Global Pulse

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  • Another 151 research positions axed at CSIRO despite $387M federal budget boost

    Another 151 research positions axed at CSIRO despite $387M federal budget boost

    Australia’s national scientific research powerhouse, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has eliminated 151 frontline roles focused on environmental and health research, a move that has sparked widespread concern across the country’s scientific community even as the agency frames the cuts as a critical step toward long-term financial stability.

    The latest round of layoffs, carried out over just several days, includes 92 positions from CSIRO’s Environment Research Unit and an additional 59 roles across the organisation’s health and biosecurity teams. These cuts form part of a broader restructuring initiative announced late last year that is set to eliminate as many as 350 research positions in total. Union data from the CSIRO Staff Association shows that the agency has cut a staggering 1,150 roles since the start of 2024, marking one of the most rapid periods of downsizing in the organisation’s modern history.

    What makes the cuts particularly notable is that they come just months after the Australian federal government committed a $387.4 million, four-year funding injection to CSIRO, revealed in the 2024 May federal budget. Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher explained that the funding package was intended to provide the agency with the long-term operational stability it needed to continue delivering critical research and plan for future challenges. However, Gallagher acknowledged that the government could not guarantee no further jobs would be lost, noting that CSIRO operates as an independent statutory body with an autonomous board that makes its own strategic decisions, a framework the government fully supports. She added that the federal government remains confident the funding package will put CSIRO on a sustainable financial footing moving forward.

    CSIRO leadership has defended the restructuring, pointing to deep-seated structural financial challenges that have built up over decades. Senior executives revealed last year that the organisation faces persistent long-term sustainability issues, with public funding failing to keep pace with the rising operational costs of running a world-class modern scientific agency. The agency estimates it requires up to $135 million in additional annual funding over the next decade just to maintain its current operations and capabilities.

    To address this gap, CSIRO has opted to drastically narrow its research focus, deprioritizing projects that lack critical scale and reallocating resources to high-growth, high-impact advanced technology sectors including artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and robotics. “CSIRO has made strategic choices to evolve our research, to focus efforts where we can deliver the greatest national impact following a comprehensive review of our research portfolio,” a CSIRO spokesperson said. “To achieve this sharpened focus, we need to deprioritise areas where we lack the required scale to achieve significant impact or areas where others in the ecosystem are better placed to deliver.”

    The 59 health and biosecurity roles eliminated in this round are a direct result of a departmental merger that combined the existing Health and Biosecurity unit with the Animal Health Laboratory to form a new, consolidated Biosecurity Research Unit. While CSIRO has stated that the merged unit will strengthen cross-sector expertise across animal, human, and plant health without compromising the critical diagnostic capabilities of the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, leading scientific industry bodies have raised serious alarms about the long-term consequences of the cuts.

    Ryan Winn, chief executive of Science and Technology Australia, described the layoffs as another major blow to Australia’s domestic scientific capacity, particularly at a time when the nation is already responding to a current diphtheria outbreak and still grappling with the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. Winn pointed out that CSIRO’s health and biosecurity teams already endured significant cuts just two years ago, questioning how the nation can expect to retain and attract skilled STEM workers when faced with such persistent employment instability. “These jobs are not just a loss to the CSIRO, they could impact Australia’s capability to respond to future health and biosecurity emergencies,” Winn said.

    CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Doug Hilton has remained steadfast in his defense of the overhaul, framing the painful job cuts as an essential survival measure for the national science agency. “These are difficult but necessary changes to safeguard our national science agency so we can continue solving the challenges that matter to Australia and Australians,” Dr Hilton said. “We must set up CSIRO for the decades ahead with a sharpened research focus that capitalises on our unique strengths, allows us to concentrate on the profound challenges we face as a nation and deliver solutions at scale.”

  • Seven killed in drone attack on bus in Russia-controlled part of Ukraine

    Seven killed in drone attack on bus in Russia-controlled part of Ukraine

    A fatal drone strike targeting a passenger bus traveling through a Russia-occupied portion of Ukraine has left seven people dead and 11 others wounded, according to a Moscow-appointed regional official. The attack unfolded in the early hours of Wednesday, when the bus—en route from Moscow to Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea—was hit, stated Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-installed head of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

    The bus strike comes just 24 hours after a large-scale Russian air offensive against multiple cities across Ukraine claimed at least 22 lives, among them several women and children. In simultaneous overnight developments, Russian defense officials claimed that air defense systems downed more than 350 Ukrainian drones launched across multiple occupied and Russian territories.

