of the charges needed to be reflected in her sentence “to ensure others are deterred”.

Mr McAleer will be forced to repay $25,000 to the victim and faces a two-and-a-half-year sentence.

Judge Smith ordered a home detention report before she decides whether he will serve the term behind bars or as an intensive corrections order. His matter will return to court on July 30.

Mrs McAleer was sentenced to three years and three months with a non-parole period of 14 months. She is required to repay $45,000 to the victim.

The couple were given discounted sentences on account of their early guilty pleas and offer to repay the woman.

“The harm and impact suffered by victim went so far beyond an economic one and I have taken this harm into account,” Judge Smith said. “The victim was deprived of their free choice to engage in the labour and was denied … the payment for her work which she was legally entitled.”

In her victim impact statement, the woman said before coming to Australia, she had been happy, had job security and her family. Since, she felt anxious and did not trust people.

“I did not know when I came that I would have to work 24 hours a day. I did not get paid for my work,” the woman said. “I felt like a slave but I didn’t say anything.

“I feel it would have been better not to come [to Australia].”

Detective Superintendent Paula Hudson of the human trafficking specialist command said while the AFP is the lead agency for investigating modern slavery, everyone has a role to play to stop it from occurring in Australia.

For the financial year 2019 to 2020, the AFP received 223 reports of human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like offences. In the same period this year, the AFP has received 208 reports.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-couple-who-kept-woman-like-slave-will-repay-70-000-and-face-jail-time-20210625-p5846q.html

>>13848125

Former defence minister Brendan Nelson backs ‘revered’ Ben Roberts-Smith

Michaela Whitbourn - June 28, 2021

Former federal defence minister Brendan Nelson has described Ben Roberts-Smith as “the most respected, admired and revered” Australian soldier in more than half a century and accused the media outlets at the centre of the war veteran’s Federal Court defamation case of trying to tarnish his good reputation.

Giving reputation evidence, Dr Nelson, a former director of the Australian War Memorial, said he had become “very concerned” about Mr Roberts-Smith’s mental health in the wake of a series of articles starting in June 2018. The newspapers “seemed to be intent on bringing him down,” and the former soldier had become despondent, anxious and introspective, Dr Nelson said in Sydney on Monday.

The former Liberal minister gave evidence on the 15th day of Mr Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald over articles that he says accuse him of war crimes, and an act of domestic violence against a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair. Mr Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service (SAS) soldier, denies all wrongdoing. The newspapers are seeking to rely chiefly on a defence of truth, but also say he is not identified in some of the articles.

An at-times emotional Dr Nelson said “I’ll try not to get angry about this” as he recounted a media conference in 2018 about an exhibition on First Nations Australians’ military service, at which there was “not one single question” on that topic but a string of questions about Mr Roberts-Smith. He was asked if he regretted his support for Mr Roberts-Smith and if the former soldier should have his Victoria Cross removed.

“It has been devastating, the impact on him,” Dr Nelson said. He added he was cautioned by a very senior public figure, “not the prime minister”, seemingly about his public association with Mr Roberts-Smith.

Dr Nelson said he recognised Mr Roberts-Smith “immediately” in two stories in June 2018 referring to a soldier dubbed “Leonidas”. The articles referred to tattoos and a “fearsome warrior”, Dr Nelson said, and it was clear to him this was a reference to the two-metre-tall Mr Roberts-Smith, a “tall, imposing, warrior-like figure” who has a number of tattoos.

Prior to the articles, Mr Roberts-Smith was “the most respected, admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century, since Keith Payne, VC, of the Vietnam War”, he said.

Dr Nelson recalled that “wherever he went … he was the subject and the object of what I would describe as reverential mobs”, and he witnessed people at the War Memorial “fall into his arms” describing their experiences.

He said he was “certainly unaware of any such behaviour” when asked about the allegation of domestic violence, which has been vehemently denied by Mr Roberts-Smith.

Dr Parbodh Gogna, formerly chief medical officer and surgeon-general of the Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force in Canberra, said via audiovisual link from the Bahamas that there was a “large cloud” hanging over his friend Mr Roberts-Smith since the articles and he had become withdrawn and apprehensive.

During re-examination by his own barrister on Monday, Mr Roberts-Smith said he “didn’t ask for any of my medals nor did I expect any recognition” for doing his job, and it was “disgraceful” of the newspapers to challenge the basis for his Victoria Cross in court.

