[...]

"We are not going to be holding hands with China in respect of any contest that is going on in the world," Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told Sky News, referring to the Chinese ambassador's proposal for countries to "join hands" on trade.

"We are not doing that. What we are doing is pursuing Australia's national interests and diversifying our trade around the world."

He said Australia would build its economic resilience by strengthening trade ties with the European Union, Indonesia, India, Britain and the Middle East.

[...]

US President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on "reciprocal" tariffs that had just been placed on imports from dozens of countries.

Those countries will now by subject to the 10 per cent baseline tariff, rather than the additional tariffs announced by the president last week.

In the same social media post, Mr Trump said he was again increasing the tariff on Chinese goods to 125 per cent.

New Zealand is not exactly known as a major military power.

For decades the country has relied on its geographical isolation and the reassuring presence of the Australian Defence Force on its western flank, rather than building up its own forces.

But as the world becomes more perilous and uncertain, all that is changing rapidly.

Yesterday afternoon NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon unveiled perhaps the most significant boost to NZ's defence spending in years — promising to almost double defence spending over the next eight years.

Archive/non-paywall link.

In short:

Donald Trump's newest round of tariffs mean virtually all imports to the US — including from Australia — will be hit with an import tax of at least 10 per cent.

Australia has avoided a higher "reciprocal" tariff rate, which is being placed on imports from specific countries deemed to have treated America poorly.

What's next?

Some of America's trading partners are preparing retaliatory measures, such as counter-tariffs. Australia says it would prefer to work through a dispute settlement process in the nations' free trade agreement, but hopes it doesn't come to that.

Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one United Nations employee, were killed by Israeli forces “one by one” and buried in a mass grave eight days ago in southern Gaza, the UN has said.

According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and civil defence workers were on a mission to rescue colleagues who had been shot at earlier in the day, when their clearly marked vehicles came under heavy Israeli fire in Rafah city’s Tel al-Sultan district. A Red Crescent official in Gaza said that there was evidence of at least one person being detained and killed, as the body of one of the dead had been found with his hands tied.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31652140

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has described another threatening letter sent to an exiled Hong Kong dissident in Australia as “reprehensible”, a “threat to our national sovereignty” and “the safety and security of Australians”.

The anonymous letter, mailed from Hong Kong and sent to Ted Hui’s Adelaide office, offered his colleagues $203,000 for information on his whereabouts and his family. It arrived just days after China’s foreign ministry accused the Albanese government of interfering with its internal affairs.

The letter, which contained a picture of Hui and personal details, claimed he was a “wanted person” for a “range of national security related offences including incitement to secession” and “collusion with a foreign country”. It is now being investigated by Australian federal police.

The letter also accuses Hui, who fled to Australia via Europe in 2019, of leaving Hong Kong with $3m in proceeds of crime. Hui, who was a pro-democracy legislator in Hong Kong, denies that claim and says it is “fictitious”.

[...]

A spokesperson for Wong escalated the Albanese government’s condemnation of the letters on Wednesday and said the matter would be directly raised with Chinese officials.

“Continued attempts to target individuals in Australia are reprehensible and threaten our national sovereignty, as well as the safety and security of Australians,” the spokesperson said.

“Australia will not tolerate the targeting, surveillance, harassment or intimidation of any person in Australia by a foreign government.

“The Australian government and our security agencies are acting to keep Australians safe, protect their democratic rights, and support affected individuals and communities.”

When Wong first raised concerns about the letters earlier this month, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, accused the Australian government of unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31221791

A small number of Melbourne residents have received anonymous letters purporting to offer a police bounty of $203,000 if they inform on Kevin Yam, an Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist wanted for alleged national security crimes in Hong Kong, linking him to two nearby locations.

A spokesperson for the [Australian] foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, [said] the letter was “deeply worrying” and that the matter would be raised directly with officials from China and Hong Kong.

The anonymous letter – mailed from Hong Kong and delivered to some Melbourne homes on Friday – contained a photograph of Yam with a headline alleging he was a “wanted person”. It then detailed a range of alleged “national security related offences” and offered HK$1m (A$203,000) from the Hong Kong police to anyone who provided information on his whereabouts or took him to Hong Kong or Australian police.

