Global Pulse

标签： Oceania

大洋洲

  • Overtaken by Hong Kong in global wealth management, Swiss keep cool

    Overtaken by Hong Kong in global wealth management, Swiss keep cool

    In a landmark shift for the global wealth management industry, new data has confirmed Hong Kong has edged past Switzerland to claim the number one ranking in cross-border assets under management – a development that has sparked little panic among Swiss banking leaders, who are instead leveraging the milestone to argue against looming domestic regulatory tightening.

    The 2026 Global Wealth Report published last week by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) lays out the new market dynamic: by the end of 2025, Hong Kong held $2.95 trillion in cross-border assets under management, compared to Switzerland’s $2.946 trillion. BCG analysts attribute Hong Kong’s ascent to three core drivers: massive capital inflows from mainland China, robust initial public offering activity, and strong gains across local equity markets.

    Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, framed the milestone as a sign of the sector’s ongoing momentum. He noted that rapid innovation in technology and artificial intelligence is expected to unlock even greater growth opportunities for Hong Kong’s asset and wealth management industry. BCG’s report adds that more than 60% of Hong Kong’s cross-border capital originates from mainland China, cementing the city’s long-held role as a strategic gateway connecting China to global financial markets.

    Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking, told AFP that shifting geopolitical realities have also fueled capital flows into Hong Kong. Uncertainties surrounding US-China tensions are a primary factor driving investors to park and manage their capital in the city, he explained. However, the region’s cross-border landscape faces growing regulatory uncertainty: in May, Chinese market regulators launched a sweeping two-year crackdown on unauthorized outbound investment targeting cross-border trading brokers. Earlier this week, China’s State Council unveiled new rules set to take effect in July that restrict unapproved outbound investments and deals that could transfer restricted technology, services, or data outside of mainland China. “Investors engaging in foreign investment and related activities… shall not endanger China’s national security or harm national interests,” official statements read. Ng added that if Beijing seeks to accelerate the internationalization of the yuan, it will ultimately need to accept more flexible cross-border capital movement to support that goal.

    Across the industry in Switzerland, the new ranking has not triggered alarm – instead, it has become a talking point in ongoing debates over proposed regulatory reforms. The Swiss Bankers Association acknowledged that Hong Kong has directly benefited from the extraordinary pace of asset growth across China, but emphasized that Swiss banks already hold a strong, successful footprint in Asia’s high-growth markets. The association argued that competitive regulatory frameworks are critical to Switzerland’s future success, noting that rules must remain targeted and internationally coordinated to boost both financial stability and industry competitiveness.

    The debate over regulation comes amid ongoing fallout from the 2023 collapse of Credit Suisse, when the Swiss government pressured UBS, the country’s largest bank, to complete an emergency takeover of its long-time domestic rival to prevent catastrophic damage to Switzerland’s financial reputation. Today, the merged megabank holds a size that vastly outpaces the overall size of the Swiss domestic economy, prompting the federal government in Bern to push for stricter regulatory safeguards to mitigate future systemic risk. UBS has been openly at odds with the government over the proposed changes.

    The Association of Swiss Private Banks, which represents the country’s core wealth management sector, told AFP that Hong Kong’s rise to the top makes clear that international competitiveness must remain a central priority in regulatory negotiations. “During debates on the government’s proposals, parliament will have to keep this in mind,” the group added.

    Industry analysts broadly agree that Hong Kong’s ascent was predictable, driven by broader macroeconomic trends across Asia. Andreas Venditti, an analyst with Swiss investment management firm Vontobel, noted that Asian economies have posted far stronger growth rates than European markets for years, setting the stage for this shift. He added that far from being harmed by the change, Swiss banks stand to gain from Asian growth: UBS alone held $781 billion in assets under management across the Asia-Pacific region as of the end of March 2026, making it the largest wealth manager in the region by a significant margin. BCG data backs this up, showing cross-border wealth grew 10.7% in Hong Kong in 2025, compared to 7.6% growth in Switzerland over the same period.

    Dean Frankle, BCG managing director and global financial institutions specialist, summed up the shift as a natural outcome of “the rise of Asia.” For high-net-worth Asian clients, he argued, there is little incentive to travel to Europe for wealth management services when a leading global hub is located in their own region. That reality makes it essential for Swiss banks to maintain a strong competitive presence in Asia to succeed long-term. “If you’re not serving both markets, you’re only playing half the game,” Frankle said.

