Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition May 19, 2024, 1:09 a.m. No.20886248   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Welcome To Q Research AUSTRALIA

 

A new thread for research and discussion of Australia's role in The Great Awakening.

 

Previous thread

>>20545607 Q Research AUSTRALIA #35

 

Q's Posts made on Q Research AUSTRALIA threads

Wednesday 11.20.2019

>>7358352 ————————————–——– These people are stupid.

>>7358338 ————————————–——– All assets [F + D] being deployed.

>>7358318 ————————————–——– What happens when the PUBLIC discovers the TRUTH [magnitude] re: [D] party corruption?

 

Tuesday 11.19.2019

>>7357790 ————————————–——– FISA goes both ways.

 

Saturday 11.16.2019

>>7356270 ————————————–——– There is no escaping God.

>>7356265 ————————————–——– The Harvest [crop] has been prepared and soon will be delivered to the public for consumption.

 

Friday 11.15.2019

>>7356017 ————————————–——– "Whistle Blower Traps" [Mar 4 2018] 'Trap' keyword select provided…..

 

Thursday 03.28.2019

>>5945210 ————————————–——– Sometimes our 'sniffer' picks and pulls w/o applying credit file

>>5945074 ————————————–——– We LOVE you!

>>5944970 ————————————–——– USA v. LifeLog?

>>5944908 ————————————–——– It is an embarrassment to our Nation!

>>5944859 ————————————–——– 'Knowingly'

 

Q's Posts referencing Australia

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Q's Posts referencing Australian citizens

Malcolm Turnbull (X/AUS)

Former Prime Minister of Australia, 2015 to 2018

https://qanon.pub/?q=X%2FAUS

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https://qanon.pub/#819

 

Alexander Downer

Former Australian Liberal Party politician and former Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

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Cardinal George Pell

Australian Cardinal of the Catholic Church and former Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy

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

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Julian Assange

Australian activist, founder, editor and publisher of WikiLeaks

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Virginia Roberts Giuffre

American-Australian survivor of the sex trafficking ring operated by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

https://qanon.pub/#4568

https://qanon.pub/#4728

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Q's Posts referencing The Five Eyes intelligence alliance (FVEY)

An anglophone intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States

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"Does AUS stand w/ the US or only select divisions within the US?"

Q

Nov 25 2018

https://qanon.pub/#2501

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:11 a.m. No.20886251   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Notables

are not endorsements

 

#35 - Part 1

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 1

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:11 a.m. No.20886253   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 2

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 2

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:11 a.m. No.20886254   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 3

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 3

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:11 a.m. No.20886256   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 4

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 4

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:12 a.m. No.20886258   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 5

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 5

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:12 a.m. No.20886260   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 6

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 6

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:12 a.m. No.20886261   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 7

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 7

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:12 a.m. No.20886262   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 8

Israel / Hamas Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 8

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:13 a.m. No.20886264   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 9

Australian Politics and Society - Part 1

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:14 a.m. No.20886265   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 10

Australian Politics and Society - Part 2

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:15 a.m. No.20886267   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 11

Australian Politics and Society - Part 3

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:15 a.m. No.20886268   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 12

Australian Politics and Society - Part 4

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:15 a.m. No.20886270   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 13

Australian Politics and Society - Part 5

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:16 a.m. No.20886271   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 14

Australian Politics and Society - Part 6

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:16 a.m. No.20886272   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 15

Australian Politics and Society - Part 7

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:16 a.m. No.20886273   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 16

Australian Politics and Society - Part 8

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:16 a.m. No.20886274   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 17

Australian Politics and Society - Part 9

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:17 a.m. No.20886275   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 18

Australian Politics and Society - Part 10

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:17 a.m. No.20886278   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 19

Australian Politics and Society - Part 11

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:17 a.m. No.20886280   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 20

Australian Politics and Society - Part 12

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:18 a.m. No.20886281   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 21

Australian Politics and Society - Part 13

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:18 a.m. No.20886283   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 22

Australian Politics and Society - Part 14

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:19 a.m. No.20886284   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 23

Australian Politics and Society - Part 15

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:19 a.m. No.20886285   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 24

Australian Politics and Society - Part 16

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:20 a.m. No.20886286   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 25

Australian Politics and Society - Part 17

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:20 a.m. No.20886289   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 26

Australian Politics and Society - Part 18

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:21 a.m. No.20886290   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 27

Australian Politics and Society - Part 19

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:21 a.m. No.20886292   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 28

Australian Politics and Society - Part 20

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:22 a.m. No.20886294   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 29

Australian Politics and Society - Part 21

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:22 a.m. No.20886296   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 30

Australian Politics and Society - Part 22

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:23 a.m. No.20886298   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 31

Australian Politics and Society - Part 23

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:23 a.m. No.20886299   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 32

Australian Politics and Society - Part 24

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:24 a.m. No.20886300   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 33

Australian Politics and Society - Part 25

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:24 a.m. No.20886301   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 34

Australian Politics and Society - Part 26

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:24 a.m. No.20886302   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 35

Australian Politics and Society - Part 27

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:25 a.m. No.20886303   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 36

Australian Politics and Society - Part 28

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:25 a.m. No.20886304   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 37

Australian Politics and Society - Part 29

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:25 a.m. No.20886305   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 38

Australian Politics and Society - Part 30

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:25 a.m. No.20886306   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 39

Australian Politics and Society - Part 31

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:26 a.m. No.20886308   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 40

Australian Politics and Society - Part 32

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:26 a.m. No.20886309   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 41

Australian Politics and Society - Part 33

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:26 a.m. No.20886311   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 42

Australian Politics and Society - Part 34

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:26 a.m. No.20886313   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 43

Australian Politics and Society - Part 35

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:27 a.m. No.20886314   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 44

Australian Politics and Society - Part 36

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:27 a.m. No.20886315   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 45

Australian Politics and Society - Part 37

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:28 a.m. No.20886317   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 46

Australian Politics and Society - Part 38

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:28 a.m. No.20886318   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 47

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:28 a.m. No.20886319   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 48

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

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:29 a.m. No.20886320   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 49

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 1

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:29 a.m. No.20886322   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 50

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 2

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:29 a.m. No.20886323   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 51

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 3

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:30 a.m. No.20886324   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 52

Julian Assange Indictment and Extradition - Part 4

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

 

#35 - Part 53

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:31 a.m. No.20886325   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 54

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

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:32 a.m. No.20886326   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 55

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:33 a.m. No.20886330   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 56

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:33 a.m. No.20886331   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 57

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:33 a.m. No.20886332   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 58

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:34 a.m. No.20886333   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 59

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 1

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:34 a.m. No.20886334   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 60

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 2

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:35 a.m. No.20886336   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 61

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 3

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:35 a.m. No.20886337   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 62

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 4

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:35 a.m. No.20886338   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 63

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 5

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:36 a.m. No.20886339   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 64

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 6

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:36 a.m. No.20886340   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 65

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 7

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

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:36 a.m. No.20886341   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 66

Australia / China Tensions - Part 1

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:37 a.m. No.20886342   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 67

Australia / China Tensions - Part 2

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:37 a.m. No.20886343   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 68

Australia / China Tensions - Part 3

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:37 a.m. No.20886344   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 69

Australia / China Tensions - Part 4

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:37 a.m. No.20886345   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 70

Australia / China Tensions - Part 5

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:38 a.m. No.20886346   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 71

Australia / China Tensions - Part 6

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:38 a.m. No.20886347   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 72

Australia / China Tensions - Part 7

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:38 a.m. No.20886348   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 73

Australia / China Tensions - Part 8

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:39 a.m. No.20886349   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 74

Australia / China Tensions - Part 9

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:39 a.m. No.20886350   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 75

Australia / China Tensions - Part 10

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:39 a.m. No.20886351   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 76

Australia / China Tensions - Part 11

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:39 a.m. No.20886353   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 77

Australia / China Tensions - Part 12

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:40 a.m. No.20886354   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 78

Australia / China Tensions - Part 13

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:40 a.m. No.20886355   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 79

Australia / China Tensions - Part 14

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:40 a.m. No.20886356   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 80

Australia / China Tensions - Part 15

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:41 a.m. No.20886357   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 81

Australia / China Tensions - Part 16

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:41 a.m. No.20886358   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 82

Australia / China Tensions - Part 17

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

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:41 a.m. No.20886359   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 83

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:42 a.m. No.20886360   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 84

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:42 a.m. No.20886361   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 85

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:42 a.m. No.20886362   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 86

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:43 a.m. No.20886364   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 87

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

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

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

 

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:44 a.m. No.20886365   🗄️.is 🔗kun

#35 - Part 88

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

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

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

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:46 a.m. No.20886367   🗄️.is 🔗kun

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Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 1:47 a.m. No.20886368   🗄️.is 🔗kun

THREAD ARCHIVES

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Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 2:25 a.m. No.20886418   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3682 >>9118 >>9138

>>20676473 (pb)

Former US fighter pilot accused of giving military secrets to China

 

60 Minutes Australia

 

May 12, 2024

 

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

 

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

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 19, 2024, 3:53 a.m. No.20886492   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5103

>>20736646 (pb)

>>20736652 (pb)

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange faces U.S. extradition judgment day

 

Michael Holden and Sam Tobin - May 19, 2024

 

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - A British court could give a final decision on Monday on whether WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States over the mass leak of secret U.S. documents, the culmination of 13 years of legal battles and detentions.

 

Two judges at the High Court in London are set to rule on whether the court is satisfied by U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, would not face the death penalty and could rely on the First Amendment right to free speech if he faced a U.S. trial for spying.

 

Assange's legal team say he could be on a plane across the Atlantic within 24 hours of the decision, could be released from jail, or his case could yet again be bogged down in months of legal battles

 

"I have the sense that anything could happen at this stage," his wife Stella said last week. "Julian could be extradited, or he could be freed.

 

She said her husband hoped to be in court for the crucial hearing.

 

WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - the largest security breaches of their kind in U.S. military history - along with swathes of diplomatic cables.

 

In April 2010 it published a classified video showing a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.

 

The U.S. authorities want to put the Australian-born Assange on trial over 18 charges, nearly all under the Espionage Act, saying his actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.

 

His many global supporters call the prosecution a travesty, an assault on journalism and free speech, and revenge for causing embarrassment. Calls for the case to be dropped have ranged from human rights groups and some media bodies, to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other political leaders.

 

DETAINED SINCE 2010

 

Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a Swedish warrant over sex crime allegations that were later dropped. Since then he has been variously under house arrest, holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London for seven years, and held since 2019 in Belmarsh top security jail, latterly while he waited a ruling on his extradition.

 

"Every day since the seventh of December 2010 he has been in one form of detention or another," said Stella Assange, who was originally part of his legal team and married him in Belmarsh in 2022.

 

If the High Court rules the extradition can go ahead, Assange's legal avenues in Britain are exhausted, and his lawyers will immediately turn to the European Court of Human Rights to seek an emergency injunction blocking deportation pending a full hearing by that court into his case at a later date.

 

On the other hand, if the judges reject the U.S. submissions, then he will have permission to appeal his extradition case on three grounds, and that might not be heard until next year.

 

It is also possible the judges could decide that Monday's hearing should consider not just whether he can appeal but also the substance of that appeal. If they find in his favour in those circumstances, he could be released.

 

Stella Assange said that whatever the outcome she would continue to fight for his liberty. If he is freed she plans to follow him to Australia or wherever he was safe. If he is extradited, she said all the psychiatric evidence presented at court had concluded he was at very serious risk of suicide.

 

"We live from day to day, from week to week, from decision to decision. This is a way that we've been living for years and years," she told Reuters.

 

"This is just not a way to live - it's so cruel. And I can't prepare for his extradition - how could I? But if he's extradited, then I'll do whatever I can, and our family is going to fight for him until he's free."

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/wikileaks-julian-assange-faces-us-extradition-judgment-day-2024-05-19/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 20, 2024, 4:05 a.m. No.20890833   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0838 >>1910 >>9188 >>9837

>>20864839 (pb)

>>20873174 (pb)

New report warns plan to extend life of the Collins Class submarine is a ‘high risk endeavour’

 

CAMERON STEWART - MAY 20, 2024

 

1/2

 

The Albanese government has been warned that the $5bn plan to extend the life of the navy’s ageing fleet of Collins-class submarines for another decade is a perilously high-risk endeavour that is not guaranteed to succeed.

 

Australia’s ability to defend itself using submarines over the next decade would be in jeopardy if the plan to extend the life of the Collins-class fleet cannot be achieved, given that the first of the nuclear-powered AUKUS submarines is not due to arrive in Australia until 2032.

 

An interim report and verbal briefings delivered to the government have revealed significant technical challenges to the planned $5bn Life of Type Extension to the six Collins-class sub­marines due to begin in 2026.

 

The classified assessment of the LOTE project, by former US navy deputy assistant secretary Gloria Valdez, was commissioned by the government last October to assess the viability of the plan to extend the life of the Collins boats to ensure that Australia “retains an enduring, potent and agile submarine capability”.

 

It is understood that Ms Valdez’s interim report delivered this month outlined extensive technical risks to the LOTE program, saying the size and scope of the planned extensions had never before been attempted on the bespoke Collins-class boats, which were built between 1990 and 2003.

 

Ms Valdez expressed concern that the government-owned submarine company ASC lacked the necessary design and engineering experience to extend the life of the submarines for a full decade.

 

She is also understood to have recommended that the Collins-class submarine’s original Swedish designer, SAAB Kockums, be given a larger role in ensuring the project’s success.

 

The LOTE will need the submarines to be largely rebuilt, with their hulls cut in half to replace the propulsion systems, diesel engines, generators, and the power conversion and distribution systems as well as up­graded command and control systems.

 

The chief executive and managing director of ASC Stuart Whiley told Senate estimates hearings in February that there were “no guarantees” with the LOTE outcome, saying it was a “first-of-class engineering task” that had not been done before and was “certainly a challenging technical program”.

 

The Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, declined to comment on the interim report but told The Australian “this is a complex project and the government is working through this process in a methodical manner”.

 

“I have regular discussions with Gloria Valdez and continue to receive updates, which help inform how we manage this important capability,” he said.

 

ASC is currently working on the detailed design review of the LOTE plan, which it hopes to deliver to the government by the end of the year.

 

The six submarines were originally due to retire progressively every two years from 2026 but under the LOTE plan they will each undergo a complete two-year refit aimed at keeping them in the water for another decade.

 

If the LOTE is successful, it would mean that the Collins-class fleet would continue to operate until 2038, when the first boat HMAS Farncomb, would be ­retired, until 2048 when the last submarine would be retired.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 20, 2024, 4:06 a.m. No.20890838   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20890833

 

2/2

 

However, many naval experts believe that by the late 2030s and ’40s, the Collins-class submarines, which were designed in the 1980s, would be sitting ducks for newer, more sophisticated submarines being built by China.

 

They also say it is unrealistic to expect that each Collins-class submarine can be refitted under the complex LOTE plan in just two years, leading to a likely slippage in the schedule.

 

The need to extend the life of the Collins-class submarines has become an urgent priority since the formation of the 2021 AUKUS pact in which the plan to acquire French Attack-class boats was scrapped in favour of acquiring a fleet of nuclear-­powered boats.

 

The three US built Virginia-class submarines under that deal are not due to arrive in Australia until 2032, 2035 and 2037.

 

They will be followed by the construction in Adelaide of the next generation British-designed SSN-AUKUS submarine, the first of which is not expected to be delivered until the early 2040s.

 

The prospects of slippage in the delivery dates of the Virginia-class and SSN-AUKUS is considered very high, given the complexities involved, making it even more essential that the LOTE program succeeds.

 

Although the AUKUS plan to acquire Virginia-class submarines from the US has received broadly bipartisan support in Washington, some Republicans have questioned whether the move would undermine US naval capability.

 

They point to the fact that the production of Virginia-class boats has fallen behind scheduled US navy targets even before the US sells any of its submarines to ­Australia.

 

The presumptive Republican nominee for president Donald Trump last week gave his strongest signal yet that he would back the AUKUS plan for Australia to acquire US submarines if he becomes president, telling former prime minister Scott Morrison in a meeting in New York that he believed AUKUS played a critical role in deterring China.

 

It was the first public comments made by Mr Trump in support of AUKUS, a three-nation pact that was jointly created by the administration of Mr Trump’s presidential rival, Joe Biden.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/new-report-warns-plan-to-extend-life-of-the-collins-class-submarine-is-a-high-risk-endeavour/news-story/69f0e57b018476401ee130b1c8b42265

 

https://www.asc.com.au/what-we-do/collins-life-of-type-extension-lote/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 20, 2024, 4:28 a.m. No.20890891   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3732

>>20686729 (pb)

>>20741593 (pb)

Chinese ambassador to New Zealand critical of AUKUS Pillar Two

 

1News Reporters - 20 May 2024

 

The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand has issued a stern warning over AUKUS as NZ explores the possibility of joining Pillar Two of the US-led security pact.

 

Speaking at the China Business Summit in Auckland today, Ambassador Wang Xiaolong spoke about China’s economic outlook and its trade relationship with New Zealand.

 

It comes as the Government considers joining AUKUS’s non-nuclear second pillar, which would move New Zealand further away from China – our biggest trade partner.

 

AUKUS is a deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States under which Australia will acquire nuclear-powered submarines for its defence force. The stated aim of Pillar Two is about sharing advanced technology, like artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The tech could also include drones or support systems for hypersonic weapons.

 

In his speech, Wang said China and New Zealand’s relationship was at a “critical juncture”.

 

“Profound changes are taking place both in the international environment and in our respective countries,” he said.

 

He was heavily critical of AUKUS and said it would only serve to heighten tensions in the region.

 

"The sole purpose of the second pillar is to serve and support nuclear-related military cooperation under the first pillar rather than being an innocent platform for technology sharing," he said.

 

"Many people in New Zealand and beyond believe that joining such an alliance in whatever form is indeed taking sides."

 

He said China respected the sovereignty of other nations, including the development of their foreign policy.

 

“Military alliances are better at winning wars rather than keeping the peace,” he cautioned.

 

“By binding others, and even entire regions, to the war chariot of countries seeking hegemony, military alliances tend to exacerbate confrontation and trigger, escalate, and expand the conflict rather than the contrary."

 

Wang criticised countries that see China as aggressive – and said it was only being “responsive” and “defensive” in the face of “provocations”.

 

“China is not a threat to New Zealand, rather, as has been pointed out by both the Prime Minister [Christopher Luxon] and Minister [Todd] McClay, China represents for New Zealand an opportunity and a mutually beneficial partner.”

 

He said the AUKUS alliance was less about sharing technology and more about supporting a nuclear standoff in the region, but it was ultimately "up to New Zealand" as to what happens next.

 

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said there were "powerful reasons" for New Zealand to join Pillar Two of AUKUS as he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month.

 

But Peters later said in a speech that the Government was still a "long way from this point of being able to make a decision".

 

Wang also talked about China's economy and said it was an “important powerhouse” driving global growth “for many years to come”.

 

He said the growth comes as the West attempts to put pressure on its economy.

 

“Despite the constant technological blockades, embargoes and protectionist measures levelled against Chinese companies by the US-led efforts to erect ever higher walls around allegedly small yards that keep expanding."

 

Speaking about China’s economic outlook, Wang said: “Intriguingly, there are now, in some Anglo-Saxon media, two diametrically opposing narratives".

 

“One says that China has already peaked as an economy, and some nay-sayers even come to the conclusion that China is on the brink of imminent collapse.

 

“The other narrative says that the Chinese economy is so strong it threatens to flood the rest of the world market with its overcapacity."

 

He said: “By common sense, these two opposing narratives can’t also be right at the same time.

 

“They are, in fact, both wrong.”

 

Speaking to Q+A yesterday morning, Trade Minister Todd McClay said he wouldn't expect there to be any implications for New Zealand's trade with China if the Government were to sign up to AUKUS Pillar Two.

 

"I don't expect that there would be as long as we're open and talking about the reasons that we are doing these things," he replied.

 

"One of the most challenging things for any country, in the world, is when things happen as a surprise, and they don't understand."

 

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/05/20/chinese-ambassador-to-nz-critical-of-aukus-pillar-two/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 20, 2024, 4:50 a.m. No.20890947   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0952

>>20686820 (pb)

Abuse victim sues parole board for letting paedophile priest Michael Glennon access children

 

Chip Le Grand - May 20, 2024

 

1/2

 

A man who says he was raped as a boy by paedophile priest Michael Glennon is suing Victoria’s parole board for failing to restrict Glennon’s access to children after his release from jail.

 

Lawyers involved in the Supreme Court case believe it is the first attempt in Victoria to extend culpability for historical clerical abuse beyond the Catholic Church to the government statutory body responsible for releasing convicted paedophiles into the community.

 

John Rule, a principal lawyer for Maurice Blackburn who specialises in abuse cases, said the church, the Adult Parole Board and the parole officer responsible for supervising Glennon had all failed to protect his client, who is suspected to have been one of dozens of children sexually abused by Glennon in the 1970s and ’80s at a youth camp near Lancefield.

 

“They knowingly and almost expressly allowed Glennon to work with the Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation while fully aware that he had been convicted of serious sexual offences against a child,” Rule said.

 

Glennon, one of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles, died 10 years ago while serving a jail sentence for child sex convictions and awaiting trial on further charges. Aside from the cynical nature of his repeated offending and legal manoeuvres to avoid judgment, he came to national prominence as the Catholic priest at the centre of a contempt case that landed broadcaster Derryn Hinch in jail.

 

Glennon is currently the subject of a separate damages claim before the Supreme Court in which two Aboriginal men are attempting to sue the Pope over Rome’s failure to defrock the paedophile priest despite successive Melbourne archbishops petitioning the Vatican to do so.

 

Pope Francis, in documents filed with the court, has flagged his intention to claim legal immunity from Australian laws as a foreign head of state. That case returns to court in August.

 

Monash University criminologist Arie Freiberg, the inaugural chair of Victoria’s Sentencing Advisory Council, which reviewed Victoria’s parole system, said there was a tension between the duty of care owed by the members of the parole board and the need to protect them from being sued for doing their job. “The liability of public authorities for negligence is a very complex area of law,” he said.

 

The closest precedent is a 30-year-old case in South Australia, where a finding of negligence was made against the state after a convicted paedophile raped a seven-year-old child while on parole. That decision was overturned on appeal by a full bench of the Supreme Court of South Australia.

 

The case against the parole board centres on allegations of sexual assault against Glennon that were never tried in criminal proceedings. The plaintiff, a sales manager in his 50s, said he was an adolescent when he attended Karaglen, a youth camp run by Glennon, an ordained priest and self-styled karate teacher.

 

In his statement of claim, the man said that in 1979, Glennon came to his tent in the middle of the night, sexually assaulted him and then led him into bushland, where he raped him. The man said Glennon told him the abuse was part of a “bravery test.” The man claimed that because of his ordeal, he dropped out of school and experienced life-long mental health disorders and substance abuse.

 

At the time of the alleged abuse, Glennon was on parole for a previous child sex conviction, having served 12 months of a two-year jail term for rape, attempted carnal knowledge and indecent assault of a girl.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 20, 2024, 4:52 a.m. No.20890952   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20890947

 

2/2

 

According to church documents referenced in the statement of claim, senior figures in the Melbourne Archdiocese knew of Glennon’s offending against children and that, upon his release from jail, he intended to continue his work with the Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation, which ran the Karaglen camp.

 

Despite Glennon’s parole officer also having a direct involvement with the youth foundation and knowledge of Glennon’s intention to keep working with children, neither the church nor the parole officer asked the parole board to make Glennon’s release from jail conditional on him staying away from children.

 

The plaintiff claims that both the parole board and the parole officer, who was employed by the Victorian government, were negligent in permitting Glennon to access children after his release.

 

The Adult Parole Board in 1979 was chaired by John Starke, a Victorian Supreme Court judge who died in 1994. Starke was best known for handing down the death sentence against Ronald Ryan, the last person hanged in Australia, despite the judge’s personal objection to capital punishment.

 

The board’s 1978-79 annual report shows that of 2,362 cases considered that financial year, 568 were released on parole.

 

A spokesperson for Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli declined to comment while the case was before the court.

 

The case is scheduled for mediation in October and trial in December.

 

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

 

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

 

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

 

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

 

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

 

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/abuse-victim-sues-parole-board-for-letting-paedophile-priest-access-children-20240519-p5jert.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:11 a.m. No.20895013   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5019 >>5037 >>5062 >>9413 >>3622 >>3643 >>3669 >>8931 >>8964 >>2404 >>6892 >>1874 >>6898 >>2075 >>9166 >>9698 >>9717

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

 

Reuters/AP/ABC - May 20, 2024

 

1/2

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:13 a.m. No.20895019   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895013

 

2/2

 

Biden: 'What's happening in Gaza is not genocide'

 

US President Joe Biden strongly defended Israel on Monday, saying Israeli forces were not committing genocide in their military campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza.

 

"What's happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that," Mr Biden said at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House.

 

Mr Biden has faced protests at many of his events around the country from pro-Palestinian advocates who have labelled him "Genocide Joe" for his steadfast support for Israel.

 

He said US support for the safety and security of Israelis was "ironclad."

 

"We stand with Israel to take out [Yahya] Sinwar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas. We want Hamas defeated. We're working with Israel to make that happen," he said.

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the move could jeopardise efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement.

 

The announcement by the ICC's top prosecutor deepens Israel's isolation as it presses ahead with its war, and the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.

 

Both Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri are believed to be hiding in Gaza as Israel tries to hunt them down.

 

However, Ismail Haniyeh — the supreme leader of Hamas — is based in Qatar and frequently travels across the region.

 

The ICC is the world's first permanent international war crimes court.

 

Its 124 member states are obliged to immediately arrest the wanted person on their territory, but the court has no means to enforce arrest warrants.

 

If arrest warrants are issued, it would severely curtail the ability of the leaders to travel outside of Israel and Qatar.

 

Israel and Qatar are not signatories to the Rome Statute — an agreement that sees countries compelled to arrest people who are wanted on allegations of war crimes.

 

Israel withdrew its signature in 2002.

 

After a brief period of international support for its war, Israel has faced increasing criticism as the conflict has dragged on and the death toll has climbed.

 

The Gaza health ministry said more than 35,562 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, with 79,652 other people injured.

 

Israel launched its war in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage.

 

The UN has said 80 per cent of the population in Gaza has been displaced, with hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of starvation.

 

Israel is also facing a South African case in the International Court of Justice accusing it of genocide.

 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not comment on the ICC decision.

 

He said "every life matters, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian" in the Middle East.

 

"From the time that, on October 7, the terrorist atrocity committed by Hamas — we opposed that," he said.

 

"We have called for the release of hostages. We've called for a humanitarian ceasefire. We've called for increased humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza."

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-20/icc-seeks-arrest-warrants-for-netanyahu-hamas-leaders/103871928

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:22 a.m. No.20895037   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5043 >>3643 >>3669 >>8931 >>8964 >>2404 >>6892 >>1874 >>6898 >>2075 >>9166 >>9698 >>9717 >>3445 >>3586 >>3059 >>3088 >>8305 >>8311 >>8335 >>8353

>>20895013

Australia backs ICC’s role but says ‘no equivalence between Israel and Hamas’

 

Matthew Knott and Olivia Ireland - May 21, 2024

 

1/2

 

The federal government has insisted there is no moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas while backing the International Criminal Court’s role upholding international law after its top prosecutor sensationally requested arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defence chief as well as three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.

 

In a notable divergence from US President Joe Biden, who blasted the requested warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sidestepped questions about the issue on Tuesday, prompting Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to accuse him of “selling out Australia” by failing to back Israel.

 

If the international court were to find Netanyahu, Gallant or the Hamas leaders guilty of war crimes, they would not be allowed into Australia, as the government is a signatory to the Rome Statute – the treaty that established the court.

 

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson, responding on behalf of Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, said: “Australia respects the ICC and the important role it has in upholding international law.

 

“The decision on whether to issue arrest warrants is a matter for the court in the independent exercise of its functions.

 

“It is not appropriate to comment on matters before the court.”

 

The department spokesperson continued: “There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organisation.

 

“It is proscribed as such in Australia … Any country under attack by Hamas would defend itself. And in defending itself, every country is bound by the same fundamental rules. Israel must comply with international humanitarian law.”

 

The international court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said on Monday he believed Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh bore criminal responsibility for war crimes against civilians in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

 

Khan alleged Netanyahu used starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally directed attacks against a civilian population and wilfully caused great suffering.

 

Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, faces allegations of responsibility for extermination and murder, as well as the taking of hostages, torture, rape, other acts of sexual violence and cruel treatment.

 

Khan’s request has gone to a pre-trial chamber, which will decide whether to issue arrest warrants.

 

Asked about Khan’s allegations at a press conference in Parramatta on Tuesday, Albanese said: “I don’t comment on court processes in Australia, let alone court processes globally to which Australia is not a party.”

 

Regarding the Middle East, he said that it was important to condemn Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the conflict and focus on the release of Israeli hostages, a humanitarian ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.

 

“We’ve said that every life matters, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian, and we’ve called for progress towards a two-state solution,” he said.

 

Albanese’s comments differed from those of Biden, who called the prosecutor’s effort to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant outrageous.

 

“Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said.

 

An estimated 1200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage when Hamas militants stormed into Israeli towns on October 7.

 

The war has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. About 80 per cent of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians has been displaced within the territory.

 

Dutton on Tuesday backed Biden’s stance, saying Khan’s allegations were antisemitic.

 

“[Albanese is] not showing leadership in relation to antisemitism and he’s tarnishing and damaging our international relationships with like-minded nations when he’s not strong enough to stand up alongside President Biden … it’s an abomination, the ICC, and it needs to be ceased, this action is antisemitic,” Dutton said in Melbourne.

 

“We need to make sure the international rule of law is applied fairly and not on a political basis and to draw an equivalence between Israel and Hamas I think is repugnant.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:23 a.m. No.20895043   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895037

 

2/2

 

Energy Minister Chris Bowen, whose western Sydney electorate has a large Muslim population, criticised Dutton’s comments as irresponsible.

 

“I respect the International Criminal Court and … the work they do. International law must be respected and, of course, [it] was not respected by Hamas. Israel must respect international law,” he said on Sky.

 

“I heard … Peter Dutton’s comments which were, in and of themselves, highly irresponsible by Peter Dutton to drag this through a domestic political debate … international law must always be observed and nobody gets a free pass for that.”

 

The allegations of war crimes have received mixed reactions from key representative groups, with the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network welcoming Khan’s application while the Executive Council of Australian Jewry condemned the allegations.

 

The council’s co-chief executive, Alex Ryvchin, said Khan’s allegations were “a dangerous politicisation of the ICC” and “obliterates the moral and legal distinction between terrorists and democratic states”.

 

“When an ally comes under a mendacious political attack such as this, it needs its friends in the international community to stand with it,” he said.

 

“President Biden demonstrated true friendship and we expect no less of our government.”

 

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said the application had been “a long time coming” and urged Australia to align with the court’s application and use its voice to “end the genocide and ensure justice is done”.

 

Liberal senator Dave Sharma, who served as Australia’s ambassador to Israel, blasted the application, saying: “The moral equivalence being practised here is sickening and preposterous. This decision completely undermines the seriousness and credibility of the International Criminal Court.”

 

Greens foreign affairs spokesman Jordon Steele-John said: “The findings of the ICC prosecutor have reinforced what so many in our community already knew: there have been serious and sustained breaches of international law in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Hamas’ attacks on civilians on October 7th and the treatment of hostages since.

 

“Australia must immediately sanction Netanyahu and his war cabinet, stop arms exports to Israel and expel the ambassador until Israel fully complies with the orders of the ICJ [International Court of Justice] and investigations by the ICC.”

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-sidesteps-questions-on-icc-warrant-requests-for-netanyahu-hamas-20240521-p5jfcw.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:30 a.m. No.20895062   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5063

>>20895013

Alexander Downer slams International Criminal Court over ‘outrageous’ arrest move

 

JANET ALBRECHTSEN and ELLIE DUDLEY - MAY 21, 2024

 

1/2

 

Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer has accused prosecutor Karim Khan of “destroying” the International Criminal Court in requesting arrest warrants of Israeli leaders alongside those of Hamas terrorists, and says he would, if still in government, withdraw from the court if judges proceed with prosecution.

 

Mr Downer, who led Australia to joining the ICC under the Howard government, says Mr Khan has drawn a “moral equivalence” between Israel’s functioning democracy and a “terrorist organisation which is determined to destroy and kill the Jewish people and eliminate their country”.

 

He said the decision to issue the warrants “makes me sick”, labelling the move as “so, so wrong” and saying he is “absolutely heartbroken” at what the ICC has become.

 

Mr Khan requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence chief Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh – for crimes against humanity and alleged war crimes on Monday evening.

 

In a statement, he said that he was seeking warrants against the Israeli leaders for crimes including “wilful killing”, “extermination and/or murder”, and “starvation”.

 

He said Israel had committed “crimes against humanity” during the war, started by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, as part “of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population”.

 

Khan also said the leaders of Hamas “bear criminal responsibility” for actions committed during the October 7 attack. These included “taking hostages”, “rape and other acts of sexual violence”, and “torture”, he said.

 

“International law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all,” Khan said. “No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader – no one – can act with impunity.”

 

But Mr Downer told The Australian on Tuesday the decision to issue the warrants is “absolutely outrageous” and said it makes him “sick” to see parallels drawn between the Israeli government and Hamas.

 

“It’s the moral equivalence between a liberal democracy, with a functioning and effective … legal system, including judicial system, Israel, and a terrorist organisation which is determined to destroy and kill the Jewish people and eliminate their country,” he said.

 

“To think that there is some moral equivalence between the two, he’s (Khan) done that for political reasons. It makes me sick. It makes me sick. It’s so, so wrong. He has singlehandedly destroyed what was in principle in a good idea.”

 

Mr Downer said it was “just monstrous” for Mr Khan to make the allegations against the Israeli government, and called on the Albanese government to “ask questions” of the court about the decision to issue the arrest warrants.

 

“If I were the minister today, I’d be going to the ICC demanding answers to these questions,” he said.

 

Mr Downer said he felt personally “let down” by the ICC – which he fought hard for Australia to become signatory to – but said, more than that, Mr Khan had “destroyed” the court.

 

“You have massively let me down and in the process of doing what you have done, you have destroyed the International Criminal Court. You have just destroyed it,” he said. “Unless this is somehow rectified, I think it’s the end of the International Criminal Court.”

 

Mr Downer said, if he were still in government, he would “withdraw all together” from the ICC if the judges continue to prosecution, saying he feels “absolutely heartbroken” at Mr Khan’s decision.

 

“If the judges decided to proceed with the prosecution I would withdraw all together from the statute,” he said. “That’s what I would do … I am absolutely heartbroken about what this guy has done. I think it’s just shocking. I think he has destroyed the international criminal court. It’ll never, and there will never be in a western country any sort of consensus or support for a court like that.”

 

Mr Downer said he agreed to the ICC in a “burst of idealism”.

 

“I thought as a concept it was a good idea,” he said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:31 a.m. No.20895063   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895062

 

2/2

 

When the Howard government ratified the Rome Treaty setting up the ICC, Mr Downer said he expected that the safeguards - that the court only deal with cases which a domestic legal system refused to prosecute or was incapable of prosecuting - would “hold out” in a situation such as this.

 

“Have cases been brought against both Netanyahu and the Defence Minister in the Israeli courts for war crimes? I’m just not aware of it,” he said. “Maybe there is a case, but I would have thought I would have read about it. On what basis are the Israeli courts not able to handle such a claim?”

 

Anthony Albanese on Tuesday refused to weigh in on the ICC’s bid to issue the war crimes arrest warrants, with Peter Dutton saying the Prime Minister has “squibbed it” and is “selling out Australia” in failing to act.

 

The Opposition Leader said he backed Joe Biden after the US President labelled the ICC arrest move as “outrageous”.

 

“Australia should stand shoulder to shoulder with President Biden. He has shown leadership by standing up against this equivalence, to compare the Israeli Prime Minister to a terrorist organisation leader and to not have some clarity in relation to it, I think is appalling,” Mr Dutton said.

 

“The Prime Minister squibbed it today when he was asked about this issue. And the Prime Minister had the opportunity at the ICC where Australia was consulted in relation to this matter, they didn’t weigh in and say they were against this measure. Instead, they sat on the sideline and had nothing to say about it at all.

 

“(Mr Albanese) is not showing leadership in relation to anti-Semitism and he’s tarnishing and damaging our international relationships with like-minded nations when he’s not strong enough to stand up like Joe Biden.

 

“Either the Prime Minister is not across the detail, or he’s trying to please a domestic audience here for political purposes. Either way, he’s selling out Australia.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/alexander-downer-slams-international-criminal-court-over-outrageous-arrest-move/news-story/11a314a17418b87a2b561a7f61b5c996

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:43 a.m. No.20895103   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5116 >>3692 >>6971

>>20886492

Julian Assange wins right to appeal US extradition

 

JACQUELIN MAGNAY - MAY 21, 2024

 

1/2

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 3:46 a.m. No.20895116   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895103

 

2/2

 

The US wants him to face 18 counts of espionage and computer hacking in relation to alleged offences in 2010 and 2011 for publishing classified US military documents and war logs.

 

The judges had discounted the US argument that the first amendment rights and nationality issues were not relevant to the extradition.

 

James Lewis, acting for the US government, had submitted that the issue of the first amendment was irrelevant and that not even Chelsea Manning, whom Assange is accused of conspiring with, had been afforded the first amendment protections.

 

Mr Lewis told the court: “No one, neither US citizens nor foreign citizens, are entitled to rely on the first amendment in relation to publication of illegally obtained national defence information giving the names of innocent sources to their grave and imminent risk of harm.”

 

Assange’s counsel said while the US assurances about the death penalty being removed from consideration “were adequate”, other aspects were not.

 

He said the other two assurances about Mr Assange not being discriminated because of being a foreign national had been “grossly inadequate”.

 

“It is not a knockout (US assurance),’’ Mr Fitzgerald said.

 

“The assurance does not promise Mr Assange can rely on first amendment, only that he can raise it and seek to rely upon it … this is not an assurance at all,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

 

“It assures only that Mr Assange ‘may seek to’ raise the first amendment. It does not even assure that (Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia prosecutor) Mr (Gordon) Kromberg will not oppose that argument.”

 

Mr Fitzgerald criticised Mr Kromberg for being silent, saying his omission to make promises to the court was “significant”.

 

But he added that even if Mr Kromberg had given a promise, the US court still had overriding discretion.

 

Mr Fitzgerald said there was “no doubt” the US trial court remains free to raise the point that Assange as a non-US citizen is not entitled to rely on the first amendment.

 

“It is exclusively within the purview of the US courts, no way the US courts can be bound or debarred from taking the point themselves,’’ Mr Fitzgerald said.

 

“Even if it did purport to be an assurance of outcome, which it does not, it could not be a binding one. Based on the principle of the separation of powers, the US Court can and will apply US law, whatever the executive may say or do.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/not-a-knockout-assange-lawyers-reject-us-extradition-assurances/news-story/cc47592893a065d6a243708f127af952

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm6g9WBSzPc

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 4:09 a.m. No.20895188   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20808099

Australia keen to keep police in Solomon Islands

 

Dominic Giannini - May 21 2024

 

Australia stands ready to help Solomon Islands build a military force, as Defence Minister Richard Marles seized the opportunity to hold talks with the nation's new prime minister.

 

Mr Marles has travelled to Honiara for high-level meetings as the Pacific nation transitions to a new government under the leadership of Jeremiah Manele.

 

The defence minister, who pledged $50 million for border management and a health centre on Tuesday, said Australia would help establish a military as previously put forward by former prime minister Manasseh Sogavare.

 

"If Solomon Islands wishes to walk down that path, we stand ready to assist Solomon Islands in the establishment of such course," he said.

 

Mr Marles said the government was "very open" to ensuring an ongoing presence of Australian police remained in Solomon Islands.

 

A security deal inked with Beijing in 2022 by Mr Sogavare, who encouraged Chinese investment in the Pacific Island nation, alarmed Australia and the US.

 

Mr Manele said his nation was ready to discuss a "much, much larger bilateral co-operation" with Canberra.

 

"Australia remains Solomon Islands' partner of choice and I want to see our relationship grow to new heights during my tenure as prime minister," he told Mr Marles in his first meeting as leader, a statement read.

 

In addition to Mr Manele, the defence minister met with deputy Bradley Tovosia and other top ministers.

 

A border management system delivered in partnership with Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomons will get $3.2 million to help visa processing and revenue collection through a new system.

 

A birthing and health centre in East Honiara will get $45 million to support mothers accessing pre and post-natal care. Australia will also provide medical equipment and staff training.

 

Mr Marles' visit comes against the backdrop of heightened competition in the Pacific, with the Solomons being the first regional nation to sign a major policing pact with China.

 

Mr Manele has indicated the pact would remain under his government.

 

Australia sought to be the Solomons' go-to security partner and had to work to earn that right, Mr Marles said.

 

Mr Manele, the previous minister for foreign affairs, was elected prime minister on May 2.

 

Pacific expert Tess Cains said hopes of returning to a time before Beijing signed a security pact were likely to be dashed, despite the new leader.

 

Friction points between Australia and the Solomons under Mr Sogavare, partly due to his "more natural fieriness", were likely to subside somewhat under Mr Manele, Dr Cain said.

 

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8636081/australia-keen-to-keep-police-in-solomon-islands/

 

https://solomons.gov.sb/pm-manele-and-dpm-marles-held-fruitful-discussions/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 4:23 a.m. No.20895231   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20676399 (pb)

>>20736640 (pb)

>>20808182 (pb)

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

 

PAIGE TAYLOR - MAY 21, 2024

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 4:30 a.m. No.20895255   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5260 >>6909 >>5186 >>4628

>>20873174 (pb)

Scott Morrison explains why evangelical Christians love Trump

 

Farrah Tomazin - May 21, 2024

 

1/2

 

Washington: He’s been found liable for sexual abuse, bragged about grabbing women by the genitals and is on trial for allegedly falsifying documents to cover up an affair with a porn star.

 

But Donald Trump’s status as a political outsider amid “deep disenfranchisement” with government institutions is what makes him so appealing to evangelical Christians, according to his ally Scott Morrison, Australia’s first Pentecostal prime minister.

 

Criss-crossing America to promote his new book about faith, Morrison shared his insights of the former US president, who heads towards the November election against President Joe Biden, with more support from evangelical Christians than ever before.

 

Campaign rallies often begin with prayer sessions for the 77-year-old Republican; merchandise worn and sold at his events feature slogans such as “Jesus is my saviour, Trump is my president”; and Trump himself recently launched a new Bible for $US60 ($90) as part of his fundraising efforts, spruiking the need to “Make America Pray Again”.

 

Asked to explain Trump’s appeal among evangelicals, Morrison told this masthead: “He is very much outside the political orthodoxy and mainstream, where I think there’s a deep disenfranchisement, and that’s where he connects with people.

 

“There is a sense that he will stick up for people against the things that seek to hold them down, and I think that is something that resonates very strongly. The external commentary about President Trump often fails to get that.”

 

Morrison’s comments came after his high-profile meeting with Trump in New York last week, where they discussed the AUKUS submarine deal and China’s advances in the Indo-Pacific.

 

The pair have had a good relationship since they were both in power, culminating in 2019 when Trump welcomed Morrison to the White House with a lavish state dinner, the highest diplomatic honour for an ally.

 

But the former Liberal Party leader said he first got a rare insight into Trump’s appeal during a trip to Ohio that year when they visited a new cardboard box factory owned by Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, who also happens to be a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and a possible witness in his classified documents trial.

 

The event was filled with enthusiastic Trump fans waving the American flag, or cheering in “Make America Great Again” caps, some of whom had lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the president’s motorcade.

 

“It was quite amazing,” Morrison said of the welcome the Republican received in the small town of Wapakoneta.

 

Five years later, Trump support from evangelicals and other Christian conservatives continues to grow, with voters often citing his role in overturning federal abortion laws and their opposition to transgender rights as some of the factors.

 

A new video is also occasionally played at his rallies portraying the presumptive Republican nominee as the messiah, featuring a narrator declaring:“God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker. So God gave us Trump”.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 21, 2024, 4:32 a.m. No.20895260   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895255

 

2/2

 

With six months until the election, figures from the Pew Research Centre have found that most registered voters who are white Christians would vote for the Republican over Biden if the presidential election were held today.

 

By contrast, 77 per cent of black Protestant voters say they would vote for Biden over Trump, along with more than eight in 10 agnostic or atheist voters.

 

According to the survey released last month, more than half of white Christians also think Trump was a “great” or “good” president and don’t think he broke the law in a failed effort to change the outcome of the 2020 election.

 

Nonetheless, Trump faces four trials as he campaigns for office: one in Florida over classified documents; one in Washington for trying to overthrow Biden’s election victory; one in Georgia for attempting to subvert the results in that state; and the current trial in New York.

 

The latter descended into chaos on Tuesday (AEST) after Trump’s defence team called witness Robert Costello, a bombastic lawyer who used to represent disgraced lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

 

Costello consistently challenged Judge Juan Merchan’s rulings – rolling his eyes and at one point muttering “geez” – prompting the judge to eventually clear the entire courtroom, so he could admonish the witness about his lack of “decorum”.

 

Prosecutors have framed the New York case as about an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won over Hillary Clinton, by allegedly covering a payment designed to silence an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

 

Morrison came to the Republican’s defence after their meeting at Trump Tower last week, describing the challenges Trump faces in the US as a “pile on” and telling this masthead: “When politics start creeping into the justice system … or when institutions that are an important part of democracy are being co-opted and weaponised in politics, that’s not a good day for democracy.”

 

The day after their meeting, Morrison was in Washington to promote his book, Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness, at an Australian embassy event with guests including Trump’s former vice president and evangelical Christian Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

 

In a notable moment of bipartisanship, former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd helped launch the book, noting during his introduction that Trump and Pence “don’t always agree”, an apparent reference to their falling out over the January 6 Capitol riots of 2021, when Pence’s life was threatened by Trump supporters convinced the election was stolen.

 

“Only Scott Morrison could bring together such a broad church,” joked Rudd, who is now Australia’s ambassador to the US.

 

Farrah Tomazin is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/scott-morrison-explains-why-evangelical-christians-love-trump-20240521-p5jf87.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 22, 2024, 4:15 a.m. No.20899389   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1838 >>7517

>>20868824 (pb)

>>20873227 (pb)

Labor senator Fatima Payman joins Melbourne uni protest

 

JORDAN MCCARTHY - MAY 22, 2024

 

Under fire Labor senator Fatima Payman has shown up to support University of Melbourne students currently involved in the protest occupying one of the faculty buildings.

 

Senator Payman last week broke rank with the Labor Party and accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza and called on the government to sanction Israel.

 

The WA senator ended a speech last week with the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, which was the catalyst for the phrase being condemned in a motion in parliament.

 

It is unknown how much planning went into Senator Payman’s university visit with the senator seen talking with student activist leaders and posing for photos.

 

In one picture she posed with student protesters in front of a Gaza solidarity encampment sign with her fist raised in the air.

 

Earlier, activists at the university blocked access to a second building as pro-Palestine protesters continue to disrupt classes.

 

An Instagram post by group Disrupt Wars shows university furniture blocking the front doors of the Old Arts building as well as a notice posted to a window that reads “building out of order”.

 

It is not known if the University of Melbourne for Palestine group that are currently camped in the Arts West building were aware or took part in this action.

 

The post by Disrupt Wars threatened more disruptions.

 

“We will not allow the university to operate business as usual while they are complicit in a genocide currently taking place,” it read.

 

“We will continue to liberate our places of learning until there is no longer any blood on our degrees.”

 

The University of Melbourne has claimed that more than more than 16,800 students had their classes disrupted already by the University of Melbourne for Palestine group.

 

A spokesperson for the University of Melbourne said the second blockade was short lived with the activists moved on by Wednesday morning.

 

“We can confirm that there was a minor incident overnight where people entered the Old Arts building,” they said.

 

“They have since left and the building is fully operational.”

 

Students at the University of Melbourne have occupied the Parkville campus’s Arts West building since last Wednesday, and despite warnings of police action and expulsion for the past six days, the academic institution has failed to make good on its threats.

 

Politicians and Jewish leaders have called for the “rule of law” to be enforced, but Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said that she has full confidence in the universities, which are trying to ­resolve the situation with police.

 

“I really do think we have reached the point … where many Victorians are frustrated, are fed up with some of the reckless behaviour we have seen,” Ms Allan said on Tuesday. “I know I certainly am,” she said.

 

The university said 601 classes had been disrupted, with 16,800 students impacted as a result of the pro-Palestine protesters’ occupation of the building.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/protesters-block-second-melbourne-uni-building/news-story/a6d0ee80f50576d42b09137ff577b7da

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7PbxkRyi_Z/?img_index=7

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 22, 2024, 4:37 a.m. No.20899413   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895013

Jewish groups condemn Sydney bakery for Hamas-themed birthday party

 

ELIZABETH PIKE and NOAH YIM - MAY 22, 2024

 

A Sydney bakery is under fire for posting images of what appears to be a Hamas-themed birthday party, including cupcakes and cake decorated with images of a notorious terrorist.

 

Oven Bakery by Fufu uploaded the photos to Instagram on Tuesday and then took them down when the posts were flooded with criticism.

 

One of the images was of a boy dressed in the same red keffiyeh and camouflage jacket as the infamous terrorist depicted on the birthday cake – Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida. The birthday cake read, “Omar is 4”.

 

A boy was photographed mimicking the action as Obaida, with his finger pointed in front of his face just like the masked terrorist.

 

The business is registered at an Auburn address in western Sydney.

 

Jewish groups were quick to condemn the bakery for promoting terrorism to young children.

 

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said the bakery and the parents of the child should be held accountable for “glorifying extremism”.

 

“It takes a rare kind of psychosis to want to teach infant children that Hamas terrorists are to be admired and emulated,” Mr Ryvchin said.

 

“Boys with normal parents will be celebrating with Batman or Real Madrid themes, which nurture an understanding of good versus evil, healthy role models and striving for excellence. This boy is being taught to look up to suicide bombers, rapists and torturers of children no older than him. If this is what is happening in some Sydney homes, we should prepare for a generation of violent extremists,” he said.

 

Mr Ryvchin also called for police to become involved in the matter in his condemnation of the incident.

 

“The parents and the baker who thought it was acceptable to glorify proscribed terrorists should be ashamed.

 

“The authorities should be aware of this incident,” he said.

 

Dvir Abramovich, Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said the apparent “glorification” of terrorism was particularly shocking for members of the community, himself included, who have lost family at the hands of Hamas.

 

“As someone who lost a relative to Palestinian terrorism, I feel like I have been kicked in the stomach, and I certainly would not want to buy from this bakery,” he said.

 

“To see the public glorification and endorsement of the October 7 Hamas atrocities and to portray these evil monsters as heroes by a local business is sickening and will shock the conscience of most Australians.”

 

While the business’ Instagram account has since been deleted, screenshots shared with The Australian shows some Instagram users had complimented the child and called him a “cutie masallah” and a “champion”.

 

It is understood Oven Bakery originally defended the party in a follow-up Instagram story, claiming “some people may find this controversial but whatevs,” before the account was swarmed with criticism.

 

Another screenshot shared with The Australian shows that the business had previously commented on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

 

“Don’t give up on your fight, for what is rightfully ours!” the bakery wrote on 15 October, just a week after the October 7 terrorist attacks.

 

The image was of a man in front of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem – one of Islam’s holiest sites – with a large hand superimposed on top grasping the Palestinian flag.

 

“The future generation of the world will know your courage, your honour, your fight against Israel, the greatest tyrants of all time!” the caption read.

 

“More importantly the world will know your freedom! It is inevitable!”

 

Premier Chris Minns labelled the incident “horrifying” and condemned “Hamas (as) an evil terrorist organisation,” according to The Daily Telegraph.

 

“Kids parties should be innocent and fun, not hateful,” Mr Minns said.

 

Dr Abramovich said the images have left Jewish communities particularly on-edge as pro-Palestine university protests continue across the country.

 

“Let’s be clear, this dangerous call to arms is an incitement to violence and only flames an already dangerous climate of anti-Semitism that is spiralling out of control in this country and which puts not only Jewish lives at risk but the lives of everyone,” he said.

 

“In a time of escalating radicalism and a growing rhetoric of intolerance against anyone who is Jewish or who supports Israel, words and images do matter and can have real-world consequences.

 

“It is not surprising that the Jewish community in Sydney and across the nation is feeling on edge, leaving many to ask whether this extremist sentiment and conduct will end in tragedy.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jewish-groups-condemn-sydney-bakery-for-hamasthemed-birthday-party/news-story/5c72f1edd876941bacbb6921498c8580

 

https://x.com/AustralianJA/status/1792877353007456599

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 3:21 a.m. No.20903622   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895013

‘Terrorism pays’: Israeli fury as allies recognise Palestine

 

AFP - MAY 22, 2024

 

Israel has recalled its ambassadors from Ireland, Spain and Norway for “urgent consultations” after the three European nations ­announced they would formally recognise a Palestinian state.

 

The co-orindated move prompted a furious response from Israel, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz saying: “Today’s decision sends a message to the Palestinians and the world: terrorism pays.

 

“After the Hamas terror organisation carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing heinous sexual crimes witnessed by the world, these countries chose to ­reward Hamas and Iran by recognising a Palestinian state.

 

“This distorted step by these countries is an injustice to the memory of the victims of 7/10, a blow to efforts to return the 128 hostages, and a boost to Hamas and Iran’s jihadists, which undermines the chance for peace and questions Israel’s right to self-defence.”

 

The three nations will formally recognise the state of Palestine on May 28.

 

Hamas seized on the announcement. “These successive recognitions are the direct result of this brave resistance and the legendary steadfastness of the Palestinian people … We believe this will be a turning point in the international position on the Palestinian issue,” Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas political bureau member, said.

 

The Palestine Liberation ­Organisation praised the moves as “historical moments in which the free world triumphs for truth and justice”.

 

The leaders of Ireland, Spain and Norway made separate ­announcements within an hour of each other. “A two-state solution is in Israel’s best interests,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, the first of the leaders to speak. He justified it as “a means of supporting the moderate ­forces which have been losing ground in this protracted and ­brutal conflict”.

 

“In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side, in peace and security,” he said.

 

Ireland’s Prime Minister, Simon Harris, spoke next, saying it was a “historic and important day for Ireland and Palestine”, comparing it to Ireland’s struggles for independence from Britain.

 

He said the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas was “barbaric” but added that “a two-state solution is the only way out of the ­generational cycles of violence, ­retaliation and resentment”.

 

Speaking in parliament, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “This recognition is not against Israel, is not against the Jews. It is not in favour of Hamas. This recognition is not against anyone, it is in favour of peace and coexistence.”

 

Most Western governments, including the United States, say they are willing to one day recognise Palestinian statehood, but not before agreement is reached on borders and the status of ­Jerusalem. However, Mr Sanchez claimed his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign of “pain and destruction” in the Gaza Strip was putting the two-state solution in “danger”.

 

According to the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the occupied West Bank, 142 of the 193 UN member countries recognise a Palestinian state, including the European nations of Bulgaria, ­Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

 

Malta and Slovenia have also suggested they might recognise Palestine, saying a two-state solution is vital for lasting peace.

 

The reports came after Palestinians relaunched an application to become a full member state of the United Nations, after being granted non-member observer state status in 2012.

 

The move has so far been blocked by the US, most recently in April by vetoing a draft ­resolution calling for the UN General Assembly to hold a vote for ­broader Palestinian UN membership.

 

The diplomatic moves came as air and artillery strikes were ­reported on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, the last bastion of Hamas.

