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Chinese leader Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea next week in first visit since 2019

BEIJING — In a high-stakes diplomatic move that underscores shifting power dynamics in Northeast Asia, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will embark on a two-day state visit to North Korea next week, officials from both nations confirmed Friday. This trip will mark Xi’s first visit to the isolated nuclear-armed country in almost seven years, coming as Beijing seeks to reinforce its long-standing close ties with Pyongyang amid Pyongyang’s growing alignment with Moscow.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has over the past several years deepened partnerships with countries opposed to U.S. influence, most notably expanding military cooperation with Russia to supply conventional arms and troops for Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine. But over the past 12 months, Kim has also prioritized repairing and strengthening economic and diplomatic relations with China — North Korea’s largest trading partner and primary source of international aid.

As North Korea draws closer to Russia, Xi’s upcoming trip is a deliberate effort by Beijing to reaffirm its historic influence over Pyongyang and protect its core strategic interests in the Northeast Asian region, explained William Yang, an Asia analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Official statements from Chinese and North Korean state media confirm the visit will run from Monday through Tuesday. Xi’s most recent trip to North Korea took place back in June 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Xi to sharply curtail his international travel; his last overseas engagement before this was a November 2024 trip to South Korea for the APEC summit, where he met with U.S. President Donald Trump.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson framed the visit as a step forward for bilateral relations and regional stability. “The traditional friendly and cooperative relations between China and the DPRK have continued to develop in a sound and stable manner, bringing tangible benefits to both countries and their peoples,” said spokesperson Mao Ning, using the official abbreviation for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The announcement comes just weeks after Xi hosted both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin for back-to-back high-level meetings in Beijing, and one day after North Korea publicly unveiled a new facility widely believed to be a uranium enrichment plant for nuclear weapons production — a claim Pyongyang has not officially confirmed. During an inspection of the site, Kim laid out plans to rapidly expand North Korea’s nuclear arsenal at an exponential rate.

Regional security experts say the deliberate timing of the facility’s unveiling is no coincidence: Kim aims to lock in North Korea’s status as a recognized nuclear weapons state ahead of Xi’s visit. Kim’s long-term goal is to secure international acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear program in order to pressure the global community to lift harsh U.N. economic sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang’s banned nuclear and missile development programs. Analysts note Kim ultimately intends to enter arms reduction talks with the U.S. only after securing recognition as a nuclear state, with the goal of winning concessions in exchange for partial nuclear concessions.

Kim has prioritized expanding his country’s nuclear stockpile and delivery systems since high-stakes denuclearization talks with then-U.S. President Trump collapsed in 2019. Trump has repeatedly stated he is open to restoring diplomatic talks with Kim, but Pyongyang has refused to negotiate until Washington drops its demand for full denuclearization as a precondition for any dialogue.

Diplomatic observers around the world will be closely watching the visit to see what position China takes publicly on the long-standing international demand for North Korean denuclearization.

The most recent high-level encounter between the two leaders came back in September, when Kim traveled to Beijing to participate in a major Chinese military parade alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign heads of state. At that meeting, Xi and Kim pledged ongoing mutual support and expanded bilateral cooperation.

Both Russia and China, which hold permanent veto power on the U.N. Security Council, have repeatedly blocked efforts by the U.S. and other Western nations to strengthen international sanctions on North Korea over its banned weapons tests. Just last month during Putin’s Beijing visit, the two leaders released a joint statement opposing what they called “foreign policy isolation, economic sanctions, military pressure and other methods of creating threats to the security” of North Korea, per Kremlin readouts.

Kim has in recent years pursued a more assertive foreign policy aligned with the narrative of a multipolar world opposing U.S. hegemony, prioritizing closer ties with nations that stand in confrontation with Washington. This upcoming visit offers China a critical opportunity to re-center its relationship with Pyongyang at a moment when North Korea is increasingly turning to Russia for military and diplomatic support.

4 6 月, 2026
Nazi party records released online shatter German family myths

For generations, German families have grappled with an unspoken, haunting question: What role did our ancestors play under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime? Today, that question can be answered with a few simple keystrokes — and the truth is upending decades of carefully constructed family myth across the country.

