Asia Pacific

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are among the more than 20 world leaders attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, which is now the world’s largest regional grouping by population.

The Beijing-backed bloc will convene on Sunday and Monday in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, bringing together a diverse range of power brokers from across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001, the summit has shifted focus over the past two decades from Central Asian concerns to global matters.

More significantly, the SCO has become an essential part of China’s “parallel international governance architecture”, said Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China-Global South Project.

As Beijing assumes the mantle of the world’s second-largest superpower, the SCO has created spaces for dialogue and cooperation outside “the US-led international system”, Olander told Al Jazeera.

While the summit in Tianjin is largely symbolic, it is a valuable chance to bring together global leaders and bureaucrats in a forum where they can share “common grievances”, Olander said.

With the gathering set to be overshadowed by United States President Donald Trump’s trade war against much of the world – including many traditional allies of Washington – attendees are likely to have even more common ground.

Guests range from Putin, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, to Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko and the likes of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Many of the attendees also have longrunning rivalries and border disputes, such as India with Pakistan, India with China, Saudi Arabia with Iran, and Central Asia with both China and Russia.

“There are complex dynamics at play here,” Olander said.

“Underneath the happy family photo is a lot of looking over shoulders,” he said.

‘Swing states’

The SCO has expanded its membership in recent years to include such political heavyweights as India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus as full members, with Afghanistan and Mongolia joining as observers.

Official “dialogue partners” have also grown to 14 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Qatar, Cambodia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

The summit will also notably feature Southeast Asia, a region that Olander likened to the “swing states” in the great power competition between the US and China.

Five heads of state will attend from the region, including Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim and Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto, as well as ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn.

Observers will be closely watching the dynamics between Chinese President Xi Jinping and India’s Modi, who have not met in seven years, said Claus Soong, an analyst at Germany’s Mercator Institute for China Studies who specialises in China’s global strategy.

India has traditionally been an ally of Washington, but it was hit this week by Trump’s 50 percent tariffs as punishment for its ongoing purchase of Russian oil.

The White House says India’s trade is helping to keep Russia’s economy afloat despite international sanctions, and with it, Russia’s war on Ukraine.

But the shared threat of US tariffs has helped improve relations between New Delhi and Beijing, which had plummeted in 2020 over a deadly skirmish between border forces in the Himalayas.

The two sides reached a deal on their remote frontier in 2024, but their relationship has remained frosty.

Analysts say China sees Trump’s trade war as a chance to ease India away from US-led political and military blocs such as the QUAD, a strategic security forum that includes Japan and Australia in addition to India and the US.

“The key is to look at how China [characterises] its relationship with India after the visit and how the relationship improves between China and India,” Soong told Al Jazeera.

Even subtle changes in language by Beijing carry important diplomatic signals, he said.

The SCO summit will also mark the first meeting between Putin and Xi since the Russian leader met with President Trump in Alaska earlier this month to discuss the Ukraine war.

Analysts will be listening for similar changes in language for how the two leaders describe the China-Russia relationship.

In 2022, just weeks before Moscow invaded Ukraine, China and Russia signed a “no limits partnership”, and Xi has played a vital role in propping up Russia’s economy since then.

This is a point of contention for New Delhi, as China has done far more to support Russia economically since the war started, but has not faced similar sanctions from Trump.

With so many dynamics at play behind the scenes, Daniel Balazs, a research fellow at the China Programme at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the most likely outcome of the SCO will be a joint statement from all attendees.

China and Russia are expected to push talking points such as their opposition to “unilateralism” – a coded reference to the US – but most of the language will be watered down to make it palatable to all.

“The symbolism of actually achieving a joint statement is more important than the content of the statement itself,” Balazs said.

“What I would expect is to have a statement which is a very non-controversial one, in order to get everybody on board,” he said.

“Security and stability, comments about improving economic cooperation, and a couple of comments about the importance of multilateralism,” Balazs said.

Police officers stand guard in front of the Tiananmen Gate, in an area temporarily closed to visitors due to construction, in advance of a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing, China, on August 20, 2025 [Florence Lo/Reuters]

Following the summit, guests will have a full day in China before travelling to Beijing for a massive military parade on September 3 marking 80 years since the end of World War II in Asia.

That extra day – September 2 – will be prime time for bilateral meetings, the China-Global South Project’s Olander said.

“Who will meet who on the second of September – that’s something to pay attention to,” he said.

More heads of state are due to attend the parade the next day, with additions said to include North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.

India’s Modi is not expected to stay for the parade, although analysts say he may send a representative, such as his foreign minister.

The Mercator Institute’s Soong said the expansive guest list for the summit and the military parade will give Beijing a boost to its public image, especially among the Global South.

“This is how China demonstrates its friend circle – who can be China’s friend and who is willing to endorse China’s narrative,” he said.

Violence has broken out on the streets of Indonesia after a motorcycle taxi driver was run over and killed by police.

The president has apologised and appealed for calm, but protests continue.

What’s driving the anger, and how will the government respond?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Abigail Limuria – Cofounder of What Is Up Indonesia?, a digital media platform that unpacks Indonesian sociopolitics

Vedi Hadiz – Professor of Asian studies at the University of Melbourne

Wirya Adiwena – Deputy director of Amnesty International Indonesia

The UN chief says he values China’s support, where he is attending the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that China supports the global organisation playing a central role in international affairs and that it upholds “true multilateralism”, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi shared this message with Guterres on Saturday as the UN chief visited China to attend the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

China will remain a reliable partner of the UN, President Xi added.

For his part, Guterres told Xi: “The support of China…is an extremely important element to preserve.”

The 25th SCO summit and the “SCO Plus” meeting will be held on Sunday and Monday in northern China’s Tianjin, showcasing Global South solidarity.

The high-level gathering comes amid rising geopolitical tensions, including Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its escalating assault on the occupied West Bank, security tensions in South Asia and the Asia Pacific region, notably between Thailand and Cambodia, and United States President Donald Trump’s global trade war.

As the rotating chair, Xi will preside over the summit, which marks the fifth annual SCO summit hosted by China.

Leaders from more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organisations will attend the summit.

Among the participants will be Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masood Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Xi will also meet Erdogan on the sidelines of the crucial summit.

The summit’s agenda includes promoting the “Shanghai Spirit”, improving internal mechanisms, and fostering multilateral cooperation in areas such as security, economics and culture.