    Among the intercepted drones, at least 50 were shot down over Leningrad Oblast, a region in northwest Russia that includes St. Petersburg, according to regional governor Alexander Drozdenko. This interception comes as St. Petersburg prepares to open the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) Wednesday, a flagship event designed to project Russia’s global standing and economic openness to the international community.

    Event organizers confirm that delegations from over 130 countries and territories are scheduled to attend the forum, including high-profile attendees such as Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng, and the sitting presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania. The exchange of cross-border attacks comes amid an ongoing stalemate in the Russia-Ukraine war, with both sides ramping up drone and missile strikes on each other’s territory in recent months. A photo of a Ukrainian-manufactured Vampire heavy bomber drone, taken last month, accompanies this report, distributed via Getty Images.

  • Shell pumped oil through Nigeria pipeline for years despite pollution evidence, documents show

    Shell pumped oil through Nigeria pipeline for years despite pollution evidence, documents show

    For decades, the oil-rich wetlands of Nigeria’s Niger Delta have borne the brutal cost of international fossil fuel extraction, leaving local communities grappling with poisoned ecosystems and collapsed livelihoods. Now, newly uncovered internal company documents obtained by the BBC have laid bare that energy giant Shell, a major operator in the region for more than 60 years, was fully aware of the catastrophic risks posed by its infrastructure decades ago — and chose to continue pumping oil anyway, even against the warnings of its own senior executives. At the center of the ongoing controversy is the 96.5-kilometer Nembe Creek Trunk Line, once one of Shell’s largest and most profitable crude transportation routes in Nigeria. Capable of moving 150,000 barrels of oil per day from inland fields to coastal export facilities, the pipeline passes directly through the waterways of Bille, a 45-island riverine community that has borne the brunt of repeated spills over more than a decade.

    Decades of unchecked extraction and spillage have left the Niger Delta’s mangroves, creeks, and riverbeds caked in crude oil, contaminating sediment and turning once-thriving fishing and harvesting grounds into toxic wastelands. The documents, released as part of ongoing UK legal proceedings brought by Bille and surrounding Niger Delta communities, expose a decades-long pattern of corporate negligence that dates back to at least 2008. That year, a senior Shell technical executive, Markus Droll, then the company’s technical vice president, raised urgent alarm about the decision to keep the pipeline running when it was already plagued by rampant illegal oil theft, known locally as bunkering, and systemic infrastructure failure. In an internal October 2008 email, Droll explicitly questioned the company’s choice to operate the pipeline outside of its own official safety and technical standards, warning that a major attack or failure could force a total shutdown and expose the firm to massive liability. “I don’t agree that funding can be an issue. Sorry if I sound like a broken record on this — but the approach makes me, as your Technical VP, pretty uncomfortable,” Droll wrote. His warning was met not with action, but with criticism from Ann Pickard, then Shell’s regional executive vice president, who reprimanded him for failing to label the discussion legally privileged, which would have hidden the correspondence from future court disclosure. “You have just exposed us significantly in your official disagreement as technical manager without legal privilege,” Pickard wrote, while acknowledging that continuing operations was “not an easy decision” but claiming it represented the “lower risk to both people and environment.”

    That pattern of ignoring internal red flags continued for years. A 2012 confidential document, released amid the peak of spills alleged by the Bille community, confirms that Shell leadership knew large sections of the pipeline were rated “red” — the company’s highest risk classification — because of dozens of illegal taps drilled by oil theft gangs. Under Shell’s own internal rules, a red rating required either an immediate full shutdown or urgent corrective repairs. Instead, executives argued that shutting down the pipeline would only lead thieves to install new illegal taps in other locations, and granted permission to keep pumping crude.