  • ‘Our pool is bigger than skyscrapers’: Amid war, Trump touts Washington projects

    ‘Our pool is bigger than skyscrapers’: Amid war, Trump touts Washington projects

    Against a tense backdrop of a faltering ceasefire with Iran and mounting political peril for his Republican Party over the conflict’s mounting costs, former President Donald Trump used a high-profile Oval Office gathering with press corps this Wednesday to shift focus to a decidedly domestic topic: the ongoing renovation of the iconic Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

    This public appearance marked Trump’s first in several days, and the 79-year-old ex-real estate developer opened the executive order signing ceremony not with discussion of the escalating Middle East crisis, but with a deep dive into the decades-long problems plaguing the 102-year-old reflecting pool, one of Washington D.C.’s most visited tourist landmarks that is currently closed to the public for the makeover.

    “It was opened in 1922 and it always leaked,” Trump told assembled reporters, leaning into his background in property development as he spoke with unusual energy about the construction project. He highlighted what he called a “very special material” engineered for the refurbishment, noting the pool is on track to welcome visitors again ahead of the upcoming July 4 holiday — a date that also doubles as the 250th anniversary of American independence.

    The project has already drawn bipartisan scrutiny for its inflated price tag and questions surrounding the competitive bidding process that awarded the construction contract. In a striking display of showmanship, Trump brought out a custom-made graphic titled “Our Pool is Bigger than Skyscrapers”, on which he compared the 2,029-foot linear length of the reflecting pool to the vertical heights of three of the nation’s most famous skyscrapers, including New York City’s legendary Empire State Building.

    The conversation soon turned to the site’s place in American civil rights history: the reflecting pool sits on the National Mall, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his landmark 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech to hundreds of thousands of civil rights supporters. In an unprompted comparison, Trump drew a parallel between King’s historic crowd and the rally he held on the same stretch of the Mall on January 6, 2021, shortly before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    “That’s where Martin Luther King made his great speech. The million people, I had the same amount of people,” Trump claimed, adding “You put the picture side by side, which we have, and they said I had 25,000 (people), he had a million… my crowd was tighter.” Independent fact-checkers have long pushed back on these claims: the National Constitution Center estimates King’s 1963 gathering drew roughly 250,000 attendees, while no official credible crowd estimate exists for the January 6 rally. This is not the first time Trump has faced backlash for inflating attendance numbers; he famously claimed his 2017 inauguration drew a larger crowd than Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, despite clear photographic and statistical evidence to the contrary.

    After an extended tangent on the reflecting pool project that lasted far longer than his opening remarks on the scheduled policy topics, Trump moved forward with signing two executive orders focused on U.S. customs policy and new protections for federal civil servants. Only when pressed by reporters did he address the ongoing conflict with Iran, telling reporters that he expected potential breakthroughs in negotiations “over the weekend” but offering no further details on the framework for any potential diplomatic deal.

  • Favourites keep apart in lead up to Tour de France

    Favourites keep apart in lead up to Tour de France

    One month out from the 2025 Tour de France, the cycling world is already buzzing for what is set to be one of the most compelling yellow jersey battles in modern cycling history. The race’s starting line in Barcelona will welcome a stacked field of elite contenders, headlined by Slovenian four-time champion Tadej Pogacar, who is chasing a record-tying fifth Grand Boucle title. Hot on his heels will be rejuvenated Danish two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard and breakout French teenage talent Paul Seixas. But unlike typical pre-Tour seasons, fans will have to wait until the opening stage of the race itself to see these three top favorites go head-to-head, after all three opted for drastically different training and warm-up schedules that have kept them apart.

  • Ukraine strike kills 3 in Russian-occupied Crimea

    Ukraine strike kills 3 in Russian-occupied Crimea

    A fresh wave of cross-border strikes has ratcheted up tensions in the 28-month-old Ukraine conflict, after a Ukrainian attack on Russian-occupied Crimea left three people dead and seven injured, just one day after Kyiv launched coordinated strikes on energy and military infrastructure in Saint Petersburg, coinciding with the opening of Russia’s flagship international economic forum.

    Sergey Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea’s occupied administration, confirmed the casualties in a Thursday Telegram post, noting that emergency response teams had been deployed to the site of the strike on non-residential structures in Simferopol, the region’s administrative capital.

    The Saint Petersburg strikes, which hit a local oil terminal and the Kronstadt military base, unfolded Wednesday as 20,000 delegates from more than 130 countries gathered for the start of the three-day Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), an event long referred to as “Russia’s Davos.” Thick plumes of black smoke from the burning terminal were clearly visible from the forum’s conference venue as opening sessions got underway. For many attendees, the attack did not come as a shock: 32-year-old Moscow-based businesswoman Valeria, who is attending the forum, told Agence France-Presse that residents across Russia have grown accustomed to persistent attack threats after years of war. “We have been living under such attacks for many years now,” she noted.

