Global Pulse

标签： Oceania

大洋洲

  • US Senate approves $70 billion for Trump immigration crackdown

    US Senate approves $70 billion for Trump immigration crackdown

    In a pivotal legislative vote held on Friday, the U.S. Senate has passed a $70 billion funding package to advance former President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration enforcement agenda, capping off a full day of fractious amendment votes that laid bare deep internal divisions within the Republican Party over several of the Trump’s most controversial policy proposals.

    The legislation would allocate sustained funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol for the remainder of Trump’s current term, delivering the Republican leader a long-sought major victory on one of his signature policy issues. This outcome follows months of bitter partisan conflict over the future direction of U.S. immigration enforcement. Next, the bill will move to the House of Representatives, where top Republican leaders are pushing to hold an early vote next week to finalize the measure and send it to Trump’s desk for signature.

    Friday’s vote comes in the wake of a record-breaking partial shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this year. That shutdown was triggered when Democrats refused to support new immigration enforcement funding without placing restrictions on controversial tactics, including immigration raids in sensitive community locations and the use of unmarked masks by enforcement officers. Republicans rejected these Democratic demands, opting instead to advance the ICE and Border Patrol funding through the fast-track budget reconciliation process, a procedural rule that allows the party to bypass Democratic opposition as long as their own caucus remains unified.

    The final vote followed an hours-long, chaotic amendment process known on Capitol Hill as a “vote-a-rama,” which permits lawmakers to force roll call votes on politically charged issues ahead of the final up-or-down vote on the full bill. For Trump, the process brought renewed public scrutiny to controversial proposals that have already sparked unease among some members of his own party. These included a proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” compensation fund for allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by federal law enforcement, and a $1 billion earmark for security upgrades at a planned private White House ballroom. While the $1 billion ballroom funding was ultimately stripped from the final immigration bill, both proposals have become flashpoints for broader Republican anxiety about defending Trump’s policy priorities ahead of upcoming midterm elections, where voter anger over the rising cost of living is expected to dominate the campaign landscape.

    The bill’s passage had already been delayed for weeks after a rebellion within the Senate Republican caucus over the Justice Department’s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization compensation package. Critics across the political spectrum have slammed the fund as an unaccountable “slush fund” that could potentially divert taxpayer money to people convicted of crimes related to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers earlier this week that the Trump administration would not move forward with implementing the fund. Despite this public statement, Trump himself has continued to praise the proposal, calling it “beautiful” and saying he would need to “ask the lawyers” to confirm whether the plan was fully scrapped or just temporarily paused.

    This deliberate ambiguity from the president pushed a bloc of Senate Republicans to support a Democratic amendment that would codify the fund’s elimination into law. “When you’re explaining, you’re losing. There’s no way to explain the $1.776 billion fund. So the only way you can explain it is explain that you got rid of it,” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis told reporters Friday. While the string of amendment votes ultimately failed to derail Trump’s broader immigration agenda, the outcomes exposed clear limits to Republican party discipline: multiple GOP senators defected from the party line on votes targeting the anti-weaponization fund, the scrapped ballroom security funding, and Trump’s recent move to install a loyalist housing official to lead the U.S. intelligence community.

    For their part, Democrats leveraged the vote-a-rama process to highlight their policy priorities, introducing amendments that would redirect immigration enforcement funding toward affordable housing and other programs aimed at easing household cost burdens. Democrats argued that Republicans were prioritizing Trump’s mass deportation agenda over addressing the economic struggles of American voters. In a separate, high-profile rebuke of Trump’s foreign policy, several Senate Republicans joined Democrats to back an amendment that would bypass House Republican leadership and hold a vote on new sanctions targeting Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, paired with $8 billion in new military financing loans for Kyiv.

    Republican supporters of the immigration funding bill pushed back against criticism, arguing that the new allocation was necessary to resolve the ongoing uncertainty around immigration enforcement funding left unresolved by the earlier DHS shutdown. The temporary stopgap funding measure that ended the earlier shutdown provided funding for most DHS agencies through September 30, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Secret Service. However, it deliberately excluded funding for ICE and Border Patrol, setting the stage for the separate partisan battle that concluded with Friday’s Senate vote.

    Friday’s outcome delivers Trump a major legislative win on his core immigration pledge, while simultaneously highlighting a persistent structural challenge for Republican congressional leaders: even with full control of both chambers of Congress, they must constantly navigate internal resistance to the political baggage tied to many of the president’s most divisive priorities.

