Post
This is the second of three posts today. Post 1 covered the war. Post 3 covers Australia. Post 2 covers the wider world: Belfast on its third night and the Australian government's response to it; the AUKMIN diplomatic week and what was signed alongside the joint statement; Ukraine pushing the war into Russia; US domestic politics around the Iran war; the China and alliances picture; Cuba as the second US energy blockade running in parallel; the World Cup and the border-control instinct; Ebola, the Philippines, and the platforms. Sources at the end. . [Belfast on the third night - water cannon, 27 burned out of their homes, Glasgow and Dublin spread] Belfast and Newtownabbey saw a third consecutive night of disorder Tuesday into Wednesday, with the worst of it at the Sandyknowes roundabout in Glengormley north-west of the city. Crowds of 200 to 300 at peak; petrol bombs at police; a Department for Infrastructure vehicle and bins set alight; rioters used sledgehammers to break up sidewalks for projectiles and breached the fence of the Sandyknowes Wastewater Pumping Station; one group appeared to try to reach a hotel housing asylum seekers. Police deployed water cannon. The crowd dispersed around 11:30pm. Cabinet Office minister Baroness Anderson told the House of Lords that 27 people were made homeless on Tuesday night "because people went door-to-door to try and target foreign nationals to burn them out of their homes." A two-month-old baby was among those rescued by firefighters. The Reverend Brian Anderson, a Methodist minister in east Belfast: "What I saw was a community out of control... 40 years later, people just living, wanting to contribute to our society... because they were different, being burnt out of their houses... It was a chilling echo to the past." PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said 200 more officers were on the streets Wednesday; Police Scotland (including dog teams) provided public order assistance. Boutcher: "These weren't just families from ethnic minority communities, these were families from across communities that were caught up in this vile behavior." Hilary Benn (Northern Ireland Secretary): "If you are targeting people on the basis of the colour of their skin how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery, there's no question about it at all." 16 arrests over the second night; 12 police officers injured. The disorder spread to Scotland: five people injured in Glasgow on Tuesday night, including two police officers. Several hundred people took part in an anti-immigration rally in Dublin. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sinn Féin's Róis-Máire Donnelly, received death threats. The man charged. Hadi Alodid, 30, a Sudanese national, appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court by video link, charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie and with possessing a knife and threatening to kill an NHS radiographer treating him for a hand injury. A detective told the court Alodid blinded Ogilvie in the left eye in the attack; the BBC also reported damage to his right eye, and injuries to his neck and back. Alodid refused legal representation through an Arabic interpreter and did not enter a plea. Remanded to 8 July. PSNI Chief Constable Boutcher: Alodid travelled from Sudan to Paris, then flew to Dublin, then took a bus to Belfast on 10 February 2023, the day he claimed asylum. He was on leave to remain in the UK until 2028, granted refugee status in 2023. "There is no trace of this suspect on any of our national security databases and he was not known to the Police Service of Northern Ireland." The remanding magistrate told the court anyone taking part in further disorder "should expect to go to prison." The victim's family asked the public not to use the attack. Their statement, released via the PSNI: "completely devastated... peaceful protest is only ever the way forward... We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including from within our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work. We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility; do not do this in the name of our loved one as we do not share the same values." They corrected social media reports that had described Ogilvie as in serious condition; he is in stable condition. The street view, from the BBC's reporting in east and north Belfast. Jamie Corrie, whose home of 13 years on Lendrick Street was destroyed when fire from a neighbour's car spread: "See standing there watching your house get burnt... that's a feeling I'll never get over." He had sympathy with the anger: "It's people that's angry, lashing out, you understand why. I mean one of our own people's basically been butchered in the middle of the street." Corrie is one of "their own"; the riots are not targeted exclusively at migrants. Yura, 19, from Ukraine, fled through a back door with her dog when fire spread to her front door; she broke into a neighbour's house to rescue a trapped dog. Anselme Shima, 13 years in east Belfast: "I didn't know what I can do to protect my children." He could not take his son to school. Biji Jose, of the Northern Ireland Indian Nurses Forum, 23 years in NI and a senior nurse: junior colleagues had "very anxious faces and too much worry about their families, children, future jobs. People sometimes think about we are here to come to take their job. No, it is not the way. We are filling the workforce shortage and easing the waiting lists." An Indian man, 25 years in the UK and the last four in NI: "We're leaving right now... It was horrible. It was like a war zone. Everything was burning. No one was coming out, people were so scared." Pastor Jack McKee, Crumlin Road: "They're good Christian people and they're getting put out just because they're black." Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue: 256 calls between 7pm and midnight Tuesday; 62 incidents attended. The data behind the disorder. PSNI statistics for the year to March 2026 record 2,367 race incidents and 1,507 race crimes, the highest since records began in 2004/05; in the same period, just 71 sectarian incidents. Northern Ireland's 2021 census recorded the population as 97 per cent white. Veteran journalist Malachi O'Doherty noted that loyalist paramilitary groups in Ballymena last year claimed no involvement but had "the authority to order young men onto the street to throw petrol bombs." The amplification machine. Jonathan Hall KC, the UK government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said it was "absolutely legitimate" to discuss immigration in a national security frame after the attack, citing interest in whether "foreign nationality, particularly recent migrants, is becoming more relevant to the overall national security picture" and people "willing to act as proxies or carry out attacks on behalf of Iran." Hall also worried about circulation of graphic footage: "As someone who has met young terrorists, and come to understand the role that images of gore and real-life horror play in revving people up for violence... I think this is a serious mistake." He noted no European leader has publicly responded to Trump's November 2025 National Security Strategy, which accused European migration policies of "transforming the continent and creating strife." The University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, on the data underneath the politics: in 2024 the foreign national share of convictions and prison populations in England and Wales was about the same as the foreign national share of the wider population (around 13 per cent); conviction rates vary by nationality, with Afghans and Iraqis over-represented, driven by socioeconomic status, age and sex as much as nationality. Musk's X is the platform of choice for the agitation, and X is in an Ofcom compliance window: per the Guardian's live blog, X "won't need to remove posts inciting violence for at least two months." Liz Kendall (Cabinet Office) said the government will legislate to cut the time given to social media companies to remove illegal material. Musk rejected claims he is to blame for inciting disorder. UK Home Office minister Dan Jarvis cited 67,000 deportations and removals under the current government; shadow home secretary Chris Philp called for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to allow deportations on arrival. The Common Travel Area question that surfaced (the passport-free arrangement dating to 1922) sits at a politically combustible intersection: Westminster MP Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice) blamed "the government's failure to have any controls" on the Irish border; DUP leader Gavin Robinson called the open border to the Republic "porous." Benn dismissed the framing: getting rid of the Common Travel Area is not a solution to illegal migration, and the fast-track asylum process the disorder's organisers are agitating against was introduced by the previous Conservative government and is no longer in place. Net migration is down 82 per cent from its peak. The Australian ministerial response was direct on the violence and held the position on the politics. Wong on Sunrise, asked what is being done to prevent something like Belfast happening in Australia: "first, I would make the point that all leaders need to stand against violence. Whatever our differences of view, whatever policy discussion, whatever the argument we have about what should or shouldn't happen, violence is never acceptable. And all political leaders of all parties should always put that view." On migration: "net migration has dropped 45 per cent from its peak... permanent migration number has remained steady for a long period of time. What we do need to do is ensure that we continue to invest in housing, because that is one of the areas where the issues of migration really most come to the fore." Wong to RN Breakfast on whether a Belfast-style incident could happen in Australia: "Look, I first would say our thoughts are with the victim and their family. Second, I would say there's no place in any society for political violence. There's no place in Australian democracy or in any democracy." Labor Senator Raff Ciccone the day before: described the images as "horrific" and said "there is a very real need for calm, for national unity, particularly when there are worldwide events occurring... social cohesion." On causes: "We've got to get down and tackle the root causes of why people decide that it's okay to conduct these horrific