    Ukrainian officials have framed the coordinated strikes as legitimate retaliation for a recent surge in Russian bombardment across Ukrainian territory. Sergiy Sternenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s defense minister, said the attack was intentionally timed to disrupt the high-profile economic gathering, noting that “The Petersburg forum is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes.”

    In a press conference alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reaffirmed his country’s right to respond proportionally to Russian attacks, warning that Kyiv would continue to ramp up the intensity of its deep strikes into Russian territory. “It’s just a matter of time before we can scale up the intensity of our responses,” Zelenskyy said.

    The latest exchange of fire has already caused casualties across multiple frontline and rear areas. On Wednesday, Moscow-appointed officials reported that a drone strike on a passenger bus in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine killed seven people, with two additional fatalities recorded in the border region of Bryansk and Russian-occupied parts of Kharkiv Oblast. Separate statements from Ukrainian local officials confirmed that at least 10 civilians were killed in a wave of Russian retaliatory strikes across Ukraine on the same day.

    Top Western officials have warned that Ukraine’s growing success in launching long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory has created a tangible risk of the conflict spilling beyond existing borders and escalating into a wider confrontation. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a U.S. Senate appropriations panel Wednesday that the risk of escalation is now “more real than it was two years ago,” as Kyiv’s long-range strike capabilities have improved dramatically. “Ukraine has become increasingly effective at conducting long-range strikes deep into Russia,” Rubio said. “It’s one of the things that reminds us of why it’s important to try to bring this war to an end, if we can, because the risk of escalation is real.”

    Speaking earlier to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rubio noted that little progress has been made toward peace negotiations since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. “To this point, neither side has been willing to make concessions, particularly on the Russian side, necessary in order to bring peace about,” he said, adding that the U.S. has invested significant diplomatic time and resources into advancing peace talks over the past year.

    EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas said the recent Ukrainian strikes have sowed chaos within the Kremlin. She told AFP that increased Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure reflect panic on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is facing mounting losses on the battlefield. “It clearly shows also panic on the Russian side — why they are increasing the terrorist attacks that they are doing in Ukraine is because they don’t know what to do with these things,” Kallas said. “Putin is losing money, men, and momentum, and that’s why he’s increasing attacks on civilians.”

    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has already promised a coordinated, systemic Russian response to the strikes on Saint Petersburg, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to deliver his keynote address to the SPIEF forum on Friday, where the conflict and its economic implications are expected to top the agenda.

  • Golden generation: The seven premiership graduates who prove the Storm’s new system is working

    Golden generation: The seven premiership graduates who prove the Storm’s new system is working

    For years, the Melbourne Storm has focused on one strategic mission: unearthing homegrown rugby league talent across Victoria and nurturing it locally, rather than watching promising young athletes leave the state for opportunities elsewhere. Now, the club’s years of investment in grassroots development are beginning to deliver a new golden generation of players that could reshape the club’s future for decades to come.

    Before the club launched its groundbreaking “Road to AAMI Park” initiative, Melbourne Storm leadership faced a persistent problem: top junior prospects were forced to leave Victoria because there was no clear, supported route to the National Rugby League (NRL) first grade. Only a small handful of local juniors had ever successfully made the jump to the top competition, a gap the club was determined to close. Today, the program’s impact is already clear, with fullback Sua Fa’alogo – a local Victorian product – emerging as one of Melbourne’s standout performers so far this season. Fa’alogo has become the public face of the club’s youth development success, and club leaders say he is just the first of many promising young athletes to rise through the new system.

    Seven players from Melbourne Storm’s 2024 (corrected from 2025 per context) Jersey Flegg under-21 premiership-winning squad have already earned their first NRL call-ups this season, capitalizing on an injury crisis that opened up unexpected first-team opportunities at the club. Hugo Peel, Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown, Gabriel Satrick, Preston Conn, Angus Hinchey, Cooper Clarke and Stanley Huen all helped defeat Penrith in last year’s under-21 grand final, and all made their NRL debuts in 2025. The long-term goal of the program is to see dozens more local juniors follow this path into the top-tier NRL system.

    Melbourne Storm chief executive Justin Rodski explained the strategy was developed in partnership with the NRL specifically to grow rugby league’s footprint and build a robust development pipeline in Victoria. “There was a rich nursery of young talent across rugby codes in this state, so our priority was to build a genuine pathway with quality coaching and development opportunities that let young players stay close to home in Victoria, rather than forcing them to leave,” Rodski told NewsWire. “Seeing seven of these players, who came through the system together, make their debuts this season has been incredibly rewarding. Even though the opportunity came because of our injury crisis, it has let these young players step up together, which is exactly what we hoped for.”