    Bille residents, who rely on the region’s waterways for food and income, have already seen their way of life destroyed by the pollution. When BBC reporters visited the community last week, local fishermen and harvesters described a total collapse of the ecosystem that once sustained them. Balafama Augustus Bruce, a 64-year-old fisherman and one of the claimants in the lawsuit against Shell, recalled that before the 2011-2013 spill period at the center of the case, the waters around Bille teemed with sardines, catfish, tilapia, and oysters. Today, most native species are gone, and any that are caught are often deformed. “Before 2011, here was a beautiful area. People play here and go into the river,” Bruce told the BBC. “We used to fish around here. But because of the damage the spills have caused, nobody is fishing here again. Because of that I’ve become poor. I eat from hand to mouth.” For Taminoibitein Philip, a 49-year-old periwinkle harvester, the pollution has wiped out the local harvest of the sea snails, a staple regional delicacy. Even when snails can be found, they no longer grow to full adult size. “And the odour is killing us… some places have crude, some places have gas. We don’t benefit. We are suffering,” Philip said. Like other residents, she argues that Shell, which sold its remaining onshore Nigerian assets including the pipeline to Renaissance Africa Energy last year, still owes the community redress after decades of profiting from the region’s resources. “Let them come and flush the river for us,” she said.

    The legal case against Shell, being brought by Leigh Day law firm on behalf of the communities, seeks a total of $1 billion in resolution: $250 million in direct compensation for lost livelihoods and health harms, and $750 million to fund a full cleanup of the contaminated environment. Since Shell began commercial oil extraction in Nigeria in 1958, the United Nations estimates that at least 13 million barrels of crude have been spilled across the Niger Delta in more than 7,000 separate incidents — a legacy of pollution that has existed for generations. The region has a long history of activism to hold oil companies accountable, most famously led by Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by Nigeria’s military government in 1995 after leading protests against oil pollution in Ogoniland.

    The documents also reveal internal concerns about the potential for public and legal scrutiny of Shell’s practices as early as 2013. When executives proposed an internal audit of pipeline integrity and oil theft management between 2009 and 2012, then-Nigerian subsidiary onshore assets general manager Vincent Holtam warned the audit could expose the company to massive liability. “I have no doubt that this will come out as UNACCEPTABLE, in which case we may be very exposed in disputing any oil loss claims from the Government or compensation claims from the community,” Holtam wrote in an email. The documents do not confirm whether the audit was ever completed. Just one month later, Shell launched a top-secret initiative codenamed Project Madrid to assess the full scale of spill damage around the pipeline. A 36-page internal presentation for the project estimated that 100 illegal refineries were operating along the route, contaminating 9,000 hectares of water and an equal area of land, and that the company was already responding to 18 active spills from 60 known illegal bunkering points. Shell opted to continue operations after a series of temporary shutdowns for repairs, though the documents do not detail which long-term strategy executives ultimately approved.

    In its response to the BBC’s reporting, Shell has pushed back against the claims, arguing that the documents released lack critical context about the challenging operating environment in the Niger Delta at the time. The company blames nearly all of the pollution on large-scale criminal oil theft, sabotage, and illegal refining, noting that its Nigerian subsidiary invested heavily in spill prevention and response over the years, and that pervasive systemic criminality made full prevention impossible. A company spokesperson added that Shell “strongly believes in the merits of our case and will vigorously defend the claims at trial next year.” Shell also confirmed that it had contacted the three former executives named in the documents, and none chose to issue a direct public response. The law firm representing the communities countered that Shell’s London headquarters made the key decisions that led to the environmental destruction, and that communities are determined to hold the company accountable for damage that continues to blight their lives today. Local Bille leaders acknowledge that oil theft was widespread in the region, but argue that Shell still bears legal and moral responsibility for failing to maintain its infrastructure and address the pollution it enabled. “They are not concerned about what happens to you. Their concern is to continue to make profit,” said Chief Boma Renner Dappa, spokesperson for the Bille local leaders’ council. “All that has happened in this environment is as a result of negligence.” The BBC requested comment from the Nigerian government on Shell’s claims that local authorities could not address the organized criminal activity fueling oil theft, but has not yet received a response.

  • Former CFMEU head John Setka tells court he’s received death threats

    Former CFMEU head John Setka tells court he’s received death threats

    One of Australia’s most high-profile former union figures has made headlines again after revealing he has been targeted with death threats, as he fronts a Melbourne court over allegations of abusive and harassing correspondence with a Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) administrator.