 

Ten people were also killed in the central town of Al-Zawaida during the night, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

 

The World Health Organisation has said northern Gaza’s last two functioning hospitals, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan, were besieged by Israeli forces, with more than 200 patients trapped inside.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/terrorism-pays-israeli-fury-as-allies-recognise-palestine/news-story/20e90f4951c440766f5e877c5bf443ec

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 3:31 a.m. No.20903643   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3648

>>20895013

>>20895037

Stand on the right side of history, rabbis implore Anthony Albanese

 

BEN PACKHAM and TRICIA RIVERA - MAY 23, 2024

 

1/2

 

The nation’s leading rabbis - who were personally assured by ­Anthony Albanese he would “unequivocally fight anti-Semitism” - have implored him to show moral clarity and reject a bid to put Israel’s Prime Minister on trial, as Labor refused to say if it would ­arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in Australia.

 

The rabbis’ call came as Peter Dutton warned that a future Coalition government could cut ties with the International Criminal Court over its prosecutor’s bid to arrest Mr Netanyahu and his ­Defence chief Yoav Gallant alongside three Hamas terrorists.

 

If the ICC issues the warrants, the Albanese government will be technically obligated to arrest the Israeli leaders if they travel to Australia. But a government source refused to speculate on such a possibility, saying “we don’t engage in hypotheticals”.

 

Mr Dutton urged the Prime Minister to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with US President Joe Biden to condemn the warrants bid, as America flagged possible sanctions against the ICC.

 

A day after Mr Albanese refused to comment on ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s warrants bid, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australia respected the role of the court and the issuing of any warrants was “fundamentally an issue for the ICC”.

 

But Dr Chalmers said there could be “no equivalence between Hamas, the terrorist organisation, and Israel”.

 

Rabbi Levi Wolff, from Sydney’s Central Synagogue, said the government needed to be “clear and decisive” on the warrants ­application, and stand “on the correct side of history”.

 

“In this sensitive and difficult time for Jewish Australians, we look to our leaders for strong moral clarity on issues pertaining to Israel’s self-defence war against Hamas, triggered by the unspeakable violence perpetrated on ­October 7, and (Hamas’s) outspoken desire to repeat such actions,” Rabbi Wolff told The Australian.

 

“The preposterous allegations by the ICC demand strong language, such as the statements we heard from Joe Biden, Peter Dutton, and Alexander Downer, who, like us, feel ashamed of Australia’s status as a signatory (to the ICC) following yesterday’s news.”

 

Chabad Youth Rabbi Moshe Kahn said it was “absolutely shocking” that Israel’s democratically elected Prime Minister had been subjected to the same treatment by the ICC prosecutor as Hamas terrorists.

 

“Australia should be unequivocally denouncing the ICC’s ­decision and aligning with President Biden’s stance,” Rabbi Khan said. “Nonetheless, I appreciate the clarification that there is no moral equivalence between Israel and the terrorist organisation Hamas.”

 

The rabbis were among those who attended a meeting with Mr Albanese this month, when the Prime Minister dismissed pro-Palestine protesters encamped at universities as “Trots” and troublemakers, and vowed to take a hard line on anti-Semitism.

 

Rabbi Kahn said Mr Albanese had “indeed taken a stronger stance” against anti-Jewish hate speech. “However, further actions by all are necessary to comprehensively address anti-Semitism and support the Jewish community.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 3:33 a.m. No.20903648   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20903643

 

2/2

 

Mr Dutton on Wednesday said he was “very open” to rescinding Australian support for the ICC over the prosecutors’ warrants application. He called on Mr Albanese to reject the prosecutor’s “terrible decision”.

 

His comments came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was prepared to work with Republicans to develop bipartisan sanctions against the ICC. Mr Blinken said he was committed to taking action against the “profoundly wrong-headed decision” which would complicate efforts to secure peace in Gaza. “I welcome working with you on that,” Mr Blinken told Republican senator Lindsey Graham in a congressional hearing.

 

Former UN assistant secretary-general Ramesh Thakur, who helped establish the ICC, said the prosecutor’s pursuit of Israeli leaders alongside Hamas terrorists was “a grotesque inversion of international criminal justice”.

 

Mr Thakur said he had come to question his role in its creation. Writing in The Australian, he said: “I never expected the ICC would be weaponised against democracies defending themselves against savage terrorist groups.” He said Israel’s conduct could not be compared with Hamas’s “mini-Holocaust” on October 7, in which it boasted Israel would “taste new ways of death”.

 

“In this context, I think it is reasonable to ask whether Khan would have indicted both (Winston) Churchill and (Adolf) Hitler for mass civilian deaths in World War II,” Mr Thakur said.

 

Mr Downer, who signed Australia up to the ICC, accused Mr Khan of “destroying” the court. Former deputy prime minister John Anderson backed his former colleague, describing the ICC’s decision as a disgrace.

 

“We ought to make absolutely clear what we think of it and I don’t see how it could be supported,” Mr Anderson told The Australian.

 

“The decision looks and sounds disgraceful. It is absolutely repugnant for (the ICC) to draw a moral equivalency between what Hamas has done and what Israel has done. Does anybody seriously suggest that we should have stopped pursuing the Nazis during the Second World War because German civilians were being harmed?”

 

He said the Albanese government needed to show greater leadership in combating the rise of anti-Semitism.

 

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said if the ICC granted the prosecutor’s application to issue the warrants, then those named in the warrants would no longer be able to travel to Australia, or any of the 124 countries that were parties to the court.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/stand-on-the-right-side-of-history-rabbis-implore-anthony-albanese/news-story/80df56c1faf5bc6caf44efa3f49c1e83

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 3:48 a.m. No.20903669   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3671 >>9003

>>20895013

>>20895037

Anthony Albanese abandons principles and fails own leadership test

 

GEOFF CHAMBERS - MAY 23, 2024

 

1/2

 

Anthony Albanese is leading the country down a dangerous path that risks polarising our closest allies by putting domestic politics ahead of Australia’s longstanding support for like-minded liberal democracies and a rules-based global order.

 

The Prime Minister is shirking responsibility in favour of doublespeak and having a bob each way, assuming that Australians won’t notice.

 

In a National Press Club address before the 2022 election, Albanese delivered a scathing assessment of Scott Morrison’s leadership.

 

“Never before has Australia had a prime minister with such a pathological determination to avoid responsibility,” the then Labor opposition leader said. “He declares: it’s not my job, it’s not a race, it’s a matter for the states. He doesn’t hold a hose – and he doesn’t give a rats.

 

“Every action, every decision has to be dragged out of him. And so often, after all of the build-up, he gets it wrong anyway. And it’s always too little, too late. Australia needs leaders who first show up and then step up.”

 

Albanese – who promised from opposition to run a more transparent government that would be as pro-business and strong on ­national security as the Coalition – is falling short of his own standards. The Labor leader’s refusal to offer any coherent position on the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor applying for ­arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas leaders, implying equivalence between the democratic nation and the murderous terror group, continues a trend of divergence from the US, Britain and other western allies.

 

In the course of a single press conference on Tuesday, Albanese claimed he wouldn’t “comment on court processes in Australia let alone processes globally” before declaring WikiLeaks founder ­Julian Assange be released.

 

While Labor denies a clean-up job, Jim Chalmers and Mark Butler on Wednesday rejected any equivalence between Israel and the “vile terrorist organisation” that massacred and took hostage innocent Israelis on October 7.

 

One week, Albanese tells leading Australian rabbis that pro-­Palestine protesters encamped at universities are “Trots” who are ignorant of Middle East history; the next he refuses to reprimand Labor senator Fatima Payman for accusing Israel of genocide and declaring “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

 

Albanese’s mixed rhetoric targeting selective audiences is influenced by politics. The pro-Palestinian Greens are eating into Labor’s vote across the country and senior cabinet ministers hold seats with large Muslim populations. There are a combined 161,418 Islamic voters in the western Sydney seats held by Jason Clare, Tony Burke, Chris Bowen, Ed Husic and Michelle Rowland.

 

The Albanese government has drifted from projecting Australia’s middle power status on the global stage, choosing not to follow the US in key UN votes, rebuffing US requests for naval support in the Red Sea and joining New Zealand and Canada to support positions that don’t align with Washington.

 

On China, Albanese has provided soft responses to two incidents where the People’s Liberation Army put the lives of Australian Defence Force personnel at risk. During his visit to Washington last October, US officials were privately concerned about Albanese’s understanding of the existential threat posed by Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party. Within weeks of being feted at the White House, Albanese became the first Australian prime minister since Malcolm Turnbull in 2016 to receive Xi’s red carpet treatment in Beijing.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 3:50 a.m. No.20903671   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20903669

 

2/2

 

After meeting Xi again at the APEC summit in San Francisco, Albanese dodged questions about whether he raised the PLA’s sonar pulse attack on Royal Australian Navy divers. Conveniently for Albanese, the incident was publicly revealed hours after he met the Chinese President.

 

Asked about Chinese aggression and whether trade tensions could resume following the PLA’s dangerous interception of a Royal Australian Navy MH-60R helicopter in the Yellow Sea, Albanese said on May 7: “We need to make sure that we have a mature response”.

 

With Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia next month in mind, Albanese said: “Dialogue is always important … it’s important we communicate, whether that be communicating areas of agreement or areas of ­disagreement. We’ll agree with China where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, but we will engage in our national interest.”

 

Albanese – whose government has diminished the influence of national security agencies in Canberra despite unprecedented geostrategic competition – has also been caught out over claims that he never discusses when national security committee of cabinet meetings are held.

 

Under pressure from Peter Dutton over why NSC meetings weren’t held in the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacre, Albanese said: “What I don’t do is foreshadow either past, present or future, talk about (the) national security committee”.

 

The Prime Minister has, in fact, referred to NSC meetings multiple times. Following the alleged Wakeley church terror attack and Bondi Junction stabbing murders, Albanese said on April 16: “This morning we have had a meeting of the national security committee to receive formal briefings.”

 

Albanese has also found others to blame over the release and management of 154 dangerous non-citizens from immigration detention following the NZYQ High Court ruling.

 

After the alleged home ­invasion and bashing of Perth grandmother Ninette Simons by a group of men including released immigration detainee Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, Albanese criticised the Community Protection Board (which his own government set up for cover) and said he wouldn’t have granted the ­Kuwaiti-born man bail in relation to a previous matter. “I think that’s a wrong decision by that board (to not have an ankle bracelet on Doukoshkan), but they make the decisions … independent (of government),” he said.

 

As opposition leader, Albanese talked a big game about leadership and responsibility.

 

Less than 12 months out from the next election, voters will make their assessments on whether the Prime Minister has lived up to his own standards.

 

Geoff Chambers is The Australian’s Chief Political Correspondent.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/anthony-albanese-abandons-principles-and-fails-own-leadership-test/news-story/652841cefdf2cc72a02fdbfdb27bf5f9

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 3:55 a.m. No.20903682   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20886418

Man accused of training Chinese pilots airs ASIO claims

 

Dominic Giannini and Kat Wong - May 23 2024

 

A former fighter pilot accused of aiding China's military will claim Australia's intelligence agency knew about his actions and tried to bring him on board as a spy.

 

Daniel Duggan, 55, has spent 17 months in a maximum-security prison as he fights a US extradition order.

 

He was arrested in Australia at the behest of the US after being accused of breaching American arms trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012.

 

He received about $100,000 for his services, US lawyers said as they were successful in a bid to freeze the sale of his house after they argued the cash was illegally gained and could be frozen.

 

The former US top gun stands accused of training the Chinese military to land on aircraft carriers. He renounced his US citizenship in 2012 and became an Australian citizen in the same year.

 

Duggan and his family argue the charges are politically motivated given the deterioration of the Sino-American relationship and how long ago the alleged actions occurred.

 

In a letter from prison, seen by AAP, Duggan said he believed his activities weren't illegal and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service (NCIS) knew of his work.

 

"Neither ASIO or NCIS made any claim or gave any warning that the activity was considered illegal," he wrote.

 

When he offered not to return to South Africa or China to intelligence agents, he said they were "indifferent" about his work and told him they didn't want to interfere with his business in the region.

 

And it was ASIO agents who brought up being able to meet Chinese generals and the topic of intelligence in a 2012 interview, leading to him believe they were trying to recruit him as a spy, Duggan said.

 

ASIO said it was unable to comment because the matter was before the court.

 

Duggan's wife, Saffrine, presented a petition with 25,000 signatures to politicians in Canberra, calling on Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to release her husband and end his extradition.

 

"We would like him to exercise his right as attorney-general to step in here and help an Australian citizen," she told AAP.

 

Mr Dreyfus declined to comment.

 

Duggan's imprisonment has also impacted his six kids, with Australian Paediatric Society vice president Paul Anthony Bauert expressing serious concerns.

 

The children exhibited "unmistakeable signs of stress and severe anxiety," Dr Bauert wrote in a separate letter.

 

"The single important cause in these children's deteriorating health is the separation from and uncertainty for their father's future."

 

Duggan's case returns to court in Sydney on Friday.

 

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8638124/man-accused-of-training-chinese-pilots-airs-asio-claims/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 4:05 a.m. No.20903692   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895103

Assange case shows world what US-style ‘press freedom’ means: Chinese FM

 

GT staff reporters - May 22, 2024

 

The case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows the world what US-style "freedom of the press" really is, said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press briefing on Tuesday.

 

Wang said the case shows the US believes exposure of other countries' secrets should be rewarded, but exposure of its own should be punished. The remarks came after Assange won a victory in his ongoing battle against extradition from the UK to the US, after the High Court in London granted him permission to appeal.

 

Wang said freedom of the press, like so-called democratic human rights, is just a tool that the US uses to suppress dissidents and maintain its own hegemony.

 

The spokesperson stated that Assange has won a round in his struggle against US hegemony, but whether he can ultimately emerge victorious in this contest remains to be seen.

 

Assange, 52, is wanted by the US for allegedly disclosing national defense information following WikiLeaks's publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago.

 

These included Apache helicopter video footage of the US military gunning down journalists and children in the streets of Baghdad in 2007, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

 

Assange's backers celebrated upon hearing the court's decision. Although he was absent from court on Monday due to health issues, his wife Stella was among those present.

 

"The judges reached the right decision… As a family we are relieved, but how long can this go on? The US should read the situation and drop this case now. Now is the moment to do it. Just abandon the shameful attack on journalists, on the press and on the public," Stella Assange was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency while she talked to supporters outside the High Court.

 

The 52-year-old was not in court Monday on health grounds, and an NPR report said that if judges determine that he would not receive the same legal safeguards in a US court as he would under the British legal system, it might eventually result in his release.

 

Assange's case reveals the fact that policies formulated by elites in the US are not based on the well-being of the country and the people. Instead, they serve narrow, short-sighted, and special interest groups and classes, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

 

This is also why Assange, who exposes and reveals the truth, faces the danger of being extradited to the US, Li said.

 

Permission for extradition would be granted if the US government could demonstrate that Assange, an Australian citizen, would not face bias during the trial based on his nationality and would receive the same legal protections as a US citizen. Additionally, the US authorities have to guarantee that Assange would not face the death penalty if found guilty, media reports said.

 

It can be expected that the US will continue to hunt Assange in order to set an example and prevent other people from revealing the truth about the dirty policies of the US government, Chinese experts predicted.

 

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202405/1312763.shtml

 

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202405/t20240521_11309207.html

 

https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1793285747870486924

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 4:18 a.m. No.20903719   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3722 >>3732 >>6953

>>20868933 (pb)

PLA holds joint drills surrounding Taiwan island to punish secessionist forces

 

Liu Xuanzun and Guo Yuandan - May 23, 2024

 

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The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Thursday morning launched a military exercise surrounding the island of Taiwan in a move to punish "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces and to send a warning to belligerent external forces following Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te's separatist inaugural speech on May 20.

 

Designed to surround the island of Taiwan from both the east and the west, the exercises display the PLA's strike capability across all directions of the island without any blind spots, forming a situation where the island is pinned down from both sides, experts said.

 

The PLA Eastern Theater Command started joint military drills surrounding the island of Taiwan from 7:45 am on Thursday, the theater command said in a press release early on the day.

 

The drills are being conducted in the Taiwan Straits, the north, south and east of Taiwan Island, as well as areas around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, the theater command said, attaching a map depicting nine exercise zones surrounding the island of Taiwan.

 

Senior Captain Li Xi, a spokesperson of the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said that military services including the army, navy, air force and rocket force of the theater command are being organized to conduct the joint drills, code-named Joint Sword-2024A, from Thursday to Friday.

 

The drills focus on joint sea-air combat-readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, and joint precision strikes on key targets, Li said, adding that the exercises involve the patrol of vessels and planes closing in on areas around the island of Taiwan and integrated operations inside and outside the island chain to test the real joint combat capabilities of the forces of the command.

 

Li said the drills also serve as a strong punishment for the separatist acts of "Taiwan independence" forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces.

 

The exercises by the PLA came after Lai, the new regional leader on the island of Taiwan, made an inaugural speech on Monday in which he stubbornly adhered to "Taiwan independence," loudly propagated the fallacy of secession, incited confrontation and antagonism across the Taiwan Straits, and intends to "rely on external forces to seek 'independence'" and "seek 'independence' by force."

 

Since then-US house speaker Nancy Pelosi's provocative visit to the island of Taiwan in August 2022, the PLA has organized several rounds of large-scale exercises as countermeasures to provocations by "Taiwan independence" secessionists and their collusions with external forces, in addition to holding regular patrols and training exercises in the region.

 

Tong Zhen, a research fellow at the Academy of Military Sciences of the PLA, told the Global Times on Thursday that the latest exercises feature an integrated plan covering the main island of Taiwan and its outlying islands.

 

For the outlying islands, the drills cover the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, while for the main island of Taiwan, combat alert patrols surround the island, with warships and warplanes closing in on multiple locations only steps away from its coastlines, effectively pressuring the island's so-called space for military defense, Tong said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 4:19 a.m. No.20903722   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20903719

 

2/2

 

Meanwhile, in addition to the PLA's exercises, the coast guard of East China's Fujian Province on Thursday launched a comprehensive law enforcement exercise in waters around Wuqiu and Dongyin islands in a move to test its joint patrol, rapid reaction and emergency response capabilities, Gan Yu, a spokesperson of the China Coast Guard, said on Thursday in a press release.

 

It is the first time the mainland's coast guard vessels have entered waters around Wuqiu and Dongyin islands, Tong said.

 

Designed to serve as strong deterrence and warning, the exercise destroyed the notion of so-called restricted waters imposed by the island of Taiwan, Tong said.

 

The PLA's exercises are designed with both the east and the west of the island of Taiwan in mind, Tong said. "To the west of the main island of Taiwan, the main operations are being held in waters around Wuqiu and Dongyin islands, while to the east of the main island of Taiwan, joint forces are organized to carry out sea and land assault drills, showing that the PLA has the ability to strike all directions of the island without any blind spots, forming a situation where the island is pinned down from both sides," she said.

 

The exercises have showed the features of employing the acts of destroying, trapping and blocking in one move, experts said.

 

"Destroying means to remove and paralyze the support of the 'Taiwan independence' forces by simulating strikes on major military and political targets in the northern part of the island under the PLA's strong reconnaissance, early warning and information support systems. Trapping means to target the bases of the 'Taiwan independence' forces, as the PLA will pinch the island's maritime gateways such as Kaohsiung and trap the island's naval forces within their ports. Blocking means to cut off the external logistics support, as the PLA forces are carrying out simulated strikes in the sea and air near the offshore routes off Hualien, demonstrating the ability to seize power and control the island," Tong said.

 

It forms a powerful deterrent against the separatist Lai administration and issues a serious warning against interference and provocation by external forces, Tong said.

 

Observers also noted that the codename of the exercise, Joint Sword-2024A, indicates that there might be more exercises to come with code-names Joint Sword-2024B and Joint Sword-2024C should "Taiwan independence" secessionists and external interference forces continue to provoke.

 

'Cross-Straits Lethality'

 

As the exercises are underway, the PLA Eastern Theater Command released a set of posters themed "Cross-Straits Lethality," depicting some of its weaponry aimed at "Taiwan independence" secessionists, including the J-20 stealth fighter jet, the J-16 multirole fighter jet, the Type 052D guided missile destroyer, the Type 071 comprehensive landing ship, the DF-16A short-range ballistic missile, and the modularized long-range multiple launch rocket system.

 

These are just some of typical weapons and equipment in the military preparations to deal with the Taiwan question, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Thursday.

 

In the air, the J-20 can take advantage of its stealth capability and break down hostile air defense, while the J-16 can drop a large number of munitions on ground targets; at sea; the Type 052D can seize control and block maritime access to the island, while the Type 071 can carry heavily equipped landing troops to cross the Straits; the DF-16A can conduct precision strikes on high-value military and political targets; the modularized long-range multiple launch rocket system can ensure artillery fire superiority with relatively low cost, the above-quoted expert said.

 

The PLA has a complete arsenal available to resolve the Taiwan question if a prospect for a peaceful reunification no longer exists, and the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces and external interference forces should fully realize that the PLA is fully determined and capable of safeguarding China's national sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests, analysts said.

 

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202405/1312852.shtml

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 23, 2024, 4:24 a.m. No.20903732   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6922 >>7541 >>8413

>>20890891

>>20903719

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

 

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 23, 2024

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:12 a.m. No.20908931   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8933

>>20895013

>>20895037

Vote with your feet, Peter Dutton urges students amid soaring anti-Semitism

 

GEOFF CHAMBERS, NOAH YIM and JOE KELLY - MAY 24, 2024

 

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Peter Dutton has urged students to vote with their feet and parents to speak out against indoctrination amid soaring anti-Semitism on campuses, as he warned Jewish leaders the Albanese government has “lost its moral compass”.

 

In a closed-door speech at the Central Synagogue in Bondi Junction on Friday night, the Opposition Leader ramped-up calls by the Coalition, minor parties and independents for Anthony Albanese to order a judicial inquiry into anti-Semitism on university campuses.

 

Ahead of parliament returning on Tuesday and Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser putting forward a private members’ bill for a judicial inquiry, Mr Dutton said the key to fighting anti-Semitism and indoctrination is “addressing the crisis in education”.

 

The Weekend Australian can reveal a Monash University poll of 7,611 Jewish Australians conducted in November found 68 per cent of Jewish students at Australian universities personally encountered hostility towards Israel from other students and 46 per cent had experienced hostility towards Israel from university lecturers and staff.

 

Speaking at the same synagogue where the Prime Minister three-weeks ago dismissed pro-Palestine protesters encamped at universities as “Trots” who are ignorant of Middle East history, Mr Dutton criticised actions taken by university heads, the government and law enforcement as “woefully inadequate”.

 

“Nothing short of a societal-wide effort is needed to reject indoctrination and bring about a renaissance of education. Parents must speak out – because the disruption and brainwashing on campuses is affecting your children’s future,” Mr Dutton said.

 

“Students must vote with their feet – do not waste your time and money at institutions which don’t have your best interests at heart.”

 

Less than one-year out from the election, Mr Dutton flagged the need for a major refocusing of education standards in schools including re-prioritising reading, writing and maths curriculum.

 

“I believe that the federal government must be more willing to penalise taxpayer-funded institutions which are not enforcing their own codes or keeping people safe on campus. I believe the anti-Semitism taking place on campuses today is symptomatic of a wider crisis in education,” he said.

 

“Young people are increasingly being taught ‘what to think’ – not ‘how to think’. Places of education have increasingly become places of indoctrination. Critical thinking is being replaced by prescribed thinking. The interplay between propaganda on campuses and online is only entrenching ideologies, historical distortions, and untruths in young minds.”

 

Mr Dutton said reversing the education crisis must start with a “renewed focus on teaching our young children the basics through explicit instruction”.

 

“A Coalition government will ensure a prioritisation on reading, writing and maths – the bedrock for open minds and critical thinking. We also want to see every Australian schoolchild visits a Holocaust museum. The lessons of history serve as a shield of knowledge which helps to deflect anti-Semitism and other propaganda.”

 

Mr Dutton, a former home affairs and immigration minister, said a Coalition government would also cancel visas and deport “non-citizens who incite or choose violence”.

 

With the Prime Minister under pressure over his response to moves by the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor seeking arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Hamas, Mr Dutton said Mr Albanese’s “silence is inexcusable and shameful … the chief prosecutor’s actions are an abomination and anti-Semitic”.

 

He attacked the government’s decision to back Palestine’s bid for full UN membership as “utterly inappropriate, illogical, ill-timed and immoral”.

 

“In supporting this bid, the government has sent a clear message that it tolerates the use of terrorism and barbarism to achieve political ends.”

 

“On both issues, the Albanese government has again displayed misjudgment and weak leadership, while treating our ally, Israel, with disdain.

 

“I would go as far as to say that the government has lost its moral compass.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:14 a.m. No.20908933   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20908931

 

2/2

 

Former prime minister Scott Morrison on Friday slammed the ICC arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as “absurd”: “Any pretension that the ICC’s actions do not create moral equivalence between the actions of the sovereign nation of Israel in the current conflict and a recognised terrorist organisation in Hamas, is wilful blindness at best and potentially far worse”.

 

In the first comprehensive study of Jewish Australians since the October 7 terrorist attacks, a Monash University-led poll of more than 7,600 people found 64 per cent believed anti-Semitism was “very much” a problem. This was ten-times higher than responses to a similar question in 2017.

 

The November survey, commissioned by Jewish Communal Appeal NSW and conducted by the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, revealed in the five-weeks following October 7, one-in-five Jewish Australians had experienced an insult or harassment because of their faith and 43 per cent of those aged 18-29 reported harassment. One-in-five respondents (22 per cent) said they had been less open about their Jewish identity in public.

 

“Behind the statistics are the hard facts that Jewish Australians have been threatened and harassed on university campuses, vilified on social media and on the street, and discriminated against at work,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim said.

 

Mr Dutton said since Hamas’ “barbaric terrorist attack, anti-Semitic incidents in Australia have increased by 700 per cent”, with few arrests made. He said a Coalition government would “provide the moral and political leadership that makes it abundantly clear that we expect the law to be enforced readily – not reluctantly – against those inciting hatred and violence”.

 

“Let’s be clear about the sinister agenda of these self-proclaimed ‘pro-Palestinian’ protesters. Using the pretext of free speech, these protesters have engaged in hate speech to intimidate Jewish students and to drive them off campuses.”

 

The Weekend Australian understands Mr Albanese has not replied to a formal request from the Coalition, minor parties and independents to establish a judicial inquiry into anti-Semitism on campuses in response to verbal attacks, harassment and intimidation of Jewish staff and students.

 

Last Thursday, 13 prominent MPs and senators including Mr Dutton, Jacqui Lambie, Pauline Hanson, Allegra Spender, Zali Stegall, Bob Katter and Rebekha Sharkie wrote to Mr Albanese requesting urgent action.

 

The letter said “we believe that a judicial inquiry will provide the best way to achieve broader cultural change in the university sector”. The MPs and Senators said if the Albanese government refused to instigate a judicial inquiry, they would support a Senate inquiry as an alternative.

 

“We are seeking a judicial inquiry as the most authoritative form of inquiry. An inquiry led by an independent respected jurist with the powers to grant privileges and immunities,” the letter said.

 

Addressing the Adelaide Holocaust Museum on Friday, Mr Leeser laid out the terms-of-reference for his judicial inquiry and attacked Labor’s plan for a general inquiry into racism to be conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

 

Announced earlier this month by Education Minister Jason Clare and due to report in mid-2025, the AHRC study was a response to the Universities Accord report and will address anti-Semitism alongside Islamophobia, racism and the experience of First Nations people in the university sector.

 

Mr Leeser said since the October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas, the AHRC had said “nothing about the rise of anti-Semitism in our community.”

 

The terms of reference for Mr Leeser’s judicial inquiry were devised after consultation with the ECAJ, the Australian Academic Alliance Against anti-Semitism, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students and Universities Australia.

 

Mr Leeser said the judicial inquiry would report on anti-Semitic activity on Australian university campuses, including instances of “harassment, intimidation, violence, advocacy or glorification of violence and/or support for listed terrorist organisations” both before and after October 7.

 

It will also examine the response of university regulators, leaders, governing bodies, Vice-Chancellors, student and staff representative bodies, student clubs and organisations.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/julian-leeser-reveals-judicial-inquiry-details-in-challenge-to-anthony-albanese/news-story/49ec2e00ed31be5915c92d9d4b0dd461

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:21 a.m. No.20908964   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8967

>>20895013

>>20895037

More chaotic than coherent on Israel: Anthony Albanese under fire on ICC

 

BEN PACKHAM and LYDIA LYNCH - MAY 23, 2024

 

1/2

 

Anthony Albanese has refused to say whether Australia would ­enforce International Criminal Court arrest warrants against top Israeli officials, while declaring in a chaotic press conference that his government had adopted a “coherent” and “principled” position on the war in Gaza.

 

The government has for days defended the ICC’s independence after the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, applied for warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his ­Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas terrorists for war crimes and crimes against ­humanity.

 

Amid condemnation of the move by international leaders ­including Joe Biden, the Prime Minister would not commit to ­enforcing the warrants if they were issued and the Israeli leaders set foot in Australia.

 

After initially declaring Australia would “make its own decisions”, Mr Albanese said he was not prepared to get ahead of the court. “I’m not about to go into ­hypotheticals about things that have not happened,” he said, amid repeated questions on the matter.

 

“There’s been an application. There’s been no determination by the ICC against any individual or anybody.”

 

Asked whether Australia supported the ICC, Mr Albanese declared the question “very broad”.

 

“The ICC exists. They haven’t made a determination. They haven’t made a decision,” he said.

 

Mr Albanese, who days earlier refused to comment on the warrants bid at all, said his government supported Israel’s right to defend itself, but “how it defends itself matters”.

 

He said there was “no equivalence” between Israel’s actions and those of Hamas, and reiterated the government’s call for the terrorist group to release its ­remaining hostages.

 

“What we actually need going forward is a coherent position, which is what we have taken. We will continue to do that, take a principled position going forward,” Mr Albanese said.

 

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said Australians deserved a prime minister “who can take and ­defend a position that stands by our democratic values and allies”.

 

“Mr Albanese has variously squibbed, dodged, been wilfully inconsistent, and ultimately found incapable of explaining a position,” Senator Birmingham said.

 

“This is a test of how to respond to a terribly difficult issue and the Prime Minister is failing miserably. All he had to do was mirror the clear position taken by (US) President Biden, but Mr Albanese can’t even do that, and can’t or won’t explain why not.”

 

A day earlier, Peter Dutton ­rejected the prosecutor’s warrants application and declared a future Coalition government could cut ties with the ICC. Cabinet Minister Ed Husic said he was astonished at the prospect of a Coalition boycott of the court.

 

“The Coalition talks big about law and order but then wants to pick what law and order it’ll follow,” Mr Husic told the ABC. “It’s staggering that you can have a mainstream political party determine – on the basis of something that is uncomfortable to them – that they would then just turn their back on a court of law.”

 

He accused the Coalition of failing to express concern over the deaths of 35,000 Palestinians in the conflict.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:21 a.m. No.20908967   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20908964

 

2/2

 

Mr Dutton accused the government of abandoning the nation’s Jewish community, which he said had been left “completely and utterly bewildered” by Labor’s response to the warrants application.

 

“I think Australians of good faith are bewildered as well that their Prime Minister doesn’t have the ability or the wit to be able to stand up for what is in our country’s best interests and to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, including the United States, to condemn an obvious anti-­Semitic act by the ICC,” the ­Opposition Leader said.

 

The nation’s leading rabbis have implored Mr Albanese to show moral clarity and reject the court’s bid to put Mr Netanyahu on trial. Mr Biden rejected Mr Khan’s warrants application as “obscene”. His Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, flagged US sanctions against the court.

 

Australia is one of 124 nation states to have ratified the Rome Statute that established the ICC, making it technically obligated to enforce the court’s warrants. ­Neither the US nor Israel is a party to the court.

 

On Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “Australia respects the ICC and the important role it has in upholding international law. The decision on whether to issue arrest warrants is a matter for the court in the independent exercise of its functions.”

 

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said if the ICC granted the prosecutor’s application, “then those who are named in the arrest warrants will no longer be able to travel to Australia, or any of the 124 countries which are parties to the (court)”.

 

“This is the first time an ICC prosecutor has requested the ICC to arrest and prosecute the political leaders of a democratic country engaged in a war of self-defence,” ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said. “If the (court) agrees … it will set a precedent that may well paralyse democratically elected governments … in defending their countries against future armed attacks by terrorist organisations, and others.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/more-chaotic-than-coherent-on-israel-anthony-albanese-under-fire-on-icc/news-story/04080d92c4e9e6829092310e31ac3e38

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:31 a.m. No.20909003   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9007

>>20903669

Peter Dutton ‘is nothing more than Scott Morrison 2.0’, says Anthony Albanese

 

GEOFF CHAMBERS - MAY 23, 2024

 

1/2

 

Anthony Albanese will launch a major political attack on Peter Dutton in an election-style speech warning voters it is “too important to go back to fear and division” and accusing his rival of being a carbon copy of Scott ­Morrison.

 

The Prime Minister – who makes no reference to Indigenous Australians or the voice referendum in a speech marking two years since his election victory – will say the nation faces challenges that are “too urgent for a retreat to denial and delay”.

 

While the bulk of Mr Albanese’s Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue address on Friday is dedicated to the government’s achievements, the Labor leader will frame the Opposition Leader as an anti-business wrecker ­focused only on “political self-­interest”.

 

Following last week’s budget, Mr Albanese will sharpen the government shift from identity politics to a broad-based election pitch around tax cuts, energy bill relief, higher wages and stronger Medicare for “all Australians”.

 

The pivot comes amid polling and focus groups showing that voters in outer-suburban areas are becoming disillusioned with the Albanese government as cost-of-living pressures mount.

 

“I understand Australians are doing it tough right now – and I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to struggle and strive, to worry about your family’s economic security, to wonder if you’ll get the opportunity to pursue your aspirations,” Mr Albanese will say.

 

While Mr Dutton pledged to “turbocharge mining” during a visit to Western Australia on Thursday, Mr Albanese joined Industry Minister Ed Husic in Brisbane to spruik the government’s national battery strategy.

 

Painting himself as a nation builder with the vision to accelerate Australia’s future economy and jobs, Mr Albanese on Friday will accuse Mr Dutton of wanting to drag the country “back to the era of conflict fatigue”.

 

“My opponent goes around telling business leaders who look to work with us that they are ‘supine’ and weak,” he will say.

 

“But there is a world of difference between talking tough and working hard.

 

“In politics, wrecking is always easier than building.

 

“And looking for someone to blame is much simpler than finding a solution.

 

“But that’s not strength – that’s the soft option. And we know where that takes us.

 

“We have seen what happens when the only test that politicians apply is their own political self-­interest.

 

“We saw it with Scott Morrison, we’re seeing it again with Peter Dutton.

 

“Saying no to everything is the easiest thing to do in opposition – but it builds nothing, it helps no one and it takes our country nowhere.

 

“Governing Australia requires more than sound bites – you need substantial propositions.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:32 a.m. No.20909007   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909003

 

2/2

 

Mr Albanese will say the “stakes right now are too high for the shallow and shambolic approach we see too often from the opposition … the opportunities we have before us are too big for small-minded negativity”.

 

In contrast to his election night address that led with a commitment to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart “in full”, Mr Albanese’s two-year anniversary speech will not ­reference the voice referendum defeat or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

 

Mr Albanese will say that “two years ago – almost to the day – I promised as Prime Minister to lead a government for all Australians … our budget kept faith with that in every way: a tax cut for every taxpayer. Help with energy bills for every household – and for small business. Getting wages moving again for workers in every industry. Making Medicare stronger in every community.”

 

With Labor expected to come under pressure in outer-suburban seats at the next election, Mr Albanese will say “western Sydney reflects the aspiration that drives Australia”.

 

“While western Sydney may not have vast reserves of nickel or lithium, you are home to a wealth of resources that are absolutely critical to our future,” he will say.

 

“Great universities and researchers, Australia’s largest health and biomedical research precinct, one of the largest industrial and distribution hubs in the southern hemisphere, dynamic small businesses and start-ups … and diaspora communities that help build and strengthen our international relationships and trade ties.”

 

Just under a year out from the next election, Mr Albanese will say his government is focused on “Helping with the challenges Australians are facing here and now, building for the opportunities of the decade ahead, delivering the reforms that ensure no one is held back (and) achieving the progress that sees no one left ­behind.”

 

In a speech to the Australian Education Union on Thursday, Mr Albanese accused Mr Dutton of “attacking” teachers.

 

“Peter Dutton … sees a group he’s ready to scapegoat every time they aren’t on his same bleak, negative wavelength,” the Prime Minister said.

 

“I’d encourage him to get out of his grim little echo chamber, park his anger for a few minutes, and take a look at the Be That Teacher campaign.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/peter-dutton-is-nothing-more-than-scott-morrison-20-says-anthony-albanese/news-story/6a2a5c7325db212ce0f622a39316c77e

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:55 a.m. No.20909090   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9098 >>9930

>>20751248 (pb)

Elon Musk's X can be liable for hate speech published on platform in landmark QCAT ruling

 

Lexy Hamilton-Smith and Angie Lavoipierre - 25 May 2024

 

1/2

 

Social media company X, formerly Twitter, has lost a key fight over whether it's legally responsible for its activities in Australia.

 

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) has made a landmark ruling that the company can be held liable for hate speech published on its platform.

 

The decision is a win for the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN), which lodged a complaint in July 2022 accusing X of being responsible for publishing denigrating and hateful comments from a far-right conspiracy group, about Muslims being "an existential threat" to the world.

 

Social media companies such as X have often relied on the legal argument that they're not responsible for what happens on foreign soil because they don't do business there.

 

But that principle has now been challenged.

 

AMAN's legal advisor Rita Jabri Markwell said, when she was first preparing the case, there was no other precedent — so this was the first of its kind.

 

"The significance of this decision is that we now know that local hate speech laws do apply to social media companies," she said.

 

"Usually people will bring vilification complaints against other individuals.

 

"But now they can take direct action against the companies that are profiting from that hate."

 

Community needs protection from online 'hate mongering'

 

The posts in question were published in the aftermath of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, in which 51 people were killed.

 

Islamophobic incidents surged in Australia in the aftermath of that atrocity.

 

But despite requests from AMAN, X refused to remove or geoblock posts that allegedly vilified Australian Muslims, under Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Act.

 

Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns the company — which is based in Delaware in the US — argued that the company should be exempt.

 

But this week's ruling rejects that.

 

"They were claiming that it would be preposterous for a Queensland tribunal to exert some sort of power over a global social media company," Ms Markwell said.

 

"We contested that, on many levels and at the end of the day, it was enough to show that they are profiting from local markets and communities here, through collecting data and advertising.

 

"This could become a precedent that will carry weight in other jurisdictions, whether it's at the federal level, or whether it's under other vilification laws.

 

"Previously it's been very uncertain whether those laws apply to social media companies, it's been assumed by many that they do, but the tribunal's initial finding is significant because it pierces a favourite legal shield of social media giants.

 

"Now, we are on much firmer terrain because we have a very detailed set of reasons using a range of very established authorities to show that vilification laws do apply to social media companies.

 

"There's also been a lot of research showing how dangerous this kind of dehumanising disinformation is, in that it has driven people to acts of terrorism."

 

With Australia being the home of the Christchurch attacker — he was born in Grafton, NSW — Ms Markwell said "Muslims here are very sensitive to the fact that we need to protect our communities from that kind of hate mongering online".

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 7:57 a.m. No.20909098   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909090

 

2/2

 

Ruling follows bishop stabbing

 

The QCAT decision comes after a stoush between Australia's online safety regulator and X over its refusal to take down video footage of the stabbing of bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in April, which was live streamed.

 

Tension rose after X hid 65 tweets containing video of the attack, rather than agreeing to the take down order — the eSafety commissioner Julie Inman won an interim order in the Federal Court, but failed to make the ban permanent.

 

University of Queensland free speech expert Kath Gelber said it was an important win.

 

"Every time that there's a public decision like this — that draws the line in the sand and says that you can't vilify an entire group of people based on their identity — then that is a win and I'm pleased to see the result of this case," she said.

 

"It is an important precedent that anti-vilification law applies to material that can be viewed and seen in the jurisdiction in which that law operates.

 

"It is interesting and important because recently we've seen pushback by some global internet companies, trying to say that because the home base of their jurisdiction is outside of Australia, and because they have global remit, that Australian law shouldn't necessarily be applicable to them.

 

"So it's a win for the target communities, because they can continue to say 'look the law is designed to educate people about how to exercise their free speech rights responsibly, in ways that don't harm others'."

 

However Professor Gelber said the ruling wouldn't allow an immediate order to make X take down the "hate speech" comments, as it would first require mediation between the two parties.

 

"I think it would be a pretty good bet to suggest that that mediation wouldn't work," she said.

 

"After that process has been attempted at least, then it is within the rights of any complainant to refer them either to a tribunal or court, depending on the jurisdiction.

 

"In that event, there could be an order to take down material at the end of the day."

 

The company can appeal the tribunal's decision via the Queensland Supreme Court.

 

The Muslim Advocacy Network is still awaiting a separate decision as to whether X breached the law by failing to remove or hide the alleged hate speech.

 

AMAN also has a legal complaint against Meta and Facebook Australia, currently before the Human Rights Commission.

 

Meta, which owns Facebook, has also been fighting a case against the national privacy commissioner over the Cambridge Analytica scandal on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that it's not subject to Australian law.

 

The ABC has contacted X for comment.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-24/x-twitter-landmark-queensland-court-ruling-muslim-discrimination/103888058

 

https://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/147408

 

https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2024/QCAT24-201.pdf

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:07 a.m. No.20909118   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9138

>>20886418

Ex-pilot has 'no arguments' to make against extradition

 

Jack Gramenz and Miklos Bolza - May 24 2024

 

An ex-US fighter pilot's lawyers have conceded they have no case to mount against his extradition as he faces prosecution in the US on allegations of unlawfully aiding the Chinese military.

 

Former top gun Daniel Duggan has spent 19 months in a maximum-security prison before Friday's hearing in a Sydney court on the US extradition order.

 

Magistrate Daniel Reiss will deliver a decision on his eligibility for extradition on Friday afternoon after barrister Bret Walker SC told a court Duggan could not legally mount a defence.

 

Asked by the magistrate if Friday's hearing would be contested, Mr Walker told the court: "Not really, no."

 

There was no argument to written material provided by lawyers for the US, he added.

 

The magistrate can order Duggan to stay in custody to await extradition, an order he can appeal for review within 15 days, lawyer Trent Glover, acting for the US, told the court.

 

Mr Reiss noted that the position from Duggan's lawyers had "streamlined the considerations significantly".

 

The 55-year-old was arrested in Australia at the behest of the US after being accused of breaching arms-trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012, allegedly receiving about $100,000 for his services.

 

Duggan's wife, children and supporters had gathered outside Downing Centre Local Court before the extradition hearing to call for his freedom.

 

"This deliberate torture has to stop today," Saffrine Duggan said.

 

Her husband has been kept in a maximum-security prison in solitary confinement, preparing his defence with handwritten notes, while her house has been seized and applications for Legal Aid were rejected, she said.

 

"They have done everything in their power to make this difficult for my family, to try and break Dan and to break us, but we will fight no matter what," she said.

 

Ms Duggan again called on Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to release her husband.

 

"He has the power to free Dan … Australians won't stand for the US threatening our sovereignty, this is Australia, we are Australian citizens," she said.

 

Duggan blew kisses and made heart gestures from the dock as the courtroom filled with supporters on Friday, some of whom were reminded about laws regarding contempt.

 

Some remained seated on the floor of the packed courtroom, while one man accused the magistrate of presiding over a "kangaroo court".

 

The ex-pilot and his family argue the charges are politically motivated given the deterioration of Sino-American relations and how long ago the alleged actions occurred.

 

In April, he failed in a court bid to postpone the hearing after claiming he had racked up $800,000 in legal bills and was unable to fund his future defence.

 

In a prison letter seen by AAP, Duggan said he believed his activities were lawful and that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service knew of his work.

 

Ms Duggan has presented a petition with 25,000 signatures to politicians in Canberra, calling on Mr Dreyfus to release her husband and end his extradition.

 

Greens Senator David Shoebridge said he would table the petition in parliament.

 

"Our government should show some guts, our government should make it clear that being an Australian citizen matters, and that when another country comes for you, they'll protect you as best they can … but we've seen none of that," he said.

 

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8639520/ex-pilot-has-no-arguments-to-make-against-extradition/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:15 a.m. No.20909138   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9164 >>9180 >>9198 >>9230 >>6344

>>20886418

>>20909118

Daniel Duggan loses fight against extradition to US over allegedly training Chinese pilots, magistrate rules

 

Australian former US marine pilot faces potential prison sentence of up to 60 years on charges of arms trafficking and money laundering.

 

Ben Doherty - 24 May 2024

 

Daniel Duggan, an Australian citizen and former US marine pilot wanted in the United States over allegations he trained Chinese fighter pilots, is eligible to be extradited, a Sydney magistrate has ruled. .

 

Duggan appeared in court for the first time since his arrest 19 months ago, dressed in a grey suit jacket, white shirt and blue tie. From behind the security glass of the dock he blew kisses to his family and supporters, and made a love-heart symbol towards his wife, Saffrine, mouthing the words “I love you”.

 

The magistrate, Daniel Reiss, told the court Duggan was “eligible for surrender” to the US and ordered that he be committed to prison.

 

Duggan has 15 days to seek a review in the federal court. The extradition process, which involves several levels of review and appeal before a final decision by the attorney general, could remain before Australian authorities for years.

 

The US is seeking the extradition of Duggan, 55, on charges of arms trafficking and money laundering arising from his alleged training of Chinese fighter pilots more than a decade ago. The allegations have not been tested in court.

 

A US indictment alleges he taught Chinese fighter pilots to land jets on aircraft carriers – known as “carrier-arrested landings” – in defiance of arms trafficking laws. The indictment details payments Duggan allegedly received in 2011 and 2012 for training Chinese fighter pilots at a test flight academy “based in South Africa, with a presence in the People’s Republic of China”.

 

The father of six – whose children are aged between six and 18 and are all Australian citizens – faces a potential 60-year prison term if convicted in the US.

 

Duggan, who has no criminal history anywhere in the world, has faced significant isolation in prison, having been classified as a high-risk inmate. He has consistently denied the allegations against him as politically motivated, and has claimed the indictment is filled with “half-truths, falsehoods and gross embellishments”.

 

In his formal decision, Reiss wrote: “Mr Duggan has not pressed any extradition objections and has not tendered any documentation that might support any such objection.

 

“Mr Duggan has not satisfied the court that there are substantial grounds for believing that there is an extradition objection in relation to the offences.

 

“I therefore conclude that Mr Duggan is eligible for extradition to the USA.”

 

The extradition hearing was chaotic, even shambolic. The courtroom was moved twice before proceedings started well over an hour late, after dozens of observers had been expelled from the court.

 

Before the hearing began, the magistrate expelled any observers without a seat, leading to protests from the floor, saying: “We demand a bigger court,” and, “This is an important case for Australia.”

 

The magistrate was implacable and did not start the hearing until dozens of Duggan’s supporters had been ushered out. One remained by hiding behind a pillar, unseen by the magistrate.

 

A protester then repeatedly yelled that the magistrate was running a “kangaroo court” and that the hearing was in defiance of the Magna Carta.

 

Threatened with contempt by Reiss, the man told the bench: “You’re the one in contempt.” He left before sheriffs arrived to expel him.

 

Saffrine Duggan spoke outside the Downing Centre court after the magistrate’s decision. She said the order “was simply about ticking boxes”. Her husband “had always denied the allegations”, she said, and would continue to fight the charges.

 

“We want my husband to come home here in Australia,” she said.

 

Saffrine Duggan added that the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, had the power to defy the US extradition request and to release her husband.

 

“We respectfully ask the attorney general to take another look at this case, and to bring my husband home.”

 

Duggan’s daughter Molly told supporters her father’s arrest and imprisonment had left the family “in a constant state of crisis and turmoil”.

 

“Dad is going through a horrible, alienating, dehumanising experience. He may never be the same.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/24/daniel-duggan-extradition-us-allegedly-training-chinese-pilots-trafficking-money-laundering

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:24 a.m. No.20909164   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9169

>>20909138

Daniel Duggan case: ‘Mr Duggan is eligible for surrender’ over Chinese fighter pilots training claims

 

CLAREESE PACKER and ADELAIDE LANG - MAY 24, 2024

 

1/2

 

A former US marine pilot who has been accused of unlawfully training Chinese fighter pilots has been deemed eligible for extradition to the US after his lawyers conceded they have no legal grounds to fight the request.

 

Daniel Duggan has been in custody since October 2022 over charges of conspiracy, arms trafficking and money laundering after the US requested he be extradited.

 

US authorities allege Duggan breached money laundering and arms export control laws while teaching foreign pilots at a flying academy in South Africa more than 12 years ago.

 

They also claim Duggan taught pilots – including Chinese citizens – how to land atop an aircraft carrier, and therefore breached US arms control laws. Duggan was allegedly paid more than $110,000 for his expertise but he had not sought the government’s permission to undertake the role.

 

Magistrate Daniel Reiss confirmed Duggan is eligible for extradition on Friday afternoon, with the final decision to be handed down by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

 

“Section 19 of the criteria have been met and Mr Duggan is eligible for surrender in relation to the counts particularised,” he said.

 

“(I) hereby order the relevant police to commit Daniel Edmund Duggan to a correctional facility in the state of NSW to await in relation to the particularised offences.”

 

Duggan will have 15 days to appeal for review, Mr Reiss said.

 

Lawyers for Duggan asked that he be taken to a Lithgow facility.

 

“I merge to seek an expression from yourself to have Mr Duggan return to Lithgow closer to his family. If your honour would lend your words to that issue he’d be grateful,” Bernard Colleary said.

 

Mr Reiss replied he has “limited involvement or powers in those matters”.

 

Mr Colleary indicated Duggan will continue to fight the extradition speaking outside court after proceedings on Friday afternoon.

 

However, when asked if he will be seeking a review of the order, Mr Colleary said: “No, not the section 19 of it”.

 

Mr Colleary emphasised Friday’s proceedings was an administrative hearing rather than a judicial hearing, and said Mr Duggan is “equally determined” to defend his cause.

 

It comes after high-profile silk Bret Walker SC, representing Duggan, earlier said: “The arguments advanced in writing can’t be maintained”.

 

“I’m submitting there are no arguments I can properly put against the way our friends written reply dealt with the written response on behalf of Mr Duggan,” he said. “I hope that’s clear enough, Your Honour.”

 

Mr Reiss adjourned the court until 2pm Friday afternoon to come to a decision.

 

“In the current circumstances, I can finalise, at this stage today … given the position now being adopted on behalf of Mr Duggan, (it has) streamlined the considerations significantly,” he said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:25 a.m. No.20909169   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909164

 

2/2

 

Duggan’s wife, Saffrine, pleaded for Mr Dreyfus to “bring (her) husband home” outside court on Friday afternoon. “Now we respectfully ask the attorney general to take another look at this case and bring my husband home.”

 

“There was no place to battle. There was no opening in the local court for my husband to run his case … It’s time to move onto the next stage.”

 

Duggan’s daughter, Molly, asked the Australian government to “save (their) family” following the decision.

 

“I just hope that our Australian government and our politicians find the heart and soul to save our family from this huge and massive injustice, and that they find it in themselves to set the right precedent for the future.”

 

A spokesperson for the Attorney-General said the government does not comment on extradition matters.

 

Duggan, who has consistently denied the allegations, appeared in person at Sydney’s Downing Centre local court, waving and blowing kisses to his family and supporters.

 

Proceedings were initially delayed Friday morning due to the number of people trying to file into the courtroom, with Mr Reiss warning protesters not to call out negative comments and risk putting themselves in contempt of court.

 

“If people can hold their tongues, I’ll see if that’s possible,” he said.

 

However one protester was asked to leave the room after interrupting, claiming Mr Reiss is “the one in contempt”.

 

“I think Mr Duggan is very well represented,” Mr Reiss said.

 

Supporters had earlier gathered outside the Downing Centre with signs reading “Let my dad free” and “Free Dan”.

 

The former operator of Top Gun Tasmania and a former US Marines pilot, Duggan was living in Orange with his wife and family before he was arrested in October 2022.

 

His wife Saffrine earlier claimed the allegations “defy common sense or even the slightest scrutiny”.

 

“The basic legal and human rights of my hardworking family have been forgotten in this case due to apathy, political bias and a complete lack of due diligence by the bureaucrats who advised the (Australian) government on this matter,” she said.

 

“To make matters worse, our government’s agents have now assisted the United States to confiscate my property, which has left me unable to properly mount Dan’s legal defence”.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/daniel-duggan-case-no-arguments-to-fight-extradition-over-chinese-fighter-pilots-training-claims/news-story/88f525433b7331b3771456c0c19da2fa

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:30 a.m. No.20909180   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909138

Ex-US Marines fighter pilot loses bid to block extradition to the United States over China training allegations

 

Hilary Whiteman - May 24, 2024

 

Brisbane, Australia (CNN) - The fate of former US Marines pilot Daniel Duggan now rests with Australia’s attorney general after a magistrate ruled he was eligible to be extradited to the United States to face charges related to the alleged training of Chinese military pilots.

 

After a short hearing on Friday, Magistrate Daniel Reiss found that Duggan met the conditions for extradition and ordered him to be moved to prison while lawyers for the US wait for Attorney General Mark Dreyfus to approve his removal.

 

Duggan has 15 days to seek a review of the order, which comes 19 months after his arrest in rural New South Wales, just weeks after returning from China to join his family in Australia.

 

Duggan’s wife Saffrine stood outside court with their six children, as she appealed to the Australian authorities to intervene.

 

“We are absolutely heartbroken and still don’t understand how this could be happening to us,” she said as supporters held up signs saying “Free Dan Duggan.”

 

“My husband is a good man, a great father, a wonderful friend and husband. He faces no Australian charges and has no criminal background whatsoever. Yet he is locked up by the say-so of the United States government,” she added.

 

She described Friday’s hearing as “simply about ticking boxes.”

 

“Now, we respectfully ask the attorney general to take another look at this case and bring my husband home.”

 

A 2017 indictment alleges Duggan trained Chinese military pilots between November 2009 and November 2012, when he was still a US citizen. Duggan met his Australian wife in 2011 and took Australian citizenship the following year.

 

The indictment said that “as early as 2008,” Duggan received an email from the US State Department telling him he was required to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and apply for permission to train a foreign air force.

 

Instead, it claims he conspired with others – including the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) – to export defense services in violation of an arms embargo on China.

 

In a statement to CNN in 2023, TFASA said it complies with the laws of every jurisdiction in which it operates.

 

The statement said Duggan undertook one test-pilot contract for the company in South Africa between November and December 2012, and “never worked for TFASA on any of its training mandates in China.”

 

Duggan maintains the students he trained were Chinese civilians, including plane enthusiasts and people with ambitions within the civilian aviation industry.

 

His supporters believe he’s been caught up in geopolitics during a time of strained relations between the United States and China and have accused authorities of using him to send a message to former military personnel.

 

Friday’s hearing at Downing Centre Local Court was delayed for almost an hour due to protests that required the proceedings to be moved to a smaller courtroom that became so crowded that some members of the public sat on the floor.

 

Further delays occurred after Reiss asked the floor-sitters to leave the room, warning that anyone who didn’t “hold their tongue” could be prosecuted for contempt of court.

 

A spokesperson for the Australian attorney general said the government doesn’t comment on extradition matters.

 

Under Australia’s Extradition Act, Duggan is entitled to appeal directly to the attorney general as to why he shouldn’t be sent to the US.