  • Israel strikes Lebanese village after warning to several areas

    Israel strikes Lebanese village after warning to several areas

    Escalating tensions across the Israel-Lebanon border boiled over on Friday, as the Israeli Air Force carried out an airstrike on a southern Lebanese village just hours after the military ordered mass evacuations of multiple population centers. The strike comes after Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah rejected a conditional ceasefire agreement hammered out by Lebanese and Israeli negotiators in Washington this week, derailing a rare diplomatic push to de-escalate a conflict that has already claimed thousands of lives.

    The cross-border violence erupted on March 2, when Hezbollah launched coordinated attacks on Israeli targets to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader on February 28, dragging Lebanon into the broader regional war that Israel and its key ally the United States launched against Iran. Since that opening strike, Israel has pushed into southern Lebanon with its deepest ground incursion in 20 years, steadily expanding its military operations across the border region.

    In the lead-up to Friday’s strike, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee, who handles communications in Arabic, issued multiple urgent evacuation orders. First, he called on residents of three villages north of the Litani River to leave their properties immediately, before expanding the warning to six additional towns and villages, including the coastal town of Sarafand located between Tyre and Sidon. Posting on social platform X, Adraee emphasized the risk to civilian life, writing: “For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the villages and towns by at least 1,000 metres into open areas. Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, their facilities, or their weapons endangers their life!”

    Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency confirmed that thousands of civilians fled the three villages named in the initial warning, and later verified that an airstrike had hit the village of Arqoun. Overnight strikes across southern Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre left seven people dead, a Lebanese civil defence source confirmed to Agence France-Presse. One of those strikes hit near Jabal Amel hospital in central Tyre, killing four people, wounding seven, and causing minor damage to the medical facility. A second strike on a nearby residential neighborhood killed three more people, including two children, and wounded five others. An AFP correspondent reporting from the scene found a local bank, one of only three operating in the city, left heavily damaged by the blast.

    Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem explicitly rejected the Washington-brokered truce during a public address on Thursday, rejecting the conditional deal that required the group to halt all cross-border attacks on Israel. “The ceasefire must be comprehensive… without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill,” Qassem said, adding that he urged the Lebanese government to end “the farce and humiliation called direct talks” with Israel. The group has maintained its demand for a full, permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of all Israeli military forces from southern Lebanon.

    Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz responded by confirming that military operations would continue uninterrupted. “At this stage, [the army] will continue its fire and ground operations… without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure,” Katz said, adding that Israeli forces retain full authority to strike targets as far north as the Lebanese capital Beirut if Hezbollah continues attacks on Israeli civilian communities.

    The escalating airstrikes and evacuation orders have sparked a humanitarian crisis across southern Lebanon. After Israel ordered most of Tyre’s population to evacuate, hundreds of displaced residents fled to the city’s small, historic old town, which had not yet faced evacuation warnings or strikes and is home to Lebanon’s Christian community in the area. With all official shelters already filled to capacity, many displaced people have been forced to sleep in their cars or improvised tents. Earlier this week, the Israeli military claimed Hezbollah operatives were operating in the old town, threatening to order a full evacuation if the militants remain, pushing hundreds more residents to flee the area.

    Hezbollah has held a unique position in Lebanese politics since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, as the only militant faction that refused to disarm, arguing that its arsenal was necessary to oppose Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. After Israeli troops fully withdrew from the region in 2000, international and domestic pressure for Hezbollah to disarm grew steadily, with current Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s administration taking the hardest line to date on the issue. The Lebanese government has formally declared Hezbollah’s independent military activities illegal, and the Lebanese Army had been working to disarm the group in areas south of the Litani River near the Israeli border prior to the outbreak of the current conflict.

    Since Hezbollah recommenced hostilities in March, joining the regional war against Israel alongside Iran, cross-border exchanges of fire have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon alone, according to official data from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. For civilians on both sides of the border, the collapse of the latest truce effort has erased any remaining hope of a quick end to the violence. “We can’t keep doing this,” a 60-year-old resident of Shlomi, a small town in northern Israel, told AFP. “This is not a life.”

