News and politics recap: China accuses Australia, others of ‘stirring up trouble’ over SCS

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Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has warned the Albanese government would face legal hurdles to block 13 Australian men suspected of being ISIS fighters from returning if they are released from an Iraqi jail.

The Labor frontbencher vowed Australia wouldn’t help the group amid reports they could be preparing to return from a Baghdad prison amid fresh interrogation.

In a string of media appearances on Monday, however, Mr Burke highlighted that the “really tough” threshold of placing a temporary exclusion order on such people was legally challenging.

While he vowed to go to the “limits of what we’re legally able to do” but referenced the difficulty in banning the last ISIS-linked Australian woman in Syria, Hodan Abby, despite significant evidence against her.

“It’s a really tough threshold to meet legally,” Mr Burke said.

Read the full story here.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision in 2021 to commit Australia to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — the “net zero” policy repudiated by the Coalition four years later — was driven in part by his determination to get access to US and British nuclear-submarine technology.

An account of the last Coalition government by veteran journalist Paul Kelly reveals British Prime Minister Boris Johnson applied intense pressure on Mr Morrison to adopt the climate policy despite deep opposition from Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.

The Biden Administration, which was spending some $US400 billion ($577 billion) on climate subsidies, wanted other Western countries to follow.

Even though Mr Morrison thought coordinated global action on climate change would be “pointless” without the participation of China, he went along with the policy, knowing it would help him negotiate the AUKUS agreement, under which Australia will initially buy second-hand US nuclear submarines, then co-build nuclear subs with the British and Americans.

“Having got there, I thought it would help Kurt (Campbell, a senior US diplomat) and that it would help Boris,” he said.

The revelations in The Twilight of Exceptionalism provide new insights into a crucial decision by the last Coalition government, and a policy some conservatives believe eventually contributed to the rise of One Nation.

Read the full story here.

A Sky News analyst has warned it would only take “one wrong missile” to completely destroy any hopes of a meaningful US-Iran deal.

Michael Ware, who is best known for his coverage of the Iraq War, issued the warning on Sky News as hostilites between the US and Iran continue to escalate.

The US analyst compared the feuding nations to “two boxers in a ring trading blows on their way to a final outcome”.

“That said, if the peace and the deals and the negotiations are at such a delicate place that it’s only going to take the one wrong missile to completely destroy any hopes of a final deal or a more meaningful deal,” he said on Monday.

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay a fine of $2 milllion for misreporting derivative transactions, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said.

The penalty was handed down because of the misreporting of over 260,000 over-the-counter derivative transactions, undermining the accuracy of data used to monitor Australia’s financial markets, ASIC said.

“Specifically, ASIC has reasonable grounds to believe that Deutsche Bank failed to take all reasonable steps to accurately report the ‘direction’ fields data for 20,483 outstanding transactions and 244,091 terminated or matured transactions across 208 separate business days,” it said.

“These transactions related to foreign exchange and commodities OTC transactions.”

Richard Scolyer’s decision to volunteer for an experimental treatment after receiving a brain tumour diagnosis has paved the way for fellow cancer patients, a cancer expert has lauded.

University of Sydney emeritus professor of melanoma John Thompson, who was a friend and former colleague of the late researcher, addressed Scolyer’s State memorial on Monday.

“Richard courageously volunteered for a very risky form of treatment that had never been tried on brain tumours before in the hope that others might benefit from the information obtained,” Professor Thompson said.

“This bold experiment probably advanced research into brain cancer treatment by at least 10 years in one giant leap and formal clinical trials of this form of therapy are now in progress.

“I know this gave Richard enormous satisfaction.”

Thompson says Scolyer left a legacy of which his family, friends, colleagues and the “whole nation” could be proud.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says Labor has gone to the ‘edge’ of the law to keep ISIS fighters and brides from returning to Australia.

Exclusion orders are a key tool that the federal government can use to prevent ISIS-linked individuals from returning to the country, with the last ISIS bride Hodan Abby having had her exclusion revoked in June.

Mr Burke said while the Albanese government had considered lowing the threshold for exclusion orders but ultimately said it was not up to him to decide.

“The reality has been that the threshold really can’t be lowered. The High Court has made that pretty clear,” he said.

“So we’ve gone right to the edges of what we’re legally able to do, and even with that, there’s only been one occasion where I’ve been able to have a brief presented to me with the capacity to put a temporary exclusion order.

“As soon as that brief came to me, I took the opportunity to do it.”

Federal Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has hinted that Australia’s definition of a terrorist act will unlikely change.

While at a press conference today, Mr Burke was asked whether the definition needed an overhaul.

“The definitions of terrorism that are used tend to be international,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported Mr Burke as saying.

“[A] report has been given to government. There will be a formal response.

But, certainly, the definitions we’re using … interact very well with the partners we have.”

Typhoon Bavi has weakened to a tropical storm, hours after making landfall in eastern China ‘s Zhejiang province, but is still bringing days of strong winds and heavy rain to parts of the country.

The storm’s intensity continued to weaken as it moved northwestward across eastern China into the province of Anhui on Sunday afternoon, according to China’s national weather centre.

Strong winds and heavy rain are expected to impact many eastern and northeastern Chinese cities on Sunday and Monday, the National Meteorological Centre said, adding that heavy to torrential rain was recorded Sunday afternoon in provinces, including Anhui.

In Zhejiang province, more than 2.2 million people were evacuated due to Bavi, according to state media.

The city of Shanghai, in Zhejiang, evacuated over 290,000 people from at-risk areas, while Fujian province evacuated more than 180,000 people.

-AP

The Australian stock market weakened as further strikes between the US and Iran lifted oil prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell around 0.3 per cent to 8781.2 around midday, while the All Ordinaries slid 0.3 per cent, to 8976.6.

Brent Crude is trading at about $US79 a barrel, which is around the level it traded during the start of the Persian Gulf conflict in March.

The Australian dollar was buying 69.35 US cents, down from 69.50 US cents on Friday at 5pm.

- with AAP