 

There is no set time period for the attorney general to make a decision, but by law it should be made as soon as practicable.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/24/australia/daniel-duggan-us-extradition-hearing-intl-hnk/index.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:37 a.m. No.20909198   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909138

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

 

Ethan Rix - 24 May 2024

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Duggan found eligible for surrender

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Mr Duggan now has 15 days to appeal for review.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

He also made a heart shape with his hands.

 

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

 

Supporters gather outside court

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:47 a.m. No.20909230   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909138

Ex-US pilot accused of training Chinese military loses legal bid to block extradition

 

Miklos Bolza - May 24, 2024

 

An ex-US fighter pilot and Australian citizen has been ruled eligible for extradition to his former home country for prosecution on allegations of unlawfully aiding the Chinese military.

 

Former top gun Daniel Duggan has spent 19 months in a maximum-security prison before today's hearing in a Sydney court on the US extradition order.

 

Magistrate Daniel Reiss ruled him eligible for extradition this afternoon after barrister Bret Walker SC told the court Duggan could not legally mount a defence.

 

Asked by the magistrate if today's hearing would be contested, Walker told the court: "Not really, no."

 

There was no argument to written material provided by lawyers for the US, he added.

 

The magistrate ordered Duggan be held in custody to await extradition under a temporary surrender warrant, an order he can appeal for review within 15 days.

 

Reiss noted the position from Duggan's lawyers had "streamlined the considerations significantly".

 

The 55-year-old was arrested in Australia at the behest of the US after being accused of breaching arms trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012, allegedly receiving about $100,000 for his services.

 

Duggan's wife, children and supporters gathered outside Downing Centre Local Court before the extradition hearing to call for his freedom.

 

"This deliberate torture has to stop today," Saffrine Duggan said.

 

Her husband has been kept in a maximum-security prison in solitary confinement, preparing his defence with handwritten notes, while her house has been seized and applications for Legal Aid were rejected, she said.

 

"They have done everything in their power to make this difficult for my family, to try and break Dan and to break us, but we will fight no matter what," she said.

 

Duggan blew kisses and made heart gestures from the dock as the courtroom filled with supporters today, some of whom were reminded about laws regarding contempt.

 

Some remained seated on the floor of the packed courtroom, while one man accused the magistrate of presiding over a "kangaroo court" before leaving the room.

 

The ex-pilot and his family argue the charges are politically motivated given the deterioration of Sino-American relations and how long ago the alleged actions occurred.

 

An April court bid failed to postpone the hearing after claims Duggan had racked up $800,000 in legal bills and was unable to fund his future defence.

 

In a prison letter seen by AAP, Duggan said he believed his activities were lawful and that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service knew of his work.

 

Ms Duggan has presented a petition with 25,000 signatures to politicians in Canberra, calling on Dreyfus to release her husband and end his extradition.

 

Greens Senator David Shoebridge said he would table the petition in parliament.

 

"Our government should show some guts, our government should make it clear that being an Australian citizen matters, and that when another country comes for you, they'll protect you as best they can … but we've seen none of that," he said.

 

Dreyfus has been contacted for comment.

 

https://www.9news.com.au/national/former-us-military-pilot-accused-of-aiding-china-fights-extradition/812c89fa-3a69-4415-bf2d-438403b17879

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 24, 2024, 8:59 a.m. No.20909278   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7555

Police charge disgraced AFL player Barry Cable with sexual abuse of young girl in 1960s

 

abc.net.au - 24 May 2024

 

WA police have charged disgraced AFL footballer Barry Cable with child sexual abuse after he allegedly assaulted a young girl in the 1960s.

 

Child Abuse Squad detectives say they charged the 80-year-old as a result of their investigation into historical child sexual abuse allegations.

 

It will be alleged during 1967 and 1968, Cable sexually assaulted a girl who was between nine and 10 years old at the time.

 

He has been charged with five counts of indecently dealing with a girl under 13 and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 13 years.

 

Civil suit findings

 

The charges come less than a year after Cable was found to have abused a young girl in the 1960s during a civil matter.

 

A Perth judge ruled he had sexually abused the woman – now aged in her 60s – starting from when she was just 12 years old.

 

She launched a lawsuit against the disgraced former footballer in 2019 and was awarded $818,700 for the "catastrophic" damage she suffered.

 

Four other women gave evidence against Cable during the proceedings, with Judge Mark Herron accepting their testimony that they, too, had been sexually abused by Cable.

 

Cable has always categorically denied all the allegations.

 

He had not faced criminal charges until Friday.

 

Stripped of accolades

 

Cable was removed from the Football Hall of Fame following the civil judgement last year.

 

AFL Commission chair Richard Goyder described the findings as "incredibly serious and distressing" when he made the announcement in June last year.

 

"The thoughts of the AFL Commission are entirely with the victim, who bravely told her story and the other women who courageously came forward during the course of the trial to tell their stories," Mr Goyder said at the time.

 

The WA Football Commission and the Western Australian Institute of Sport had also removed Cable from their respective Halls of Fame.

 

Lengthy career

 

Cable had a lengthy and successful playing career in the Victorian and West Australian Football leagues.

 

He was regarded as one of the greatest Australian footballers in history.

 

Cable won two VFL premierships with North Melbourne, four WAFL premierships and three Sandover medals for being the WA competition's best and fairest player.

 

His playing career lasted from 1962 and 1979, and he also spent time as East Perth's captain-coach.

 

Cable will appear before the Perth Magistrates Court next week.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-24/barry-cable-charged-with-sexual-abuse-young-girl/103891766

 

https://qresear.ch/?q=barry+cable

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 25, 2024, 5:22 a.m. No.20912404   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895013

>>20895037

Jewish women call on Penny Wong to speak louder about the horrors of Hamas

 

CAMERON STEWART - MAY 25, 2024

 

Australian Jewish women have called on Foreign Minister Penny Wong to view the harrowing Hamas footage of bloodied female Israeli ­hostages and speak out on their behalf, saying violence against women is not an ­Israeli or a Palestinian issue but a human rights issue.

 

Families of the five 19-year-old hostages released the shocking vision to highlight the plight of their daughters, who have been held captive by Hamas for 230 days.

 

In it, the five women – Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy, whose cousin Nikki Perzuck lives in Melbourne – lie terrified and bloodied as Hamas terrorists tie their hands, subject them to ­vicious abuse, and abduct them on October 7.

 

One of the terrorists is heard telling the others: “Here are the girls who can get pregnant.” Another tells one of the women: “You are so beautiful.”

 

Melbourne-based mother and Jewish community activist Lillian Kline led a group of five Jewish women to Parliament House in Canberra to call on the government to speak out on behalf of the women and the sexual violence used against women by Hamas. “What was done to these women can never be justified or swept up in political debates about the history of the conflict. These are ­horrific crimes against women inflicted by men” Ms Kline said.

 

“Hamas have used rape and sexual torture to destroy these women in body and soul and to terrorise. We have a duty to save these five women plus the other 14 women still enslaved and being tortured by their male captors.”

 

She called on Senator Wong and the Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, to “lead the campaign to alert the world to their plight and to call for their immediate release”.

 

“This is not an Israeli or Palestinian issue, it is a women’s issue and a basic human rights issue,” Ms Kline said.

 

UN bodies and women’s rights organisations have been criticised for their silence on the issue of Hamas’s sexual violence against Israeli women on October 7, despite those women’s groups being vocal about the deaths of Israeli women in Gaza. The rape, sexual torture and other crimes against women committed by Hamas and Gazan civilians on October 7 and afterwards have since been widely documented by the UN as well as by released hostages, survivors and investigators.

 

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the world had failed these young hostages.

 

“A few months ago, I stood in the room where these horrors occurred. I saw the memorial candles marking the spots where fifteen young women were burned alive by Hamas terrorists. Seeing the footage of the surviving women, bloodied and tormented, being brutalised by these men, is heartbreaking,” he said.

 

“The fact that 230 days later, Liri, Karina, Agam, Daniella and Naama are still in captivity, still suffering unimaginable horrors at the hands of monsters, shows how badly we have all failed them. As a community, we echo the plea to the Foreign Minister. Please watch the footage and please use your voice and your office to bring these girls home.”

 

The video shows dozens of gunmen tying up the female Israeli soldiers, who were captured while sheltering from heavy rocket fire on the morning of October 7. Their faces bloodied, barefoot, they had run out of bed to seek cover. The scenes are chaotic, with black-clad gunmen shouting abuse in Arabic and then, in ­another scene, praying as the women look on.

 

Around 240 hostages were abducted by Hamas and other groups and taken to Gaza on October 7. Around 128 remain there, according to Israeli authorities, ­although at least 30 of these are believed to have died.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/jewish-women-call-on-penny-wong-to-speak-louder-about-the-horrors-of-hamas/news-story/6c2db50bc15b73a8cb235c2a549dd0bb

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 25, 2024, 5:40 a.m. No.20912444   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4579

US bans imports of all poultry products from Victoria

 

abc.net.au - 25 May 2024

 

The United States Department of Agriculture has banned imports of all Victorian poultry products following an avian influenza outbreak.

 

The H7N3 strain of the virus commonly known as bird flu was found on an egg farm in Meredith, west of Melbourne, on Wednesday and has since been linked to another site 130 kilometres south-west in Terang.

 

The two properties share joint management, staff and machinery.

 

More than 500,000 birds have had to be euthanased this week.

 

The H7N3 is a high pathogenic strain of avian influenza and resulted in 400,000 chicken deaths at the Meredith farm in a bid to control the spread of the virus.

 

The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said it was restricting the importation of "poultry, commercial birds, ratites, avian hatching eggs, unprocessed avian products and by-products, and certain fresh poultry products from the State of Victoria, Australia".

 

The ban applies to products originating or transiting through Victoria as of May 22.

 

Victorian Farmers' Federation vice president Danyel Cucinotta said the state's agriculture industry was focused on preventing infection.

 

"While export restrictions are never good news for farmers, our focus remains on containing the spread on our farms," she said.

 

Both Victorian farms impacted by the avian influenza outbreak have been placed under quarantine and orders are in place restricting the movement of poultry, equipment and vehicles around the properties.

 

Victorian government statistics say the state exported $36 million in the year 2021-2022, which accounted for 2.5 per cent of the state's food exports.

 

Papua New Guinea is the largest market for Victorian poultry exports ($10 million), followed by Philippines ($8 million) and the Solomon Islands ($4 million).

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2024-05-25/united-states-of-america-bans-victorian-poultry-products/103893610

 

https://x.com/VicGovAg/status/1793934232936468969

 

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal-product-import

 

https://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDAAPHIS-39ea186

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 25, 2024, 5:48 a.m. No.20912456   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20755608 (pb)

Former NASA boss arrives to boost Australian space race

 

Stephen Brook - May 25, 2024

 

Australia’s space effort is taking a leap forward after recruiting a retired US Air Force lieutenant general and NASA administrator.

 

Lieutenant General Larry D. James’ 46-year career has led him from the US Air Force to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He retired from there in March as deputy director and chief operating officer after 11 years’ overseeing 6000 staff who explored solar systems and researched astronomy, physics and Earth sciences.

 

James flew into Australia last Tuesday and starts work on June 1 at Monash University as a professor of space innovation. He will also work at the Adelaide research consortium, SmartSat, as a strategic adviser.

 

“Australia is really doing a lot to boost its space capabilities. And this would be a good time to join in that effort,” James said from Sydney, where he will be based.

 

He said his role would be to “continue to raise the bar for space in Australia, which is an incredible ally for the US”.

 

The SmartSat Co-operative Research Centre, part government-backed, comprises 135 participating organisations in Australia and overseas to create technologies used in satellites and the space effort.

 

“It’s not that Australia has to become the US in terms of the space capabilities,” James said.

 

“Australia should mine the incredible technical capabilities they have to, number one, support Australian requirements and needs.”

 

Space technology can help us to keep a closer eye on Earth.

 

AquaWatch Australia, which aims to create an integrated ground-to-space national water quality-monitoring system, was one such project that could benefit from having a space component to boost its aim of providing predictive forecasting, James said.

 

“It’s not like you have to become a behemoth in terms of capabilities compared to the US. But you can absolutely create capabilities that are important for the nation and important for their allies.”

 

Enrico Palermo, head of the Australian Space Agency, welcomed the appointment.

 

“Lieutenant General James brings a wealth of experience in daring mighty things at JPL, which will help steer and elevate the work of SmartSat CRC and Monash University – driving further growth and investment across Australia’s space industry,” said Palermo.

 

James was a lieutenant general with the US Air Force who retired from active duty in 2013 after working as air force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at the Pentagon.

 

He worked with Australian military and scientists throughout his time in the air force, and during his civilian career at NASA. “I deployed with them during Iraqi Freedom, worked with them during my intel time and my air force time and JPL time,” he said.

 

While at NASA, James formed a relationship with Monash University and National Indigenous Space Agency lead Christopher Lawrence, a Wadjak/Ballardong Noongar man and Monash University associate dean (Indigenous).

 

They developed a program which led to NASA hosting a cohort of First Nations interns who studied space science in Pasadena, California, for 10 weeks.

 

At Monash, James will work to grow the university’s space curriculum.

 

Australia has had a long involvement in space research, including the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla outside of Canberra. Andy Thomas and Paul Scully-Power are Australia’s most famous astronauts.

 

Its space industry is growing. Two years ago, the Defence Department created Defence Space Command to secure Australia’s interests in space.

 

In April, Katherine Bennell-Pegg became the first Australian to graduate as an astronaut at the European Space Agency.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/former-nasa-boss-arrives-to-boost-aussie-space-race-20240524-p5jgc3.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 26, 2024, 2:18 a.m. No.20916892   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6893 >>1838

>>20895013

>>20895037

University of Sydney pro-Palestine ‘Trots’ ambush Jewish event, abuse former deputy prime minister

 

ALEXI DEMETRIADI - MAY 26, 2024

 

1/2

 

Pro-Palestine “Trots” behind encampments at Australia’s oldest university ambushed a Jewish organisation’s event dressed as terrorists and harassed former deputy prime minister John Anderson, peppering him with slurs and abuse.

 

It has led to doxxing concerns and a police complaint in an escalation of the crisis engulfing some of Australia’s most prestigious universities.

 

On Wednesday, activists from the “USYD Muslim Encampments” group – a spearhead behind the University of Sydney encampments – orchestrated a “Zoom bombing” of the Australian Jewish Association’s online event with former Nationals leader Mr Anderson, with one activist calling him a “c*nt

 

That activist, who hid behind a turned-off camera and a fake “Tony Abbott” name, hurled abuse at the former deputy prime minister, telling him to “shut the fck up” and “shut your mouth you old cnt”.

 

“You’re a bunch of Zionists, grubs … stop yapping,” the activist continued. Another accused him of being a “professional racist”.

 

The event was not about Israel but on Australia’s foreign and domestic policy, which its organisers have said rubbishes the protesters’ claims they are solely opposing Zionism and not targeting Jewish people.

 

“We will be Zoom bombing this meeting – (there will be instructions) … please follow them to ensure maximum interference,” one of the group’s WhatsApp admins wrote.

 

AJA president Dr David Adler spoke with NSW Police over the weekend, and will formally send the material as part of a complaint on Monday. The organisation’s CEO, Robert Gregory, called the university the “headquarters of harassment and intimidation”.

 

“The university stood by while Jewish students and staff have been intimidated, now the campus has become the headquarters for the harassment of the wider community,” he said, saying the “lie” that encampment activists were “only” targeting Israel had been exposed.

 

“It’s clear that the university campus is being used to target the Jewish community.”

 

Mr Gregory urged the university to expel any student involved and said he hoped police would consider charging anyone with using a carriage service to harass or menace.

 

It’s understood at least one person involved is a board member of the Sydney University Muslim Students’ Association, who have been contacted for comment.

 

“Dressing up as Islamic terrorists while doxxing members of the Jewish community is intended to intimidate Jews,” Mr Gregory said.

 

A “Zoom bombing guide” told members to create “dummy emails… which cannot be traced back” and a list was circulated for members to choose display names that “looked legit” and weren’t “obvious”.

 

“Don’t make it like ‘Abu Yahood’ or something,” an admin wrote, encouraging members to tape over their cameras so they were “safe”.

 

About 15 members “Zoom bombed” the event with one wearing attire similar to Hamas militants.

 

Videos were then plastered across social media, platforming the activists’ ambush, but also those members of the public who were on the call.

 

Mr Gregory said that many elderly participants were now scared to attend future events and one, who wished not to be named, said it was “frightening”.

 

“I am concerned that (the activists) got my name and also what I look like…. I never imagined this could happen,” they said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 26, 2024, 2:20 a.m. No.20916893   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20916892

 

2/2

 

Federal Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson called it an “appalling anti-Semitic attack” and said she hoped it would be “fully investigated”.

 

“The university must determine whether anyone responsible for infiltrating this event are students and, if so, take appropriate disciplinary action, including expulsion,” the senator said.

 

“Failure to treat this incident seriously would provide further evidence the university is not a safe place for Jewish students.”

 

Senator Henderson said the Coalition remained “deeply concerned” about the rise of anti-Semitism across universities, urging the government to back its bid for a judicial inquiry into the issue.

 

It follows federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton at Bondi’s Central Synagogue urging parents to speak out against indoctrination amid soaring anti-Semitism on campuses, telling Jewish leaders that the Albanese government had “lost its moral compass”.

 

At the same synagogue three weeks ago the prime minister dismissed pro-Palestine protesters encamped at universities as “Trots” who were “just looking to instigate trouble”.

 

A Monash University-led poll of more than 7600 Jewish Australians found 64 per cent believed anti-Semitism was “very much” a problem since October 7 – ten-times higher than responses to a similar question in 2017.

 

A University of Sydney spokeswoman said it had been in “regular contact” with activists about “expectations of conduct” and that it was making inquiries into the incident.

 

“We are seeking further information in relation to this incident and we will not hesitate to take action if we find there is a breach by a student or a staff member of our bullying, harassment and discrimination policy, or other policies,” she said, saying the university was in “daily contact” with protesters.

 

“So far, the encampment has been largely calm and respectful and we have investigated any incidents that have involved inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour.

 

“Our absolute priority is the safety of our community, and we’ve increased our security presence as a precautionary measure. We continue to carefully monitor the gathering at our Quadrangle and actively engage in a civil and peaceful manner.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/university-of-sydney-propalestine-trots-ambush-jewish-event-abuse-former-deputy-prime-minister/news-story/1fbdea1e33064305b3bbcb2f25a3d4c3

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 26, 2024, 2:25 a.m. No.20916896   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6900

‘Groomed in minutes’: Warning issued over notorious app Kik

 

TRICIA RIVERA - MAY 26, 2024

 

1/2

 

Kik, a dark corner of the internet where child abuse material and users with sinister intentions lurk have authorities warning parents that their children can be groomed “in a matter of minutes.

 

The instant messaging app was founded in 2010 by Canadian company Kik interactive, and shot to popularity upon its release, attracting one million users in the first 15 days.

 

But its reputation is one plagued with stories of child abuse material, pedophiles and minors exchanging explicit content with sometimes adult users.

 

The platform was destined to be shelved after its founder Ted Livingston announced Kik would shut down in October, however holding company Medialab, who also oversee brands Genius, imgur and Whisper, swept in the same month to acquire the app.

 

Kik has more than 300 million registered users and over 15 million monthly unique users.

 

The Australian Federal Police’s Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) is more than familiar with the notorious app, and have arrested offenders who have accessed illegal content on Kik.

 

AFP acting commander ACCCE and Human Exploitation Stephen Jay said that the centre has received referrals from the United States’ National Center for Missing & Exploited Children relating to Kik and other platforms.

 

“The functionality of messaging and file sharing applications means that offenders can exploit them for a wide range of illegal activity, including accessing and distributing child abuse material,” he told The Weekend Australian.

 

“The experience at the ACCCE is that offenders will gravitate to any platform known to be used by children.”

 

He said the ACCCE refers matters that require investigation to AFP members in the Joint Anti Child Exploitation Teams or Child Protection Operations teams.

 

Victoria Police say they have seen the app used in a range of its investigations.

 

“Unfortunately, younger people could be naïve to some of the risks around these sites and apps and so become a target for predatory offenders,” a police spokesperson said.

 

“Victoria Police is working closely with our law enforcement partners across Australia and the world to identify any emerging trends and actively target online predators.”

 

They said it is crucial for parents to educate their children on online safety, and, if required, have access to their devices and accounts so risky behaviour can be identified before it escalates.

 

“Children can be groomed in a matter of minutes – these offenders are often master manipulators – and their operations can be quite sophisticated,” the police spokesperson continued.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 26, 2024, 2:27 a.m. No.20916900   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20916896

 

2/2

 

Just last week, a retiree was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment in the Victorian County Court after he pleaded guilty to one charge of transmitting child pornography and one charge of possession or control of child abuse material obtained using a carriage service.

 

Stewart Jinkins, 70, used messaging platform Kik under the alias “evilsteve999” to hunt for child abuse material from September 2018 to January 2019 and joined nine group chats, some of which named #oldmenandyunggurls, #babygirls14, #schoolgurlz and Melbourneteengay, according to a court judgement.

 

After joining the group chats, Jinkins would then message members privately.

 

In a chat with another user, the man sent the following messages.

 

“I want to see everything the wilder the better”

 

“Show me the worse you have and I will tell you if it is too much”

 

“Got any teen stuff”

 

“nice got any young g & b playing”

 

“have you got younger”

 

But police soon caught onto Jinkins’ perverted activities, after an investigation in December 2019 to target child abuse material on Kik was launched.

 

They pinpointed evilsteve999’s location to a home address in Dingley Village in Victoria and seized his iPhone 6S, iPhone 4 and CoolerMaster computer tower.

 

While Jinkins offending occurred for less than four months, police retrieved 330 child abuse material files from the computer tower’s iOS iTunes backup function.

 

When broken down, it was found that 200 files, including 197 images and three videos, contained content depicting a real pre-pubescent child under 13 years old, and 129 files, including 129 images and one video, contained other illegal content depicting a child under 18.

 

The material contained disturbing images, including an infant, toddler, pre-pubescent and pubescent females involved in sexual activity predominantly with adult males, and a few with adult females.

 

Some images show the children restrained and shown in a physically-degrading manner, including small cages.

 

The videos, which capture acts too graphic to detail, include young boys, a four-year-old girl and an 11-year old girl.

 

Judge James Parish said both charges involved serious offences, and noted that Jinkins believed he deleted the material.

 

“The offending was deliberate and premeditated. In particular, it was not isolated, impulsive or opportunistic and is inconsistent with your version of being a passive member of any chat group,” he said in his May judgement.

 

A report from Jinkins’ psychologist said that he missed the “social interaction of the workplace” after he retired from teaching and joined online chat groups as a social outlet.

 

She said the duration of the offending behaviour would not warrant a diagnosis of paedophilia.

 

“(You) realised the error and stopped it; it was very disturbing material. (You) thought (you) had deleted it,” she wrote in the report.

 

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said there is an urgent need for platforms to strengthen protections against child sexual exploitation material.

 

“There also must be a cultural shift that prioritises the safety of children over the profits of companies,” she said.

 

“Platforms must take more responsibility for the safety of their users by implementing robust moderation practices and ensuring the swift removal of harmful material.

 

“The prevalence of child sexual exploitation material and abuse online is a significant and growing concern.”

 

In 2023, the eSafety Commission received five complaints relating to sexually explicit material and the promotion of crime and violence on Kik.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/groomed-in-minutes-warning-issued-over-notorious-app-kik/news-story/5196ffb51adb23057dc729167070214a

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 26, 2024, 2:42 a.m. No.20916909   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6911

>>20895255

The Aussie pop star who became queen of the Trump party scene

 

CHARLOTTE IVERS, THE TIMES - MAY 26, 2024

 

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For those of a certain political persuasion and bank balance, there will be only one party in London on June 7 at which to be seen: Donald Trump’s fundraiser.

 

“It will be the best party,” one Republican operative told me. “It’s kind of a must-attend, if you can afford a ticket.”

 

Tickets cost up to AUD$150,000 (USD100,000) per couple. If you’re feeling flush, you can pay an extra $25,000 for a picture with two of the hosts: Donald Trump Jr and his fiancee, a former Fox News anchor called Kimberly Guilfoyle. The former president will not be there.

 

But there’s another name on the host list that stands out: the Neighbours star and Kiss Kiss singer, Holly Valance Candy, 41. For those on the right-wing social scene, her name on the invitation is a promising sign. “It’s a Holly party,” said Nigel Farage, who will, of course, be there. “So you can guarantee it’s going to be enormous fun.”

 

To some of her fans the Australian celebrity’s political views might come as a surprise. “She kept quiet for many, many years,” Farage said. The pair have been discussing their shared views for nearly a decade, but the politician always warned Valance that “once you go public there’s no way back”.

 

Now she has taken the plunge. Trump is, she told me last week, “charming, polite, very quick-witted. Most surprising of all, a great listener. That was not expected.”

 

She met the former – and perhaps future – president through Farage, who invited Valance and her husband, the billionaire property developer and Tory donor, Nick Candy, 51, to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home in Florida, in April 2022.

 

When Farage posted a picture of the four together on Twitter/X, all hell broke loose. “Great dinner at Mar-a-Lago!” he wrote, in a photo that was liked 17,000 times and, intriguingly, has a photo of Trump with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, on the wall behind him.

 

Some fans threatened to boycott Valance’s music, expressing horror at this hint towards her political persuasion.

 

For those on the political right in London, however, it was no surprise.

 

Valance and Candy, who met in 2010 at a dinner party, married in Los Angeles in 2012 and have two daughters, have for more than a decade been at the heart of a glamorous and wealthy right-wing social circle that wields great influence on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

They were guests at Boris Johnson’s third wedding and attended the glitziest Tory fundraising bashes, as well as being noted hosts in their opulent west London and Cotswolds homes. But it is only recently that Valance has started to talk publicly about her political views.

 

In a series of GB News interviews, she has spoken about Farage ("Ambassador Nigel Farage would be fantastic"), Greta Thunberg ("demonic little gremlin high priestess of climatism"), climate change ("I just think the climate crisis – or lack of – is not a crisis. The air is better than when I was growing up"), and her home country ("the woke stuff’s really gone big in Australia").

 

Valance did not intend to “speak out”, she told me last week. “It was a funny sliding doors moment because I didn’t think anything I said was particularly edgy or profound or revolutionary. But maybe it was a good moment for someone in the entertainment industry to buck the trend of only contributing their latest project pitch or their pronouns.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 26, 2024, 2:44 a.m. No.20916911   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20916909

 

2/2

 

Not everyone was thrilled by her candour in airing her views, least of all her half-sister Olympia, 31, who also starred on Neighbours. “It was like, ‘Oh my God,’ when she said all that stuff,” she told the Australian radio show Allan & Carly. “I’m like, ‘Oh God! Everyone’s going to think that that’s what I think!’ And I don’t.” But within Valance’s circles, she is a hero. A top Australian diplomat said she was “one of the reasons we secured such a favourable free trade agreement for Australia” in 2021.

 

“She had all of the right of the Tory party eating out of the palm of her hand.” Several times the Conservatives discussed making Valance their London mayoral candidate, but in the end she decided against it.

 

Instead, she will vote for Reform UK. Her political priority is leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). “There seems to be this idea that if we did, Britain would fall into this lawless hellhole with nothing set in place to protect people’s rights. This is Britain? We wrote the book on this stuff, for God’s sake, for countries the world over to follow … I understand at the time it had merit. But it’s a very different world now. And by the way, some may say we’re already a lawless hellhole.” Valance did not intend to “speak out”, she said.

 

Meanwhile, Team Trump is delighted. “She’s glamorous. She doesn’t fit into the pigeonhole. She doesn’t fit into the woke agenda of Hollywood and people don’t expect that,” said one admirer. Among the grey suits of the Westminster social circuit, she stands out: “She is definitely a star.” Another politico who moves in the same circles said: “She plays that scene very well. Everyone adores her.”

 

“That scene” is a circle of wealthy Londoners who are pro-Trump or at least Trump-adjacent. It includes the likes of the former US ambassador Woody Johnson, GB News owner Paul Marshall, the former prime minister Liz Truss and her acolytes, a scattering of other Tory politicians and Brexit backers, and any number of hedge funders.

 

Their haunt is Mayfair’s private members’ club 5 Hertford Street, a hangout not far from the Ritz that has played host to celebrities including the actors Margot Robbie and George Clooney. All this makes London a highly profitable place for a Trump fundraiser, with organisers expecting to raise well into seven figures.

 

Earlier this year the must-have ticket for that crowd was Farage’s 60th birthday party on April 3: a boozy affair at Boisdale, an old-school steak restaurant in Canary Wharf, beloved of the Brexit set.

 

Valance was one of three people – along with Farage’s son and Trump via video link – to give a speech in honour of someone she describes as “one of the bravest men I know”. As Valance spoke, a heckle came from the crowd: the comedian Jim Davidson wanted to know whether she would stand as an MP for Reform. Valance laughed: “Not this time, but maybe next time.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/the-aussie-pop-star-who-became-queen-of-the-trump-party-scene/news-story/2320415bae18d11e1405557c99fd28e2

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 27, 2024, 2:36 a.m. No.20921838   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20899389

>>20916892

‘Anti-Semitic’: Education Minister Jason Clare slams ‘Israel should not exist’ UniMelb protesters

 

NOAH YIM - MAY 27, 2024

 

Education Minister Jason Clare has slammed as “repugnant” and “anti-Semitic” a statement from pro-Palestine student protesters at the University of Melbourne that “Israel cannot, will not, and should not exist”.

 

The inflammatory comment came just a week after the group proudly claimed victory over the university after they occupied a campus building for over a week.

 

The ‘unimelbforpalestine’ Instagram account on Monday shared with its 20,000 followers a post that said “calls need to emphasise that Israel cannot, will not, and should not exist”.

 

The account was sharing a post from Palestinian-American blogger Mariam Barghouti, who claimed on social media that “Israel has lost all legitimacy … No more simple calls for the end of bombs, no more calls to ceasefire, the calls need to emphasise that Israel cannot, will not, and should not exist”.

 

The account chose to share specifically the frame that called for the end of the Jewish state.

 

Mr Clare, when contacted by The Australian, said of the comment: “it’s repugnant and anti-Semitic”.

 

“There is no place for anti-Semitism on our university campuses or anywhere else,” he said.

 

“Universities should be enforcing their student codes of conduct.”

 

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the students were a “stain on our education system”.

 

“It may come as a shock to these students but Israel exists, has existed in its modern form for 76 years, and will continue to exist on the same lands the Jewish people called home more than 3,000 years ago,” co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said.

 

“It is a shining example of decolonisation and an exiled people returning to their ancestral lands. The ignorance and prejudice of these students prevents them from seeing that. The days when the Jewish people plead for their rights and acceptance are over.

 

“These students are a stain on our education system but they should at least be commended for dropping any pretence to seeking peace and now openly aligning with the genocidal aims of Hamas. This makes it much easier for the university to pursue disciplinary action against them.”

 

Zionism Victoria president Yossi Goldfarb said the statement was a product of “weak leadership in our parliaments and on our campuses”.

 

“Who can honestly be surprised by the extreme anti-Semitism of these civic terrorists?” He asked. “No longer masking their hatred and openly calling for the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world.

 

“We know what comes next, we’ve heard this refrain before. Next they’ll call for Jews to be eradicated. Heaven help whoever is next in their targets.

 

“This is what happens as a result of weak leadership in our parliaments and on our campuses. Too gutless to call out or act against anti-Semitism, our leaders are happy to allow these radicals to pour salt on to the festering anti-Semitic wounds their permissiveness has created.

 

“Enough is enough.”

 

The inflammatory comment by the student protesters comes just a week after they proclaimed victory against the University of Melbourne following their 10 days-long occupation of the Arts West building on campus.

 

Last Thursday, the activists claimed a victory in negotiations after the university committed to being more transparent in its research, apparently following protesters’ demand that the university disclose and cease research partnerships with weapons manufacturers.

 

They have since left the Arts West building.

 

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students president Noah Loven said the protesters’ comment “once again demonstrates the hateful nature of these protests that promote division on our campuses”.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/israel-should-not-exist-unimelb-protesters/news-story/84aebb0011ded43cd1f07ffc84654ff8

 

https://x.com/MenachemV/status/1794915656359612545

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 27, 2024, 2:49 a.m. No.20921874   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895013

>>20895037

ABC: Hamas rockets a ‘show of resilience’

 

ALEXI DEMETRIADI - MAY 27, 2024

 

Jewish leaders have slammed the ABC for an “activist-like” Instagram post, which called the terror group’s rocket launch towards Tel Aviv a “show of resilience”.

 

It has led to formal complaints made to the broadcaster by leading Jewish organisations, who have said it appeared the news organisation was placing “activism over journalism”.

 

It comes after Hamas on Sunday launched rockets towards Tel Aviv for the first time in months, with warning signs heard in the Israeli city as the Israel Defence Forces confirmed eight projectiles launched from Rafah had been identified and a number intercepted.

 

The “resilience” turn of phrase was included in a Monday morning Instagram post from the ABC News account, promoting a story about Israeli air strikes killing 35 people in Rafah.

 

“The Israeli air strike was reported hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv,” the post read.

 

“… In a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel’s massive air, sea and ground offensive.”

 

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry formally lodged a complaint on Monday morning to the broadcaster about the post, which remained online at the time of publication, with its co-CEO taking to social media querying the terminology.

 

“Hamas rockets fired from densely populated civilian areas at Israeli civilian centres are a double war crime,” Alex Ryvchin wrote on X.

 

“They endanger Palestinians by turning the launch site into a lawful military target and their aim is to kill as many Israelis as possible. How dare the ABC laud war crimes as ‘resilience’.”

 

Mr Ryvchin told The Australian that “glamourising war crimes is immoral and dangerous”.

 

“The post should never have been made and the fact it remains up is unacceptable,” he said, saying that “appropriate steps” needed to be taken to ensure similar didn’t happen again.

 

The Australian understands that the Zionist Federation of Australia was also set to lodge a complaint, with its president Jeremy Leibler saying that the ABC should “immediately review” its social-media practices.

 

“The ABC seems to forget that launching rockets at civilians is a war crime, not a show of resilience,” Mr Leibler said.

 

“For the ABC’s social media team, it seems activism takes precedence over journalism. First the ABC on TikTok encouraged an economic boycott of Israel, and now on Instagram it’s celebrating rockets indiscriminately fired towards civilian populations by a proscribed terrorist group.”

 

Fighting has centred around Rafah, where Israel has vowed to destroy the last remaining Hamas battalions, although it comes as the UN’s top court ordered its forces to stop its invasion of the city last week.

 

Israel began its invasion of parts of Rafah earlier this month and at least 800,000 Palestinians have fled from the city since.

 

The copy itself was taken from a story from a wire service, as opposed to an ABC journalist’s own.

 

The ABC were contacted about the Instagram post and phrasing used.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/abc-hamas-rockets-a-show-of-resilience/news-story/9325cab54661f556bacca74b17e37cc0

 

https://www.instagram.com/abcnews_au/p/C7crhZNSvdC/?hl=en&img_index=5

 

https://x.com/AlexRyvchin/status/1794887003902996700

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 27, 2024, 2:56 a.m. No.20921910   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9188

>>20864839

>>20890833

Australia had almost no submarines available for more than four years as China awakened

 

CAMERON STEWART - MAY 27, 2024

 

In one of the most tightly held national security secrets in the country’s history, Australia had almost no submarines available to defend itself for at least four years from 2009 to 2012 during the Rudd/Gillard governments.

 

It was an embarrassing bungle that could have had tragic consequences in a conflict but was considered too sensitive to reveal publicly at a time when China was aggressively expanding its navy.

 

The shocking history of the mismanagement of the six-boat Collins class submarine fleet at that time had the effect of delaying any discussion inside the government of building new submarines for years.

 

That delay has led to the current crisis-point for the government, as it is forced to implement a high-risk plan to extend the life of its six ageing submarines until the new fleet of nuclear submarines arrives in the 2030s.

 

The Australian revealed last week that the government had been warned in a new classified report that the $5bn plan to extend the life of the navy’s ageing fleet of Collins-class submarines for another decade was a perilously high-risk endeavour that was not guaranteed to succeed.

 

The revelation of the parlous state of the nation’s submarine fleet a decade ago, caused by poor planning, no spare parts, shoddy maintenance and a lack of crews, is contained in the first comprehensive history of the Collins class fleet by defence analyst Andrew Davies, to be published by ASPI on Tuesday.

 

It reveals that the then Labor defence minister Stephen Smith, now Australia’s High Commissioner in London, was told in 2010 that there was all but zero submarine capability available to defend the country at that time – a fact that could not be released publicly.

 

“(Mr Smith) was being told that the number of Collins submarines in the water at most times was either zero or one, with what seemed to him to be remarkably lax readiness requirements, given the supposedly critical nature of a robust submarine capability in Australia’s military strategy,” Mr Davies writes in a new book, Nobody Wins Unless Everybody Wins.

 

The book quotes Stuart Whiley, chief executive and managing director of the government-owned submarine builder ASC, saying that the then prime minister Kevin Rudd became involved in finding solutions to the litany of problems in the submarine fleet, which was then less than 10 years old.

 

“It was obviously very difficult; there were a number of reliability issues inside Collins,” Mr Whiley recalls.

 

“There were issues related to the supply chain, funding, crewing and availability of submarines. And we had a number of cases where we essentially had zero availability of submarines, which was an event that triggered a prime ministerial discussion.”

 

These were problems that had festered ever since the submarine fleet was launched between 1996 and 2004 under the Howard government but which came to a head from 2009 to 2012.

 

Mr Smith said the terrible state of submarine availability at that time made it politically impossible to argue the case to build more submarines for the future.

 

Mr Smith recalled that he would tell people at that time: “There’s no way in the world we can start a future submarine program process with the national security committee, or the expenditure review committee, or my colleagues, unless and until we’ve actually made some progress on problems and have outcomes of Collins being in the water.”

 

The book outlines how in 2010 the ASC simply “ran out of parts” for the Collins class submarines and how there was a desperate shortfall of qualified submariners to crew the few boats that were operationally available.

 

Former Navy chief Ray Griggs recalled how when he took over as chief of navy in June 2011 they had only three crews for six submarines.

 

“And the experience level in those crews was low,” Mr Griggs said. “I knew the exact cumulative experience level of each group. We used to monitor and we would move people around to balance out experience levels across the three crews. That’s how dire it was.”

 

Mr Davies’ book recounts how Mr Smith ordered the Coles Review into the Collins class fleet two weeks after The Australian revealed in June 2011 that not a single submarine was available for deployment.

 

But he says that review was a success and that between 2012 and 2016, the management, sustainment and availability of the Collins class fleet finally reached acceptable international benchmarks.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/australia-had-almost-no-submarines-available-for-more-than-four-years-as-china-awakened/news-story/d8ad8807adf4e1e709609cf1f8640095

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 27, 2024, 3:05 a.m. No.20921946   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1951 >>5327

>>20665462 (pb)

>>20789168 (pb)

Ukraine pleaded for help from Australia six months ago. It hasn’t received a reply

 

Matthew Knott and Rob Harris - May 27, 2024

 

1/2

 

Ukraine has appealed directly to Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong for an urgent shipment of Australian coal to help meet its energy needs as Russia bombards its power plants with missile and drone attacks.

 

The Eastern European nation lodged an official request with the government in December for a supply of coal but has yet to receive a response, leading officials to become increasingly worried a shipment may not arrive in time for the European winter.

 

In a letter to Wong sent on May 6, Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said that “events over the last five months have increased Ukraine’s need for energy security and the assistance of its allies in that regard”.

 

“The stark reality is that no power plant in Ukraine has been exempt from Russian targeting or not sustained [damage], and this is having direct impact on Ukraine’s people and the quality of their lives,” he wrote, adding that Russia had targeted Ukrainian power plants, oil refineries and heating facilities.

 

“You would appreciate that the need for energy security, including ensuring Ukraine’s remaining hydro-thermal generation capacity, has increased as a result of the most recent wave of attacks, and I therefore again ask for Australia’s consideration.”

 

Myroshnychenko said Ukrainian officials had assured him the country can make good use of Australian coal despite Russian attacks on Ukrainian thermal power plants.

 

Such a shipment would free up resources for Ukraine to invest in renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, he added.

 

Ukrainian officials have been concerned that Labor may be reluctant to send coal to Ukraine because of fears it could damage its climate change credentials.

 

Myroshnychenko told this masthead a decision would be needed soon for coal supplies to reach Ukraine by October when temperatures start falling, as it can take up to four months for a shipment to arrive.

 

“This is not a lifestyle choice for us. We need it to survive,” he said.

 

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “The Australian government is actively considering ways in which we can provide additional support to meet Ukraine’s high-priority needs.”

 

The spokesman noted the government announced a new $100 million assistance package for Ukraine in April, taking Australia’s total contribution to over $1 billion.

 

However, Australia ranks among the lowest donors of all countries supporting Ukraine as a proportion of gross domestic product, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

 

The Coalition has attacked the government for declining to commit to sending coal to Ukraine. Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the initial December request should have received a speedy yes. He said it was “embarrassing” that the government had not provided an answer to Ukraine’s coal request.

 

“For six long months Labor has swept Ukraine’s request for thermal coal under the carpet when it should have been approved immediately,” he said. “Of all the goods that Australia can give to Ukraine, thermal coal is one of the easiest for us, so why is it so hard for the Albanese government to say yes?”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 27, 2024, 3:07 a.m. No.20921951   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20921946

 

2/2

 

Whitehaven Coal, which shipped 70,000 tonnes of coal to Ukraine in March 2022 under a $30 million deal with the Morrison government, has said it stands ready to provide more help.

 

“If called upon once again by an Australian government to make a shipment of coal available to support energy security for the people of Ukraine, we would look upon that request favourably,” the company said in February.

 

Three major Labor-affiliated unions – including the Mining and Energy Union – have urged the government to grant Ukraine’s request, telling Resources Minister Madeleine King in December: “Ukrainian lives are at stake. Our unions will do all we can to facilitate this urgent humanitarian project.”

 

The government also looks likely to disappoint Ukraine by declining to send a senior minister to a peace summit being held at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Switzerland in mid-June.

 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Wong will be in Australia for a planned visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang while Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has plans to travel in the Indo-Pacific at that time.

 

Myroshnychenko said the Ukrainian government would be “extremely disappointed” if Australia only sends a junior minister to the summit, which will be attended by world leaders including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden will not attend the summit, intended to map a pathway out of the war.

 

Targeted assaults on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure are part of Moscow’s attempts to hamper the production of weapons for the military and diminish public morale since the February 2022 invasion.

 

Kyiv has been forced to introduce planned power outages since strikes escalated in March to prevent Ukraine’s remaining energy infrastructure from being overloaded, causing disruption to civilian life.

 

On May 8 Russia initiated yet another assault on Ukraine by launching 55 cruise and ballistic missiles, accompanied by 21 attack drones, on Kyiv’s critical infrastructure, destroying several thermal power plants across the country.

 

This included the Trypillia plant, the main electricity supplier to Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy oblasts. At least two hydroelectric power plants also had to be decommissioned as a result.

 

The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy last week disclosed plans to import a staggering 19,484 megawatt hours of electricity from its neighbouring countries, surpassing the previous record of 18,649 megawatt hours in March.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ukraine-pleaded-for-help-from-australia-six-months-ago-it-hasn-t-received-a-reply-20240526-p5jgol.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 27, 2024, 3:22 a.m. No.20921983   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9901

Operation Ironside: Aussies at heart of global criminal plot smashed by cops

 

Two Australians have entered guilty pleas amid new revelations police are still rounding up those connected to a trojan horse app “designed by criminals for criminals”.

 

Tom Minear - May 27, 2024

 

Two Australians at the heart of a global plot to help crime gangs communicate on encrypted devices have pleaded guilty, three years after the scheme was smashed in the police sting of the century.

 

Sydney pair Edwin Kumar and Osemah Elhassen – who distributed the AN0M devices without realising they were being secretly monitored by law enforcement – are the first of 17 foreign nationals charged by the FBI to admit to their role in the conspiracy.

 

It marks a major breakthrough in the world-first investigation, spearheaded by the Australian Federal Police, in which 27 million intercepted messages helped police allegedly foil murder plots and block a multibillion-dollar drug trade involving the Mafia, bikies and South American cartels.

 

Kumar’s plea agreement revealed how he told his co-conspirators: “I’m AN0M Australia and look after Australia … I have an entire country to look after.”

 

“Welcome to Team Australia, this team is solid and we will conquer Australia … Nothing will stop us,” he said in another message less than a month before the plot came crashing down.

 

It can also be revealed US authorities have arrested two other alleged device distributors – Dragan Nikitovic and Miwand Zakhimi – in the past six months as they continue to round up those allegedly behind the app that its creators bragged was “designed by criminals for criminals”.

 

Kumar was arrested in Australia in 2021 and extradited to the US in April last year, shortly before Elhassen was extradited from Colombia. Their guilty pleas to racketeering conspiracy charges were accepted last week by the US District Court for California’s Southern District.

 

Both Kumar and Elhassen distributed AN0M devices “to criminal end-users” between October 2019 and June 2021, according to their plea agreements, while knowing they would be used to facilitate the trafficking of drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine.

 

At the outset of the plot, Kumar sent a message to Hakan Ayik – one of Australia’s most wanted men until his arrest last year and an alleged AN0M administrator – saying he was “touching base” about obtaining an encrypted device for Elhassen.

 

Elhassen later focused on distributing and setting up devices in Colombia, the world’s cocaine capital, writing in one message: “I am anom colombia.”

 

Kumar dealt with hundreds of devices in Australia and spoke to Zakhimi, a citizen of the Netherlands, about creating “the ultimate (AN0M) user guide”.

 

Elhassen and Kumar sent multiple messages that were intercepted by authorities about drug trafficking, with Kumar selling and setting up devices for a gang that shipped 156 kilograms of pseudoephedrine – a methamphetamine precursor – from India to Australia in 2020.

 

Both men also admitted they had remotely deleted content from AN0M devices that were seized by police, obstructing law enforcement operations, and that they had laundered drug trafficking profits including through cryptocurrency.

 

They are expected to be sentenced in July, and while both face a maximum of 20 years in prison, prosecutors indicated in court filings that they would seek for them to be sentenced at the “low end of the advisory guideline range recommended by the government”.

 

More than 12,000 AN0M devices were used by at least 300 criminal syndicates operating in some 100 countries before a stunning two-day operation three years ago in which more than 500 people were arrested worldwide, including at least 100 in Australia.

 

Device distributors like Elhassen and Kumar charged fees of about $1700 every six months and provided technical support to organised crime gangs seeking to hide their dealings from law enforcement agencies that had secretly commandeered the AN0M app.

 

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/aussies-at-heart-of-global-criminal-plot-smashed-by-cops/news-story/6c1118c7862722f234253875400bd710

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 27, 2024, 3:35 a.m. No.20922020   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Former student alleges historical sexual abuse at St Cecilia's Catholic Primary School in Port Hedland, WA

 

Rosemary Murphy - 27 May 2024

 

A former Catholic school student has taken legal action against the church, alleging harrowing sexual abuse at one of its primary schools in northern Western Australia.

 

In a writ lodged with the District Court by former student Michael Cornes, he alleged he was one of several children abused by a teacher and a school chaplain at St Cecilia's Primary School in Port Hedland during the 1990s.

 

Mr Cornes, who has given permission to be identified by the ABC, said he started Year 4 at the school in 1994 and the alleged abuse began days later.

 

The writ, filed in January this year, alleged he was subject to repeated abuse by school chaplain Father Walter McNamara, known as Father Wally, and teacher Brother David Austin Christian, known as Brother David.

 

The court document stated the first time Mr Cornes was abused was when one of the men took him into room to "get cleaned up" after water was spilt on him in a corridor.

 

"During recess, the perpetrators took the plaintiff to the room on the pretext of a punishment for things such as forgetting his hat or his socks not being pulled up," it said.

 

"The plaintiff was then abused.

 

"The abuse sometimes occurred alone and sometimes occurred with another boy."

 

Mr Cornes alleged in the court document that the abuse occurred nearly every day and involved different boys.

 

"It often happened at recess and then one of the perpetrators would take the plaintiff back to his classroom," the writ stated.

 

"Class had usually started by the time he was taken back."

 

The court document alleges Father Wally and Brother David "rewarded" the boys with chocolates, which were put in a stocking to be collected by the boys at the end of the year.

 

Lawyers from Maurice Blackburn are representing Mr Cornes, who launched civil proceedings in the District Court earlier this year against three institutions that were responsible for the school and the alleged perpetrators.

 

The defendants are the Roman Catholic Diocese of Geraldton, which continues to operate St Cecilia's; the provincial leader of the Australian and Papua New Guinea Province of Catholic order the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers, of which Walter McNamara was a member; and the provincial of the Star of the Sea Province of the Catholic order, the Marist Brothers, of which David Christian was a brother.

 

The claim alleged the predecessors of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers Australia and Papua New Guinea, as well as the Australian Province of the Marist Brothers, had exercised care, supervision or authority over children and were "vicariously liable" for the abuse perpetrated by the men.

 

It also alleged the Roman Catholic Diocese of Geraldton had a duty of care to take all reasonable steps to ensure Mr Cornes was protected from reasonably foreseeable risks of personal injury arising from attending the school, and that it had been breached.

 

Mr Cornes said he had experienced pain, trauma and embarrassment as a result of the alleged abuse, and had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder.

 

The Marist Brothers have declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal action, but have filed a defence in the District Court.

 

A spokesperson for the Holy Ghost Fathers referred all inquiries to the Catholic Diocese of Perth, which declined to comment.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-27/historical-abuse-allegations-at-st-cecilias-in-port-hedland-wa/103845122

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 28, 2024, 2:25 a.m. No.20926898   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895013

>>20895037

Threats, abuse, as Deborah Conway targeted by pro-Palestine protest at gig

 

MATTHEW DENHOLM - MAY 28, 2024

 

A video has emerged of ugly scenes at a Hobart theatre as pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a performance by Jewish singer songwriter Deborah Conway, who accused those involved of “extreme intolerance”.

 

Palestinian-flag bearing protesters demonstrated outside Hobart’s Playhouse Theatre on Saturday night and some then disrupted the performance inside.

 

Conway, appearing alongside husband and musical collaborator Willy Zygier, had to repeatedly suspend the performance due to shouted questions, accusations and flag waving from protesters.

 

At one point, a woman appears to break a glass and threaten one of the protesters, while audience members are heard abusing protesters.

 

Tasmania Police on Tuesday night advised it had received a formal complaint relating to the disturbances and was investigating.

 

A self-described “autonomous group of pro-Palestine protesters” said the theatre disruption was a response to “publicly hateful” statements Conway had made about Palestinian children.

 

They said this included an ABC interview last year when, after being challenged to condemn the mass murder of Palestinian children, responded: “It depends on what you call kids.”

 

Conway, a leading figure in Australia’s music scene for decades and former lead singer of Do Re Me, was later quoted as explaining her remarks:

 

“I was trying to tell listeners, in the cut and thrust of a live interview situation, that when Hamas put guns in the hands of their adolescent sons to point at the enemy, Hamas steals their childhood, turns them into fighters and then turns them into casualty figures.

 

“It’s unbearably cruel. I wasn’t talking about babies or little children, nor was I defining what I think to be a child. It goes without saying that the deaths of innocents are always tragic.”

 

In the wake of the protest, Conway praised security staff for their handling of the situation and accused the protesters of “a dreadful display of extreme intolerance”.

 

“We were all confronted with a micro example of civilisational breakdown but the forces for civil discourse triumphed in the end,” Conway and Zygier posted on social media. “We completed our show.

 

“No matter how much we try to understand this movement, it defies understanding. Whoever funded this (and it’s hard to believe the protesters paid for their own tickets but if they did, thank you, it’s nice to have a sold out show!) they must be smart enough to realise they will not achieve any kind of altered course in the Middle East.

 

“They choose a few words out of a long interview and twist them to turn Deborah into a villain. It is the classic ancient blood libel, centuries old. In the interview Deborah was trying to explain how Hamas uses children, not who she thinks is a child, let alone who is worthy of life and death.”

 

The protest group said the Playhouse had ignored pleas to cancel Conway’s show in light of her “hateful statements”.

 

They accused some of her audience members of responding with “aggression … to our non-violent protest”. “We are disgusted yet unsurprised by the aggressive response,” they said in a statement.

 

The group vowed to continue to target venues that featured performances by “Zionists”.

 

Audience members described the event as “tense” and unsettling. However, Hobart Repertory Theatre Society president David Clements praised security and volunteer staff for their handling of the disruptions to the “Book of Life” performance.

 

“There were three interruptions which were managed by security and Playhouse staff and the performance was able to continue each time,” Mr Clements said.

 

“Patron safety and enjoyment are very important to us and we are grateful that no one was injured, although we acknowledge it may have been confronting for some of our patrons attending the performance.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/threats-abuse-as-deborah-conway-targeted-by-propalestine-protest-at-gig/news-story/050086a7810a5a906524fbfbb7323dae

 

https://www.facebook.com/conwayzygier/posts/1008210440676587

 

https://tasmaniantimes.com/2024/05/anti-genocide-protest-at-deborah-conway-performance/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 28, 2024, 2:39 a.m. No.20926912   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6914 >>2063 >>7481 >>7493 >>7501 >>5256 >>9141 >>9152 >>3605

>>20793584 (pb)

Trio of rapists on the Andrew Giles visa leniency list

 

PAUL GARVEY and RHIANNON DOWN - MAY 28, 2024

 

1/2

 

A trio of child rapists are among the growing list of pedophiles and sex offenders allowed to remain in the country under Andrew Giles’s call for greater tolerance for foreign offenders with ties to Australia, as the Immigration Minister refuses to say if he will intervene in any of the visa approvals.

 

Abdul Wahab Trad, a 45-year-old Lebanese citizen who permanently relocated to Australia in 2013 escaped deportation in March over his 2020 rape of a 13-year-old girl after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal found that the man’s ties to Australia weighed heavily in favour of revoking the cancellation of his visa.

 

His case is one of dozens identified by The Australian in which the AAT’s decision has been shaped by Mr Giles’s Direction 99. The direction’s biggest change was to make the “strength, nature and duration of an individual’s ties to Australia” a primary consideration for the tribunal when considering appeals against the cancellation of visas.

 

Since the direction was handed down in January 2023, dozens of convicted non-citizens – including rapists, drug traffickers, pedophiles and repeat domestic violence perpetrators – have avoided being kicked out of the country after successfully arguing to the AAT that they had ties to Australia. That cohort includes Sudan-born Emmanuel Saki, who was charged over a stabbing murder in Queensland weeks after the AAT agreed to revoke the cancellation of his visa.

 

In addition to the Trad case, The Australian has identified two more cases of convicted child rapists allowed to remain in Australia at least in part due to the Direction 99 guidance.

 

One of those cases, referred to only as ZJFQ, involved an Afghan citizen who raped a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl in separate incidents in the space of six months in 2020 and who the AAT found was a “moderate to high risk” of committing further sexual offences.

 

In the other case, dubbed XLFM, a Kenyan-born man who raped the 17-year-old younger sister of the mother of his child and who also robbed a female service station attendant using a meat cleaver was also spared deportation.

 

Those three cases are in addition to the recent decision in CHCY, in which a New Zealand-born man who raped his stepdaughter while his wife was giving birth also successfully argued that his ties to Australia meant he should be issued a new visa.

 

The latest examples emerged as opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan vowed to scrap Direction 99 if the Coalition were returned to power at the next election. Mr Tehan called on Mr Giles to reveal if he planned to rescind the order that contributed to CHCY having his visa restored.

 

“We will on day one, as a ­priority, rescind that Andrew Giles ministerial direction if we are ­elected at the next election,” Mr Tehan said.

 

“And the fact that this child rapist, the most heinous of crimes to rape a stepdaughter while your partner is giving birth in hospital, what it shows is that ministerial ­direction is clearly failing.