  • Judge urges Melbourne orchestra and pianist to resolve case over Gaza comments without him

    Judge urges Melbourne orchestra and pianist to resolve case over Gaza comments without him

    A high-profile legal dispute between award-winning British-Australian pianist Jayson Gillham and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has hit a key juncture, with the presiding judge urging both parties to negotiate a private resolution rather than waiting for a formal judicial ruling. The three-week trial concluded last Friday, and Justice Graeme Hill opted to adjourn the case to give the two sides additional time to reach a negotiated settlement.

    The conflict stems from a brief on-stage statement Gillham delivered during an August 11, 2024, Melbourne performance. In his remarks, Gillham noted that more than 100 Palestinian journalists had been killed by Israeli forces since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, adding that many of these deaths constituted targeted assassinations of media workers who were clearly identified as press, traveling in marked vehicles or wearing identifiable press jackets. Gillham told the 150-person audience that the deliberate killing of journalists qualifies as a war crime under international law, carried out to suppress the documentation and public dissemination of war crimes to the global public.

    Independent press freedom advocacy group the Committee to Protect Journalists has since updated its tally, confirming that at least 206 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Three audience members submitted formal complaints about Gillham’s comments, prompting MSO leadership to cancel a subsequent performance Gillham was scheduled to give just four days later, on August 15, 2024. The cancellation triggered more than 500 new complaints against the orchestra, and MSO ultimately canceled the entire concert over unsubstantiated public safety concerns.

    The orchestra later acknowledged it made an error in canceling Gillham’s performance and stated it was working to reschedule the show. But Gillham argues the organization rejected all of his reasonable proposals to remedy the situation, leading the pianist to file a workplace discrimination lawsuit against MSO in late 2024. At the time of the cancellation, MSO said in a public statement to patrons that Gillham’s unsolicited remarks caught the organization off guard and put it in an untenable position, adding that the orchestra does not permit its stages to be used as platforms for personal political commentary.

    Gillham’s legal team argues that his on-stage statement fell under his protected workplace right to express political beliefs, a right enshrined in anti-discrimination law in the Australian state of Victoria. Under Victorian law, employers are prohibited from retaliating against or mistreating workers for their legally held political convictions. During the trial, Gillham told the court that after the initial cancellation and public backlash, MSO offered to reinstate his performance only on the condition that he refrain from making any political comments on stage. In her closing arguments, Gillham’s barrister Sheryn Omeri called MSO’s conditional offer of reinstatement insulting.

    Representing the orchestra, MSO’s barrister Justin Bourke KC framed the organization’s decision as a reasonable response to an extremely high-pressure situation. “You can’t ignore that it was a highly controversial statement made in a setting where this was the biggest issue in the world,” Bourke told the court.

    Nearly two dozen witnesses testified during the three-week trial, including Gillham himself and multiple former senior MSO executives. Justice Hill noted that two previous attempts at an out-of-court settlement between the two parties had already failed. While the judge said he typically issues rulings relatively quickly after a trial concludes, he emphasized that this complex, high-stakes case is not an ordinary matter. “I’m afraid it might take me some time to go through everything and work out the right answer,” the justice said. Adjourning the case, he explained that the additional time would give both parties the space to reconsider a negotiated settlement, rather than forcing the court to hand down a binding ruling that could leave one side deeply unsatisfied.

  • Turkmenistan’s ‘heavenly’ horses at the heart of fervent state cult

    Turkmenistan’s ‘heavenly’ horses at the heart of fervent state cult

    Against the backdrop of the tightly controlled desert nation of Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most closed countries, the annual Akhal-Teke horse beauty pageant unfolds as a uniquely vivid display of national and political culture. On the arena floor of the capital Ashgabat’s modern equestrian complex, trainers in ornate traditional uniforms trimmed with white fur headgear lead stallions draped in gold ornamentation around the stage, watched by thousands of attendees and presided over by current President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, the son of former leader and self-styled ‘Father of the Nation’ Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

    AFP journalists were granted rare access to the 2024 pageant, a privilege rarely extended to foreign media in the authoritarian Central Asian state. As crowds of men in identical tracksuits waved national flags and clapped in synchronized rhythm, sand-colored stallion Hankerven – adorned with gemstone jewelry and a hand-woven traditional Turkmen carpet – took home the competition’s top honor. For local breeders and citizens, the pageant is far more than a livestock event: it is a celebration of the breed that sits at the core of modern Turkmen national identity.

    “There are no beauty contests for women in Turkmenistan but there are for horses,” explained 70-year-old veteran breeder Ashir during an interview at his stud farm just outside Ashgabat. “We Turkmen are known for our carpets and horses. That is why our flag features carpet motifs and our coat of arms depicts the Akhal-Teke.”