Yam is a lawyer who lived in Hong Kong for 20 years before returning to Australia in 2022. He is one of eight overseas-based activists, the subject of Hong Kong police arrest warrants, accused in July 2023 of breaching its controversial national security law that grants authorities sweeping extraterritorial powers to prosecute acts or comments made anywhere in the world that it deems criminal.

Yam has criticised the crackdown on dissent and erosion of judicial independence in the Chinese-controlled city and has been accused of encouraging foreign governments to impose sanctions against members of the judiciary, prosecutors and government officials.

[...]

Cross post from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31071924

Australia is scrambling to deploy new long-range missiles as the recent arrival of powerful Chinese warships off the Australian coast delivers a sharp reminder of Beijing’s growing naval muscle.

In a move to boost military firepower, Canberra plans to arm Australian soldiers with anti-ship missiles and advanced targeting radars to protect the country’s vast maritime approaches, according to contract announcements as well as a flurry of recent official speeches and ministerial statements.

[...]

The U.S. Army in June used two Precision Strike Missiles to successfully attack a moving target at sea during an exercise in the Pacific, the army said in a statement.

China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) jolted Australia’s security services with the deployment of three warships – one of its most potent cruisers, a frigate and a replenishment ship – close to the country’s biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne late last month. Air traffic between Australia and New Zealand was disrupted with 49 flights diverted on February 21 when the Chinese flotilla held what appeared to be a live fire exercise in the Tasman Sea without notifying authorities in Canberra or Wellington.

[...]

In short:

Rodrigo Duterte is in the custody of the International Criminal Court after being arrested on charges of crimes against humanity.

His arrest is linked to his 'war on drugs' while president of the Philippines and mayor of Davao.

What's next?

He's expected to be transferred to a detention centre on the Dutch coast, ahead of a court hearing in the coming days.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30359615

China’s ambassador to Australia has warned that a decision to ban artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from government systems and devices risks further politicising trade and technology ties.

[...]

Ambassador Xiao Qian’s comments came as a Chinese naval task force continued to skirt Australia’s territorial waters in an apparent plan to circumnavigate the island nation. The warships 10 days ago held live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.

Writing in The Australian newspaper on March 3, Mr Xiao said the Chinese-developed AI program would “greatly benefit the world in various aspects” and encouraged Australia to work with Beijing to jointly develop new technologies.

“Taking restrictive measures against it under the pretext of ‘security risks’ is an attempt to overstretch the concept of national security and politicise trade and tech issues,” the ambassador said in his article.

In early February, Australia’s center-left Labour government became one of the first countries in the world to ban DeepSeek from official devices, a decision that it justified on national security grounds.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30359557

Archived

China has informed the Australian government to expect more visits from its warships amid the ongoing political standoff between Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and China.

The situation follows live-fire exercises conducted by a People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) taskforce in the Tasman Sea just over a week ago.

[...]

Both New Zealand and Australia condemn the live-fire exercises held on 21-22 February.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Defence Minister Judith Collins maintain that Wellington had no prior knowledge of the Chinese military operation.

Collins expresses disappointment over Beijing’s failure to inform Wellington about the arrival of a “highly capable” strike force with considerable firepower along Australia’s east coast.

[...]

Luxon and Collins’ Australian counterparts, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles, also criticise China for not providing “sufficient notice” on the live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea.

[...]

The live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea follow another incident in which a Chinese Air Force J-16 fighter jet releases flares 30 metres from an Australian P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft in the South China Sea.

Australia’s Department of Defence criticises the interaction as “unsafe and unprofessional”.

The flare release, reported on 13 February, is the fifth known incident of unsafe behaviour by the Chinese military towards the Australian Defence Force since 2022.

Analysts warn that these military interactions with China are now becoming increasingly routine.

Reports by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reveal that China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea and beyond make it much harder for the Albanese government to stabilise its relationship with Beijing, particularly under its strategy of ‘cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest’.

[...]

Key Points

• Keir Starmer says Europe will draft a Ukraine peace plan to present to the US.
• EU leaders pledged stronger support for Ukraine after Zelenskyy's clash with Donald Trump.
• Europe plans to increase defence spending to show it can protect itself.

