PM calls Putin’s actions ‘abhorrent’ after confirming he’ll attend G20 – as it happened

Prime minister speaks in Jakarta after sharing bike ride with Indonesian president; Richard Marles says finding successor to Collins-class submarines is ‘No 1’ defence priority; Australia records at least 19 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed.

Similarly, on the Indigenous voice to parliament, Dutton said the Coalition is “very open to the discussion and what the government has to say”.

In principle, do we support anything that’s going to improve the situation of Indigenous Australians? Absolutely.

In Ted O’Brien we have someone with an exceptional background, a very considered person, a great communicator. And he did a report ... when he was on the backbench in the last parliament on nuclear energy. He had a particular focus on the latest generation, the small modular nuclear generation which can power up to 100,000 houses. So I’m not afraid to have a discussion on nuclear. If we want to have a legitimate emissions reduction, if we want to lower emissions reduction, that’s exactly the path president Macron has embarked on in France, it’s what prime minister Johnson is talking about in the United Kingdom ... I don’t think we should be afraid to talk about any technology that’s going to have the ability to reduce emissions and electricity prices. That’s something we can consider in time. I don’t think we should rule things out simply because it’s unfashionable to talk about them.

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Anthony Albanese vows to strengthen Australia’s ties on official Indonesia visit

PM accompanied by senior ministers and business leaders as Labor’s regional diplomatic offensive continues amid growing China assertiveness

Anthony Albanese has declared he wants to strengthen the Australia-Indonesia relationship while deepening ties with south-east Asian nations amid escalating tensions prompted by China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

Australia’s prime minister touched down in Jakarta on Sunday night accompanied by senior ministers and a high-powered business delegation to pursue a two-day diplomatic full court press in Indonesia.

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Anthony Albanese talks with Timor-Leste leadership as he flies to Indonesia for official visit

Ahead of Jakarta trip, PM flagged push for deeper ties with neighbours while ‘recognising the challenges’ of China’s involvement in region

Anthony Albanese had what officials characterised as a “warm and positive” conversation with the Timor-Leste prime minister, Taur Matan Ruak, en route to Jakarta on Sunday.

Ruak congratulated Albanese on his recent election victory, and the Australian prime minister pledged closer cooperation on the climate transition and development support for Timor-Leste.

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Anthony Albanese tells Labor colleagues not to waste a day as he urges ‘more inclusive’ parliament

Emotional prime minister gives first post-election address to caucus and confirms Indonesia visit this weekend

An emotional Anthony Albanese has urged his Labor colleagues not to waste a day in government while confirming he will go to Indonesia for his second overseas visit this weekend and convene the 47th parliament at the end of July.

The prime minister used his first post-election address to caucus on Tuesday, ahead of the appointment of his first cabinet and ministry, to outline his initial program as well as his expectations for the coming term of government.

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26 people missing after ferry sinks in Indonesia

Ferry was carrying 43 people when it capsized after running out of fuel in bad weather in the Makassar Strait

Twenty-six people are missing after a ferry ran out of fuel and sank in bad weather off the coast of Indonesia, officials have said.

The country’s search and rescue agency said the vessel was carrying 43 people when it capsized on Thursday in the Makassar Strait, the sea separating the islands of Sulawesi and Borneo.

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Refugee children handed anti-illegal migration playing cards, Australian charity says

Cards branded with Australian government’s ‘Zero Chance’ logo and QR code to border force website distributed in Indonesia

Playing cards adorned with the Australian government’s “Zero Chance” campaign against “illegal migration” were distributed to refugee children in Indonesia by people trespassing on school grounds, the charity running the school alleges.

The playing cards were allegedly given to children during break time at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre in west Java.

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Secret British ‘black propaganda’ campaign targeted cold war enemies

Britain stirred up tensions, chaos and violence in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, according to declassified papers

The British government ran a secret “black propaganda” campaign for decades, targeting Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia with leaflets and reports from fake sources aimed at destabilising cold war enemies by encouraging racial tensions, sowing chaos, inciting violence and reinforcing anti-communist ideas, newly declassified documents have revealed.

The effort, run from the mid-1950s through to the late 70s by a unit in London that was part of the Foreign Office, was focused on cold war enemies such as the Soviet Union and China, leftwing liberation groups and leaders that the UK saw as threats to its interests

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Expert warned against wrist X-rays used by AFP to prosecute children as adult people smugglers

Radiologist James Christie’s court evidence said technique had no scientific validity and was never intended to assess age

An expert radiologist says Australian federal police continued to use wrist X-rays to prosecute children as adult people smugglers after he had given unequivocal evidence of the technique’s unreliability, something he now says was “just wrong” and akin to “child abuse”.

Last week, six Indonesian boys won a major case overturning their convictions as adult people smugglers in 2010 amid the highly charged political atmosphere around border protection.

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Three children in Indonesia die from unidentified form of hepatitis

Health ministry says symptoms match those of acute liver disease of ‘unknown origin’ found in almost 170 children worldwide

Three children in Indonesia have died from a mysterious liver disease, the country’s health ministry has said, raising the global death toll to at least four.

A severe type of acute hepatitis has been identified in almost 170 children across 11 countries in recent weeks, raising concerns from the World Health Organization (WHO) of the disease’s “unknown origin”.