    Rodski pointed to a proven pattern across the most successful NRL teams of the past 20 years: championship-winning squads are almost always built around a core of players who grew up and developed together from a young age. “We’re really hopeful that this group is that next core for us,” he said. “These young talent coming through the system, play together, develop together, and ultimately become first-grade NRL players together. Get that right, and you have a group that can carry the club into its next golden generation.”

    Among the seven debutants, 20-year-old forward Cooper Clarke has already emerged as the biggest early success story. Early impressions from his first NRL season suggest the young middle forward is on track for a long and impactful top-flight career, and he has already re-signed with the club through to 2029. Clarke says he is proud to have watched his former junior teammates earn their own opportunities alongside him. “It’s really special that the club prioritizes local juniors coming through, and that we can be the example for the next group coming up,” Clarke said. “It proves that if you put in the work, it doesn’t matter where you start – you can be playing NRL in just a year’s time, or in the lower pathways. It might take longer for some, but seeing us do this can inspire the kids coming after us. It’s been an absolute honor to be here with all these guys and watch each of them get their chance.”

    Gabriel Satrick’s journey to the NRL is arguably the most inspiring of the group. The young dummy-half made his debut against the Canterbury Bulldogs last month, and the entire small communities he comes from turned out to celebrate his milestone. Satrick’s maternal family hails from Hope Vale, while his father is from Yam Island in the Torres Strait, which has a total population of just 275 people. He grew up in Yarrabah, a small Queensland community of around 2500 people, and nearly the whole town turned out to watch his debut: more than 50 locals traveled to Melbourne to cheer him on, while hundreds more gathered in the local park with popcorn and a projector to watch the game live.”

    “Everyone in Yarrabah was so proud and excited,” Satrick said. “It was a big deal, everyone knew about it, and everyone turned out to the park to watch. It was really emotional for me, because it’s been such a long journey to get here. I left home when I was young to move to Ipswich, and I’ve been away from my family and community for six years. To see it all pay off like this is just incredible. Satrick added that he has learned a huge amount from Melbourne’s star hooker Harry Grant in his first weeks in the top squad.

    For the Melbourne Storm, this wave of homegrown debutants is more than just a short-term solution to an injury crisis: it is proof that a years-long bet on local youth development is working, and the foundation for a dominant new era of NRL competition.

  • South Korean adoptees sue Denmark over right to know birth families

    South Korean adoptees sue Denmark over right to know birth families

    Decades after they were sent from South Korea to Denmark for international adoption, eight people born in South Korea are taking legal action against the Danish state, demanding officials acknowledge their role in facilitating unlawful adoptions and hiding the truth of the adoptees’ biological origins.

    One of the plaintiffs, Sofie Randel, was just three years old when she arrived in Denmark alongside her younger brother in 1977, a time when South Korea was ruled by an authoritarian government. A talkative, energetic young girl, Randel spoke fluent Korean upon her arrival, and her adoptive father recorded her voice on a cassette tape that remained stored and forgotten for more than 40 years. It was only in 2023 that Randel shared the long-forgotten recording with a journalist who had been documenting her search for her biological roots.

    Through piecing together the childhood memories Randel shared on the tape and conducting cross-border research in South Korea, the pair uncovered a reality that directly contradicted the story written on Randel’s official Danish adoption paperwork. For decades, Randel believed she and her brother had been abandoned on a public street, left with only their names and ages pinned to their clothing. The truth, however, was far different: their biological mother had voluntarily placed them in a South Korean orphanage only temporarily, while her family worked to overcome severe financial hardship.

    Instead of holding the children until their family could reclaim them, the siblings were sent to Denmark for adoption as part of a decades-long, state-sanctioned program that sent tens of thousands of South Korean children to adoptive families across the globe. What is more, Randel and her brother discovered that three of their older biological siblings had spent 45 years searching for them, never giving up hope of a reunion. The siblings finally met for the first time in South Korea in 2023, a moment Randel called life-changing. ‘They were looking for us for 45 years,’ 52-year-old Randel told Agence France-Presse, wiping away tears. ‘We had no idea anyone was even searching for us.’ Randel argues that Danish authorities intentionally perpetuated the false abandoned story to cover up the unlawful origins of her adoption.

    Official data from a South Korean government inquiry confirms that between 1955 and 1999, more than 140,000 South Korean children were sent abroad for international adoption. In October 2025, the South Korean government issued its first formal public apology for these state-backed unethical practices, acknowledging that widespread, unjust human rights violations had taken place throughout the program.

