Global Pulse

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  • Beijing sees surging cross-border travel so far this year

    Beijing sees surging cross-border travel so far this year

    As of the end of the third week of April 2026, official data from Beijing’s border control authorities shows that the Chinese capital has recorded over 7 million combined entries and exits through its ports, marking a 13% increase compared to the same period in 2025. This robust growth signals a continued rebound in international travel connectivity for one of Asia’s most visited global destinations.

    According to statistics released by the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection, foreign national travel has outpaced overall growth, with the total number of foreign entries and exits topping 2.28 million as of Sunday April 26, a 34% jump year-on-year. By April 25, more than 828,000 international travelers had entered Beijing through existing visa-free or temporary entry permit frameworks this year alone, accounting for more than 70% of all foreign arrivals to the capital.

    Industry and government analysts attribute the sharp uptick in cross-border travel and inbound tourism to Beijing to a series of progressive policy adjustments that have reduced entry barriers for international visitors. To date, the Chinese government has rolled out unilateral visa-free policies that benefit citizens of 50 countries, and expanded 240-hour transit visa-free access to travelers from 53 additional nations, bringing the total number of eligible countries for the transit program to 55. These streamlined policies have cut through red tape for leisure, business, and transit travelers alike, removing the time and cost burdens associated with pre-arrival visa applications.

    To accommodate the growing passenger volume and maintain smooth, efficient border operations, Beijing’s border inspection authorities have rolled out a suite of targeted service and infrastructure upgrades. Key improvements include the launch of an integrated one-stop service that combines temporary entry permit issuance and pre-clearance inspection for travelers taking advantage of the 240-hour transit visa-free program. Authorities have also added dedicated on-site support teams to guide first-time visitors through visa-free policy requirements and assist with digital and paper arrival card completion, cutting wait times and reducing friction for new international guests.

    Travel industry leaders in Beijing note that the sustained growth in cross-border travel is expected to deliver cascading benefits to the local economy, supporting gains in hospitality, retail, cultural tourism, and international business events in the coming months as the peak summer travel season approaches.

  • Gunmen attack orphanage in northern Nigeria and abduct 23 pupils

    Gunmen attack orphanage in northern Nigeria and abduct 23 pupils

    ABUJA, Nigeria — Armed attackers launched a raid on an orphanage-affiliated school in north-central Nigeria over the weekend, abducting 23 young pupils before local security forces recovered 15 of the children in immediate follow-up operations, state authorities confirmed in a public announcement Monday.

    The assault targeted the Dahallukitab Group of Schools, a mixed educational and orphanage facility located in a remote, cut-off area of Lokoja, the capital city of Kogi State. In an official statement, Kogi State Commissioner Kingsley Femi Fanwo noted that the institution had been operating without legal authorization from Nigerian educational regulators, a detail that raises new questions about oversight of community-based care facilities in the region.

    As of Monday, no insurgent or criminal group had publicly claimed credit for the abduction. The wider north-central and northwestern regions of Nigeria have recorded a steady uptick in kidnapping-for-ransom attacks targeting civilian institutions over the past three years, with criminal gangs increasingly focusing on soft targets including schools and orphanages.

    While official confirmation of the victims’ ages has not been released, local context clarifies that the term “pupil” in Nigerian educational and law enforcement discourse almost exclusively refers to young learners in kindergarten or primary school, meaning most of the abducted children are likely 12 years old or younger.

    Fanwo confirmed that intensive search and rescue operations are currently underway across Lokoja and surrounding rural areas to locate the eight remaining abducted children and take the perpetrators into custody. “Our security teams are working around the clock to bring every missing child home safely and hold those responsible for this horrific attack to account,” the statement added.

    Widespread school kidnappings have emerged as one of the most visible markers of the persistent insecurity plaguing Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with over 220 million residents. Security analysts who study the country’s criminal landscape explain that armed gangs deliberately target students and educational facilities because attacks on children generate widespread media and government attention, increasing pressure on authorities and families to pay large ransoms for captives’ release.

    Nigeria has grappled with a layered, multi-faceted security crisis for more than a decade, with instability concentrated most heavily in the country’s northern regions. A long-running Islamist insurgency first emerged in northeast Nigeria in 2009, led by the militant group Boko Haram. The group splintered in 2016, with a breakaway faction calling itself the Islamic State’s West Africa Province, or ISWAP, which now carries out most large-scale attacks in the northeast. In recent years, a new IS-affiliated group called Lakurawa has established a foothold in northwestern communities along Nigeria’s border with Niger, further expanding the scope of extremist activity in the country.