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‘They were tiny’: the Indonesians still fighting their conviction as adults in Australia

Anto and Samsul Bahar were 15 when they were jailed in a maximum security facility in Western Australia

Staring at the camera, Anto’s face, wide-eyed and child-like, invites a simple question.

How could anyone, let alone Australia’s federal crime fighting agency, see an adult gazing back at them?

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‘Relentless’ destruction of rainforest continuing despite Cop26 pledge

Tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover in 2021, including forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss, finds World Resources Institute

Pristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a Cop26 deal to halt and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade.

From the Brazilian Amazon to the Congo basin, the tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover last year, including 3.75m ha of primary forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss.

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Christian Porter denied justice plea from Indonesians jailed in Australia when they were children

Former attorney general refused to refer cases to WA court of appeal, despite an earlier ruling finding a miscarriage of justice in a similar case

The former attorney general Christian Porter rejected a plea for mercy from six Indonesians who said they were wrongly jailed as children using unreliable evidence, telling them they had no chance of success despite their lawyers pointing to a landmark ruling years earlier finding a miscarriage of justice in a similar case.

The six Indonesians, then aged between 13 and 17, were detained on a series of people smuggling boats in 2009 and were prosecuted by the commonwealth and jailed as adults in maximum security prisons in Western Australia.

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Why are UK supermarkets rationing cooking oil?

Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose have limited sales after concerns over shortages caused by Ukraine war

The latest supermarket data from Kantar shows shoppers have been stockpiling cooking oil due to concerns about the shortage of sunflower oil caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Here we look at what’s behind the shortages, what the situation means for consumers and how long it might last.

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Three endangered Sumatran tigers found dead in traps in Indonesia

Investigation underway to find cause of death of two female and one male tiger in East Aceh, caught in traps often used to catch wild boar

Three endangered Sumatran tigers have been found dead after being caught in traps on Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

One female tiger was found dead, her head almost severed and a snare still stuck in her leg, near a palm oil plantation in Indonesia’s East Aceh district on Sunday. Five hundred metres away, the bodies of a male and female tiger were also found, both with leg injuries, according to local police chief Hendra Sukmana.

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Joy as Indonesia passes bill outlawing sexual abuse and forced marriage

The wide-ranging legislation, which comes amid a rise in such cases, is heralded as a victory ‘for all women’

Indonesia has passed a landmark bill that for the first time outlaws forced marriage and sexual harassment.

To tears and cheers from supporters in the gallery, on Tuesday the House of Representatives passed the long-awaited legislation that criminalises nine forms of sexual violence, including physical and verbal assault, harassment, forced sterilisation and exploitation.

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Boy, 14, missing in Malaysia diving trip believed to have died

Adrian Chesters, a Briton who was rescued on Saturday, says his son Nathen died while they were adrift

The 14-year-old son of a British man is believed to have died following reports that he went missing on a diving trip in Malaysia.

Adrian Chesters, 46, reportedly told the Malaysian coastguard his son Nathen, who has Dutch nationality, had died while they were adrift. Following a dive off the coast of Mersing, in the southern state of Johor, on Wednesday, the group surfaced but were unable to find their boat.

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Six people dead and three missing after Indonesian fishing boat capsizes off Australian coast

Three crew members rescued by Singapore-flagged bulk carrier with one now in a critical condition in Broome hospital

Six people are dead and another three are believed to have drowned after an Indonesian fishing boat capsized off the north-west coast of Western Australia.

There were 12 people aboard when the boat, named Kuda Laut which translates to Horse Sea, capsized on Sunday evening about 180km west of Ashmore Reef.

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Indonesia earthquake death toll climbs to 11 after more bodies recovered on Sumatra

Rescuers still searching for four villagers believed to have been buried in mud after magnitude-6.2 quake

Rescuers on Indonesia’s Sumatra island have retrieved more bodies after a strong earthquake two days ago, raising the death toll to 11 while another 400 were injured and thousands displaced.

The body of the latest victim was recovered on Sunday from the rubble of homes toppled by the magnitude-6.2 earthquake that shook West Sumatra province on Friday morning, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari.

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‘We are afraid’: Erin Brockovich pollutant linked to global electric car boom

Exclusive: Investigation uncovers evidence of contaminated air and water from one of Indonesia’s largest nickel mines

A Guardian investigation into nickel mining and the electric vehicle industry has found evidence that a source of drinking water close to one of Indonesia’s largest nickel mines is contaminated with unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium (Cr6), the cancer-causing chemical more widely known for its role in the Erin Brockovich story and film.

The investigation also found evidence suggesting elevated levels of lung infections among people living close to the mine.

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Indonesia crocodile freed from tyre after five years

Dozens of people drag 5.2-metre animal to shore and cut tyre from its neck after it was snared by bird-seller

A wild crocodile in Indonesia that was trapped in a tyre for more than five years has been rescued, freed from its rubber ring and released back into the wild.

Conservation workers have been trying to lure the stricken saltwater crocodile from a river since 2016, after residents of Palu city on Sulawesi island spotted the animal with a motorbike tyre wrapped around its neck.

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