A joint signing of the new Tianjin Declaration and the approval of a strategy for the next decade are other expected outcomes.

The summit will issue statements marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and the 80th founding anniversary of the UN, aside from adopting a string of outcome documents on strengthening security, economic, people-to-people and cultural cooperation.

Founded in 2001, the SCO is a political and security alliance comprising 10 members: China, Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

The Chinese leader will also host Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a large-scale military parade on September 3 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia.

Revolutionary guards say suspects apprehended in northeastern Iran as materials for making weapons are also seized.

Iran has arrested eight people suspected of attempting to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures during the country’s 12-day war with Israel and the United States to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, according to its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The IRGC released a statement on Saturday alleging that the suspects had received specialised training from Mossad via online platforms.

It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.

The news comes as state media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the June conflict, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.

Following an Israeli military bombardment that began on June 13, killing top military officials and scientists as well as hundreds of civilians, Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities.

The US also carried out extensive strikes on Israel’s behalf on Iranian nuclear sites during the conflict, the worst blow to the Islamic republic since its 1980s war with Iraq.

During the 12-day war, Iranian security forces began a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints and “public reports”.

Iranian citizens were called upon to report on any individuals they thought were acting suspiciously during the war that ended in a US and Qatar-brokered ceasefire.

Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist who was killed in Israeli air strikes.

Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.

The Israel-US-Iran conflict has also led to an accelerated rate of deportations for Afghan refugees and migrants believed to be illegally in Iran, with aid agencies reporting that local authorities have also accused some Afghan nationals of spying for Israel.

“Law enforcement rounded up 2,774 illegal migrants and discovered 30 special security cases by examining their phones. [A total of] 261 suspects of espionage and 172 people accused of unauthorised filming were also arrested,” police spokesperson Saeed Montazerolmahdi said earlier this month.

Montazerolmahdi did not specify how many of those arrested had since been released.

He added that Iran’s police handled more than 5,700 cases of cybercrimes such as online fraud and unauthorised withdrawals during the war, which he said had turned “cyberspace into an important battlefront”.

At least three people have been killed and several injured in a fire blamed on protesters in Sulawesi island.

At least three people have been killed and five were injured in a fire blamed on protesters at a regional parliament building in eastern Indonesia, as widespread demonstrations rock the Southeast Asian nation.

Indonesia’s disaster management agency, in a statement on Saturday, confirmed the deaths following the Friday evening fire in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, some 1,600km (994 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta.

“From last night’s incident, three people died. Two died at the scene, and one died at the hospital. They were trapped in the burning building,” the secretary of Makassar city council, Rahmat Mappatoba, told the AFP news agency on Saturday.

He accused protesters of storming the office to set the building on fire.

Indonesia’s official Antara news agency also said the victims were reported to have been trapped in the burning building, while the disaster agency said two of the injured were hurt while jumping out of the building.

Several people injured in the fire are being treated in hospital, officials said.

The fire has since been extinguished.

Indonesia has been rocked by protests across major cities, including Jakarta, since Friday, after footage spread of a motorcycle delivery driver being run over and killed by a police tactical vehicle in earlier rallies over low wages and perceived lavish perks for government officials.

In West Java’s capital city of Bandung, commercial buildings, including a bank and a restaurant, were also reportedly burned on Friday during demonstrations.

In Jakarta, hundreds of demonstrators massed outside the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade Corp (Brimob) paramilitary police unit that was blamed for running over motorcycle delivery driver Affan Kuniawan.

Protesters threw stones and firecrackers, and police responded with tear gas as a group tried to tear down the gates of the unit, which is notorious for its heavy-handed tactics.

On Saturday, a local online news site reported that young protesters had massed in Jakarta and were heading to the Brimob headquarters before they were stopped by a barricade.

Police said they had detained seven officers for questioning in connection with the driver’s death. The number of protesters injured in the violence is reported to be more than 200, according to the Tempo news site.

The protests are the biggest and most violent of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s tenure, and are a key test less than a year into his presidency.

Prabowo has urged calm, ordered an investigation into the unrest, visited the family of the slain delivery driver, while also warning that the demonstrations “were leading to anarchic actions”.

Kim Jong Un expresses ‘grief’ for failing to save ‘the precious lives’ of his troops killed fighting against Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met again with the families of his soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, offering condolences for their “unbearable pain” and promising the bereaved “a beautiful life”, state media reports.

KCNA state news agency reported on Saturday that Kim hosted the families of slain soldiers, and expressed “grief at having failed to save the precious lives” of those who sacrificed their lives to defend the country’s honour.

The meeting was the second reported occasion that Kim met with families of fallen soldiers this month. Pyongyang has not confirmed the number of troops that were killed fighting for Russia, though Seoul estimates about 600, with thousands more wounded.

“I had this meeting arranged as I wanted to meet and console the bereaved families of all the heroes and relieve them of their sorrow and anguish even a little,” Kim said in his speech, according to KCNA.

Kim also pledged to build a monument in the capital, Pyongyang, as well as name a new street for the bereaved families, and the state will give full support to the children of deceased soldiers.

The North Korean leader said his “heart breaks and aches” for the children who lost fathers.

“I, our state and our army will take full responsibility for them and train them admirably as staunch and courageous fighters like their fathers,” he added.

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said that Kim sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia in 2024 – primarily to the Kursk region – along with North Korean-produced artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.

At a ceremony with mourning family members and Ukraine war veterans last week, images released by KCNA showed an emotional Kim embracing a returned soldier who appeared overwhelmed, burying his face in the leader’s chest.

The leader was also seen kneeling before a portrait of a fallen soldier to pay his respects and placing medals and flowers beside images of dead troops.

Kim is due to stand alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a military parade in Beijing next week, marking the surrender of Japan in World War II.

Relations between Kim and Putin have surged significantly since they signed a military alliance in 2024.

Melbourne, Australia – Lee Little recalls the phone call with her daughter in December 2017; it was just minutes before Alicia was killed.

“I spoke to her 15 minutes before she died,” Little told Al Jazeera.

“I asked her, was she OK? Did you want us to come up to pick you up? And she said, ‘No, I’ve got my car. I’m right, Mum, everything’s packed.’”

Alicia Little was on the verge of finally leaving an abusive four-and-a-half-year relationship.