  • Daughter of former Uzbek president faces trial in Switzerland over money laundering

    Daughter of former Uzbek president faces trial in Switzerland over money laundering

    BELLINZONA, Switzerland — A high-stakes criminal trial has kicked off in southern Switzerland this week, with one of the most high-profile figures from Central Asian politics facing charges of coordinated bribery and large-scale money laundering, all while the defendant remains imprisoned thousands of miles away in her home country. Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of long-ruling former Uzbek President Islam Karimov, is being tried in absentia at the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, with proceedings scheduled to continue through May 22. Currently, the 53-year-old is incarcerated at a women’s penal colony in Zangiota region, just outside the Uzbek capital Tashkent, where she was transferred early this year to serve an existing sentence, making her physical attendance at the Swiss court legally and practically impossible.

    Swiss federal prosecutors have laid out extensive allegations against Karimova, claiming she founded and led a sophisticated transnational criminal network codenamed “The Office” that involved more than 40 individuals and a web of front companies spanning multiple countries. According to the charging documents, Karimova is accused of moving hundreds of millions of dollars in illicitly gained funds into Swiss financial institutions and offshore accounts, and arranging for secure storage of cash, high-value jewelry and other stolen assets in private safety deposit boxes. The charges date back to the period between 2005 and 2013, when Karimova’s father was still in power; he led Uzbekistan for 27 years until his death in 2016. At the time of the alleged offenses, Karimova was working at a United Nations post in Geneva, a role that granted her diplomatic immunity from prosecution at that time. Swiss authorities officially indicted Karimova three years ago, alongside a former senior executive at the Uzbek subsidiary of a major Russian telecommunications firm.

    Karimova’s defense team confirmed that Uzbek authorities have blocked her transfer to Switzerland to appear in court for the trial. “We will seek the full and complete acquittal of Gulnara Karimova,” Grégoire Mangeat, one of Karimova’s lead defense attorneys, stated in a written correspondence, confirming the team’s legal strategy for the proceedings. Local Uzbek media has echoed that Karimova’s presence in the Bellinzona courtroom is effectively out of the question given her ongoing custodial sentence in her home country. This is not Karimova’s first conviction: she was first found guilty of criminal charges in Uzbekistan eight years ago, and is currently serving a 13-year sentence on counts including running a criminal organization, extortion, and large-scale embezzlement, stemming from a series of domestic legal proceedings.

    The trial also casts a spotlight on the role of global private banking in facilitating alleged illicit financial activity. In late 2024, Swiss prosecutors expanded their investigation to indict major Swiss private bank Lombard Odier and one of its former employees, alleging the institution played a “decisive role in concealing the proceeds of the criminal activities of ‘The Office.’” In an official response, Lombard Odier clarified that prosecutors do not accuse the bank of knowingly or intentionally participating in money laundering. Instead, the bank said, the claims center on alleged gaps in the bank’s anti-money laundering prevention protocols, allegations the institution “firmly contests and will defend in court.”

    The case marks one of the most high-profile transnational corruption proceedings in recent European history, linking a ruling political dynasty in Central Asia to alleged financial wrongdoing within Switzerland’s legendary private banking system.

  • Venice’s La Fenice theater drops incoming music director after months of protests

    Venice’s La Fenice theater drops incoming music director after months of protests

    MILAN — One of Italy’s most iconic cultural institutions, Venice’s historic La Fenice Opera House, has officially severed all planned collaboration with its controversial incoming music director Beatrice Venezi, ending a months-long standoff fueled by widespread public pushback from the theater’s own artistic staff over the conductor’s close political ties to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government. In a statement released Sunday, the La Fenice Theater Foundation confirmed the decision, with general manager Nicola Colabianchi justifying the split by pointing to what he called Venezi’s “repeated and serious public statements that were offensive and harmful” to the reputation of both the landmark venue and its resident orchestra.

    The reversal comes after weeks of escalating protests from La Fenice’s musicians, singers, and backstage crew, who almost uniformly rejected Venezi’s appointment from the moment it was announced last September. Colabianchi, who originally championed Venezi’s selection, had initially argued that the 36-year-old conductor’s youth and energetic approach would help draw younger audiences to the 19th-century opera house, a position that was also backed by Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli. Giuri, however, struck a more conciliatory tone Sunday, noting he hoped the decision would “clear misunderstandings, tensions and manipulations” that have dogged Venezi’s nomination process since it began.