    Between 1970 and 1989 alone, 7,220 South Korean children were adopted by Danish families. Almost every single one was told they were homeless street orphans, but subsequent investigations have proven this narrative was almost always false. Multiple inquiries have confirmed that the vast majority of children placed in South Korean orphanages during this period were sent for international adoption without the full informed consent of their biological families. A 2024 report from Denmark’s own National Social Appeals Board confirmed that Danish state-run adoption agencies were aware that their South Korean counterparts regularly altered children’s official identities and backgrounds to facilitate adoptions. Danish media reports have also revealed that these Danish agencies paid roughly 54 million kroner, equal to around $8.4 million today, to speed up and facilitate these cross-border adoptions.

    Peter Moller, who leads an advocacy organization for South Korean adoptees in Denmark that is not involved in the current lawsuit, says he has been shocked by the contrast between the two countries’ responses to the scandal. ‘As a Dane, I grew up believing that Denmark always stood for what is right, and that South Korea, as a former dictatorship, was the one responsible for the wrongdoing,’ Moller explained. ‘But Korea had the courage to face what it did straight on, while Denmark prefers to sweep everything under the rug.’

    Sidse Koch Jorgensen, a 53-year-old physiotherapist and one of the eight plaintiffs, says she is furious at the continued lack of accountability from Danish officials. ‘It is a fundamental human right to know your own identity, and to have the chance to connect with your biological family,’ Jorgensen said. For years, the false information on her adoption papers blocked her from tracking down her family, but her decades-long search, which began with her first trip to South Korea in 2013, finally neared a breakthrough when she got an unexpected email just one month before her trip: her biological father had been found. ‘It was a total shock,’ she recalled. When she met her father during her trip, she learned the real story of her separation from her family: when her father was out of the country, her mother had sent her to a temporary care camp without his knowledge or consent, but rather than holding her there, camp officials sent her directly to Denmark for adoption.

    Jorgensen says she wants the Danish government to take ownership for its decades of neglect. ‘Danish authorities were supposed to verify every detail of these adoptions, to investigate any red flags, and they failed completely,’ she said. Each of the eight plaintiffs is seeking 250,000 kroner ($38,800) in personal damages from the Danish state. When contacted by AFP for comment on the lawsuit, Denmark’s Ministry of Social Affairs declined to make any public statement. Denmark halted all new international adoptions in 2024 after widespread evidence of systemic abuse and unethical practices in cross-border adoption programs came to light.

  • Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong slams Greens over Gaza ‘misinformation’

    Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong slams Greens over Gaza ‘misinformation’

    A fiery partisan clash erupted during recent Australian Senate estimates hearings, pitting Labor Foreign Minister Penny Wong against Greens Senator David Shoebridge over claims about the visa exit process for Palestinians fleeing Gaza and the West Bank. At the core of the dispute is conflicting accounts of how 415 Palestinians already approved for Australian visas navigate Israel’s exit requirements, with Wong accusing the minor party of spreading misinformation to stoke national division.

    Shoebridge opened the questioning by arguing that Israeli’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) had publicly stated Palestinians seeking exit via a third-country mechanism only needed their home embassy to send a formal withdrawal request to the agency. He claimed the Australian government had failed to take this simple step to speed up departures of approved visa holders, while also reiterating the Greens’ condemnation of Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank and renewing criticism of Australia’s ongoing export of F-35 fighter jet parts used in the campaign. Shoebridge further pushed the government on its failure to appoint a Palestinian ambassador, more than a year after Australia formally recognized Palestinian statehood.

    Wong pushed back forcefully against Shoebridge’s claims, rejecting his framing of the process as a simple matter of sending a fax to COGAT. She emphasized that the exit process through Israeli territory is far more logistically complex, requiring precise cross-border coordination at every step, and that Shoebridge’s oversimplified claims amounted to dangerous misinformation that exploited the grief and pain of affected communities to peddle false hope. “It is wrong to assert that in an environment such as this, that a single request to COGAT is all that is required … it’s not right for you to say all you have to do is fax a form, that is not the nature of these transits,” Wong told the hearing. She added: “Really, in the context of what we have seen in this country, maybe it’s time the Greens actually tried to work to bring people together rather than divide people. You see political benefit in division, and you’re happy to use misinformation to enable that division.” Shoebridge countered that Wong had deliberately misrepresented his questions during the exchange.