Not only had Alicia rung her mother, but she had also called the police emergency hotline for assistance, as her fiance Charles Evans fell into a drunken rage.

Alicia knew what to expect from her partner: extreme violence.

Evans had a history of abuse towards Alicia, with her mother recounting to Al Jazeera the first time it occurred.

“The first time he actually bashed her, she was on the phone to me. And the next minute, I heard him come across and try to grab her phone,” Little said.

“I heard her say, ‘Get your hands off my throat. I can’t breathe.’ And the next minute, you hear him say, ‘You’re better off dead.’”

Little told how she had taken photos of her daughter’s terrible injuries.

“She had broken ribs. She had a broken cheekbone, broken jaw, black eyes, and where he’d had her around the throat, you could see his finger marks. It was a bruise, and where he’d give her a kick, and right down the side, you could see his foot marks.”

Like many abusive relationships, a pattern would emerge, whereby Alicia would leave temporarily, only to return after Evans promised to change his behaviour.

“This went on and off for the four and a half years,” Little said.

“He’d bash her, she’d come home, and then she’d say to me, ‘Mum, he’s told me that he’s gone and got help.’”

Yet the violence only escalated.

On the night Alicia decided to leave for good, Evans drove his four-wheel-drive at her, pinning her between the front of the vehicle and a water tank.

Alicia Little, aged 41 and a mother of two boys, died within minutes before the police she had called could arrive.

As she lay drawing her final breaths, security camera footage would later show her killer drinking beer at the local pub, where he drove to after running Alicia down.

Evans was arrested, and after initially being charged with murder, had his charges downgraded to dangerous driving causing death and failing to render assistance after a motor vehicle accident.

He would walk free from jail after only two years and eight months.

The statistics

Alicia Little is just one of the many women in Australia killed every year, in what activists such as The Red Heart Campaign’s Sherele Moody are saying is so prevalent that it amounts to a “femicide”: the targeted killing of women by men.

According to government data, one woman was killed in Australia every eight days on average between 2023-2024.

Moody, who documents the killings, contests those statistics, telling Al Jazeera they do not represent the true scale of deadly attacks on women in the country.

Government data records “domestic homicide”; women killed resulting in a conviction of murder or manslaughter.

As in the case of Alicia Little, the lesser charges her killer was convicted on related to motoring offences and do not amount to a domestic homicide under government reporting and are not reflected in the statistics.

“One of the key weapons that perpetrators use against women in Australia is vehicles,” Moody told Al Jazeera.

“They almost always get charged with dangerous driving, causing death. That is not a homicide charge. It doesn’t get counted despite it being a domestic violence act, an act of domestic violence perpetrated by a partner,” Moody said.

“The government underrepresents the epidemic of violence. And in the end, the numbers that they’re using influence their policy. It influences their funding decisions. It influences how they speak to us as a community about violence against women,” she said.

Moody said that between January 2024 and June this year, she had documented 136 killings of women; many – like Alicia Little – by their partners. “Ninety-six percent of the deaths I record are perpetrated by men.”

“Around 60 percent of the deaths are the result of domestic and family violence,” she said.

While much focus is on women’s safety in public spaces – for example, walking home alone at night – Moody said the least safe place for a woman is actually in her own home.

“The reality is that if you’re going to be killed, whether you’re a man or woman or a child, you’re going to be killed by someone you know,” she said.

Data shows that only about 10 percent of female victims are killed by strangers, deaths often sensationally covered by the media and prompting public debate about women’s safety.

“Yes, stranger killings do happen, and when they do, they get a lot of focus and a lot of attention, and it lulls people into a false sense of security about who is perpetrating the violence,” Moody said.

Male violence in Australia

Patty Kinnersly, CEO of Our Watch, a national task force to prevent violence against women, said attacks on women are the “most extreme outcome of broader patterns of gendered violence and inequality”.

“When we refer to the gendered drivers of violence, we are talking about the social conditions and power imbalances that create the environment where this violence occurs,” Kinnersly said.

“These include condoning or excusing violence against women, men’s control of decision-making, rigid gender stereotypes and dominant forms of masculinity, and male peer relations that promote aggression and disrespect towards women,” she said.

“Addressing the gendered drivers is vital because violence against women is not random; it reflects deeply entrenched inequalities and norms in society. If we do not address these root causes, we cannot achieve long-term prevention,” she added.

Patterns of male violence are deeply rooted in Australia’s colonial history, in which men are told they need to be physically and mentally tough, normalising male aggression, write authors Alana Piper and Ana Stevenson.

“For much of the 19th century, men far outnumbered women within the European population of the Australian colonies. This produced a culture that prized hyper-masculinity as a national ideal,” they write.

Colonial male aggression also resulted in extreme violence perpetrated on Indigenous women during the frontier times, through rape and massacres.

Misogyny and racism were also promoted in Australia’s parliament during the 20th century, as legislators crafted assimilationist laws aimed at controlling the lives of Indigenous women and removing their children as part of what has become known as the “Stolen Generations”.

Up to a third of Indigenous children were removed from their families as part of a suite of government policies between 1910 and 1970, resulting in widespread cultural genocide and intergenerational social, economic and health disparities.

This legacy of colonial racism and discrimination continues to play out in vast socioeconomic inequalities experienced by Indigenous people in the present day, including violence against women, activists say.

Recent government data shows that Indigenous women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised due to violence than non-Indigenous women in Australia and six times more likely to die as a result of family violence.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are among the most at-risk groups for family violence and intimate partner homicide in Australia,” First Nations Advocates Against Family Violence (FNAAFV) Chief Executive Officer Kerry Staines told Al Jazeera.

“These disproportionately high rates are the result of historical injustice and ongoing systemic failure,” Staines said, including forced displacement of Indigenous communities, child removals and the breakdown of family structures.

“Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been affected by multigenerational trauma caused by institutional abuse, incarceration and marginalisation. When trauma is left unaddressed, and support services are inadequate or culturally unsafe, the risk of violence, including within relationships, increases,” she said.

Indigenous women are also the fastest-growing prison cohort in Australia.

On any given night, four out of 10 women in prison are Indigenous women, despite making up only 2.5 per cent of the adult female population.

Staines said there is a nexus between domestic violence and incarceration.

“There is a clear and well-documented relationship between the hyper-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the high rates of family violence experienced in our communities,” she said.