Mr Roberts-Smith has taken leave during the trial from his position as general manager of media company Seven Queensland. His employer, Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes, is chairman of the Australian War Memorial and is funding the defamation case.

The Federal Court streamed the trial online on Monday after the NSW government imposed a two-week lockdown in Greater Sydney on Saturday following a growing cluster of COVID-19 cases linked to Bondi. The parties and their lawyers remained in court.

Barrister Nicholas Owens, SC, for the media outlets, said the “bottom line … with much regret”, was the proceedings would likely need to be halted temporarily within days because most witnesses to be called by the newspapers would be affected by hard border closures or quarantine restrictions in their home states.

“As soon as things are open again, we’re ready to go,” Mr Owens said

“This case is bedevilled by the virus,” Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Bruce McClintock, SC, said.

Justice Anthony Besanko will make a decision about the timetabling of the trial on Tuesday.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/former-defence-minister-brendan-nelson-backs-revered-ben-roberts-smith-20210628-p584v4.html

>>13848125

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial headed for adjournment due to COVID lockdown

Jamie McKinnell - 28 June 2021

The defamation trial of war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith is "bedevilled by the virus", his barrister says and appears headed towards an unavoidable adjournment.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Canberra Times, along with three journalists, over a series of articles they published in 2018.

But as his legal team closed their case on Monday after three weeks of evidence, the barrister for two of the newspapers, Nicholas Owens SC, told the Federal Court the prospect of their witnesses travelling to Sydney had been complicated by the city's COVID lockdown.

"The problem is, although people could get here, there is a prohibition on them returning home or a very great burden placed on them in relation to their travel home," he said.

Mr Owens said witnesses from WA, Victoria and Queensland would either be barred completely from returning after being in Sydney or endure various forms of hotel or home quarantine.

He accepted it was an "entirely unsatisfactory" position, but one which the court had been "driven to by unforeseen circumstances".

Mr Roberts-Smith's barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, said it was "a terrible quandary" and his client very much wanted the case to continue and conclude.

"This case is bedevilled by the virus I'm afraid," he said.

Mr McClintock said he was not willing to forego the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses in person, making audio-visual link appearances unlikely.

Justice Anthony Besanko has adjourned the trial until Tuesday morning to consider the situation.

Earlier, former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson told the court Mr Roberts-Smith was "the most respected, admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century".

Dr Nelson, who was the director of the Australian War Memorial from 2012, was today called as a witness by Mr Roberts-Smith's legal team to give evidence about his reputation prior to the articles.

"Ben Roberts-Smith, VC, MG, was the most respected, admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century since Keith Payne VC of the Vietnam war," he told the Federal Court in Sydney.

"Wherever he went, wherever it was, he was the subject and the object of what I would regard as reverential mobs," he continued.

Mr Roberts-Smith has denied all allegations in the stories, including alleged involvement in unlawful killings in Afghanistan, bullying of Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) colleagues, and domestic violence against his then-lover in a Canberra hotel in 2018.

Dr Nelson said he "immediately" knew the first article was about Mr Roberts-Smith, despite him not being identified by name, due to references like his tattoos and stature.

Dr Nelson explained his concern for Mr Roberts-Smith after noticing changes in him following the publication.

"He'd become despondent, he'd become anxious, introspective, much less willing to engage in public events which he had willingly given of himself to previously, and the invitations to do so had declined," Dr Nelson said.

The proceedings have moved online in the fourth week of the trial due to Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown, with members of the public excluded from the city's Law Courts building.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-28/ben-roberts-smith-brendan-nelson-defamation-trial/100248658

Secret notes claim Bob Hawke ‘informed’ for US government

JAMIE WALKER - JUNE 28, 2021

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Bob Hawke acted as an “informer” to the US government while boss of the Australian trade union movement and president of the ALP, a new study of declassified diplomatic cables claims.

Cameron Coventry, a researcher at Federation University in Ballarat, sheds light on how the man who was to later become a Labor prime minister fed intelligence to the Americans about labour movement figures and Australian government policy, even tip-offs that a secretive US military installation was to be targeted by union militants.

He was considered by Washington to be a “bulwark” against anti-US sentiment in the 1970s.

When the Whitlam government hit the skids, Mr Hawke floated with US diplomats the possibility he would abandon the ALP to pursue a British-style national unity government to face a deepening economic crisis in Australia, according to the documents accessed by Mr Coventry.