    Departmental officials outlined the detailed, multi-step process currently in place for facilitating departures: Australian authorities compile a verified list of approved visa holders (including Australian citizens, permanent residents, and their immediate family members), send the list by post to Australian diplomatic staff in Amman, Jordan, forward the vetted list by post to COGAT in Tel Aviv for Israeli review, and after Israel approves a departure date, coordinate with a United Nations agency or partner country for on-ground logistics, before approved Palestinians travel to Jordan and catch a flight to Australia within a 72-hour window. To date, 415 approved Palestinians have completed this process and exited to Australia.

    On the question of appointing a Palestinian ambassador, senior Australian official Dr Ralph King, former Australian ambassador to Israel, outlined that Australia set clear preconditions for full diplomatic relations after recognizing Palestine last year. These require the Palestinian Authority (PA), which holds nominal control over parts of the occupied West Bank, to deliver on a series of governance and security reforms: a public commitment to recognizing Israel’s right to exist, a public call for Hamas to disarm, a commitment to hold long-delayed presidential elections (no national presidential vote has been held in the Palestinian Territories since 2005), improved governance structures, greater financial transparency, and the abolition of government payments to the families of imprisoned Palestinians and those labeled martyrs. While Dr King confirmed some progress has been made, he noted Australian authorities remain engaged in dialogue and have not yet concluded that sufficient progress has been delivered to meet the preconditions.

    Wong reaffirmed the Australian government’s longstanding commitment to a two-state solution as the only viable path to lasting peace between Israel and Palestine. She acknowledged that Australia cannot singlehandedly resolve the decades-long conflict, but said the country can work to contribute to breaking the ongoing cycle of violence. “We believe that only happens through a two-state solution,” she said. “There are commitments that the Palestinian Authority has made … we are tying progress on practical implementation of recognition to progress against those commitments, including the setting up of diplomatic missions. But, we are not simply sitting and waiting. We understand that we need to do work with others to build the capacity of the Palestinian Authority for strong and credible governance, that is essential to building peace. We are working with the UK and Canada on this.” Wong also pushed back against Shoebridge’s suggestion that the government bore responsibility for delays, saying it was unfair to mislead the public by claiming a single administrative step would resolve all barriers to exit amid the ongoing conflict.

  • Show must go on for ballerinas in crisis-hit Cuba

    Show must go on for ballerinas in crisis-hit Cuba

    On a Caribbean island grappling with persistent economic crisis, crippling fuel shortages, and rolling daily blackouts, one artistic tradition remains unbroken: Cuban ballet continues to take the stage, carried by the relentless passion of dancers who refuse to let hardship steal their craft. For Laura Kamila Rojas, a 25-year-old Afro-Cuban soloist who earned a coveted spot with the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) just 12 months ago, every performance is a small victory over the daily struggles that define life in modern Cuba.

    Once shy offstage, Rojas transforms into a commanding, confident performer the moment she steps under the stage lights, spinning through pirouettes and executing precise leaps that have already earned her critical acclaim across the country. Her recent turn as Swanilda, the plucky heroine of the beloved 19th-century ballet *Coppelia*, left even the most discerning Havana audiences cheering, with crowds shouting “Bravo, Kamila!” after a flawless sequence of turning jumps during an April performance at the city’s National Theater. But Rojas’ path to the spotlight has been far from easy, as she navigates the same systemic shortages disrupting every corner of Cuban life while building her career at the top of the country’s most iconic cultural institution.

    Ballet has occupied a central place in Cuban national identity since the 1959 Revolution, which expanded public access to the arts and opened dance training to people from all social classes. Under the leadership of legendary dancer Alicia Alonso, the country developed its own distinct ballet pedagogy and built one of the most respected professional companies in the world. For Rojas, that legacy of accessibility shaped her own journey: born and raised in Jesus Maria, a working-class Havana neighborhood steeped in Afro-Cuban cultural tradition, she grew up surrounded by folk dance, with a mother who performed in a troupe directed by her father. Her choice to pursue classical ballet instead of carrying on the family folk tradition surprised everyone who knew her, but her unwavering passion has carried her through every obstacle, including the current crisis.

    Today, crippling fuel shortages, worsened by decades of U.S. trade blockade, have shrunk the country’s cultural sector and upended daily operations for the BNC. Company buses that once transported dancers to rehearsals are now only deployed for performance days, forcing Rojas to find creative ways to travel the five kilometers from her home to the company’s Vedado neighborhood studio every morning. “If necessary…I’d come on foot,” she says, a quiet determination that echoes across the entire company. Once full-day, 8-plus hour rehearsals have been cut back to just four hours a day to conserve electricity, allowing dancers time to travel home before blackouts descend, but the artistic demand on performers remains as high as ever. “We all want to be here, because this is what we love,” Rojas explains.