 

“I don’t think that you could get a worse example that the ministerial direction is clearly failing, and that is why it needs to be rescinded. And it’s why Andrew Giles needs to come out today and explain why he won’t rescind it.

 

“We raised this last week; he did nothing.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 28, 2024, 2:40 a.m. No.20926914   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20926912

 

2/2

 

The growing number of cases of convicted foreign criminals allowed to remain in Australia in the wake of Direction 99 will add to pressure on the Albanese government over its handling of immigration matters.

 

The Trad decision describes how the man was driving along a road in Bankstown, in Sydney’s southwest, when he encountered the victim who got into his van. He then drove the girl to a park, where he touched her breast and digitally penetrated her vagina.

 

Trad’s case was decided by ­former Labor senator Linda Kirk, who found that primary ­consideration 3 – the strength, ­nature and duration of ties provision introduced under Direction 99 – weighed heavily in favour of revoking the cancellation of Trad’s visa.

 

“The applicant’s immediate family members provided statements in which they state the love and support for their husband and brother, and their desire for him to return to live with them in the community,” Dr Kirk’s decision said.

 

“The evidence is that the applicant’s wife, children, sister and brother will be highly distressed if he is returned to Lebanon.

 

“(Trad’s wife) and the two children will be emotionally devastated and financially disadvantaged if the applicant is unable to return home and resume employment as the family’s primary breadwinner.

 

“The tribunal finds that if the applicant’s visa is not reinstated, his immediate family will suffer considerable emotional and ­practical hardship due to the ­absence of their husband and ­father, and financial distress as a consequence of him not being able to contribute to the family’s ­finances.”

 

Dr Kirk also found Trad had made a “positive contribution” to the economy during his time in Australia, through his employment as an installer of wardrobes, kitchens and shower screens.

 

Dr Kirk was also responsible for an AAT decision revoking the cancellation of the visa of a 29-year-old Afghanistan citizen who had arrived in Australia in May 2017.

 

The man, ZJFQ, had twice been convicted of sexual offences against teenage girls, had been found to lack empathy for his ­victims, had not engaged in any sex-offender rehabilitation programs, had not demonstrated that he understood the concept of ­consent or that sex with underage girls is unlawful, and did not take responsibility for his actions.

 

“The tribunal finds that the likelihood that the applicant will engage in further criminal or other serious conduct, specifically sexual offences, is moderate to high,” Dr Kirk wrote.

 

The AAT found that the “strength of ties” consideration in ZJFQ’s case weighed in favour of revoking the cancellation of his visa, noting that separating him from his siblings and parents in Australia would cause them emotional distress.

 

The decision in the man’s case was, however, more heavily influenced by the lack of mental health services and treatment in Afghanistan, with Dr Kirk noting he would likely become homeless and destitute if he was sent there.

 

A spokeswoman for Mr Giles did not address questions about whether the minister would rescind any of the latest decisions. Instead, she said that while the rulings had been guided by Direction 99, AAT members ultimately exercised their own discretion.

 

“The ministerial direction places a significant emphasis on serious offending and family violence – which need to be considered in all matters,” Mr Giles’s spokeswoman said.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/trio-of-rapists-on-the-andrew-giles-visa-leniency-list/news-story/3fd0b4e03127f56ab7ed6201c7cb9964

 

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

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 28, 2024, 2:47 a.m. No.20926922   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7541

>>20903732

AUKUS submarines ‘bigger, better, faster, bolder’ than existing US versions

 

BRENDAN NICHOLSON - MAY 28, 2024

 

The nuclear-powered submarines to be built in Australia under the AUKUS agreement with the US and Britain will be substantially bigger than the US Navy’s Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines.

 

Australian Submarine Agency director-general Jonathan Mead tells The Australian’s defence special report that at 10,000 tonnes, the conventionally armed SSN-AUKUS will be a “bigger, better, faster and bolder”, evolution of Britain’s Astute-class submarines.

 

By comparison, Australia’s six Collins-class submarines are each about 3300 tonnes and the US existing Virginia-class boats are just over 7000 tonnes.

 

The SSN-AUKUS will have strong US technological input. Its nuclear reactor will be built by Britain’s Rolls-Royce but with significant American enhancements.

 

Vice-Admiral Mead says all five of Australia’s SSNs will be built at Osborne in South Australia, which will become one of the world’s most advanced technology hubs. They will be built from Australian steel if the metal passes rigorous testing now under way.

 

The US has ordered the same Australian steel to assess its suitability for its submarine construction industry.

 

The massive scale of the program and the nuclear element has attracted strong attention, including criticism and questions about how skilled workforces will be found to build and crew the boats. Commentary has included suggestions that AUKUS is “dead in the water”.

 

Vice-Admiral Mead is emphatic the program can be completed as planned via an “optimal pathway” to build the expertise to give Australia a highly effective deterrent force rapidly in the face of a deteriorating strategic situation.

 

About 100 Australian naval personnel will be on US training programs this year and will serve in US subs. Others training in Britain will serve in Royal Navy boats. Some have already passed nuclear training courses.

 

Two Australian officers topped their courses.

 

Australian military personnel and civilians are undergoing intensive training designing, building, maintaining and crewing SSNs. Some have been training aboard the US submarine tender USS Emory S. Land for several months and will work on a US Virginia-class boat that will visit the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia for maintenance later this year.

 

Senior American military officials say that as the program develops, they are planning to have several hundred Australians gaining long-term operational experience as fully integrated crew members in 25 US Navy SSNs. American officials have said they saw big advantages in Australia having SSNs, and in the US having access to the HMAS Stirling.

 

The optimal pathway plan is intended to see the first of several US and UK submarines operating from HMAS Stirling as Submarine Rotational Force-West from 2027.

 

In 2032, the US will transfer the first of three Virginia-class submarines to the RAN. The goal is to have the first SSN-AUKUS completed in Australia by the early 2040s.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/aukus-submarines-bigger-better-faster-bolder-than-existing-us-versions/news-story/8cfeb940506c3bb5d551551daf190454

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 28, 2024, 3:16 a.m. No.20926953   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20868933 (pb)

>>20903719

‘Intimidatory’: Chinese government bullies NSW MPs over Taiwan

 

Eleven MPs from NSW attended a gala to celebrate the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president. Three days later, they all received an unexpected email from the Chinese consulate.

 

James O'Doherty - May 27, 2024

 

The Chinese government has been caught trying to blatantly bully Australian politicians over the “Taiwan Question,” urging them to adhere to Beijing’s belief that “Taiwan is a province of China”.

 

The Daily Telegraph has obtained an extraordinary letter sent by an unnamed Chinese government official to 11 MPs, including federal Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher, after the politicians attended an event celebrating the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president.

 

The email, titled: “Concerns Regarding Attendance at the Taiwan-related Event,” was sent to every MP that attended the function in Rhodes last Monday.

 

The gala dinner was organised to celebrate the inauguration of Lai Ching-te as Taiwan’s president last week.

 

The galling email sent to 11 MPs said that the Consulate-General “firmly opposes” their attendance at the dinner.

 

The email outlined China’s position on “the Taiwan Question,” insisting that “Taiwan is a province of China”.

 

The email criticised MPs for attending the Taiwan inauguration event, suggesting the politicians could be putting Australia’s ties with Beijing at risk.

 

“The Consulate-General hopes that you will adhere to the fact that “Taiwan is a province of China” and properly handle Taiwan-related issues with prudence and rein, so as to truly honor (sic) the one-China principle and avoid unnecessary interference or damage to the hard-earned momentum towards improving China-Australia relations,” the email said.

 

Chinese government officials appear to have sent the unsolicited correspondence after a photo was published online showing who attended last week’s function. The email was sent from a Gmail email address listed on the Consulate’s website as the contact for its “Political & Media Affairs” section.

 

Strategic Analysis Australia Founder and Director Michael Shoebridge said the correspondence was a “deliberate” act which was “hard not to see as intimidatory”.

 

“This is another example of the Chinese government trying to intervene to affect domestic policy making and decisions in Australia,” he said.

 

“This is not accidental intimidation, this is a deliberate state act.”

 

“What Australian MPs should do is adhere to Australia’s one-China policy … We acknowledge that its Beijing’s view that they have sovereignty over Taiwan but we’ve never agreed with that,” he said.

 

Premier Chris Minns said his MPs would not be “bullied” over what events they attend.

 

“We’re not going to be in a situation where any Labor MP is going to be bullied or intimidated about going to a function, that’s their job as a member of parliament,” he said.

 

Opposition foreign spokesman Simon Birmingham said the email was “counter-productive” and “risks undermining the resumption of dialogue and engagement with China,” he said.

 

State government MP Hugh McDermott, who received the correspondence, said he was “extremely concerned” at the attempted interference.

 

“The dictates of the CCP have no place in Australian politics,” he said.

 

Independent MP Rod Roberts also got the email after attending.

 

“I find it both alarming and disturbing that a foreign power would try and influence what an elected parliamentarian can say and what events I could attend in my own country,” he said.

 

Opposition Treasury spokesman Damien Tudehope said he was “shocked” to get the email.

 

“This was a shocking interference to try to prevent an elected MP from engaging in a community event,” he said.

 

The other MPs who attended were all Liberals: Jordan Lane, Rachel Merton, Chris Rath, Tim James, Ray Williams, Jacqui Munro, and Mark Coure. Those MPs all confirmed they received the same email.

 

Revelations of the email come a week after Beijing blasted Australian MPs over a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan for the inauguration.

 

At the time, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade defended the trip.

 

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: “Australia adheres consistently to our longstanding and bipartisan One China policy”. Ms Wong did not directly address the email sent by the Chinese consulate to MPs from NSW.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-28/nsw-mps-china-taiwainese-function-letter-politicians/103899904

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 28, 2024, 3:25 a.m. No.20926971   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6976

>>20895103

Former US president Donald Trump says he will give 'very serious consideration' to pardoning Julian Assange if he takes office

 

Former US president Donald Trump has revealed he is giving "very serious consideration" to pardoning Australian Wikileaks founder Julian Assange if he is returned to office in November.

 

Patrick Hannaford - May 28, 2024

 

1/2

 

Former US president Donald Trump will give “very serious consideration” to pardoning Julian Assange if he is returned to office in the upcoming presidential election.

 

The Australian Wikileaks founder is currently fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces espionage charges carrying a maximum 175-year sentence for publishing classified information obtained from whistle-blower Chelsea Manning.

 

Trump was asked whether he would pardon the Australian citizen during a podcast interview with Youtuber Tim Pool

 

"Well I'm going to talk about that today, and we're going to give it very serious consideration,” the former President said.

 

The interview was recorded on Saturday evening (local time), prior to Trump’s speech at the 2024 National Convention of the US Libertarian Party.

 

“And we're going to have a couple of other things to say in the speech - that I think you’re going to love,” he added.

 

“You’ve gotten so much out of me I should leave a little bit for the speech, don't you think?”

 

The former US president is all but guaranteed to win the Republican nomination, which will set up a re-run of the 2020 contest with current US President Joe Biden.

 

The Australian government has been lobbying the Biden administration to pardon Mr Assange since the election of Anthony Albanese in 2022, with the Prime Minister telling ABC Radio in February that it was “time Julian Assange was brought home”.

 

When President Biden was asked whether the US was thinking about the proposal, he said they were “considering it”.

 

Mr Assange was last week granted leave by the UK’s High Court to make a final appeal against his extradition to the US, with his lawyers arguing there is no guarantee he could avail himself of press freedom protections under the first amendment of the US Constitution because he is not a US citizen.

 

The Australian citizen is being held in the UK’s Belmarsh Prison while he awaits his fate.

 

The Wikileaks founder has been charged with 17 counts of breaching the US Espionage Act of 1917, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, all related to the publication of classified information obtained by Manning.

 

The charges make the Australian the first publisher in history to be charged under the WWI-era Espionage Act, and his prosecution has caused concern among press freedom advocates.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 28, 2024, 3:27 a.m. No.20926976   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20926971

 

2/2

 

In a 2021 letter, a group of 23 press freedom, civil liberties and international human rights advocacy organisations wrote to US Attorney General Merrick Garland arguing the case against Mr Assange “poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad”.

 

“Journalists routinely engage in much of the conduct described in the indictment: speaking with sources, asking for clarification or more documentation, and receiving and publishing official secrets,” the letter said.

 

“News organisations frequently and necessarily publish classified information in order to inform the public of matters of profound public significance.

 

“We appreciate that the government has a legitimate interest in protecting bona fide national security interests, but the proceedings against Mr Assange jeopardise journalism that is crucial to democracy. In our view, a precedent created by prosecuting Assange could be used against publishers and journalists alike, chilling their work and undermining freedom of the press.”

 

President Trump went on to speak at the Libertarian Party National Convention but was booed and heckled throughout, with Mr Assange not being mentioned during the tense exchange.

 

However, the Wikileaks founder was mentioned by Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who also spoke at the convention.

 

The son of former Attorney-General Robert Kennedy and nephew of former president John F. Kennedy took aim at President Trump, attacking him for his failure to "defend press freedom" during his time in office.

 

“President Trump assaulted the First Amendment, or failed to defend press freedom, when he continued President Obama’s persecution and prosecution of Julian Assange,” RFK said to rapturous applause.

 

“Assange should be celebrated as a hero for doing exactly what journalists are supposed to do which is to expose government corruption. We shouldn’t be putting (Julian Assange) in prison, we should have a monument to him here in Washington, DC.”

 

The nephew of former US president John F Kennedy continued to praise Mr Snowden, who has lived in Russia since 2013 after leaking confidential information about global surveillance programs, many run by America’s National Security Agency (NSA).

 

“The same is true for Edward Snowden who exposed illegal spying by the NSA and congress went ahead and passed legislation because of the findings of Edward Snowden,” RFK Jr. said.

 

“If he hadn’t told us we wouldn’t know about it.

 

“He’s a hero, not a criminal. So I’m gonna tell you what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna do what President Trump should have done on my first day in office. I’m gonna pardon Edward Snowden and I’m gonna drop all charges against Julian Assange.”

 

https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/united-states/former-us-president-donald-trump-says-he-will-give-very-serious-consideration-to-pardoning-julian-assange-if-he-takes-office/news-story/acea5cd840e1eb3dc4f1ba26bc3559c0

 

https://x.com/TPostMillennial/status/1795272275031433500

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 29, 2024, 3:13 a.m. No.20932063   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2065

>>20926912

Rapist attacks 25 women, teen … and allowed to retain his visa

 

RHIANNON DOWN and PAUL GARVEY - MAY 29, 2024

 

1/2

 

A remorseless serial rapist who ­attacked 25 women and a child kept his visa as a result of Andrew Giles's catastrophic push to give more leniency to foreign-born criminals with ties to Australia, as it was revealed the embattled Immigration Minister was warned his policy would lead to a huge rise in offenders successfully beating deportation.

 

The Australian can reveal a man who had “some of the worst child abuse material in the world”, a rapist who molested four children and a criminal who laundered more than $5m also kept their visas as a by-product of Mr Giles’s Direction 99.

 

As Labor was consumed on Tuesday by revelations of offenders who kept their visas as a result of Mr Giles’s direction, the minister declared he would prioritise a possible appeal of cancelled criminal deportations months after they were first overturned and days after the cases were uncovered by The Australian.

 

But Senate estimates late on Tuesday night uncovered a study by Mr Giles’s own department that estimated 25 per cent of foreign-born criminals could overturn their visa cancellations under ­Direction 99.

 

The study considered 10 cases that had been determined under the previous Direction 90, eight of which had ended in the visa ­cancellations being affirmed and two in which the cancellation was revoked.

 

Under the exercise, Home Affairs found that two of the eight cancellations would be revoked under Direction 99.

 

“The two changed decisions both had relatively low sentence length (12 months and 18 months), (the offender) had lived in Australia since they were children and did not involve family violence,” the ministerial briefing said. “The two favourable decisions remained unchanged, but it was noted that they became a relatively more straightforward decision to revoke the cancellation.”

 

In a new case uncovered by The Australian, British-born masseur and rapist Charles William Davidson in February had the cancellation of his visa ­revoked despite having been convicted of eight counts of rape, 48 counts of sexual assault, and three counts of ­indecent treatment of children under 16.

 

The sentencing judge said the serial rapist had demonstrated “absolutely no remorse whatsoever”.

 

“In fact, during your evidence, you took every opportunity to ­gratuitously attack the character of some of the complainant women,” the judge said during sentencing. “Your evidence was quite obviously rejected by the jury, and understandably so. It was rife with inherent implausibility, inconsistency, and appeared frequently to be – to consist of recent fabrication.”

 

In an earlier unsuccessful ­appeal by Davidson against his conviction and sentence, Queensland’s Supreme Court noted that the trial judge had factored the likelihood that Davidson would be deported upon his release from prison into his decision to grant him an earlier parole date. That deportation however was cancelled after the AAT ruled that a “very heavy level of weight” should be given to the strength of Davidson’s ties to Australia. Although Davidson was born in Scotland, he had moved to Australia at the age of five.

 

“I am of the view that the applicant’s ties with … his immediate family members in Australia are very strong and that those ties militate in favour of the allocation of a very heavy level of weight in favour of the Applicant pursuant to this Primary Consideration 3,” the tribunal wrote.

 

Late on Tuesday, Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt told Senate estimates that Mr Giles had asked his department to add Davidson to the list of criminals whose visas would be cancelled for a second time.

 

Department of Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster told the Senate her department had “failed to meet its obligations” over the crisis caused by Mr Giles’s direction and claimed that her officials had not told Mr Giles that the visa cancellations had been reversed.

 

Ms Foster said she “regrets very much” what occurred and claimed she was ­“ultimately” responsible, not just as the head of the department but in her capacity as associate secretary of immigration at the time of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal decisions.

 

She told senators that a two-part process had been put in place to advise the minister about cancellations in the future.

 

The Australian understands Mr Giles has used his powers in ­recent days to overrule the ­AAT on at least one case – alleged killer and domestic violence perpetrator Emmanuel Saki – and is preparing to overturn dozens of other cancelled deportations. But Mr Giles is refusing to rescind his controversial visa policy despite his ­urgent review of failed deportations, as he blamed the AAT and his department for the growing number of criminals successfully challenging their visa cancellations off the back of Direction 99.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 29, 2024, 3:17 a.m. No.20932065   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20932063

 

2/2

 

Multiple AAT members, including former Labor speaker of the House of Representatives, Anna Burke, have said Direction 99 influenced their decisions to overturn visa cancellations, and in particular Mr Giles’s instruction that the tribunal make the strength, nature and duration of a criminal’s ties to Australia a primary consideration

 

Criminals can still appeal Mr Giles’s overruling of AAT decisions in the Federal Court, potentially keeping them in the country for months.

 

Anthony Albanese was sticking by his floundering minister on Tuesday amid the Direction 99 debacle and the ongoing border crisis caused by the High Court’s decision to free hundreds of criminals from immigration detention.

 

Peter Dutton and the Coalition used the first day of the sitting week to ramp up pressure on the Prime Minister and call for Mr Giles’s sacking.

 

Mr Giles used a chaotic question time performance to blame his department and the AAT for criminals who kept their visas under his ministerial direction.

 

“I advise the House (of ­Representatives) … that I have ­prioritised a number of cases for urgent cancellation consideration,” Mr Giles told parliament on Tuesday. “A number of cases were not raised with me by my department, and I’ve asked my department for an explanation why. My department is now looking at all these cases as a priority, and they are all under cancellation consideration.”

 

The Australian has identified another rapist who were allowed to remain in Australia after the tribunal cited Mr Giles’s Direction 99 guidance, as well as a case involving a man who was convicted over his possession of an enormous cache of child pornography including multiple copies of “the most notorious child abuse video ever produced”.

 

The deportation of a Chilean citizen who had sexually molested three of his wife’s nieces and the child of a friend was stopped after the AAT again cited the strength of the man’s ties to Australia. The pedophile had moved to Australia in 1987 at the age of 29. While noting community outrage towards sexual violence against children, AAT member Paul Fairall noted that the man’s two adult children had given “powerful evidence” in support of their father.

 

The tribunal described the material held by one Chinese man as being at the “most extreme end of child abuse material”.

 

“There were many more heinous indescribable sexual acts,” the tribunal said.

 

But the tribunal found that ­Direction 99’s primary consideration of the strength of ties to Australia weighed heavily in favour of setting aside the visa cancellation.

 

“The applicant’s ties to the Australian community must be found to be very strong especially in circumstances where he has spent his formative years here,” the AAT decision said. “This finding is augmented by the reality that (1) he has made contributions to the Australian community via his active involvement in the cultural and community life the tertiary institution he attends; and (2) that he otherwise has no other criminal history in this country.”

 

Mr Giles had initially argued that the decision by AAT member Stephen Boyle, when he cited ­Direction 99 in his decision to overturn the cancellation of Sudan-born Emmanuel Saki, was “inconsistent” with his ministerial direction. But The Australian has since unearthed dozens of other decisions in which the AAT cited Direction 99 and in particular Primary Consideration 3 – the strength, nature and duration of an individual’s ties to Australia provision introduced under the direction – when deciding to revoke the cancellation of visas held by criminals.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/rapist-attacks-26-women-kids-and-allowed-to-retain-his-visa/news-story/a53c42c480c2a9d6ca9d88819ffe72e3

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 29, 2024, 3:25 a.m. No.20932075   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2077 >>9166 >>9698 >>3445 >>3059

>>20895013

>>20895037

Greens to push Palestinian statehood in hung parliament

 

JOE KELLY - MAY 29, 2024

 

1/2

 

Greens leader Adam Bandt has made clear he will elevate the recognition of a Palestinian State in any discussions for minority government should the election return a hung parliament, fuelling opposition concerns about the prospect of a Labor-Green coalition.

 

NSW Liberal MP Julian Leeser expressed alarm early on Wednesday that a hung parliament at the next election could see the Greens making the “unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state and the weakening of the Western alliance a price of government.”

 

Following the comments, Mr Bandt told The Australian that “in any future minority parliament, the Greens will use every lever at our disposal to push for an end to the invasion of Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, as well as for Australia to recognise the State of Palestine”.

 

However, Mr Bandt said it “shouldn’t have to be a point of negotiations after the next election, as Labor has the power to recognise Palestine today.” He also clarified the Greens would continue to push for progress for Palestine in the current parliament.

 

On Wednesday morning, Labor and the Coalition teamed up to oppose a Greens motion in the House of Representatives recognising the state of Palestine, with Mr Leeser telling The Australian after the vote that Labor needed to take key steps to distance itself from the minor party.

 

“It’s time Labor stopped preferencing the Greens on their ballot paper,” he said. “It is bad enough that Labor foreign policy is made on the floor of their national conference where they sell out one ally – Israel – to placate the Corbynites from attacking AUKUS,” Mr Leeser told The Australian. “But how much worse would it be if Labor allowed the Greens to dictate our foreign policy as the price of government?”

 

“This is not an environmental party,” he said. “This is party that is obsessed with Israel and Jews.”

 

Only five people supported the Greens motion, including the four lower house Greens MPs and Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie, while 80 MPs voted against it.

 

Mr Bandt also clarified his position on Israel, telling The Australian that the Greens were “not questioning any state’s right to exist, but no state has the right to be an apartheid state or commit war crimes and genocide”.

 

Speaking in support of his own motion in the House of Representatives, Mr Bandt said that recognition of Palestine was long overdue and was not “just a symbolic move”.

 

“It is a critical step towards peace and towards ending the slaughter we are seeing with the invasion of Gaza,” he said. “It is a concrete step towards peace.”

 

“As the Prime Minister of Norway said last week, there cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition.”

 

Mr Bandt said the “scale of the slaughter and the genocide that we are witnessing is now topping 36,000 people”.

 

“A health system has been destroyed. There are mass graves in hospitals. Aid has been blocked. Children are now dying because they do not have enough to eat or drink.”

 

He warned that a “human engineered famine” was now taking its toll on the civilian population in Gaza that “amounts to collective punishment of these people”.

 

Mr Bandt said that Labor’s credibility was also on the line, declaring that a two state solution could not be realised if you “recognise just one side”.

 

“Labor backs to the hilt a genocidal war that is destroying the possibility of a state of Palestine,” he said. “Labor has stood with the extreme Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 29, 2024, 3:27 a.m. No.20932077   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20932075

 

2/2

 

Assistant Foreign Minister Tim Watts took aim at Mr Bandt for the motion, arguing it was a stunt and an exercise in politics that would divide the community.

 

“Why he would be deliberately setting up a vote on Palestinian recognition to fail is something that only he can answer,” Mr Watts said.

 

“Simplistic wedge motions in the House do nothing to advance the cause of peace,” he said.

 

“Wedge politics only divides the community,” he said. “Anyone who is serious about peace knows that that requires a two state solution … but the Greens aren’t serious. They prefer slogans to policy. A two state solution requires working together and the recognition of each other.

 

“On the question of recognition, we have made clear that we will be guided by whether recognition will advance the cause for peace. Like many countries Australia has been frustrated by the lack of progress in this regard,” he said. “Australia no longer sees recognition as only occurring at the end of the process. It could occur as part of a peace process.”

 

But Mr Watts said there would need to be serious governance reforms, noting that Hamas was a terrorist organisation. “We see no role for them in this,” he said. “A Palestinian state cannot be in the position to threaten Israel’s security.

 

“We want to see a reformed Palestinian governing authority … We want to see a commitment to peace and how the Palestinian authority leads its people.”

 

Mr Leeser, who spoke against the motion, told the parliament that recognition should only occur after a peace agreement with Israel had been reached and negotiations on the ground had concluded.

 

“This motion … sends the message that Hamas’ violent terrorist attacks, its murders, its abductions, its gang rapes, and its dismemberment of innocent children and its torture of people should somehow be defendable,” he said. “This motion means recognising a Palestinian State when Hamas refuses to release more than 130 Israeli hostages.”

 

He also took aim at the Greens, saying that it was a party that promoted women’s rights and those of the LGBTI community but which was also advancing the “cause of organisations like Hamas which are among the greatest abusers of women (and) LGBTI people in the world”.

 

Mr Leeser, who describes himself as a proud and public Jewish MP, also said that anti-Semitism had “become a central plank of Green philosophy”.

 

“The Greens voted against the bipartisan motion that condemned the 7 October terrorist attacks that passed this House on 16 October – even before Israel had begun its operations in Gaza,” he said. “They refused to condemn Greens MP Jenny Leong for her comments that said Jews have tentacles and that Jews should not be able to participate in the public life of this country.”

 

Mr Leeser also noted that Mr Bandt, when directly asked on the ABC’s Insiders program about whether he supported the idea of a Jewish homeland state, would not answer.

 

Reflecting on the Greens motion, Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the minor party had exposed “how hateful their ideology is and why the major parties should both pledge to preference this despicable party last”.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/greens-push-for-palestinian-statehood-fails-sparks-warning-of-labor-preferences/news-story/6a2f225ac13e6d1a72641c803840bc1d

 

https://x.com/AdamBandt/status/1795575085321122095

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 3:56 a.m. No.20937481   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7483

>>20926912

Andrew Giles under fire as PM rips up deportation rule book

 

Angus Thompson - May 29, 2024

 

1/2

 

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles is under pressure to fix the detainee crisis and save his job as he scrambles to rewrite the rule used to allow violent criminals to stay in Australia, including serial rapists and paedophiles the government was fighting to deport.

 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was forced to back his embattled minister in a fiery question time following growing opposition calls for Giles to be sacked.

 

“The new directive will ensure that the protection of the community outweighs any other consideration,” Albanese told federal parliament on Wednesday amid growing government criticism of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s decisions.

 

This followed revelations Giles’ departmental secretary kept him in the dark about a slew of cases reinstating the visas of serial rapists under “direction 99”, which was issued by the minister last year.

 

Direction 99 states: “Australia will generally afford a higher level of tolerance” based on the length of time a non-citizen has spent in the Australian community, particularly in formative years.

 

Adding to Giles’ woes, Home Affairs officials admitted in Senate estimates that ankle monitors were not issued to at least three murderers, 26 sex offenders and seven domestic violence perpetrators released after the High Court’s November decision overturning indefinite detention.

 

There is growing disquiet among some Labor MPs, including members of the ministry, about Giles’ performance as immigration minister, as the future of his portfolio is discussed in caucus.

 

Though he is a factional close ally of Albanese, who puts a premium on loyalty, some MPs – who asked not to be named so they could discuss the situation freely – said Giles was approaching the point where his position in the portfolio was untenable.

 

Giles told the ABC he would stay put as minister.

 

“I owe the Australian community to work day and night to keep the community safe, to do everything I can do with strong laws and resources,” he said. “I owe my colleagues my absolute focus on continuing doing my job.”

 

He said the government would deliver a revised ruling that would put a premium on community safety “but also deals specifically with some additional concerns that we see around victims and their families being heard”.

 

Giles said the New Zealand government would be consulted on the changes. The 2023 ruling that made ties to Australia a primary concern was introduced after then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern lobbied against the deportation of New Zealanders who had lived in Australia for a long time.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 3:57 a.m. No.20937483   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20937481

 

2/2

 

Albanese and Giles hit back at the opposition in question time by producing departmental figures that showed 102 sex offenders and 40 domestic violence perpetrators had been released from immigration detention by the Coalition government between 2014 and 2021.

 

Albanese said Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was “wallowing in his hypocrisy” because he was attacking Labor after similar migration cases had been decided under the Coalition.

 

“I cancelled more than 6300 visas – more than any minister since federation,” Dutton said in his defence.

 

“The cancellation power was exercised within the limits of the Constitution. Mr Albanese watered down the law under direction 99 and that’s why you are seeing the complete failure by this government and the hapless Andrew Giles.”

 

This masthead also revealed two men convicted of accessory to murder were released from federal detention when Dutton was the minister in charge of immigration and home affairs.

 

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson in Senate estimates accused the government of using public resources to launch a political attack before government minister Murray Watt replied Labor was holding the Coalition to the same standards.

 

The beleaguered Home Affairs Department also came under sustained attack as hours of parliamentary hearings exposed multiple failings in immigration detention.

 

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil would not say if departmental secretary Stephanie Foster should keep her job when asked on Seven’s Sunrise on Wednesday morning, while Foster attributed her failure to warn Giles about high-stakes deportation cases to staff and budget shortages.

 

It is the second political controversy for Foster this year after she blindsided Giles and O’Neil by releasing a document to the Senate on February 12 detailing the number of murderers, rapists and violent offenders freed from immigration detention since November.

 

During the same hearing, Australian Border Force officials revealed just a third of 39 sex offenders released from immigration detention following November’s High Court ruling were required to wear ankle monitors. The officials also said three out of seven murderers, and seven out of 16 domestic violence offenders were not required to wear ankle monitors.

 

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson asked why so many people had been released without close supervision. “This cannot meet any public interest test,” he said.

 

Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram replied the emergency laws passed after the High Court decision were not infallible. “Even if you electronically monitored and [applied curfews to] all these people, they may well still be reoffending,” he said.

 

This masthead reported on Tuesday that 29 – almost a fifth of the 153 former detainees – had been charged with fresh offences since they were released. This included three people not required to wear ankle monitors and four not subject to curfews ahead of allegedly committing crimes including robbery, kidnapping and impersonating a police officer.

 

The fresh changes have also compounded pressure on the government to lock up high-risk offenders, with Giles revealing on Wednesday afternoon that six applications for preventative detention were being reviewed by experts, and another 26 were in preparation.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/giles-under-fire-as-pm-rips-up-deportation-rule-book-20240529-p5jhin.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 4:03 a.m. No.20937493   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7495 >>5256 >>9152

>>20926912

Giles says he’s using drones to track freed foreign criminals

 

Angus Thompson, Matthew Knott, James Massola and Olivia Ireland - May 30, 2024

 

1/2

 

Beleaguered Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has claimed the government is using drones to track former immigration detainees following revelations that murderers, sex offenders and domestic attackers released since last year’s High Court decision were not being electronically monitored.

 

After a bruising week of question time attacks, several caucus colleagues are privately discussing Giles’ future in the portfolio after a ministerial direction he issued last year was used by a tribunal to allow visa holders who had committed serious crimes to stay in Australia.

 

However, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told colleagues that he places a premium on stability, does not want a reshuffle and will not let Opposition Leader Peter Dutton dictate terms.

 

Giles, a close factional ally of Albanese, has begun to ramp up his own attacks on Dutton’s handling of the Home Affairs portfolio when the Coalition was in government.

 

Labor’s move to rewrite ministerial direction 99 – which mandates the consideration of a foreign criminal’s Australian ties before cancelling their visa – prompted New Zealand to warn against deporting Kiwi citizens who had spent little time in the country.

 

While juggling that crisis as well as fresh Home Affairs figures showing three freed murderers and 26 sex offenders were not wearing monitors, Giles told Sky News the government had invested $250 million to boost monitoring through various means of the broader cohort released after the High Court ruled indefinite immigration detention was unlawful.

 

“And that’s enabled things like using drones to keep track of those people we know,” he said.

 

The claim has surprised security experts, who told this masthead that drone surveillance was unworkable.

 

Dr John Coyne from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said it would be an incredibly expensive and impractical exercise to watch people continuously with drones, adding it could require recruiting more than a dozen people a day to monitor one individual.

 

Human Rights Law Centre managing lawyer Sanmati Verma said such a measure was “extraordinarily invasive”.

 

“We should all be deeply concerned about our government unilaterally deciding who it may track via drones as we go about our daily lives,” she said.

 

Australian Border Force refused to comment on the use of drones, saying only that: “Under Operation AEGIS, ABF and Australian Federal Police are working closely with state and territory authorities and law enforcement to ensure community safety.”

 

This masthead spoke to seven Labor MPs on Thursday, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, and they confirmed there was internal chatter about Giles’ future in the portfolio.

 

One scenario being canvassed is Agriculture Minister Murray Watt taking over the home affairs portfolio from Clare O’Neil, with O’Neil – who has an economics background – to take housing and small business from Tasmanian MP Julie Collins.

 

Giles would remain in the outer ministry but could be moved to a less contentious portfolio such as defence personnel and veterans’ affairs in a swap with Matt Keogh, though not before the winter break begins in July.

 

“Albanese places a premium on stability, he does not want a reshuffle. And we are just not going to let Dutton dictate our agenda,” one member of the cabinet said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 4:03 a.m. No.20937495   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20937493

 

2/2

 

The Albanese government softened immigration laws as part of an effort to improve diplomatic ties with New Zealand, which had complained about the deportation of Kiwi citizens who had spent little time in the country.

 

Regarding deportation of non-citizens who have committed crimes, direction 99 states: “Australia will generally afford a higher level of tolerance based on the length of time a non-citizen has spent in the Australian community, particularly in formative years.”

 

After the government moved to scrap the ministerial direction, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, urged Labor not to send Kiwi criminals who had lived in Australia for most of their lives across the Tasman.

 

“We accept that Australia has the right to determine what level of offending by non-citizens is unacceptable. But we do not want to see deportation of people with little or no connection to New Zealand whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia,” Peters said in a statement.

 

“We are engaging with Australia at a political level on this matter.”

 

During question time on Thursday, Dutton accused Albanese of putting his “close and sycophantic relationship with [former NZ prime minister] Jacinda Ardern ahead of the safety of Australians”.

 

Albanese said it was “absurd” and “completely wrong” for the opposition to allege that he decided to implement direction 99 after meeting Ardern, saying that was not how leader-level diplomacy worked.

 

Albanese also accused the Coalition of releasing 1300 “hardcore criminals” from detention during its time in office.

 

Giles said during a media blitz on Thursday that a new version of the direction would be released as soon as it was ready.

 

“I’ve been meeting with my senior officials of the department last night to ensure that the expectations that I’ve set out to the parliament are put into practice,” he told the ABC.

 

“We believe that these decisions [on whether to allow visa holders to stay in Australia] need to be guided by two clear principles, the protection of the Australian community and by common sense.”

 

The Coalition government cancelled 1015 visas on character grounds in 2019-20, of which 50 per cent had been held by New Zealanders. That number dropped to 244 in the six months to December 2023.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/new-zealand-warns-australia-not-rip-up-deportation-deal-20240530-p5jhwe.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 4:06 a.m. No.20937501   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3605

>>20926912

NZ seeks talks with Canberra over Direction 99 reform

 

RHIANNON DOWN - MAY 30, 2024

 

New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is seeking urgent talks with Australia over Direction 99 reform, saying he doesn’t want to see Australia deport New Zealanders who have little connection to their country of origin.

 

The Albanese government has committed to reforming the controversial Ministerial Direction, which was introduced last year to appease New Zealand’s anger over a string of deportations of long-term Australian residents with few ties to their country of citizenship.

 

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles announced he would repeal the directive on Wednesday, after The Australian revealed multiple cases of rapists and pedophiles being allowed to stay because of their ties to Australia.

 

But Mr Peters, who is also NZ’s foreign minister, suggested he would appeal to Anthony Albanese’s “common sense” approach to the issue.

 

“We understand Australia intends to make changes to its deportation policy,” Mr Peters said in a statement.

 

“We accept that Australia has the right to determine what level of offending by non-citizens is unacceptable.

 

“But we do not want to see deportation of people with little or no connection to New Zealand, whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia.

 

“We note Prime Minister Albanese’s previous commitment to take a ‘common sense’ approach to deportation of people to New Zealand who had effectively spent their entire lives in Australia. We intend to engage with Australia at a political level on this matter as soon as possible.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nz-seeks-talks-with-canberra-over-direction-99-reform/news-story/8a6c11231fd819a5057891836d0a4b9c

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 4:14 a.m. No.20937517   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3088

>>20868824 (pb)

>>20873227 (pb)

>>20899389

Fatima Payman resigns from parliamentary committees after ‘genocide’ comments

 

Matthew Knott - May 30, 2024

 

Fatima Payman has stepped down from two parliamentary foreign affairs committees after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticised the Labor senator for using the controversial phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

 

Payman accused Israel of conducting a genocide in Gaza, in a dramatic intervention two weeks ago, also calling for Australia to end trade with Israel, implement sanctions and immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

 

Government sources confirmed that Payman had resigned from the Senate Standing Committees on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

 

“The government’s policy is clear – we support a two-state solution,” a government spokesperson said.

 

Labor MPs said they did not believe Payman had been ordered to step down by government leadership, but had instead decided to do so herself to avoid being targeted by the Coalition and the Greens.

 

Payman did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who called for Albanese to remove Payman from her committee positions, said: “Someone who uses a phrase that calls for the violent destruction of the Jewish people has no place on the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.”

 

Jewish groups regard the “From the river to the sea” slogan as a coded call for the elimination of Israel, while others have insisted it is simply a call for freedom and equal rights for Palestinians.

 

Speaking at Parliament House during budget week, Payman said: “Instead of advocating for justice, I see our leaders performatively gesture defending the oppressor’s right to oppress, while gaslighting the global community about the rights of self-defence.

 

“My conscience has been uneasy for far too long and I must call this out for what it is.

 

“This is a genocide and we need to stop pretending otherwise.

 

“The lack of clarity, the moral confusion, the indecisiveness is eating at the heart of this nation.”

 

Labor senators joined with the Coalition to condemn the “river to the sea” slogan Payman used at the end of her remarks, while Albanese said he considered Payman’s use of the phrase inappropriate.

 

The Senate voted 56-12 to criticise the slogan, saying it “opposes Israel’s right to exist, and is frequently used by those who seek to intimidate Jewish Australians via acts of antisemitism”.

 

Payman, 29, was born in Afghanistan and is the first woman to regularly wear a hijab in the federal parliament.

 

Asked about Payman’s comments during question time in the House of Representatives, Albanese said: “The chant, ‘From the river to the sea’, has been used from time to time by some in the pro-Palestinian movement, by some who argue that Israel should be just one state as well and that Gaza and the West Bank should be wiped out. It is inappropriate.

 

“I very strongly believe in a two-state solution. I strongly believe in the right of Israel to exist within secure borders. I strongly believe as well in the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.”

 

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/fatima-payman-resigns-from-parliamentary-committees-after-genocide-comments-20240530-p5ji2q.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 4:19 a.m. No.20937530   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8419

>>20710546 (pb)

>>20878221 (pb)

Anthony Albanese to protest guilty verdict for Aussie Gordon Ng in Hong Kong

 

BEN PACKHAM and DENNIS SHANAHAN - MAY 30, 2024

 

Anthony Albanese will lobby ­Chinese Premier Li Qiang on behalf of an Australian citizen facing a life sentence after being convicted by a Hong Kong Court on ­national security charges.

 

Dual Australian-Hong Kong national Gordon Ng was among 14 pro-democracy activists found guilty of subversion by the territory’s High Court on Thursday under laws introduced by Beijing to smash dissent in the former British colony.

 

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government was “deeply concerned” at the verdicts and would raise Mr Ng’s plight with the Chinese government “at the highest levels”.

 

His conviction comes just weeks ahead of the Chinese No. 2 leader’s visit to Australia for talks with the Prime Minister on a raft of difficult bilateral issues.

 

In an apparent goodwill gesture ahead of the trip, Beijing moved on Thursday to drop bans on Australian beef shipments from five meatworks in NSW and Queensland.

 

Two days earlier, the federal government’s Anti-Dumping Commission quietly delayed a report that was set to recommend an extension of tariffs on Chinese railway wheels.

 

The move means Industry Minister Ed Husic won’t have to sign off on an extension of the tariffs to prevent “material injury to Australian manufacturers” until July 16 – well after Mr Li’s visit.

 

Chinese trade bans continue to apply to two Australian meatworks, as well as Australian lobster exporters.

 

Mr Ng, who went to high school in Sydney, was arrested in 2021 for his involvement in an unofficial pre-election ballot that authorities labelled a “vicious plot” to paralyse the territory.

 

The convicted activists will be sentenced at a later date, and face prison terms ranging between three years and life.

 

Senator Wong said: “The Australian government raises consular and human rights concerns directly with the Hong Kong and Chinese governments regularly and at the highest levels. We will continue to do so, including in the case of Mr Ng.

 

“We also continue to request consular access to Mr Ng from Hong Kong authorities.”

 

She said Australia had expressed strong objections to Hong Kong authorities over the use of the territory’s Beijing-imposed national security laws to clamp down on opposition groups and pro-democracy figures.

 

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the Coalition was “appalled” at the guilty verdicts, urging the government to pile pressure on Beijing over the matter.

 

Premier Li is expected to visit Canberra and Perth from June 16-18. He will meet with political and business leaders and is expected to visit a resources project in Western Australia.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/china-lifts-trade-bans-on-five-beef-exporters/news-story/390b1b3b2182f55bdc410be19a7a93ce

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 4:26 a.m. No.20937541   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20903732

>>20926922

Defending Australia: AUKUS subs to be armed with hypersonic missiles

 

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 30, 2024

 

Australia’s AUKUS-class nuclear submarines will be capable of firing next-generation hypersonic missiles, giving the nation a potent strike capability near-impossible for adversaries to defeat.

 

Australian Submarine Agency director-general Jonathan Mead said the AUKUS boats would have “more firepower” than the US’s current Virginia-class boats, as well as space for underwater drones and special forces.

 

“It will be able to fire more long-range missiles or hypersonic missiles,” he told The Australian’s Defending Australia summit.

 

“It’ll be able to fire more long-range torpedoes. It will be able to carry a larger reactor for more power. It will be able to carry uncrewed autonomous vehicles.

 

“It will be able to accommodate special forces components.”

 

The Australian revealed this week that the AUKUS boats, at more than 10,000 tonnes, would be larger than Virginia-class submarines that displace just over 7000 tonnes. Australia’s six conventionally powered Collins-class submarines are about 3300 tonnes. Asked how many missiles the AUKUS subs would carry, Vice-Admiral Mead said “many”.

 

Advanced hypersonic weapons will be developed under AUKUS’s “Pillar Two” technology partnership.

 

China and Russia have so far led the race to develop hypersonic missiles but the US is pouring money into their development in a bid to catch up.

 

Vice-Admiral Mead also revealed a push to get Australian investors to plough money into US submarine production.

 

“We want Australian companies to invest in the US production yards,” he said. The move, which follows an injection of $4.6bn by Australian taxpayers, is aimed at boosting US submarine production to ensure the country can deliver a promised three Virginia-class boats to Australia.

 

Vice-Admiral Mead said his biggest concern over the AUKUS program was finding and training the people to deliver it.

 

“Workforce has always been identified as the No. 1 issue. That is the one that we really need to focus on,” he said.

 

He said 100 workers from commonwealth submarine builder ASC would complete training in US shipyards this year, followed by 100 a year for three years.

 

“When the submarines come to Western Australia in 2027, we will have a workforce of over 400 people that will be skilled and competent on Virginias,” he said.

 

Former Labor defence minister Kim Beazley told the Defending Australia summit that the ASA ­director-general was “the most important man in this country’s defence at this moment”.

 

Earlier, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas warned that Anthony Albanese’s plan to slash immigration would undermine the AUKUS program.

 

He said the competition between federal Labor and the ­Coalition to dramatically slow the immigration rate overlooked the need for a massive influx of skilled workers to “backfill” positions ­vacated by Australians who were going to be needed to build nuclear submarines.

 

Labor unveiled deep cuts to immigration numbers in the recent federal budget, pledging to wind back the net overseas intake from 395,000 this financial year to 260,000 in 2024-25, and 235,000 in the following two years.

 

Peter Dutton has vowed to cut even harder, reducing net overseas migration to 160,000.

 

While workers from non-AUKUS countries would be unable to work on the submarine program for security reasons, Mr Malinauskas said skilled foreigners would be needed to fill shortfalls elsewhere across the wider economy.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/defending-australia-aukus-subs-to-be-armed-with-hypersonic-missiles/news-story/2723d577a8677defe722634e41e0e64d

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 30, 2024, 4:32 a.m. No.20937555   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909278

Ex-AFL Hall of Famer Barry Cable pleads not guilty to child sexual abuse charges after arrest

 

Joanna Menagh - 30 May 2024

 

Former Australian Rules footballer Barry Cable has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a young girl decades ago.

 

Cable, 80, appeared in a Perth court this morning to face five counts of indecently dealing with a girl under 13, and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 13.

 

Police allege Cable sexually assaulted the complainant between January 1, 1967 and April 27, 1968, when she was between nine and 10 years old.

 

He was arrested on Friday.

 

Represented by high profile lawyer Tom Percy K.C., Cable appeared in court on Thursday supported by his sons.

 

He pleaded not guilty to all seven charges.

 

It is the first time Cable has appeared in public since a District Court judge's finding, in a civil case, that he repeatedly sexually abused a young girl in the 1960s and 70s when he was at the height of his playing career.

 

The judge found that the abuse started when the girl was 12.

 

The woman was awarded more than $800,000 for what Judge Mark Herron found was the "catastrophic" damage she suffered.

 

Despite the ruling, the woman's lawyers said it was unlikely she would receive any money because the court was told before trial Cable had been declared bankrupt.

 

The standard of proof in civil cases is the "balance of probabilities", which is a lesser standard than in criminal cases, which requires a finding of "beyond a reasonable doubt".

 

Cable has always denied the allegations and he has never been charged with any offences relating to the woman.

 

He did not take any part or a have a lawyer represent him in last year's civil trial, which also heard evidence from four other women who alleged they, too, were abused by him when they were young, in the 1980s and 90s.

 

It is understood the complainant in the criminal charges Cable is now facing is not the complainant in the civil case, or any of the four other women who testified at the civil case.

 

Football honours revoked

 

Cable was widely regarded as one the greatest West Australian football players of all time having had a lengthy and successful career in both the WA and Victorian Football Leagues in the 1960s and 70s.

 

He won two VFL premierships with North Melbourne - a club he went on to coach - as well as four WAFL premierships and three Sandover medals for being the competition's best and fairest player.

 

After last year's civil judgement, Cable was removed from the Australian Football Hall of Fame and the West Australian Football Hall of Fame.

 

His bail has been renewed until his next court appearance in early August.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-30/barry-cable-pleads-not-guilty-to-child-abuse-afl/103909708

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 31, 2024, 6:50 a.m. No.20945186   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5193 >>5225 >>4628

>>20895255

Donald Trump guilty in hush money trial

 

Adam Vidler - May 31, 2024

 

1/2

 

Former US President Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial in New York.

 

The verdict makes Trump the first former US president to be convicted of a felony.

 

Judge Juan Merchan has set the sentencing date for July 11.

 

Outside court, a furious Trump continued his claims that the trial had been "rigged" and accused Merchan of being "conflicted" and "corrupt".

 

"This was a rigged decision right from day one with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case," Trump said.

 

He said "the real verdict" would come in on November 5 - the date of the upcoming US presidential election for which Trump is the presumed Republican nominee.

 

"This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent," Trump said.

 

Jurors had been on the verge of being sent home for the day when they sent word they had reached a verdict.

 

Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records at his company in connection with an alleged scheme to hide potentially embarrassing stories about him during his 2016 presidential election campaign.

 

The charge, a felony, rose from reimbursements paid to then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen after he made a $US130,000 ($195,000) hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to silence her claims that she and Trump had sex in 2006.

 

Trump is accused of misrepresenting Cohen’s reimbursements as legal expenses to hide that they were tied to a hush money payment.

 

Trump pleaded not guilty and contended the Cohen payments were for legitimate legal services.

 

He has also denied the alleged extramarital sexual encounter with Daniels.

 

Trump's lawyers previously indicated he would appeal the verdict if convicted.

 

The falsifying business records charges carry up to four years behind bars, though prosecutors have not said whether they intend to seek imprisonment, and it is not clear whether the judge — who earlier in the trial warned of jail time for gag order violations — would impose that punishment even if asked.

 

The conviction, and even imprisonment, will not bar Trump from continuing his pursuit of the White House.

 

Trump faces three other felony indictments, but the New York case may be the only one to reach a conclusion before the November election, adding to the political significance of the outcome.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 31, 2024, 6:51 a.m. No.20945193   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20945186

 

2/2

 

How the trial unfolded

 

The trial featured more than four weeks of occasionally riveting testimony that revisited an already well-documented chapter from Trump's past, when his 2016 campaign was threatened by the disclosure of an "Access Hollywood" recording that captured him talking about grabbing women sexually without their permission and the prospect of other stories about Trump and sex surfacing that would be harmful to his candidacy.

 

Trump himself did not testify, but jurors heard his voice through a secret recording of a conversation with Cohen in which he and the lawyer discussed a US$150,000 ($226,147) hush money deal involving a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who has said she had an affair with Trump: "What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?" Trump was heard saying on the recording made by Cohen.

 

Daniels herself testified, offering at times a graphic recounting of the sexual encounter she says they had in a hotel suite during a Lake Tahoe golf tournament.

 

The former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, testified about how he worked to keep stories harmful to the Trump campaign from becoming public at all, including by having his company buy McDougal's story.

 

Jurors also heard from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who negotiated the hush money payments on behalf of Daniels and McDougal.

 

He detailed the tense negotiations to get both women compensated for their silence but also faced an aggressive round of questioning from a Trump attorney who noted that Davidson had helped broker similar hush money deals in cases involving other prominent figures.

 

But the most pivotal witness, by far, was Cohen, who spent days on the stand and gave jurors an insider's view of the hush money scheme and what he said was Trump's detailed knowledge of it.

 

"Just take care of it," he quoted Trump as saying at one point.

 

He offered jurors the most direct link between Trump and the heart of the charges, recounting a meeting in which they and the then-chief financial officer of Trump Organisation described a plan to have Cohen reimbursed in monthly installments for legal services.

 

And he emotionally described his dramatic break with Trump in 2018, when he decided to cooperate with prosecutors after a decade-long career as the then-president's personal fixer.

 

"To keep the loyalty and to do the things that he had asked me to do, I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as has my family," Cohen told the jury.

 

https://www.9news.com.au/national/donald-trump-hush-money-trial-verdict-reached-us-news/6b7de28f-b142-401b-83ae-816913eb0e55

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4s-djzHIkQ

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 31, 2024, 6:59 a.m. No.20945225   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4628

>>20945186

Australia reacts: Anthony Albanese ‘wishes the US well’ as Penny Wong says she’s open to meeting Trump

 

THE NIGHTLY - 31 MAY, 2024

 

Australia’s political leaders have vowed to maintain the relationship with the United States regardless of who is elected president in the wake of Donald Trump’s criminal conviction just months out from a bitterly contested poll.

 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had no doubt the news would be “the global story of the day” but it was inappropriate for him to comment on the case.

 

“We’re not a party to this court proceedings. So we regard that as a matter for the United States and their system, as we regard the election of the US president to be a matter for the people of the United States as well,” he said.

 

“We would probably object to a New Zealand prime minister or a US president, or a German chancellor, or a French president, telling us how we should conduct our political system and I have no intention of telling the United States.”

 

He noted his close personal relationship with current president Joe Biden, but said the US-Australia alliance was a relationship between countries not individuals.

 

“I wish the United States well. They’re an important relationship that we have,” he said.

 

The sentiment was echoed by cabinet ministers and senior Opposition figures.

 

Senior Albanese frontbencher Jason Clare describing it as “the biggest news in the world that’s happening right now”.

 

“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” Mr Clare said on Sunrise.

 

Despite his conviction, Foreign Minister Penny Wong left open the option of meeting Mr Trump if she visits the United States ahead of the November election.

 

“I will always seek to engage with both sides of politics appropriately and if I go to the United States, that would be something I take advice on,” Senator Wong said on Friday.

 

“Our relationship goes beyond partisan politics and it always has.”

 

Senator Wong said she did not wish to comment directly on the guilty verdict for Trump.

 

“You wouldn’t expect the foreign minister of Australia to engage in commentary about legal processes on another country including our most important strategic partner and ally and I won’t,” she said.

 

“The United States of America is our most important strategic partner. We have a relationship that goes back decades and an alliance which is enduring.

 

“We have a friendship and we have very strong relationship across people and institutions and that will continue.”

 

As Trump decried the “rigged” trial, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the former president will likely use the verdict to rev-up the Republican base ahead of the “exciting” US November election.

 

Explaining that Trump was “despised” in New York where the jury trial was held, Mr Dutton said the verdict would further divide America.

 

“If you look back to 2016, he won no electoral votes in New York. He’s despised there,” Mr Dutton said on breakfast television.

 

“There’s obviously two tribes here and the one tribe who detest him and hate him. And you saw some of the emotion in some of the interviews, just then.

 

“And the other tribe, love him and adore him, and for different reasons on both sides. And all it will do is reinforce the views on both of those camps, but obviously it will make for an even more exciting election, I suppose, in November.”

 

Senior figures from both sides of politics said the verdict and any influence it has on domestic US politics will not impact the country’s close relationship with Australia.

 

Speaking on Sunrise in the moments after the verdict was handed down, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said: “The relationship we have with the US is more important and bigger than any one individual, any one leader or any one government”.

 

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said that the Australia/US alliance would endure regardless of who won the presidential election.

 

“The American political system will throw up who they’ve got to throw up,” Mr Shorten told Today.

 

“I think governments of both sides in Australia will deal with whoever the American political system elects. I think the alliance is stronger than the personalities.”

 

https://thenightly.com.au/world/trump-guilty-dutton-says-hes-despised-there-as-australia-reacts-c-14857174

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 31, 2024, 7:07 a.m. No.20945256   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5264 >>9152

>>20926912

>>20937493

Doubts over drone program after under-fire minister’s detainee claim

 

Angus Thompson and David Crowe - May 31, 2024

 

1/2

 

The existence of a drone program to monitor former detainees has been thrown into doubt after under-fire Immigration Minister Andrew Giles made the claim in defence of the government’s handling of multiple visa crises.

 

Despite Giles’ assertion, government sources say drones are not being used to track detainees after the practicality of the program was questioned by a security expert and the Coalition demanded to know details of the secret measures.

 

While facing a political storm fresh over his ministerial direction 99 being used by a tribunal to justify reinstating the visas of a series of serious criminals, Giles also responded to fresh Home Affairs figures showing three freed murderers and 26 sex offenders were not wearing monitors.

