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The Coalition has questioned why the government is using drones to monitor people released from immigration detention.
Cabinet minister Murray Watt confirmed on Insiders earlier that “drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation that people are living in, in for example ensuring that it’s not too close to schools or other areas that they’re not supposed to be living close to.”
There’s a couple of issues here. One, either Andrew Giles accidentally and casually disclosed a previously secret drone surveillance program operating domestically in Australia in a Sky News interview with your colleague Kieran Gilbert. Or he made it up and it’s not actually happening at all.
And in a fresh statement provided by the Department of Home Affairs to SBS, I understand yesterday afternoon, they refer to using aerial surveillance to look at people’s locations and other buildings in the area.
Continue reading...China says its spacecraft lands on Moon’s far side
Giorgia Meloni has emerged as a kingmaker for the EU – but will she turn to centre right or far right? | Jon Henley
Even her toughest opponents admit she’s played it cleverly. Yet the long-term aims of Italy’s prime minister remain unclear
When she became Italy’s prime minister in October 2022, Giorgia Meloni looked like Brussels’ worst nightmare. Until then, the fiery leader of the Brothers of Italy – a party with neofascist roots – had seemed anything but EU-friendly.
For years, railing against the bloc had been Meloni’s stock in trade: the euro amounted to enslavement, the European Commission was effectively a loan shark. “Bring down this EU!” she urged the 2019 conservative CPAC conference in the US.
Continue reading...China’s defence chief repeats threat of force against Taiwanese independence
Dong Jun rails at length about democratic island’s ‘separatists’ during Shangri-la Dialogue defence conference in Singapore
Peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan remains China’s goal but the prospect is being eroded by Taiwanese “separatists” and external forces, the Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, has said.
Taiwan – which is democratically governed, and has never been ruled from the Communist-run People’s Republic of China – on 20 May inaugurated its newly elected president, Lai Ching-te. The routine democratic transition was greeted with fury by the Chinese Communist party, which staged war games around the island as a “punishment”.
Continue reading...Labor minister denies direction 99 was a mistake and says community safety ‘number one priority’
Federal cabinet minister Murray Watt also claims Labor has deported more criminals in its first year than under Peter Dutton’s reign
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A new ministerial direction on deporting foreign-born criminals will prioritise “community safety” over their ties to Australia, federal cabinet minister Murray Watt has said as he denied the government made a mistake with the controversial “direction 99”.
But mystery still surrounds the government’s purported use of drones to monitor people released from immigration detention, with no confirmation of which agency is operating them.
Continue reading...‘We refuse to disappear’: the Hong Kong 47 facing life in jail after crackdown
Last week’s conviction of dissidents came in the biggest case since introduction of a new national security law
The verdict wasn’t surprising but outside room no 2 of the West Kowloon courthouse, people still wept. The panel of Hong Kong national security judges had set down two days for the hearing but dispensed with the core business in about 15 minutes. In the city’s largest ever national security trial – involving the prosecution of pro-democracy campaigners and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – almost all the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion.
Their crime was trying to win an election, holding unofficial primaries in 2020 attended by an estimated 600,000 residents.
Continue reading...Young French leader’s rise and Belgium’s future existence: What to watch in EU elections
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Predictive blood test hailed as ‘incredibly exciting’ breast cancer breakthrough
New ‘liquid biopsy’ will act as an early warning sign to anticipate risk of tumours returning
A new blood test can predict the risk of breast cancer returning three years before any tumours show up on scans in an “incredibly exciting” breakthrough that could help more women beat the disease for good.
More than 2 million women are diagnosed every year with breast cancer, the most prevalent type of the disease. Although treatment has improved in recent decades, the cancer often returns, and if it does, it is usually at a more advanced stage.
Continue reading...Stormy Daniels says Donald Trump should be jailed after felony conviction
Ex-president should also be made ‘the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter’, says former actor, following guilty verdict
Stormy Daniels has called for Donald Trump to be jailed after he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The adult film star, who was paid $130,000 as “legal expenses” for her silence about her affair with the former US president, warned the presidential candidate is “completely and utterly out of touch with reality”.
Continue reading...King turns to David Beckham to rebuild charity hit by cash-for-honours scandal
Former England captain will become ambassador for foundation that was embroiled in controversy when Charles was Prince of Wales
King Charles has turned to brand Beckham to help him rebuild the reputation of his main charitable foundation after a cash-for-honours scandal.
Former England footballer David Beckham is to become an ambassador for the King’s Foundation, formerly the Prince’s Foundation, to help promote its work. Beckham met the monarch at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire last month, where he was given a personal tour. The 49-year-old said he was looking forward to exploring a newly discovered shared interest with the monarch in rural skills, nature and the British countryside. They had also swapped beekeeping tips, said Beckham.
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