In March, the U.S. National Archives published fully searchable digital scans of approximately 12 million Nazi Party membership cards online. The documents, originally seized by Allied American forces from Nazi Germany following the regime’s defeat in World War II, were previously only accessible to the public via cumbersome microfilm stored at a small number of physical institutions. With the mass digitization and online release, however, secrets hidden for nearly 80 years became available to anyone with an internet connection.

Major German outlets *Die Zeit* and *Der Spiegel* quickly built free public search tools to help users navigate the vast archive, sparking a national reckoning. Headlines across the country bluntly asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Was grandpa a Nazi?” In the weeks since the archive launched, hundreds of thousands of Germans have searched for their ancestors’ names, going into the process knowing the results may shatter the stories their families passed down for generations.

For 60-year-old Corinna, who requested her last name be withheld to protect her family’s privacy, the discovery was particularly jarring. Her 26-year-old daughter Helena found irrefutable proof in the digitized records that Corinna’s father had joined the Nazi Party in 1935 — two full years after Hitler seized total control of the German state. Corinna had always known her father fought and was wounded in France and the Soviet Union during the war, but he never revealed his Nazi Party ties. Growing up, she was raised to believe her father, born to a working-class mining family in Germany’s western Saarland region, had been a lifelong supporter of the Social Democrats, Germany’s center-left labor party.

This collective act of family silence is not an anomaly across modern Germany. While the German federal government has spent decades educating the public, formally atoning for Nazi atrocities including the Holocaust, and preserving memorials to the regime’s victims, many private households have long avoided confronting their own connections to the Nazi past — sometimes even actively rewriting the story.

Historical data shows that by the end of the Third Reich in 1945, more than one in 10 Germans were registered Nazi Party members. Historian Johannes Spohr, who has spent years assisting families researching their ancestors’ Nazi ties, explains that after the war, this generation created an unspoken family rule that certain topics were off-limits. “Many ex-Nazis didn’t just stay silent, as is often assumed — they actively constructed an alternate version of history,” Spohr told reporters. Most often, this alternate story cast them as reluctant victims of the Nazi regime, or even falsely claimed they were part of the small anti-Nazi resistance.

Spohr notes that modern public opinion polls bear out this mythmaking: between 11% and 18% of contemporary Germans believe their grandparents actively helped people persecuted by the Nazi regime. But according to up-to-date historical research, the actual share of German families with that legacy is less than 1%.

Felix Puelm, a 42-year-old history professor currently based at Thailand’s Silpakorn University, is one of many Germans who recently uncovered an unexpected ancestor tie in the new archive. He discovered that his late grandmother had joined the Nazi Party in 1940, when she was 19 years old. By that point, Puelm explains, his grandmother had already witnessed the Nazis launch invasive wars against neighboring European countries, and could clearly see the violent direction the regime was heading. “And yet she still made the decision to join,” Puelm said. He added that while his grandparents never expressed any pro-Nazi sentiment after the war, they chose to hide their past actions from the next generations. Puelm says he now wishes he had learned the truth earlier, so he could have asked his grandmother about her choices before she died.

Historians say the archive’s records also help add context to ancestors’ choices, shedding light on whether membership grew out of ideological commitment or opportunism. Spohr explains that joining the party before Hitler took power in 1933, particularly in the 1920s, is a strong indicator of genuine ideological conviction. After 1933, however, many new members joined for opportunistic reasons: to advance their careers, secure access to government jobs, or conform to widespread social pressure. Spohr notes that certain professional fields, particularly civil service and education, had extremely high rates of Nazi Party membership, but stresses that no one was legally forced to enroll.

Looking forward, Puelm says the new accessibility of these records could prompt valuable reflection on the current political moment in Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) now leads national opinion polls. He hopes the revelations of past family ties to extremist politics will push modern German households to examine the factors that lead people to join radical, anti-democratic parties today.

4 6 月, 2026
Mount Everest climber recounts moment he lost guide who survived alone for six days

In an extraordinary story of survival that has stunned the global mountaineering community, a Nepali mountain guide has been found alive after six days stranded in Mount Everest’s unforgiving \”death zone\”, defying almost all expectations of making it out alive. Hillary Dawa Sherpa, the guide, went missing while descending the world’s highest peak alongside Chris Thrall, a former British soldier, following a grueling multi-day climbing expedition this season.

4 6 月, 2026
Teenager accused of attempted hijacking at Avalon Airport wanted to flee Australia, court told

A Victorian court has approved transferring the high-profile case of a 19-year-old man accused of an attempted plane hijacking to an adult higher court, after ruling the gravity of the alleged offending outstrips the sentencing capacity of the juvenile justice system.