In conversation with diplomats from the US embassy in Canberra in late 1974, he recounted receiving “several feelers about political realignment” including one from his lifelong friend, Sir Peter Abeles, described in the subsequent cable to Washington as the “controversial industrialist who is a financial supporter of the Labor Party but whose personal philosophy fits him within the Liberal Party context”.

After the dismissal of the Labor government in 1975, Mr Hawke briefed US diplomats that he would “move over” from the ACTU to replace Gough Whitlam as leader. NSW Labor powerbroker John Ducker, another alleged informant for the Americans, later told them that the “cabal conspiracy” to install Mr Hawke failed because the plotters made “a bad mistake to tip their hand prematurely”, according to an American cable cited by Mr Coventry.

A tutor and PhD candidate at Federation University who worked on the political staff of former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon, he turned up the tranche of confidential diplomatic communications from 1973-79 held by the US National Archives and Records Administration.

His paper, The “Eloquence” of Robert J. Hawke: United States Informer, is published in the Australian Journal of Politics and History.

“Evidently, Hawke was an informer to the allied foreign power in the 1970s,” Mr Coventry writes. “Conversations he had with United States diplomats involved information that was pertinent to the preservation of American interests in Australia.

“As a well-placed insider in the ACTU and Labor, Hawke offered greater leverage in the pursuit of these interests, including the protection of multinational corporations operating in Australia.”

But Labor elder Stephen Loosely, a former ALP national president and senator, said it was “nonsense” to describe Australia’s longest-serving Labor prime minister as an informer. After entering parliament in 1980, the late Mr Hawke was PM from 1983-91, presiding over four election victories and a reform program that shaped modern Australia.

“He was an Australian first, last and always, as was John Ducker,” said Mr Loosely, a senior visiting fellow at the US Studies Centre, University of Sydney.

“For someone half a century later to label these people informants, when they can’t defend themselves, simply doesn’t hold water. Anyone who has ever been active at any level of politics or unionism understands that.”

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In Mr Hawke’s time as a US “informer”, Mr Coventry alleges he divulged sensitive information about the 1972-75 Whitlam government, Malcolm Fraser’s 1975-83 Coalition government, the Labor Party and trade union movement touching on industrial relations policy, the economy and foreign policy.

In 1974, a cable had him leaking to US ambassador Marshall Green details of a union campaign to target American multinationals, such as carmaker Ford; a year earlier, the US labour attache in Canberra had contacted Mr Hawke about a possible industrial dispute at the North West Cape military base in Western Australia, a highly-classified communications station for the US nuclear submarine fleet.

According to the cable cited by Mr Coventry, Mr Hawke “volunteered to intervene informally” and expressed “concern and surprise” at the militancy of the workers concerned.

In another exchange with the labour attache in December 1974, he predicted the Whitlam government would fall inside a year, having confided that Australia’s stagflation-hit economy was “on the verge” of collapse.

At other times, Mr Hawke expressed his desire for an “independent non-aligned Australia” while privately telling the Americans he wanted to expand the ANZUS co-defence pact beyond a “purely military alliance”.

The US embassy in Canberra reasoned this “duality” was to garner left-wing support for his preselection for a seat in federal parliament.

The cables show the US was a “discreet advocate” encouraging Mr Hawke as early as August 1974 to pursue “tripartism” between unions, employers and the government, laying the groundwork for his Labor government’s signature accord on wages with the union movement.

Mr Hawke told US diplomats in 1974 that, contrary to his public protestations as ACTU president, union wage demands were driving the rampant inflation that had choked the Australian economy, delivering counter-cyclic lows in growth.

One example of how Mr Hawke, working with Mr Ducker, the president of the NSW Labor Party and ACTU vice-president, eased “heightened anti-American sentiment” came during Frank Sinatra’s 1974 tour after the US crooner launched his “hookers of the press” sexist diatribe at several women journalists.

In retaliation, unions grounded Sinatra’s private jet in Melbourne, demanding he apologise. The popular view was that Mr Hawke engaged in protracted, boozy negotiations with Oil’ Blue Eyes to reach a settlement.