 

He told Sky News on Thursday the government had invested $250 million to boost monitoring through various means of the broader cohort released after the High Court ruled indefinite immigration detention was unlawful.

 

“And that’s enabled things like using drones to keep track of those people we know,” he said.

 

Giles’ office refused to provide more information on the claim, except to say that it was accurate, while the Australian Border Force – which conducts surveillance of immigration detainees released following last year’s High Court decision – declined in a statement to confirm it was using drones in its operations.

 

ABF last year grounded its drone fleet after the manufacturer, which has been blacklisted in the US over security concerns, was accused of having links to the Chinese military. The Australian Federal Police, which is the other federal agency responding to the High Court fallout, does not surveil in its role on the taskforce with ABF.

 

AFP deputy commissioner Ian McCartney told a Senate estimates hearing on Friday evening the agency was not using drones on the cohort and he had no knowledge of drones being used as part of the taskforce’s operations. “We believe there hasn’t but as a matter of completeness we’ll take it on notice,” he said.

 

Victoria Police confirmed it was not using drones to monitor released immigration detainees while NSW Police said it was a Commonwealth issue.

 

Dr John Coyne from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute previously said it would be an incredibly expensive and impractical exercise to watch people continuously with drones, adding it could require recruiting more than a dozen people a day to monitor one individual.

 

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the government should urgently clarify what Giles meant. “Who is operating these drones? What are the safeguards for Australians living nearby? Why was this never previously disclosed publicly?” he said.

 

A spokesperson for Giles said that “the minister’s comments were correct”.

 

Giles vowed earlier in the week to rewrite direction 99 to put a premium on community safety, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese trashed the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over its decisions on Friday, vowing a reset under a new, Labor-created body.

 

During a Senate estimates hearing on Friday afternoon, AAT officials revealed half the cases considering Giles’ direction so far this financial year overturned the government’s initial decision to deport foreigners on character grounds.

 

The direction mandates a person’s ties to the Australian community be a central consideration in their visa status.

 

AAT registrar Michael Hawkins said 184 visa cancellations had been set aside out of 367 decisions this financial year, with 100 cases still in the pipeline.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 31, 2024, 7:08 a.m. No.20945264   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20945256

 

2/2

 

Following coverage of rapists’ visas being reinstated and a man being released from detention to then allegedly murder somebody, Hawkins said members of the tribunal were “hurting” because of the difficult decisions they had to make about whether people stayed in Australia.

 

“You own the decision because you had uppermost in your mind, whether you were denying someone the opportunity to come to Australia who should genuinely be here, but their case wasn’t sufficient,” Hawkins told Senate estimates.

 

“You would be concerned that that person could be gunned down on their return to their own country.”

 

But Albanese blamed the Coalition-stacked tribunal for allowing foreign-born criminals to stay, describing it as a dysfunctional body riddled with failed Liberal candidates.

 

“If you’re a former Liberal councillor somewhere who’d lost preselection, chances are you could put your hand up and get a guernsey on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal,” Albanese said.

 

“We’ve abolished it, gotten rid of it and replaced it with the Administrative Review Tribunal, which will be more rigorous, which will not be full of former party political appointments.”

 

The government this week passed legislation to create the Administrative Review Tribunal which will have a merit-based hiring process instead of government appointments.

 

Former Coalition attorney-general Michaelia Cash attracted Labor criticism shortly before the 2022 federal election for a slew of Liberal-linked appointments to the AAT, tasked with independently reviewing government decisions.

 

However, one of the most cited cases in the deportation controversy was presided over by former Labor MP and Speaker of the House Anna Burke, who cited Giles’ direction in allowing a New Zealand citizen who raped his stepdaughter to stay in Australia.

 

Despite disquiet in Labor ranks about Giles’ tenure in the portfolio, Albanese said there would be no “imminent” changes to his ministerial lineup, and assured he maintained a good relationship with the New Zealand government after Labor announced it would change the rule.

 

The Albanese government had softened immigration laws as part of an effort to improve diplomatic ties with New Zealand, which had complained about the deportation of Kiwi citizens who had spent little time in the country.

 

During a press conference earlier on Friday, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he regretted Australia’s decision to scrap direction 99.

 

“We’ll be advocating very strongly,” Luxon said. “I raised my concerns with the prime minister yesterday morning during our phone call.

 

“We understand Australia is a sovereign nation, and it can make its own decisions, but we have great concern about that decision because we don’t think that people who have very little attachment to this country but with strong connections to Australia should be deported here.”

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dysfunctional-albanese-blames-coalition-stacked-tribunal-for-deportation-debacle-20240530-p5jhye.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 31, 2024, 7:15 a.m. No.20945301   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9181

>>20726614 (pb)

>>20726638 (pb)

Bruce Lehrmann lodges appeal against Network Ten, Lisa Wilkinson verdict

 

ELLIE DUDLEY - MAY 31, 2024

 

Bruce Lehrmann will represent himself in an appeal against the judgment that found he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, as his supporters abandon him and he is left alone to tackle judge Michael Lee’s landmark verdict.

 

Mr Lehrmann, a law student, on Friday afternoon lodged the appeal against findings that Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson did not defame him when airing an interview with Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021.

 

The Australian understands Mr Lehrmann will argue Justice Lee denied him procedural fairness, and will claim Ms Higgins’ evidence had serious credibility issues.

 

He is calling on the Federal Court to set aside the judgment against him, a verdict be made in his favour, and for Ten and Wilkinson to pay his legal bills for both the appeal and the defamation proceedings.

 

The long-awaited judgment of the matter brought by Mr Lehrmann was handed down last month, finding Ten successfully made out its truth defence and proved, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in the office of Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.

 

However, Justice Lee found the network failed to make out its qualified privilege defence and acted unreasonably in its treatment of Mr Lehrmann when airing The Project interview.

 

Mr Lehrmann had until Friday to file the appeal, after Justice Lee extended the usual 28-day window until May 31.

 

Mr Lehrmann will claim Justice Lee’s ultimate findings were never put to him in cross-examination, and he was therefore denied procedural fairness.

 

He will also argue there were serious credibility issues with Ms Higgins’ evidence, specifically in relation to an image of a bruise she shared with The Project team in the lead up to her interview.

 

During Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial, Ms Higgins claimed the bruise was caused during the rape. However, she later admitted the bruise could have occurred earlier in the night when she fell over at Canberra’s 88mph nightclub.

 

In delivering judgment, Justice Lee found Mr Lehrmann would have only received $20,000 had he won his defamation fight “because he is only entitled to be compensated for the reputation he deserves”.

 

But in his appeal, Mr Lehrmann will argue that because Justice Lee agreed Wilkinson’s Logies speech - which delayed Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial by three months - had impinged in the administration of justice, he is entitled to greater damages.

 

The Australian understands while Mr Lehrmann had been provided expert advice from top silk Guy Reynolds SC, he ultimately filed the appeal himself and will self-represent in any subsequent hearings.

 

Mr Lehrmann also sought assistance from former crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC, who has extensive experience with rape trials. Ms Cunneen, now a criminal barrister, most recently won a sexual assault case for ex-Wallaby Kurtley Beale.

 

Justice Lee earlier this month ordered Mr Lehrmann to pay the rumoured $6 million legal bills of both Ten and Wilkinson, criticising the former Liberal staffer for bringing the defamation matter based on a “fanciful and knowingly false premise”.

 

He ruled the broadcaster could recover costs from Mr Lehrmann on an indemnity basis – covering about 90 per cent of its legal bill – in relation to its truth defence, and on an ordinary or party-party basis – about 70 per cent of its legal bill – in relation to its qualified privilege defence.

 

Mr Lehrmann is currently unemployed, and it is unlikely Ten will be able to recover costs.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/bruce-lehrmann-lodges-appeal-against-network-ten-lisa-wilkinson-verdict/news-story/d297c5f223e7c311387f6253742c2a4a

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 May 31, 2024, 7:21 a.m. No.20945327   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20921946

Ukraine gets $31m aid boost, but no coal

 

Tess Ikonomou - May 31 2024

 

Australia will provide $20 million to an energy support fund for Ukraine amid pleas for an urgent shipment of coal.

 

Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced on Friday a $31 million package for Ukraine's energy and humanitarian needs.

 

Kyiv has requested the coal shipment as Russia bombards its power plants with missile and drone strikes.

 

Instead of providing coal, funds will be used to provide heat and electricity for Ukrainians, amid concerns the conflict could continue into the European winter.

 

The Albanese government has been criticised after a call for help by Ukraine went unanswered for six months.

 

Senator Wong said the government remained unwavering in its support for Ukraine's sovereignty.

 

"Australia's $20 million contribution to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund will be used meet the highest priority energy needs and support the Ukrainian people," she said.

 

Opposition foreign spokesman Simon Birmingham said Australia's responsiveness to Ukraine's requests should be swift, not "drawn out and delayed".

 

"Ukraine's request for coal gathered dust in Australia through one long, cold winter and the Albanese government needs to explain how this funds transfer is preferable to giving the actual coal that Ukraine asked for," he said.

 

An extra $10 million of emergency humanitarian aid will go to the United Nations to increase access to essentials including water, food and shelter.

 

To help rehabilitate and care for people with disabilities and war injuries, an additional $1 million will be provided.

 

International Development Minister Pat Conroy said Australia was proud to stand with the Ukrainian people.

 

"The Australian government remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine and contributing alongside partner nations so that Ukraine can end this conflict on its terms."

 

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8647397/ukraine-gets-31m-aid-boost-but-no-coal/

 

https://x.com/AmbVasyl/status/1796333066547568951

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 6:43 a.m. No.20950629   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0636 >>0649 >>5115 >>9202 >>8413

>>20827002 (pb)

>>20831574 (pb)

Marles raises ‘unsafe’ navy encounters in ‘frank’ talks with Chinese defence minister

 

Lisa Visentin - June 1, 2024

 

1/2

 

Singapore: Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles has used a face-to-face meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, to raise concerns directly about the dangerous tactics used by People’s Liberation Army in recent confrontations with the Australian Navy.

 

Marles met Dong for a 45-minute discussion on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defence summit on Saturday, marking the first face-to-face talks between the pair since the admiral was appointed China’s defence minister in December.

 

Describing the talks as “frank”, Marles declined to go into detail of the substance of the discussions but confirmed that he raised the recent incidents between the PLA forces and the Australian Navy.

 

“It was a good meeting. We certainly set out our different positions, but it is positive that there is dialogue,” Marles told this masthead at the summit.

 

The meeting marks the first occasion that Australia has voiced its concerns at a minister-to-minister level since it accused China of “unsafe and unprofessional” behaviour last month after a PLA fighter released flares in the path of an Australian naval helicopter in international waters. Until now, the federal government has only raised the issue at a diplomatic level and in public statements, prompting criticism from the Coalition that Labor should have “picked up the phone” and raised it directly at a leadership or ministerial level.

 

Marles rejected criticism that he could have elevated the issue sooner, saying Saturday’s meeting was the first ministerial face-to-face since the incident, and noted no such dialogue existed with Chinese ministers under the former Coalition government.

 

Last month’s incident followed another encounter in November in which Australia said a Chinese warship had deployed sonar pulses while Australian naval divers were in the East China Sea in November. China has previously disputed Australia’s characterisation of both incidents and sought to blame Australia for the confrontations.

 

Marles would not be drawn on the scenario canvassed by Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr earlier at the summit, in which he said an attack by China in the South China Sea that killed a Filipino citizen would be “very, very close” to an act of war.

 

Asked whether this would be a red line for Australia as well, if another encounter with the PLA resulted in casualties, Marles said hypotheticals were unhelpful.

 

“It is a matter of making sure that we are doing everything we can to avoid that situation,” he said. “The deeper the understanding we have with the People’s Republic of China about our behaviours and theirs, the better.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 6:45 a.m. No.20950636   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20950629

 

2/2

 

The meeting with Dong followed a speech by Marles at a panel discussion earlier on Saturday in which he highlighted the incidents with Australian naval forces, China’s aggression in the South China Sea, and its recent military drills around Taiwan as undermining confidence in China’s role in maintaining global stability.

 

“As China steps up to a larger role it must accept, like all great powers, that there will be much greater scrutiny on the way it uses its strength and which countries it chooses to partner with. Acceptance of such restraints is the key to any successful and durable international order,” Marles said in the speech, as he questioned China’s support for Russia.

 

Marles’ speech was significantly more pointed in directly calling out China’s actions than the addresses given by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Marcos, who also addressed the summit. They canvassed similar concerns about military aggression in the South China Sea and disrespect for international law, but largely without naming China directly.

 

However, Marles’ remarks were toned down in parts from the draft excerpts circulated to journalists a day earlier. An explicit reference to regional order being impossible “without a leading Chinese role” and if China continued to ignore the “sovereign rights of its neighbours, or the obligations imposed by international law”, was pared back to a more generalised statement about this responsibility falling to “all countries – but especially big ones”.

 

In a question-and-answer session following his speech, Marles was confronted by Chinese delegate Qichao Zhu, dressed in military uniform, who complained about “mistakes” in his remarks. Zhu asserted that Taiwan was a province of China, claimed that a Philippines ship had “intentionally collided with China’s coast guard” and suggested that Marles’ concept of a rules-based international order was one centred on Australia’s national security interests.

 

In response, Marles said international arbitration mechanisms existed for working through disputes about international rules.

 

Austin also met Dong at the summit, and in his speech stressed the importance of dialogue with his Chinese counterparts saying that war with Beijing was neither imminent nor unavoidable.

 

Chinese military academic Cao Yanzhong asked Austin whether the US was trying to create an Asian version of NATO with its emphasis on partnerships and alliances. He suggested that could trigger conflict with China, citing the claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO expansion had led to war in Ukraine.

 

Austin said the US was simply co-operating with “like-minded countries with similar values” and was not trying to create a NATO-type alliance, while rejecting Cao’s interpretation of the cause of the Ukraine war.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the summit on Sunday to build support among Asian leaders for his country’s war efforts against Russia and to appeal for them to support a peace summit in Switzerland next month, to which Russia was not invited and China is not attending.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/marles-raises-unsafe-navy-encounters-in-frank-talks-with-chinese-defence-minister-20240601-p5jige.html

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRULF9WRCyA

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 6:51 a.m. No.20950649   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5115 >>9202

>>20950629

Richard Marles confronted by Chinese PLA officers at Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore

 

Monte Bovill - 1 June 2024

 

Officers from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) have confronted Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles at an international security conference over Australia's criticisms of Beijing's military build-up.

 

Mr Marles, who is also the defence minister, used a speech at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore to call out China for its recent confrontations with Australian naval forces, as well as to express concern over the country's aggression towards the Philippines and provocation of Taiwan.

 

"Actions by Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea, such as the use of water cannons and the ramming of Philippine vessels, are a serious escalation of tensions," Mr Marles told the room of senior defence officials and ministers.

 

"China's behaviour towards Taiwan creates similar concerns. People's Liberation Army exercises that practice attacks and blockades of Taiwan do not inspire confidence that China prioritises — or is planning for — a peaceful settlement to the status of this island and its 22 million people.

 

"Activities that the Australian Defence Force has conducted in the region for decades, safely and consistent with international law, are increasingly contested by the PLA."

 

In response to Mr Marles's speech, PLA officer Hanwen Ge, who was in the audience, said China cooperated with countries in the region.

 

"Since the end of the Cold War, China has never been at war against its neighbouring countries," he said.

 

"As a sovereign country, China has the natural right to defend its national security."

 

Another PLA member, Qichao Zhu, said there were "at least two mistakes" in his speech.

 

"Taiwan is one province of China, and we will not endanger the Taiwan people's security and life," he said.

 

"You didn't mention that the Philippines, their ship, intentionally collided with China's coast guard ships.

 

"The rules of law is a very important concept. China sticks to the rules of law."

 

Following the speech, Mr Marles met with his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, where he raised his concerns face-to-face.

 

Philippines warns of growing risk of war

 

It was not just Australia that expressed concerns over China's acts of aggression in the region, with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr warning of dangerous consequences if Chinese militia vessels continued to challenge his nation's territorial waters.

 

"If a Filipino citizen is killed by a wilful act, that is, I think, very, very close to what we define as an act of war," he said.

 

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also addressed the conference, insisting the "United States can be secure only if Asia is secure".

 

"Every country, large or small, has the right to enjoy its own maritime resources," he said.

 

"The harassment the Philippines has faced is dangerous, pure and simple. We all share an interest in ensuring the South China Sea remains open and free."

 

Mr Marles's speech also addressed China's support for Russia, saying it "raises important questions about the role it intends to play as a global actor".

 

"As China steps up to a larger role, it must accept, like all great powers, that there will be much greater scrutiny on the way it uses its strength and which countries it chooses to partner with," Mr Marles said.

 

"There has been a view, sometimes expressed by Chinese officials, that its strategic partnership with Russia is a necessary buffer against anti-China hostility. That is totally wrong."

 

Opposition frontbencher Dan Tehan said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should be playing a bigger role in making Australia's concerns known.

 

"We have to be prepared to stand up to China when they put our national interest at risk," he said.

 

"We need the prime minister to be the one standing up and saying to China: 'We need you to abide by the rules-based order, and we need you to abide by international law.'"

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also attending the conference, where he plans to meet Mr Austin, take part in a panel discussion on Sunday, and ask attendees to support a peace summit to be held later this month in Switzerland.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-01/australia-china-peoples-liberation-army-singapore-conference/103923760

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fay3YrvgNXg

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 6:57 a.m. No.20950665   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3654 >>8381

>>20841352 (pb)

Secret Covid documents in Victoria to be released after almost 4 year fight

 

Chantelle Francis - June 1, 2024

 

Secret government documents behind Victoria’s controversial Covid lockdowns are set to be released after the state’s Department of Health lost an almost four year long fight to keep them concealed.

 

Melbourne had some of the toughest Covid rules in the world and the longest lockdown on the planet.

 

A judge at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal this week ordered the department to process freedom of information requests it had refused for the briefings provided to the Chief Health Officer, Deputy Chief Health Officer and Minister for Health relating to public health orders made in 2020.

 

Liberal MP David Davis made four requests for the briefings to be handed over back in 2020 under the FOI Act – three requests within ten days in July and the fourth request made in December.

 

The department refused them all, saying the work would substantially and unreasonably divert resources.

 

Mr Davis sought a review by the Victorian Information Commissioner but the commissioner did not reach a decision within the statutory time frame. The MP then took the cases to VCAT in late 2020 and early 2021.

 

Then Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar claimed it would take an estimated 169.4 to 208.4 working weeks (about four years) to process Mr Davis’ combined FOI requests, in a statement dated October 2021.

 

Michael Cain, the department’s manager of FOI and legal compliance, then claimed it would take 61 to 74 work weeks, in a statement dated November 2023. He argued the cost would run into tens of thousands of dollars.

 

But Judge Caitlin English, who is Vice President of VCAT, didn’t accept this as grounds for refusal.

 

In her decision, she said she was not convinced the department had reasonably estimated the resources required to process the requests, and noted the “strong public interest” in the information.

 

She acknowledged the resources required to process the request were substantial, but said it was manageable for the department.

 

“The Department, bearing the onus, has not satisfied me on the evidence that the work involved in processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations,” her order stated. “I direct the agency to process Mr Davis’s requests in accordance with the FOI Act.”

 

More than 115 briefs supporting the state government’s public health orders could be released, at an average of 40 to 60 pages each.

 

Mr Davis argued there was high public interest in release of the documents because of the nature of the way the pandemic was dealt with in Victoria compared to other states.

 

He said there was limited public information justifying the reasons on which certain public health orders were based, and there was significant public interest in the reasons for, and data and rationale behind them.

 

“The second wave as it surged into effect in July 2020 drove my series of freedom of information requests on 7 July, 13 July and 17 July of the then Department of Health and Human Services for the briefings behind the decisions to impose the public health orders,” he said.

 

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/secret-covid-documents-in-victoria-to-be-released-after-almost-4-year-fight/news-story/0742ab4b20de073b6b742bef6ac62300

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 7:11 a.m. No.20950711   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20852084 (pb)

US Space Forces Indo-Pacific commander highlights key alliance at Australian Space Summit

 

Capt. Keith Peden - May 31, 2024

 

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (AFNS) - Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific commander, participated in the Australian Space Summit at the International Convention Center in Sydney, Australia, May 27-28.

 

The Australian Space Summit aimed to provide presentation to critical funding issues and unveil fresh opportunities for international collaboration with the goal of growing Australia’s space sector.

 

During the two-day event that explored space collaboration and competition in the Pacific, Mastalir delivered a keynote address and participated in panels which discussed space capabilities and the U.S.-Australian alliance in the Indo-Pacific.

 

Mastalir opened his keynote address by highlighting the importance and growth of space specialties in industry and national security sectors and spoke on the value of space support toward global economy and natural disaster response.

 

“Space capabilities are a critical enabler of national security,” Mastalir said. “U.S. and allied forces rely heavily on space-based capabilities to project and employ power globally. That’s why we’re moving rapidly toward becoming more resilient and interoperable with our allies and partners as we prepare the joint force for great power competition with our focus on the Indo-Pacific.”

 

Joining Mastalir on the panel was Royal Australian Air Force Maj. Gen. Gregory Novak, Defence Space Command, Australian Defence Forces commander. The panel focused on emphasizing collaboration as a critical component in enhancing the U.S.-Australian partnership for securing the Indo-Pacific.

 

“There are many similarities in what we’re doing here,” Novak said. “The space domain has always been a strong part of the U.S.-Australian military-to-military relationship and our alliance. One thing that struck me over the past six months is just how much it’s deepened and broadened over that time.”

 

On the panel, Mastalir and Novak both highlighted space operations in the Pacific region while exploring how Space Force components interact with their counterparts in allied countries. The panel also provided examples of recent and planned coalition operations that benefit all participants.

 

“Last year, we executed Exercise Pacific Sentry together,” Mastalir said. "It was the most integrated component-level exercise we have executed to date, with a campaign plan synchronized across the Joint Force Space Component commanders in Australia, Hawaii and California and exchange officers embedded in the operational planning cells across those locations.”

 

Mastalir then highlighted the expansion of trilateral exercise Keen Edge that involved collaboration between the U.S., Australia and Japan, while noting the value in additional multilateral exercises in the future.

 

The panel members went on to discuss the importance of allied interoperability for the promotion of security and stability within the region. Both commanders shed light on why the rules-based international order is critical in supporting stability in the Pacific and discussed how a free and open Indo-Pacific is upheld by space efforts.

 

“The interests we pursue are all about assured access to space,” Novak said. “They are about promoting security and stability and we do that through encouraging responsible behaviors and doing everything we can as a collective to invest in norms that assure that access, which is ultimately in everyone’s interest.”

 

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3792723/us-space-forces-indo-pacific-commander-highlights-key-alliance-at-australian-sp/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 10:28 p.m. No.20954706   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4768 >>4866 >>4935 >>4971

>>20561119 (pb)

>>20705439 (pb)

>>20705580 (pb)

Doctors blast opaqueness of gender clinics

 

JESS MALCOLM and MACKENZIE SCOTT - APRIL 12, 2024

 

Australia’s major gender clinics have refused to confirm whether they are tracking long-term health outcomes of thousands of young children they have treated, despite a landmark British review that criticised the opaqueness and secrecy of the medical care.

 

Children’s hospitals in NSW, Queensland and Victoria have given no indication they will be changing treatment options for young people with gender dysphoria, despite serious issues raised by the Cass review and growing international evidence over the safety and clinical effectiveness of the drugs.

 

As an increasing number of ­voices call for an independent inquiry into the prescription of ­puberty blockers to young teens, medical experts have urged Australian hospitals to release up-to-date information on treatment plans and long-term outcomes of hormone treatments, warning that the current lack of transparency is leading to harmful outcomes.

 

Clinicians have also hit out at the nation’s peak body for transgender health, AusPATH, after it this week dismissed findings of the Cass review, saying that the medical body was “digging their heeds in” despite increasing alarm over the rising prescription of ­puberty-blocking drugs in young teenagers.

 

British health authorities in March banned the routine prescription of puberty blockers to young teens in response to interim findings of the Cass review, following extensive examination of the care being provided to children at London’s Tavistock clinic.

 

Handing down her final report this week, chairwoman Hilary Cass found the entire field of medicine aimed at enabling children to change gender was “built on shaky foundations”.

 

The Australian approached several gender clinics, including the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, The Children’s Hospital in Sydney’s Westmead, the Children’s Health Queensland Gender Clinic and Maple Leaf House in Newcastle, NSW, asking how many children were being treated and whether institutions could detail their follow-up policies for previous patients.

 

The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne forwarded questions on patient figures and reaction to the Cass review to the Victoria Health Department, which failed to respond.

 

The question of follow-up procedures and outcomes was sent to the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, but a spokeswoman said the key researcher was away on leave.

 

Queensland Health refused to provide answers to the questions put forward by The Weekend Australian, citing an independent review of practices within the state’s Children’s Gender Service.

 

NSW Health did not directly respond to questions asked but provided figures on the number of patients seen in 2022 and 2023. In those two years, 294 patients under the age of 16 were treated by The Children’s Hospital while 1787 people under the age of 25 were given care at Maple Leaf House.

 

Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine president Roberto D’Angelo warned of a lack of transparency around the treatment of young children with gender dysphoria, saying the inadequate sharing of clinical information was “one of the most serious failures noted by the Cass review”.

 

AusPATH vice-president Portia Predney this week said the Cass review was “at odds with the current evidence base, expert consensus and majority of clinical guidelines around the world”.

 

Paediatrician Dylan Wilson called on the commonwealth to immediately ban all new puberty blocker prescriptions, saying gender clinics had “absolutely no idea what state of health their former patients are in”.

 

He also called for a review into why governments and heath organisations ignored the “warnings, red flags and whistle­blowers” expressing concern for the use of drugs on young ­children.

 

Melbourne-psychiatrist Alison Clayton said there was a lack of “publicly available information about the numbers of 18 year olds being prescribed puberty blockers, oestrogen or testosterone at the public child and adolescent gender clinics or at community or hospital adult clinics.”

 

Sydney psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed said debate around the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones was being driven by identity politics rather than science.

 

He said gender issues were “ground zero of the culture wars”.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/doctors-blast-opaqueness-of-gender-clinics/news-story/09e329da4a537afde2af0fc3101348de

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 10:51 p.m. No.20954768   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4778 >>4866 >>4935 >>4971

>>20954706

>>20705542 (pb)

Trans ‘lab leak’ unleashed a scandalous medical experiment

 

Gender medicine is not like any other medicine. Powerful drugs used off-label and surgical castration have introduced to the world a new eunuch gender identity. Now the scientific foundations are emerging as threadbare.

 

BERNARD LANE - April 13, 2024

 

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Equality Australia, a transgender activist lobby, issued a curious media statement this week deploring England’s Cass review into the medicalisation of distressed minors alienated from their birth sex. The statement ran to almost 900 words, but none could be spared to spell out puberty blockers or synthetic cross-sex hormones.

 

Hiding behind the euphemism of gender-affirming care, the clinicians and activists quoted in the statement would have us believe the medical scandal documented by British pediatrician Hilary Cass is simply not relevant here in Australia. Yet it is, of course. Same hormonal drugs likely to sterilise minors and rob them of sexual pleasure as adults, same low-quality evidence base, same zealous affirmation of gender as the cause of distress.

 

Teenagers turn up at gender clinics primed with the diagnostic checklist for gender dysphoria, but the true causes of their unhap­piness may lie elsewhere. Maybe undiagnosed autism, awkward same-sex attraction, mental health disorders, past sex abuse or just the unsurprising confusion of teenage brains exposed to a pseudoscientific celebrity culture of gender diver­sity.

 

Cass can’t pull the plug on social media, but the final report she released this week should be enough to shut down blockers and hormones as routine treatment for gender-distressed minors in England. More cautious, less medicalised treatment policies already have been adopted in Finland and Sweden; in the US, almost half the states – those run by Republicans – have restricted hormonal and surgical interventions for minors.

 

Elsewhere in what we call the developed world, ideologically qualified gender clinicians carry on regardless, affirming the latest disembodied gender identity of a troubled teenager and doing what can be done to create an opposite-sex facsimile with drugs and surgery. In Australia, private surgeons have performed double mastectomies on girls as young as 15 who imagine they can identify out of being female. Our federal and state governments still appear locked in uncritical expansion of gender-affirming medicine as if it were lifesaving. Cass is not the first to point out that the evidence to justify the “transition or suicide” campaign simply isn’t there.

 

So, how did we end up here?

 

It has been likened to a lab leak. Cass explains: “Based on a single Dutch study, which suggested that puberty blockers may improve psychological wellbeing for a narrowly defined group of children with (gender dysphoria), the practice spread at pace to other countries.” This “Dutch protocol” of not-too-early puberty blockers, followed by cross-sex hormones and surgery, entered the scientific literature not long before a troubling shift in the culture.

 

Around 2010-15, when teen­agers began to spend more time home on social media and less time in the rough and tumble of life outside, clinics started to witness an unprecedented explosion of would-be gender patients.

 

Before, the classic patient was one of the few males whose early childhood distress had not been resolved by time and normal development. Now, the typical profile internationally is a teenage girl with plenty of other problems but no early history of rejecting her birth sex. And now puberty, with its yuck factor, can be stopped – just like hitting a pause button – and there’s time to explore cool gender identities. In melodramatic mode, activists even speak of “the wrong puberty” as inflicting irreversible harm.

 

But weaknesses in the Dutch research have become more obvious with time, and it isn’t clear if the claimed mental health benefits even apply to today’s very different patient group starting puberty blockers as young as ages eight to 12. In reality, blockers seem not a pause but the first step on a potentially lifelong medical path; international data suggests almost all those begun on blockers will go on to cross-sex hormones.

 

How can such young children consent to trading away future rights to having a family and sexual fulfilment for what may be short-run satisfaction with a new, unstable identity?

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 10:55 p.m. No.20954778   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20954768

 

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If you read the Cass report, you will note her surprise that gender medicine is not like any other medicine. Powerful drugs were introduced as routine treatment for children before any good evidence of their risk-benefit ratio or long-term effects. Puberty blockers are approved for hormone-dependent cancers, endometriosis and precocious (or premature) puberty. Their use with gender dysphoria is off-label. Children’s hospitals across the world, including Australia, skipped clinical trials, offered gender-affirming care as the gold standard and only later launched research projects to get the missing data on safety and efficacy. Definitive results are years away.

 

Meanwhile, some European health authorities were worried enough to order a systematic review of the evidence base.

 

This is considered the best way to gauge the quality of research said to justify a treatment; the method for searching the scientific literature and rating the studies is upfront, alert for bias and repeatable by sceptics. Since 2019, there have been systematic reviews of the evidence for hormonal treatment of gender-distressed minors in Finland, Sweden, England, Germany and Florida. Cass had another done. Each of these reviews, undertaken independently, has concluded that the evidence base is very weak and uncertain, especially for puberty blockers, the effects of which on the adolescent brain are unknown.

 

How did reputable hospitals come to allow experimental treatment of children? Like the rest of us, the medical profession swims in the same cultural soup where trans rights are human rights and gender medicalisation is somehow progressive; scepticism is career-ending transphobia. Many otherwise thoughtful people have not thought to check the sources for alarming predictions that 50 per cent or so of trans youth will attempt suicide if they don’t get gender-affirming care.

 

And from health ministers down to hospital managers, those worried about medicalisation of children have drawn comfort from the reassuring claim that all treatment strictly follows recognised guidelines. These clinical guidelines play an outsize role in gender medicine precisely because good quality evidence is absent. Systematic reviews sit at the top of the evidence pyramid; guidelines and other forms of bias-prone expert opinion are at the bottom.

 

Two of the three guidelines invoked in Australia are relied on by the health sector in many countries. These come from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society. The third, issued by the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH), has been the vehicle for importing and entrenching the gender-affirming model in Australia. Cass had these gender dysphoria guidelines independently evaluated. Only Finland’s and Sweden’s survived scrutiny. On the key measure of the rigour of their development, Sweden’s scored 71 per cent; RCH was rated at 19 per cent. This is the document that persuaded our Family Court judges to wind back their supervision of treatment decisions involving minors.

 

The RCH guideline, which argues that psychosis in a child should not necessarily prevent medicalised gender change, drew heavily on those from WPATH and the Endocrine Society.

 

The most recent WPATH guideline, which introduced to the world a new eunuch gender identity calling for “medically necessary” castration, cites an RCH paper to bolster its evidence claims.

 

In fact, that 2019 paper contains no evidence but merely describes the hospital’s belated research project, Trans20, which disarmingly admits the “urgent need for more evidence”.

 

Cass notes this circularity whereby low-quality gender-affirming guidelines reference one another, creating “an apparent consensus on key areas of practice despite the evidence being poor”.

 

Meagre evidence, no real consensus among clinicians and a risk of lifelong harm to children. If this isn’t enough to prod our politicians towards a national inquiry, they may find it harder to ignore the negligence lawyers and medical indemnity insurers.

 

Bernard Lane, a former journalist with The Australian, writes the newsletter genderclinicnews.com

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/deceptive-promise-of-the-dutch-protocol/news-story/9b745c5e92eb10cef50b22943fdbcf57

 

https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/

 

https://cass.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CassReview_Final.pdf

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 11:33 p.m. No.20954866   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4879 >>4935 >>4971

>>20954706

>>20954768

People are in denial following the Cass report - it’s like deprogramming cult members

 

The reactions of gender zealots to their folly being exposed range from notably silent to dangerously delusional

 

SUZANNE MOORE - 23 April 2024

 

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I suppose if I had been cheering on a vast medical experiment on children that was now shown to be extremely harmful, I might be keeping my head down. If I had been interning as a witch hunter, I might say, “I only helped with the pyres, I didn’t actually light the fire.” If I needed other people’s small children to prove my very “existence” as an adult, I may keep rather quiet.

 

Indeed, the reaction to the Cass Review has been notable in that many who have previously intoned trans rights slogans have just changed the subject. Their silence is deafening.

 

The other reaction is almost Trumpian in its delusion. When presented with the biggest survey of the evidence by a top paediatrician, some zealots simply come out with their own “alternative facts”. The disinformation they have spread has meant that Dr Hilary Cass, the report’s author, has been threatened and advised not to travel on public transport.

 

These people, quite frankly, disgust me. One of them, Patrick Harvie, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, was asked five times on the Today programme whether he accepted Cass’s findings and he would not answer. Thankfully, he is not in charge of NHS Scotland, which has now also paused the prescription of puberty blockers and will not give cross-sex hormones to new patients under 18.

 

Harvie keeps repeating the rubbish that we saw some of our MPs expressing in the House of Commons last week: that Cass ignored certain evidence (she didn’t), that no one should debate the existence of trans people (we are not), that a four-year review of medical care is somehow in itself evidence of transphobic attitudes (you what?). Dawn Butler, Ben Bradshaw and Lloyd Russell-Moyle all embarrassed themselves. Stella Creasy, in her best “not so much angry as disappointed” manner, wanged on about all the “trans children” on waiting lists.

 

But where do all these “trans children” come from? At some point this cult has to ask itself this, surely? Even that glorified estate agent and twig painter Kirstie Allsopp and the singer, Mr Sexuality Billy Bragg have to question whether giving drugs that we use to castrate sex offenders to children is “kind”. But no, they prefer self-righteous and deliberate ignorance.

 

Nothing that Cass said has not been voiced before: the whistle-blowers, the detransitioners, the clinicians who left in droves let us know. Puberty blockers were not used until 2011, but 10 years ago the prescription age was dropped to 11. Private doctors were giving them to nine-year-olds. What happened since? Well, part of the problem is lack of records and refusal to hand over data. This is either incompetence or a cover-up from the adult clinics.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 1, 2024, 11:36 p.m. No.20954879   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20954866

 

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But even with this data, it is now obvious that because the gender cult defended all this as “gender-affirming” care, as about “identity” rather than psychology, they will not back down. Their very existence depends on these growing numbers of “trans children”.

 

Remember, one of the “pluses” of blockers for girls is that they will not grow the breasts that will later have to be cut off, and for boys they will be less masculine and therefore “pass” more easily. So this is not “a pause” but a one-way ticket to a life of hormones and surgery.

 

Having told children there are zillions of genders and provided schools with “trans-inclusive” information packs, lobbyists have spread the idea that unless kids conform to regressive stereotypes (the trans flag is literally pink and blue) then they may, in fact, be the opposite sex. Parents and teachers have gone along with this rather than be cast out of this new world of “inclusivity”.

 

How does anyone who has enforced this row back? How do we deprogramme a cult? Cult thinking, after all, involves unquestioning commitment; thinking one is on a special mission to save humanity; an “us versus them” mentality; peer pressure that may induce guilt or shame; the cutting of ties with family and friends; and being very fearful of ever leaving.

 

Anyone who has questioned the gender cult has been deemed “far right” or transphobic, but Cass has put a spanner in the works. Neither she nor people like me want to take away the right for adults to transition. Either cult members accept there is a difference between adults and children, and begin to understand safeguarding, or they will have to operate a dark, underground web of selling drugs to children.

 

They may continue to worship at the altar of “gender identity”, but they can no longer expect all public institutions to go along with their dodgy faith. Instead, this new religion should assume its rightful position among the many strange but unscientific beliefs that we co-exist with: astrology, reiki, and past-life regression, for instance. You can’t stop folk believing weird stuff, but when something is harmful to women, to gay people, to children, then we have every right to refuse this faith in the public sphere.

 

Until fairly recently, it has been heresy to do so. Those still defending the sterilisation and mutilation of children are exposing themselves daily. Of course, they are squirming because it was never about the children for them; it was about proving their own purity to the other cult members. The kids were just collateral damage in a culture war we were told was not actually real.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/04/23/suzanne-moore-cass-review-report-cult/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 12:10 a.m. No.20954935   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4938 >>4971

>>20954706

>>20954768

>>20954866

Australian transgender healthcare guidelines ‘lack rigour and independence’, say Cass review researchers

 

NATASHA ROBINSON - APRIL 30, 2024

 

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Australia’s guidelines on gender-affirmative medicine lack rigour and independence, and fail to recommend formal assessment processes that screen for body image problems, autism spectrum disorder, sexual orientation, or physical health conditions, according to international researchers commissioned by the UK Cass review.

 

University of York researchers conducted a study analysing international standards of care in gender-affirming medicine.

 

The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne guidelines, which are followed by all Australia’s children’s hospitals, were examined.

 

The review found all guidelines around the world, including Australia’s, recommend a multidisciplinary approach to assessment, but few provide specific detail or clarity on the purposes of assessment. For instance, very few guidelines recommend formal measures or clinical tools to assess gender dysphoria.

 

Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne guidelines in Australia were found to contain no recommendations for the discussion of body image, neurodiversity or autism spectrum disorder, sexuality, sexual functioning or sexual orientation, or physical health or conditions.

 

A past president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Hillary Cass was commissioned to carry out a review of London’s Gender Identity Development Service following patient and clinician concern over an activist-driven approach adopted at the flagship Tavistock clinic that was deemed to have unduly overridden clinical governance and ­decision-making, risking harms to children who were routinely rushed on to puberty blocker medication.

 

The review’s recommendations reflect a culmination of four years of investigation and consultation, as well as eight independent systemic reviews of the global research literature found a lack of reliable evidence for the key gender interventions used in the gender affirming model of care, including social transition, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

 

The review also examined international evidence and gender-affirming medicine guidelines, including in Australia where RCH guidelines were first published in 2018 in the Medical Journal of Australia. Written by gender-affirming clinicians at RCH, they became known as the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines.

 

These guidelines are endorsed by the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health and in turn have been modelled on the World PATH endorsed standards of care.

 

In the University of York’s examination of international guidelines, the RCH Standards of Care ranked very poorly. Australia’s guidelines were given a very low score of 19 per cent on “rigour of development” and 14 per cent on “editorial independence”.

 

The Cass report found WPATH and various national guidelines tended to reference each other in a “circular” fashion to back up their methods despite objectively poor evidence underpinning the gender-affirming medical approach.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 12:12 a.m. No.20954938   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20954935

 

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The RCH said when approached about the issues that its gender service “delivers a world-leading, multi-disciplinary model of care with a strong emphasis on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the children and young people referred to our service”.

 

“As always, our Gender Service is underpinned by both national and international research methodology, and we will continue to monitor outcomes that will inform best practice,” the hospital said in a statement.

 

Queensland child psychiatrist Jillian Spencer, who was stood down from her job in a children’s hospital over her opposition to gender-affirming medicine, said she believed that since the release of the Cass review, “the College of Psychiatry appears to be defending a gender-affirmative approach for children”.

 

Despite the mantra that Australian gender clinics are multi­disciplinary and holistic, she said we could not be sure, as the same was once said of the Tavistock.

 

“Such similarities indicate the need for an inquiry to investigate how Australian gender clinics are actually functioning on the ground,” Dr Spencer said.

 

“Concerns are reinforced by Freedom of Information data showing Australian paediatric gender clinics continue to prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones at high rates.

 

“I am concerned Australian gender clinics are providing a standard of care significantly worse than the Tavistock clinic on several measures.”

 

For children approaching puberty, Australian clinics offer a three- to four-session assessment phase before referral for hormones, whereas the Tavistock clinic was criticised as “rushing” children into hormonal interventions using a four to six-session assessment phase.

 

The UK gender clinic prescribed cross-sex hormones from “around the time of the child’s 16th birthday”, whereas Australian clinics routinely prescribe cross-sex hormones to children aged 14. While the Cass review did not comment on gender surgeries, which are not provided to minors in Britain, in 2018 the Australian Family Court gave the green light for adolescents with decision-making capacity to undergo gender surgeries.

 

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists is facing ongoing calls to release a statement acknowledging the findings of the Cass review.

 

There is also growing concern at the dearth of information on the outcomes of the children who have been treated at public hospital gender clinics around the country, which have published very little data or outcomes based on patient research.

 

The college re-released a statement it gave to The Australian two weeks ago.

 

“The RANZCP is reviewing the findings of the Cass Review,” a spokesperson said.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/australian-transgender-healthcare-guidelines-lack-rigour-and-independence-say-cass-review-researchers/news-story/ecca70816e066740d70adb7d888cb299

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 12:30 a.m. No.20954971   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4995

>>20954706

>>20954768

>>20954866

>>20954935

Cass Down Under

 

Centre-right politics in Australia is alert to the message of paediatrician Hilary Cass, who is about to make a virtual visit to the country

 

BERNARD LANE - MAY 28, 2024

 

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Members of the centre-right Liberal Party in Australia’s most populous state have endorsed a motion urging a ban on medicalised gender change for minors.

 

The motion, passed at Saturday’s state council meeting of the party’s New South Wales (NSW) division, calls on “the federal and state governments to ban chemical (drug) and surgical gender dysphoria treatment for minors due to the inability of a child to provide informed consent to these types of procedures.”

 

The motion is not binding on the parliamentary Liberal Party, which is in opposition, but the overwhelming support shown by members and delegates on Saturday sends a signal to the leadership ahead of a vote on legislation that would allow minors easier access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

 

The NSW Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023, a private Bill introduced by independent member Alex Greenwich, would allow gender-distressed minors aged 16-17 to authorise their own irreversible hormone treatment, with risks including sterilisation and sexual dysfunction. The Bill would also permit doctors in some circumstances to give children younger than 16 puberty blockers without the knowledge or consent of parents.

 

Under centre-left Labor premier Chris Minns, the state of NSW continues the expansion in supply of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones begun by the previous Liberal health minister Brad Hazzard.

 

Last month, the Liberal opposition leader in Western Australia, Libby Mettam, announced a policy to prohibit medical gender transition for children under 16, should she be elected to govern.

 

“In light of the recent publication of the Cass review in the UK, a WA Liberal Government would ban the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments and surgical intervention for children under the age of 16 for the purpose of gender transition,” Ms Mettam said.

 

“We would also initiate a comprehensive review to examine the suitability of these interventions for treating gender incongruent children to ensure the treatment of young people and children with gender dysphoria is safe in the long and short term.

 

“This policy is consistent with recent restrictions on medical interventions for treatment of gender incongruent children in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, the UK, and the US.”

 

England’s Cass report - which deplored the “remarkably weak evidence” for youth gender medicine and confirmed the experimental status of puberty blockers - was cited in support of Saturday’s motion at the state council meeting of the NSW Liberals.

 

The motion, put up by the Coffs Harbour branch of the party, was carried by a show of hands, according to a person at the meeting, who estimated that perhaps a dozen of the 500-plus members and delegates in the room voted against the motion.

 

Upper house member Jacqui Munro, who describes herself as “the NSW Liberal Party’s first LGBTQI+3 woman parliamentarian”, reportedly spoke against the motion as contrary to a family’s right to choose healthcare for children.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 12:45 a.m. No.20954995   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20954971

 

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Dr Cass, the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health who led England’s 2020-24 review of youth dysphoria care, has agreed to take part in a webinar on the relevance of her report to Australia.

 

The July 2 webinar will be moderated by Professor Philip Morris, president of the National Association of Practising Psychiatrists (NAPP), which in 2019 became the first Australian medical society to call for an inquiry into paediatric gender medicine.

 

The NAPP takes a cautious approach to managing gender dysphoria, stating: “Individualised psycho-social interventions (e.g. psychoeducation, individual therapy, school-home liaison and family therapy) should be first-line treatments for young people with gender dysphoria/incongruence.”

 

Outlining her policy, Western Australia’s Liberal leader, Ms Mettam, said: “Appropriate, compassionate, comprehensive, and accessible psychotherapeutic support will be the first priority of a WA Liberal Government in treating young people with gender dysphoria.”

 

She said a ban on hormonal and surgical interventions was urgently needed, given the rise in patient numbers at the Perth Children’s Hospital gender clinic and international concern about harm to vulnerable young people.

 

“When experts are telling us the potential permanent side effects of these treatments can include infertility, sexual dysfunction, obesity, heart and liver disease, blood clots and atrophy of the genitals, we need to investigate,” Ms Mettam said.

 

“In the meantime, we should be more cautious and careful when it comes to using these treatments on our children, that’s why a ban first to allow for a comprehensive review is the right approach.”

 

Last September, Canada’s opposition Conservative Party adopted a resolution to prohibit medicalised gender change for minors. Delegates at the party’s national convention in Quebec City passed the resolution with a Yes vote of 69 per cent.

 

The resolution says -

 

“A Conservative government will protect children by prohibiting life-altering medicinal or surgical interventions to treat gender confusion or dysphoria, and encourage positive mental and physical health support for all Canadians suffering from gender dysphoria and related mental health challenges.”

 

In August last year, the national committee of America’s Republican Party passed a resolution stating that children have a fundamental right to be protected from medicalised gender change and should be encouraged to “love and accept their bodies.”

 

The resolution endorsed at the summer meeting of the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee claims that “sex-trait modification procedures” - puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and transgender surgery - are “permanent, risky, and experimental,” with potential harms including infertility, low bone density and heart disease.

 

Last week, South Carolina became the 25th American state to restrict or prohibit medicalised gender change for minors.

 

GCN has sought comment from the NSW Liberal Party and Ms Munro

 

https://www.genderclinicnews.com/p/cass-down-under

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dr-hilary-cass-says-children-124223320.html

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hilary-cass-i-cant-travel-on-public-transport-any-more-35pt0mvnh

 

The Dr Hilary Cass Report on Gender Dysphoria in the UK – is it relevant for Australia?

 

2nd July 2024 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm AEST

 

https://napp.org.au/the-cass-report-webinar/

 

 

Q Post #1735

 

Jul 27 2018 13:13:18 (EST)

 

There is nothing more precious than our children.

Evil has no boundaries.

https://genius.com/Slayer-evil-has-no-boundaries-lyrics

The choice to know will ultimately be yours.

These people are SICK!

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/07/27/cbs-honcho-les-moonves-will-be-accused-sexual-misconduct-in-latest-ronan-farrow-bombshell-report-says.html

To those who are courageous enough to speak out - we stand with you!

You are not alone in this fight.

God bless.

Q

 

https://qanon.pub/#1735

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 3:10 a.m. No.20955115   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9202 >>3635

>>20950629

>>20950649

China defence chief says Beijing ready to 'forcefully' stop Taiwan independence

 

AFP/ABC - 2 June 2024

 

Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun has told a security forum in Singapore that Beijing's military is ready to "forcefully" stop Taiwan independence.

 

The remarks at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue come one week after China held military drills around self-ruled Taiwan and warned of war following the inauguration of new Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.

 

"The Chinese People's Liberation Army has always been an indestructible and powerful force in defence of the unification of the motherland, and it will act resolutely and forcefully at all times to curb the independence of Taiwan and to ensure that it never succeeds in its attempts," Mr Dong told the forum on Sunday.

 

"Whoever dares to split Taiwan from China will be crushed to pieces and suffer his own destruction."

 

Mr Dong also warned of "limits" to Beijing's restraint in the South China Sea, where China has been involved in increasingly hostile confrontations with Philippine vessels.

 

"China has maintained sufficient restraint in the face of rights infringements and provocation, but there are limits to this," Mr Dong said.

 

'A new level of intimidation'

 

National security expert Professor Rory Medcalf called it the "most pointedly intimidating speech" he had heard from a Chinese representative in the past 20 years.

 

"There was some very pointed remarks, threatening both Taiwan and the Philippines, and I think a lot of the audience went away with a sense that this was a new level of intimidation," Mr Medcalf said from the dialogue in Singapore.

 

Although he did not interpret Mr Dong's rhetoric as a sign that military action was imminent, Mr Medcalf said the comments were "particularly violent" and created a "frightening ambiguity" to the terms of Chinese aggression.

 

"Traditionally, China has said the red line for military action against Taiwan is independence, and observers have always assumed that means that a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan would be the red line.

 

"But what he's now saying is that there is a kind of incremental salami slicing-approach towards independence by the new Taiwanese leadership," he said.

 

Ongoing US-China tensions

 

Alongside warnings, Mr Dong also called for greater military exchange with the US.

 

"We have always been open to exchanges and cooperation, but this requires both sides to meet each other halfway," Mr Dong said following a meeting with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday.

 

This was the first substantive face-to-face talks in 18 months between the two countries' defence chiefs.

 

China scrapped military communications with the United States in 2022 in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

 

China is also furious over the United States' deepening defence ties in the Asia-Pacific, particularly with the Philippines, and its regular deployment of warships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

 

Beijing views this as part of a decades-long US effort to contain it.

 

The two sides agreed after a summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden last November to restart high-level military talks, including over military operations near Taiwan, Japan and in the South China Sea.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-02/china-defence-chief-says-beijing-will-forcefully-stop-taiwan/103924938

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 3:17 a.m. No.20955125   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5128

The $50 billion gas deal Australia hopes will keep China quiet

 

Andrew Probyn - June 2, 2024

 

1/2

 

Australia is offering Timor-Leste a multi-billion-dollar lifeline to fast-track the Greater Sunrise offshore gas project, which promises generational wealth for the fledgling nation while keeping Beijing at bay.

 

Australia has offered Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao’s government a sizable package of incentives that would effectively give Timor-Leste 90 per cent of revenue from the project.

 

Senior diplomatic and government sources say ensuring the development of the long-stalled Greater Sunrise field, 450km northwest of Darwin and 150km south of Timor-Leste, is one of the Albanese government’s top strategic priorities.

 

“We don’t want Timor to become another Solomons,” one high-level political source told this masthead.

 

Timor-Leste has forged closer relations with China, with Gusmao signing a strategic partnership with President Xi Jinping in September.

 

The offer includes a dedicated infrastructure fund, financed by Australia’s share of the gas revenues, and an acceleration of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) program that would see more Timorese come to Australia for work and training.

 

Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s handpicked negotiator, former Victorian premier Steve Bracks, confirmed a “significant offer” had been made.

 

“It shows the determination of the Australian government to get this project up because we believe it’s in the best interests of Timor-Leste and its people for this project to proceed,” Bracks said.

 

He said Australia wanted Timor-Leste to view it as the international “trusted partner”.

 

“We don’t want to push them to the extent that they need to even think of going to China.”

 

But the unresolved issue is where gas from the Greater Sunrise reserve would be piped and processed.

 

Under a 2018 treaty between the nations signed in New York, if the gas field is processed in Timor-Leste, Australia would receive 30 per cent of the revenues and Timor 70 per cent.

 

But if the gas is instead piped to Australia and processed at an already existing LNG processing plant in Darwin, the Timorese share would increase to 80 per cent, with Australia receiving 20 per cent.

 

This treaty was reached after Timor walked from an earlier agreement when it became known that Australian spies had bugged the Timorese parliament to get the upper hand in negotiations two decades ago.

 

There is up to $50 billion worth of gas in the Greater Sunrise field.

 

Gusmao’s preference is to process the gas on the southern Timorese coast, believing the industrial and job opportunities would outweigh the extra revenue from the Darwin alternative.

 

“We don’t want a pipeline for the sake of a pipeline,” Timorese president Jose Ramos-Horta told this masthead.

 

“A pipeline coming to Timor-Leste would power the diversification … the industrialisation, modernisation of our economy.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 3:19 a.m. No.20955128   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20955125

 

2/2

 

But many analysts and oil and gas experts believe the Timor option is commercially unviable and the project will remain unfulfilled unless the gas is processed in Darwin.

 

As a potential sweetener, Timor-Leste would potentially be offered an equity stake in the Northern Territory gas facility.

 

Ramos-Horta said he believed that compared to the “stratospheric” cost of Australian labour and tax imposts, the Timor option would be no more expensive.

 

“I’m personally ready to read the paper and if it is persuasive enough, if it is tempting enough, if it’s really going to prove beyond any doubt that this is the best option for Timor-Leste I’m sure the government would consider it,” he said.

 

Steve Bracks said: “We don’t know yet whether it would be viable for (Greater Sunrise) to be undertaken in Timor Leste.”

 

“It very well could be and if that’s the case, well then all the support that we can give in Australia will be given to this project to get this project done.”

 

There is growing urgency in Timor to establish the project, which would have a 30-year life. Timor’s most valuable oil and gas field Bayu-Udan has been exhausted, leaving it with no petroleum revenue.

 

As an extra incentive, Australia has pledged to consider using Bayu-Undan for carbon capture and storage of greenhouse gases emitted from Darwin processing. That would be another source of funding for Timor-Leste.

 

Ramos-Horta said Australia should not worry about Timor’s relationship with China, saying Beijing was “just an economic trade competitor”.

 

“I have had conversations with the Chinese for many, many years. They are very sensitive, not wanting to make the Australians or Americans perceive, suspect that they have some ulterior motives in Timor-Leste,” Ramos-Horta said.

 

“So there is no reason for Australia, the US to always pick on China as if China is going to take over the world.

 

“China might want to have world dominance in technology, in trade, but not necessarily in subduing, dominating countries.”

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-50-billion-gas-deal-australia-hopes-will-keep-china-quiet-20240531-p5jidz.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 3:24 a.m. No.20955131   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Federal government to introduce ban on sharing of non-consensual deepfake pornography

 

Monte Bovill - 2 June 2024

 

People who share deepfake pornography will face serious criminal penalties as part of legislation being introduced into federal parliament.

 

A deepfake is an image or video in which a person's face or body has been altered to make it appear they are doing or saying something that never actually happened.

 

There has been an increase in pornographic deepfake images generated by artificial intelligence, prompting the move from the federal government to ban the sharing of non-consensual digitally created and altered sexually explicit material.

 

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the non-consensual sharing of such images was a "damaging and deeply distressing form of abuse".

 

"We know it overwhelmingly affects women and girls who are the target of this kind of deeply offensive and harmful behaviour. It can inflict deep, long-lasting harm on victims," Mr Dreyfus said.

 

"The Albanese government has no tolerance for this sort of insidious criminal behaviour.