“The removal of parents and caregivers from families due to imprisonment increases the likelihood of child protection involvement, housing instability and intergenerational trauma, all of which are risk factors for both perpetration and victimisation of family violence.”

‘Toxic culture’

While Australia was one of the first Western countries to grant women voting rights, deeply rooted inequalities persisted through much of the 20th century, with women being excluded from much of public and civic life, including employment in the government sector and the ability to sit on juries, until the 1970s.

This exclusion from positions of authority – including the judicial system – allowed a culture of “victim blaming” to develop, particularly in instances of domestic abuse and sexual assault, activists say.

Rather than holding male perpetrators to account and addressing violence, focus remained on the actions of female victims: what they may have been wearing, where they had been, and prior sexual histories as a basis for apportioning blame to those who had suffered the consequences of gender-based violence.

Such was the case with Isla Bell, a 19-year-old woman from Melbourne, who police allege was beaten to death in October 2024.

Media reporting on Isla’s death focused largely on her personal life and provided graphic details about her death, while little attention was given to the two men who were charged with Isla’s alleged murder.

Isla’s mother, Justine Spokes, said the reporting “felt really abusive”.

“The way in which my daughter’s murder was reported on just highlights the pervasive toxic culture that is systemic in Australia,” said Spokes, describing a “victim-blaming narrative” around the killing of her daughter.

“It was written in a really biased way that felt really disrespectful, devaluing and dehumanising,” she said, adding that society had become desensitised to male violence against women in Australia.

“It’s just become so normalised, which I think is actually a sign of trauma, that we’re numb to it. It’s been pervasive for that long. If that’s the mainstream psyche in Australia, it’s just so dangerous,” she said.

“I really think that this pervasive, toxic, misogynistic culture, it’s definitely written into our law. It’s very colonial,” she added.

The Australian government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has committed to the ambitious task of tackling violence against women within a generation.

A spokesperson from the Department of Social Services told Al Jazeera the government has invested 4 billion Australian dollars ($2.59bn) to deliver on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032.

“The Australian Government acknowledges the significant levels of violence against women and children including intimate partner homicides,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Ending gender-based violence remains a national priority for the Australian Government. Our efforts to end gender based violence in one generation are not set-and-forget – we are rigorously tracking, measuring and assessing our efforts, and making change where we must,” the spokesperson added.

Yet for Lee Little, mother of Alicia Little who was killed in 2017, not enough is being done, and she does not feel justice was served in the case of her daughter, describing the killer’s light sentence as “gut-wrenching”.

Little is now petitioning for a national domestic violence database in a bid to hold perpetrators accountable and allow women to gain access to information regarding prior convictions.

“Our family would love a national database, because perpetrators, at this moment, anywhere in Australia, can do a crime in one state and move to another, and they’re not recognised” as offenders in their new location, she said.

Little said public transparency around prior convictions would protect women from entering into potentially abusive relationships in the first place.

Yet the Australian federal government has yet to implement such a database, in part due to the complexities of state jurisdictions.

The federal attorney-general’s office told Al Jazeera that “primary responsibility for family violence and criminal matters rests with the states and territories, with each managing their own law enforcement and justice systems”.

“Creation of a publicly accessible national register of perpetrators of family violence could only be implemented with the support of state and territory governments, who manage the requisite data and legislation.”

Despite the apparent intransigence in law, Little remains committed to calling out violence against women wherever she sees it.

“I’ve been to supermarkets where there’s been abuse in front of me, and I’ve stepped in,” she said.

“I will be a voice for Alicia and for a national database till my last breath,” she added.

United States President Donald Trump has announced that he will allow 600,000 Chinese students into US universities.

His announcement on Monday, which marks a sharp departure from the Trump administration’s crackdown on Chinese students launched earlier this year, has caught his conservative base off guard.

Here is more about what Trump is saying now, in contrast to what the administration has said in the past – and how some within his Make America Great Again (MAGA) support base are reacting.

What has Trump announced about Chinese students?

During a meeting on Monday at the Oval Office with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, reporters asked Trump whether he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump responded: “President Xi would like me to come to China. It’s a very important relationship. As you know, we are taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and different things.”

He then talked about Chinese students: “I hear so many stories about ‘We are not going to allow their students’, but we are going to allow their students to come in. We are going to allow it. It’s very important – 600,000 students.”

On Tuesday, during a cabinet meeting, Trump reiterated his recent sentiments about Chinese students, saying, “I told this to President Xi that we’re honoured to have their students here.

“Now, with that, we check and we’re careful, we see who is there.”

Trump said that the US would struggle without Chinese students.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Trump told Xi during a phone call in June that “the US loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America”.

How has the Chinese government reacted?

Speaking at a regular news conference on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun expressed hope that Trump would act on his commitment to admit Chinese students into US universities.

Guo also urged the US to stop “unprovoked harassment, interrogation and deportation” of Chinese students.

What has the Trump administration said about Chinese students in the past?

In late May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Trump would “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese students.

In an X post, Rubio wrote: “The US will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”

The Trump administration did not provide clear details at the time about which students would be affected by the revocations. Observers viewed the brief announcement as intentionally vague.

“I think the vagueness is part of the [Trump administration’s] strategy, because it is not about a concrete policy,” Kyle Chan, a researcher on China at Princeton University, told Al Jazeera in May. “I don’t think it’s really, at the end of the day, about national security and trying to find the few individuals who may pose a genuine risk.”

In August, the US State Department revoked 6,000 international student visas because of violations of US law and overstays, according to the BBC, which quoted an unnamed department official. The nationalities of the students whose visas had been revoked were not known.

While Rubio did not specify what qualifies as a “critical field”, in March, a US congressional committee of the House of Representatives sent a letter to leadership at multiple US universities requesting information about Chinese nationals enrolled in advanced science, technology, engineering, and medicine programmes on their campuses.

John Moolenaar, chair of the congressional committee, claimed that the Chinese Communist Party was placing Chinese researchers in top US institutions to access sensitive technology.

How many Chinese students are there in the US?

During the 2023-2024 academic year, 277,398 Chinese students were enrolled in US universities, making up 24.5 percent of the 1.13 million international students, according to the annual Open Doors report from the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the US State Department.

According to the report, Chinese students were second only to Indian students, who constituted 29 percent of international students in the 2023-2024 year.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, Chinese students made up 27.4 percent of the international student population.