The cables say the US embassy reached a deal with Mr Hawke to end the standoff, no apology was sought from Sinatra and that most of Mr Hawke’s time was spent with the singer’s lawyer.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/secret-notes-claim-bob-hawke-informed-for-us/news-story/84cc958a7093f0764ad5b6d2a2c8c501

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‘You can count on us’: WA consul general spruiks Japanese relationship as China tensions grow

Hamish Hastie - June 28, 2021

Tokyo’s diplomat in Western Australia has trumpeted the shared values between Australia and Japan, saying they could be counted on for stable trade relations.

In the face of escalating trade and diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Australia, WA’s Japanese consul general Toru Suzuki stressed his home nation was one of Australia’s earliest – and still one of WA’s most important – trade partners, offering stability and certainty.

“Stability is a key word in terms of Japan and WA,” he said.

“You can count on us and we count on you.”

Mr Suzuki, who has been in Perth for 2½ years after stints as a diplomat in Finland, Norway and Hawaii, said this stability came from shared values which differed from China’s.

“Japan and Australia share the same values, rule of law is most important, and democracy and freedom of speech and human rights and free trade are most important. So it is easy for us,” he said.

“Australia is a natural partner.”

Much of the trade focus over the past 12 months has been on Australia’s biggest export customer, China, and certain sectors such as meat, grain and wine that have been caught in the crosshairs of a an escalating dispute after the federal government called for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 in May last year.

According to Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation statistics, Japan is WA’s second-largest trading partner with trade totalling $20.4 billion in 2020, making up more than 9 per cent of the state’s total trade for that year.

That figure still pales in comparison to trade with China, which was valued at $109.7 billion, or 50 per cent of WA’s total.

In 1989, Japan became the state’s first LNG customer and remains the largest, taking 47 per cent of LNG production ahead of China’s 30 per cent.

Mr Suzuki said Japan’s investment in WA, particularly in LNG, demonstrated the country’s commitment to the state.

“You look at iron ore, sure, over 80 per cent goes to China and the money comes from China to WA but as we said, our relations are long term and long term commitments and stable,” he said.

Mr Suzuki said co-operations didn’t stop at trade and the country’s shared values leached into defence, with the Pacific ocean a common asset.

Earlier this month, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, Defence Minister Peter Dutton and their Japanese counterparts held bilateral talks on foreign affairs and defence issues where they discussed the security of the Indo-Pacific region and denounced “coercive and destabilising behaviour” in the East China Sea.

Mr Dutton has previously said conflict with China should not be discounted as the superpower increasingly flexed its military muscles over Taiwan.

Mr Suzuki said a major area of opportunity for new trade was hydrogen, with Japan committing to carbon neutrality by 2050.

He said he had already discussed opportunities with the WA government.

“You have a huge land and there is a lot of sun and vicinity to Asian market,” he said.

“It is interesting to see just a few years ago when I arrived here, nobody discussed hydrogen.

“Japanese businessmen at that time didn’t want to discuss hydrogen but now everyone is keen to promote it.”

Mr Suzuki was also confident that when international borders reopened Japanese airline ANA would restart its direct Perth to Tokyo route that began in 2019 but was scrapped because of COVID-19.

He said he expected tourism to grow when the flights came back online thanks, in part, to quokkas.

“The quokka is now very popular in Japan, when I met [former tourism minister Paul] Papalia, he was in charge of tourism I just proposed the idea that the quokka can be a good ambassador to promote tourism,” he said.

“Now quokka is very popular in Japan and many people want to come to Perth.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/western-australia/you-can-count-on-us-wa-consul-general-spruiks-japanese-relationship-as-china-tensions-grow-20210618-p582by.html

Australian scientist, the sole foreign researcher at the Wuhan lab, speaks out

Michelle Cortez - June 28, 2021

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Danielle Anderson was working in what has become the world’s most notorious laboratory just weeks before the first known cases of COVID-19 emerged in central China. Yet, the Australian virologist still wonders what she missed.

An expert in bat-borne viruses, the Victorian is the only foreign scientist to have undertaken research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s BSL-4 lab, the first in mainland China equipped to handle the planet’s deadliest pathogens. Her most recent stint ended in November 2019, giving Anderson an insider’s perspective on a place that’s become a flashpoint in the search for what caused the worst pandemic in a century.

The emergence of the coronavirus in the same city where institute scientists, clad head-to-toe in protective gear, study that exact family of viruses has stoked speculation that it might have leaked from the lab, possibly via an infected staffer or a contaminated object. China’s lack of transparency since the earliest days of the outbreak fuelled those suspicions, which have been seized on by the US. That’s turned the quest to uncover the origins of the virus, critical for preventing future pandemics, into a geopolitical minefield.