    The fervent state-sponsored focus on Akhal-Tekes, an ancient breed on the global endangered list, is largely rooted in the lifelong passion of former president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who has built the cult of the horse alongside pervasive personality cults for himself and his son, who inherited the presidency in 2022. Political criticism of the ruling father-son dynasty is banned in Turkmenistan, an energy-rich former Soviet republic that human rights monitors rank among the most isolated nations on Earth, alongside North Korea and Afghanistan.

    Gurbanguly, an avid equestrian, has written multiple books celebrating the Akhal-Teke breed and even recorded a viral rap song dedicated to his favorite foal, Rovach. In the lyrics, he gushes: “You are like the wind at daybreak, you are like a cherished vision. You are an inspiration… more precious than gold.” Another of his personal horses holds a Guinness World Record for the fastest 10-meter dash on hind legs, completed in just 4.19 seconds.

    State-run media regularly frames Akhal-Teke conservation and breeding as a “strategic national priority” and the “unshakeable foundation of Turkmen national identity.” The country’s official 2026 motto has already been set as “Independent neutral Turkmenistan is the homeland of purposeful winged horses,” and the breed is widely known by the reverent nickname “heavenly horses,” a title drawn from an ancient myth of an Akhal-Teke outracing a falcon in a legendary contest.

    With only an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 Akhal-Tekes alive worldwide, the vast majority reside in state-run Turkmen stud farms. A senior official from the State Organisation for Turkmen Horses confirmed to AFP that the breed remains “on the brink of extinction,” but credited the ruling leadership’s intense personal interest with securing its future. A major milestone for the breed came when UNESCO added the “art of Akhal-Teke horse breeding and traditions of horses’ decoration” to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List, a win that state officials call a “major achievement of national cultural policy.”

    Widely celebrated for their athleticism adapted to Turkmenistan’s harsh desert climate, Akhal-Tekes excel in endurance riding, dressage, and show jumping. Retired 66-year-old veterinarian Sapargeldy, who spoke to AFP on condition of not sharing his surname, described the breed’s distinctive physical traits: “large size, long legs, well-developed musculature, slender and elegant head set on a long, straight neck, expressive eyes, high withers and sturdy hooves.” The breed’s most famous feature, he added, is its unique metallic sheen in sunlight, caused by fine, hollow-core hairs that reflect light differently than other equine breeds.

    The Turkmen government traces its celebration of the Akhal-Teke back to pre-colonial nomadic traditions, when tribes roamed the Central Asian desert before the Russian Empire conquered the region in the 19th century. But in modern Turkmenistan, the horse cult is deeply intertwined with the ruling regime’s politics: monuments to Akhal-Tekes dot every major city, and in 2023 Gurbanguly unveiled a 43-meter-tall golden statue depicting himself riding an Akhal-Teke in a pose modeled after Napoleon Bonaparte.

    The breed also plays a central role in Turkmenistan’s limited diplomatic engagement with the world. When rare high-level foreign dignitaries visit the isolated country, they are often gifted a purebred Akhal-Teke as a gesture of goodwill. Past recipients include former French President Francois Mitterrand, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

  • Adelaide prisoner escapes jail, returns two hours later with booze

    Adelaide prisoner escapes jail, returns two hours later with booze

    A peculiar security lapse at an Australian women’s prison has sparked fierce parliamentary scrutiny over the state of correctional facility safety in South Australia, after an inmate walked away from a minimum-security prerelease unit and returned two hours later with a hidden cache of alcoholic beverages.

    The unusual incident unfolded last week at the Adelaide Women’s Prison, where the unidentified prisoner left the facility’s prerelease center without any escort or authorization. She remained outside correctional custody for two full hours before voluntarily returning to the site—smuggling in multiple bottles of alcohol hidden on her person.

    The breach came to a head on Thursday, when Correctional Services Minister Michael Brown faced intense questioning from parliamentary members over the mishap, an event that has reignited widespread public debate about whether the state’s prison system can guarantee adequate safety for both the public and people incarcerated within the system.

    While Brown acknowledged that the unapproved absence of an incarcerated person is a serious issue that demands full investigation, he pushed back against growing criticism that the incident points to systemic failure across South Australia’s correctional network. He told parliament the security breach was a single, isolated case, not evidence that all state prisons are fundamentally insecure.

