From January 1 2026, ... all new cars sold in China will need handles that can be manually opened in an emergency, even when a car has lost power. The US is currently considering a similar move.

The ban followed a series of sometimes fatal incidents, where people were trapped inside burning, flooded or frozen cars, with doors unable to be opened from the outside.

Australia risks becoming a “dumping” ground for electric cars following the introduction of new Chinese safety rules from next year, a report for Australian car dealers has warned.

The Australian Automotive Dealers’ Association – which represents 3,900 new car and truck dealers – recently released an independent report by legal expert Emeritus Professor Jenny Buchan.

It largely focused on problems with drivers getting car repairs done under Australian consumer law. But the report also concluded:

Australia should not ignore the risk of stock dumping following China’s approach to EVs with flush door handles. The US has also recognised the problems flush door handles cause and responded by introducing a bill to the House of Representatives.

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A team of researchers from Stanford University, La Trobe University and Australian National University conducted a series of simulations to test the vulnerability of Australia’s economic and strategic lifelines.

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The simulations tested the abilities of the Australian, US and Indian militaries to respond to two possible crisis scenarios involving China.

[The research] demonstrated that maritime trading routes required protection across the full length of the Indian Ocean, not just in waters close to Australia.

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Under certain conditions ... a single successful attack on shipping in the central Indian Ocean could severely disrupt trade across the entire region. It could trigger prohibitive war-risk premiums from shipping insurers, costly route diversions, or the withdrawal of commercial traffic from the Indian Ocean altogether.

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Australia has the world’s largest Indian Ocean coastline. Despite this geographic reality, Canberra’s focus rarely extends beyond the part of the ocean closest to Australian territory.

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Both the 2024 National Defence Strategy and the 2026 National Defence Strategy identify this part of the northeast Indian Ocean as Australia’s primary area of military interest, alongside maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

In some ways, this makes sense ... But China’s underwater capabilities – both manned and unmanned – pose a growing challenge to Australia’s security interests across the entire Indian Ocean.

In peacetime, China’s submarine presence in the ocean is constrained by the vast distances from its mainland bases. However, access to ports in partner countries such as Djibouti or Pakistan could potentially allow Chinese submarines to spend longer periods of time in the region.

Even a relatively small number of Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean could force Australia and its partners to devote substantial resources to anti-submarine warfare and maritime surveillance.

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Other actors could further boost China’s capacity to disrupt Australian interests in the ocean. These include Iran and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are now blockading Saudi ports in the Red Sea.

These actors would not need to coordinate closely with China. Nor would they even need to pursue identical objectives. Simply creating disruptions at key points across the Indian Ocean could make it harder for Australia and its partner navies to maintain sea control and protect commercial shipping.

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Australia’s defence strategy in the Indian Ocean relies on its partnerships ... For Beijing, this cooperation is concerning because it could eventually outweigh China’s own capabilities.

Protecting sea lanes and tracking underwater threats in the ocean will require Australia’s partner countries to seamlessly share data and intelligence during a crisis. And building these lines of communication now will be far easier than doing it when problems emerge.

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In a related report, the Austrian Strategic Policy Institute reports that Japan’s economic security minister is visiting. Australia needs one, too,

The visit to Australia this week by Kimi Onoda, Japan’s minister responsible for science, technology and economic security, is a reminder that the strength of the Australia–Japan relationship depends on the depth of its economic foundations. It is also a reminder that Australia currently lacks a position equivalent to Onoda’s role in Japan’s cabinet – a minister with a remit to coordinate economic security across the departments responsible for industrial policy and national security.

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: Later today (July 27) 2:pm nsw time the government will issue what is called aus alert which means every phone in Australia will have an alarm at the exact same time. If you are someone that uses a safety phone it is best to turn it off for 24 hours. I would also recommend avoiding traffic or any situation that could cause danger to the governments poorly planned aus alert. I hope this does not cause to much chaos.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/35023765

Leading AI researchers now expect artificial general intelligence (AGI) – where AI meets or exceeds human intellectual capabilities – within three to five years. When AGI automates thinking, the economy will need to reorganise around what machines cannot do: feel.