The work of the lab and the director of its emerging infectious diseases section – Shi Zhengli, a long-time colleague of Anderson’s dubbed “Batwoman” for her work hunting viruses in caves – is now shrouded in controversy. The US has questioned the lab’s safety and alleged its scientists were engaged in contentious gain-of-function research that manipulated viruses in a manner that could have made them more dangerous.

It’s a stark contrast to the place Anderson describes, in this first interview where she shares details about working at the lab.

She says half-truths and distorted information have obscured an accurate accounting of the lab’s functions and activities, which were more routine than how they’ve been portrayed in the media.

“It’s not that it was boring, but it was a regular lab that worked in the same way as any other high-containment lab,” Anderson says. “What people are saying is just not how it is.”

Life-long goal

Now at Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Anderson began collaborating with Wuhan researchers in 2016, when she was scientific director of the biosafety lab at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School. Her research – which focuses on why lethal viruses like Ebola and Nipah cause no disease in the bats in which they perpetually circulate – complemented studies under way at the Chinese institute, which offered funding to encourage international collaboration.

A rising star in the virology community, Anderson, 42, says her work on Ebola in Wuhan was the realisation of a life-long career goal. Her favourite movie is Outbreak, the 1995 film in which disease experts respond to a dangerous new virus – a job Anderson says she wanted to do. For her, that meant working on Ebola in a high-containment laboratory.

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Anderson’s career has taken her all over the world. After obtaining an undergraduate degree from Deakin University in Geelong, Australia, she worked as a lab technician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, then returned to Australia to complete a PhD under the supervision of eminent virologists John Mackenzie and Linfa Wang. She did post-doctoral work in Montreal, before moving to Singapore and working again with Wang, who describes Anderson as “very committed and dedicated,” and similar in personality to Shi.

“They’re both very blunt with such high moral standards,” Wang says by phone from Singapore, where he’s the director of the emerging infectious diseases program at the Duke-NUS Medical School. “I’m very proud of what Danielle’s been able to do.”

On the ground

Anderson was on the ground in Wuhan when experts believe the virus, now known as SARS-CoV-2, was beginning to spread. Daily visits for a period in late 2019 put her in close proximity to many others working at the 65-year-old research centre. She was part of a group that gathered each morning at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to catch a bus that shuttled them to the institute about 30 kilometres away.

As the sole foreigner, Anderson stood out, and she says the other researchers there looked out for her.

“We went to dinners together, lunches, we saw each other outside of the lab,” she says.

From her first visit before it formally opened in 2018, Anderson was impressed with the institute’s maximum biocontainment lab. The concrete, bunker-style building has the highest biosafety designation, and requires air, water and waste to be filtered and sterilised before it leaves the facility. There were strict protocols and requirements aimed at containing the pathogens being studied, Anderson says, and researchers underwent 45 hours of training to be certified to work independently in the lab.

The induction process required scientists to demonstrate their knowledge of containment procedures and their competency in wearing air-pressured suits. “It’s very, very extensive,” Anderson says.

Entering and exiting the facility was a carefully choreographed endeavour. Departures were made especially intricate by a requirement to take both a chemical shower and a personal shower –the timings of which were precisely planned.

Special disinfectants

These rules are mandatory across BSL-4 labs, though Anderson noted differences compared with similar facilities in Europe, Singapore and Australia where she’s worked. The Wuhan lab uses a bespoke method to make and monitor its disinfectants daily, a system Anderson was inspired to introduce in her own lab. She was connected via a headset to colleagues in the lab’s command centre to enable constant communication and safety vigilance – steps designed to ensure nothing went awry.

However, the Trump administration’s focus in 2020 on the idea the virus escaped from the Wuhan facility suggested that something went seriously wrong at the institute, the only one to specialise in virology, viral pathology and virus technology of the some 20 biological and biomedical research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Virologists and infectious disease experts initially dismissed the theory, noting that viruses jump from animals to humans with regularity. There was no clear evidence from within SARS-CoV-2’s genome that it had been artificially manipulated, or that the lab harboured progenitor strains of the pandemic virus. Political observers suggested the allegations had a strategic basis and were designed to put pressure on Beijing.