The accused, who was a minor when he was arrested in March last year at Avalon Airport, has been linked to a brazen pre-planned plot to seize control of a commercial Jetstar flight bound for an domestic destination. Court documents outline that the teenager travelled from his home in Victoria’s Ballarat region to Geelong, where he cut a hole in an airport security perimeter fence, disguised himself in high-visibility work clothing to avoid detection, and boarded the aircraft carrying a disassembled shotgun, homemade molotov cocktails, and a fake explosive device.

Once on board, prosecutors allege the teen approached cabin crew and quietly told them he had bombs in his luggage, demanding immediate access to the cockpit. At the time, 173 passengers and crew were either on the plane or in the process of boarding. Before law enforcement officers could arrive, the suspect was quickly tackled and restrained by a brave passenger and members of the flight crew, ending the immediate threat to the aircraft and everyone on board.

Court testimony has revealed conflicting accounts of the accused’s mental state and motivation. Following his arrest, the teen told responding officers that the people who stopped him were “heroes”, and that he felt a profound sense of calm and relief after being restrained. His defence team, led by senior defence barrister Patrick Doyle SC, told the court the accused was experiencing severe mental distress at the time of the incident. The defence says it will argue the teen is not criminally responsible for his alleged actions on the grounds of mental impairment. According to testimony given to the court by a psychiatrist, the teen claimed he had been exposed to traumatic, violent events including an alleged abduction, which left him believing he had no option but to hijack a plane to flee Australia. The defence has also pushed back against prosecution claims of ideological or political motivation, arguing the teen’s statements about political thinking were inconsistent, incoherent, and clear signs of mental confusion.

Prosecutors, led by King’s Counsel Paul Holdenson, argued that the Children’s Court’s available penalties would be insufficient to match the severity of the alleged offending. Holdenson told the court the plot had been planned over an extended period, and that the teen held ideological and political motives for the attack, claims the defence disputes. A court suppression order remains in place, barring media from reporting on any individuals or foreign groups the teen is alleged to have had contact with. There is also disagreement among medical experts over whether the teen had any such contact, or was suffering an acute psychotic episode at the time of the incident.

In his ruling on the jurisdiction transfer request, Children’s Court President Judge Jack Vandersteen said the alleged offending was of an exceptionally serious nature. On the evidence presented, he said, the teen carried out a deliberate, pre-planned attempt to take control of a commercial passenger jet, including advance research and extensive preparation. “The risks inherent in such conduct are self-evidently extreme,” Judge Vandersteen wrote in his decision. He added that he could not be confident that penalties available under the Children’s Court could adequately address the gravity of the alleged crimes. In response to the ruling, the accused simply stated, “I understand, Your Honour.”

The teen faces eight total criminal charges, including attempted aircraft hijacking, endangering the safe operation of an aircraft, assaulting flight crew, and illegal possession of weapons. He is scheduled to reappear in court later this month, where legal teams are expected to set a timeline for the upcoming committal hearing.

4 6 月, 2026
Putin to confront weak economy at ‘Russian Davos’, under threat of Ukrainian drones

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its third year, Vladimir Putin is set to deliver a keynote address Friday at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), the country’s premier annual investment gathering, long nicknamed “Russia’s Davos.” His appearance comes amid mounting economic headwinds and a fresh wave of brazen Ukrainian drone strikes that have underscored the Kremlin’s ongoing security vulnerabilities even on home soil.

The cumulative costs of the war have pushed Russia’s economy into its most challenging stretch since the 2022 invasion. Official data shows gross domestic product contracted by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2025, marking the first quarterly decline in three years. In the first four months of 2025, the federal government recorded an $80 billion budget deficit, equal to 2.5% of full-year GDP and already exceeding the deficit target set for the entire 12-month period.

Inflation has spiked across consumer goods, while the central bank has lifted borrowing costs to a two-decade high to cool price growth. Tax increases have squeezed households and businesses alike, widespread labor shortages have disrupted production lines across multiple sectors, and hundreds of businesses have been forced to cease operations. Compounding these pressures, intensifying Ukrainian strikes on key Russian energy infrastructure — including oil depots, refineries and export hubs — have put Moscow’s single largest source of state revenue at growing risk. In a strike loaded with symbolic significance, a Ukrainian drone hit an industrial facility in Saint Petersburg earlier this week as forum delegates began arriving, leaving a thick plume of black smoke visible to assembled dignitaries.

