Australia makes $800 million payment to US for AUKUS submarine deal
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the second payment was made this year along the approved schedule.
The first payment was announced with fanfare in February, but the second payment was made without any public acknowledgment.
Labor has now paid a total of $1.6 billion towards the deal.
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Sydney Morning Herald
16 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cambodia and Thailand agree to ceasefire after days of deadly clashes
Singapore: The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to a ceasefire after five days of fighting that has claimed at least 35 lives, including civilians, and displaced more than 100,000 people on each side of the disputed borderlands. US President Donald Trump is likely to claim the truce as a personal diplomatic victory after phone calls to both prime ministers on the weekend warning that continued hostilities would hurt their negotiations with his administration over tariffs. As fighting continued in the border provinces on Monday – more than a day after Trump's demands for it to stop – Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet and Phumtham Wechayachai, Thailand's acting prime minister, flew to the neutral ground of Malaysia, this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). They emerged from Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's residence in Kuala Lumpur after almost two hours having secured an 'immediate and unconditional' ceasefire. Both countries blamed the other for the fighting, which started on Thursday after almost two months of escalating rhetoric following a border skirmish on May 28 that left a Cambodian soldier dead. Thailand has accused Cambodia of breaching Geneva Conventions by firing heavy artillery at non-military targets, killing civilians, including children. Cambodia denied the claim and hit back with allegations that Thailand had dropped illegal cluster bombs. Thailand responded that it was not a party to the convention covering cluster munitions. The dispute, which is multi-generational with roots in colonial-era mapping, centres on the ownership of several ancient temples and strategic sites along ambiguous sections of the 800-kilometre border.
The Age
16 minutes ago
- The Age
Cambodia and Thailand agree to ceasefire after days of deadly clashes
Singapore: The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to a ceasefire after five days of fighting that has claimed at least 35 lives, including civilians, and displaced more than 100,000 people on each side of the disputed borderlands. US President Donald Trump is likely to claim the truce as a personal diplomatic victory after phone calls to both prime ministers on the weekend warning that continued hostilities would hurt their negotiations with his administration over tariffs. As fighting continued in the border provinces on Monday – more than a day after Trump's demands for it to stop – Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet and Phumtham Wechayachai, Thailand's acting prime minister, flew to the neutral ground of Malaysia, this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). They emerged from Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's residence in Kuala Lumpur after almost two hours having secured an 'immediate and unconditional' ceasefire. Both countries blamed the other for the fighting, which started on Thursday after almost two months of escalating rhetoric following a border skirmish on May 28 that left a Cambodian soldier dead. Thailand has accused Cambodia of breaching Geneva Conventions by firing heavy artillery at non-military targets, killing civilians, including children. Cambodia denied the claim and hit back with allegations that Thailand had dropped illegal cluster bombs. Thailand responded that it was not a party to the convention covering cluster munitions. The dispute, which is multi-generational with roots in colonial-era mapping, centres on the ownership of several ancient temples and strategic sites along ambiguous sections of the 800-kilometre border.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
Vilifying art-lovers at the NGV is a step too far
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. PROTESTS Exiting the NGV on Sunday, I was confronted by women protesting. My first instinct was to think they are women like me. As a teacher and Christian leader I've worked for peace, justice and reconciliation in education, churches and communities creating meaningful ways of offering hopeful transformation. I am a protester. But my instinct was wrong about these women as I don't target individuals and vilify them as they did to hundreds of us. A woman with the megaphone claimed 'anyone entering the NGV was ensuring the NGV thinks it's OK to hang out with fascists. You have blood on your hands and you support Zionism.' She then got personal to one woman saying 'you in the hat, you are supporting genocide entering the NGV'. I was collecting my bike nearby and foolishly engaged suggesting we can protest but it's wrong to target individuals as perpetrators of genocide. She then directed the megaphone at me chanting 'you support genocide'. She's right; we are all complicit in systemic and collective sins of commission and omission. But broad scale public vilification is not protest. It polarises, shuts down empathy and divides us further. Sally Apokis, South Melbourne Albanese should offer more than a gesture Anthony Albanese is correct in that the government should not recognise Palestine as a gesture only. He should do it as a commitment to the people of Palestine (''We won't make a decision as a gesture': Albanese says no imminent move to recognise Palestine ', 28/7). At the moment Albanese is gesturing, not acting. He is unprepared to take a bold stand, whether it be to recognise Palestine or sanction Israel for its blatant crimes. While acknowledging the heartbreak of seeing children starve, he makes no mention of genocide or ethnic cleansing. It's time he be a true leader. Lorel Thomas, Blackburn South Australia must act Sadly it appears the world's leaders are deaf and blind to what has been happening in Gaza. And as Sean Kelly noted (' Mere words won't pass our moral test ', 28/7) only two months after the horrific Hamas attacks on Israelis on October 7, 2023, already 93 per cent of people were in phases 3, 4 or 5 of food insecurity. In May UN experts noted that 'while States debate terminology — is it or is it not genocide? — Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza, through attacks by land, air and sea, displacing and massacring the surviving population with impunity'. When will the Australian government take action? It's time we say to the US and the UK that we will not proceed with AUKUS unless arms supplies to Israel stop. Where is the power of leaders if they take no action to stop this carnage in Gaza? Peta Colebatch, Hawthorn Blame not so simple Regarding Sean Kelly, the Geneva Conventions allow the blocking of aid if the enemy is stealing or using it. Kelly cites a New York Times story denying Hamas is doing so, but a Washington Post report set out in detail, citing many witnesses including Gazans, how Hamas is in financial crisis because Israel has stopped it taxing aid, or stealing and selling it. Kelly writes about famine starting within months of the war beginning, but those warnings were retracted by the Famine Early Warning System, a US-funded monitoring group. The UN is also culpable. After ending its nine-week blockade in May, after having allowed enough aid into Gaza to last for some months, Israel not only facilitated the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has distributed around 95 million meals, but also resumed UN access. However, there were recently 900 truckloads of aid inside Gaza checkpoints the UN hadn't collected. As for the suggestion of recognising a Palestinian state, only Palestinian Authority intransigence has prevented such a state. Hamas would say recognition only happened because of the October 7 atrocities. Recognition would simply encourage further Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism. Jamie Hyams, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Statehood for Palestine The people of the world claiming statehood for Palestine are living in a world of delusion. There are so many questions that still need to be asked. Some of these are: What are the geographical boundaries that define this state called Palestine? Who are the citizens of Palestine and who makes the decisions as to who becomes a citizen? What are the institutions that govern this state called Palestine? Are Jews allowed to be citizens of this new state called Palestine? These are only a few of the questions that need to be considered. No leader nor a member of the lobby groups that are advocating for statehood have made proposals that define this state. It's disingenuous on all people wishing for a state called Palestine because it's a falsehood. The people who are most vulnerable and exploited are once again being led up a path of others making. Graham Haupt, Glen Waverley Revert to 1947 borders Yes, as several correspondents to this page have stated, there are other serious human massacres also occurring, right now, in Yemen, and in Sudan. The difference is that those wars are not openly supported by a vocal and prominent segment of Australians, or accepted by Australian governments. Injustice for the people of Gaza stings our collective conscience. Here, and around the world. The only fair and long-term solution is to formally recognise those 1947 UN borders and allow the two states to exist as equals — with equal rights to exist, and also equal rights to have the military capability to defend themselves. Geoffrey McNaughton, Glen Huntly