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And yet, China’s actions raised questions. The government refused to allow international scientists into Wuhan in early 2020 when the outbreak was mushrooming, including experts from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, who were already in the region.

Beijing stonewalled on allowing World Health Organisation experts into Wuhan for more than a year, and then provided only limited access. The WHO team’s final report, written with and vetted by Chinese researchers, played down the possibility of a lab leak. Instead, it says the virus probably spread via a bat through another animal, and gave some credence to a favoured Chinese theory that it could have been transferred via frozen food.

Never sick

China’s obfuscation led outside researchers to reconsider their stance. Last month, 18 scientists writing in the journal Science called for an investigation into COVID-19’s origins that would give balanced consideration to the possibility of a lab accident. Even the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says the lab theory hadn’t been studied extensively enough.

But it’s US President Joe Biden’s consideration of the idea – previously dismissed by many as a Trumpist conspiracy theory – that has given it newfound legitimacy. Biden called on America’s intelligence agencies last month to redouble their efforts in rooting out the genesis of COVID-19 after an earlier report, disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, claimed three researchers from the lab were hospitalised with flu-like symptoms in November 2019.

What the world wants China to disclose

Anderson says no one she knew at the Wuhan institute was ill towards the end of 2019. Moreover, there is a procedure for reporting symptoms that correspond with the pathogens handled in high-risk containment labs.

“If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick – and I wasn’t,” she says. “I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it.”

Not only that, many of Anderson’s collaborators in Wuhan came to Singapore at the end of December for a gathering on Nipah virus. There was no word of any illness sweeping the laboratory, she says.

“There was no chatter,” Anderson says. “Scientists are gossipy and excited. There was nothing strange from my point of view going on at that point that would make you think something is going on here.”

The names of the scientists reported to have been hospitalised haven’t been disclosed. The Chinese government and Shi Zhengli, the lab’s now-famous researcher, have repeatedly denied that anyone from the facility contracted COVID-19. Anderson’s work at the facility, and her funding, ended after the pandemic emerged and she focused on the novel coronavirus.

‘I’m not naive’

It’s not that it’s impossible the virus spilled from there. Anderson, better than most people, understands how a pathogen can escape from a laboratory. SARS, an earlier coronavirus that emerged in Asia in 2002 and killed more than 700 people, subsequently made its way out of secure facilities a handful of times, she says.

If presented with evidence that such an accident spawned COVID-19, Anderson “could foresee how things could maybe happen,” she says. “I’m not naive enough to say I absolutely write this off.”

And yet, she still believes it most likely came from a natural source. Since it took researchers almost a decade to pin down where in nature the SARS pathogen emerged, Anderson says she’s not surprised they haven’t found the “smoking gun” bat responsible for the latest outbreak yet.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is large enough that Anderson says she didn’t know what everyone was working on at the end of 2019. She is aware of published research from the lab that involved testing viral components for their propensity to infect human cells. Anderson is convinced no virus was made intentionally to infect people and deliberately released – one of the more disturbing theories to have emerged about the pandemic’s origins.

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Gain of function

Anderson did concede that it would be theoretically possible for a scientist in the lab to be working on a gain of function technique to unknowingly infect themselves and to then unintentionally infect others in the community. But there’s no evidence that occurred and Anderson rated its likelihood as exceedingly slim.

Getting authorisation to create a virus in this way typically requires many layers of approval, and there are scientific best practices that put strict limits on this kind of work. For example, a moratorium was placed on research that could be done on the 1918 Spanish flu virus after scientists isolated it decades later.

Even if such a gain of function effort got clearance, it’s hard to achieve, Anderson says. The technique is called reverse genetics.

“It’s exceedingly difficult to actually make it work when you want it to work,” she says.

Anderson’s lab in Singapore was one of the first to isolate SARS - CoV - 2 from a COVID patient outside China and then to grow the virus. It was complicated and challenging, even for a team used to working with coronaviruses that knew its biological characteristics, including which protein receptor it targets. These key facets wouldn’t be known by anyone trying to craft a new virus, she says. Even then, the material that researchers study – the virus’s basic building blocks and genetic fingerprint – aren’t initially infectious, so they would need to culture significant amounts to infect people.

Despite this, Anderson does think an investigation is needed to nail down the virus’s origin once and for all. She’s dumbfounded by the portrayal of the lab by some media outside China, and the toxic attacks on scientists that have ensued.