    Critics of the appointment centered their opposition on two core grievances: first, that Venezi lacked the depth of senior-level experience required to lead a world-renowned artistic institution like La Fenice, and second, that the hiring process was marked by a troubling lack of transparency. Many in the theater’s artistic community raised broader alarms that the appointment amounted to political interference in autonomous artistic decision-making, given Venezi’s longstanding ties to Meloni’s right-wing administration. She was named a special advisor to Culture Minister Giuli shortly after Meloni’s government took power in 2022.

    Venezi’s professional resume includes stints as principal conductor of the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti Young and guest conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana, and she has led international performances in countries including Armenia, Uruguay, and Argentina. Even so, that experience failed to assuage the concerns of La Fenice’s in-house artistic team, who ramped up their protests in recent months. Demonstrations included a work stoppage that forced the cancellation of a scheduled full performance, as well as a public march through Venice that drew support from cultural workers from other Italian opera houses.

    Footage circulated by Italian state and independent media shows that when news of the canceled appointment broke during a public performance at La Fenice Sunday evening, the gathered audience and the theater’s own orchestra broke out in sustained, enthusiastic applause. The high-profile controversy has put a spotlight on long-simmering tensions in Italy between political leadership and independent cultural institutions, as artists and sector workers push back against what they see as growing attempts to exert political control over artistic leadership and programming.

  • Aussies urged to withdraw cash from ATMs in massive grassroots Cash Out Day protest

    Aussies urged to withdraw cash from ATMs in massive grassroots Cash Out Day protest

    On April 28, millions of Australian residents are expected to converge on ATMs and bank branches across every state and territory to withdraw cash, joining a coordinated grassroots movement pushing back against shrinking access to physical currency and pushing both the federal government and financial institutions to protect cash as a permanent payment option.

    Organized by the advocacy group Cash Welcome, the annual event dubbed National Cash Out Day aims to send a clear message to banks: Australian consumers demand the right to choose how they access and spend their own money in local communities. Jason Bryce, founder of Cash Welcome and a veteran financial journalist, explained that the first iteration of the campaign several years ago already delivered tangible policy results, forcing the government to commit to a formal cash access mandate. This year’s action builds on that early win, as declining ATM availability and the rise of contactless digital payments have steadily reduced public access to physical cash across the country.

    On a typical Australian business day, roughly 900,000 to one million people complete ATM withdrawals. Organizers are calling on participants to double that number to 1.8 million on April 28, with participation requiring nothing more than withdrawing as little as $20 from an ATM, bank branch, or EFTPOS-enabled retailer. Bryce emphasized that the campaign is not opposed to the convenience of contactless tap-and-go payments, which have become a staple of Australian commerce. Instead, it centers on protecting consumer choice: no single payment method should be forced out of common use, and all Australians deserve the option to transact with cash when they prefer.

    New data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) underscores just how vital this choice remains for millions of people. Contrary to widespread assumptions that cash use is in terminal decline, the RBA’s latest study shows physical currency usage is actually growing across the country. In 2025, 15% of all Australian transactions were completed with cash, a 2 percentage point increase from 2023. For in-person transactions alone, that share rises to nearly 20%, with half of all Australians reporting they use cash at least once per week.

    The data also confirms that cash access is a critical equity issue. Older Australians rely on cash far more heavily than younger generations, and lower-income households are more likely to prefer physical payments over digital alternatives. The RBA’s analysis warns that further cuts to cash access would cause severe harm for a large share of the population: approximately one-third of all Australians would face major hardship or significant daily inconvenience if cash becomes difficult to access or widely rejected by retailers. Many residents report carrying cash specifically to cover unexpected expenses or to have a backup when digital payment systems fail, and those who depend on cash regularly say they would face insurmountable difficulties if the payment option were significantly restricted.

    As the campaign gains momentum across the country, participants frame Cash Out Day as a simple, accessible way for ordinary consumers to stand up for their rights and ensure cash remains a viable, widely available option for all Australians.

  • India and New Zealand sign a free trade agreement to deepen economic ties

    India and New Zealand sign a free trade agreement to deepen economic ties

    Against a backdrop of rising global trade fragmentation and economic volatility, India and New Zealand formalized a transformative free trade agreement (FTA) in New Delhi on Monday, a deal designed to boost bilateral economic integration and open new reciprocal market access for both nations. The signing ceremony brought together India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and New Zealand’s Minister of Trade and Investment Todd McClay, who was visiting the Indian capital for the event.