The proportion was even higher in 2020-2021, when 34.7 percent of international students in the US were from China.

What is behind Trump’s latest announcement about admitting Chinese students?

During an interview with Fox News on Monday, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said Trump’s recent statements stem from a “rational economic view”.

Lutnick said that 15 percent of US universities would go out of business without international students.

International students at US colleges and universities contributed $43.8bn to the US economy and supported more than 378,000 jobs during the 2023-2024 academic year, according to data released by the nonprofit organisation, NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

According to NAFSA, there were 1.1 million international students in the US, each contributing about $39,800 on average.

By that calculation, the 277,398 Chinese students in the US in 2023-24 would have contributed in excess of $11bn to the US economy that year.

How have Trump supporters reacted?

Trump’s recent statements have drawn ire from some within his MAGA base.

Republican Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in an X post on Monday: “If refusing to allow these Chinese students to attend our schools causes 15 percent of them to fail then these schools should fail anyways because they are being propped up by the CCP.”

We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP.

If refusing to allow these Chinese students to attend our schools causes 15% of them to fail then these schools should fail anyways because they are being…

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) August 26, 2025

Trump ally and far-right internet personality Laura Loomer made a series of posts on X opposing Trump’s idea of bringing in Chinese students. One of the posts read: “Nobody, I repeat nobody, wants 600,000 more Chinese ‘students’ aka Communist spies in the United States.”

News site Axios reported that former White House adviser and Trump aide Steve Bannon said on Tuesday: “Any foreign student that does come here ought to have an exit visa stapled to his or her diploma to leave immediately. Give them 30 days.”

Right-wing internet personality Christopher Rufo wrote in an X post on Monday: “We can’t accept 600,000 Chinese students. If anything, we should reduce the number of Chinese visas, especially for students with political connections to the CCP.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the main party in China, with about 100 million card-carrying members. China has about 400 million families, so on average, one in every four Chinese citizens has an immediate relative in the CCP.

China’s top diplomat tells Brazil’s FM Mauro Vieira that Beijing-Brazil ties are at their ‘best in history’.

China is willing to strengthen coordination with Brazil to “resist unilateralism and bullying”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira.

Wang made the pledge to Vieira in a phone call, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, as the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva considers retaliatory trade measures against the United States over President Donald Trump’s imposition of 50 percent tariffs on a range of Brazilian goods.

During the phone call, Wang told Vieira that the China-Brazil relationship “is at its best in history”, China’s state-run Global Times reported, quoting Wang.

Noting that the current international situation “is undergoing complex changes”, Wang also pledged China’s willingness to join hands with the BRICS trading block, to protect “the legitimate rights and interests” of developing countries.

BRICS, which includes emerging economies such as Brazil, is a China-led political and economic grouping that is seen as a counter to the Western-led APEC and G7 groups.

Beijing’s offer comes amid indications that Brazil is considering a coordinated response with China and India against punitive US trade measures.

According to Global Times, Wang also recalled Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Lula’s phone call two weeks ago in which the two leaders “forged solid mutual trust and friendship” in the building of a China-Brazil community “with a shared future”.

In May, Lula also travelled to China for a five-day state visit.

Beijing has worked in recent years to court Latin America as a way of countering Washington, which is historically the most influential major power in the South American region.

But China has surpassed the US as Brazil’s largest trading partner, and two-thirds of Latin American countries have also signed up to Xi’s Belt and Road infrastructure drive.

Brazil exports large quantities of soya beans to China, which, as the world’s largest consumer of the ingredient, relies heavily on imports for its supply.

Relations between the US and Brazil have been icy since Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian coffee and other goods, which took effect on August 6.

While Trump’s trade war has chiefly targeted countries that run a large trade surplus with the US, Brazil imports from the US far outweigh its exports, and Washington had a trade surplus of $28.6bn in goods and services with Brazil in 2024.

Trump has explained his economic hostility towards Brazil in terms of retribution for a so-called domestic legal “witch-hunt” against Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for coup plotting.

Trump has called for charges against Bolsonaro – who he considers an ally – to be dropped and has imposed sanctions on Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for overseeing the case against the former leader.

In recent days, Brazil has also complained after the US revoked the visa of Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.

Former prime minister and the wife of ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol both indicted on separate charges on the same day.

South Korean prosecutors in separate cases have indicted former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo for aiding and abetting former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law last year, and the ex-president’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, for bribery and other charges.

The charges were laid against Han, 76, on Friday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Additional charges include perjury and falsifying official documents.

Han had been under investigation by a team of special prosecutors for several weeks, according to media reports.

Former First Lady Kim was also indicted on charges stemming from her alleged participation in a stock manipulation scheme and acceptance of gifts from the controversial Unification Church, among other activities.

Lawyers for Kim have denied the allegations against her and said news reports about some of the gifts she allegedly received were groundless speculation.

Assistant special counsel Park Ji-young told a televised briefing that Han was the highest official who could have blocked Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law.

Park said Han still played an “active” role in Yoon’s martial law declaration by trying to get Yoon’s decree passed through a Cabinet Council meeting as a way to give “procedural legitimacy” to it.

Han has maintained that he conveyed to Yoon that he opposed his martial law plan.

Kim and her ex-president husband have been arrested and are in jail, with Yoon already undergoing trial on charges that include insurrection for his attempt to impose military rule.

His wife had been the subject of numerous high-profile scandals, some dating back more than 15 years, which overshadowed his turbulent presidency and inflicted political damage on him and his conservative People Power Party (PPP).

Yoon was formally impeached in April.

Former Prime Minister Han stepped in twice to serve as acting president during the post-martial law chaos between December and May, but he later resigned to participate in South Korea’s presidential election.

He failed, however, to secure the candidacy for the PPP.

The June 3 election was later won by the liberal Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung, who had livestreamed himself climbing over the walls of South Korea’s National Assembly to vote down the martial law declared by Yoon.

Bangkok, Thailand – Thailand’s Constitutional Court is to decide whether to remove suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office over a phone call with Cambodia’s former leader in a ruling that could deal a fatal blow to the embattled Shinawatra dynasty and plunge the Southeast Asian kingdom into political turmoil.

An unfavourable verdict for Paetongtarn on Friday would make her the fifth prime minister since 2008 to be stripped of office by Thailand’s judges, who critics say defend the interests of the country’s royalist-military establishment.

The move could also potentially pave the way for early elections.