One of a dozen experts appointed to an international taskforce in November to study the origins of the virus, Anderson hasn’t sought public attention, especially since being targeted by US extremists in early 2020 after she exposed false information about the pandemic posted online. The vitriol that ensued prompted her to file a police report. The threats of violence many coronavirus scientists have experienced over the past 18 months have made them hesitant to speak out because of the risk that their words will be misconstrued.

The elements known to trigger infectious outbreaks – the mixing of humans and animals, especially wildlife – were present in Wuhan, creating an environment conducive for the spillover of a new zoonotic disease. In that respect, the emergence of COVID-19 follows a familiar pattern. What’s shocking to Anderson is the way it unfurled into a global contagion.

“The pandemic is something no one could have imagined on this scale,” she says. Researchers must study COVID’s calamitous path to determine what went wrong and how to stop the spread of future pathogens with pandemic potential.

“The virus was in the right place at the right time and everything lined up to cause this disaster.”

https://bit. ly/3dnpO5D

Australia's COVID-19 response team holds urgent meeting amid outbreak

Renju Jose - June 28, 2021

SYDNEY, June 28 (Reuters) - Australia's COVID-19 response committee is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday as outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant across the country prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.

More than 20 million Australians, or around 80% of the population, are now under some form of lockdown or COVID-related restrictions as officials grapple with COVID-19 flare-ups in almost every state or territory.

"I think we are entering a new phase of this pandemic, with the more contagious Delta strain," federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Monday, adding Australia was facing a "critical time" in its fight against COVID-19.

The national security committee, chaired by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, would be briefed by the country's chief medical officer later on Monday, Frydenberg said.

Sydney, Australia's most populous city and the capital of New South Wales (NSW) state, began a two-week lockdown over the weekend.

Eighteen new local cases were reported in NSW on Monday, compared with 30 a day earlier, taking the total infections in the latest outbreak to 130 since the first case was detected nearly two weeks ago in a driver for overseas airline crew.

"We have to be prepared for the numbers to bounce around and we have to be prepared for the numbers to go up considerably," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

"With this strain, we are seeing almost 100% transmission within households."

An initial two-day lockdown in the northern city of Darwin, scheduled to end on Tuesday, was extended to Friday after the Delta variant of the virus was found in a fly-in, fly-out mine worker.

Queensland and South Australia reintroduced mandatory masks and restricted home gatherings, following a similar move by Western Australian officials for state capital Perth. Restrictions remain in place in Victoria state capital Melbourne and national capital Canberra.

Queensland reported two new locally acquired cases while Western Australia and Northern Territory detected one each.

A health alert was issued over the weekend for hundreds of passengers after an infected Virgin Australia cabin crew member worked on five flights covering Brisbane, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.

Australia has so far fared much better than many other developed countries in tackling the spread of the coronavirus, with just over 30,500 cases and 910 deaths.

Lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and swift contact tracing have helped suppress prior outbreaks but the fast-moving Delta variant has alarmed authorities.

NSW police fined 44 people for breaching stay-at-home orders, including a pair of naked sunbathers who became lost in a national park after being startled by a deer.

"Not only did they require assistance from police to rescue them, they also both received a ticket for A$1,000 ($759)," NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters.

($1 = 1.3180 Australian dollars)

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/queensland-tightens-covid-19-curbs-amid-australian-outbreak-2021-06-28/

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Perth’s billion-dollar train deal linked to exploited Uighur workers in China

Marta Pascual Juanola - June 28, 2021

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A billion-dollar train deal between Western Australia and manufacturing giant Alstom is the latest government contract in Australia to face scrutiny for its use of Chinese suppliers linked to exploited Uighur workers.

It comes weeks after revelations Melbourne’s transport authority advised the Victorian government to continue buying parts from a contractor using Uighur labour to avoid additional costs and delays in its $2.4 billion train project.

However, Alstom is adamant its supply chain is free of exploitation and has updated its contracts with suppliers and contractors to include modern slavery clauses.

The McGowan government signed a $1.3 billion contract with Alstom to build and maintain Perth’s next fleet of trains in December 2019 in what was hailed as a milestone for its flagship Metronet project.

It has since been revealed the French multinational will build the network’s C-Series railcars using parts produced by a Chinese firm which sourced workers from Xinjiang through a controversial government program to re-educate minorities.