 

"The government's reforms will make clear that those who share sexually explicit material without consent, using technology like artificial intelligence, will be subject to serious criminal penalties."

 

The sharing of non-consensual deepfake sexually explicit material will carry a penalty of six years in jail.

 

If a person also created the deepfake shared without consent, there will be an aggravated offence that carries a higher penalty of seven years' imprisonment.

 

The new offences will only apply to sexual material depicting adults, with child abuse material continuing to be dealt with under dedicated separate offences.

 

In May, state and federal leaders met to address Australia's gendered violence crisis, and at the time, the federal government committed to introducing the legislation.

 

Earlier this year, fake images of Taylor Swift flooded the internet, with one sexually explicit image of the singer reportedly being viewed almost 50 million times.

 

The legislation will be introduced this week, and Mr Dreyfus said he expected it would be supported by the whole parliament.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-02/deepfake-pornography-sharing-image-based-abuse-criminal-prison/103923814

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 3:32 a.m. No.20955138   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20731815 (pb)

>>20759602 (pb)

>>20769978 (pb)

No investigation into terror-praising preacher after bishop stabbing comments

 

ALEXI DEMETRIADI - JUNE 2, 2024

 

A terror-praising Sydney preacher who applauded a teen for “standing up for prophet Mohammed” when he allegedly stabbed Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel will not be investigated by police, as political leaders said authorities have “to get serious” on hate speech.

 

The Australian can reveal that a southwest Sydney cleric known only as “Brother Ismail” made the intervention on the alleged stabbing to a packed crowd at the Al Madina Dawah Centre in late May.

 

But that praise does not fall foul of commonwealth legislation outlawing “praising” a terrorist act, with state police confirming it would not investigate the cleric.

 

“These are our red lines and insults from a man (Bishop Emmanuel) followed by billions … it’s not a good idea, and this was the outcome and consequences,” the preacher said, referring to the Wakeley alleged terror incident on April 15.

 

“That kid, in his actions, stood up and defended the honour of Mohammed …”

 

A boy, 16, was charged with committing a terror offence after allegedly stabbing Bishop Emmanuel, who sustained, but recovered from, multiple injuries.

 

Police later launched raids to break up what they alleged was a teen terror cell, with six boys arrested and charged.

 

The sermon, posted to an online video platform, also appears to cut as Brother Ismail continues criticising the bishop and he lashed mainstream Islamic leaders for urging social cohesion in the wake of the attack.

 

“(Mainstream leaders) said ‘we don’t know him (the teenager), this was against Islam and is not the approach of Islam’,” he continued.

 

“Other (mainstream leaders) said they were praying for the bishop’s recovery. What kind of leadership is that? They (the bishop) stepped on our team and red lines, and yet our leadership did nothing about it.”

 

The cleric won’t be investigated for possible breaches of section 80.2C (1) in the criminal code, which outlaws a person “praising” a terrorist act, “in circumstances where there is a risk that such praise might have the effect” of motivating a person to commit another.

 

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said police and prosecutors “have got to get serious”.

 

“Open praise for alleged terror attacks must result in investigation, charges and prosecution,” the senator said.

 

“Right now our laws are being openly defied and mocked. Inaction and weakness will only lead to more tragedy.”

 

A NSW Police spokesman said: “the force has sought legal advice and it has been determined that the comments in question do not meet the (criminality) threshold”.

 

The Australian Federal Police had no comment.

 

It is the same preacher who, in November, warned of “security risks” if the Muslim community were pushed and that Muslims were “looking forward to joining the mujahideen”, and comes as both the federal and state governments separately looked at strengthening “ineffective” hate-speech laws.

 

Brother Ismail is a regular speaker at Bankstown’s Al Madina Dawah Centre, run by Abu Ousayd, who is also known as Wissam Haddad.

 

The country’s peak Jewish body has lodged vilification complaints against the centre and Mr Ousayd at the Australian Human Rights Commission, who has given a raft of incendiary and anti-Semitic sermons since October 7.

 

It comes as the federal government prepared to legislate stronger hate-speech provisions, possibly expanding the breadth of criminality and introducing new penalties. A NSW government review into its own “inoperable” hate-speech provisions, instigated in January, is expected to reveal its recommendations soon.

 

The Al Madina Dawah Centre was contacted for comment.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/no-investigation-into-terrorpraising-cleric-after-bishop-stabbing-comments/news-story/9f1a335eaabf127e6f226029c41fe525

 

https://rumble.com/v4whj8b-the-reality-of-our-leaders-firday-khutbah-brother-ismail.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 2, 2024, 3:39 a.m. No.20955150   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20647150 (pb)

US Marine on rape charge placed on bail, denied trip home to await trial in America

 

A member of Marine Rotational Force Darwin has been placed on bail conditions one day before his employment contract was due to expire ahead of a planned return to the United States.

 

Jason Walls - June 2, 2024

 

A US Marine charged with rape while on rotation in the Top End has had his plans to return home to await trial put on ice after being placed on bail in the Darwin Local Court on Friday.

 

The court heard the 24-year-old - who cannot be named before being committed to stand trial - had been issued with a notice to appear after the charge was laid on May 1.

 

But prosecutor Rhiannon McGlinn said her office had requested the case be relisted a day before his Marine Corps contract was due to lapse to ask that he be placed on bail instead.

 

“I understand he then had plans to return to the United States of America,” she said.

 

“However the US Marine Corps has been in contact with my office and has notified us they will keep him here if there is a bail order requiring him to remain in Darwin.”

 

The man’s lawyer, Brooke Houen, said bail was opposed as her client “wants to return to America and then come back for an eventual trial”.

 

“He was on a six-year contract and that has now expired so he would be de-enlisting from the marines on the expiry of that contract, he would no longer be a serving member of the Marine Corps,” she said.

 

“He is 24-years-old so he is a young man, he doesn’t have any reason to be in Australia other than his orders.

 

“I am instructed that he would be in a position to personally be responsible for his travel back to Australia.”

 

Judge John Neill asked Ms Houen what “recourse” there would be “if (he) changes his mind and decides not to return to Australia”.

 

“The alternative, if these things cannot be explained to my satisfaction today, is for me to assist your client with accommodation and feeding by placing him in custody,” he said.

 

But Ms Houen said “that won’t be necessary”.

 

“My instructions are that, essentially, if your honour puts (him) on a bail order today, his contract with the Marine Corps will then be extended so he will remain an enlisted member,” she said.

 

In granting bail, Mr Neill ordered the man to live at the Defence Establishment Berrimah and not travel more than 100km from Darwin while surrendering his travel documents and steering clear of the airport.

 

“I’m satisfied that circumstances exist which warrant the imposing of bail conditions on the defendant because of his situation with the US Marine force and his potential to depart the jurisdiction,” he said.

 

“That being so, bail is allowed on the defendant’s own recognisance in the sum of $5000.”

 

The man returns to court on June 12.

 

https://www.ntnews.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-nt/us-marine-on-rape-charge-placed-on-bail-denied-trip-home-to-await-trial-in-america/news-story/201e08e206122c84c0d8662509595fc8

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 2:42 a.m. No.20959141   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20926912

Labor cancels visas of 20 foreign criminals in Direction 99 fallout

 

SARAH ISON, DENNIS SHANAHAN and SIMON BENSON - JUNE 3, 2024

 

The number of visas re-cancelled by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles more than doubled to 20 at the weekend, as he faces a new attack from the Coalition over his claims that drones are being used to monitor foreign criminals.

 

As senior Labor figures deny the government made “a mistake” in implementing Direction 99 under pressure from New Zealand last year, opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan demanded the government reveal whether it was indeed flying drones near schools to track foreign-born criminals and prevent them coming into contact with children.

 

“The Albanese Labor government needs to come clean: are they now saying that drones are flying over schools?” Mr Tehan said.

 

“If this is the case, which schools? And have the parents of schoolchildren who attend these schools been notified? Once again this sounds like fantasy land to defend the indefensible, which is the sheer incompetence of Andrew Giles.”

 

Mr Tehan’s comments follow Australian Federal Police officials saying they were not aware of drone programs being used to track foreign criminals, as Mr Giles claimed last week.

 

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Mr Giles needed to be clear on whether he had disclosed a top secret drone program that the AFP were not able to talk about or had made up the claim.

 

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt confirmed on Sunday that the government was using drones to photograph the residences of detainees released after the High Court’s NZYQ decision.

 

“My understanding is that drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation people are living in, for example, ensuring it’s not too close to schools,” he said.

 

Senator Watt also said the government had not made a mistake in implementing Direction 99 – which requires the AAT to consider an individual’s community ties when reviewing deportation appeals – and that the AAT was to blame for the unintended consequences of the policy. “They interpreted it in a way it was never intended by the government, and that’s why we’re now taking action to fix it,” he told Sky News.

 

“What (Direction 99) aimed to do was to recognise the difficult situation where some people involved have been in Australia for a long time – in some cases since they were a toddler or a baby – but that doesn’t mean that we intended for community safety to be relegated below that as a priority.”

 

Within days of revoking Direction 99, Mr Giles had re-cancelled the visas of eight foreign criminals who had originally been allowed to stay thanks to the AAT’s decision. There is still no clarity on when a new Direction will be put in place.

 

As the Coalition is expected to maintain its pressure on Anthony Albanese and his role in the debacle during parliament this week, new figures show public support for Labor’s handling of border protection and immigration has fallen four points in the past three months on the index of JWS Research and nine points in the past 12 months.

 

According to JWS Research polling of 1000 people last week, 24 per cent of those polled thought immigration and border protection was a major issue, up from 15 per cent in June 2023, pushing the issue into the top five.

 

The debacle in the immigration portfolio has prompted questions over whether the Prime Minister will reshuffle his cabinet, but senior government figures said the challenge faced by Labor leader was that “no one wants the job” of immigration minister.

 

Several frontbenchers pointed to Matt Keogh as a potential replacement for Mr Giles, given his success in “cleaning up” backlogs in the Veterans’ Affairs portfolio.

 

Another senior government source said there was a good chance things could “get even harder” for the Immigration Minister, which was a disincentive for anyone new to step into the role.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labor-cancels-visas-of-20-foreign-criminals-in-direction-99-fallout/news-story/9a0d7adaa7079b9046bc6af448a23742

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 2:48 a.m. No.20959152   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20926912

>>20937493

>>20945256

Minister admits there are no detainee drones

 

Angus Thompson and Olivia Ireland - June 3, 2024

 

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has admitted that drones are not being used to track released detainees in a fresh gaffe for the frontbencher.

 

Giles made the sensational statement in a TV interview last week during a bruising week for the government over its handling of former detainees convicted of serious crimes and revelations a ministerial directive he issued last year led to a tribunal allowing a number of foreign criminals to stay in Australia.

 

In a statement released on Monday, Giles corrected the record after doubts were raised over the use of drones to monitor detainees, when the Australian Border Force declined to confirm it was using them in its operations and the Australian Federal Police saying it had no knowledge of the operation.

 

“Last week, in an interview on Sky News, I stated that Operation AEGIS was using drones. I relied on information provided by my department at the time, which has since been clarified,” Giles said.

 

“As part of the work monitoring and supporting community safety, Operation AEGIS draws on information from a range of sources using different technologies including aerial open-source and other imagery through their work with state and territory law enforcement bodies.”

 

As well as the evidence of AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney before a Senate estimates hearing on Friday, government sources said no drone program was being undertaken to monitor any of the 153 people released from detention following last year’s High Court ruling that indefinite detention was unlawful.

 

Giles’ office insisted on Friday he was correct.

 

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan seized on Monday’s development to accuse Giles of “gross incompetence”, while opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said: “When it comes to community safety and national security, this government has no clue.”

 

Giles’ admission is the latest embarrassment for the minister, who has vowed to fix a major deportation upset caused by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s interpretation of his ministerial direction 99, and overturned a series of visa cancellations for people convicted of serious crimes.

 

Following extensive lobbying from New Zealand, the policy directed a person’s ties to Australia to be a primary consideration, alongside the nature of the crime, in deciding whether someone should be deported. However, the government has now pledged to make community safety the biggest factor.

 

Giles said he had now cancelled 30 visas of people with serious criminal histories after their status had been reinstated by the tribunal.

 

“It is clear that the AAT’s decision to reinstate these visas did not meet community expectations, and ministerial direction 99 has not been working as the government intended,” Giles said. “The government is on track to overhaul this regime and put in place a new direction before the end of the week.”

 

The tribunal has also cited earlier rules, including direction 90 under the previous Coalition government, to overturn similar decisions by the Department of Home Affairs to cancel visas and seek to deport criminals.

 

In a tit-for-tat over both major political parties’ stance on immigration, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also accused the Coalition of releasing 1300 “hardcore criminals” from detention during its time in office.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/minister-admits-there-are-no-detainee-drones-20240603-p5jiuz.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 2:56 a.m. No.20959166   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9172

>>20895013

>>20895037

>>20932075

‘You are collaborating’: Wong attacks Greens over violent Gaza protests

 

Matthew Knott - June 3, 2024

 

1/2

 

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has accused Greens politicians of collaborating with violent pro-Palestine protesters and inciting attacks on Labor MPs’ offices that have led to public servants being injured, a claim rejected by the Greens as a false smear.

 

In fiery scenes at Senate estimates on Monday, Wong also accused Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of acting recklessly and undermining Australia’s efforts to convince China to abide by international law by calling for Australia to consider withdrawing from the International Criminal Court.

 

Wong later revealed the government would ban Israeli settlers regarded as extremist from receiving visas to travel to Australia, responding to a call first made by Labor MP Julian Hill in January.

 

Asked during the hearings about restrictions on extremist settlers travelling to Australia, Wong said: “We will deny anyone identified as an extremist settler a visa to travel to Australia, which is in line with the approaches taken by like-minded countries.”

 

The United States and United Kingdom last year imposed visa restrictions targeting individuals believed to be involved in undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank, including extremist settlers.

 

Questioned by Greens senator Jordon Steele-John earlier about whether the government had applied double standards by not imposing sanctions on Israel over its conduct in the war in Gaza, Wong said: “It is double standards to engage in violent and aggressive protests and incite them and think that you’re doing something about peace.

 

“On social media, we have posts which target people personally, we have posts which are threatening and violent, and you are collaborating with them.

 

“That is not leadership. So if you think you are for the cause of peace, maybe you should start practising it in this country.”

 

Wong said Greens MPs had spoken at rallies that led to Labor MPs’ offices being invaded and electorate staff being injured, as well as the storming of Labor’s Victorian state party conference in May.

 

Steele-John responded by saying Wong’s comments were inappropriate, adding: “This is beneath you.”

 

A spokesperson for the Greens said: “Senator Wong’s statements today are not correct.

 

“The protest at an MP’s event Senator Wong refers to was not addressed by a Greens MP; a former Greens candidate spoke.”

 

Government sources, who asked not to be named to speak freely, said the protest where an electorate officer was injured occurred at the Melbourne office of Labor MP Ged Kearney and involved a former Greens candidate who had not been elected to parliament.

 

The Greens spokesperson said: “The Greens support peaceful protest. As long as Labor fails to take action against the state of Israel to stop the invasion of Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, including sanctions, the community will continue to be concerned.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 2:58 a.m. No.20959172   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20959166

 

2/2

 

Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party rejected any violence last week, and that protesting should not lead to breakage or property damage.

 

The electorate offices of senior Victorian MPs Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and NDIS Minister Bill Shorten were vandalised in a co-ordinated action that began about 4am on Friday, before planned protests throughout the day.

 

Wong also said it would damage Australia’s national interest to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, a move Dutton has said the government should consider after the court’s top prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegedly committing war crimes during the war in Gaza.

 

Wong told Senate estimates hearings in Canberra that Australia must be consistent in promoting a rules-based international order in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.

 

“We do nothing to help make it happen by recklessly threatening to pull out of the bodies that uphold international law,” she said.

 

“That kind of talk might sound tough, but it undermines Australia’s core security interests.

 

“For example, we cannot insist China abides by international legal decisions in the South China Sea but threaten to pull out of the International Criminal Court.

 

“We do nothing to shape the kind of region Australia needs by picking fights, blowing up relationships, or beating the drums of war.”

 

Wong urged the Israeli government and listed terrorist group Hamas to agree to a ceasefire deal outlined by US President Joe Biden last week, saying the government supported its terms.

 

“The death and destruction is horrific,” Wong said of the situation in Gaza. “This human suffering is unacceptable.”

 

Biden last week said the first phase of the proposed deal would last for six weeks and would include a “full and complete ceasefire”, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

 

The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, with Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/you-are-collaborating-wong-attacks-greens-over-violent-gaza-protests-20240603-p5jis9.html

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wjL2Y9Y1mA

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 3:04 a.m. No.20959181   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20945301

The four reasons Bruce Lehrmann thinks his appeal should succeed

 

Michaela Whitbourn - June 3, 2024

 

Bruce Lehrmann has urged an appeal court to overturn a finding that he raped his then-colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, arguing that the evidence before the court did not support that conclusion.

 

In a notice of appeal, filed in the Federal Court on Friday, Lehrmann sets out four grounds of appeal against the landmark decision of Justice Michael Lee on April 15 to dismiss his defamation suit against Network Ten and high-profile presenter Lisa Wilkinson.

 

Lehrmann has asked the Full Court of the Federal Court to set aside Lee’s decision and enter judgment in his favour. The handwritten words “Bruce Lehrmann” appear next to a line on the appeal form asking who prepared the document.

 

It is not yet clear if a solicitor or barrister will act for him during any hearing.

 

‘Credibility problems’

 

The former federal Liberal staffer claims he was denied procedural fairness during his defamation case. He alleges Lee made findings in relation to Ten and Wilkinson’s successful truth defence that were not put to him when he gave evidence in the Federal Court last year.

 

The judge’s finding that the truth defence was established was “contrary to evidence” and did not meet the standard of proof, Lehrmann claims.

 

He alleges Higgins had “significant credibility problems” and the court should not have been satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, in light of a principle known as the Briginshaw standard that requires a court to proceed cautiously in making grave findings.

 

Lee said in his judgment that he had “considerable doubts about the authenticity” of a photo purportedly of a bruise on Higgins’ leg. The judge said he fell “well short of being satisfied” Lehrmann caused a bruise, and was not satisfied Higgins fell up a flight of stairs at a nightclub “so as to sustain the bruise”.

 

Lehrmann claimed that Ten and Wilkinson regarded this photo as “cornerstone ‘evidence’ ” and, following the judge’s finding about this photo and other evidence, it “was not open to the Judge to find the case he did”.

 

Hypothetical damages inadequate

 

Lehrmann also says Lee’s assessment that he would only have been entitled to $20,000 if he had won the defamation case was “wholly inadequate”.

 

Lehrmann launched defamation proceedings against Ten and Wilkinson last year over a February 2021 interview with Higgins, aired on The Project.

 

Defamatory meanings

 

He claimed the broadcast conveyed a series of defamatory meanings including that he raped Higgins in Parliament House, continued to rape her “after she woke up mid-rape and was crying and telling him to stop at least half a dozen times”, and “crushed his leg against her leg so forcefully as to cause a large bruise”. Lehrmann denied there was any sexual contact between the pair at all.

 

Lee found on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped Higgins, and was indifferent to whether she was consenting. The judge did not accept that it had been established that Higgins woke up mid-rape and was crying and telling Lehrmann to stop, or that he caused a large bruise on her leg.

 

But the judge found that the “defamatory sting” of each of the meanings was that Lehrmann raped Higgins, and the truth defence had been established by proving that assault.

 

Lehrmann has fashioned an appeal ground from that finding. He says that The Project broadcast suggested “a violent rape” and this was “contrary to the non-violent rape … which was ultimately found”.

 

Funds for appeal

 

It is not yet clear how Lehrmann, who is an unemployed law student, would fund an appeal.

 

War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith agreed last year to orders requiring him to pay almost $1 million as security to cover the legal costs of Nine newspapers in the event he loses his appeal against his own devastating defamation loss. Ten and Wilkinson may also seek security for costs from Lehrmann.

 

An appeal would not require witnesses, including Higgins and Wilkinson, to give evidence afresh.

 

If the appeal proceeds, either of Wilkinson or Ten may opt to challenge the judge’s finding that their fallback defence of qualified privilege would have failed if the truth defence had not been established.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-four-reasons-bruce-lehrmann-thinks-his-appeal-should-succeed-20240603-p5jisf.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 3:09 a.m. No.20959188   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9837

>>20890833

>>20921910

Corroding subs raise capability fears

 

BEN PACKHAM - MAY 31, 2024

 

Half of the nation’s Collins-class submarines are out of service amid unexpected corrosion problems with two of the ageing boats, prompting capability concerns and fresh questions over plans to extend the fleet’s life by a decade.

 

The commonwealth’s submarine maintenance corporation, ASC, revealed on Friday three of the navy’s six Collins boats were in maintenance – the first time that has occurred since 2012.

 

The opposition said the lack of availability was “a disastrous setback for Australia’s submarine capability”, and undermined trust in the government’s ability to ­deliver the AUKUS submarine program.

 

ASC managing director Stuart Whiley said HMAS Sheean – one of the youngest of the Collins boats – was out of the water at South Australia’s Osborne shipyard with corrosion in weapons and exhaust areas that had not previously been encountered.

 

One of the oldest Collins boats, HMAS Farncomb, was ­undergoing maintenance at Western Australia’s Henderson shipyards with “very different” corrosion issues, Mr Whiley said. A third submarine, HMAS Rankin, was tied up at Osborne ahead of a two-year “full cycle docking” maintenance period, he said.

 

Mr Whiley said the corrosion was in hard-to-reach places and repair works were yet to commence. “You have to basically remove all the corrosion. So you have to grind that, then replace the metal you have removed … by welding techniques,” he said, under questioning by opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham.

 

“Then you have to machine the weld to effectively get the tolerances to fit for the equipment that then goes on to it. And these are in fairly difficult, unique places to do.”

 

He said a testing process would have to be carried out after the repairs to ensure integrity.

 

HMAS Farncomb is not due to re-enter service until October, and HMAS Sheean will be out of the water until at least the end of the year.

 

The problems have emerged ahead of a high-risk program of upgrades to extend the life of each Collins boat for another 10 years to avoid a capability gap before the navy’s promised nuclear submarines arrive.

 

The minister responsible for ASC, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, said the corrosion issues had not been brought to her ­attention until they were raised publicly on Friday. “No, it hasn’t. But it would not normally be, I wouldn’t have thought. It would come through Defence,” she said.

 

Senator Birmingham said the problems being encountered with the submarines should have rung alarm bells across the government, but had instead been met with indifference. “The Albanese government is showing an appalling lack of ­urgency and disinterest in the availability of our critical defence assets,” he said.

 

“Astonishingly, the Labor’s minister responsible for ASC didn’t even know of these major gaps in our defence capability and said that she wouldn’t have ­expected to be told.”

 

The government has been warned in a classified report that the $5bn life-extending upgrades present major challenges and are not guaranteed to succeed.

 

The report by former US Navy deputy assistant secretary Gloria Valdez warned ASC lacked the design and engineering experience to undertake the “life of type extension” works, and recommended the boats’ original Swedish designer, SAAB Kockums, be given a larger role to ensure the project’s success.

 

The six Collins-class submarines were originally due to retire progressively from 2026. Under the new plan they are all due to undergo two-year refits, extending their lives until 2038 for the first boat and 2048 for the last.

 

Defence analyst Marcus Hellyer said the corrosion revelations showed the boats “aren’t going to make it”.

 

“I don’t think they’re going to make it out of the 2030s. And sometimes I wonder if they’re going to make it out of the 2020s,” he said.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/corroding-subs-raise-capability-fears/news-story/b1369d2845a2828f15a57052c5e39bee

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 3:17 a.m. No.20959202   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20950629

>>20950649

>>20955115

GT Voice: Australia’s ‘security anxiety’ toward China unwarranted

 

Global Times - Jun 02, 2024

 

Despite the challenges posed by so-called security issues in recent years, pragmatic cooperation has always been essential for the continued advance of China-Australia relations.

 

In a Bloomberg Television interview on Saturday, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said that Australia still has "security anxieties" in its relationship with China despite the warming trade ties between the two countries.

 

His remarks underscore the intricate considerations in Australia's relationship with China, which stem from the intertwined nature of trade collaboration and security concerns.

 

On the one hand, China is Australia's largest trading partner, and economic and trade cooperation is crucial to both sides. With the resumption of a series of official exchanges between China and Australia, efforts have been made in resolving some of the uncertainties affecting bilateral economic and trade issues, and promoting the improvement of economic and trade relations.

 

The interactions not only help enhance mutual understanding, but also help resolve some long-standing trade disputes. For instance, five more major Australian beef exporters have been granted permits to resume exports to China, according to media reports.

 

This is undoubtedly another positive development in China-Australia trade relations. Previously, China's Ministry of Commerce announced a decision to cancel anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs levied on Australian wine. Also, exports of Australian coal, barley and cotton to China gradually gained momentum last year.

 

On the other hand, it is undeniable that the security issue has always been the biggest negative factor testing China-Australia economic and trade relations. Australia often perceives China as a threat in terms of security, despite lacking concrete evidence or justification for this stance. This perception not only deepens mistrust between the two countries but also hinders economic cooperation. An example of this is the Australian government's decision to ban Huawei from participating in the development of 5G networks.

 

To a certain extent, Australia's vigilance may be attributed to the divergent political systems, values and ideologies of Australia and China. But more importantly, Australia's China policy is significantly influenced by its alliances, particularly with the US.

 

Washington's move to label China as a strategic competitor undoubtedly plays a crucial role in shaping Australia's approach to China.

 

It should be pointed out that the so-called "security anxieties" in Australia do not stem from the actual threat posed by China to Australia, but rather from the anxiety the US has created in its attempt to make Australia a strategic pawn in containing China.

 

Australia's security concerns in its economic exchanges with China have been generalized and politicized, far beyond normal national security concerns. This tendency of generalizing security, particularly creating tensions targeting China, is a significant barrier to the progress of China-Australia economic and trade cooperation.

 

Australia should understand that security issues should not be an obstacle to cooperation. On the contrary, increased collaboration can enhance mutual understanding and reduce misunderstanding and suspicion, creating more favorable conditions for resolving disagreements and trade disputes.

 

Australia needs to turn this anxiety into an impetus for pragmatic cooperation with China. There is vast potential for collaboration in various areas including the economy, science, technology and education. However, unlocking this potential requires not only political wisdom from both governments but also a more holistic and unbiased understanding of China-Australia relations from Australian politicians.

 

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202406/1313483.shtml

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 3:36 a.m. No.20959239   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9246

>>20859919 (pb)

>>20864771 (pb)

>>20864786 (pb)

AFP stopped allowing Chinese police to operate in Australia over foreign interference concerns, Senate hearing told

 

Echo Hui and Dylan Welch - 3 June 2024

 

1/2

 

The Australian Federal Police has told a parliamentary hearing it halted a years-long policy of allowing Chinese police to come and operate in Australia, following a 2019 incident exposed by the ABC's Four Corners program.

 

AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney told the hearing that the 2019 case was "a turning point", and that the policy was ended due to the agency's greater awareness of foreign interference threats.

 

"After this matter in June 2019, the one that's referred to in the Four Corners report, this is the last time we applied these processes and guidelines," Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

 

"2019-2020 was a pivotal moment in terms of our relationship," Deputy Commissioner McCartney later said, adding that the decision to stop the Chinese police visits was due to the growth of foreign interference.

 

"We made a conscious decision in executive that we weren't going to apply that guidance again," he said.

 

The AFP were questioned following revelations in a Four Corners episode last month that the federal police had allowed Chinese officers to come to Australia, and those officers then escorted a 59-year-old female Australian resident back to China.

 

The visit occurred under protocols and guidelines established by the AFP after a 2014 incident when Chinese police officers slipped into Australia unannounced in an attempt to convince a Melbourne bus driver to return to China.

 

The guidelines state that officers of China's national policing and security agency, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), could only come to Australia if the matter being investigated was serious, the suspect was not an Australian citizen, and they were willing to engage with MPS officers.

 

Four Corners reported the MPS officers breached agreed protocol during the 2019 visit that led the AFP to reassess their agreement with the MPS about police visits.

 

But under questioning from Liberal senator and Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson, Deputy Commissioner McCartney said that was not the case.

 

"It's been referred to in the Four Corners report, I'm not sure what protocols [were being referred to]," he said.

 

When pressed by Senator Paterson, Deputy Commissioner McCartney added: "Just to clarify, 2019 was pretty much as per the protocols. We made a conscious decision after that."

 

"So in your view the MPS did nothing wrong in that 2019 incident?" Senator Paterson asked.

 

"Correct," Deputy Commissioner McCartney replied.

 

Chinese police interviewed six people in Australia, AFP says

 

The senate committee, sitting late Friday, also heard the AFP allowed six Australian residents to be interviewed by Chinese police in Australia between 2015 and 2019.

 

The AFP said five out of the six Australian suspects returned to China voluntarily. One of the six refused to return to China and remained in Australia.

 

Three of the six have since returned to Australia and two remain in China. One of them served a prison sentence, Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

 

All six were interviewed in Australia under the operational guidelines developed by the federal police, he added.

 

The 2019 meeting - between MPS officers and a 59-year-old woman, known only as Ms Wang, occurred in an AFP office and under the supervision of federal police officers, Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

 

Deputy Commissioner McCartney said the AFP did not believe the woman was coerced into returning to China.

 

"If it was successful coercion, they won't tell you, would they?" Greens senator David Shoebridge asked. "This is a common pattern of this police agency to use coercion. Did you monitor their communications?"

 

"No," Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

 

When asked the 2019 woman's whereabouts, Deputy Commissioner McCartney said she had not been criminally pursued by the MPS and she remained in China today.

 

"She is in China dealing with it. She has not been prosecuted. There's no investigation in relation to her," Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

 

While China maintains the term "economic criminals" refers to corruption suspects, human rights groups have said it is also used to target enemies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

 

"What we consider to be economic crime and what the Chinese government considers to be economic crime might not always be the same thing — it might sometimes be used to go after political dissidents and other people of interest," Senator Paterson told senior AFP officers during the hearing.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 3, 2024, 3:38 a.m. No.20959246   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20959239

 

2/2

 

Cooperation with Chinese police necessary, AFP says

 

A recent report by human rights group Safeguard Defenders uncovered 16 cases of Beijing successfully returning Australian residents to China.

 

Four of the six cases referred by the AFP were not contained in the Safeguard Defenders report, meaning at least 20 Australian residents have been returned to China by MPS since 2015.

 

Senator Shoebridge asked why the AFP would work with MPS knowing its officers secretly entered Australia in 2014 to intimidate the Melbourne bus driver, named Dong Feng, to return to China to face trial.

 

"These arrangements have been put in place following on from you knowing the Chinese secret police had come here without seeking your permission, without cooperating with you, to extract Mr Dong Feng to China," Senator Shoebridge said.

 

Deputy Commissioner McCartney acknowledged the 2014 case had caused "great concern" in Australia, but he said the AFP needed to maintain a relationship with the Chinese police agency.

 

"I think we have the ability to do two things at the one time," he said.

 

"We understand on one side of our business there is the threat of foreign interference.

 

"On the other side of our business, there's a need for us to work with Chinese police."

 

Senator Shoebridge criticised the AFP for creating their own "unofficial extradition process" in the same period that the Australian government failed to get an extradition treaty through parliament.

 

"When the AFP had their arrangements in place between 2015 and 2019 to facilitate Chinese police investigations onshore for the purposes of returning their targets to China, did the AFP ever reflect on the fact that there was a reason the government had no extradition treaty?" Senator Shoebridge asked.

 

"That was the arrangements you had — your own unofficial extradition process."

 

AFP Deputy Commissioner Lisa Gale replied: "I disagree. These were Chinese citizens that expressed a desire to speak to MPS … It is up to them whether they want to return to China. This wasn't an extradition process."

 

Sydney spying network targeted multiple Australians, AFP says

 

The AFP has also confirmed a number of Australians were targeted by a spying network that was disrupted in Sydney last year.

 

"We did speak to a number of individuals … and we actually did disrupt the threat through the [anti-foreign interference] task force activity that we undertook," said AFP Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett.

 

Deputy Commissioner Barrett said the investigation was ongoing.

 

Four Corners revealed that one of the targets of the spy network was controversial Chinese dissident "Edwin" Yin Ke.

 

Mr Yin told Four Corners: "They (AFP) told me they disrupted an intelligence agency in Australia in an action. They acquired some information and materials that indicated the CCP was looking for me in Australia through the intelligence agency."

 

AFP renewed agreements with Chinese authorities

 

Other than the now-abandoned protocols governing Chinese police visits to Australia, the AFP has had numerous formal agreements with Chinese security agencies. Two are with MPS — one relates to organised crime while the other deals with "economic crime".

 

Despite examples of such agreements being misused, the AFP re-signed both agreements in March for a further five years.

 

The text of the agreements are not public, despite repeated calls for greater transparency from federal politicians and international NGOs who are concerned about MPS's actions around the world.

 

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw travelled to Beijing to renew the MPS agreements.

 

The Chinese official who oversees MPS, Wang Xiaohong, met with Mr Kershaw and urged the AFP to "comprehensively deepen practical cooperation in law enforcement" via China's Global Security Initiative, China's Xinhua state news agency reported.

 

The Global Security Initiative, created by Chinese President Xi Jinping, has been used to boost ties with African and Latin American nations through military training, intelligence sharing and counterterrorism partnerships.

 

"[Commissioner] Kershaw expressed the willingness to enhance practical communication and cooperation in law enforcement with the Chinese side," the Xinhua report said.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-03/afp-stopped-allowing-chinese-police-to-operate-in-australia/103925174

 

https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202403/20/content_WS65fa3193c6d0868f4e8e540f.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 3:37 a.m. No.20964535   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Foreign Minister Penny Wong demands end to suppression of freedoms in China on anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

 

On the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has denounced the tragic events as reports surface of Chinese dissidents being arrested for trying to recognise the historic day.

 

Oscar Godsell - June 4, 2024

 

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has commemorated the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and urged China to “cease suppression of freedoms”.

 

On June 4, 1989, after seven weeks of protests against corruption, inflation and authoritarianism, Tiananmen Square hosted one of the darkest days of China’s history.

 

The Chinese Communist Party declared martial law and deployed troops to the square, where hundreds, maybe thousands, of people were killed.

 

The number of students who died has not been confirmed but estimates have ranged from several hundred to more than 10,000.

 

Ms Wong observed the 35th anniversary of the “tragic events” on Tuesday and recalled “the use of brutal force against student protesters in Beijing”.

 

“We remember the tragic events and loss of life on 4 June 1989, along with the international community,” Ms Wong said.

 

“As we have consistently said, Australia remains concerned about ongoing restrictions on freedom of association, expression and political participation in China.

 

“We call on China to cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society and to release those detained for peacefully expressing their political views.”

 

Shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham also reflected on the tragedy as he called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to be tougher on Beijing.

 

“Thirty-five years ago in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, peaceful protests were ended by a shameful use of Chinese military force,” Mr Birmingham said.

 

“Australia remembers the tragic loss of life on 4 June 1989, and we continue to call upon Chinese authorities to accept responsibility.

 

“The Coalition remains deeply concerned about continuing and increasing constraints on freedom of association, expression and political participation in China.

 

“We call on the Albanese Government to uphold Australia’s position of making strong representations to the Chinese Government to cease suppression of freedoms and to release those detained for peacefully expressing their political views.”

 

In April 1989, tens of thousands of students began a peaceful protest in Beijing, which would spread to other cities and lead to the Pro-Democratic Movement of 1989.

 

Protesters, with support from a large part of the population, demanded greater transparency from the communist government while condemning corruption and inflation.

 

After weeks of growing protests and threats from the military, the People’s Liberation Army entered the streets of Beijing in tanks.

 

Soldiers fired their way into the square and tanks crushed people in the streets, according to some sources.

 

China’s dream of democracy evaporated on June 4 as the military cleared the square and hung the portrait of Chairman Mao on the Gate of Heavenly Peace.

 

The “Tank Man” or “Unknown Rebel” depicts a photograph of an unidentified individual who stood in front of a column of tanks in an attempt to block them from the square.

 

Beijing has since banned the image and all references to the Tiananmen Square incident in China or Hong Kong.

 

The government has also banned images or mentions of yellow rubber ducks after the toy became a replacement image to reference the event.

 

Human rights groups have reported several dissidents being arrested and put under surveillance in the weeks leading up to the Tiananmen Square anniversary on Tuesday.

 

The Freedom to Write index reported more than 100 people have been arrested because of published statements critical of the Chinese government in 2023.

 

Freedom House has declared China a “not free” country with a freedom score of nine out of 100 due to oppression “over all aspects of life and governance”.

 

“Following a multiyear crackdown on political dissent, independent nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and human rights defenders, China’s civil society has been largely decimated.”

 

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/foreign-minister-penny-wong-demands-end-to-suppression-of-freedoms-in-china-on-anniversary-of-tiananmen-square-massacre/news-story/30e5c8b63af2c30ab3b97a007b090697

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 3:47 a.m. No.20964564   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4568

‘Can’t get story straight’: Confusion over plan to allow foreigners to serve in ADF

 

Matthew Knott - June 4, 2024

 

1/2

 

The federal government has scrambled to clarify that only citizens from Five Eyes nations will initially be able to serve in the Australian Defence Force after the announcement of an overhaul of recruitment rules became mired in confusion.

 

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused the government of creating a “dog’s breakfast” with its announcement that foreigners would be allowed to enlist in the military to help address a dire personnel shortage, with ministers providing conflicting explanations about how the policy would work.

 

The government’s initial media release suggested that only permanent residents from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network – the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada – would be eligible to enlist.

 

Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh later said that permanent residents from “any other countries” living in Australia would be able to apply to join the ADF, prompting questions about whether permanent residents from autocracies such as China could be recruited.

 

Defence Minister Richard Marles subsequently told reporters that “the focus is on Five Eyes and the Pacific”, with Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy saying Pacific Islanders would be able to serve from next year.

 

A spokeswoman later said the government had an eye to the Pacific, but was looking to get the initial policy right before expanding beyond the five intelligence-sharing nations.

 

Marles said the announcement, which was welcomed by many military experts, “does represent a crossing of the Rubicon for Australia” given foreigners were previously barred from military service except in rare circumstances.

 

He said the ADF was currently about 4400 people short of its personnel target, a shortfall that is hampering its effort to increase the number of uniformed personnel by about 30 per cent by 2040.

 

The scheme to enlist permanent residents with foreign citizenship is expected to boost ADF numbers by 350 people a year.

 

“That is a relatively small number in terms of what we need to be doing going forward,” Marles said.

 

The Coalition’s approach also caused confusion, with opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie withholding support for the policy even though he previously urged the government to consider allowing foreigners to serve in the ADF.

 

Under the government’s plan, New Zealand permanent residents living in Australia will be able to apply to join the military from next month. From the start of next year, permanent residents from Canada, the US and UK will be included in the scheme.

 

Hastie, a former special forces soldier, said that “Labor can’t keep their story straight” and accused the government of being “ham-fisted” on an issue of vital national importance.

 

“We want clarity,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve cleaned this up for something as important and huge.”

 

Accusing the government of giving up on recruiting Australians to the military, Hastie said: “There’s a lot of questions that need answering before we support this.”

 

Hastie told this masthead last year that “with immigration about to increase, we should consider opening service in the ADF as an accelerated pathway to citizenship”.

 

“If someone is willing to fight and die for our country we should take them over a $5 million golden visa any day of the week,” he said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 3:48 a.m. No.20964568   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20964564

 

2/2

 

As well as meeting ADF entry standards and security requirements, permanent residents wishing to join the ADF will be required to have lived in Australia for at least a year immediately before applying and to have not served in a foreign military in the previous two years.

 

Once foreign nationals have served for 90 days, they will be expected to apply for Australian citizenship.

 

The government previously introduced a $50,000 retention bonus, dropped the ADF’s one-size-fits-all fitness test – which requires recruits to be able to complete dozens of sit-ups, push-ups and sprints in a set time – and made it easier for people with medical conditions to serve in the military as a way to boost personnel numbers.

 

New Zealand Defence Minister Judith Collins said she was not concerned about the proposal depleting her nation’s defence force, because of the eligibility criteria.

 

“Australia is New Zealand’s only ally, and we continue to have a very close relationship,” she said.

 

The New Zealand government expressed its anger last week at the Albanese government’s plan to change an immigration rule known as direction 99 to make it easier to deport criminal non-citizens.

 

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Justin Bassi welcomed the initiative as “very positive” and a “sensible idea”.

 

Asked about possible security concerns, he said: “I think a baby-steps approach involving New Zealand and then branching out in terms of the Five Eyes and the Pacific is the way to go.”

 

Friendly countries should be “white-listed” for acceptance, instead of problematic countries being blacklisted, he said.

 

Retired major general Fergus McLachlan said the policy was a “good start, but lots more to do” to address the ADF’s recruitment issues.

 

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said in April that he would be delighted for his citizens to serve under the Australian flag.

 

“As soon as you change the laws, we will be ready,” he said. “You will find our soldiers will be very loyal.”

 

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/can-t-get-story-straight-confusion-over-plan-to-allow-foreigners-to-serve-in-adf-20240604-p5jj5j.html

 

https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/news/2024-06-04/adf-opens-its-ranks-non-citizens

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 3:53 a.m. No.20964579   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20912444

Third Victorian poultry farm declares outbreak of avian influenza, source under investigation

 

Fiona Broom and Emma Field - 4 June 2024

 

A third poultry farm has declared an outbreak of avian influenza in Victoria.

 

Farm Pride Foods announced this morning the viral strain detected at its Lethbridge aviary site was "the same strain found on the egg farm at Meredith" about 10 days ago.

 

Those farms are about 10 minutes' apart by road in the Golden Plains Shire in central Victoria.

 

A different strain of avian influenza - H7N9 - was discovered at a farm at Terang on May 24.

 

Farm Pride Foods said it had been collaborating with Agriculture Victoria to conduct hen health assessments.

 

Tests on June 1 showed hens kept in sheds were free of bird flu.

 

But tests carried out on Sunday, June 2 showed free-range hens had the H7N3 strain, with the results received on Monday.

 

Second outbreak for producer

 

Farm Pride Foods said in a statement there were 80,000 free-range hens at the Lethbridge Aviary site, which is about 8 per cent of the company's total production capacity.

 

The company has a further 40,000 birds in the Lethbridge area, which are also subject to monitoring and testing.

 

This is the second bird flu outbreak for the egg producer in four years.

 

In 2020, Farm Pride Foods faced two avian influenza outbreaks on its Lethbridge properties.

 

Those outbreaks led to the culling of 380,000 egg-laying caged, barn and free range hens – 33 per cent of the company's stock.

 

Poultry owners to keep bird in cages in restricted area

 

Agriculture Victoria has confirmed it is responding to the detection of avian influenza at three Victorian poultry farms.

 

"This new infected property is located within the current 5-kilometre restricted area in the Golden Plains Shire," Agriculture Victoria said.

 

"Tests have now confirmed the high pathogenicity H7N3 strain of the avian influenza virus at the property.

 

"This property has been placed in quarantine and all poultry will be safely disposed of. The sites will be cleaned and cleared of the infection."

 

The H7N3 strain of bird flu has previously been detected in wild birds.

 

Disposal options being considered

 

The new farm outbreak is no surprise, Agriculture Victoria deputy chief vet Cameron Bell told the Victorian Country Hour on ABC Radio.

 

"It's clearly as a result of the ongoing and intensive surveillance activities that we're undertaking within the restricted and control area," Dr Bell said.

 

Authorities are examining disposal options for hens at the centre of this latest bird flu outbreak.

 

"At this stage, no activities have commenced but we'll be determining the most feasible options in collaboration with the owners," Dr Bell said.

 

About a quarter of the state's eggs are produced in the Golden Plains region where the avian influenza-hit farms are located.

 

"Having a concentration of poultry enterprises there does mean that owners need to be on the lookout and report any unexplained deaths to Agriculture Victoria," Dr Bell said.

 

Movement controls that include a housing requirement for all birds within the restricted areas and control areas are now in place in Meredith and Terang.

 

Under the housing requirement, all poultry farmers and backyard flock and bird owners must house or keep their birds enclosed in cages or sheds as much as practical.

 

Agriculture Victoria says staff are on the ground supporting the businesses and working with industry to contain and eradicate the virus.

 

Contact tracing is also underway to determine the source and spread of the infection.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2024-06-04/third-victorian-poultry-farm-declares-outbreak-avian-influenza/103932694

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 4:09 a.m. No.20964628   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4719

>>20895255

>>20945186

>>20945225

Malcolm Turnbull urges world leaders to follow his example: stand up to Donald Trump

 

ADAM CREIGHTON - JUNE 4, 2024

 

Malcolm Turnbull has blasted Donald Trump as a ‘volatile, narcissistic gaslighter’, urging world leaders to follow his own example and stand up to Mr Trump should he return to the White House next year.

 

Mr Turnbull, whose term as prime minister overlapped with Mr Trump’s presidency until 2018, wrote in the prestigious journal Foreign Affairs that “character, courage and candour may be the most important aid [foreign leaders] can render to the United States in a second age of Trump”.

 

“There has never been such an effective and relentless gaslighter,” Mr Turnbull wrote, referring to the former Republican president, who remains the favourite to win against Joe Biden in November despite his conviction for election interference in New York last week.

 

“A powerful narcissistic self-belief has given him the strength to defy not just his many enemies but even reality itself,” Mr Turnbull wrote in an article published on 31st May entitled How the World Can Deal With Trump – Advice for Leaders Facing the Potential Return of ‘America First’.

 

Mr Turnbull recounted his famous phone call with a newly elected Mr Trump in early 2017, where the prime minister sought to obtain assurances the new Trump administration would honour a deal to struck the former president Barack Obama to take some of Australia’s undocumented arrivals.

 

“On the call, I told Trump that Australia expected the United States to stick to its word. Trump was furious, raging that the deal was a terrible one, that it would kill him politically, that Obama had been a fool to do it,” Mr Turnbull wrote.

 

“It was daunting to be yelled at by the president of the United States, but I stood my ground. By the end of the call, Trump had, with great reluctance, agreed to go along with it”.

 

A few months later the two leaders met in person and were on good terms, joking with each other about the conversation and the deal, Mr Turnbull recounted.

 

“[Trump] may not like strength and directness from other leaders, but after his rage subsides, he respects them for it,” Mr Turnbull wrote.

 

Mr Turnbull also said he persuaded Mr Trump to back down from a promise to impose tariffs on Australian steel imports, which would have contravened the Australia-US free trade deal struck by the Howard government with former president George W Bush.

 

“I wrote a pithy letter to Trump summarising our arguments, which Matt Pottinger, one of his key national security advisers, helpfully read to him. He listened and he changed his mind,” Mr Turnbull wrote.

 

The former prime minster predicated a second Trump administration would be more “volatile and alarming” than the first.

 

“He will return to office perhaps no wiser but certainly more experienced and more convinced than ever of his own exceptional genius…. his instinct to crush critics and stack the executive branch with yes men will likely get even stronger.”

 

In his essay Mr Turnbull also suggested Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders had been wrong in their expectation that Mr Trump would govern more conventionally as president than his 2016 campaign rhetoric had suggested.

 

“President Xi told me at the APEC summit that he was relaxed about the new US president. Xi thought Trump’s campaign rhetoric would have no bearing on how he would govern, and most significantly, the Chinese president believed the US system would not allow Trump to act in a way that undermined the American national interest”.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/malcolm-turnbull-urges-world-leaders-to-follow-his-example-stand-up-to-donald-trump/news-story/08c4ecd26d0ed104134620cf5a60d5f2

 

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827002559122567168

 

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/972242845636669440

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 4:43 a.m. No.20964719   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4725

>>20964628

How the World Can Deal With Trump

 

Advice for Leaders Facing the Potential Return of “America First”

 

Malcolm Turnbull - May 31, 2024

 

1/4

 

In this year of major elections around the world, none is more consequential than that in the United States on the first Tuesday in November. Polling suggests Donald Trump will enter the White House again in January 2025. If he does, he will return to office perhaps no wiser but certainly more experienced and more convinced than ever of his own exceptional genius. More ominously, he will be determined to rectify in his second term what he insists was the major failing of his first: that both his own advisers and Washington officialdom got in his way.

 

Like most people, Trump is often wrong. Unlike most people, however, he is never in doubt. A powerful narcissistic self-belief has given him the strength to defy not just his many enemies but even reality itself. For four years, he has denied the outcome of the 2020 election and persuaded most of his party, and millions of Americans, to agree with him. There has never been such an effective and relentless gaslighter.

 

As president, he sought to surround himself with people who told him what he wanted to hear. When they stopped doing so, they were quickly sent packing. If Trump returns to the Oval Office, his instinct to crush critics and stack the executive branch with yes men will likely get even stronger. He will characterize his domestic critics as political opponents if they are Democrats and as traitors if they are Republicans. Trump will feel as invincible in his triumph as a Roman emperor, but he won’t have a slave by his side whispering, “Remember, you are mortal.”

 

Other leaders, especially those of countries that are close U.S. allies, have an opportunity and a responsibility to speak to Trump with a blunt but respectful candor that few of his advisers will be able to offer him. My own experience with Trump, when I was prime minister of Australia, is that he may not like strength and directness from other leaders, but after his rage subsides, he respects them for it. Around the world, leaders are once again fretting about how they can flatter Trump and avoid his wrath. But that pliant approach is not just the wrong strategy; it is the last thing the United States needs.

 

A NEW NORMAL

 

After Trump became president in 2017, most leaders around the world found themselves laboring under two incorrect assumptions. The first was that Trump’s wild rhetoric on the campaign trail would be abandoned there. The office and its responsibilities, some leaders believed, would constrain him. In November 2016, a few weeks after Trump’s surprising victory, the leaders of many of the world’s largest economies met in Lima at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. It was Barack Obama’s last summit as U.S. president, but it was Trump who overshadowed the whole APEC conference. By way of reassurance, many quoted former New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s remark: “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” The line was repeated so often that a frustrated President Michelle Bachelet of Chile observed wryly that she had not seen many signs of poetry in the campaign that had just ended.

 

Many leaders expected that Trump would become more typically “presidential” once he entered the White House. That was certainly the view held by Chinese President Xi Jinping. He told me at the APEC summit that he was relaxed about the new U.S. president. Xi thought Trump’s campaign rhetoric would have no bearing on how he would govern, and most significantly, the Chinese president believed the U.S. system would not allow Trump to act in a way that undermined the American national interest.

 

And that was generally the consensus view: the institutions of government would keep Trump grounded in a conventional, administrative reality. His colorful campaign would be followed by business, more or less, as usual.

 

Trump in office was, if anything, wilder and more erratic than he had been on the campaign trail. Four extraordinary years finished with him encouraging a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol in a brazen attempt to overthrow the constitutional transfer of power to the new president. If Trump returns to the White House in 2025, only the willfully deluded could imagine that a second Trump administration would be less volatile and alarming than the first.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 4:44 a.m. No.20964725   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4730

>>20964719

 

2/4

 

DON’T GIVE IN

 

The second misapprehension world leaders held was that the right way to deal with Trump was how Benjamin Disraeli, the nineteenth-century British prime minister, advised people to deal with royalty: to use flattery and “lay it on with a trowel.” Of course, men like Trump invite sycophancy. They use their power and caprice to encourage others to tell them what they want to hear. But this is precisely the wrong way to deal with Trump, or any other bully. Whether in the Oval Office or on the playground, giving in to bullies encourages more bullying. The only way to win the respect of people such as Trump is to stand up to them.

 

But that defiance brings with it great risks. Almost all world leaders hope to have a good, or at least cordial, relationship with the United States. And they know that if they have a falling out with the U.S. president, there is no guarantee that their own people, let alone their own media, would take their side. This is particularly so in countries where a right-wing, so-called conservative media generally support Trump and his style of politics. Trump’s biggest echo chamber in the United States is the Fox News network, owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also controls extensive media assets in Australia and the United Kingdom.

 

When Trump became president, I had been prime minister of Australia for nearly 18 months. I had never done business with him but knew a lot of people who had, and more important, I had dealt with many men like Trump—including big, dominating billionaires and media barons such as Conrad Black, Jimmy Goldsmith, Bob Maxwell, Murdoch, and Kerry Packer. So when my collision with Trump came, I was shaken but not surprised.

 

In 2016, I had reached an agreement with Obama that a number of asylum seekers who had sought to enter Australia irregularly by boat could be settled in the United States, subject to the usual security vetting. Australia had learned over the years that the only way to stop human smuggling was to ensure that nobody who came unlawfully by boat could settle in our country. This policy had been strictly applied under Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, who held the office from 1996 to 2007, but was modified under his Labor successors Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. The result was a dramatic increase in human smuggling. When Rudd returned as prime minister for a few months, in late 2013, he tried to reinstate the Howard-era policies, and as a consequence, several thousand asylum seekers were intercepted and detained in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

 

The Liberals returned to government in October 2013 under Tony Abbott, whom I replaced as prime minister in September 2015. Our governments and all those that succeeded us have followed a strict zero-tolerance approach to human smuggling. And it has worked. But there were still the asylum seekers who had been diverted to Papua New Guinea and Nauru. If they were brought to Australia, I feared, the flow of boats would start up again. So the deal with Obama was a practical and humane solution. In return, Australia had agreed to accept some very difficult immigration cases for the United States.

 

From the moment Trump was elected, my government sought assurances that the deal would be honored, and we had every indication it would be. But then, just before a scheduled call with the president a few days after his inauguration, Vice President Mike Pence called Julie Bishop, Australia’s foreign minister, and Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, called his counterpart in my office, Justin Bassi, to say that under no circumstances should I raise this issue on the call because Trump would not honor the agreement we had entered into with his predecessor.

 

I did raise the issue. On the call, I told Trump that Australia expected the United States to stick to its word. Trump was furious, raging that the deal was a terrible one, that it would kill him politically, that Obama had been a fool to do it. It was daunting to be yelled at by the president of the United States, but I stood my ground. By the end of the call, Trump had, with great reluctance, agreed to go along with it. He ended by telling me it was the most unpleasant call he had had that day. A call to Putin, on the other hand, had been pleasant by comparison, he said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 4:46 a.m. No.20964730   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4739

>>20964725

 

3/4

 

Trump made it clear that he was proceeding with the deal unhappily. But he also accepted, as I had suggested, that he could honor the deal his predecessor had made without endorsing it as a good one. Details of the call were leaked in Washington, eventually with a transcript, all designed to show that Trump went along with the deal with reluctance.

 

There was enormous anxiety in Canberra about how this would play out. Would he actually honor the deal? As it turned out, he did. Would this row adversely affect other aspects of the relationship? And most important, would Trump bear a grudge?

 

We met again in May 2017, only four months later, and by this time, he was joking with me and our wives about the refugee deal, complaining that he had agreed to it but in the way he might have about paying too much for a building. I was “a tough negotiator,” he told his wife, Melania Trump. “Just like you, Donald,” she replied.

 

A combination of character and circumstance allowed the relationship between Trump and me, as leaders, to get off on the right foot. By standing my ground, arguing my case, and not backing down, I had not only persuaded him to stick to the deal I had made with Obama but also won his respect.

 

MAKE THE CASE

 

Most presidents and prime ministers delegate considerable authority, formally and informally, to their advisers and officials. Meetings with foreign leaders are negotiated well in advance by ambassadors and officials. The outcome of the meeting is as scripted as the talking points.

 

The Trump White House did not work like that. Trump was the only decision-maker. Staff could advise him however they pleased, but most didn’t last long anyway. The only word that mattered was Trump’s, and he did not like being scripted—in any event, he rarely read from the script. He was the dealmaker, so he wanted to do the deal, on the spot, in the room.

 

In my experience with Trump, this meant that ambassadors and foreign ministers, no matter how capable, could offer much less assistance or influence. The key relationship lay between Trump and the foreign leader.