Friday’s ruling is also the second in three high-stakes court cases against Paetongtarn, 39, and her father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The 76-year-old billionaire, who is a hero to the country’s rural poor and who was ousted in a military coup in 2006, dodged a jail sentence last week when he was acquitted of insulting the country’s powerful monarchy.

But he still faces another case relating to his return to Thailand in 2023 after 16 years in self-imposed exile, which could land him back in prison.

Even if Paetongtarn survives, analysts said the saga, as well as the failure of her Pheu Thai party-led coalition to deliver on key economic pledges, has left the Shinawatra brand in peril.

“I think that the Shinawatra brand is done for,” said Napon Jatusripitak, visiting fellow and acting coordinator of the Thailand Studies Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“Pheu Thai depends very much on the Shinawatra legacy. … Even the charismatic leadership that Thaksin is often associated with has been chipped away by Paetongtarn’s naivete that has been put on public spectacle on a global scale,” he said, referring to her leaked conversation with former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

‘A political case’

During the call, which took place in May after deadly border clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces, Paetongtarn was heard kowtowing to Hun Sen, a longtime friend of her father’s, and calling him “uncle” while criticising a senior Thai army commander and describing him as an “opponent”.

The comments caused a public outcry in Thailand with some Thais accusing her of treason. Paetongtarn apologised for her remarks, but the Constitutional Court took up a petition that accused her of ethical misconduct and suspended her pending a review of the case.

The border conflict, meanwhile, spiralled, killing dozens of people and displacing tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

“Judicial intervention has long shaped Thailand’s politics,” Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, constitutional law scholar at Chulalongkorn University, said, noting how the courts had also intervened to topple Thaksin-aligned prime ministers in 2008 and bar his sister, Yingluck, from office after a coup in 2014.

“Whether [Paetongtarn] survives the court’s judgement or not, the outcome will not hinge on legal arguments but on political instructions,” Khemthong said. “This has never been a matter of law. It is, and always has been, a political case.”

It does not help Paetongtarn that the controversy also has taken place at a time when Pheu Thai’s popularity has been plummeting. In its rocky two years in government, the party has been unable to reset the economy or drive through key policies, including raising the minimum wage, legalising casinos and completing a much-lauded cash handout programme.

Public anger has been seething too over Pheu Thai’s decision to strike a deal with royalist-, military-backed parties to take office in 2023.

During that year’s vote, Pheu Thai came in second to the progressive youth-led Move Forward, but the latter was prevented from forming a government by the conservative-controlled Senate.

It was that same power-sharing deal that saw Thaksin return to Thailand.

Upon his arrival, the politician, who had been sentenced in absentia to eight years on charges of corruption, was sent to jail to serve his sentence. His sentence was reduced by King Maha Vajiralongkorn to one year, but during his first night, he was transferred to a hospital on medical grounds. He spent six months in a hospital suite, after which he was released on parole.

Now, the Supreme Court is to rule on whether his hospital stay was justified in a case that could see him sent back to prison to serve his sentence.

“Thaksin had the moral high ground of being overthrown, from being democratically elected, but he gave up that moral high ground by making a deal with the establishment,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor and senior fellow of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science.

“He’s given up, he’s given in, and I think that the Shinawatra brand now is politically spent.”

But it’s not just the Shinawatras that the conservative forces are after, Thitinan said.

“They’re going after any threat that they see that wants to institute reforms and wants to modernise Thailand. And this is why Thailand has been stuck for the last two decades. Until Thailand can get out of this straightjacket, whereby elected governments get overthrown, through manipulation, subversion, while the autocratic forces that do the overthrowing cannot get elected, it will remain so,” he added.

‘A real-life Squid Game’

Indeed, if Paetongtarn is removed, Thailand could again be in for a period of prolonged uncertainty. That is because the current constitution, drafted under military supervision, allows only politicians who had been nominated for prime minister by their parties before the 2023 elections to take power.

Pheu Thai may put up their final eligible candidate for premier – Chaikasem Nitisiri, a Thaksin loyalist and former justice minister.

Other candidates come from the conservative parties, including Anutin Charnvirakul of the Bhumjaithai Party and Prayuth Chan-ocha, formerly of the United Thai Nation (UTN) Party, who led the 2014 coup and then ruled Thailand for nine years. Prayuth is currently a member of the Privy Council, and he would need to step down to return to politics.

Napon of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute said he believes the royalist-military establishment, after removing Paetongtarn, could be manoeuvring to install a new coalition with Pheu Thai but with the party “relegated to a sort of a junior partner in the coalition” under a conservative leadership “despite them bringing the most seats”.

“Pheu Thai could accept that kind of arrangement given that Thaksin still has a pending case pertaining to his hospital stay,” Napon said. “In the worst case scenario, he could be sent back to serve his time in prison. That could end up being used as leverage to force Pheu Thai back into an unequal power-sharing arrangement with the conservatives once again.”

The continued conservative stranglehold on power has dismayed millions of voters, especially young Thais who say their votes and their aspirations for a greater stake in their country’s future have been ignored.

“Thai democracy exists largely on paper,” Pannika Wanich, a former Move Forward legislator who has been given a lifetime ban from politics, told Al Jazeera.

“Thai politics resembles a real-life Squid Game. Prime ministers are eliminated one after another until the game master gets the player they want. The rules are rigged – and the normal principles of democracy don’t apply.”

Beijing says 26 world leaders will attend the event in Tiananmen Square, overseen by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among world leaders attending an upcoming military parade in China to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.

Kim and Putin will participate in the “Victory Day” parade in Beijing next week, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday.

It will be held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and will feature a cast of thousands and a showcase of China’s latest military technology.

The guest list also includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, the ministry said.

The parade coincides with the anniversary of September 3, 1945, the day that the Empire of Japan formally surrendered to Allied Forces in Tokyo.

South Korea will be represented by Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly, while Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, will be the only Western leader in attendance.

It is unclear if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the parade.

Modi will be in China that same week to attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a Beijing-led security alliance, in the Chinese city of Tianjin.

Indian and Chinese relations declined sharply in 2020 over a border dispute in the Himalayas, but they have thawed recently thanks to shared economic grievances with the United States and President Donald Trump’s tariff war.

Kim and Putin are expected to take centre stage at the parade alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping.