Alexander Kolyandr, a leading Russian economy expert based in London, told Agence France-Presse ahead of Putin’s address that the Russian economy has now entered a period of prolonged stagnation. “I don’t see the Russian economy collapsing into the chaos of the 1990s or anything similar — it’s just a slow degradation of everything,” he explained.

Once a magnet for Western investors eager to capitalize on Russia’s energy and natural resource wealth in the early years of Putin’s presidency, SPIEF has been fundamentally transformed by the war and Western sanctions. Where foreign business leaders once mixed with Russian political and business elites to strike multi-billion dollar deals, today the forum features public displays of military drones and machine guns, and top-tier attendees now come almost exclusively from neutral and allied nations such as China and Saudi Arabia. Attendees from the United States and Europe are extremely rare, with the small Western contingent led by high-profile pro-Putin figures: American right-wing commentator Candace Owens, former Hollywood actor and long-time Putin ally Steven Seagal, and members of parliament from Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Putin has used past SPIEF addresses to push back against claims of economic collapse, argue that Western sanctions backfire by hurting European and North American economies more than Russia, and reassure the public that the state can afford the massive costs of its military operation while keeping domestic life stable. Speaking to reporters Thursday, he pushed back on narratives of imminent economic crisis, quoting Mark Twain’s famous quip: “Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

But far from the forum’s keynote stage, small and medium-sized business owners across Russia report growing struggles that threaten their survival. Svetlana, a 40-year-old owner of a maternity and children’s apparel brand in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk, told AFP her business is on the brink of closure. “People are having fewer children, they’re tightening their belts, and our operating costs keep going up,” she explained. Government-mandated internet blackouts, implemented to disrupt Ukrainian drone strike coordination, have repeatedly knocked out her card payment terminals, leaving her unable to serve many customers. “We are going back to life 18 years ago, when there was no internet or social media,” she said. “I’m tired of worrying about fines under new laws and the endless stream of new requirements that keep popping up.”

Vera, a 42-year-old beauty salon owner in the Moscow region, said her supply costs have doubled so far this year. Having survived a near-collapse of her business in 2022, however, she remains optimistic she can weather the current challenges, calling ongoing difficulties “just unpleasantries.”

Expert Kolyandr warned that the current trajectory of slow economic degradation will become irreversible unless the Kremlin makes fundamental political changes, including ending the war in Ukraine and restructuring the country’s growth model. Since the invasion began, Russia has operated a two-tier economy, prioritizing resources for the state-dominated defense sector above all other civilian industries. While higher global oil prices driven by regional tensions following the Iran war have boosted energy revenues, Kolyandr noted the increase has not been large enough to close the country’s growing budget gap. Persistent labor shortages have also worsened, with an estimated 30,000 working-age men conscripted into the military each month to support the war effort.

“There is no good solution,” Kolyandr said. “They will continue to kick the can for as long as possible.”

4 6 月, 2026
Political blows fly ahead of Trump’s White House UFC fight

An unprecedented moment in U.S. political and sports history is set to unfold on June 14, when a UFC pay-per-view event will be hosted on the South Lawn of the White House — the same day former President Donald Trump celebrates his 80th birthday. What was expected to be a straightforward celebration of Trump’s deep ties to the wildly popular mixed martial arts world has instead devolved into open infighting, with prominent fighters and key MMA voices raising loud objections over the event’s logistics, cost, and political implications, just weeks before the first step into the Octagon.

4 6 月, 2026
US allying itself with Colombian ‘narco-traffickers,’ Petro accuses

Colombia’s sitting President Gustavo Petro, the country’s first left-wing head of state who is constitutionally ineligible to seek reelection, has launched a scathing rebuke of former US President Donald Trump over his intervention in Colombia’s upcoming presidential runoff. Petro claims Washington has broken a previous non-interference agreement by backing a hard-right candidate tied to the same drug trafficking networks the US claims to fight.