    After nine months of closed-door negotiations that concluded with a preliminary agreement in December, the deal delivers sweeping tariff changes: 95% of New Zealand’s goods exported to India will see tariffs cut or removed entirely, while every Indian product shipped to New Zealand will enter duty-free. In a supplementary commitment, New Zealand has pledged to channel $20 billion in investment into India over the coming 15 years.

    For both governments, the agreement comes as a strategic response to shifting global trade pressures. New Delhi has been actively pursuing alternative export markets to offset the economic strain of steep tariffs imposed by the United States on Indian goods, as well as growing disruptions to key shipping and energy routes linked to regional tensions. For New Zealand, the deal advances a long-running policy goal of reducing overreliance on China, its single largest trading partner, by diversifying its trade relationships across the Indo-Pacific.
    McClay framed the agreement as an unprecedented opportunity for long-term growth, noting that it comes at a moment of heightened global trade friction and policy uncertainty. Official trade data puts bilateral commerce between the two nations at $2.15 billion for the 12-month period ending June 2025, with India currently ranking as New Zealand’s 12th-largest export market. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deepen our economic ties at a time when the global order is shifting,” McClay said of the deal.
    Goyal echoed the significance of the moment, calling the FTA a “defining milestone” for both countries. “At a time when the world economy is being recast, India and New Zealand have chosen each other,” he stated, adding that the agreement establishes clear frameworks for cross-sector investment and regulatory cooperation that will benefit businesses on both sides.

    Key sectors set to gain expanded market access for Indian exporters include textiles and apparel, engineering goods, leather and footwear, and marine products. New Zealand exporters will see new openings for shipments of horticultural goods, timber, coal, wool and meat. To protect its large domestic farming community, India carved out exclusions for dairy products and a selection of other agricultural goods in the final text of the agreement.
    India’s export sector has faced mounting pressure since August last year, when the United States imposed steep new tariffs on a range of Indian goods, hitting labor-intensive sectors including textiles, auto components and metals particularly hard. New Delhi continues to hold separate bilateral trade negotiations with Washington even as it expands trade ties with other partners across the globe.

    In New Zealand, the FTA enjoys broad bipartisan support, a standard for the country’s major trade agreements. The deal now moves to parliamentary ratification, and it is widely expected to pass after the center-left opposition New Zealand Labour Party pledged its backing. The only notable opposition comes from New Zealand First, a small populist party that is part of the current governing coalition.
    Reporting for this story was contributed by Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand.

  • A predawn Russian drone strike hits Ukraine’s Odesa, wounding 14; 2 killed in Russian-held Kherson

    A predawn Russian drone strike hits Ukraine’s Odesa, wounding 14; 2 killed in Russian-held Kherson

    KYIV, Ukraine – As Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its third year, a pre-dawn Russian drone assault on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa left 14 people injured, including two minors, local officials confirmed Monday. The attack targeted residential blocks and key civilian infrastructure, according to Serhii Lysak, head of Odesa’s city military administration. As a strategically critical Black Sea export hub, Odesa has been repeatedly targeted by Russian strikes throughout the ongoing conflict.
    Oleh Kiper, governor of Odesa’s regional military administration, added that five of the wounded — all suffering from shrapnel injuries — were admitted to local hospitals for treatment. The assault marked the latest in a continuous wave of Russian attacks on populated civilian areas across Ukraine.
    In a parallel development reported by Russian-installed officials, a Ukrainian drone strike left two elderly civilians dead in Dnipriany, a village located in the Russian-occupied portion of Ukraine’s Kherson region. Moscow-appointed regional governor Vladimir Saldo confirmed that the deceased victims were a 70-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman.
    In an update posted to the social platform X on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed the staggering scale of Russian strikes over the previous seven days: approximately 1,900 attack drones, close to 1,400 heavy precision-guided aerial bombs, and around 60 missiles of multiple variants launched across Ukrainian territory. Zelenskyy noted that years of wartime innovation have allowed Ukraine to develop cutting-edge domestic air defense capabilities, enabling Ukrainian forces to intercept more than 90% of the Russian drones targeting the country. Even so, he emphasized that Ukraine still urgently requires additional American-made Patriot air defense systems to counter Russia’s ballistic missile threats, which current systems are not fully equipped to intercept at scale.
    Beyond developments on the frontline, Zelenskyy highlighted a series of recent diplomatic and economic wins for Kyiv. NATO member states outside the United States have finalized a funding framework to procure U.S.-manufactured weapons for Ukraine, the European Union has formally approved a €90 billion ($106 billion) lending package to support Ukraine’s wartime and reconstruction budget, and the bloc is preparing to roll out additional economic sanctions targeting Moscow. Separately, Norway became the latest European nation to formalize a joint drone production partnership with Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced Monday. Zelenskyy also added that Ukraine is now sharing its anti-drone expertise with Middle Eastern and Gulf nations facing attacks from Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles amid regional tensions tied to the ongoing Iran conflict.
    On the offensive side, Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone and missile strikes against Russian energy infrastructure deep within Russian territory, targeting oil terminals and refineries to disrupt Moscow’s core energy export economy. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington D.C.-based independent think tank, reported Sunday evening that it has verified geolocated evidence of at least 10 separate Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil and gas infrastructure over the past 14 days.
    This coverage is part of ongoing reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war from The Associated Press, with full updates available at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

