South Korean airlines have asked their government to help redirect jet fuel exports to the domestic market, threatening half of Australia’s imports of the critical fuel after Chinese authorities earlier this month flagged export restrictions. Amid deepening concerns across Asia about the impact of the escalating Middle East conflict, an official at South Korea’s transport ministry told the Guardian that “some domestic carriers” had asked authorities to redirect export-bound jet fuel back to the local market due to supply concerns. Any move to restrict exports would hit import-dependent countries particularly…
Tag: Australia news
Paul Keating savages Nine on anniversary of ‘irresponsible prediction’ Australia faced looming China war
Paul Keating has again accused the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age of misleading the public with their “irresponsible prediction” three years ago of a Chinese attack on Australia. The former prime minister took the opportunity of the third anniversary of Nine newspapers’ Red Alert series to repeat his disdain for the reporting and its primary author, international editor Peter Hartcher. On 7 March 2023, the SMH and the Age published an alarming front page warning about the threat of “war with China within three years” by a panel of…
Boss of theatre hosting Chinese dance group Shen Yun in Sydney won’t be intimidated by ‘outrageous’ threats
The head of the theatre hosting the Shen Yun dance troupe in Sydney says the company would not be intimidated to pull the shows by any “outrageous” anonymous threats and that the publicity had increased interest in the show. On Monday, the Gold Coast venue for the Shen Yun performances was forced to evacuate after a bomb threat, with a similar threat forcing the evacuation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s official residence, The Lodge, in Canberra the next day. Graeme Kearns, the chief executive of Foundation Theatres – the operator…
What is Shen Yun – the Chinese dance troupe that received a bomb threat causing the evacuation of the Lodge?
Yesterday’s evacuation of the prime minister from the Lodge has been linked to the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun. In a bomb threat emailed to the group, the sender said explosives would be detonated if Australian performances by Shen Yun proceeded. This is just the latest controversy surrounding Shen Yun. But this use of a security threat as a prop to achieve other goals exposes a deeper and increasingly consequential struggle over culture, representation and political voice in the transnational Chinese world. At stake is not a dance performance, but…
Sydney businessman falsely claimed security advice given to Chinese spies came from Kevin Rudd, court hears
Security and defence advice falsely claimed to have come from the former prime minister Kevin Rudd was supplied to Chinese intelligence agents by an Australian businessman, a jury has heard. Rudd is expected to testify in the foreign interference trial of businessman Alexander Csergo, which began on Thursday. Csergo, 59, has pleaded not guilty to one count of reckless foreign interference after providing reports to two people he believed were working for China’s Ministry of State Security. The owner of IT consulting firm Conversys was living in Shanghai and working…
China vows to help find man who allegedly burned baby with hot coffee in Brisbane — video
A Chinese team will visit Australia to help search for a man who allegedly randomly attacked a baby with hot coffee before fleeing the country. China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, announced on Wednesday that investigators will travel to Queensland to work with police to investigate the 33-year-old accused attacker. The stranger allegedly dumped a Thermos of coffee on a nine-month-old boy, Luka, at a Brisbane park on 27 August 2024 before fleeing to his home country, China, with which Australia has no extradition arrangement The Guardian
Chinese investigators to visit Brisbane to help in search for man who allegedly burned baby with coffee
A Chinese team will visit Australia to help search for a man who allegedly randomly attacked a baby with hot coffee before fleeing the country. China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, announced on Wednesday that investigators will travel to Queensland to work with police to investigate the 33-year-old accused attacker. Soon after Australian police discovered the identity of a man accused of attacking a baby with hot coffee in Brisbane in 2024, they learned he had flown to China. Photograph: Queensland police The stranger allegedly dumped a Thermos of coffee…
Australia’s confidence in Trump’s US has evaporated. What will it take for the alliance to rupture?
Perched high above Canberra stands a stylised American eagle statue on a towering column. Colloquially derided as the Phallus in Blunderland or the Chicken on a Stick, the Australian-American Memorial was paid for by mid-century Australians “to commemorate the service and sacrifice of American men and women in the defence of Australia” during the second world war. But there is perhaps another way to interpret an 80-metre statue high above Australia’s defence headquarters: that of a malevolent power monitoring a subordinate. For seven decades Australia has sought and found security…
‘Hard to say who’s winning’: China and Australia battle for influence in Solomon Islands policing
At a church hall on the outskirts of Honiara, dozens of community leaders gathered for a training session organised by the Chinese police, alongside local Solomon Islands officers. Among them is Ben Angoa, who has enthusiastically embraced the training, as well as other things China has provided: solar lighting, sewing machines, soccer balls, and even noodle-making lessons. “We really love China,” he says. The sessions – along with the provision of blue uniforms, flashlights and fleets of police cars – are among the many ways Beijing supports Solomon Islands policing.…
Russia’s war in Ukraine carries a warning for Australia: prepare for possible conflict in the Asia-Pacific
Military experts and diplomats agree new strategies and tactics – drone-based or otherwise – playing out in Ukraine’s theatre of war may be replicated closer to home Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast It’s early morning at the sprawling 32 Tactical air base in Łask, a couple of hours outside the Polish capital of Warsaw, and the late autumn wind is sharp. Nearby, a crew of Australians are wrapping up the deployment of an E-7 Wedgetail surveillance plane, sent to the country to assist Nato’s…