The controversy erupted after Trump threw his full weight behind Abelardo de la Espriella, a 47-year-old conservative lawyer who rose to shock wealth by representing drug-trafficking linked paramilitaries, white-collar fraudsters and high-profile soccer athletes. De la Espriella pulled off an unexpected upset in Sunday’s first-round voting, defeating leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda – a close ally of Petro and architect of the administration’s landmark peace strategy – setting the stage for a head-to-head runoff on June 21.

In an exclusive interview with Agence France-Presse held at the Colombian presidential palace, Petro did not mince words about the US endorsement. “Their allies in Colombia come from the narco-paramilitary regime; they are genocidal and drug traffickers,” he stated, speaking as he sampled chocolate produced by former coca farmers who transitioned to legal cocoa cultivation under his administration’s alternative development program.

Trump’s move to back de la Espriella marks the latest in a pattern of the former US president interfering in Latin American elections, consistently throwing his support behind hardline right-wing candidates who take aggressive stances on crime and migration, while painting left-wing opponents as dangerous Marxists. De la Espriella has already pledged to deepen US-Colombia bilateral ties “like never before” should he win the runoff, and counts hardline former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe among his most powerful backers. Uribe has long faced allegations of colluding with paramilitary groups responsible for the mass murder of thousands of civilians during the bloodiest decades of Colombia’s 60-plus year internal conflict.

For Petro and his ally Cepeda, these ties are not just political coincidence. Both leaders have repeatedly accused paramilitary forces of carrying out a systematic “genocide” of left-wing political organizers and leaders, a list that includes Cepeda’s own father – a communist senator assassinated in 1994.

In response, the Colombian political right and Trump’s circle have pushed back against Petro, claiming he has taken an overly soft stance on remaining left-wing guerrilla groups, many of which still operate outside state control and fund their activities through cocaine trafficking. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, a fact that has long been a flashpoint in bilateral relations between Bogota and Washington.

Tensions between Petro and Trump run deep: Last year, the former US president imposed sanctions on Petro, labeling him a “drug leader” over his failure to curb rising cocaine production and trafficking. The pair have also clashed repeatedly over Trump’s hardline migrant deportation policies and his campaign of lethal airstrikes targeting suspected drug trafficking vessels off Latin America’s coasts. The two leaders seemingly de-escalated these tensions during a February meeting at the White House, where Petro says the pair agreed the US would not interfere in Colombia’s 2025 election. Trump’s recent endorsement, Petro argues, is a clear violation of that pact.

“What they are implementing is an ideological policy that divides the world between those who think like them and those of us who don’t,” Petro added, expressing deep regret that “figures and governments who want to fight drug trafficking are actually helping to bring crime to political power in Colombia.”

The Colombian presidential election is unfolding against a backdrop of rising security instability: the country is currently facing the worst wave of political and criminal violence since the 2016 landmark peace deal between the state and former Marxist rebel group FARC. While much of Colombia has seen economic and social progress in the decade since the agreement, large swathes of rural territory remain under the control of armed factions fighting for control of cocaine smuggling routes, illegal gold mining operations and extortion rackets.

The two runoff candidates represent starkly different ideological paths for Colombia’s future: De la Espriella has rejected Petro’s signature “total peace” policy of negotiated talks with remaining armed groups, vowing instead to crush all insurgent and criminal factions through full-scale military force. Cepeda, by contrast, who helped negotiate the 2016 FARC peace deal, has pledged to continue prioritizing dialogue, economic development and social investment in regions long controlled by armed groups.

4 6 月, 2026
Giant hissing cockroaches among $200,000 worth of illegal insects seized in Australia

In a landmark operation for biosecurity protection, Australian environmental officials have seized more than 100,000 prohibited exotic cockroaches from a commercial breeder in the Central West region of New South Wales, marking the largest seizure of illegal invasive invertebrates in the country’s history.

The haul, which has an estimated black market value of 200,000 Australian dollars (equal to roughly 143,000 USD or 106,000 GBP), includes two high-risk species: Madagascar hissing cockroaches, one of the largest cockroach species on Earth that can grow to the size of an adult human’s palm and gets its name from the distinct loud hissing sound it produces, and dubia cockroaches. Under Australian federal law, neither species may be legally imported, kept, bred, or sold within national borders.

