标签： Oceania

Sydney, Australia – The first round of public hearings for Australia’s Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion is set to get underway Monday in Sydney’s central business district, launching a historic national inquiry that will center Jewish Australian voices and their firsthand accounts of rising anti-Jewish hatred across the country. The inquiry was called in the wake of a devastating December 2025 terror attack at a Bondi Beach Chanukah celebration that left 15 people dead, and a sharp nationwide uptick in anti-Semitic incidents following the October 7 2024 Hamas attacks in Israel.

The attack, which targeted the annual Chanukah By The Sea gathering, unfolded when Naveed Akram and his father Sajid allegedly opened fire on attendees, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more. Sajid Akram was fatally shot by responding police, while Naveed Akram has not yet entered pleas to 59 criminal charges, including 40 counts of attempted murder. Australian authorities allege the pair were radicalized and inspired by the extremist group ISIS, marking one of the deadliest anti-Semitic attacks in the nation’s modern history.

Pressure on the federal Albanese government to launch a sweeping public inquiry built steadily in the weeks following the attack, after the government initially commissioned a classified internal review of security agency performance led by former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director Dennis Richardson. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the royal commission on January 8, 25 days after the attack, reversing the government’s earlier position to meet demands from the Australian Jewish community for a transparent, public examination of systemic gaps in addressing anti-Semitism.

“I’ve listened, and in a democracy, that’s a good thing to listen to what people are saying,” Albanese told reporters at the time of the announcement. “I’ve taken the time to reflect, to meet with leaders in the Jewish community, and most importantly, I’ve met with many of the families of victims and survivors of that horrific attack. It’s clear to me that a royal commission is essential to achieving this.”

Presided over by royal commissioner Virginia Bell, the opening two-week block of hearings will focus on core foundational questions: how anti-Semitism is defined in the Australian context, its current prevalence across Australian society and public institutions, and how best to measure the scope of the problem. Over the course of the hearings, dozens of witnesses will testify, including community leaders and everyday Jewish Australians who will share their lived experiences of anti-Semitic harassment, discrimination, and violence.

Peter Wertheim, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, described the inquiry as the most significant national examination of anti-Semitism in Australia’s history. “Over the next fortnight, the country will hear from the people who lead our community alongside ordinary Australians who have lived through what happens when words of hatred go unchallenged long enough that they stop being only words,” Wertheim said in a statement. “The Jewish community is approaching this as Australians asking Australian institutions to look honestly at what has happened in this country and what needs to change.”

Due to limited capacity at the Sydney CBD hearing venue, public attendance will be restricted, and the proceedings will be streamed live for audiences around the country to access remotely.

The opening of public hearings comes just days after Bell released an interim report containing 14 urgent recommendations to address immediate gaps in anti-Semitism protection and counter-terrorism preparedness, all of which Albanese has pledged to fully implement. Five of the recommendations remain classified for national security reasons, but public measures include boosting security resourcing for Jewish High Holy Days and major Jewish festivals, strengthening cross-agency counter-terrorism information sharing between federal and state governments, upgrading national gun control regulations, and prioritizing a national gun buyback program to update the outdated national firearms agreement. Bell also called for the commonwealth counter-terrorism coordinator role to be converted to a full-time position, and mandated that the prime minister and all National Security Committee ministers participate in counter-terrorism exercises within nine months of every federal election.

Albanese has committed to responding swiftly to the interim recommendations. The royal commission will ultimately examine four core mandate areas over the course of its inquiry: mapping the nature, prevalence, and root drivers of anti-Semitism across Australian society and institutions, including ideologically and religiously motivated extremism; advising law enforcement, border control, and security agencies on policy and operational changes to counter anti-Semitic violence and hatred; investigating the full circumstances of the December 14 2025 Bondi Beach attack; and proposing broader reforms to strengthen national social cohesion and counter the spread of violent extremist ideology across the country.

“A Royal Commission is not the beginning or the end of what Australia must do to eradicate anti-Semitism, protect ourselves from terrorism or strengthen our social cohesion,” Albanese said when announcing the inquiry. “That is an ongoing national effort, for all of us. Because an attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on all Australians.”

The royal commission’s final report, including full findings and long-term policy recommendations, is scheduled to be delivered to the government on December 14 2026, marking the one-year anniversary of the Bondi Beach atrocity.

Weeks after a high-profile public clash between U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV exposed deep rifts in U.S.-Vatican relations and strained transatlantic alliances, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to travel to Rome this week for a planned meeting with the pontiff, a senior Vatican source confirmed to AFP on Sunday.

The planned gathering, first reported by Italian media outlets, is set to take place Thursday with the explicit goal of de-escalating tensions between the White House and the Holy See, according to local newspaper coverage. The meeting comes just ahead of a key milestone for Pope Leo, who will mark one year in office as the head of the global Catholic Church this Friday. Elected by the College of Cardinals on May 8, 2025 following the passing of Pope Francis, the 70-year-old Leo made history as the first American-born pope in the Church’s 2,000-year history.

His unique origin has positioned his statements to carry unusual weight in U.S. political discourse, a platform he has not shied away from using: he has previously criticized the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies, but it was his sharp anti-war rhetoric in the wake of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered Trump’s fierce public backlash. Leo drew Trump’s wrath after calling the president’s open threat to destroy Iran “unacceptable” and urging U.S. citizens to pressure their elected representatives to prioritize diplomatic peace efforts.