  • China blocks Meta from acquiring AI startup Manus

    China blocks Meta from acquiring AI startup Manus

    In a high-profile move that highlights growing regulatory scrutiny of cross-border artificial intelligence deals, China’s top economic planning body has formally blocked Meta Platforms’ planned purchase of Manus, a Singapore-headquartered AI startup with founding origins in China. The announcement, made public on Monday, marks one of the most prominent restrictions on a major U.S. technology company’s acquisition of an AI-linked firm with Chinese connections in recent years.

    The official order came from the Office of the Working Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s leading planning agency. In its brief public statement, the NDRC confirmed it was prohibiting the foreign takeover of Manus and mandating all parties involved unwind the transaction completely. Notably, the agency did not explicitly name Meta, the American parent company of major social platforms Facebook and Instagram, in its public notification.

    This formal ban follows a preliminary investigation launched by Chinese regulators earlier this year, after the deal was first unveiled to the public. The NDRC did not release any additional details or expand on the specific justifications for blocking the acquisition in its public statement.

    The proposed deal was unusual from its inception: it represented a rare instance of a large U.S. technology group acquiring an artificial intelligence firm with deep founding ties to China. Manus has gained recognition in global AI circles for developing a general-purpose AI agent capable of completing multi-step, complex work tasks without continuous human input. For Meta, the acquisition was expected to accelerate the company’s development of advanced AI capabilities to enhance product offerings across its entire ecosystem of social and digital platforms.

    Even before the formal investigation was launched, Meta sought to address early regulatory concerns by confirming that after the acquisition closed, there would be no remaining Chinese ownership stakes in Manus, and the startup would end all its services and operations within mainland China. Still, Chinese regulatory bodies announced in January that they would launch a formal review to assess whether the deal aligned with the country’s existing laws and regulations governing foreign investment.

    At the time of that announcement, China’s Ministry of Commerce emphasized that all companies engaging in outward investment, technology transfers, cross-border data flows, and cross-border acquisition transactions are required to comply fully with all relevant Chinese legal requirements. Meta has repeatedly noted that the vast majority of Manus’ employees are based in Singapore, the startup’s official registered headquarters.

    In a written response to Monday’s ruling, Meta maintained that the proposed transaction had complied fully with all applicable laws. “We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” the California-headquartered company said in its statement, giving no further indication of what steps it might take moving forward. Industry analysts say the ruling underscores the increasing regulatory attention around the world to national security risks tied to AI and cross-border technology acquisitions, as global powers race to advance their own domestic artificial innovation ecosystems.

  • Wushu event fosters international fellowship

    Wushu event fosters international fellowship

    Fresh off the closing ceremony of the 10th World Youth Wushu Championships in Tianjin, an impromptu, unplanned game unfolded on a nearby outdoor basketball court. With no official equipment to hand, a ragtag group of teenage athletes drawn from four continents chased after nothing more than an empty plastic water bottle, laughing and competing with none of the formality of the tournament they had just exited.

    Just hours before, these same young competitors had stood opposite one another on the competition mat, locked in focused, disciplined combat for championship placement. Now, all tournament rivalry had melted away. This casual, joyful scene perfectly encapsulated the core philosophical paradox at the heart of wushu: it is a martial art that teaches practitioners how to strike, first and foremost to build the self-discipline to avoid unnecessary conflict.

    For 20-something Swiss competitor Leandro Gia-Hy Luong, who inherited his love of wushu from his father, the most valuable lesson the sport has taught him is not a powerful high kick or a lightning-quick palm strike. It is a simple two-word rule drilled into him by his coach: “Don’t fight.” For Luong, wushu is first and foremost an exercise in intentional self-restraint. It is defined as the art of “stopping conflict” — a philosophy that is even written into the etymology of the Chinese character for “martial” (wu), which combines the character radicals for “stop” and “spear”.