The illegal colony was discovered at a breeding operation in Bathurst, a city located approximately 200 kilometers west of Sydney. Investigations into the operation found the trafficked cockroaches were being raised and distributed primarily as cheap, high-volume feed for captive pet reptiles. According to industry insiders, the exotic roaches have gained popularity among some reptile owners because of their large size — a single palm-sized specimen can serve as a full meal for a grown lizard, eliminating the need to feed multiple smaller, legal feeder insects like native wood roaches. Local Bathurst snake catcher Stefanie Lesser confirmed to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she has repeatedly observed these illegal invertebrates being openly sold via online marketplaces to reptile keepers across the country.

Officials from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW), which led the seizure operation, warn that unregulated invasive insects pose severe, long-term threats to Australia’s unique native ecosystems and agricultural industry. If released or escaped into the wild, these non-native cockroaches can spread harmful pathogens, outcompete local invertebrate species for resources, and disrupt native food chains. All seized cockroaches will be humanely euthanized and disposed of safely to eliminate any biosecurity risk.

In a public statement following the seizure, DCCEEW issued a formal warning to unlicensed pet sector businesses and reptile owners across the country that it is cracking down on the illegal breeding and trade of prohibited exotic cockroaches. Anyone found in possession of, breeding, or trafficking these banned species will have their stock seized and can face significant fines and other penalties under federal biosecurity law. The department has urged reptile owners currently using dubia cockroaches as feeder insects to transition to legal, permitted alternatives such as crickets and native wood roaches immediately to avoid potential enforcement action.

4 6 月, 2026
One in four young Australians have crypto, 18 per cent have shares, Senate estimates told

Australia’s corporate and financial regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has issued a urgent public warning over growing reliance on artificial intelligence and unvetted social media influencers for financial guidance, as new survey data confirms crypto ownership among young Australians has surged to one in four. Appearing before a Senate estimates hearing on Friday, ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland acknowledged that generative AI tools do carry legitimate value for answering broad, general financial questions — from explaining how compound interest functions to breaking down the structure of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). But he drew a sharp line between general educational information and personalized investment guidance, stressing that AI systems are not equipped to deliver tailored recommendations for an individual’s unique financial circumstances, and urging consumers to exercise extreme caution when using the technology for investment decisions. Recognizing that the shift toward AI and social media for financial information is an irreversible new reality, Kirkland confirmed that ASIC has adapted its outreach strategy to meet younger audiences where they already are. The regulator has ramped up its own social media presence, rolling out educational posts and short-form video content on platforms popular with youth such as Instagram, and is continuously testing new engagement methods to deliver accurate, accessible financial information directly to young demographics. A core area of regulatory focus for ASIC in recent years has been addressing problematic activity from so-called “finfluencers” — social media creators who share financial content and investment advice with their followers. Kirkland clarified that not all finfluencer activity raises red flags, but any individual operating within Australia who provides paid or personalized financial advice is legally required to hold an Australian financial services license, or operate under authorization from a licensed entity. Over the past two years, ASIC has launched two rounds of enforcement action targeting finfluencers suspected of operating in breach of national financial regulations, with the efforts coordinated as part of a global collaborative campaign alongside financial watchdogs in multiple international jurisdictions. The new warning comes against a shifting backdrop of growing retail investment activity among younger Australians, coinciding with the Albanese government’s ongoing push for tax reforms that will expand capital gains tax obligations to a far larger number of retail asset sales. During the hearing, ASIC presented findings from its latest national survey, conducted between November and December of last year, which found that 18 percent of Australians between the ages of 18 and 28 now hold direct shares, with the share of young Australians owning cryptocurrency reaching a striking 25 percent. Liberal Senator Clare Chandler raised critical questions during the hearing, asking whether the shift toward unregulated AI and finfluencer guidance stems from a widespread lack of access to affordable, licensed traditional financial advice for younger demographics, and whether Treasurer Jim Chalmers had initiated any contact with ASIC following the release of the survey’s findings. In response, Kirkland noted that the survey did not collect data on the underlying drivers of shifting consumer financial habits, and declined to comment on any potential outreach from the Treasurer, taking that question on notice for future response.

4 6 月, 2026
US plans to fight flesh-eating screwworm outbreak with flies and dogs

For the first time in nearly 60 years, the flesh-eating parasite New World Screwworm has been detected within U.S. borders, prompting federal agriculture and health officials to roll out a coordinated response plan that is already facing scrutiny over its limited capacity and political fallout.