    “I can give a full assurance to the people of South Australia that our correctional service delivers complete protection to the broader community,” Brown stated in his address. “I am not seeking to downplay the severity of what happened—any unapproved absence from a correctional facility is a problem, which is exactly why a formal review is already underway. At the same time, we must keep this incident in context: this was an individual from a minimum-security prerelease center who was only absent for two hours. There is no need to exaggerate the situation and stoke unnecessary fear among community members.”

    But opposition leaders have rejected the minister’s framing, warning that the lapse exposes dangerous gaps in facility security. Opposition correctional services spokesman Tim Whetstone questioned what could have happened if the inmate had chosen to smuggle in something far more dangerous than alcohol. “What protocols are in place to stop an inmate from sneaking back into the facility with a weapon?” Whetstone asked, adding that this incident is far from an isolated one.

    “This is not the first time a prisoner has managed to leave custody without permission,” he noted. “By my count, this is the second such incident in just six months.”

    In response to opposition questions, Brown reaffirmed that appropriate security measures are already in place across all state correctional facilities, and the ongoing review will identify any adjustments needed to prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future.

  • Uncle of ISIS bride Zeinab Ahmad denounces terror group as ‘evil’ in bail bid

    Uncle of ISIS bride Zeinab Ahmad denounces terror group as ‘evil’ in bail bid

    In a historic Australian court hearing that marks the country’s first prosecution for slavery offences including crimes against humanity linked to the Islamic State (ISIS), a Melbourne mechanic has publicly condemned the terror group in unflinching terms as he pushes to secure bail for his accused niece, offering up a $75,000 financial guarantee and a permanent home in his household.

    Self-employed tradesman Abraham Abbas took the witness stand on the second day of 31-year-old Zeinab Ahmad’s bail application at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday. When asked directly about his stance on the terrorist organization, Abbas did not moderate his views. “I hate those bastards. Sorry Your Honour, I do,” he told the court. “Sorry for the language — they’re evil and they don’t represent anything we believe in Islam at all.” He confirmed he stood ready to house Ahmad and meet all bail conditions if the court granted her release.

    Ahmad and her 54-year-old mother Kawsar Ahmad made international headlines when they touched down at Melbourne Airport on May 7 after more than 12 years living abroad. Both were immediately taken into custody on slavery and crimes against humanity charges — the first time such charges have been laid against suspects in Australia. Court documents outline that the pair had been held at the Al Roj displacement camp in northern Syria, alongside several minor family members, after surrendering to Kurdish forces following the collapse of ISIS’s final territorial stronghold of Baghouz in March 2019.

    Prosecutors laid out the core allegations against the family during the opening days of the bail hearing, which began Thursday. They claim that Zeinab’s father Mohammed Ahmad, who remains detained in Iraq and has not yet been charged, purchased a 15-year-old Yazidi teenager as a slave for $10,000 in approximately June 2017. The victim was captured by ISIS as part of the terror group’s systematic ethnic and religious cleansing of the Yazidi community in northern Iraq, and was passed between 17 different ISIS fighters before being freed in 2019. In testimony before the court, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Senior Constable Marc Clendenning shared the victim’s account, which details repeated beatings, sexual assault, and forced unpaid labor at the hands of Mohammed Ahmad before she was resold to another ISIS fighter in late 2018.

    While Zeinab Ahmad is not accused of directly assaulting the victim, prosecutors allege she participated in the enslavement by mistreating the teenager, ordering her to complete household labor, and failing to intervene during sexual assaults. Clendenning added that social media posts and private communications from Ahmad to relatives in Australia demonstrate what police describe as “open support for Islamic State activities, objectives, and ideological principles.”

    Law enforcement has formally opposed bail, arguing that Ahmad poses an unacceptable risk to the Australian public, in large part because she has never publicly renounced her connection to the terror group. “The accused has never explicitly renounced or stated that she no longer supports the Islamic State since her surrender to Kurdish forces,” Clendenning told the court.

    Court records confirm that Zeinab Ahmad first traveled to Turkey separately from her family, before relocating to Syria to join ISIS alongside her parents, husband, and other relatives in January 2015. Multiple family members, including her husband Dawod Elmir and two brothers, were killed by coalition forces between 2016 and 2017, according to testimony.