We are already in the intimacy economy. But if we are to thrive within it, we must wrestle back our most valuable economic asset from technology: the messy complexities of being human. My generation are the begrudging harbingers of what will happen if we continue to outsource intimacy: we will lose the emotional skills a post-AGI economy will depend on most, rendering us unemployable. We knew social media was addictive and slowing our cognitive development, but officials took until this year to act. We can’t make the same mistake with the intimacy economy.

Our new report, A Ripple Effect of Suffering, shines a light on these impacts. We interviewed over 100 children, young people and members of their families and support networks, and documented the harm children and young people are experiencing in the shadow of Australia’s immigration detention and deportation systems.

Australia’s Migration Act requires the detention of any non-citizen who is in the country without a valid visa. This applies to people who arrive at the border without authorisation. It also applies to people whose visas have expired or been cancelled for reasons such as failing the character test, breaching their visa conditions or presenting a risk to the safety, health or good order of the community.

Around 61% of the detention population is people who’ve had their visa cancelled. Many have been part of Australian society for years or even decades and have families in Australia. Often their children are Australian citizens.

When detention culminates in deportation, these families may face permanent separation...

Food poverty, bill stress and housing insecurity are common, especially when the parent in question was the family’s main breadwinner.

While China has cracked down on AI companions, Australia has been leading the charge on young people’s use of social media.... but [doesn't] address social harms of AI companions, such as emotional dependency or displacing human connection.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also didn’t mention social harms from AI chatbots in his major speech on AI last week.

We propose that Australia’s age-restricted material protections should extend to unintended social harm of conversations with social, analytical and functional AIs.

The Australian government needs to explore how these virtual companions interact with Australians. And we must prepare to mitigate unintended social harms before these synthetic social connections become widespread and normalised.

Australia must prioritise developing social connectedness – in workplaces, productivity strategies, education curriculum, and in the design of our communities...

And Australia should leverage regulatory protections to mitigate social harms, extending on the work eSafety is already doing with social media.

Let's celebrate a bit some positive news! We can fully celebrate when the compensation actually goes through!

One Nation leader labels family violence leave ‘ridiculous’ and decries ‘woke’ support of women’s rights in November podcast

An international fracas involving Chinese diplomats has erupted on the sidelines of the Labor Party’s National Conference in Adelaide after The Nightly this week revealed a Taiwanese representative had been invited to the event.

The Nightly on Tuesday detailed how a member of Taiwan’s de facto embassy had been granted permission to attend the conference as an “observer” for the first time in years, along with diplomats from other embassies including the United States and China.

Chinese officials, who have long pressured the Australian government to limit interactions with Taiwan, have reacted furiously to the move claiming it is in breach of the government’s long-standing One China policy.

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According to witnesses the veteran ALP operative calmly explained to the Chinese delegation that the conference was taking part in a democratic country, and the Taiwanese representative was a “general observer” and did not have a diplomatic pass.

Mr Erickson, who is credited as one of the key masterminds behind Labor’s election wins in 2022 and 2025 then made it clear that the member of Taiwan’s TECO would be allowed to remain at the conference.

Sources claim that organisers have this year reduced the number of embassy representatives allowed to attend the ALP gathering because of the large presence of Chinese diplomats who attended the 2023 event.

The Labor Party earlier confirmed that other international delegates, including representatives from the UK Labour Party, would also attend this year but as observers rather than formal conference speakers.

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Last month The West Australian revealed Chinese officials had been accused of harassing and intimidating pro-democracy activists who gathered in Perth for a nighttime vigil to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Organisers of the June 4 event, claim the alleged foreign interference by the local consulate even included the family of one participant being threatened by police back in China.

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