Trump responded with a blistering social media post attacking the pope as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy”, adding that he was “not a big fan of Pope Leo” and falsely claiming the pontiff supported Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Leo countered that he held a “moral duty to speak out” against war, and later made headlines with a speech in Cameroon that condemned “tyrants” for destabilizing the global order. The pope later clarified the speech had been written months before the public row, and he had no intention of reigniting conflict with Trump.

Global Christian communities quickly voiced solidarity with Pope Leo, and the backlash extended to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of Trump’s closest European allies. When Meloni called Trump’s criticism of the pope “unacceptable”, the U.S. president turned his ire on her, attacking her in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Trump said he was “shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong”, and accused the far-right Italian leader, who has long positioned herself as a bridge between competing U.S. and European interests, of failing to support the U.S. within NATO.

Trump has gone even further, threatening to withdraw all U.S. troops from Italy, claiming Rome has “not been of any help to us” in the Iran conflict. He has issued identical threats against Spain, and the Pentagon has already formally announced it will withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany. As of the end of 2025, the U.S. maintains 12,662 active-duty troops in Italy, 3,814 in Spain, and 36,436 in Germany, according to official data.

Alongside his planned meeting with Pope Leo, Rubio is scheduled to hold talks with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. The U.S. secretary of state had previously requested a meeting with Meloni, but that gathering will not go forward following Trump’s break with the Italian prime minister, the source confirmed. Additional media reports also indicate Rubio will meet Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, as divisions over the Middle East war continue to deepen long-running frictions across transatlantic ties.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have reached a new stalemate, with Tehran’s most powerful military force dismissing any large-scale US military operation as unfeasible, even as US President Donald Trump openly weighs military action against accepting Tehran’s new peace initiative.

After weeks of frozen diplomatic progress following an April 8 ceasefire that has only produced one round of direct talks, Iran submitted a 14-point peace framework to mediator Pakistan earlier this month. The proposal, according to anonymous sources briefed on the text who spoke to US news outlet Axios, lays out a 30-day timeline for negotiations aimed at three core outcomes: reopening the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, lifting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, and bringing a permanent end to ongoing conflict across Iran and Lebanon.

Trump, however, quickly cast doubt on the proposal in a post to his Truth Social platform, arguing the plan would almost certainly be unacceptable because he believes Iran has not paid sufficient accountability for what he framed as 47 years of harmful actions against the global community. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable,” Trump wrote. He has publicly framed his policy options as binary: either launch devastating military strikes against Iran, or pursue a negotiated settlement.

In a formal statement released Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards pushed back, shifting the decision-making burden back to the White House. They argued Trump now faces only two options: an impossible large-scale military campaign, or accept what they called a bad deal with the Islamic Republic. “The room for US decision-making has narrowed,” the statement read.

Iran’s senior diplomatic leadership echoed this framing a day earlier. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told international diplomats in Tehran that the US now holds the responsibility to choose between diplomatic dialogue or sustained confrontation, adding that Tehran is fully prepared for either outcome.

Trump, speaking to reporters during a stop in West Palm Beach, Florida Saturday, declined to outline specific triggers for new US military action, but did not rule it out. “If they misbehave, if they do something bad, but right now, we’ll see,” he said. “But it’s a possibility that could happen, certainly.”

Hardline Iranian military figures have responded with aggressive rhetoric of their own. Mohsen Rezaei, a top military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned in a post to X that Iranian forces are fully capable of sinking US warships if attacked. “The US is the only pirate in the world that possesses aircraft carriers,” Rezaei wrote. “Our ability to confront pirates is no less than our ability to sink warships. Prepare to face a graveyard of your carriers and forces.” No US military vessels have been sunk by Iran during the current conflict, and no evidence supports a threat of such action to date.

Diplomatic frictions have also flared over the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. Earlier this week, Axios reported that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has pushed to reinsert discussions of Iran’s nuclear activities into any new negotiation round. Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations hit back Saturday, accusing Washington of blatant hypocrisy, pointing to the US’s own massive nuclear arsenal to criticize its restrictions on Tehran’s atomic program.

The conflict has already reshaped global energy markets and inflicted severe economic pain on the Iranian people. Since the outbreak of war, Iran has controlled access to the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supplies pass, cutting off key global shipments of oil, natural gas, and agricultural fertilizer. The US has responded with a naval blockade of Iranian ports, and global crude oil prices have surged roughly 50% above pre-war levels.

Iranian lawmakers are currently drafting legislation to formalize toll collection for vessels passing through the strait. Deputy parliamentary speaker Ali Nikzad announced that 30% of all collected tolls would be allocated to expanding military infrastructure, while the remaining 70% would go toward domestic economic development. “Managing the Strait of Hormuz is more important than acquiring nuclear weapons,” Nikzad said.

For ordinary Iranians, the economic strain is growing steadily. US sanctions and the blockade have cut Iran’s oil exports dramatically, pushing national inflation past 50%. Amir, a 40-year-old resident of Tehran, spoke to AFP from outside the country, describing a population draining emergency savings to cope with the crisis. “Everyone is trying to endure it, but… they are falling apart,” he said. “We still have not seen much of the worst economic effects because everyone had a bit of savings. They had some gold and dollars for a rainy day. When they run out, things will change.”