    Sixty-one-year-old John Setka, who served for decades as secretary of the CFMEU’s Victorian and Tasmanian branch before stepping down in July 2024, appeared before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to face charges stemming from alleged improper communications sent last year. Law enforcement officials allege that Setka sent a series of threatening, offensive, and abusive emails to the union administrator in October 2024, followed by an additional harassing message sent on Christmas Day. The former union heavyweight has confirmed he will contest all charges against him.

    During the Wednesday hearing, Setka’s legal team requested an adjournment to the proceeding, explaining that they had submitted a formal request to Victoria Police to turn over key undisclosed documents related to the case. Alex Turner, the police prosecutor handling the matter, told the court that of the six documents Setka’s team has requested, police intend to raise objections to the release of several. Turner noted that some of the requested materials are held by the CFMEU itself, not by Victoria Police, while other requests are overly broad and would place an unreasonable administrative burden on law enforcement to fulfill.

    The court confirmed that a subpoena will be issued to compel the production of the contested documents, with a dedicated two-hour hearing scheduled for September to resolve the disclosure dispute. When media outlets applied for public access to court records linked to the case, Setka’s legal team requested that the former union leader’s residential address be redacted from all publicly available files. Setka’s lawyer told the court that the redaction was necessary because his client is currently the target of active death threats, which are still being investigated by Victoria Police.

    Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse following the hearing, Setka brushed off the threats, responding “I’m really happy about it” when asked how he felt about the ongoing danger. Setka was arrested in November 2024 in relation to the harassment charges, and stood down from his long-held leadership role with the CFMEU three years ago [correction: July 2024], citing what he called “ongoing false allegations” as the driving force behind his decision. The case is scheduled to return to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for the next procedural step on September 3.

  • India set for a blockbuster 12-match New Zealand tour, the biggest in a generation

    India set for a blockbuster 12-match New Zealand tour, the biggest in a generation

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A historic all-format cricket tour by India, set to take place later this year, will mark the largest inbound international cricket tour New Zealand has hosted in nearly 30 years, bringing more than six weeks of top-tier cricket action to fans across the country. The unprecedented tour will see India’s men’s national side face off against New Zealand’s Black Caps across 12 matches spanning all three formats of international cricket: five Twenty20 Internationals, five One-Day Internationals, and two Test matches. This slate of fixtures makes India’s visit the most match-heavy tour any visiting nation has ever conducted on New Zealand soil, according to local cricket organizers. The tour will tip off on October 22 at Christchurch’s iconic Hagley Oval with the opening T20I, and will wrap up six weeks later on November 27, when the second and final Test match gets underway back in Christchurch. Beyond the on-field competition, New Zealand Cricket’s top commercial leaders frame the tour as much more than a series of sporting contests. “This will be about more than just the cricket on the field. It will be a celebration of New Zealand’s shared history and culture with India and our burgeoning rivalry and friendship through cricket,” said Glenn Critchley, New Zealand Cricket’s Marketing and Commercial Officer. The massive popularity of the Indian men’s cricket team globally, and particularly among New Zealand’s large South Asian community, has organizers preparing for unprecedented crowd interest and fan engagement. Star players including former captain Virat Kohli and star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah are widely expected to feature in the touring squad, amplifying excitement ahead of the series. “The passion and the following this team has is staggering, not to mention some of the star players expected to tour,” Critchley noted. “So we’re bracing for the intensity and fandom that will accompany the tour.” Critchley added that the tour will deliver 42 consecutive days of international cricket to supporters across eight host cities around New Zealand, a massive slate of content for domestic fans. The historic India series kicks off a busy period for the Black Caps, who will travel to Australia for a four-match Test tour immediately after concluding the India series. New Zealand will then return home in early 2025 to host Sri Lanka for a full series that includes three ODIs, three T20Is and two Test matches across January and February.

  • Australian troops embedded with US, UK playing ‘defensive’ role as Iran war looms

    Australian troops embedded with US, UK playing ‘defensive’ role as Iran war looms

    Fresh escalations between the United States and Iran around the Strait of Hormuz have thrown a spotlight on Australia’s hidden military footprint alongside its key Western allies, with the nation’s top defence official confirming that more than 700 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel are currently embedded with American and British armed forces.