In short:

One of the biggest protests in Greece in years has turned violent as hundreds of thousands of people gather on the second anniversary of the country's deadliest-ever train crash.

57 people were killed in 2023 when a passenger train filled with students collided with a freight train.

What's next?

Two years later, the safety gaps that caused the crash have not been filled, a recent inquiry found.

Pilots first heard about a Chinese live-fire naval exercise near Australia last week when already in the air, receiving messages that forced some to change paths through a busy air corridor, satellite text messages to and from pilots seen by Reuters show.

The incident highlights how airlines are increasingly having to react at short notice to geopolitical disruptions and military hazards, such as missile and drone barrages between Israel and Iran last year.

It also shows how China's military, in its first drills in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, is raising tensions by being more assertive across the Indo-Pacific region, according to Western defence analysts, including near Taiwan.

[...]

Archived

Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has called on European governments to make Russian assets and “elite interests” pay for the war in Ukraine, as his charity made another multimillion-dollar donation to the war-torn country.

Following the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Minderoo Foundation announced another $5 million funding package to de-mine agricultural areas, launch peace-building activities and financially support households.

[...]

“While philanthropy can play a crucial role, governments across Europe should redouble their efforts to make Russian assets and elite interests pay for the war of aggression they have waged on Ukraine.

“Looking forward, Ukraine has the capability to draw on her deep pools of talent, vast natural resources and remarkable resilience to drive a powerful economic recovery. I look forward to working with president Zelensky and his team to recover Ukraine’s peaceful growth.”

[...]

The comments come as the US and Ukraine are reportedly on the cusp of inking a critical minerals deal Zelensky hopes will secure the support of Washington and bring an end to the war.

[...]

In short:

More than 50 people in the north-western of the Democratic Republic of Congo have died of an unidentified illness.

The outbreak began on January 21, with 419 cases having been recorded since.

The first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours.

One of Australia's most senior intelligence figures says aspects of China's deployment of three warships to the Tasman Sea appear "designed to be provocative", as the naval task group continues to be closely tracked heading back towards Tasmania.

Director-general of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) Andrew Shearer this week delivered a blunt assessment of Beijing's strategic aims for sending the heavily armed flotilla to the region, saying it was to "shape" the behaviour of states like Australia.

He also described its recent live-fire exercises as unprecedented and said they demonstrated "China's growing capability to project military power into our immediate region" was "now matched by an increasing intent to do so".

...

"We judge Beijing intends to normalise this sort of presence, shape the responses of those in the region, and observe and learn from our reactions," he told the Senate estimates hearing.

"The largest and least transparent military build-up since the Second World War will mean the PLA will be able to operate at greater distances from mainland China, in greater numbers, including into Australia's immediate seas and skies," he said.

...

Planes flying between Australia and New Zealand have been diverted as China conducts a closely-scrutinised military exercise in nearby waters that may involve live fire.

The rare presence of three Chinese naval ships in the Tasman Sea has put both antipodean countries on alert in recent days, with Australia calling it "unusual".

Australian airline Qantas told the BBC it "temporarily adjusted" the routes of its planes and other carriers have reportedly done the same.

...

Australia and New Zealand have been closely monitoring the Chinese fleet - a frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker - since last week, and have dispatched their own ships to observe them.

Earlier this week, New Zealand's Defence Minister Judith Collins said China had not informed them they would be sending warships to their region and "have not deigned to advise us on what they are doing in the Tasman Sea", according to the New Zealand Herald.

Meanwhile, Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles said that the ships' presence was "not unprecedented, but it is an unusual event".

...

The drill comes just days after Australia and China held a defence dialogue in Beijing where they had discussed military transparency and communication, among other things.

The two countries have seen several recent tense maritime encounters.

Earlier this month, Canberra said a Chinese fighter jet had released flares in front of an Australian military aircraft while flying over the South China Sea. Beijing said the aircraft had "intentionally intruded" into its airspace.

In May last year, Australia accused a Chinese fighter plane of dropping flares close to an Australian navy helicopter that was part of a UN Security Council mission on the Yellow Sea.

And in November 2023, Canberra accused Beijing's navy of using sonar pulses in international waters off Japan, resulting in Australian divers suffering injuries.