    Defense lawyer Grace Morgan centered her cross-examination of Clendenning on the extreme constraints that women faced under ISIS rule, noting that Zeinab Ahmad was forced to marry three different ISIS fighters over a three-year period, a claim the officer confirmed. Morgan also pushed for details about the availability of state-backed reintegration programs and electronic monitoring that would allow for strict supervision of Ahmad if she is granted bail.

    The bail application was adjourned until June 15 to allow the defense to question AFP Detective Sergeant Greg Adams, who recorded a statement from the enslaved victim in Iraq back in September 2019. The court also confirmed that domestic intelligence agency ASIO had alerted the AFP that Ahmad may hold information about another Australian family currently connected to conflict zones in the Middle East. Kawsar Ahmad, Zeinab’s mother and co-accused, is expected to file her own bail application later this June.

  • ‘Justifiably grave concerns’ about ANU, but ‘nothing unlawful’, interim chancellor says

    ‘Justifiably grave concerns’ about ANU, but ‘nothing unlawful’, interim chancellor says

    The Australian National University (ANU), one of Australia’s most prestigious higher education institutions, has been roiled by years of escalating internal controversy that culminated in the high-profile resignation of former Liberal foreign minister Julie Bishop from the post of chancellor last month. Now, the university’s acting chancellor has publicly confirmed what critics and campus stakeholders have alleged for years: the institution faces deep, systemic problems across its governance, leadership, decision-making structures, and internal culture.

    Appearing before a Senate estimates hearing on Friday, Andrew Metcalfe, who stepped into the acting chancellor role following Bishop’s departure, delivered a blunt 22-word summary of the ongoing crisis that has already prompted six additional ANU Council members to resign and triggered regulatory scrutiny from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). “There are justifiably grave concerns about many aspects of the governance, leadership, decision making and culture of the ANU in recent years,” Metcalfe told the committee. “It therefore follows that rebuilding confidence in the governance and leadership of ANU will require many practical actions and the resolve to sustain them.”

    Bishop’s exit came after weeks of intense public scrutiny over her governance of the institution, with the former cabinet minister citing what she described as “unprecedented and co-ordinated interference” from TEQSA in the operations of ANU’s governing council. In his testimony, Metcalfe acknowledged that long-running tensions and repeated controversies have created a traumatic environment for ANU’s staff and student body, noting that many stakeholders he has spoken with described the past few years as marked by anger, disillusionment, and a sense of being undervalued. Even so, he added, the vast majority of campus community members remain deeply committed to ANU’s core academic mission and have continued their work despite the ongoing upheaval.

    Years of controversy have already drawn critical scrutiny from official auditors: a scathing review from the Australian National Audit Office found ANU Council approved a controversial $250 million cost-cutting program without clear evidence the cuts were either urgent or necessary.

    In the wake of Bishop’s resignation, which triggered the wave of council departures, Metcalfe confirmed ANU Council is now cooperating fully with TEQSA as it moves forward to select a permanent new chancellor. The appointment process will be overseen by a largely independent selection panel that includes Metcalfe himself, a measure he framed as a first critical step to rebuilding public and internal trust. “We believe that this largely independent selection committee is one practical way for the Council to start to earn back the trust and confidence that has been lost,” he said.

    Pressed by Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic on the wave of council departures and questions over the legality of the institution’s approach to cooperating with TEQSA during the selection process, Metcalfe confirmed the council had received legal advice recommending against cooperation, but ultimately chose to proceed in what members determined was the best interest of the university. “We’re very confident we’ve done nothing unlawful. Quite to the contrary, we made a very sensible decision,” he said.

    Metcalfe also publicly defended Interim Vice-Chancellor Rebekah Brown, who has faced unsubstantiated attacks in media coverage that have damaged her professional reputation. The ANU Council has formally concluded Brown “acted properly and in the best interest of the university at all times” amid what Metcalfe described as “pernicious actions” targeting the interim vice-chancellor.

    Speaking after the hearing, Brown outlined the staggering tangible cost the ongoing crisis has already inflicted on the institution, projecting that reputational damage alone could reach $100 million. The harm has already impacted key revenue streams, including donor contributions and international student recruitment, which are core to ANU’s operations and financial stability. “The reputational damage to the ANU has been very significant,” Brown said. “We are still modelling the impact, some of the impacts are still live. Our modelling, from the end of last year, it’s in the reputational impact in terms of our impact on our donor pipeline and our impact on our international agents work with international student recruitment, it’s in the order of $100m.”