North Korea is a treaty ally of China, and Beijing provides Pyongyang with a crucial economic lifeline in the face of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme.

Beijing has also come to play a similar role to Russia since Putin’s unilateral invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

China has continued to buy Russian energy exports and supply it with “dual use” technology, electronics and parts that can be used for civilian but also military purposes.

Xi and Putin signed a “no limits partnership” in the weeks leading up to the invasion of Ukraine, while North Korea and Russia have also grown closer since the start of the war, with Pyongyang sending munitions and even soldiers to resupply Russian forces in their battle against Ukraine.

Putin last visited China in 2024, while Kim last visited in 2019.

Israel made the claim after Australia’s PM said Iran directed two attacks on a Jewish community, which Tehran denies.

Australia has dismissed a claim that Israeli interventions prompted the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra, after the premier blamed Tehran for directing anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

“Complete nonsense,” Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke told ABC Radio on Wednesday, when asked about Israel claiming credit for Australia’s decision to order Tehran’s ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, to leave the country.

Albanese said on Tuesday that Australia had reached “the deeply disturbing conclusion” through “credible intelligence” that found Iran’s government had “directed” at least two attacks against Australia’s Jewish community.

Responding to a question from the ABC about Australia’s allegations against Iran, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer had commended Australia for taking “threats seriously” against the Jewish community, which he said had come after a “forthright intervention” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mencer said Netanyahu had “made very forthright comments about the [Australian] prime minister himself”, which spurred Albanese to action.

“He made those comments because he did not believe that the actions of the Australian government had gone anywhere near far enough to address the issues of anti-Semitism,” Mencer added.

The ABC included Mencer’s comments in an article titled: “Israeli government claims credit for pushing Albanese to expel Iranian diplomats.”

Netanyahu last week accused Albanese of being “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”, days after Albanese announced Australia would move to formally recognise a Palestinian state in September.

Iran said it “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations regarding the attacks and noted that the claims had come after Australia had directed “limited criticism” at Israel.

“It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

“Any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction,” Baghaei said.

Ilana Lenk, the spokesperson and head of public diplomacy at Israel’s embassy in Canberra, shared Australian newspaper front pages with headlines including, ‘Iran attacks us’ and ‘Iran targets Bondi deli’, in a post on social media.

“We warned Iran wouldn’t stop with Israel or the Jewish people. The West is next isn’t just a slogan, and today Australia sees it,” she wrote.

In a statement, the Jewish Council of Australia said it was “shocked to learn of the Iranian government involvement in coordinating antisemitic attacks”.

“The fact that a foreign government appears to be responsible shows how irresponsible it was for the attacks to be used to demonise the Palestine solidarity protest movement ,” the council said in a statement.

“We call on politicians and the media to exercise caution and to avoid politicisation of these attacks in a way that could further harm the Jewish community,” the statement added.

Tehran rejects Australia’s accusations, calling the move unjustified and influenced by internal political developments.

Iran has promised reciprocal action following Australia’s decision to expel its ambassador in Canberra over accusations that Tehran was behind anti-Jewish attacks in the country.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations, saying “any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction”.

Baghaei also said the measures appeared to be “influenced by internal developments” in Australia, including weekend protests across the country against Israel’s war on Gaza, which organisers said were the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in Australia’s history.

“It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Iran was behind the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney last October and directed a major arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in December.

There were no casualties in either of the attacks where assailants set fire to the properties, causing extensive damage.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said Iran sees Australia’s actions “as a continuation of hostile actions by the Australian side over the past years”.

“Australia has imposed several sanctions [on Iran], for example, in 2024 after Iran’s retaliatory action to attack the Israeli territory”, he said, adding that Tehran sees these latest moves “as another sign of Australia siding with the Israelis”.

Expelled ambassador ‘vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause’

Australia declared the Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, “persona non grata” and ordered him and three other officials to leave the country within seven days. Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the move marked the first time Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II.

Australia also withdrew its ambassador to Iran and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, which opened in 1968.

Wong added that the government will continue to maintain some diplomatic lines with Iran to advance Canberra’s interests.

Sadeghi was “vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause”, Foad Izadi, a world studies professor at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera.

“That is the main reason for Australia’s decision to expel him. Just a few days ago, we saw the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in many Australian cities.

“Expelling a country’s ambassador is rarely done, and the fact that the Australian government has done this is an indication that … they’re afraid of their own population and they’re afraid of the demands this population [makes] when it comes to the issue of genocide in Palestine.”

PM Albanese also said, “… the government will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist organisation.”

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is investigating possible IRGC involvement in other anti-Jewish attacks since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Izadi rejected those claims, saying it “has not provided any evidence”. He believes the Australian government has taken these decisions as it “is worried about the fact that the Australian people are seriously questioning Australia’s support for Israel” and “demanding that the government be more active in opposing the genocide in Palestine”.

Australia’s moves against Iran come as the country’s ties with Israel plummet over its criticism of Israeli-imposed famine and the war on Gaza, as well as its decision to join France, the United Kingdom and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Last week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Albanese a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”.

The Australian government has hit back at Netanyahu, with Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke saying that strength was not measured “by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry”.

Manhunt under way for man accused of shooting dead two officers and wounding another in southeastern state of Victoria.

Police in Australia are searching for a gunman who shot dead two officers and wounded another at a rural property in the southeastern state of Victoria, authorities have said.

The shooting occurred shortly after 10:30am on Tuesday as 10 police officers were attending the property in Porepunkah, about 300km (186 miles) northeast of Melbourne, Victoria police said in a statement.

Police urged the public in and around Porepunkah to remain indoors until further notice, and asked people not to travel to the area.

“The exact circumstances surrounding the incident are still being determined and it remains an active and ongoing situation,” Victoria police said.

“It’s believed the offender has since left the property and at this time his whereabouts are unknown. A significant search is actively underway to locate the man.”

Local media, which named the suspect as Dezi Freeman, reported that the police officers had travelled to the property to execute a warrant relating to alleged historical sex offences.

Alex Caruana, president of the Australian Federal Police Association, expressed condolences to the families of the deceased officers.

“Policing is dangerous and unpredictable work, and what has happened in Porepunkah is a reminder of the risks officers face every day in keeping the community safe,” Caruana said in a statement.

Gun deaths are relatively rare in Australia, which introduced tough restrictions on firearms in response to the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting, which killed 35 people and injured 23 others.