 

This practice poses both a challenge and an opportunity for foreign leaders trying to gain traction in the White House. It means that their ambassadors are less influential. On the other hand, if it is possible to persuade Trump that it is in his interest to change course, he will. But to do that, a foreign leader has to win Trump’s respect and make a strong case.

 

I observed such a scenario when I handled another difficult issue that threatened ties between Canberra and Washington during Trump’s first term: trade. In March 2018, Trump announced he was going to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports of 25 percent and ten percent, respectively. Not only was Trump keen on these tariffs, but so were some of his key advisers, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

 

Trump’s views on trade were simplistic. But they were strongly held. He viewed a trade deficit as evidence that the United States was losing and a trade surplus as a sign it was winning. He gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a hard time on the U.S. trade deficit with Japan, as he did other allied leaders, but his greatest anxiety was the huge trade deficit with China.

 

I had two arguments for Trump on tariffs, and he listened to both, despite resistance from his key trade officials. First, Australia exported a modest quantity of steel to the West Coast of the United States only because the cost of shipping steel, almost all for roofing, across the Pacific was less than half the cost of shipping it to California from steel makers in the Midwest and on the East Coast. A 25 percent tariff on Australian steel would not make U.S. steel more competitive on the West Coast; it would simply raise the price of steel roofs. We went through the numbers several times. He knew the building industry, and he knew the product, and he listened more attentively than usual.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 4, 2024, 4:49 a.m. No.20964739   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20964730

 

4/4

 

Second, I said that if Trump’s argument for tariffs was to correct trade terms with other countries that were not fair and reciprocal, why should he impose any tariff on Australian exports? Australia and the United States had maintained a free trade agreement for years. The United States also enjoyed a large trade surplus with Australia. “No tariffs and no quotas,” I said to him. “In fact, it cannot get any better. And a massive $25 billion surplus in your favor. Truth be told, you have the best possible trade deal ever with Australia.”

 

If the United States imposed tariffs or an import quota on Australia, with whom it had the best possible trade deal, it would be seen as doing so simply because it could. “People will be able to say,” I told Trump, that “‘the Aussies give you the best possible deal and they still get a quota. So this is not about fair and reciprocal trade at all.’”

 

We had several direct discussions on the tariff question, both in person and on the phone. I wrote a pithy letter to Trump summarizing our arguments, which Matt Pottinger, one of his key national security advisers, helpfully read to him. He listened and he changed his mind because he was persuaded that it was in his interest to do so.

 

SPEAKING TRUTH TO TRUMP

 

The caricature of Trump as a one-dimensional, irrational monster is so entrenched that many forget that he can be, when it suits him, intelligently transactional. Like most bullies, he will bend others to his will when he can, and when he cannot, he will try to make a deal. But to get to the deal-making stage, Trump’s counterparts have to stand up to the bullying first.

 

Foreign leaders who need to get business done with Trump should be able to do so, but they will need to deal with him directly and persuade him why their proposal is a good deal for him. Leave the sentimental stuff about alliances and friendship for the press conferences. Trump’s question is always, “What’s in it for me?” His calculus is both political and commercial, but it is very focused. That should be no surprise—“America first” is his explicit slogan.

 

A Trump returned to the White House, convinced of his own genius, and with the evidence of an election win to prove it, will be surrounded by more yes men and sycophants than ever. In that environment, who will be prepared to tell him what he doesn’t want to hear?

 

The leaders of the countries that are the United States’ friends and allies will be among the very few who can speak truthfully to Trump. He can shout at them, embarrass them, even threaten them. But he cannot fire them. Their character, courage, and candor may be the most important aid they can render to the United States in a second age of Trump.

 

MALCOLM TURNBULL was Prime Minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018.

 

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/how-world-can-deal-trump

 

https://archive.vn/wkhwL

 

https://qanon.pub/#479

 

https://qanon.pub/#908

 

https://qanon.pub/#910

 

https://qanon.pub/#819

 

>Which conversation leaked?

>POTUS & AUS?

>Why that specific conversation?

>Signal?

>We (they) hear what you are saying?

>Threat to AUS?

>Why?

>What do they know?

>Trapped?

>Forced?

>Blood.

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 3:20 a.m. No.20969698   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9704 >>3445 >>3059

>>20895013

>>20895037

>>20932075

Fury on the floor: Dutton and Albanese clash with Greens over Gaza protests

 

David Crowe - June 5, 2024

 

1/2

 

Labor and the Coalition have berated the Greens for lending support to pro-Palestinian activists who have targeted federal MPs and vandalised electoral offices, sparking a fierce debate in parliament over domestic protests and the war in the Middle East.

 

Greens leader Adam Bandt accused the government of being complicit in the Israeli invasion of Gaza after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton blamed the Greens for encouraging the protests.

 

Stung by the criticism from the two leaders, Bandt sought to condemn the government for shipping arms to Israel but was shut down after Labor MPs branded him a “fraud” and a “liar” who was spreading misinformation.

 

The final vote left the Greens isolated in parliament when Labor, the Coalition and crossbenchers including Kate Chaney, Zoe Daniel, Rebekha Sharkie, Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall and Kylea Tink voted in favour of adjourning the debate.

 

Labor MPs are increasingly angry about pro-Palestinian protests that have vandalised the electorate offices of caucus members including Peter Khalil, Ged Kearney, Lisa Chester and Daniel Mulino as well as ministers including Government Services Minister Bill Shorten, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

 

With tempers flaring during an hour of argument on Wednesday, Speaker Milton Dick ordered Dreyfus to leave the House of Representatives for heckling Bandt, while the Greens leader received several warnings for yelling over others.

 

Albanese responded to a question from independent MP Sophie Scamps about the need for social cohesion during the war in the Middle East, saying the parliament condemned the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israelis on October 7 and that the government had backed calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

 

“Right now, our communities are distressed. People, especially with relatives either in Israel or the occupied territories, are distressed,” he said.

 

“We have a responsibility to not add to that distress through misinformation. It is unacceptable that misinformation is being consciously and deliberately spread by some Greens senators and MPs who have engaged in this at demonstrations outside offices and online.

 

“That includes knowingly misrepresenting motions that are moved in this parliament.”

 

At issue is the way the Greens have portrayed a vote in the House that denied them time to put a motion calling for Palestinian statehood. Some Greens said this was a vote by the parliament to reject a Palestinian state. Labor MPs were incensed at this because they regarded the vote as a procedural matter, not a decision by the parliament on statehood.

 

Labor and the Coalition support a two-state solution including statehood for Palestinians on a settlement with Israel, although Foreign Minister Penny Wong has raised the prospects of other paths to recognition.

 

Albanese said the Greens should not make any remarks that encouraged protests that shut down electorate offices, saying they were anti-democratic because they stopped the work of elected MPs and their staff.

 

“Enough is enough. The time for senators and members of parliament to continue to inflame tensions outside these offices must end,” he said.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 3:23 a.m. No.20969704   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20969698

 

2/2

 

Dutton spoke after Albanese to give bipartisan support for condemning acts of violence wherever they take place, adding that a Jewish school he visited recently in Sydney required armed guards to keep students safe.

 

“We are seeing now the offices of elected members of parliament being targeted with red paint, with vile messages of hate, and discrimination and antisemitism – and it should be condemned,” Dutton said.

 

When Bandt rose to respond, he criticised Albanese and Dutton but made no criticism of the protests outside electorate offices or the vandalism that had been spoken about.

 

“This House is united in condemning antisemitism and condemning Islamophobia, and we also condemn the invasion of Gaza,” Bandt said.

 

“I will not be lectured to about peace and non-violence by people who backed the invasion of Gaza.”

 

Bandt spoke again after question time to intensify his attacks on Labor, saying the party was complicit in the Israeli invasion of Gaza and complicit in genocide.

 

“The prime minister, backed up by the leader of the opposition, come in here and make wide-ranging sprays, attempting to connect peaceful protests of people who are seeking to make their views heard about Labor’s complicity with genocide,” he said.

 

Bandt tried to move a motion to condemn the government because Australian suppliers made parts for the F35 fighter aircraft, which was used by Israeli forces to bomb people in Gaza.

 

Health Minister Mark Butler moved that Bandt be no longer heard so the parliament could move onto its scheduled business, leading to 92 members from Labor and the Coalition voting in favour of this. The five votes against comprised the four Greens and crossbencher Helen Haines.

 

As the count progressed, Bandt again accused Labor of being complicit in the invasion and refusing to call for a ceasefire.

 

This infuriated Labor MPs, given that Wong called for “steps toward a ceasefire” on November 12 and had made several calls for a ceasefire since. Australia voted with 152 countries at the United Nations in favour of a ceasefire six months ago.

 

Employment Minister Tony Burke ended the debate by accusing the Greens of trying to “harvest votes” by misrepresenting the vote on statehood and misleading voters.

 

“I don’t see why misinformation coming from the left is somehow noble when misinformation coming from the right is so wrong,” Burke said.

 

“People in our electorates genuinely have a real fear of what is happening, and for them, it is not a political game.”

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/fury-on-the-floor-dutton-and-albanese-clash-with-greens-over-gaza-protests-20240605-p5jjj5.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 3:29 a.m. No.20969717   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9723 >>3586

>>20895013

>>20895037

Anthony Albanese locked out of Sydney electorate office by anti-war protests

 

DENNIS SHANAHAN and ROSIE LEWIS - JUNE 5, 2024

 

1/2

 

Anthony Albanese has been locked out of his Sydney electorate office this year because of pro-Palestinian protests, amid official security warnings that Islamist extremists are attending anti-­Israel demonstrations on university campuses and outside parliamentarians’ offices.

 

The Prime Minister’s Marrickville office has not been used since January because of fears for the safety of staff from continuous protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators and warnings from federal police.

 

Security around Mr Albanese, other MPs and in Parliament House has been tightened since late last year after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel in October and the conflict in Gaza sparked protests and vandalism at MPs’ offices and even in parliament.

 

Parliamentarians requested a security briefing from the AFP and ASIO as concerns rose about protests and security. The Australian understands there was formal advice Islamist extremists and political activists were appearing together at university campus protests around the nation, outside ministerial offices and at public demonstrations.

 

The official advice was that there could be co-ordination between extremists and political activists, and they were certainly appearing together at protests and demonstrations.

 

One aspect of the security concerns was the ability of the groups to organise flash protests when the Prime Minister was at a venue, even a private one.

 

Mr Albanese has raised the ­security concerns with Peter Dutton as late as Tuesday afternoon in parliament.

 

Tensions between Labor and the Greens over the war in Gaza also deepened on Tuesday after Mr Albanese denounced the “blockade” at electorate offices of Labor MPs, which he said was being supported by Greens senators and state Greens.

 

During a Labor caucus meeting in which three of his MPs expressed concerns about the protests and behaviour of the Greens, the Prime Minister declared “actions to intimidate have no place in a democracy”.

 

The Opposition Leader backed the Prime Minister’s concerns and told The Australian: “A violent protester who breaks the law by attacking a person of Jewish faith on a university campus or seeks to intimidate an MP should be dealt with by the police.

 

“The fact no one has been arrested for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to electorate offices just encourages the next criminal protester to trash another office. We celebrate peaceful protest but criminal behaviour by these anti-Semitic hate protesters should result in arrests and strong penalties.”

 

Mr Albanese noted it had been a difficult period for a number of Labor MPs and their staff whose electorate offices were targeted.

 

Referencing his own office in Marrickville, Sydney, Mr Albanese said the idea constituents would be blocked from getting help on social security or immigration matters was “appalling”.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 3:30 a.m. No.20969723   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20969717

 

2/2

 

But Greens leader Adam Bandt said Mr Albanese’s attack was a “shameful attempt” to distract from Labor’s “backing of the invasion of Gaza, their refusal to recognise Palestine and their refusal to take any meaningful action to prevent a genocide that has claimed over 34,000 lives”.

 

Greens sources said the protests mentioned by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Penny Wong had not been organised by the minor party.

 

“The Greens support peaceful protest, we will continue to do so, and we support the protest organisers’ calls for no property damage or breakage,” Mr Bandt said.

 

“Instead of admitting that his own electorate is disappointed and angry at Labor’s refusal to take action on a genocide, the Prime Minister is attacking people in the community who are calling for peace.

 

“People are opposing Labor’s support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s invasion because every day they see the impact of the attacks – children killed by bombs and gunfire, and civilians on the cusp of starvation.”

 

One Labor MP said in caucus on Tuesday that electorate staff had been assaulted, while another congratulated Senator Wong for calling out the behaviour of the Greens and said the Muslim leadership had been keen to distance itself from the “violent” protests.

 

A third Labor MP told colleagues they previously had to close their office over a Greens protest on a different issue, with extreme misinformation fuelling the anger.

 

The vandalism began in Parliament House last year with threats and slogans being written on lavatory walls in the public part of the building calling for MPs “to end the killing”.

 

Pro-Palestinian vandals have defaced the electorate offices of Mr Albanese, Richard Marles, Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen and Mark Dreyfus as well as backbenchers Ged Kearney and Peter Khalil, with most being in Melbourne.

 

Vandals also attacked the US Consulate General in St Kilda Road, where red paint was splashed on the front and the slogan “Free Gaza” was tagged on the front of the office.

 

Red paint was splashed across the front of the suburban offices of Mr Dreyfus and Mr Shorten by vandals who also wrote slogans accusing the government of being complicit in genocide in Gaza.

 

“Vandalism or acts of violence which aim to call out violence is counter-productive,” Mr Shorten said on Friday.

 

Senator Wong has urged Mr Bandt, who she said had been part of the protests, to condemn the ­violence seen at electorate offices, including smashed windows.

 

“If you speak to many workers who are being confronted with what they have seen over a long period of time, including the ­occupation of offices and the ­destruction of property, I think people have felt unsafe,” Senator Wong said.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/anthony-albanese-says-greensbacked-propalestine-blockade-at-electorate-offices-undemocratic/news-story/cf0ddd7442e945108e530d1a45c2a17f

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 3:51 a.m. No.20969809   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9815

>>20769978 (pb)

>>20793447 (pb)

Judge grants bail to alleged teen terrorist, branding case 'thin' in bruising ruling for AFP

 

Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop - 5 June 2024

 

1/2

 

A Supreme Court judge has granted bail to a Sydney teenager accused of terrorism and branded the case against him as "thin", in a bruising ruling for the Australian Federal Police.

 

The 15-year-old was among six boys arrested in sweeping police raids on an alleged Sydney terrorist network in April, after another teenager stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop in a church in Wakeley, in the city's west.

 

Four of those boys are accused of planning a terrorist attack in the wake of the stabbing, allegedly plotting to obtain guns and exchanging messages about their willingness to kill and die as so-called martyrs.

 

The 15-year-old was part of a chat group called "Plans", on the encrypted messaging app Signal, where they allegedly conspired to plan a terrorist act between April 18 and 24.

 

The boy, who cannot be identified because he is a juvenile, allegedly wrote: "I really want to target the yahood [Jewish people] … we will plan it".

 

In another message, he allegedly said: "I really wanna do an attack now … because I have so much hatred for these kuffar [nonbelievers] it's not funny and I wanna do jihad now."

 

But late yesterday afternoon, NSW Supreme Court Judge Deborah Sweeney questioned whether Crown prosecutors could prove the boy had agreed to plan for an act of terrorism or had done "any overt act in support of that agreement beyond talking".

 

"It's clear this young person expresses violent views," Justice Sweeney said.

 

"He talks in concerning ways, but … the [police] facts statement seems a bit thin. In my view, the Crown case does not appear strong."

 

Despite his "violent intentions", she said the public would be safer if he was released from youth detention, put under house arrest and treated for his "mental health and self-esteem issues".

 

"If those issues are treated, community safety will be enhanced, especially in what will be a long period of two years or so until his trial," Justice Sweeney said.

 

She said the need for psychological treatment was among the "exceptional circumstances" justifying bail, including his age, the long time to trial and the "lack of strength of the prosecution case".

 

Sitting in the public gallery, the boy's father burst into tears when the judge announced her decision, while the teenager watched the proceedings via video link from youth detention.

 

The 15-year-old's parents had watched silently as the court heard of their struggles to manage his behavioural issues since kindergarten.

 

His barrister, Avni Djemal SC, described him as "a troubled kid" with a disrupted education, who was "neglected a lot" as a young child when a sibling died in hospital from illness.

 

Justice Sweeney described them as "dedicated, concerned parents" who had done their best to provide him with an education despite "significantly disrupted schooling".

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 3:53 a.m. No.20969815   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20969809

 

2/2

 

Under stringent conditions, the teenager is banned from leaving home without his parents and from possessing or using mobile phones, smart devices, internet devices and encrypted communications.

 

The court heard police uncovered the Signal chat group in April after arresting the boy and another alleged terror plotter over an alleged attack on a bottle shop owner in Lurnea in south-west Sydney.

 

Crown prosecutors opposed bail, arguing community protection was at risk and saying his parents had struggled "to no avail" to manage the teenager's behaviour.

 

Prosecutor Rebekah Rodger said the boy's behavioural issues had continued in detention, where Youth Justice NSW officials reported he was fighting with other inmates.

 

The court heard Youth Justice NSW officials found no basis to the boy's claims that inmates had threatened to stab him.

 

The court also heard the teenager's terrorism risk was low, provided he was not in contact with others who could influence him and who he wanted to impress, according to a report by youth extremism expert Peta Lowe.

 

The 15-year-old at the beginning of May made an unsuccessful bid for bail in Parramatta Children's Court. His three alleged co-conspirators remain behind bars.

 

They were arrested as part of Operation Mingary, an investigation into an alleged Sydney terrorist network by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, which includes the AFP, NSW Police, ASIO, and the NSW Crime Commission.

 

Another two boys, aged 14 and 16, were charged with possessing extremist material, including Islamic State videos of beheadings. Those boys have both been granted conditional bail.

 

Under the Commonwealth Crimes Act, the judge was required to consider the protection of the community as "paramount", while treating the best interests of the juvenile as a "primary" consideration, in determining bail.

 

The 15-year-old's legal team argued community safety would be improved if the boy could receive an "intense regime of treatment" while under house arrest.

 

Sydney solicitor Ahmed Dib, who is representing the teenager, declined to comment.

 

The court heard the investigation is continuing.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-05/sydney-alleged-teen-terrorist-granted-bail/103935126

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 3:59 a.m. No.20969837   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20890833

>>20959188

US torpedoes ‘unviable’ subs missile plan

 

BEN PACKHAM - JUNE 5, 2024

 

The Albanese government has abandoned plans to arm the navy’s ageing Collins-class submarines with Tomahawk missiles, scuttling hopes the 1990s boats could be transformed into potent long-range strike platforms.

 

The move follows a feasibility study and advice from the US on launching the missiles through the Collins’ torpedo tubes that said ­integrating the weapons into the subs was “not viable and does not represent value for money”.

 

The decision comes as the government finalises the scope of life-extending upgrades to the Collins fleet from 2026, with one of the oldest boats – HMAS Farncomb – confirmed as being the first of the submarines to undergo the works.

 

Three of the subs – or half of the fleet – are out of service, with two, including the Farncomb, showing unexpected corrosion.

 

Australia has ordered 200 of the US-made Tomahawk missiles – which have a range of more than 1500km – to arm the nation’s Hobart-class air warfare destroyers. But the government has been unable to say when the $1.3bn missile purchase will be delivered, amid pressure on the US supply chains.

 

The Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines promised to Australia under the AUKUS partnership will be equipped with Tomahawks, but the first of them isn’t due until the early 2030s.

 

The government has also agreed to fit the navy’s future Hunter-class frigates with Tomahawks, subject to a technical study.

 

When Australia finally receives the weapons it will be one of just three countries, alongside the US and Britain, to operate them.

 

It is understood Defence was warned arming the Collins with Tomahawks would complicate their $5bn upgrades and undermine the boats’ ability to defend themselves by cutting the number of torpedoes they could carry.

 

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the Collins “life-of-type extension” works would get under way in Adelaide on schedule, ensuring the boats would continue to provide a deterrent until they were replaced by the nuclear-powered subs.

 

“The life-of-type extension program is a sensible approach that underscores the Albanese government’s unwavering commitment to keeping Australians safe by ensuring the ADF has the capabilities it needs to deter potential adversaries,” Mr Conroy said.

 

“The sustainment and upgrade work on the Collins-class submarines give industry the certainty it needs and will provide a further boost for Australians who will benefit from the creation of highly skilled and well-paid jobs.”

 

The government will face questions over the LOTE program in Defence estimates hearings on Wednesday, amid growing concerns over the condition of the boats and the high-risk nature of the upgrades. The submarine maintenance corporation, ASC, revealed last week that three of the navy’s six Collins boats were undergoing maintenance at the same time – the first time that had occurred since 2012.

 

ASC managing director Stuart Whiley said rust had been detected in areas on HMAS Farncomb and HMAS Sheean where it had not previously been found.

 

The government has been warned in a classified report that the LOTE plan presents major challenges and is not guaranteed to succeed.

 

The report by former US Navy deputy assistant secretary Gloria Valdez warned ASC lacked the design and engineering experience to undertake the works, and recommended the boats’ original Swedish designer, SAAB Kockums, be given a larger role to ensure the project’s success.

 

The six Collins-class boats were originally due to retire progressively from 2026, but will be needed for years to come to avoid a capability gap before Australia begins to operate nuclear submarines.

 

Defence analyst Marcus Hellyer said the latest corrosion revelations were bad news. “I don’t think (the subs) are going to make it out of the 2030s. And sometimes I wonder if they’re going to make it out of the 2020s,” he said.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/us-torpedoes-unviable-subs-missile-plan/news-story/9d43120b6ffa47e59aa259f7743a4da8

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 4:14 a.m. No.20969901   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9907

>>20921983

Operation Ironside: How biggest sting in history brought down world’s toughest criminals

 

ELLEN WHINNETT - JUNE 4, 2024

 

1/2

 

It was March 2020, the start of the Covid pandemic, and like half the planet, Australia’s most wanted gangster Hakan Ayik was coming to grips with meeting work colleagues online via Zoom.

 

The prolific drug smuggler was sitting in the cafe of the Kings Cross Hotel that he owns and runs in the Turkish city of Istanbul, talking about how to turbocharge his illicit business, flogging encrypted phones. The phones and their encrypted platform, known as AN0M, were proving popular with international drug cartels and money-laundering syndicates, and Ayik wanted to maximise profits.

 

Three other men were in the meeting, and one of them, identified only as Afgoo, had dialled in, and appeared on Ayik’s laptop. Afgoo was the global head of the AN0M business.

 

Ayik, who had fled Sydney more than a decade earlier and had managed to stay a step ahead of law-enforcement ever since, was new to Zoom. “It’s crystal clear,’’ Ayik commented to Afgoo and the two other men, adding: “Zoom is amazing, isn’t it.’’

 

What’s really amazing is that Ayik had no idea that every detail of the meeting was being monitored by police and the FBI. And he didn’t know Afgoo was the man who secretly sold the AN0M platform to law enforcement and was now operating as a confidential informant to the FBI.

 

The details are contained in a compelling new book by investigative tech journalist Joseph Cox, which is being released this week in the US. The book, Dark Wire, is being translated into several ­European languages, and is under development by Netflix as a film.

 

Dark Wire is the first book to delve into the extraordinary global sting carried out by the FBI and Australian Federal Police, in which 28 million messages exchanged by criminals on AN0M were intercepted and copied by the police, resulting in thousands of arrests worldwide.

 

It contains some eye-popping new details about the extraordinary sting of the century, including that Ayik knew Afgoo for several years before they embarked on the AN0M venture.

 

Afgoo – identified only by the handle or nickname he used on the AN0M platform – previously worked as a seller of encrypted phones for Canadian company Phantom Secure.

 

Cox describes him as the “tech expert’’ who Ayik first consulted about whether he too should put his trust into Phantom Secure.

 

While it had previously been revealed by police that Ayik was a key influencer and distributor of AN0M phones, and that a confidential source had sold AN0M to the FBI in return for $US180,000, it was not known that Ayik and Afgoo were old associates.

 

The revelation heaps further pressure on Ayik, who remains in a Turkish prison after being arrested in November when Turkish police rounded up 42 foreigners accused of criminality on Turkish soil, including Ayik’s Australian associates Erkan Dogan, Baris Tukel, Jimmy Awaijan, and Melbourne model-turned bikie boss Hasan Topal

 

Ayik, who renounced his Australian citizenship and is a Turkish citizen, is unlikely to be extradited to Australia or the US, where he is wanted on racketeering charges relating to AN0M. He faces local charges in Turkey.

 

Cox also reveals in his book that the collapse of two other encrypted phone companies popular with the criminal underworld, Encrochat and Sky, may not have been the coincidence law enforcement originally implied.

 

Encrochat was hacked by ­European police in 2020, and Sky in 2021, leading to police raids against those who had used the messaging platforms to organise drug deals and other criminal activity. The fall of the two platforms drove users onto AN0M – where the AFP and FBI were monitoring and collecting the messages sent across the globe.

 

“Initially when I started, I believed it was just a nice, happy accident,’’ Cox said of the downfall of Europe-based Encrochat and Canadian company Sky.

 

“But the more people I spoke to, including the European officials I spoke to, there’s a Dutch one in there, he explicitly phrases it as a master plan. And I think that’s one of the biggest revelations of the book.

 

“These operations weren’t conducted in silos, or as a vacuum. The Americans were talking to the Europeans about much of their plans. Not everything, it was bit by bit. Enough for people to understand, ‘OK, we’re going to hack Sky, you’re going to indict, and then the users were probably going to go to AN0M’.’’

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 4:15 a.m. No.20969907   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20969901

 

2/2

 

Cox, who runs his own company 404 Media, spent 10 years covering the encrypted phone industry through his previous role with Vice Media’s Motherboard. He has revealed that Lithuania was the third-party country that helped Australia and the US find a way to legally store the millions of messages and provide them to the FBI.

 

He said Lithuania agreed to store the messages on secure servers within its boundaries, and, under a mutual legal assistance treaty, sent them to the US on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the FBI to process.

 

Messages taken from AN0M devices within the US were stripped out of the message bundles as the FBI did not have approval for a domestic wire tap, and Lithuania was able to do what Australia wasn’t able to – provide the messages to a foreign agency.

 

The AFP played a key role in the AN0M sting – known locally as Operation Ironside – after working with the FBI on the 2018 take-down of Phantom Secure.

 

An Australian tech expert working for the AFP, known in Cox’s book as CIN325, developed a backdoor entry into the AN0M platform which allowed police to read and copy the messages as they were being sent.

 

Cox reveals how CIN325 met Afgoo in a hotel suite overseas, “geeking out’’ in a corner over the details of how to develop the backdoor into AN0M.

 

He goes into amusing detail about how the AFP and FBI worked 14-hour days developing AN0M, living on takeaway food and at one point, drinking two bottles of grocery store whiskey as they sat around the edge of the hot tub with their feet in the bath.

 

He also reveals how the FBI was intimately involved in the AN0M business, at one stage flying 1000 phones into locations on an FBI jet to ensure all criminals eager to get their hands on a phone were able to access one.

 

This immediate access was something Ayik had identified in the Zoom meeting in Istanbul in March 2020.

 

“It goes back to efficiency and getting the product out there,’’ he tells his criminal associates.

 

“Look at McDonald’s, they go and get the burgers out there. You’re not waiting. That’s why people go there.’’

 

Cox reveals that the assassination of a low-level criminal in Sweden named Sascha had been planned over AN0M, two weeks before Swedish police were given access to the AN0M messages.

 

Australian police had been deeply concerned about such a scenario playing out here but were able to act on any threats to life identified.

 

Cox reveals AN0M was shut down in June 2021 just as it risked collapsing under the weight of its own popularity and size.

 

Crooks, including Ayik, had got their hands on a black box that allowed the phones to be set up without needing to be programmed by Afgoo, meaning law enforcement started to lose control of who was registering as an AN0M user. A portal was also established which accelerated the sign-up rate of AN0M users.

 

With more than 12,000 devices active across the criminal underworld, law enforcement eventually pulled the pin in June 2021, resulting in thousands of ­arrests worldwide, including 392 arrests in Australia.

 

Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever, by Joseph Cox, published by Public Affairs.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/how-biggest-sting-in-history-brought-down-worlds-toughest-criminals/news-story/a65263e373de4e2d52a0e2ed6b8c978e

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 4:22 a.m. No.20969930   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9938 >>6380 >>8386

>>20751248 (pb)

>>20909090

eSafety drops case against Elon Musk's X over church stabbing videos

 

Jake Evans and Jordyn Butler - 5 June 2024

 

1/2

 

A legal battle to have graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney removed from Elon Musk's social media platform X will be abandoned by the eSafety commissioner.

 

Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant confirmed the Federal Court case would be abandoned, after several blows in court and an attempt to temporarily force the footage to be hidden expiring.

 

"After weighing multiple considerations, including litigation across multiple cases, I have considered this option likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children," Ms Inman-Grant said.

 

"Our sole goal and focus in issuing our removal notice was to prevent this extremely violent footage from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community and I stand by my investigators and the decisions eSafety made."

 

The case was seen as a test of Australia's ability to enforce online safety requirements on the social media platforms.

 

Posting on social media, X's government affairs arm celebrated the announcement.

 

"This case has raised important questions on how legal powers can be used to threaten global censorship of speech, and we are heartened to see that freedom of speech has prevailed," the company said.

 

Mr Musk also posted, saying "freedom of speech is worth fighting for."

 

Platforms 'monetising misery': News Corp boss

 

The social media platform initially refused an eSafety notice to remove the graphic stabbing videos, later deemed an act of terror, but the Federal Court temporarily ordered X to hide the videos.

 

X again refused to comply with that court order, arguing the initial take down order was not valid.

 

Mr Musk has repeatedly taunted the commissioner over her attempt to remove footage of Wakeley bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being stabbed, calling her a global "censorship commissar".

 

News Corp Australia's executive chair Michael Miller has told the National Press Club that social media companies are "monetising misery", and profiting from violent and harmful content.

 

Mr Miller said the days of the digital Wild West had to stop.

 

"These companies have immense power, and it is critical that they do not undermine Australia’s sovereignty," Mr Miller said.

 

Responding to the eSafety commissioner dropping its legal challenge, Mr Miller said the case for change may in fact be proved "by losing in court, rather than by winning".

 

He said "social licence" laws should hold tech platforms accountable for the content they host if they want access to the Australian market.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 5, 2024, 4:24 a.m. No.20969938   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20969930

 

2/2

 

Musk taunts led to commissioner's children being doxxed

 

In an exclusive interview with ABC Afternoon Briefing, Ms Inman-Grant argued the way the social media companies are structured meant content must be removed "globally", and Australia should have the right to issue those take downs.

 

"The idea of global deletion or wanting to 'globally censor' the internet is really a furphy … the simple fact of the matter is with all of these companies, they don't have internet infrastructure or servers here, the only way you can remove that content is at scale, at the source, which is in California," she said.

 

Ms Inman-Grant noted X routinely complied with take down notices, and that other major social media platforms had complied with the request to remove the stabbing footage.

 

She also told the ABC Mr Musk's attack against her resulted in a pile-on from his millions of followers, and the personal information of her children being exposed online.

 

"He issued a dog-whistle to 181 million users around the globe, which resulted in death threats directed at me, which resulted in doxxing of my family members, including my three children, so I think with great power comes with great responsibility," the commissioner said.

 

"Targeting a regulator who is here to protect the citizens of Australia is really beyond the pale, but it's not surprising [from Mr Musk]."

 

In Question Time, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton both condemned the threats directed at Ms Inman-Grant.

 

"The government backs our regulators, and we back the eSafety Commissioner, particularly in light of the reprehensible threats to her physical safety, and the threats to her family, in the course of doing her job," Ms Rowland said.

 

"Julie Inman-Grant is one of the finest public servants in the employment of the Commonwealth of Australia," Mr Dutton said. "And the treatment and the personal abuse and attacks that she has been subject to, the threats and intimidation, should be absolutely condemned."

 

Ms Inman-Grant said she would not be cowed, and other litigation against X would continue.

 

The commissioner said she would now focus her efforts on those matters and an independent review of her removal notice issued to X by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-05/esafety-elon-musk-x-church-stabbing-videos-court-case/103937152

 

https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/statement-from-the-esafety-commissioner-re-federal-court-proceedings

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KfdNs2ISW4

 

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1798223581668896817

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 6, 2024, 4 a.m. No.20976344   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20909138

US, 'Five Eyes' allies warn China recruiting Western military trainers

 

Jonathan Landay and Michael Martina - June 6, 2024

 

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. and other "Five Eyes" countries on Wednesday warned that China has been circumventing measures aimed at halting its recruitment of current and former Western military pilots and other personnel to train the Chinese military.

 

"Western recruits who train the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) may increase the risk of future conflict by reducing our deterrence capabilities," said a public bulletin issued by the U.S., British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand intelligence services.

 

The notice is the latest warning by the English-speaking "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing alliance about rising concerns with Chinese government-directed espionage, cyber hacking and intellectual property theft as Beijing's growing might has roiled relations with Washington and its allies.

 

China's embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

 

The PLA is using private companies in South Africa and China to hire former fighter pilots, flight engineers and air operations center personnel from Western countries to train its Air Force and Navy aviators, the services said in the notice.

 

"The PLA wants the skills and expertise of these individuals to make its own military air operations more capable while gaining insight into Western air tactics, techniques, and procedures," the notice said.

 

It said the efforts represented a "persistent, adaptive threat," with the insight gleaned by the PLA a threat to "U.S. and allied security."

 

EXOTIC AIRCRAFT

 

In one high-profile case, former U.S. Marine pilot Daniel Duggan is fighting extradition from Australia on U.S. charges of training Chinese military pilots through a South African flight school in how to land on aircraft carriers.

 

Duggan, a naturalized Australian citizen, faces U.S. charges including money laundering and breaking arms control law. He denies the allegations.

 

Personnel are often contacted through headhunting emails or personal acquaintances from the military, or by privately owned companies with hidden ties to the PLA, the notice said.

 

The Five Eyes agencies asked people to guard against such offers, which they said often entail promises of lucrative salaries or excessive flattery, and to report any attempts to the FBI or military investigators in their countries.

 

One official from the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), speaking on condition of anonymity, said the governments issued the warning at this time because China "has been adapting" to countermeasures aimed at thwarting recruitment.

 

Western pilots have been lured into training Chinese pilots by "tons of money" and opportunities "to fly really exotic" Chinese aircraft, said a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

 

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that the Chinese military had recruited at least five former pilots from New Zealand and some 30 from Britain, as well as former pilots from Germany and other countries.

 

The U.S. Commerce Department last year sanctioned more than a dozen companies in China, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, the U.K, and the United Arab Emirates for their roles in recruiting Western military talent for PLA aviation training.

 

The U.S. official said the Test Flying Academy of South Africa is "one of the biggest companies" that has been hiring Western former military pilots to train Chinese pilots and has continued doing so despite U.S. sanctions.

 

The company did not respond immediately to Reuters' request for comment.

 

In a statement on its website last year, the company said it "does not provide any classified military training, nor train frontline pilots, and all training is based on open-source material or material provided by clients."

 

It has said it operates with the approval of South African government agencies, does not employ U.S. nationals and had terminated the employment of British nationals following "legal challenges in the U.K. in 2023."

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-five-eyes-allies-warn-china-recruiting-western-military-trainers-2024-06-05/

 

https://www.dni.gov/index.php/ncsc-newsroom/3832-fvey-partners-warn-of-evolving-efforts-to-recruit-current-and-former-western-service-members-to-bolster-the-prc-s-military

 

https://www.dni.gov/files/NCSC/documents/products/Safeguarding_Our_Military_Expertise.pdf

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 6, 2024, 4:14 a.m. No.20976380   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8386

>>20969930

eSafety chief Julie Inman Grant pushes powers to ban tech giants from local advertising cash and data

 

GEOFF CHAMBERS - JUNE 5, 2024

 

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant is pushing for “business disruption powers” restricting advertising revenue and siphoning of Australians’ personal data as punishment for tech companies that breach online safety rules.

 

After abandoning her Federal Court case to remove videos of the Wakeley terrorist stabbing from Elon Musk’s social media platform X, Ms Inman Grant warned that the 2021 Online Safety Act had been “leapfrogged” by overseas ­jurisdictions.

 

Ms Inman Grant, who has been the country’s online safety tsar for more than seven years, said Australia’s enforcement powers and penalties must be on par with domestic and global regulators.

 

As the Albanese government reviews the Online Safety Act, Ms Inman Grant said “we should be looking at business disruption powers”.

 

“Why should these companies that aren’t abiding by our laws be monetising our citizens’ personal data and taking our advertising funds? This is where we need to look, particularly with the more recalcitrant players,” she told The Australian.

 

“If a company did not comply with our laws, Australian advertisers shouldn’t be giving them money. They shouldn’t be able to siphon our personal data and monetise it.”

 

Ms Inman Grant, who has overseen staff growth from 35 to 210 and is scheduled to finish her term in 2027, said withdrawing her Federal Court action against X was “strategic” as the watchdog man­ages multiple litigations in the courts and Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

 

“The decisions made are beyond the boundaries of one lawsuit or one set of litigation. As the commissioner, I have to make prudent decisions about responsible use of public funds but also responsible use of my investigative and legal resources,” she said.

 

Ms Inman Grant said since the Online Safety Act passed under the Coalition, the EU and Britain now had stronger powers under their Digital Services Act and Online Safety Bill, which includes fines “along the margins of 10 per cent of overall revenue and turnover”.

 

“I think that would carry a lot more weight. If you look at the Online Safety Bill (in the UK), they have a range of powers if there is lack of compliance with some of their hard-hitting rules.

 

“I’m not sure I agree with the idea of jailing executives … X Corp has removed all of their executives here. The reason I have a concern about that is the local Meta, Microsoft and Google people are also here to represent the interests of Australians and pushback on their corporate headquarters.”

 

Ms Inman Grant said Australian agencies were working closely with the White House and would support congress taking decisive action around online safety and preventing the hosting and distribution of illegal content, including child sex abuse and violent extremism material, in the US.

 

“We’re working very closely with the US right now on a global partnership to counter child sexual exploitation and maybe we ­expand that to terrorism content as well.”

 

After lifting a temporary order for X Corp to hide videos of the western Sydney stabbing, which the platform formerly known as Twitter did not comply with, Federal Court judge Geoffrey Kennett said a global ban was not a “reasonable” step under Australian law because it would be “ignored or disparaged in other countries”.

 

Amid concerns about freedom of speech and violent online content, Ms Inman Grant said enforcing powers across international jurisdictions was an issue for all countries. “So many governments around the world are focused on how do we rein in the global tech giants, how do we prevent them from causing more damage to our citizens?”

 

“Maybe this requires a Bretton-Woods of digital disarmament or more of a convention or treaty to work through what we as democratic sovereign nations should expect from US-based companies in terms of complying with our laws and common decency.”

 

Ms Inman Grant said the AAT case, brought by X, would independently test the “merits” of the eSafety Commissioner’s powers, weaknesses “or where there needs to be further definitions about what removal means and what is sufficient”.

 

“Our next Federal Court case with X Corp (will) be very significant in that they did not comply with our transparency notice around what they were doing to combat child sex abuse material.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/esafety-commissioner-abandons-court-fight-with-x/news-story/2d50bbd3df645e3b3e4df1575d528265

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 6, 2024, 4:28 a.m. No.20976422   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6430

An abuse victim got $50,000 through the National Redress Scheme. He fought on, and settled for $500,000

 

Cameron Houston - June 6, 2024

 

1/2

 

A victim of historical sexual abuse at the former Bayswater Boys’ Home has reached a $500,000 settlement with the Salvation Army, after receiving just $50,000 under the National Redress Scheme.

 

The case raises significant concerns about the capacity of the redress scheme to adequately compensate victims of historical abuse. Under the scheme, payments are capped at $150,000 and require recipients to waive their legal rights to sue the organisation involved.

 

Geoff, who asked for his surname not to be used because he is a victim of sexual assault, was initially sent to the former Baltara Reception Centre in Parkside, in Melbourne’s north-east, which provided accommodation for boys involved in minor offending or who were wards of the state.

 

He was transferred to the Bayswater Boys’ Home in about 1971, where he was abused by three staff members over almost four years.

 

Two of the men accused in court documents of the sexual assaults were later jailed after being convicted of assaulting other vulnerable children in their care.

 

Geoff received a $50,000 payment in 2019 from the National Redress Scheme, which identified the state government and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services as being culpable for the abuse.

 

“As Baltara Reception Centre no longer exists, the state of Victoria is their representative. I found the Department of Health and Human Services equally responsible,” says NRS correspondence from August 2019.

 

The decision by the NRS to ignore the abuse that occurred at Bayswater Boys’ Home allowed Geoff to launch a separate civil court action against the Salvation Army in 2022, which was recently settled before trial with a payment of $500,000.

 

The disparity in payments casts doubt over the ability of the redress scheme to provide fair compensation.

 

The scheme was created after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and has made average payments of $89,000 to more than 15,000 victims of abuse. The payments are funded by the institutions signed up to the scheme.

 

However, several victims who have opted to pursue civil action against religious orders and other institutions have recently received multimillion-dollar settlements, or been awarded massive damages payments at trial.

 

In November, a Supreme Court jury awarded $3.3 million to the victim of paedophile priest Vincent Kiss, after lawyers for the Catholic Church argued the victim should have only received $250,000 in damages for pain and suffering.

 

The Western Bulldogs were ordered to pay $5.9 million in compensation to a child sex abuse victim last year, when a Supreme Court jury ruled the football club was negligent and failed to stop a former volunteer from preying on boys between 1984 and 1990.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 6, 2024, 4:30 a.m. No.20976430   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20976422

 

2/2

 

Geoff’s lawyer, Cameron Doig from Arnold Thomas & Becker, accused many institutions responsible for child sexual abuse of supporting the NRS because it saved them money and reduced their exposure to liability for historical wrongdoing.

 

“The NRS pays vulnerable Australians an average of less than $90,000 for a lifetime of suffering caused by child sexual abuse,” Doig said.

 

“This is grossly inadequate and takes advantage of applicants’ lack of understanding of their rights. The scheme offered [Geoff] barely 10 per cent of what we were ultimately able to secure as compensation.”

 

Doig said survivors were required to permanently sign away their rights to sue the institution, similar to the Catholic Church’s contentious redress scheme known as the Melbourne Response, which also caps payments at $150,000.

 

Geoff, who continues to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, said the abuse he suffered at Bayswater Boys’ Home had disrupted his ability to form relationships and hold down permanent work.

 

“I still remember all the details; I can even remember their faces. It’s had a huge impact on my life. I couldn’t shake another man’s hand until I was in my 50s because I just struggled with trust,” he said.

 

Now 64, Geoff recognises he was fortunate to be able to launch civil action against the Salvation Army, despite already receiving a payment under the NRS. But he said the settlement could never compensate for his lost childhood.

 

“Even if you got a billion dollars, nothing can make up for what happened during those 3½ years. But it gives me a bit of closure and obviously some financial security.”

 

A Department of Social Services spokesman defended the redress scheme.

 

“The average payment amount of $89,000 is significantly higher than the $65,000 estimated by the royal commission,” the spokesman said.

 

“While the maximum monetary payment may be lower through the redress scheme, it is simpler for survivors to access than through civil litigation. Redress applications are assessed using a lower evidence threshold than civil litigation, meaning timeframes to achieve an outcome are shorter.”

 

The Salvation Army was previously the subject of an investigation by the Victorian Parliamentary “Betrayal of Trust” Inquiry, which examined how religious and other organisations handled child abuse cases.

 

In 2013, after that inquiry, the Salvation Army’s own professional standards unit investigated the organisation’s historical responses to child sexual abuse.

 

The 2015 report from that investigation found the Salvation Army failed at a systemic level to protect children from child sexual abuse and failed to appropriately respond to claims of such sexual abuse.

 

The royal commission reviewed the Salvation Army’s investigation and went further, finding that by not reporting allegations of child sexual abuse to the police, abuse was effectively concealed and perpetrators protected.

 

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

 

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

 

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

 

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

 

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

 

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/an-abuse-victim-got-50-000-through-the-redress-scheme-he-fought-on-and-settled-for-500-000-20240605-p5jjd0.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 7, 2024, 8:24 a.m. No.20983445   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3449

>>20895037

>>20932075

>>20969698

Peter Dutton tells Anthony Albanese: put Adam Bandt’s Greens party last

 

JOE KELLY and DENNIS SHANAHAN - JUNE 7, 2024

 

1/2

 

Peter Dutton has called on Anthony Albanese to reject the anti-Semitism “flourishing within the Greens political party” and put its candidates last on Labor how-to-vote cards at the next election.

 

After joining the Prime Minister this week in condemning the Greens for “pouring fuel on the fire” of social division and anti-Semitism, the Opposition Leader shifted greater responsibility on to the government for allowing fear to “fester” within the Jewish community.

 

In an interview with The Australian on the second anniversary of his becoming Opposition Leader, Mr Dutton said protesters chanting hateful slogans – including “from the river to the sea” and promoting “intifada” – had been “allowed to coexist on the Prime Minister’s watch”.

 

He doubled down on his criticism of the Greens, saying they were an anti-Semitic party – a claim strongly refuted by Adam Bandt – with Mr Dutton branding the minor party leader a “radical … unworthy of public office”.

 

“I think the Prime Minister should join our commitment to put the Greens last at this election,” Mr Dutton said. “Should the Greens be condemned for encouraging these extremists? Yes. And it is absolutely appropriate to condemn them, and I join the Prime Minister in doing that.”

 

Mr Dutton warned that Labor could “form government” with the Greens in the event of a hung parliament, demanding in question time the Prime Minister rule out any governing coalition.

 

“If the Prime Minister has any strength of leadership, the call that he must make is that the Labor Party will preference the Greens last at the next election,” Mr Dutton told The Australian. “Anti-Semitism, for which we should have zero tolerance, is flourishing within the Greens political party and that the Prime Minister could go into minority government with them would make a complete mockery of every statement he has made.”

 

Pressed in parliament, Mr Albanese said preferences were a matter for the party organisation and Labor would not be “taking lectures from the mob who want to preference One Nation”.

 

He provided an assurance there were no plans to govern in partnership with the Greens or anyone else, declaring “we seek, as the Australian Labor Party, to govern by ourselves”.

 

“The Australian Labor Party proudly does not govern in coalition with any political party, nor will we in the future,” he said.

 

Mr Albanese said the only political coalition was that between the Liberals and Nationals. He said that when it was last in government, the Coalition had “refused to publish” the governing agreement between both parties.

 

Mr Bandt on Thursday also hit back at the accusations levelled against the minor party, and threatened legal action over claims the Greens were “encouraging” violence at pro-Palestinian protests outside MPs’ offices.

 

“The Greens condemn anti-Semitism. The Greens condemn Islamophobia. And the Greens condemn the invasion of Gaza,” he said. “They (the government) made a series of outrageous accusations, attempting to link the Greens to certain events that have happened at electorate offices.”

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 7, 2024, 8:24 a.m. No.20983449   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20983445

 

2/2

 

Mr Dutton said he wanted stronger leadership from Mr Albanese, warning that the Prime Minister had taken too soft an approach to demonstrators over several weeks. “I understand the Prime Minister’s passion and desire in wanting to protect MPs and their staff. But … these same people with their hate-filled chants of ‘river to the sea’ and ‘intifada’ have been tolerated for weeks now.

 

“All of these radicals have been allowed to coexist on the Prime Minister’s watch.

 

“There are people in the Jewish community now who are living in fear and afraid as they drop their children off at school. And the Prime Minister has allowed that to fester, and allowed these groups to continue on essentially unhindered for months since October.

 

“In all my quarter of a century in politics I have never seen such fear in the Jewish community, and I don’t think in our lifetime have we seen the fear within a particular segment of our community that we are seeing now.”

 

Mr Dutton cited former prime minister John Howard’s example in 2000 when he committed the Liberals to putting One Nation last on Liberal how-to-vote cards because of its divisive policies.

 

Mr Albanese continued his political assault on the Greens in parliament on Thursday, after the minor party’s housing spokesman, Max Chandler-Mather, accused Labor of supporting Israeli company Elbit Systems, which he said was one of the “largest suppliers of the Israeli military as it carries out a genocide in Gaza”.

 

Mr Chandler-Mather asked why the government would not cancel a $917m contract with Elbit Systems, but Mr Albanese accused him of promoting misinformation.

 

“It is a fact that there have been no weapons or ammunition exported to Israel in the last five years,” he said. “That information was confirmed in Senate estimates.

 

“Just this week Defence officials confirmed that recent data published by DFAT referring to the export of arms to Israel in February refers to the export of a single item for the Australian Defence Force that will return to Australia once it’s fixed.

 

“It is beyond my comprehension why anyone in this place would seek to suggest that Australia were participants in a conflict when we are not … when we have called repeatedly, repeatedly, for a ceasefire.”

 

The Prime Minister accused the Greens of trying to weaponise the reality that Australia was one of about 18 nations – alongside Norway, Canada and The Netherlands – that operated the F-35 fighter jet and contributed to its global supply chain.

 

“They seek in a divisive way to raise these issues in order to then weaponise them and cause division in the Australian community,” Mr Albanese said.

 

Earlier in the day, Labor shut down a parliamentary debate on the Coalition’s push to establish a judicial inquiry into anti-Semitism on university campuses after NSW Liberal MP Julian Leeser attempted to suspend standing orders on Thursday morning to bring on a vote.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/peter-dutton-tells-anthony-albanese-put-adam-bandts-greens-party-last/news-story/f85451d47d372e159ef246f963d837ca

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 7, 2024, 8:54 a.m. No.20983586   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8305 >>8311

>>20895037

>>20969717

Anthony Albanese’s electorate office ‘targeted’ by Hamas symbol with a ‘history of violence’

 

ALEXI DEMETRIADI and NOAH YIM - JUNE 6, 2024

 

Anthony Albanese’s electorate office has been tagged with terror group Hamas’s symbol indicating its Israeli military targets as police across Australia said officers would clamp down on protest ­activity that spilt into criminality.

 

The Australian on Wednesday revealed how the Prime Minister had been locked out of his Sydney Grayndler electorate office since January because of a pro-­Palestinian encampment on its doorstep amid safety concerns, with the office since plastered with red inverted triangles, used by Hamas and associated with a “history of violence”.

 

The symbol is used in videos by Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, to illustrate the Israeli targets it intends to fire at.

 

It has since been embraced by pro-Palestine activists, who use it for both graffiti and at protests.

 

The symbol predates Hamas but has become intrinsically linked and used by the terror group, a security expert explained.

 

“It (the symbol) has form: there’s a long history associated with it,” Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s John Coyne said.

 

“It dates back to old revolutions and can signify the blood lost from those who rebelled against the Ottoman Empire.”

 

Mr Coyne, ASPI’s head of strategic policing and law enforcement program, said Hamas had used it for years but it had transcended borders and taken on wider popularity with the onset of pro-Palestine protests after Oct­ober 7. “There’s a certain irony in its usage at protests and people using it,” he said.

 

“It is not a symbol of peace. It’s very controversial for Israelis and Jewish people, whose usage it upsets deeply.”

 

Mr Coyne said he doubted many using it at Australia-based protests, particularly at universities, would realise its meaning. “Unlike wearing a keffiyeh and saying you’re supporting peace, it’s not the case with this,” he said. “That’s how the symbol has been adopted, but many ­people I don’t think understand its significance or association with violence.”

 

Lebanese Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi agreed, saying Hamas’s military wing routinely used the symbol in its videos to showcase which Israeli targets it was about to destroy.

 

“That was where it originated, but it’s become a ‘trendy’ symbol for a lot of people,” he said.

 

While not condoning its usage or those who graffitied the Prime Minister’s office, Dr Rifi, a leading voice on social cohesion, said Mr Albanese had become a non­violent target for protesters.

 

It comes as concerns were raised in federal parliament about the escalating disruption of, and graffiti on, electorate offices.

 

State and territory police said each force would respect peaceful protests but would investigate those that spilt into criminality.

 

“If police detect or receive reports of offences being committed under any act, they are taken seriously and thoroughly investigated,” a Victoria Police spokes­woman said.

 

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said any activity “must be conducted lawfully, respectfully and peacefully”, while NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the state force “closely monitored protest activity”.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/anthony-albaneses-electorate-office-targeted-by-hamas-symbol-with-a-history-of-violence/news-story/9777a77456f6ded05e13c49cfd4153ff

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 7, 2024, 8:59 a.m. No.20983605   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20926912

>>20937501

NZ upset by Giles decision to replace ‘direction 99’ rule on deporting criminals

 

Matthew Knott - June 7, 2024

 

New Zealand has expressed its disappointment at a new direction that will lower the threshold to deport foreign criminals from Australia as the Albanese government seeks to regain control over the troubled immigration portfolio.

 

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles released a new rule – known as “direction 110” – on Friday morning to replace the previous “direction 99” which was blamed for dozens of convicted criminals being released into the community rather than returned to their country of citizenship.

 

The federal opposition quickly attacked the government for not going far enough, saying it should have toughened the direction’s language even further to ensure that as many former criminals as possible are removed from the country.

 

Giles, who has faced ferocious attacks and calls to resign from the opposition, said the new direction would instruct administrative review officials to prioritise the “protection of the Australian community and common sense” when making their decisions.

 

“The new revised direction will make crystal clear that the Australian government expects community protection to be given greater weight when it comes to visa decisions,” Giles said of the new direction, which will take effect on June 21.

 

“It makes it clear that the safety of the Australian community is the Albanese government's highest priority and includes this as a key principle of the decision-making framework.

 

“It also elevates the impact on victims of family violence and their families into one of the existing primary considerations, reflecting the government’s zero-tolerance approach to domestic and family violence.”

 

Asked by a New Zealand journalist whether the new policy was a “betrayal of New Zealand”, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said that “we regret the decision Australia has made”, while noting the country was allowed to set its own immigration rules.

 

“It’s just not right that people with no connection to New Zealand are deported to New Zealand,” Luxon said on Friday.

 

“We need to monitor the implementation of it.

 

“I note that prime minister Albanese has also assured me that a common-sense approach will continue to apply.”

 

Luxon has campaigned on reducing crime in New Zealand and cracking down on criminal gang activity.

 

The new direction still says decision makers must consider the impact on a non-citizen’s family members and their connection to Australia when deciding whether they should be deported for committing a crime.

 

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said that “this new Direction 110 doesn’t give much change in circumstance at all, and it will still give rise to the sort of outcomes that we’ve seen in allowing these people to stay in our community”.

 

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said he had “no confidence” the new direction would keep Australians safe “because it continues to have ties to the Australian community as a primary consideration and that will leave the [Administrative Appeals Tribunal] to make decisions like they have been before”.

 

“What the government should have done is gone back to the old direction under the previous government that had ties to the Australian community as a secondary consideration [and] that put community safety first,” he said.

 

Giles refused to say whether he had made a mistake with the previous direction, saying: “I’m taking responsibility for putting in place a direction that sends a clear signal to decision makers and the Australian community about how they should go about making these decisions.”

 

Giles said he had discussed the change with New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who said last week he was concerned that the new direction would lead to the mass return of Kiwi criminals with little connection to the country.

 

The Coalition has blamed Labor for dozens of decisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that cited direction 99 as a factor in letting applicants stay in Australia despite decisions by the Department of Home Affairs to deport them because of their criminal convictions.

 

A key concern about direction 99, which Giles signed in January last year, was that it made the “strength, nature and duration of ties to Australia” a primary consideration in visa decisions, unlike earlier directions under the Coalition.

 

Giles last week said the government was using drones to track released detainees, a claim he later retracted.