KTK Group is a major supplier of train fittings headquartered in Changzhou, near Shanghai, and supplies parts to projects in Victoria, NSW, and Queensland.

The company was blacklisted by the US Commerce Department last year for its role in China’s “campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labour, and high technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs and other members of Muslim minority groups”.

In correspondence with Bombardier, another train manufacturer that has since merged with Alstom – obtained by WAtoday under Freedom of Information laws – KTK confirmed it had acquired almost 80 workers from Nilka province in Xinjiang between 2018 and 2019 for its factory in Jiangsu, about 4000 kilometres away, through Beijing’s Xinjiang Aid program.

But it claimed the workers had voluntarily signed contracts that complied with China’s labour laws.

“KTK has employed one dedicated cook in order to respect and satisfy the tradition of Muslim food and provided new decorated dormitories to them free of charge,” the supplier said.

The number of workers from Xinjiang currently employed by KTK is unclear and the company did not respond to requests for comment from this masthead.

Researchers estimate about 80,000 members of persecuted minorities have been moved out of their homes or detention camps in Xinjiang to work at factories under the program, which has been marketed as a “poverty alleviation” initiative for re-educated Uighurs.

In March last year, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank published a world-leading study that found Alstom, along with 82 companies including Nike and BMW, was benefiting from the forced labour of Uighur people. The report found KTK employed about 40 Uighur workers in 2019.

According to the study, the workers often lived in segregated dormitories, underwent Mandarin and ideological training, were constantly under surveillance and barred from practicing their religion.

Chinese state media claims participation in the program is voluntary, but workers who have fled the country described living in fear of being sent back to detention while working at the factories.

The Chinese constitution does not explicitly ban slavery, forced labour, and human trafficking but it recognises a citizen’s right to freedom, work, and rest. However, workers’ exploitation often goes unreported due to the government’s role in programs like Xinjiang Aid.

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The documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show Alstom carried out an investigation into the matter and determined KTK had not used forced labour.

But China experts are questioning whether Australian companies are able to appropriately determine the veracity of KTK’s claims given the lack of transparency in Xinjiang.

The issue was recently highlighted by UN-appointed human rights experts in a letter to KTK chairman Jinkun Yu, where they claimed multinational companies were not allowed to freely access Chinese factories to check no human rights abuses were being committed.

“We are concerned these workers who are allegedly forcefully relocated across the country are subjected to forced labour as part of what the government describes as development and poverty alleviation policy,” it read.

Alstom, which has updated its contract with suppliers to include specific modern slavery clauses, directed all queries to the WA Public Transport Authority.

A PTA spokeswoman said the agency had received assurances from Alstom “they are confident in the integrity of their supply chain and the conduct of their suppliers”.

“Under its contract with the state government, Alstom is obligated to comply with the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018,” she said.

The Act requires companies with a turnover of $100 million or more to publish annual statements outlining the risk of forced labour in their supply chains but does not impose financial penalties.

But human rights and trade advocates say the current legislation doesn’t go far enough and argue Australia should appoint an anti-slavery commissioner in line with other jurisdictions like the UK, which recently rolled out additional requirements on companies buying goods from Xinjiang.

A review of the Act is set to take place later this year but it is unclear whether any significant changes will be made, and a bill by Senator Rex Patrick to ban goods produced in the Uighur-majority region has since fallen through.

WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said she was aware of Alstom’s plans to use KTK components to manufacture Metronet railcars but an independent audit commissioned by the company last year had identified no forced labour issues that “necessitate a change in supplier”.

“We have learnt from the approach of other states and the Public Transport Authority has been proactive in seeking assurances from Alstom on the integrity of their supply chain,” she said.

“I have asked the Public Transport Authority to closely monitor the situation and continue to work with Alstom to ensure all suppliers uphold the high standards expected by the WA community.”

Half of the components used to build the new C-Series railcars at Metronet’s Bellevue facility will be sourced locally in WA, while the remaining parts will be brought in from overseas.

It is not the first time a public transport project in WA has been in the headlines over issues tied to China.

Last year the McGowan government was forced to dump a $206 million mobile data deal with Chinese telco Huawei after a US trade ban on the company meant it couldn’t finish the job.

The company has since been linked to exploited Uighurs through its use of components manufactured by at least five companies using thousands of workers transferred from Xinjiang.

https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-s-billion-dollar-train-deal-linked-to-exploited-uighur-workers-in-china-20210616-p581id.html