The confirmation of the infection came Wednesday, when agricultural inspectors identified screwworm larvae in the umbilical region of a three-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, a small town located just 48 kilometers from the U.S.-Mexico border. This marked the first established local detection of the parasite in the U.S. since 1966, ending decades of the country being free of the pest.

New World Screwworm is a dangerous parasitic fly that poses severe threats to both warm-blooded animals and humans. Female flies lay their eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes of living hosts; once hatched, the hundreds of resulting larvae burrow into living flesh using sharp mouthparts, and can kill the host if left untreated. Full-grown screwworm flies can reach twice the size of common houseflies.

In response to the detection, U.S. officials have moved quickly to implement a multi-layered strategy to stop the parasite from spreading and triggering a full outbreak. At its core is the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), a decades-old proven method for insect population control that works by releasing massive numbers of radiation-sterilized male flies into the wild. Since female screwworms only mate once in their lifetime, any mating with a sterile male results in unfertilized eggs that never hatch, gradually suppressing the wild population. SIT has been successfully used to control other harmful insect populations, from fruit flies to disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Additional containment measures include establishing a 20-kilometer-wide control zone around the detection site, where the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has implemented mandatory quarantines, movement restrictions for livestock and other warm-blooded animals, and widespread active surveillance. Along the southern border, U.S. authorities have deployed the specialized “Beagle Brigade”—a team of sniffer dogs trained to detect screwworm in incoming animals and goods—to intercept new introductions of the pest. Officials are also urging private ranchers to proactively cover all open wounds on their cattle to prevent infestations, and advising the public to check themselves and their companion animals for signs of the parasite and report any suspected cases immediately.

Despite these measures, experts and local stakeholders warn that the response currently faces a critical gap: insufficient production capacity for the sterile flies that are the backbone of the eradication effort. USDA officials estimate they need up to 600 million sterile flies per week to reverse the current population growth and halt the parasite’s spread. However, existing production facilities in the U.S. and Mexico combined can only output around 100 million sterile flies weekly. As of Thursday, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins confirmed that authorities have only released 4 million sterile flies via ground distribution since the calf detection, adding to the 4 million released weekly by air since February—far below the required volume. Sonja Swiger, an entomologist at Texas A&M University, noted that during successful eradication efforts in the 1970s, officials deployed 500 to 700 million sterile flies weekly across Central America to push the parasite south of Panama’s Darien Gap.

While public health officials stress that the immediate threat of widespread human infection is currently low, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 2,070 human cases tied to this latest northward spread of the parasite. Cattle ranchers across Texas warn that a full-scale outbreak could have devastating impacts on the multi-billion-dollar U.S. beef industry, threatening livestock populations and disrupting domestic and global markets.

The detection has also sparked intense political controversy over how the parasite reached U.S. soil, with opposing parties blaming each other for policy failures that allowed the incursion. Democratic lawmakers and Texas agricultural officials have criticized the Trump administration’s 2025 decision to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which previously ran a long-standing monitoring and control program that tracked screwworm populations across Central America. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller condemned the federal response as “slow, bureaucratic, and incomplete,” arguing that failures in prevention allowed the pest to advance unchecked through Mexico to the Texas border. Miller has called for the deployment of insecticide traps, a measure federal officials rejected Thursday, noting the traps are ineffective against screwworm and rely on chemicals classified as probable human carcinogens that harm wildlife. For its part, the Trump administration has pushed back against criticism: Secretary Rollins blamed the parasite’s advance on “open border” policies and criminal cartel smuggling of unregulated livestock and pets, and said Mexico’s own response to the spread has left “a lot to be desired.”

The current northward advance of screwworm comes after decades of regional control efforts that saw mixed results. After pushing the parasite south of Panama in the 1970s, regional cases began to rebound starting in 2022, when Panama reported a sharp spike in infections. Cases spread steadily north through Central America, reached Mexico by 2024, and have now crept across the U.S. border. Entomologists note that while screwworm is native to tropical American regions and naturally prefers warm climates, climate change may be allowing the parasite to expand its range further north than has been recorded in modern history. To address the production shortfall, the U.S. recently opened a new sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Force Base in Edinburg, Texas, though it will take time for the site to ramp up output to the required levels.

Rollins emphasized Thursday that officials are confident they can prevent the parasite from becoming permanently established in the U.S., but critics warn that delays in ramping up response capacity could allow the population to grow out of control before the full eradication effort is in place.

4 6 月, 2026