 

“I’ve been clear in the parliament that I relied on information provided by my department and I clarified that,” Giles said.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/giles-replaces-direction-99-in-attempt-to-regain-control-of-immigration-20240607-p5jk0p.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 7, 2024, 9:07 a.m. No.20983635   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20955115

War over Taiwan would change world, says Australia ambassador to US Kevin Rudd

 

Kirsty Needham - June 7, 2024

 

June 6 (Reuters) - Australia's ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, cautioned in a speech that the global consequences of a war over Taiwan would be as great as the impact of the Second World War, making the world "a radically different place".

 

If Chinese President Xi Jinping, who turns 71 this month, wanted to achieve "final national unification" with Taiwan he would likely act in the next decade before he reaches his 80s, Rudd said in a speech in Honolulu on Thursday.

 

"We would be foolish to ignore the increasing clarity of China's military signalling, including the pattern of its most recent military exercises," said Rudd, who was twice Australia's prime minister in the previous decade.

 

Whether China acts will depend on its perception of the strength of U.S. deterrence, he said.

 

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future.

 

The United States has expressed concern about Chinese military activity near Taiwan, including after the island's presidential election and the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te last month. China has warned the U.S. should not interfere in China's affairs with Taiwan.

 

Taiwan and the United States have no official diplomatic relationship, as Washington formally recognises Beijing but is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and is the island's most important international backer.

 

The United States recognized that if China was successful in annexing Taiwan it would impact U.S. credibility and have "profound, and potentially irreversible effect on the perceived reliability of U.S. alliances worldwide", Rudd said.

 

The United States, China and Taiwan have a common interest in avoiding open military confrontation on the future of Taiwan, said Rudd, a China scholar who was president of the Asia Society in New York until last year.

 

"The economic costs, domestic political impacts, and unknowable geo-strategic consequences that such a war would generate would likely be of an order of magnitude that we have not seen since the Second World War," he said.

 

"Whatever the outcome (an American victory, a Chinese victory, or a bloody stalemate), the world is likely to become a radically different place after such a war than it was before."

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/war-over-taiwan-would-change-world-says-australia-ambassador-us-kevin-rudd-2024-06-07/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 7, 2024, 9:12 a.m. No.20983654   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8450

>>20950665

Former CDC chief Dr Robert Redfield has blasted Covid-19 vaccine mandates, lockdowns as a ‘terrible mistake’.

 

ADAM CREIGHTON - JUNE 7, 2024

 

Robert Redfield, the former head of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said mandating Covid-19 vaccine was a “terrible decision” and lockdowns and school closures were a “big mistake”.

 

Dr Redfield, an esteemed virologist who led the CDC from 2018 to 2021, said the pharmaceutical giants had a “huge influence” over convincing governments that everyone including children should be coerced into being vaccinated and boosted during the pandemic.

 

“We absolutely never should have mandated vaccines, it was a terrible decision … the rationale for mandating vaccines for healthy firefighters and policemen, those in the military, hospital workers, teachers, was emotional, it shouldn’t have happened,” he said in an interview with Chris Cuomo published on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

 

Dr Redfield, 72, said the Covid-19 vaccines, which the Biden administration tried to mandate for all workers in late 2021, worked to prevent serious illness and death for vulnerable, older patients “over 65” but weren’t suitable for healthy young people, didn’t prevent transmission and wore off after six months at most.

 

“If you came down and visited me and interviewed my patients, you’d interview patient after patient that did not have Covid, but are very sick, long covid patients, and it’s all from the vaccine,” he added, in comments that would have been censored on social media and censured publicly during the pandemic.

 

A ‘v-safe’ survey by the CDC released in late 2022 found 7.7 per cent of around a million American recipients sought medical attention after their Covid-19 vaccination. Western Australian data published last year found the Covid-19 vaccines, which were lauded as safe and effective, caused injuries at 24 times the rate of other approved vaccines.

 

“I remember Biden saying, you know, this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. … I was saying, wait a minute, two thirds of the people that I’m seeing infected in Maryland have been vaccinated, these vaccines don’t last”.

 

Dr Redfield, who continues to practise medicine privately in Maryland, was sidelined in 2020 for suggesting SARS-Cov2, the virus that causes Covid-19, might have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology rather than ‘spilt over’ from the animal kingdom naturally, a theory that’s since become more credible.

 

In a one-hour interview with Mr Cuomo, whose brother Andrew Cuomo as New York governor became the face of tough Covid-19 mandates in 2020, Dr Redfield said countries “made a big mistake and paid a big price” by locking down their societies for months, on and off for up to two years.

 

“You know, I’m not sure people will accept responsibility, those people that really pushed it, because it was unfortunate, it was emotional,” he said. “There’s no question there was overreach,

 

Following China’s example, most governments imposed lockdowns from March 2020, lasting well into 2021 in some jurisdictions, unprecedented policies that triggered massive public borrowing, record unemployment, inflation, social unrest and permanent learning loss, in the US at least, for students from low-income families.

 

“I was very much against closing schools, I thought the kids were probably safer in schools, most kids were getting infected in the community and from the dinner table, not from the school, a lot of that was emotionalism with teachers,” he said.

 

Dr Redfield’s interview emerged a few days after Dr Anthony Fauci, president Joe Biden’s former top Covid-19 adviser, admitted in widely reported congressional testimony that the ‘lab leak theory’ was no longer a conspiracy theory and pandemic measures should “consider the balance” of costs and benefits next time.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/former-cdc-chief-dr-robert-redfield-has-blasted-covid19-vaccine-mandates-lockdowns-as-a-terrible-mistake/news-story/ecc446107b54bb8db1d3a99ede4314dd

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 8, 2024, 7:12 a.m. No.20988386   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20969930

>>20976380

Musk’s X in fresh legal stoush with Australia’s e-safety commission

 

STEVE ZEMEK - JUNE 8, 2024

 

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner will take on Elon Musk’s X Corp in court later this year after it issued the social media giant with a six-figure fine, a court has heard,

 

eSafety in December last year announced that it had commenced civil proceedings in the Federal Court against X Corp relating to its response to a “transparency notice”.

 

In a statement, eSafety said the notice required the company to explain how it was “meeting the Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to child sexual exploitation and abuse material”.

 

eSafety has alleged that X Corp “failed to respond or failed to respond truthfully and accurately to certain questions” and issued the company with a $615,500 infringement notice.

 

X Corp is separately seeking judicial review of the infringement notice and has launched proceedings which will run alongside the case launched by the eSafety Commissioner.

 

In a concise statement filed in the Federal Court, eSafety says it issued the notice to Twitter in February 2023, before the social media company merged with Musk’s X Corp - which is incorporated in Nevada in the United States - in March last year.

 

The case relates to the company’s response in March 2023, which was said to be from Twitter Inc, which did not exist by that time.

 

eSafety argues in its concise statement that although the notice was initially issued to Twitter Inc, X Corp was capable of responding to the notice.

 

X Corp is defending the case, with the court hearing on Friday that two legal experts will be called when the matter goes to hearing later this year.

 

The court heard the case would hinge on how foreign regulatory obligations are treated under Nevada law.

 

The matter will return to court later this year

 

Earlier this week, X had a big legal win over the eSafety Commissioner, which announced it had dropped its battle with the social media company relating to its refusal to remove videos of a stabbing attack on a Sydney bishop.

 

The eSafety Commission was attempting to force X to remove videos of footage of an alleged terror attack in which Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed during a live-streamed sermon.

 

X Corp initially agreed to “geoblock” the content, which restricted local access, but claimed the Australian government lacked authority to force a global ban.

 

Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant Inman Grant announced on Wednesday that those proceedings would be discontinued.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/musks-x-in-fresh-legal-stoush-with-australias-esafety-commission/news-story/296507722434370fe1daf78a0f9acf46

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 9, 2024, 3:09 a.m. No.20993031   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8398

Labor blasts Peter Dutton’s threat to withdraw from 2030 climate targets

 

ELEANOR CAMPBELL - JUNE 9, 2024

 

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says Peter Dutton’s vow to axe Australia’s 2030 climate emissions target would be a “wrecking ball” for the country’s relationships with its key foreign partners.

 

The Opposition Leader has said if he wins the next federal election, he would scrap Labor’s legislated target for 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 and focus on nuclear energy to reach net zero by 2050.

 

The decision would place Australia at odds with its legally binding targets under the 2015 Paris Agreement, where nearly 200 countries committed to their own plans to reduce planet-warming emissions.

 

Mr Bowen said a weakened climate emissions goal could leave the nation out of step with Pacific Island states and a significant portion of the international community.

 

“I’m not going to speak on behalf of Pacific leaders, but if Australia was to leave the Paris Accord I think the Pacific would have very, very strong views indeed,” he told reporters.

 

“It’s not just about the Pacific. You look at what’s happening in our region, you look at the partnerships in Australia is engaged in with United States, and climate and energy is the third pillar of our alliance. You look at what we’re doing with Germany on green hydrogen.

 

“Peter Dutton would be a wrecking ball, a risky wrecking ball when it comes to our foreign policy.”

 

Under the Paris Agreement countries excluding Iran, Libya and Yemen vowed to limit the rise in the earth’s average global temperatures “well below” 2 degrees and make an effort to stay at 1.5 degree Celsius.

 

Scientists have warned that if global temperatures were to exceed that level dangers from severe floods, wildfires, drought and heatwaves could become unmanageable.

 

When elected in 2022, Labor leader Anthony Albanese enshrined into law an emissions cut target of 43 per cent by 2030, up from the former Coalition government’s 26-28 per cent.

 

Mr Dutton in an interview with the Weekend Australian on Saturday argued there was “no sense” in ­signing up to the target which he claimed was unachievable.

 

Despite current projections indicating that Australia has fallen short of the 43 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, Mr Bowen insisted it was still achievable.

 

He said cabinet would consider advice from the Climate Change Authority on the upcoming 2035 emissions target under the Paris agreement “in due course”.

 

“We’re obliged to put in our NDC by February. We’ll certainly comply with that,” he said.

 

The state governments of NSW, Victoria and Queensland have each already set a 2035 target of at least 70 per cent.

 

Speaking on Sunday, opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said the party would reveal its alternative to the federal government’s 2030 climate target in due course.

 

“We’re committed to the Paris Agreement and committed to net zero by 2050 and will have more to about targets well in advance of the election,” he said.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/labor-blasts-peter-duttons-threat-to-withdraw-from-2030-climate-targets/news-story/0d735a8a66e728e8fd1f6c66f6ffd12c

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 9, 2024, 3:18 a.m. No.20993059   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895037

>>20932075

>>20969698

Bandt challenges Labor to sanction Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘extreme war cabinet’

 

TRICIA RIVERA - JUNE 9, 2024

 

Greens leader Adam Bandt has challenged Labor to punish Israel’s “extreme war cabinet” and has told the pro-Palestine camp that the Albanese government is attempting to slander them.

 

After coming under fire this week from both Labor and the Opposition and threatening to sue Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, Mr Bandt took to the stage at a Free Palestine rally in Melbourne to demand the Albanese government slap Benjamin Netanyahu’s government with sanctions, expel the Israeli ambassador, and cut a contract with weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

 

He also called on the Prime Minister to join South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Criminal Court, and ensure F-35 fighter jet parts are not used “in acts of aggression”.

 

“Our government could have recognised Palestine, our government could … in the last 35 weeks, have put sanctions on this extreme war cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu that is now subject to court orders to stop genocide,” Mr Bandt told the hundreds of activists on Sunday afternoon.

 

“If you (the Albanese government) think there’s been some misrepresentation of your position … then turn up next week at a press conference and announce that the government will recognise Palestine.”

 

He said until Labor met their demands, people would continue to “peacefully and powerfully” hold them to account.

 

Mr Bandt’s comments came after Anthony Albanese last Wednesday took aim at pro-Palestine supporters targeting the electorate offices of MPs, and claimed the demonstrators had been whipped-up by Greens MPs who had “consciously and deliberately” spread misinformation about the government’s position on the Middle East war.

 

“The other strategy that (the government) are deploying at the moment is to slander all of you, and say that not only are you misinformed, but that somehow what you’re doing is wrong or even in the words of our Prime Minister, has no place in a democracy,” Mr Bandt told the rally.

 

“We all know that there is no place for violence against people, against politicians, against the people who work for them or against their offices. We all know that. What we are pushing for is peace.”

 

On the rescue of four hostages held in Central Gaza, Mr Bandt told The Australian that all hostages should be freed.

 

Gaza officials said 210 Palestinians were killed in the Israel Defense Forces rescue operation in al-Nuseirat.

 

“All the political prisoners should be released, and I hope that the government will also make comment on the reported one-to-two hundred Palestinians who have been killed over this period as well,” Mr Bandt said.

 

“We need an immediate ceasefire now, our government still continues to put conditions on its call for a ceasefire.

 

“The Labor government needs to put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu’s extreme war cabinet otherwise this horror will continue.”

 

The rally MC introduced Mr Bandt by speaking of the “ludicrous claims” against the progressive minor party “by our Prime Minister cry baby Albanese” and “fascist Dutton”.

 

“It is these cronies that are actually spreading misinformation. It is the so-called members of Labor and Liberal parties that are the evil ones,” she said.

 

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said there were “tears of joy” in Jewish households at the news the Israeli hostages had been rescued.

 

He blamed Hamas for the Palestinian lives lost as a result of the mission.

 

“I don’t view it as a trade, I view it as a tragedy. It’s a tragedy entirely from Hamas’ choosing,” the ECAJ boss said.

 

“No doubt civilian casualties will occur. They’re a tragedy. But this is the war that we’re in. This is the situation that Hamas has chosen.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/bandt-challenges-labor-to-sanction-benjamin-netanyahus-extreme-war-cabinet/news-story/b15f9e9ca39ffe4041be29ff9b636de2

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 9, 2024, 3:25 a.m. No.20993088   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895037

>>20937517

Labor to pick first Palestinian Australian to replace veteran MP

 

Paul Sakkal - June 9, 2024

 

The first Palestinian-Australian federal politician is likely to be installed in place of a veteran Labor MP, providing a new voice for the government in its ferocious political dispute with the Greens over the conflict in Gaza.

 

Maria Vamvakinou, one of the party’s most sympathetic Palestinian supporters, told this masthead she had informed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese she would end her 23-year-long political career at the next federal election.

 

Basem Abdo, a communications specialist, has won the support of key Socialist Left figures, including Vamvakinou. Preselection for the seat will take place later this year, but Abdo’s backing from the Socialist Left means he is poised to replace the veteran MP.

 

Born in Kuwait to parents from a village in the occupied West Bank, Abdo’s family sought refuge in Jordan during the Gulf War before migrating to Australia in 1991.

 

Labor sources said Abdo had been a mature and conciliatory voice during a heated factional dispute over the wording of a motion on the Middle East conflict at last month’s Victorian Labor conference.

 

Abdo told this masthead his father had “left Palestine as a result of the 1967 war and my family has lived through displacement. My grandparents died living under occupation.

 

“We need to see the advancement of justice for Palestine and the Palestinian people, and their right to self-determination. Advancing peace can only come about through the application of justice and international law,” he said.

 

Vamvakinou said Abdo would be a formidable voice in parliament as a person with genuine understanding of the community of Calwell, where he lives. Abdo has been working in Vamvakinou’s office in recent years.

 

“Calwell has grown remarkably in the ensuing years and continues to write the history of contemporary multicultural Australia, a focus which has guided and informed my work over the years,” she said.

 

About a quarter of voters in the outer-Melbourne seat are Muslim, according to the 2021 census. Labor insiders fear a backlash among some Muslim and other, largely left-wing, voters sympathetic to the Palestinian cause in multicultural seats and inner-city progressive ones.

 

Labor suffered significant swings against it in working-class Melbourne and Sydney seats at the previous election, including a 10 per cent primary vote drop in Calwell, which is now held by a 12 per cent margin.

 

A fierce debate erupted in federal parliament last week when Labor and the Coalition berated the Greens for lending support to pro-Palestinian activists who have targeted federal MPs and vandalised electoral office.

 

Greens leader Adam Bandt accused the government of being complicit in the Israeli invasion of Gaza after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton blamed the Greens for encouraging the protests.

 

Labor senator Fatima Payman quit an internal party committee last week, in a further sign of the West Australian’s isolation within the government following her comments on Gaza. She had earlier stepped down from two parliamentary foreign affairs committees following a rebuke from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the first-term senator used the controversial phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

 

Labor sources said Abdo, as well as being a broadly well-credentialed candidate, would be able to authoritatively counter what they described as false Greens claims that Labor has sided with Israel in its military response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

 

Even before the war in Gaza created tension between Labor and an Arab diaspora that has long backed the party, senior party figures raised the alarm about a lack of culturally diverse candidates in seats with large migrant populations.

 

The Socialist Left faction in Victoria has not selected a culturally diverse MP since Vamvakinou entered parliament in 2001.

 

Before the Gaza conflict, Bandt said his focus was on winning the Labor seat of Macnamara to add to the Greens’ tally of four federal seats. But recently the party has shifted focus to Wills, which has a large Muslim population and is the heart of the left-wing pro-Palestine protest movement in Melbourne.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-to-pick-first-palestinian-australian-to-replace-veteran-mp-20240609-p5jkbx.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 2:22 a.m. No.20998305   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8311

>>20895037

>>20983586

Australia PM condemns graffiti attack on US consulate in Sydney

 

Sam McKeith - June 10, 2024

 

SYDNEY, June 10 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese on Monday condemned vandalism of the U.S. consulate in Sydney after the building was defaced in what local media said appeared to be a pro-Palestinian protest.

 

The building in the northern suburbs of Australia's largest city was attacked and sprayed with paint by a person carrying a small sledgehammer at around 3 a.m. local time on Monday.

 

"I would just say that people should have respectful political debate and discourse," Albanese said in a televised media conference from Canberra when asked about the incident.

 

"Measures such as painting the U.S. Consulate do nothing to advance the cause of those who have committed what is of course a crime to damage property," he added.

 

Nine windows of the consulate were damaged and the building's door was graffitied, police said.

 

"CCTV has been sourced that shows a person wearing a dark coloured hoodie with their face obscured carrying what appears to be a small sledgehammer," a police spokesperson told Reuters by phone.

 

A spokesperson for the U.S. consulate confirmed the building had been damaged but said staff and operations were unaffected.

 

"Australian Federal Police and New South Wales Police are investigating the incident," the spokesperson said in a statement.

 

Photos of the consulate on the website of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper showed inverted red triangles sprayed on the building's front. The symbol is used by some pro-Palestinian activists, it reported.

 

The same building was sprayed with graffiti in April, while the U.S. consulate in Melbourne was graffitied by pro-Palestine activists in May, according to the newspaper.

 

Long a stalwart ally of Israel, Australia has become increasingly critical of its conduct in Gaza, where an Australian aid worker was killed in an Israeli attack earlier this year.

 

Last month, camps sprang up at universities in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and other Australian cities protesting Israel's war in Gaza and claiming the Australian government has not done enough to push for peace.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/australia-pm-condemns-graffiti-attack-us-consulate-sydney-2024-06-10/

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 2:27 a.m. No.20998311   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895037

>>20983586

>>20998305

NSW Premier Chris Minns blasts ‘reprehensible’ US consulate damage, warns of rising anti-Semitism

 

ALEXI DEMETRIADI - JUNE 10, 2024

 

NSW Premier Chris Minns has warned of “rising anti-Semitism” across the state as he slams “reprehensible” damage to the United States consulate, which was smashed and tagged with Hamas symbols on Monday morning.

 

The North Sydney consulate, on Miller St, was left with nine hammer holes and two red inverted triangles, commonly used by Hamas in propaganda videos to identify the Israeli targets it seeks to destroy.

 

NSW Police has said it’s investigating the incident, and that CCTV footage captured a hooded person holding a small sledgehammer.

 

Mr Minns said the incident alienated the “overwhelming majority of Australians”.

 

“It (the damage) is a criminal act and you’ll be charged by police,” Mr Minns said.

 

“It’s not the kind of public debate the overwhelming majority of Australians want to have … no one wants to see violence or malicious damage, and I think it’s reprehensible.”

 

Mr Minns also made a clear warning against rising anti-Semitism in NSW, something he said was “regrettable”.

 

“I particularly want to say vilification of the Jewish community … anti-Semitism in NSW is on the rise,” he told reporters on Monday.

 

“That (anti-Semitism) is a shameful and regrettable event, and we need to make sure that we’ve got the laws in place to keep pace with contemporary events.”

 

The premier also lamented the “coarsening” of public debate and damage to electorate officers, urging people to make their point “without resorting to violence or malicious damage”.

 

“There’s a level of arrogance (of) occupying or preventing other constituents from seeing a local member of parliament, or even damaging a public building like the US consulate,” Mr Minns said.

 

“In the long run it probably does more damage to your cause by disrupting public life … It is malicious, often violent and it’s not what we want.”

 

Earlier on Monday, Anthony Albanese said it was “not the Australian way” and urged for tensions to be cooled.

 

“People should have respectful political debate and discourse that is in everyone’s interest,” the Prime Minister said.

 

“I reiterate my call to turn the heat down … measures such as painting the US consulate do nothing to advance the cause of those who have committed what is a crime.”

 

Hamas’ red triangle symbol has been used often by pro-Palestine activists in recent months, who tagged Mr Albanese’s electorate office with it last week.

 

Mr Minns also touched on NSW recording its first conviction under the state’s hate-speech laws, enclosed in section 93Z of the crimes act.

 

“Hate-speech laws, vilification laws in NSW are serious, they’re strong and they’ll be applied,” he said.

 

On Friday, in the first successful conviction since the offences 2018 enactment, an Indian man had an appeal to quash a 93Z conviction dismissed after his involvement in threats and a brawl in southwest Sydney in mid-2020.

 

“This is the first conviction and my government made a decision to allow police more authority and discretion to charge people with these offences,” Mr Minns said.

 

“Everybody has got a responsibility to ensure that when you live in NSW, there are obligations to not vilify and not incite hatred within our community.”

 

The US consulate is closed today for the King’s Birthday public holiday.

 

A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers were attending and investigating.

 

“Officers attached to North Shore Police Area Command were called to Miller St after a person damaged nine windows with a hammer shortly after 3am today,” she said.

 

“Graffiti was also painted on the door.

 

“Police have sourced CCTV following a canvass of the area which shows a person wearing a dark-coloured hoodie – with their face obscured – carrying what appears to be a small sledgehammer.”

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nsw-premier-chris-minns-blasts-reprehensible-us-consulate-damage-warns-of-rising-antisemitism/news-story/47ded51bd8a6546542c4e195447215e7

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 2:48 a.m. No.20998335   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8337

>>20895037

‘My heart burns, my blood boils’: Houli’s vow to speak up on Gaza suffering after King’s Birthday award

 

Michael Gleeson - June 9, 2024

 

1/2

 

Three-time Richmond premiership player and Muslim community leader Bachar Houli says he feels conflicted about receiving a King’s Birthday Honour while the Israel-Hamas war continues and that his blood boils at the suffering of innocent people in Gaza.

 

Houli has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the Islamic community, multiculturalism and Australian rules football. The 36-year-old former AFL champion used the occasion to urge the federal government to push harder for a ceasefire.

 

“The conflict that is happening around the world, particularly in Gaza, is affecting us, mate, and this recognition for me is quite hard at this given time,” said Houli, who retired from football in 2021.

 

“But the reality is this is not about me; it is about celebrating what the community has contributed to my life and doing our best to celebrate it while there is so much bad stuff happening around the world which nobody prays for. Everyone prays for peace, everyone prays for happiness, and that’s exactly what I hope for.”

 

Since October 7, when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza into southern Israel, killed 1200 Jews and took some 250 hostages, Hamas officials say more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed.

 

The Albanese government has called for a humanitarian ceasefire “so civilian life can be protected”, for the release of all Israeli hostages by Hamas, and for Israel to allow aid to flow into Gaza.

 

“They are his [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s] words, and hopefully, he sticks by that; that’s all our community and the wider community asks for,” Houli said.

 

“My culture, my background is Lebanese, and they are Palestinians, but the reality is we have something in common. That is that they are my brothers and sisters in faith, and my heart burns, my blood boils. The fact is that so many innocent people, civilians, are suffering as a result of this.”

 

Houli was the first devout Muslim to play top-level AFL when he was drafted to Essendon in 2006. He became a hero for the Tigers as an important player in the 2017, 2019 and 2020 premiership sides, and used his profile to advance understanding of Islam.

 

He created the Bachar Houli Foundation, a non-profit organisation run in collaboration with, and out of offices at, Richmond Football Club. The foundation gives about 5000 young Muslims each year the opportunity to participate in organised sport.

 

The retired footballer was criticised last October for reposting to social media a pro-Palestine video that he deleted several hours later after it was explained to him it had caused offence as it included factually incorrect information.

 

Houli said the incident had made him feel “sick in the guts because my intention was to create awareness”.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 2:49 a.m. No.20998337   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20998335

 

2/2

 

He is not the only sporting figure to have run into controversy while trying to make public statements about the conflict in the Middle East.

 

Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja was blocked from displaying a dove on his shoe and bat by the International Cricket Council last summer because the message was deemed too political, and instead opted to wear shoes bearing the names of his two daughters.

 

Houli said he did not consider himself a political person but vowed to continue to raise awareness of the suffering in Gaza.

 

“It’s not rocket science what’s happening around the world,” he said. “It’s out there and thank god for social media today, the fact that what we’re seeing today is what has been happening for a long, long time.

 

“I just looked at this thing from [soccer champion] Cristiano Ronaldo as well. He said, ‘I stand with you, with the Gaza kids.’ We need role models out there to continue to raise awareness. And once again, it comes back to peace.

 

“So if people want to look at it as otherwise, then you need to think twice and you need to really evaluate your thoughts and opinions because that’s what we asked for. That’s what we ask for. We ask for peace and happiness around the world, and we don’t want to see anyone suffer as a result,” Houli said.

 

“I personally want to continue to raise awareness, purely just say peace. I urge the Australian government and people in positions of power just to do their best to put a stop to this.

 

“That’s it, no message of hate. I’ve been always on the front foot working with our Jewish brothers and sisters. We’ve had interfaith programs and I’m the No.1 advocate for that and I will continue to be that, but we’re seeing what’s unfolding is affecting us all [and] I mean everyone.

 

“When you see innocent kids starved to death or women dying as a result, at the end of the day it’s humanity and that is all I stand for, and I will continue to stand for that no matter what faith or culture you belong to.”

 

Houli has established his own independent senior secondary school, the Islamic College of Sport, for young athletes in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs who might not fit in at other Islamic or mainstream schools.

 

“It is for kids who traditional academia was not for them but at the same time [are] being told by numerous Islamic schools you have to find another avenue in life or another school to continue your pathway,” he said.

 

“This is something I would have craved as a young man. I was pretty smart at school but far more into my sport than education, and for me this would have been ideal.”

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/my-heart-burns-my-blood-boils-houli-s-vow-to-speak-up-on-gaza-suffering-after-king-s-birthday-award-20240606-p5jjr7.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 3:07 a.m. No.20998353   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20895037

Vandals behead King George V statue in Melbourne on King’s Birthday

 

Najma Sambul - June 10, 2024

 

A statue of King George V has been beheaded and covered in red paint in Melbourne’s CBD in the latest attack by activists on colonial monuments in Victoria.

 

Police were called to the King George V statue in Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue, near the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, just after 9am on Monday.

 

Victoria and most other states in Australia held a public holiday on Monday to observe King Charles III’s birthday.

 

“It appears the head of the statue has been removed and red paint thrown at the monument,” a police spokesman said in a statement.

 

In a 54-second video posted to X by the Whistleblowers, Activists and Communities Alliance account @akaWACA, a group of people deface the statue as the song God Save the Queen by UK punk rock band the Sex Pistols plays.

 

One person, wearing a fluorescent green high-vis jacket, uses a power tool to cut off the head of the former British monarch’s statue in the early morning darkness.

 

As the video continues, a man in a black hoodie spray paints “the colony will fall” on the statue’s plinth, that was already red with paint.

 

In another shot, the video shows the statue’s head on the floor, with the words “Happy Birthday Motherf-cker” edited over the image.

 

The account @akaWACA did not claim responsibility for the act but did caption the video.

 

“We’ve been sent a birthday greeting for his majesty. Happy birthday mofo! #thecolonywillfall #landback #freepalestine From the river to the sea #alwayswasalwayswillbe,” the group wrote.

 

Some X users celebrated the statue’s demise, and one user wrote: “Down with all empires”.

 

A spokesman for the City of Melbourne said the council was aware of the “alleged incident of vandalism” at Kings Domain.

 

“The incident was reported to Victoria Police and council has covered the damaged statue while we assess the next steps,” the spokesman said.

 

Other statues have been the target of vandals this year, including a statue of Captain James Cook that was cut at the ankles before it toppled in Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne on February 27.

 

Another Captain Cook statue in St Kilda’s Jacka Boulevard was also sawn off at the ankles the day before Australia Day. At an Invasion Day rally in Melbourne on Australia Day, protesters cheered when a speaker mentioned that the statue had been damaged.

 

That same day, a statue of Queen Victoria at Queen Victoria Gardens, near the CBD, was covered in red paint and graffiti.

 

A second monument to Captain Cook at Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy was found broken and covered in graffiti over the Australia Day long weekend.

 

The repeated vandalism of statues depicting colonial figures has increased over the years, with memorials for Cook becoming the focal point of Australia Day protests amid growing discomfort over the country’s colonial past.

 

Two inner-city councils, Port Phillip and Yarra, have debated over the past year whether to remove Captain Cook monuments altogether.

 

According to the City of Melbourne, the King George V Memorial statue was erected in 1952 and funded by the council and public subscription. It was sculpted by renowned artist William Leslie Bowles.

 

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

 

https://www.crimestoppersvic.com.au/

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/vandals-behead-king-george-v-statue-in-melbourne-on-king-s-birthday-20240610-p5jko8.html

 

https://www.instagram.com/aka.waca/reel/C8A5tPghsWO/

 

https://x.com/akaWACA/status/1799992568379592818

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 3:43 a.m. No.20998381   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8384 >>8391

>>20841352 (pb)

>>20950665

Andrews, McGowan catch pair of Covid honours

 

Australia’s most polarising Covid-era premiers have been awarded the nation’s highest honour, with both recognised for their health policies

 

RACHEL BAXENDALE and PAUL GARVEY - June 9, 2024

 

1/3

 

Australia’s most polarising Covid-era premiers have been awarded the nation’s highest honour, with both recognised for their health policies ­despite one presiding over one of the world’s longest lockdowns and a botched hotel quarantine program that led to the deaths of more than 800 people, and the other having closed the borders of his state for almost two years.

 

Daniel Andrews has received a Companion of the Order of Australia for “eminent service to the people and parliament of Victoria, to public health, to policy and regulatory reform, and to infrastructure development” while Mark McGowan receives the same award for “eminent service to the people and parliament of Western Australia, to public health and education, and to international trade relations”.

 

The former Labor leaders are the biggest winners from the 2024 King’s Birthday honours, along with incoming governor-general Samantha Mostyn. Other well-known recipients include cricket great Glenn McGrath, Future Fund chairman and former ALP minister Greg Combet, cancer researcher Karen Canfell, inter­national arts boss Jonathan Mills. Late opposition leader and minister Simon Crean received a posthumous AC.

 

Both premiers were most prominent on the national stage at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and their citations for “eminent service … to public health” largely refer to these roles.

 

Mr McGowan’s citation for services to “international trade relations” comes after he pushed for a softer stance on China and labelled the Morrison government’s security-led position on the superpower “insane”; Mr Andrews’ citation for “policy and regulatory reform” and “infrastructure development” comes after he left his state budget on a trajectory to hit more than $187bn in net debt within the next four years.

 

Victoria’s representative on the 19-member body that considers nominations for the awards – the Council for the Order of Australia – is Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule. While The Australian is not suggesting Mr Moule has in any way acted improperly, his position on the council is likely to raise questions over the potential for a conflict of interest, given he was appointed to his $700,000-plus role as Victoria’s most senior public servant by Mr Andrews.

 

Mr Andrews, who has registered two companies since he left office last year, issued a statement this week saying he was “honoured to have been nominated” for his AC and “grateful to every Victorian who contributed to some of our state’s best times and who worked so hard to see us through our most challenging”.

 

“I thank the Victorian community for their support for me and my team in leading our state for nine years. That remains the greatest honour of my life,” he said.

 

Mr McGowan, who now has a number of consultancy and advisory roles, said in a statement he was “very humbled and honoured” to receive the award “and would like to thank whoever nominated me”.

 

“My deep gratitude goes to the people of WA for being so kind to me,” he said

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 3:44 a.m. No.20998384   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8386

>>20998381

 

2/3

 

Mr Andrews and Mr McGowan led the Labor Party in their respective states for more than a decade, with the Victorian serving as premier for almost nine years before resigning in September, and his West Australian counterpart spending six years in that state’s top job ahead of his resignation a year ago.

 

During the pandemic, Mr Andrews inspired admiration from some and loathing from others for an authoritarian approach to controlling the spread of the virus.

 

“You won’t be able to go to the pub because the pub is shut,” Mr Andrews famously said in one of his early Covid-19 press conferences in March 2020. “That doesn’t mean you can have all your mates around to (your) home and get on the beers, that’s not appropriate.

 

“It’s not essential, it’s not needed, and all it will do is spread the virus.”

 

Melburnians were subjected to six lockdowns totalling 262 days, with the restrictions at times extending to 8pm curfews and bans on children using playgrounds.

 

Victoria’s longest lockdown, which lasted 111 days from July to October 2020, was sparked by ­infection-control breaches in the hotel quarantine program established by the Andrews government. The hotel quarantine leaks ultimately led to the deaths of 801 people, including 642 in aged-care facilities.

 

An inquiry established by Mr Andrews and led by retired judge Jennifer Coate ultimately found that the Andrews government’s fateful decision to use security guards to enforce infection control was not made by any single person, but was the product of Victoria Police commissioner Graham Ashton’s preference that the role not be performed by police.

 

When Victoria’s final lockdown ended in October 2021, the state accounted for almost two-thirds of Covid deaths in Australia.

 

Mr McGowan’s award will similarly reignite debate about his handling of the pandemic in WA.

 

Under him, the state shut itself off from the rest of the country for almost 700 days, a move that caused heartache for families cut off from one another during that period but won him an extraordinary amount of popularity among state voters.

 

The border closure effectively kept Covid out of the state, allowed the mining industry to continue largely uninterrupted, led to the fewest days of lockdown of any state, and meant the vast majority of the WA population was vaccinated by the time Covid gained a foothold there. The border closures tapped into the West’s sense of parochialism and propelled Labor in 2021 to the biggest election victory of any party in Australian history – reducing the Liberals to just two of 59 lower house seats and giving his party absolute control over both houses of parliament – even as it fractured Mr McGowan’s relationship with members of the Morrison government and national cabinet colleagues such as then-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian.

 

The citation’s mention of Mr McGowan’s services to health will raise eyebrows, given the state’s hospital system was arguably the biggest black mark of his time in office. WA’s health system groaned through the pandemic years with record-high levels of ambulance ramping, widespread cancellation of elective surgeries, and surging discontent among doctors and nurses.

 

The death of seven-year-old schoolgirl Aishwarya Aswath after she was left waiting for hours for help at the Perth Children’s Hospital became emblematic of the state’s health system woes.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 3:46 a.m. No.20998386   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20998384

 

3/3

 

In Victoria, Mr Andrews won three elections and earned a reputation as one of the most ruthlessly effective Australian politicians of the modern era, but less than a year after his departure from politics, the state is headed for $187.8bn in net debt by 2027-28 — more than the projected net debt of NSW, Queensland and Tasmania combined.

 

A significant source of the rising debt has been the ballooning of the public service, with a wage bill forecast to reach $39.9bn in 2027-28 — more than double the $18.7bn Labor inherited when it came to government in 2014.

 

Attempts to keep the debt in check have led to Victoria becoming the highest-taxing state in the nation, with the introduction of a raft of property taxes, as well as payroll tax levies to fund mental health initiatives and Covid debt repayment. Another key contributor to state debt has been blowouts in the Andrews government’s infrastructure “big build”.

 

Mr Andrews succeeded initially with the electorally successful level crossing removal program and the soon-to-open Melbourne Metro rail tunnel, but the government found itself increasingly unable to control spending. The level crossing removals, Metro tunnel, West Gate tunnel and countless smaller initiatives have collectively contributed to infrastructure cost blowouts totalling more than $40bn since Labor came to power.

 

The rising debt and a failure to foresee the cost of hosting the Commonwealth Games in regional Victoria in 2026 forced Mr Andrews into making an embarrassing decision to cancel them.

 

Meanwhile, doubts abound about the government’s capacity to build the former premier’s signature major infrastructure commitment, the Suburban Rail Loop, with the federal government so far committing $2.2bn for the $34.5bn first stage of the project, which Victoria’s Parliamentary Budget Office estimates could cost as much as $200bn to complete.

 

Labor under Mr Andrews implemented a range of policy and regulatory changes, including reforming rental laws, introducing voluntary assisted dying, enabling Victorians to choose the sex on their birth certificates, legalising medicinal cannabis, and establishing a state Indigenous voice to parliament.

 

Mr Andrews will also be remembered for his capacity to shrug off damning findings of multiple anti-corruption inquiries into his government, relating to government grants to unions, ALP branch-stacking and the premier’s personal links to a property developer.

 

With some questions arising over the role of his once-top civil servant on the honours committee, a spokesman for the Council of the Order of Australia said the organisation did not comment on individual considerations when asked whether Mr Moule recused himself in discussions about Mr Andrew’s AC.

 

“However, speaking generally decisions are made by consensus and informed by the original nomination and subsequent independent research. Council members may advise their colleagues of any prior relationship with a nominee,” he said.

 

Mr Moule, a former journalist and women’s basketball league commissioner, was promoted in October after his predecessor, Chris Eccles, resigned when it was revealed he had phoned Mr Ashton at the height of deliberations over the establishment of Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, contradicting his evidence to the inquiry into the failed scheme.

 

Beyond Covid, Mr McGowan’s key political achievement was securing the GST floor deal with the Turnbull government. That has guaranteed WA keeps at least 70c of every dollar of GST it raises and has delivered billions of extra dollars into the state’s coffers.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/daniel-andrews-and-mark-mcgowan-made-companions-of-the-order-of-australia/news-story/87f465a668e9999b0aeda75a06139151

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZOR0jlUKzY

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 3:55 a.m. No.20998391   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20998381

Jeff Kennett: Awarding Daniel Andrews a Companion of the Order of Australia devalues it beyond recognition

 

Bestowing the highest civilian award in Australia on Daniel Andrews has devalued it beyond recognition and reeks of political interference. The decision must be overturned.

 

Jeff Kennett - June 10, 2024

 

Victorians, every Australian should be outraged that the individual who has so destroyed the opportunities for generations in this state has been granted the highest civilian award in Australia.

 

In doing so, the awards under the Order of Australia have been devalued beyond recognition.

 

In awarding the highest honour to Mr Andrews, the Governor-General, and the Secretariat that manages the awarding of honours, have rewarded gross financial mismanagement of Victoria, the deaths of more than 800 Victorians, and manifest failure of Mr Andrews to discharge his responsibilities under the Westminster system.

 

Worse the awarding of the AC to Mr Andrews reeks of political interference and direction to the Governor-General and the Secretariat.

 

Rarely, if ever, does a politician get an award while in office, so you can assume the process for awarding Mr Andrews only started when he resigned on 26th September last year, only eight months ago.

 

Certainly, individuals get recognised for their positive contribution to Australians and Australian life.

 

You could say that was certainly the case of the former premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan, who also received an AC.

 

He resigned on June 8 last year but left his state in a much better condition than when he inherited it.

 

But Mr Andrews by no definition meets this.

 

On two measures in the citation that accompanies Mr Andrews’ award - health and infrastructure - he has failed.

 

Certainly, the third, reform, when he failed to accept responsibility for his actions that so disadvantaged his community.

 

Australians, and certainly Victorians, who have been adversely affected by these activities should write to the Governor-General, requesting this award be immediately withdrawn.

 

This award has either been lodged well before the nominee resigned from office or was fast-tracked.

 

The process behind this nomination needs to be clearly transparently and publicly established.

 

Normally citizens get recognised for community work they have done over and above their paid employment.

 

To my knowledge not only has Mr Andrews not done any eminent community service, but he has also abjectly failed any objective test on the matters for which he received the recognition.

 

Victorian citizens are going to pay heavily, for decades, for the failures of Mr Andrews.

 

Under no circumstances should he have been recognised for an Order of Australia Award.

 

He should give it back, or we Victorians should write to the Governor-General asking that he revoke the award.

 

Write to: His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Government House, Dunrossil Drive, Yarralumla, ACT 2600, or email the Governor-General here:

 

https://www.gg.gov.au/office-official-secretary-governor-general/email-contacts

 

If this award is not rescinded, one would have to ask whether awards under the Order of Australia have any relevance given in Mr Andrews’ case they have been so totally and Actually Corrupted (AC).

 

Jeff Kennett was premier of Victoria from 1992 to 1999, served two stints as Hawthorn Football Club president and was the founding chairman of Beyond Blue.

 

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/jeff-kennett-awarding-daniel-andrews-a-companion-of-the-order-of-australia-devalues-it-beyond-recognition/news-story/df9f6512f3a58d947d6fa855a891971c

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 4:01 a.m. No.20998398   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20993031

Stop using Trump-like tactics on climate change, independent MPs warn Dutton

 

Shane Wright - June 10, 2024

 

Teal independents have accused Peter Dutton of putting the country’s economic and environmental future at risk by abandoning the Paris Agreement, while sharpening their pre-election attack lines on the Liberal Party as it seeks to win back wealthy seats in the capital cities.

 

Independents Allegra Spender, Monique Ryan and Zoe Daniel said Dutton’s decision to ditch Australia’s 2030 targets to cut emissions by 43 per cent while promising to achieve net zero by 2050 would push investment out of the country to nations that recognised the environmental risks.

 

Dutton told The Australian newspaper on Saturday that he would take a radically different energy policy to the next election, with a focus on natural gas in the short term with a longer-term commitment to nuclear power.

 

“There’s no sense in signing up to targets you don’t have any prospect of achieving,” he said, in reference to the government’s 2030 target.

 

The government said it was already on track for a 42 per cent reduction in emissions, before policies that were included in last month’s budget.

 

Spender, the MP for Wentworth in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, described Dutton’s plan as reckless. It would add 2.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over the next five years.

 

She said withdrawing from the Paris Agreement would destroy Australia’s international reputation and investor confidence in the country.

 

“I’m really concerned about the impact of this on business confidence and business investment,” she told this masthead.

 

“This isn’t just a disaster for the environment, this is an economic disaster that would deliver long-term problems.”

 

Last week, Dutton visited Ryan’s seat of Kooyong in Melbourne, which she won from then treasurer Josh Frydenberg at the 2022 election.

 

Ryan said Dutton did not mention his change in policy during the visit, knowing that the people of Kooyong would have deep concerns about such a “ridiculous” position that appeared to be driven by the Nationals and elements of the fossil-fuels industry.

 

She said abandoning the 2030 target while focusing on nuclear power would effectively stall investment now under way nationally in renewables and critical minerals.

 

“I think moderate members of the Liberal Party will have real problems with this. It just brings into question his [Dutton’s] leadership,” she said.

 

Zoe Daniel, who won the neighbouring Melbourne seat of Goldstein from Liberal Tim Wilson, said Dutton was trying to reignite the political war over climate change on the back of policy backsliding and a “campaign of misinformation”.

 

“I doubt the Goldstein community will take kindly to Mr Dutton spouting unedited lines out of the [Donald] Trump playbook, blaming migrants for every problem from congestion to pressure on the health system while following Trump’s example of pulling out of Paris,” she said.

 

“The choice for those who voted out Liberals to elect independents will be very clear at the next election – do you want positive, forward-focused, reasoned and collaborative policymakers or do you want to return to the politics of fear where everything from climate to immigration is weaponised?”

 

The opposition’s plan would break from the terms of the Paris Agreement, which demands signatories increase their emissions goal every five years. The Albanese government is committed to set a 2035 target by February.

 

The plan is also at odds with findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the United Nations’ expert science body – that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out to meet the Paris Agreement. The Abbott government signed Australia to the agreement in 2015.

 

Liberal frontbencher David Coleman said the Coalition would make clear its emissions policy by the next election, which is expected in May next year.

 

He told ABC television that the Coalition was still committed to the Paris Agreement and to reaching net zero by 2050, saying the government’s own 2030 target could not be met.

 

“We are absolutely committed to the 2050 target and to the Paris Agreement, but we won’t maintain a Chris Bowen fantasy when it plainly won’t happen. Why would we?” he said on Sunday.

 

But Bowen, the climate change minister, said under the Coalition’s plans, emissions would climb, power bills would increase, and Australia risked being ignored by investors who were prepared to sink cash into net zero projects.

 

“If you take Australia out of the Paris accord, by reducing your targets or not having one, you are sending the message to investors around the world that you’re not open for business, that you want to be considered alongside Libya, Iran and Yemen,” he said.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/stop-using-trump-like-tactics-on-climate-change-independent-mps-warn-dutton-20240609-p5jkd9.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 4:11 a.m. No.20998413   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20903732

>>20950629

Top US general Stephen Sklenka says an Asia-Pacific NATO would help him sleep at night

 

Peter Hartcher - June 10, 2024

 

A top Chinese general recently accused the United States of a hidden agenda to create a version of NATO in the Asia-Pacific, and now a senior American officer has welcomed the idea.

 

As the number of Asia-Pacific security arrangements has been increasing year by year, China’s Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this month: “The true motive of the US is to converge small circles into a big circle, that is an Asian-Pacific version of NATO, to maintain the US-led hegemony.”

 

Jiang, deputy chief of China’s Joint Staff Department at the Central Military Commission of the People’s Liberation Army, said Washington was “tying the region’s countries to the US war chariot”.

 

In response, America’s Lieutenant General Stephen Sklenka said he would “sleep better at night” if there were a NATO-type collective defence treaty in the region, but that no such plans were afoot.

 

The Chinese Communist Party should “look in the mirror” and ask why countries in the region were forming new partnerships with each other but not with Beijing, said Sklenka.

 

“If it didn’t notice, none of these countries are running to the Chinese to look for partnerships,” he said, because the region was “nervous” about China’s intentions.

 

Asked whether a collective defence treaty between the US and its Indo-Pacific allies was conceivable or desirable, Sklenka told this masthead: “Those of us at Indopacom would sleep better at night if we had something like a NATO out here, but that’s not happening.

 

“But my retort to that is no, instead of castigating those relationships, the Chinese should probably look in the mirror and ask themselves why have these arrangements come into fruition.

 

“Why did the Quad [a security dialogue embracing the US, India, Japan and Australia] come into play? Because these countries are nervous, they’re nervous about the direction the CCPs going,” said Sklenka, a US Marines officer and the deputy commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, the largest of the US regional commands. He was in Australia as the 2024 Australian-American Leadership Dialogue scholar.

 

The US has no collective military alliance in Asia like the 32-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Instead, it maintains a series of alliances, a so-called “hub and spoke” set-up. These include defence treaties with Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand.

 

But as China’s territorial ambition has grown and the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency looms, countries in the Indo-Pacific have banded together in a range of new or enlarged defensive arrangements. Most, but not all, include the US.

 

The US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, told the Shangri-La Dialogue that Washington recently “secured a series of historic agreements with our allies and partners to transform our force posture throughout the Indo-Pacific”.

 

US, Japanese and South Korean forces were training together in “unprecedented” ways, he said. And this was “just a starting point”, Austin added. Regional nations were engineering a historic “convergence” of their defence interests by creating a “set of overlapping and complementary initiatives and institutions”, he said.

 

Sklenka said in the interview that recent Chinese military manoeuvres against the Australian navy in international waters were “aggressive actions against you, but it’s not just against you – it’s against the entire system [of rules] and that’s why it concerns so many people. I’m not entirely sure the PLA truly understands this”.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/this-us-general-says-an-asia-pacific-nato-would-help-him-sleep-at-night-20240609-p5jkdt.html

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 4:17 a.m. No.20998419   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20710546 (pb)

>>20937530

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says China Premier Li Qiang will visit this week

 

Reuters/ABC - 10 June 2024

 

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced that China's premier, Li Qiang, will visit the country this week.

 

It will be the first trip to the nation by a Chinese premier since Li Keqiang's visit in 2017.

 

Mr Luxon, speaking at a post-cabinet press conference on Monday, local time, said the visit would be a valuable opportunity for exchanges on areas of cooperation between the two countries.

 

"New Zealand and China engage where we have shared interests, and we speak frankly and constructively with each other where we have differences," he said.

 

"Our relationship is significant, complex, and resilient.

 

"The challenging global outlook makes it vital that we are sharing perspectives and engaging China on key issues that matter to New Zealand," he added.

 

China is New Zealand's top trading partner, with two-way goods and services trade reaching nearly NZ$38 billion ($35 billion) in the year ending March 2024, according to Statistics New Zealand.

 

Mr Li's visit will mark the second high-profile visit from a high-ranking Chinese official to the country this year, with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi visiting in late March.

 

New Zealand has long been seen as a moderate or absent voice on China in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, but in recent years has spoken up about what it considers to be concerning actions by Beijing.

 

During Mr Yi's March visit, ministers discussed trade, business and security in the Pacific, as well as "areas of difference" including human rights and the situation in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet, according to a statement after the visit.

 

Mr Luxon said on Monday he was confident that trade with China would continue to grow, supporting the government's goal to double the value of exports in the next decade.

 

The government has not yet released the dates for Mr Li's visit.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-10/new-zealand-pm-says-china-premier-li-qiang-to-visit-this-week/103960622

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 4:29 a.m. No.20998450   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8455

>>20983654

Anthony Fauci: ‘America’s doctor’ put under the microscope

 

Former US Covid-19 tsar Anthony Fauci amusingly said he ‘had kept an open mind’ about the origins of Covid-19 after originally rubbishing the idea the virus might have leaked from a lab.

 

ADAM CREIGHTON - June 8, 2024

 

1/2

 

“When you make it difficult for people in their lives, they lose their ideological bullshit and they get vaccinated.”

 

Dr Anthony Fauci didn’t appear to enjoy being reminded of his 2021 advocacy of de facto compulsory Covid-19 vaccination during his interrogation by congress this week, quibbling that he’d been misunderstood.

 

It was a humiliating four hours of testimony on Monday for the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whose role in convincing governments to impose lockdowns, school closures, mask and vaccine mandates is looking more and more destructive as time goes by.

 

If only there’d been more respect for “ideological bullshit” – also known as human rights, including free speech – throughout the pandemic the US and the developed world might have avoided one of the greatest public policy fiascos in history.

 

“What’s funny is everything I was censored on, I was proven to be right,” said Republican congressman and former emergency room physician Rich McCormick, who railed against bureaucrats dictating how he could treat his patients during the pandemic.

 

“I want to point out that I’m probably the only member of congress that actually treated patients during the pandemic from the very beginning to the very end,” he said, noting that Fauci had treated none.

 

The select subcommittee hearing featured fiery attacks from Republicans, including from congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who demanded Fauci be jailed. “Children were put in plastic bubbles because of your repulsive evil science, healthy children were forced to wear masks, muzzled in their schools, forced to learn from home,” she said. But the histrionics weren’t necessary to condemn the former Covid-19 tsar.

 

Fauci, 83, conceded the “six feet apart” rule, the intellectual underpinning of lockdowns, wasn’t based on science or even logic. “It just sort of appeared,” he said, referencing a policy that induced world war levels of debt, money printing and inflation.

 

“It was felt that transmission was primarily through droplets, not aerosols, which is incorrect because we know now aerosol does play a role,” Fauci said, pointing out that SARS-CoV-2 floats in the air, making a mockery of masks, distancing and the costly plastic barriers that popped up in shops everywhere.

 

No wonder evidence that the draconian measures made any difference remains scant, in the US and globally, not least because Sweden, which eschewed Fauci’s advice, ended up with among the lowest cumulative excess deaths of any nation.

 

By contrast, evidence that children, especially from low-income families, have suffered permanent learning loss equivalent to years of education has become incontrovertible.

 

Fauci, in his first public testimony since retiring at the end of 2022, even said he agreed with the erstwhile head of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, who last year conceded lockdowns were a mistake.

 

At a conference in July last year, Collins said the public health advice was concerned only with saving lives from Covid-19: “It doesn’t matter what else happens … This is a public health mindset and I think a lot of us involved in trying to make those recommendations had that mindset and that was really unfortunate. It’s another mistake we made,” Collins said. Next time, Fauci surmised, public health officials should “consider the balance”.

 

Once dubbed “America’s doctor”, Fauci told the subcommittee that deaths of “5000 a day” from Covid-19 early in the pandemic justified a tough response. But, according to official data, deaths never exceeded 2500 a day in 2020 in the US, a nation of 330 million people. Indeed, adjusted for years of life lost, the Covid-19 toll would be much less shocking given the advanced age of the vast bulk of the disease’s victims.

 

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 5f1a63 June 10, 2024, 4:31 a.m. No.20998455   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>20998450

 

2/2

 

It wasn’t only the quality of Fauci’s advice, pushing measures that no nation’s pandemic plan ever recommended for a virus with a lethality as small as Covid-19, that was proved wanting. US health officials even may have had a hand indirectly in the creation of the virus given US grant funding of the Chinese lab, which could carry out the risky gain-of-function research that was restricted in the US.

 

Fauci insisted he’d “kept an open mind” about Covid’s origins, despite repeatedly pushing academic papers in 2020 that discounted what by now has become the likeliest explanation for the pandemic: SARS-CoV-2 leaked accidentally from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

 

“I cannot account, nor can anyone account, for other things that might be going on in China,” Fauci told the subcommittee, conceding the virus might well have been engineered and leaked in Wuhan – a radical change from his previous public statements.

 

Fauci also conceded one of his top assistants, David Morens, potentially had broken the law by communicating with him and other top scientists by private email to avoid freedom of information laws.

 

The resurrection of the demonised lab leak theory, once censored vigorously by social media giants at the government’s insistence, has been remarkable.

 

In 2021 The New York Times’ science writer said it had “racist roots”. This week that same newspaper ran an essay suggesting a lab leak was the likeliest origin. “A growing volume of evidence – gleaned from public records … digital sleuthing through online databases, scientific papers analysing the virus and its spread, and leaks from within the US government – suggests that the pandemic most likely occurred because a virus escaped from a research lab in Wuhan, China,” molecular biologist Alina Chan wrote on Monday.

 

Perhaps Fauci’s greatest humiliation is yet to come, as the near religious veneration accorded to the Covid-19 vaccines begins to crumble.

 

This week British newspaper The Telegraph reported studies suggesting the vaccines in part could be behind the surge in excess deaths in developed nations after the rollout began, something unthinkable only a year ago.

 

Fauci had assured Americans the vaccines, developed under emergency authorisation, stopped transmission and infection, despite clear evidence from the start they did not.

 

“It’s important to point out something that we did not know early on that became evident as the months went by: the durability of protection against infection and hence the transmission was relatively limited,” he testified this week.

 

In fact, in late 2020 the US Food and Drug Administration already had concluded that “data were not available to make a determination about how long the vaccine will provide protection, nor is there evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from person to person”.

 

Fauci’s testimony was an extraordinary reminder of how much top bureaucrats arrogantly got wrong early in the pandemic, conclusions that surely will become only more damning.

 

“If you came down and visited me and interviewed my patients … you’d interview patient after patient after patient that did not have Covid but are very sick,” former US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield, who was shunned by Fauci and others early in the pandemic for arguing the virus might have leaked, told journalist Chris Cuomo this week. “You would say very sick, long Covid patients. And it’s all from the vaccine.”

 

The reckoning is far from over.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/anthony-faucis-testimony-before-congress-reveals-experts-got-little-right-during-the-pandemic/news-story/90d2c551a80a7290b87f0eda96ba9554