The last time an Australian police officer was shot dead in the line of duty was November 2023, when Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig was killed while responding to a call at a property in South Australia, according to the National Police Memorial.

Australia and Japan latest countries to stop some postal services to US for goods valued at less than $800.

Australia and Japan have joined a growing list of countries suspending some parcel shipments to the United States after US President Donald Trump’s administration ended an exemption that allowed packages valued at less than $800 to enter the country duty-free.

With the “de minimis” exemption set to end on Friday, Australia Post announced that it was implementing “a temporary partial suspension”.

In a statement on Tuesday, Australia Post said it was “disappointed” but the decision was necessary “due to the complex and rapidly evolving situation”.

Packages sent to the US and Puerto Rico lodged on or after Tuesday will not be accepted until further notice, the postal service said. Gifts valued at less than $100, letters and documents are unaffected by the change.

Australia Post said it would continue to work with the US and Australian authorities and international postal partners to resume services to the US soon.

Japan Post made a similar announcement on Monday, saying the suspension of some parcel shipments was necessary.

The procedures for transport and postal operators were “not clear”, which is “making implementation difficult”, Japan Post said.

Australian public broadcaster ABC said some businesses that make products in Australia have already suspended shipments, with Australian shipping software company Shippit saying it had seen a decline in shipments from Australia to the US even before the new changes came into effect.

“There’s been a 36 percent drop in volume since April in terms of outbound shipments from Australia to the US,” Shippit’s chief executive, Rob Hango-Zada, said, according to the ABC.

The announcements from Australia and Japan come after several European postal services announced similar changes last week, including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France, Austria and the United Kingdom.

The UK’s Royal Mail said it would halt shipments to the US beginning on Tuesday to allow time for those packages to arrive before new duties kick in.

“Key questions remain unresolved, particularly regarding how and by whom customs duties will be collected in the future, what additional data will be required, and how the data transmission to the US Customs and Border Protection will be carried out,” DHL, the largest shipping provider in Europe, said in a statement.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has announced a rolling wave of tariffs, or taxes paid on goods imported into the US.

The changing nature of Trump’s tariffs, which vary from country to country and are different in some cases depending on which products are being imported, has added to the confusion for postal services.

Trump had already ended the “de minimis” exemption with China and Hong Kong on May 2, closing a loophole which was widely used by fast-fashion companies Shein, Temu and others to ship duty-free.

The tax and spending bill recently signed by Trump repealed the legal basis for the “de minimis” exemption worldwide starting on July 1, 2027.

Goods shipped through the postal system will now face one of two tariffs: either an “ad valorem duty” equal to the effective tariff rate of the package’s country of origin or, for six months, a specific tariff of $80 to $200, depending on the country of origin’s tariff rate.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia will also designate the IRGC as a ‘terrorist entity’.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Iran of directing at least two anti-Jewish attacks in his country and announced plans to expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra.

Speaking to reporters in the Australian capital on Tuesday, Albanese described the attacks as attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in Australia.

“It is totally unacceptable, and the Australian government is taking strong and decisive action,” he said. “A short time ago, we informed the Iranian ambassador to Australia that he will be expelled.”

The prime minister said Australia has also suspended operations at its embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and moved all of its diplomats to a third country.

“I can also announce the government will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist organisation,” he added.

The attacks took place last year, at the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 10 and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6, according to Australian officials.

Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said the Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three of his colleagues have been declared persona non grata and given seven days to leave the country. She said the move marked the first time that Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II and that the country has also withdrawn its envoy to Tehran.

Still, the Albanese government will maintain some diplomatic lines with Iran to advance Canberra’s interests, Wong said, advising Australians in the Middle Eastern country to return home. She also warned Australians considering travelling to Iran to refrain from doing so.

More soon.

In White House meeting with Lee, Trump also says US should have ownership of land housing US military base in South Korea.

United States President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung have expressed their willingness to engage with North Korea’s hereditary leader, Kim Jong Un, during a meeting at the White House.

Lee, who has promised to “heal the wounds of division and war” as South Korea’s new president, told the US leader on Monday that his North Korean counterpart “will be waiting” to meet him.

“I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim Jong Un”, and “build a Trump Tower in North Korea so that I can play golf there”, Lee said, speaking in Korean.

Trump, who has met with Kim on three past occasions, told reporters in the Oval Office that he hopes to meet the North Korean leader again this year.

“Someday, I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump said, adding that he knew Kim “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister”.

During his meeting with the South Korean president, Trump also said the US should have ownership of South Korean land where some 28,500 American troops are stationed in US military bases.

“We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base,” Trump said.

This was Lee’s first visit to the White House after he was elected in June following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who briefly imposed martial law late last year in a move swiftly overturned by lawmakers and which has led to his arrest on alleged insurrection charges.

Since taking office, Lee has publicly made efforts to improve South Korea’s relationship with its northern neighbour. But Pyongyang has so far rebuffed the diplomatic overtures.

Last week, Lee said he would seek to restore the so-called September 19 Military Agreement, signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, suspending military activity along South Korea’s border with North Korea as part of an effort to rebuild trust.

Lee’s announcement was met with criticism from North Korea, which noted that it came as South Korea embarked on joint military drills with the United States.

North Korean state media said that the drills proved Washington’s intention to “occupy” the entire Korean Peninsula .

“If they continuously persist in the military rehearsal, they will certainly face up the unpleasant situation and pay a dear price,” Kim Yong Bok, first vice-chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, was cited by North Korean state media KCNA as saying.

‘A raid on churches’

Hours before Lee arrived at the White House, Trump took to social media to denounce what he described as “a Purge or Revolution” in South Korea. “WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Asked about his post during his meeting with Lee, Trump said, “I am sure it’s a misunderstanding, but there’s a rumour going around about raiding churches … I did hear that from intel.”

Last month, South Korean Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki’s team raided Unification Church facilities and officials linked with the religious sect, while “investigating various allegations involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee”, South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency said.

Seoul police also raided Sarang Jeil Church, headed by evangelical preacher Jun Kwang-hoon, who led protests in support of the removed President Yoon.

The police have also investigated pro-Yoon activists who stormed a court in late January after it extended Yoon’s detention, and in July, special prosecutors investigating the declaration of martial law served a search warrant on the Korean part of a military base jointly operated with the US.