  • Australia seizes 100,000 cockroaches in bug-breeder bust

    Australia seizes 100,000 cockroaches in bug-breeder bust

    In a major crackdown on unregulated exotic insect trafficking, Australian environment and wildlife authorities have shut down an unlawful commercial cockroach breeding operation in regional New South Wales, confiscating a staggering 100,000 contraband bugs with an estimated black market value of over AU$200,000 (US$140,000).

    The raid was executed earlier this week at a breeding facility in Bathurst, a regional town located approximately 200 kilometers west of Sydney, the New South Wales state environment department confirmed in an official statement released Friday.

    Among the seized specimens were two high-demand exotic species: Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a large-bodied insect famous for the distinctive hissing sound it produces as a defensive warning mechanism, and dubia cockroaches, a fast-breeding species commonly trafficked as a feed supplement for pet reptiles such as lizards. Released official photographs reveal just how large the Madagascar hissing cockroaches can grow: one adult specimen was large enough to nearly cover the entire palm of an average adult human hand.

    Officials emphasized that the unlawful operation poses a severe threat to Australia’s one-of-a-kind native ecosystem, which has evolved in isolation for millions of years and is extremely vulnerable to invasive species. A spokesperson for the environment department noted that illegal breeding and trading of exotic invertebrates has emerged as a growing black market in the country, and the operation is part of a broader enforcement push to curb this activity.

    “We take our job protecting Australia’s unique biodiversity and breaches of national environment law very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “We’re seeing illegal breeding and trading of exotic cockroaches and we’re putting pet businesses and pet owners on notice that non-compliance with biosecurity and environmental protection laws will not be tolerated.”

    Now, enforcement teams face the unenviable task of humanely euthanizing all confiscated cockroaches. The species is renowned for its extreme hardiness, a trait that spawned a widespread popular urban legend claiming cockroaches would be the only animals to survive a full-scale nuclear war. If the invasive species had been released or escaped into the Australian wild, experts warn they could have established persistent wild populations that outcompete native insects and disrupt local food webs.

  • ‘He understands’: Michael Maguire explains axing Ezra Mam and why he has no issues with Payne Haas’ fiery post-game comments

    ‘He understands’: Michael Maguire explains axing Ezra Mam and why he has no issues with Payne Haas’ fiery post-game comments

    Defending National Rugby League premiers Brisbane Broncos are fighting to rescue their disappointing season, and that fight has forced head coach Michael Maguire to make a difficult call: dropping star five-eighth Ezra Mam from the starting lineup ahead of this weekend’s critical clash against the Gold Coast Titans.

    Maguire has made it clear that the decision to move Mam to an extended reserves bench, promoting 23-year-old playmaker Tom Duffy into the starting halves combination for Saturday’s Suncorp Stadium showdown, is rooted purely in recent on-field form, not personal preference or locker room tension. The premiership-winning playmaker has struggled through a rocky start to the 2024 season, currently sitting atop the league’s rankings for most missed tackles and failing to deliver the dynamic attacking output that helped the Broncos claim the premiership last year. His poor form came to a head last weekend, when Brisbane suffered a humiliating home loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons — a side that had yet to register a win all season heading into the round.

    Beyond his spot in the Broncos side, Mam’s demotion also puts his place in the Queensland Maroons squad for the upcoming State of Origin II match on June 17 in serious jeopardy.

    In a press conference outlining his team selection, Maguire pushed back against any suggestion that the axing was a disciplinary move or a sign he has lost confidence in the star playmaker. “You make decisions around what you feel is right for the team. Obviously, Ezra’s been going through a rough patch with his form, and Tom Duffy has been turning out strong, consistent performances in reserve grade,” Maguire explained. “I’ve always believed that when a player is performing well, they deserve an opportunity to prove themselves at the top level. This is just a rough patch that Ezra is going through right now. He’s gone back to the training ground and has been working incredibly hard to fix his errors.”

    The coach noted that form slumps are a normal part of every elite athlete’s career, and how Mam responds to this setback will ultimately define his contribution to the team for the rest of the season. “Every player may go through that, or will go through that, at some stage in their career. It’s all about how you respond,” he said. “He’s fine with the call, he understands why I made it. I’m always very transparent about what I expect from the players, and to be honest, he knows his own game better than anyone. That self-awareness is a good thing.

    “This is just a chance for him to step back, put in the work in training, and get back to the level of play that we know ‘Ez’ is capable of. He’s a quality player … that’s exactly why he’s still in the match day squad on the bench. We’ll see how the game unfolds, and he’ll be ready if we need him.”