    Addressing a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday, Chief of Defence Admiral David Johnston revealed the exact figure stands at 729 active ADF troops, with an additional 96 Australian public servants also deployed alongside allied commands. Johnston noted that the actual number of personnel embedded with US forces alone is likely even higher than the current official count, though only a small fraction of these troops are assigned to frontline tactical units.

    With regional violence on the edge of a major widening, Johnston emphasized that strict Australian government rules limit all embedded personnel to strictly defensive roles, clarifying that Australia is not participating in any offensive operations targeting Iran. He pointed to the recent deployment of an E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft to the United Arab Emirates as a key example of this constrained mandate, explaining that the jet supports defensive security efforts for Gulf states rather than engaging in offensive strikes.

    The hearing saw intense questioning from Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who pressed Johnston over the risks of blurred rules of engagement, particularly for Australian personnel posted aboard US submarines. Past disclosures have already confirmed that Australian service members were present on a US submarine that sank an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean, raising questions about how Australian personnel navigate conflicting operational orders.

    Johnston pushed back against concerns, asserting that all deployed personnel have full clarity on what actions they are authorized to take, and that he is unaware of any case where troops have faced uncertainty over their rules of engagement. When asked whether Australia’s presence on the submarine that sank the Iranian vessel aligned with national interests, Johnston framed the embedding as a critical training opportunity: Australian personnel are gaining hands-on experience operating Virginia-class submarines, a capability Australia is set to introduce under the AUKUS pact, to ensure they can safely and proficiently operate the platforms when they enter Australian service.

    Beyond troop deployments, the hearing also shone a light on Australia’s controversial contract with US spyware firm Palantir, with officials confirming the ADF has paid roughly AU$14.4 million for access to the company’s data aggregation software. Senator Shoebridge highlighted that Palantir’s tools are used by both the US and Israel — two powers actively engaged in conflict against Iran and its regional allies — including for target identification operations in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

    Australian Army Major-General Richard Vagg, head of land capability, confirmed that the ADF is using the same product suite that includes AI-powered targeting functions, but stressed that Australian use of the software is limited to non-offensive applications. Vagg explained that the ADF runs the platform in an isolated “sandbox” environment disconnected from main defence networks, using it only to practice aggregating multiple data streams to improve commanders’ situational awareness and battlefield target selection training, rather than for active offensive targeting operations.

    The disclosures come as renewed tensions between Washington and Tehran have stoked fears of a full-scale regional war, prompting new scrutiny of Australia’s military commitments alongside its allies and the potential for the nation to be drawn unintentionally into a wider conflict.

  • US says it plans extra tariffs of 10% or more for most trading partners after forced labor probe

    US says it plans extra tariffs of 10% or more for most trading partners after forced labor probe

    The Trump administration has unveiled a sweeping new proposal to impose additional tariffs of 10 percent or higher on imports from dozens of the United States’ major trading partners, stemming from a high-stakes probe into foreign nations’ failure to block goods produced with forced labor from entering global supply chains. In a report released publicly early Wednesday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) laid out a two-tiered tariff structure: a 10 percent additional levy will apply to imports from Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and a handful of other jurisdictions deemed to have fallen short of enforcing their own forced labor import bans. A steeper 12.5 percent additional tariff is proposed for a larger group of economies including China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil, and Switzerland, among dozens of other nations.

    USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer defended the proposed measures in an official statement, arguing that the persistent failure of key U.S. trading partners to crack down on forced labor-produced goods creates an unfair competitive landscape that disadvantages American workers. “This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” Greer said, adding that every trading partner has a responsibility to strengthen enforcement to prevent trade from enabling and entrenching exploitative forced labor practices across the world.

    Notably, the proposed tariffs will not go into effect immediately. The plan will first undergo a formal period of public comment and regulatory review, giving stakeholders and affected nations time to weigh in before any final action is taken.

    The entire probe that led to this proposal was conducted under Section 301 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act, a legal framework that analysts say would allow the Trump administration to bypass the restrictions the U.S. Supreme Court placed on the president’s tariff authority earlier this year. In a February ruling, the high court found that Trump had exceeded his constitutional and statutory power when he used the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose broad, sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners.

    The USTR’s report formalizes a clear definition of forced labor consistent with international standards, describing it as “work or service exacted from a person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.” The proposal marks a major shift in the administration’s trade policy strategy, coming in direct response to the Supreme Court’s limits on emergency tariff authority, while framing the new measures around a globally shared goal of combating labor exploitation.