    Anthony Sims, a veteran American referee with more than two decades of experience officiating wushu competitions, echoed this perspective. “In almost every sanda match I officiate, I see the exact same pattern,” he shared. “After an intensely competitive bout on the platform, competitors walk off the mat and immediately embrace, or exchange warm shoulder pats to encourage one another.”

    When asked to sum up wushu in just three words, Sims did not select common descriptors of martial skill like “strength”, “speed” or “agility”. Instead, he chose “perseverance”, “humility” and “growth”. After 20 years on the job, Sims says he has seen firsthand that wushu delivers far more than physical fitness. It builds mental fortitude and instills core values such as self-restraint, regular self-reflection, and lifelong personal growth — and that mental development, he says, matters far more than any competition medal. For the hundreds of young international athletes who gathered in Tianjin for this year’s youth championships, the event proved less a fight for placement and more a gathering that built cross-cultural connections and life-changing personal lessons that will outlast any tournament result.

  • Coalition puts forward an $800m plan to double fuel reserves and provide more storage

    Coalition puts forward an $800m plan to double fuel reserves and provide more storage

    Against the backdrop of escalating global market disruption stemming from the ongoing Middle East conflict, Australia’s opposition Coalition has launched a targeted $800 million initiative to drastically strengthen the nation’s fuel resilience, expanding strategic reserves and adding 1 billion litres of new domestic storage capacity. The proposal, framed as a critical response to growing global energy supply uncertainty, calls for a sweeping overhaul of Australia’s existing fuel stockholding rules, with a specific focus on shoring up supplies of diesel, the fuel that powers most of the country’s freight, agriculture and regional sectors. At the core of the plan is a move to more than double the current Minimum Stockholding Obligation (MSO), requiring suppliers to maintain enough reserve fuel to cover 60 days of national demand — representing a more than 50% jump in total minimum reserves and a nearly 25% increase in critical stockholdings. The Coalition is also proposing the creation of a dedicated Australian Fuel Security Facility, backed by the full $800 million in government funding, that will support the construction of at least 1 billion litres of new onshore storage infrastructure, again prioritizing diesel storage to meet the needs of key domestic industries. Opposition leader Angus Taylor has urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government to adopt the plan immediately, warning that any delay leaves Australia exposed to catastrophic supply disruptions. “If fuel stops, Australia stops. It’s that simple. Trucks don’t move, supermarkets don’t stock, businesses shut their doors,” Taylor said in remarks announcing the policy. “We are putting forward a practical plan to make sure that never happens. More fuel in reserve, more storage on the ground, and a country that can stand on its own two feet. This is about protecting Australians’ way of life and restoring their standard of living. You don’t do that with talk. You do it with action.” The plan has received strong backing from the Nationals, the junior coalition partner that represents regional and rural Australia, where reliance on diesel for farming, freight and everyday transport is far higher than in major urban centers. Nationals leader Matt Canavan emphasized that increasing domestic stockpiles reduces Australia’s dangerous overreliance on vulnerable overseas supply chains that can be disrupted by global conflict or geopolitical tension almost overnight. “People in the regions know how serious this is. If the diesel doesn’t turn up, the farm doesn’t run and the shelves go empty,” Canavan said. “This plan is just common sense. Keep more fuel here in Australia so we are not relying on overseas supply lines that can be cut overnight. We cannot keep hoping for the best. We need to be ready, and this plan gets us there.” Under the current regulatory framework, fuel suppliers are already required to hold minimum reserve stocks, with the associated costs passed through to consumers at the fuel pump. The Coalition’s plan would require suppliers to build new storage capacity and acquire additional inventory, with government financial support offsetting much of the upfront cost. The opposition estimates that expanding the MSO would add only around 1 cent per litre to retail fuel prices, a modest increase that it argues is well worth the cost of enhanced national energy security. Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan added that the proposal offers a clear, actionable path to strengthening the country’s entire fuel supply chain against unforeseen global shocks. “This is a practical, achievable plan that strengthens our fuel supply chain and backs Australian industry,” Tehan said. “It works with industry, builds storage where it is needed, and makes sure we have the buffer to withstand global shocks.” The Coalition has committed that if the government adopts the plan immediately, it would deliver the full 60-day fuel security target by 2030, putting Australia in a far stronger position to weather ongoing global energy volatility linked to the Middle East conflict and other geopolitical risks.