    Offstage, the daily toll of the crisis makes preparing for performance even more grueling. Summer heat combined with routine blackouts means Rojas often cannot run a fan or air conditioner to cool her home at night, leaving her sleep deprived and battling mosquitos before early morning rehearsals. Yet the moment she steps into the studio or onto the stage, all of that hardship fades: “When I dance, I forget everything. Anything can happen, but my thing is dancing.”

    That resilient, dedicated attitude is what keeps the company moving forward, says BNC director and prima ballerina Viengsay Valdes, who has led the institution through the current crisis. “They have a lot of talent and a real desire to dance, and that is essential,” Valdes notes, adding that continuous training is non-negotiable for professional dancers: “If they stop, that body has to be trained all over again.” Even as most other cultural institutions across Cuba have scaled back or paused programming amid shortages, the BNC has kept rehearsals running and performances scheduled, adjusting show times only to align with available electricity.

    The company’s grit has not gone unnoticed by audiences, who continue to fill the National Theater’s nearly 2,000-seat auditorium for every show. Spectators travel on foot, by bicycle, or by motorcycle through sweltering heat to attend, turning out to support the art form that has long been a point of national pride. For audience members, the performance offers a much-needed escape from the constant stress of daily crisis. “You sit there watching the ballet, in the middle of Havana, with so many problems, and it’s like a bubble that takes us out of reality,” said Teresa Betancourt, a 52-year-old teacher who attended a recent performance. “It’s strange, but beautiful.”

  • Deloitte warns slowing economy, not AI, will make it harder to find a job

    Deloitte warns slowing economy, not AI, will make it harder to find a job

    For Australian job seekers, the market is set to become noticeably tighter by 2026 – but contrary to widespread public fears, artificial intelligence is not the root cause of rising hiring headwinds, a new quarterly analysis from Deloitte Access Economics has confirmed. While the rapidly advancing technology is reshaping day-to-day work across industries, it has not triggered the mass layoffs many experts once predicted, the report concludes.

    Deloitte’s research focused on 82 job categories classified as “AI-disrupted”, meaning large portions of their core tasks do not require human judgment, empathetic reasoning, or advanced interpersonal skills. Even in these roles most exposed to AI automation, the analysis found total employment is still growing, defying common narratives about AI-driven job displacement. Deloitte Access Economics partner David Rumbens emphasized that to date, AI has not resulted in broad job loss across Australia’s workforce. “The limited evidence of widespread job cuts suggests AI is currently acting more as an augmenting tool than a replacement for workers in the Australian labour market,” Rumbens explained. “Australian businesses have not prioritized AI for full automation of roles, so far.”

    That does not mean job seekers will face an easy market in 2026, however. The report warns that broader economic pressures have pushed the labour market into a cooling trend, making new roles harder to secure than in recent years. Three consecutive interest rate hikes and ongoing economic spillover from the Middle East conflict have created widespread business uncertainty, slowing hiring activity across the private sector. Official data included in the analysis shows annual employment growth slowed to just 0.9% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from an average of 1.9% recorded over the prior three years. The national unemployment rate has also climbed 0.4 percentage points since December 2025, marking a clear shift from the tight, worker-friendly labour market of the early 2020s.

    “Rising economic uncertainty has pushed businesses to adopt a far more cautious approach, which has tempered hiring plans and put a brake on employment growth going into the next year,” Rumbens said. Tightening government budgets at both the federal and state level are adding further pressure, with public sector employment growth also projected to continue slowing. Hiring momentum in non-market sectors including healthcare, education and public administration has already softened, a shift Rumbens attributes to widespread fiscal restraint across all levels of Australian government.

    The report’s findings come amid a wave of high-profile layoffs at global and domestic tech firms, many of which have publicly cited AI productivity gains as justification for cutting headcount. Globally, Microsoft has offered voluntary buyouts to 7% of its United States-based workforce, while Meta has implemented cuts affecting roughly 10% of its global staff. On the domestic front, major Australian tech firms have also restructured: Atlassian cut 1,600 roles and WiseTech Global eliminated 2,000 positions in recent restructuring rounds.

    While mass job displacement has not materialized, Deloitte does acknowledge AI is playing a secondary role in slowing hiring growth. Sarah Rogers, Deloitte’s lead partner for workforce strategy, noted that hiring growth in AI-exposed sectors is projected to slow over the next five years. From an average annual growth rate of 1.9% over the past five years, employment expansion in AI-disrupted roles is forecast to drop to 1.2% annually through 2031. These AI-vulnerable roles are concentrated primarily in white-collar, knowledge-intensive sectors including finance and insurance, professional scientific and technical services, and information media. Rogers added that the tasks most vulnerable to AI disruption in these roles are exactly those that do not rely on human-centric soft skills.