  • Indonesia’s Prabowo fires head of free meals scheme plagued by poisonings

    Indonesia’s Prabowo fires head of free meals scheme plagued by poisonings

    Indonesia’s flagship free school meals initiative, a cornerstone of President Prabowo Subianto’s 2024 presidential election platform, has been roiled by widespread public health incidents, corruption probes, and mounting political pressure, leading to the dismissal of the agency chief tasked with overseeing the multi-billion-dollar project.

    The ambitious programme was designed to deliver daily free meals to 80 million school-aged children across the country, aimed at addressing childhood malnutrition and easing household financial burdens. But within months of its January 2025 launch, the initiative began to face cascading crises. As of April this year, local education advocacy group Network for Education Watch has linked at least 33,000 cases of food poisoning across the archipelago to the programme, forcing authorities to confront widespread public anger and demands for a full suspension of the scheme.

    Last week, Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission formally filed a complaint over documented budget inconsistencies across hundreds of programme food preparation kitchens. Just seven days after that filing, on Wednesday, Prabowo moved to remove Dadan Hindayana, an entomologist who had served as head of the National Nutrition Agency, the governing body responsible for the free meals initiative. Hours before the dismissal was announced, officials from the Attorney General’s Office executed a raid on the National Nutrition Agency’s headquarters, blocking staff from accessing the building as investigators collected documents.

    Dadan has been replaced by his former deputy, Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, a former journalist who worked as a member of Prabowo’s 2024 presidential campaign team. The leadership shakeup has drawn mixed reactions from the Indonesian public and policy analysts. While some welcomed the change as a necessary first step to address the programme’s failures, many critics have dismissed it as a superficial cosmetic fix that does not address deep-rooted structural flaws. “What the programme needs right now isn’t just swapping people, but a total overhaul of the concept and system. Without that, it’ll just keep being a source of problems,” Indonesian social media user Ahmad Arif wrote on platform X. Additional criticism has centered on Nanik’s lack of relevant professional experience: she has no background in nutrition or food safety management, a gap that has raised concerns about her ability to turn the troubled initiative around.

    Beyond the public health crisis, Dadan also faced backlash for a series of controversial public statements, including a recommendation that all Indonesians drink two liters of milk per day and a proposal to incorporate insects and sago worms into the free meal menus. The programme itself has also drawn intense scrutiny over its enormous price tag, at a time when Indonesia is facing mounting economic headwinds including shrinking trade surpluses and a depreciating national currency. Just recently, authorities scaled back services from six days a week to five, a cut framed as a necessary response to global economic volatility spurred by the ongoing conflict between the U.S.-Israel alliance and Iran.

    President Prabowo has not shied away from acknowledging the programme’s shortcomings. In a speech delivered last month, he admitted the scheme was beset “with many problems” and pledged to take firm action against any individuals found violating rules or abusing public authority. Even amid the scandals, however, the president maintains that the programme retains broad support among ordinary Indonesians. “Free nutritious meals are so important for our nation,” he said. “Everywhere I go, I meet ordinary people, farmers, saying, ‘sir, please don’t stop the free nutritious meals programme, this really helps my grandchildren to be able to eat’.”

    Additional on-the-ground reporting for this story was contributed by Astudestra Ajengrastri in Jakarta.

  • New prime minister says Solomon Islands will review its secretive security treaty with China

    New prime minister says Solomon Islands will review its secretive security treaty with China

    CANBERRA, Australia — On his first international visit since taking office, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale confirmed Wednesday that his incoming administration will launch a full review of the country’s classified 2022 security agreement with Beijing, a deal that sparked widespread regional and global geopolitical concern over potential Chinese military expansion in the South Pacific.

    The bilateral security treaty, negotiated and signed under Wale’s predecessor Manasseh Sogavare, has drawn intense scrutiny from Western powers and regional nations including Australia and the United States since 2022. Critics have raised alarms that the pact could clear a path for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy to establish a permanent military outpost in the strategically located South Pacific island nation, a shift that would reshape regional security dynamics.