    Brisbane will already be missing two key players for Saturday’s clash: forward Pat Carrigan and utility back Gehamat Shibasaki, both sidelined with injury. Maguire is demanding a marked improvement from his side after the insipid performance against the Dragons that extended their losing run to four straight games, leaving the side at serious risk of tumbling out of the top eight finals race if they drop to five consecutive defeats.

    After the final whistle against the Dragons, star prop Payne Haas publicly called out his side’s lack of effort and fight, a criticism that Maguire says he fully supports. “I have no issue with what Payne said. We all share the same belief in this group, we all know what this team is capable of, but at the end of the day, you have to go out and show that on the field,” Maguire said. “We’ve had glimpses of our best form over the last couple of months, but we haven’t been able to put it together week in, week out. That’s the problem we have to fix, and we need to fix it fast. I know this group is capable of playing far better than we have been recently.”

  • ‘Sometimes people don’t like that’: Benji Marshall urges Terrell May to continue to speak freely following telling ‘loyalty’ comments

    ‘Sometimes people don’t like that’: Benji Marshall urges Terrell May to continue to speak freely following telling ‘loyalty’ comments

    Wests Tigers head coach Benji Marshall has publicly thrown his support behind star prop Terrell May, urging the forward to keep speaking openly after May’s bombshell comments that his loyalty lies exclusively with Marshall — not the club itself.

    In an appearance on the Unscripted podcast, May pulled no punches when discussing his stance on institutional loyalty in professional rugby league. “Benji showed a great deal of loyalty to me,” May explained. “I know it sounds harsh, and it will probably get taken out of context, but I will never pledge full loyalty to any club again. At the end of the day, every club operates as a business. My loyalty is to Benji, not the organization.”

    May doubled down on the clear stance: “As long as Benji remains at the Tigers, I will stay here for good. But if the club ever let Benji go, my loyalty to him means I would leave too.”

    The prop has built a reputation for unfiltered, honest commentary in media appearances, a trait Marshall is determined to protect at a time when most elite athletes are trained to stick to generic, risk-free talking points.

    Speaking to media on Friday morning, Marshall pushed back on criticism of May’s remarks, arguing professional rugby league sends a mixed message to its players. “It’s a strange dynamic, isn’t it? As a sport, we all say we want players to be honest, show their true personalities and express themselves openly. But when they actually do that and tell the unvarnished truth, a lot of people end up uncomfortable with it,” Marshall said.

    “One of the things I love most about Terrell is that he is unapologetically himself. We want him to keep being open, we love that he tells it like it is — even if that truth rubs some people the wrong way. What he says is his choice, and I fully encourage him to share how he really feels. Loyalty is a two-way street, after all. It means everything to me, and that’s the kind of honesty I want from my squad.”

    The controversy around May’s comments comes as the Tigers prepare for a high-stakes Sunday afternoon clash against competition favorites the Panthers. The match also looms as a critical opportunity for hooker Api Koroisau, who is fighting for a State of Origin recall to replace injured Cronulla star Blayke Brailey.

    A key talking point heading into the game is the availability of 18-year-old teenage sensation Heamasi Makasini, who has been named in the match day squad just one week after leaving the field early with a shoulder injury. Makasini’s return itself came only a week prior, after he spent more than a month on the sidelines with a foot injury sustained in round 7.

    Makasini did not return to the pitch for the second half of last weekend’s match against the Bulldogs, but his first 40 minutes of play impressed Marshall, even after a shaky performance against Brisbane that included multiple uncharacteristic errors. Initial fears that the forward had suffered a serious AC joint injury proved unfounded, Marshall confirmed.

    “We thought the AC injury was worse than it actually turned out to be. He was able to do light training all week, so he’s perfectly fit to play this weekend,” Marshall said. “I thought he was really good last week. He brought incredible energy to the pitch, he was playing against Stephen Crichton, who he’s looked up to for years, and he played with real intent right from the kickoff. He just picked up a little knock halfway through, that’s all.”

    Marshall added that the brief time off the pitch has been a net positive for the young player, who is still adjusting to the intensity of top-flight first-grade rugby league. “I think that little break did him a world of good. He’s only 18, so sometimes as a coach you have to know when to give a young player a short spell to reset. This break came at exactly the right time for him to come back fresh, and he’s looked sharp all week in training.”