  • ‘He won’t travel with us’: Roosters to welcome back Kangaroos star, but they’ve lost a winger for the trip to Canberra

    ‘He won’t travel with us’: Roosters to welcome back Kangaroos star, but they’ve lost a winger for the trip to Canberra

    The Sydney Roosters are heading into Friday night’s blockbuster clash against the Canberra Raiders with a mix of bad news and a massive boost for their backline, confirming that Australian Kangaroos representative winger Mark Nawaqanitawase is set to make his long-awaited return from a season-disrupting injury, just as inspirational comeback story Cody Ramsey is abruptly ruled out of the trip with an illness.\n\nNawaqanitawase has not taken the field since Round 9, when he suffered a severe syndesmosis injury that required surgical intervention and forced him to withdraw from a potential debut with the New South Wales Blues State of Origin side. But after completing a full, contact-heavy training session on Wednesday, the dynamic winger has passed all final fitness tests to be available for selection against the Raiders.\n\nHis comeback arrives at a critical time for the Roosters, who have already been without veteran starting winger Daniel Tupou in recent weeks. Roosters head coach Trent Robinson confirmed the positive update on Nawaqanitawase’s availability, noting that Wednesday’s session was the final hurdle to clear for his return. “Yesterday was the real test for us to make sure that he was right to tick off everything he needed after that syndesmosis injury. It’s looking good for him to play tomorrow,” Robinson told reporters.\n\nThe electrifying winger brings a unique attacking spark to the Roosters lineup, combining creative playmaking with a lethal finishing ability that has made him one of the most exciting young talents in the National Rugby League. Still, Robinson emphasized that the club’s game plan remains rooted in collective effort rather than relying on one individual to turn recent fortunes around. “In some areas he brings a creativity and a finish that’s really important. He’s a high-quality player,” Robinson said. “But then in other areas, that’s just a team concept rather than an individual that’s going to change it. It’s a whole-team concept, so no individual coming in or out is going to change that. It has been a collective.”\n\nNawaqanitawase will slot into the starting right wing position, a spot that was set to be filled by Ramsey – who is now forced to miss the clash just weeks after completing one of the most anticipated comebacks in recent rugby league history. Ramsey, who was sidelined for 1337 days recovering from a serious long-term injury, had already produced one of the feel-good stories of the 2025 NRL season with his return to the top flight. However, Robinson confirmed the club only learned of Ramsey’s illness roughly 30 minutes before speaking to media, ruling him out of travel and selection for the fixture. “Cody’s actually a bit crook. We only just found that out sort of half an hour ago, so he won’t travel with us,” the coach added.\n\nBeyond the backline selection news, the Roosters’ main focus in training this week has been fixing a costly ball control issue that has derailed their last two outings. Against the Melbourne Storm last Saturday, the side coughed up 18 unforced errors and managed just one try on the night, following on from a 14-error performance in a Magic Round loss to the North Queensland Cowboys. A visibly frustrated Robinson addressed the errors directly with his playing group in the sheds after the Storm loss, and this week the squad has prioritized tightening up their completion rates on the training paddock.\n\n“The first thing is to discuss it, and then the second thing is to do it at training,” Robinson explained. “That’s a really key part of the game is talking about it, but training it, and then it’s up to us to perform that tomorrow night. It’s not the single focus, either. You want to improve that, and we’ve been pretty good at that this year. The last two games has not been what we wanted, So we talk about it, practise it, and then go out and do it.”\n\nThe 2026 NRL rule changes have placed unprecedented emphasis on retaining possession and territorial control, making reliable ball handling more critical than ever for title contenders. The Roosters have long built their identity on an expansive, attacking style of play that has sometimes come with higher error counts, but Robinson says the squad has already proven this season that it can balance elite attacking movement with high completion rates. Citing a standout performance against Manly where the side posted a 96% completion rate and only one unforced error, the coach said his side is capable of fixing the recent slump ahead of Friday’s kickoff.\n\n“I think we’ve shown that we can do both,” Robinson said. “I go back to the Manly game where it was sort of about 96 per cent completions. I think we had one error in that game, and there’s been others throughout that period where we’ve been able to do both. We’ve been able to score points but then also control the ball, and that’s the game. That’s pretty clear what’s needed in the game, and our job is to go out and get it done.”