    Wale, who won a parliamentary vote to claim the prime ministership on May 15, had repeatedly demanded public transparency for the treaty’s full text during his election campaign. He told reporters Wednesday that he only gained access to a full copy of the agreement within the past few days, after replacing unnamed officials in key government posts.

    “I haven’t completed a full detailed review, but I have been able to review the initial text,” Wale stated during a press conference in the Australian capital Canberra. “I have been reflecting deeply on this agreement. The treaty includes a binding nondisclosure clause, which means I cannot release its full text to the public immediately. However, a comprehensive review of this pact is on the table, alongside parallel reviews of all other security agreements the Solomon Islands holds with nations across the globe.”

    The small island nation, which has a total population of just 700,000 and sits roughly 1,200 miles northeast of Australia’s northeastern coast, has been the center of competing geopolitical influence in the South Pacific in recent years. During Wale’s visit, he and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a landmark new agreement to negotiate a broad comprehensive strategic treaty that will upgrade the bilateral relationship, with coverage spanning both security cooperation and economic development partnership.

    Wale’s predecessor had pushed back against Australian efforts to deepen bilateral ties, but the new prime minister framed the updated agreement as a full reset of the relationship. “We recognize there have been significant frictions in our bilateral ties over the past several years, and this reset addresses those issues,” Wale said.

    Albanese made clear Australia’s position that it should be the Solomon Islands’ first-choice primary security partner, rather than China. “We have stated openly and clearly that Australia aims to be the preferred security partner for nations across our region, and we believe that regional security issues should be managed by the Pacific family,” Albanese told reporters.

    Wale echoed that framing, noting that centering regional leadership for local security is “the direction we want to move in as a nation.”

    Under the existing 2022 deal with China, Beijing has deployed police training instructors to the Solomon Islands to build local law enforcement capacity. The island nation does not maintain a standing military force, so its national police service carries a much broader set of security responsibilities than police forces in countries with dedicated military institutions.

    The Solomon Islands first shifted its diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 2019 under Sogavare’s administration, a move that delivered a major diplomatic win for China, which claims the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan as an inalienable part of its sovereign territory.

  • Suspended police officer Scott Charles Applebee in court over alleged role in licence scam

    Suspended police officer Scott Charles Applebee in court over alleged role in licence scam

    A corrupt scheme that peddled unearned provisional driving licences to untested drivers has led three South Australian public servants to face criminal charges, with two making their first court appearances this week.

    The investigation, which uncovered the alleged fraud, names 46-year-old Scott Charles Applebee, a serving Adelaide police officer who was suspended immediately following his arrest in March this year. He stands alongside 50-year-old Sam Wheatley, a current state government employee, and 43-year-old Elijah Conrad Ware, a former authorised driving test examiner and instructor. All three men face accusations of abusing their public positions to orchestrate the scam, which prosecutors say unfolded between May and August 2025.

    On Wednesday, Applebee from Adelaide and Wheatley from Balhannah made their initial appearances before the Adelaide Magistrates Court. Their co-accused Ware, a resident of Trott Park, already appeared for his first hearing at the same court on May 8. All three are accused of colluding to fraudulently issue provisional driving licences without requiring applicants to complete mandatory on-road driving assessments, in exchange for illegal payments.

    Court documents detail specific allegations against each defendant: Applebee and Ware are accused of improperly leveraging their official authority to secure a competency certificate for an individual named Benjamin Wilkin, which was subsequently used to issue a valid provisional licence. The pair is alleged to have accepted payment for a road test that was never administered, with Applebee’s offence linked to a May 21, 2025 incident in Glandore. For Wheatley, charges stem from a May 26, 2025 incident in Mount Barker, where he and Ware are accused of falsifying official documents while misusing their public influence to push through the fraudulent licence approval.

    At the time of the alleged offences, all three men held secondary roles as driving instructors, giving them additional access to the licensing process that they exploited for the scheme. Ware faces a total of 12 separate criminal charges in connection to the scam, while Applebee and Wheatley each face two counts of abuse of public office-related offences.

    During Wednesday’s brief preliminary hearing, neither Applebee nor Wheatley made any statement while standing in the dock. Magistrate Koula Kossiavelos granted an adjournment for the case, scheduling the next hearing for October 13. This date aligns with the already scheduled next appearance for Ware, moving all three defendants’ cases forward on the same timeline.