The world isn't waiting for Australia's AI inertia
Australians travel to Japan, the US and Europe in their millions, yet are staunchly opposed to nuclear energy. The Chernobyl disaster in a then totalitarian state was almost 40 years ago, but Australian memories of it are as if it were yesterday.
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The Age
26 minutes ago
- The Age
Macron backs Albanese on Palestinian statehood in face of sharp criticism from Israel
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she had 'deep concern' over the military plan and put this view to Abbas in a phone call on Monday. Meloni believed the Israeli decisions 'appear to be leading to further military escalation' in the Gaza Strip, her office said, and she described this as 'unjustifiable and unacceptable'. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had 'deep concern' over Israel's military plan for Gaza. Credit: Bloomberg The Italian prime minister has argued against recognising Palestine at this point because of her concerns about the timing. 'I am very much in favour of the State of Palestine, but I am not in favour of recognising it prior to establishing it,' she told the Italian media last month. Her comments on the Israeli plan to take Gaza City signal the growing concerns in Europe about Netanyahu and his military strategy, amid warnings about starvation, civilian casualties and lack of medical care in the territory. Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharren Haskel, slammed Australia for planning to recognise a Palestinian state when Hamas was refusing to return the last 50 hostages it took in the October 7 attack. 'Fifty of our hostages remain in Hamas's dungeons of torture, being starved to death – being forced to dig their own graves,' she said, in a reference to a video of hostage Evyatar David released last week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with family members of Israeli hostage Evyatar David at the opening ceremony of the Knesset Museum on Monday. Credit: AP 'Yet the Australian government has decided now is the right time to reward the monsters of October 7 with recognition of a Palestinian state.' The Times of Israel reported that Hamas senior leader Ghazi Hamad said last week that the moves to recognise a Palestinian state were the result of 'the fruits' of the October 7 attacks. 'Why are all the countries recognising a Palestinian state today? Before October 7, did any country dare recognise a Palestinian state?' Hamad said on Al Jazeera. Loading 'The fruits of October 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue – and they are moving toward it with force. That is, that the Palestinian people are a people who deserve a country.' Albanese has declared that Hamas must have no place in a Palestinian state, a position also taken by European leaders, while also saying the Australian decision on Monday was predicated on assurances that Palestine would accept Israel's right to exist. Haskel cited the Hamas interview to accuse the Australian government of rewarding a terrorist organisation that committed the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. 'This decision by Australia won't change anything in Israel or Gaza, but let's be quite clear, this is all about domestic politics, not peace,' she said. Palestinian critics of the Australian decision, including several cited by this masthead, also argued the formal recognition of statehood would not change anything in the war in Gaza. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what's making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
Sydney Morning Herald
26 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Israel-Palestine war: Emmanuel Macron backs Anthony Albanese on Palestinian statehood
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she had 'deep concern' over the military plan and put this view to Abbas in a phone call on Monday. Meloni believed the Israeli decisions 'appear to be leading to further military escalation' in the Gaza Strip, her office said, and she described this as 'unjustifiable and unacceptable'. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had 'deep concern' over Israel's military plan for Gaza. Credit: Bloomberg The Italian prime minister has argued against recognising Palestine at this point because of her concerns about the timing. 'I am very much in favour of the State of Palestine, but I am not in favour of recognising it prior to establishing it,' she told the Italian media last month. Her comments on the Israeli plan to take Gaza City signal the growing concerns in Europe about Netanyahu and his military strategy, amid warnings about starvation, civilian casualties and lack of medical care in the territory. Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharren Haskel, slammed Australia for planning to recognise a Palestinian state when Hamas was refusing to return the last 50 hostages it took in the October 7 attack. 'Fifty of our hostages remain in Hamas's dungeons of torture, being starved to death – being forced to dig their own graves,' she said, in a reference to a video of hostage Evyatar David released last week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with family members of Israeli hostage Evyatar David at the opening ceremony of the Knesset Museum on Monday. Credit: AP 'Yet the Australian government has decided now is the right time to reward the monsters of October 7 with recognition of a Palestinian state.' The Times of Israel reported that Hamas senior leader Ghazi Hamad said last week that the moves to recognise a Palestinian state were the result of 'the fruits' of the October 7 attacks. 'Why are all the countries recognising a Palestinian state today? Before October 7, did any country dare recognise a Palestinian state?' Hamad said on Al Jazeera. Loading 'The fruits of October 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue – and they are moving toward it with force. That is, that the Palestinian people are a people who deserve a country.' Albanese has declared that Hamas must have no place in a Palestinian state, a position also taken by European leaders, while also saying the Australian decision on Monday was predicated on assurances that Palestine would accept Israel's right to exist. Haskel cited the Hamas interview to accuse the Australian government of rewarding a terrorist organisation that committed the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. 'This decision by Australia won't change anything in Israel or Gaza, but let's be quite clear, this is all about domestic politics, not peace,' she said. Palestinian critics of the Australian decision, including several cited by this masthead, also argued the formal recognition of statehood would not change anything in the war in Gaza. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what's making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
Sydney Morning Herald
26 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Alan Jones' former conservative home still waiting for Newsmax relaunch
Loading To us, that is a sad moment for Australian media. ADH TV provided a welcome home for so many of the right's has-beens: former Australian Christian Lobby boss Lyle Shelton, arch-monarchist David Flint, twice-rehabilitated News Corp broadcaster Chris Smith and Jacinta Price's husband, for some reason. Where would we be without them? Red scare Brace yourselves. The Russians are coming for the High Court of Australia. Last week, the country's top court heard an appeal by the Russian Federation against laws to effectively cancel a lease on its new Canberra embassy on national security grounds. Russia claimed the lease cancellation by the Albanese government was 'Russophobic hysteria', and quickly retained the $25,000-a-day services of Australia's foremost High Court winner Bret Walker SC, who led a challenge to the laws' constitutional validity. The day after that hearing, the court announced it would consider another high-profile case, this time brought by billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. An industrialist with a stake in an alumina refinery in Gladstone and ties to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Deripaska was sanctioned by the Morrison government following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The designation stopped him from travelling to Australia or profiting from his company's share in the Gladstone refinery. Loading Deripaska has been fighting those sanctions since, arguing they are constitutionally invalid because they stop him travelling to Australia to challenge them. Last week, the High Court granted Deripaska special leave to appeal a March decision of the Full Federal Court rejecting his argument. The sanctions against Deripaska, which aligns with similar decisions made by the United States, United Kingdom and European Union following the Ukraine invasion, were implemented by former foreign minister Marise Payne. At the centre of the oligarch's legal challenge is one of Payne's old cabinet comrades, former attorney-general Christian Porter, who quit parliament in 2022 after using anonymous donors to fund an aborted defamation case against the ABC after the public broadcaster reported a historic rape allegation against him (which the ex-minister has always denied). Porter, as CBD regulars would recall, has returned to the Perth bar with gusto, where he's acted in a series of high-profile cases. His reinvention has brought him into the orbit of Deripaska, who he is now representing, and paved the way for a dramatic return to Canberra.