attacks... It's not just a unique problem in Australia or in Northern Ireland." . [AUKMIN in London - what was signed, and how the alliance language read in the room] Wong and Marles met Cooper and Healey at Lancaster House on 10 June for the annual AUKMIN; Wong, separately, had met counterparts in Germany (with Marles in a joint Defence and Foreign Ministers meeting) and France in the days before. The joint statement registered "deep concerns" about third-country support for Russia's war in Ukraine and named China by name; called on Beijing to "prevent its companies from supplying dual-use components that sustain Russia's defence industrial base" and to use its UNSC seat "to help bring an end to the war." On hybrid threats, the statement specifically named "cyber activities undertaken by China-based information security companies, and recent attempts by Russia to interfere in democratic elections through its proxy organisations, the Social Design Agency and ANO Dialog"; the Russian proxies named on the record. The hard items signed alongside the statement. A Joint Statement of Intent on critical minerals "for Defence"; the first ever critical minerals deal between the two countries' defence departments specifically. UK Defence Secretary Healey named the minerals at the podium: antimony and gallium, "essential as a foundation for modern defence and military capability." (More on the Australian critical-minerals stack in Post 3.) A Government-to-Government Project Arrangement on Active Electronically Scanned Array radar technology, opening the door to UK testing, joint development and potential co-production of Canberra-based CEA Technologies' radar; CEA's first export was to the US. Marles: "the best phased array radar that exists in the world today." The first AUKUS Pillar II Signature Project: payloads and enabling systems for AUKUS partners' uncrewed undersea vehicles, with "firm timelines" and capability "into the hands of the war fighter next year." Healey's blunter version at the press conference: "we will produce together sensors and weapons for our undersea drones that can be used by all three nations." Reaffirmation of the AUKUS Pillar I timeline: Submarine Rotational Force-West established at HMAS Stirling in 2027; HMS Anson completed the first UK nuclear-powered submarine maintenance period in Australia earlier this year; first steel cut on the first SSN-AUKUS in the UK next year. (The credibility argument and the second-hand-Virginia question are in Post 3.) The statement also surfaced a finding the series has been tracking via the Pacific Beat reporting on Solomon Islands ratification: the Pacific dimension of the fuel crisis is now in the AUKMIN record. "In response to the serious impact on Pacific energy supplies due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, Ministers welcomed Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' commitment to act decisively and collectively to establish a member-led regional response." The form that response takes is not in the statement; the recognition is. Two further joint statements landed in the same 24 hours. A joint UK-Australia statement on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (Wong and Cooper, 11 June) classified TFGBV as "a national security threat... increasingly linked to the exploitation of online spaces to spread harmful norms, coordinate abuse, and undermine democratic institutions and women's social, political and economic participation." Practical actions: piloting the Preliminary Model National Framework for Non-Consensual Intimate Images, addressing generative-AI-facilitated NCII abuse, work through the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse. The UK, Australia and Canada launched a Middle East peace fund (£1m each, $4m total) focused on grassroots youth, civil society and women's projects, with the stated aim of "cracking down on" violent Israeli settlers and supporting Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan. Announced ahead of an Australia-Britain-Canada trilateral on social media and online safety in London on Friday, with Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand. And the question that has been on the table since 28 February finally got an answer on the record. A journalist at the AUKMIN press conference asked, given the US launched the war without telling allies, whether it wasn't naïve not to be planning for situations Australia might need to face "without Trump Administration." Wong: "we cannot just rely on one partner, we have to build more partnerships, and we have to reimagine and modernise the partnerships with traditional powers." Cooper's version: "what the US has made clear is that Europe needs to play a stronger role within NATO. Actually, we agree with that." . [West Bank - the Amnesty finding, and what the statement said] Amnesty International's 10 June report concluded that the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank is "state-sanctioned, state-driven and state-implemented" and acts to "accelerate the Israeli government's annexation agenda and settlement expansion through war crimes and crimes against humanity." It documented at least 117 West Bank villages subject to complete or partial displacement due to settler attacks, and 5,910 people displaced from January 2023 to December 2025; most of the affected villages are in Area C (60 per cent of the West Bank, under full Israeli military and administrative control). In April, Israel's Security Cabinet approved 34 illegal settlements in a single session; the largest number approved at once and bringing the total approved since the Netanyahu government came to power in late 2022 to 103. Amnesty's UK director Kristyan Benedict, on the 9 June six-country settler sanctions (UK, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, Norway, covered in last week's post): "leaves the architects untouched." Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian National Initiative: the measures "reflect a need to manage public anger rather than a genuine shift in state policy." The AUKMIN statement registered the line directly: "called on Israel to cease its ongoing expansion of illegal settlements and expressed their strong opposition to plans to advance settlement activity in the E1 area"; the explicit E1 reference now in the bilateral text. . [Ukraine - the war pushed into Russia, three refineries down in the Samara hub, Mariupol's port blacked out] Ukraine spent the week pushing the war back across the border. Long-range FP-5 Flamingo missiles (range 900km+, designation new to the public record) struck a military components factory in Cheboksary in Chuvashiya, well over 900km from the front. On the same overnight operation Ukraine hit the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara, suspending both primary crude distillation units; Rosneft halted processing there. The Samara hub's three-refinery pattern is now complete: Syzran halted on 21 May, Novokuibyshevsk suspended on 18 April and operating at reduced capacity, Kuibyshev now down. Zelenskyy: "Our impact reaches Russia's border regions as well. The enemy feels it, and we will continue to expand it." Mariupol went dark. Ukrainian forces struck the Russian-occupied port and "significantly limited" its logistics capacity; the 1st Azov Corps cited electrical substations, radar equipment, repair infrastructure, the control tower, and fuel and lubricant storage tanks, plus damage to a sanctioned cargo vessel. The Chonhar bridge, one of two over-water crossings into Crimea, was struck on 7 and 9 June; the Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo confirmed the two hits. And the war is pressing on Russian civilian supply too. The Governor of Sevastopol announced plans to ration petrol via coupons were delayed because oil tanker trucks "were unable to come to the city tonight." Existing coupons were cancelled and new ones to be issued Thursday; priority for refuelling would go to public transport, utilities, emergency and government vehicles. "There is no point in lining up at gas stations tomorrow." A fire broke out near the Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar from falling drone debris. The diplomatic backdrop, per Bloomberg via Ukrainska Pravda: the UK, France and Germany plan to use next week's G7 summit to press Trump to back a European proposal to restart Russia-Ukraine negotiations with European participation, on the basis of an immediate ceasefire along the current front line plus credible security guarantees including a multinational force. The framing in the reporting is blunt: the E3 see an opening because "US-led talks have reached a deadlock while Washington focuses on the conflict with Iran." Macron has invited Zelenskyy to the G7. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan are also attending. Putin signed a law enabling Russia to confiscate property abroad belonging to Russians who commit offences against Russian Federation interests; it enters force 1 September. The relevant offences include "foreign agent" activity, distributing "extremist materials," "discrediting" the Russian military, "publicly equating actions of USSR and Nazi Germany," insulting the head of state, and calling for sanctions on Russia. Russia is also reorganising in Syria. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the issue of Russia's military presence in Syria "is also being discussed, including in the context of a possible reformatting of the functionality of Russian military facilities." Tartous is Russia's only Mediterranean repair and resupply naval hub; Hmeimim is a major staging post for African operations. . [US domestic - FISA standoff, $350 billion, and a defence industry meeting Trump is angry about] The Iran war is hitting US domestic politics in three places at once. FISA Section 702 expires Friday; Senate Democrats have refused to renew the warrantless surveillance law unless Trump backs off Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence. Senator Andy Kim: "With Pulte still in there? I'm not for that." Chris Murphy: "We should not reauthorize FISA" until Pulte is removed. Mark Warner: "Pulte could be Trump's most dangerous appointee yet"; Murphy added Pulte "combed through private mortgage records of anybody that has ever criticized Donald Trump." The Section 702 thread from last week's Post 2 has its political confrontation now. Trump is demanding a third reconciliation bill ("Recon 3.0," styled "THE SAVE AMERICA ACT") providing $350 billion in additional Pentagon funding, the path he sees to "the full $1.5 TRILLION DOLLAR Military Budget." House Republicans introduced a 2027 defence funding bill of $1,072,210,299,000 (a $234 billion increase). Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has previously ruled that voting-measure provisions cannot ride on a reconciliation bill; Trump called for her to be fired. Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell have already rejected the third reconciliation bill. And the meeting Trump is angry about. Roughly seven defence company leaders are preparing to meet him at the White House this week; Trump is reportedly angry and frustrated with aides over thinning stockpiles despite public boasts of "virtually unlimited supply." AP: contractors will need at least three years to replenish three key weapons systems. The "factory queue" structural reading the series banked from Conroy on 8 June has its US analogue now: the Iran war has burned through American missile and interceptor stocks at a rate that has alarmed defence officials, who are dealing with the supply problem and Australian production demand at the same time. Florida's Supreme Court (6-1) approved new Republican congressional districts for November's midterms; Republicans hold 20 of Florida's 28 House seats and the new districts could improve their chances on four more. . [China and alliances - the G2 framing, the Taiwan freeze, and Hegseth's no-Taiwan first] The picture from Asian capitals has changed since Trump's Beijing summit with Xi last month. The NYT's Edward Wong: both governments rolled out a new diplomatic phrase, "constructive strategic stability," signalling "looking to work together or limit hostilities, notably on trade and Taiwan." Trump told Fox News the US and China are forming "a G2 of equal superpowers." A $14 billion Taiwan arms package is now "under review" per Rubio, and the White House "ordered the State Department not to move forward with a large package of weapons for Taiwan" before the Beijing summit. Hegseth, at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, said there was "rightful alarm" in Asia about China's military buildup but "we respect their ambitions"; he did not mention Taiwan, the first US defence secretary in more than a decade not to mention it at the forum. The alliance fallout is regional. Shivshankar Menon, former Indian foreign secretary: "It seems the president now only sees China as an economic competitor and is trying to come to a modus vivendi with China... doesn't seem like this US administration is interested in the broader geostrategic issues in Asia." Milan Vaishnav, Carnegie Endowment: "The strategic convergence on China was the glue that held US-India policy together. Now there's an absence of that." Trump has also approved Nvidia to sell powerful chips to Chinese companies. US Indo-Pacific Command is creating a new logistics and refuelling hub on Palau; Exercise Balikatan in the Philippines involved 17,000 troops from seven countries with Japanese combat troops active in the Philippines for the first time since WWII, and the Typhon missile system tested. Xi-Kim, the longer view. Bob Carlin, a 50-year North Korea analyst, told CBS that Kim has "completely changed the center of the strategic policy of North Korea" since 2023; no longer engagement with the US, now confrontation. The Russia factor matters: in exchange for weapons and thousands of troops, Russia has given the DPRK financial assistance and recognised it as a nuclear weapons state; Kim Yo Jong called DPRK nuclear status "irreversible" on the eve of Xi's arrival. The marker to watch is the 65th anniversary of the China-DPRK defence treaty next month; if China announces sales of air defence systems or joint naval exercises, the relationship has materially deepened. . [Cuba - the second US energy blockade running in parallel] The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Cuban entities including President Miguel Díaz-Canel, following the formal declaration of a national emergency that imposes tariffs on any country supplying oil to the island. Cuba's grid went offline for 16 hours in March; Energy Ministry officials linked the outage to the US oil blockade. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said the measures are "incompatible with basic principles of international human rights law"; the same legal frame he has applied to Iran's water reservoirs and is now applying to Cuba's energy supply. "Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines." Hegseth at Guantanamo Bay warned Cuba could "invite confrontation" if it sought to procure weapons that could reach Guantanamo or the US homeland: "They would be inviting the kind of confrontation not only do they not want but they could not stand." Hegseth used the "Department of War" framing again. The pressure stack: Trump formally charged former Cuban President Raul Castro on 20 May with four counts of murder over the 1996 downing of civilian aircraft; CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana in May; the USS Nimitz deployed to the Caribbean in May. Hegseth on Venezuela, separately: "There's some big news coming out of Venezuela very soon on that subject, because now we've got a partner there in Venezuela willing to work with US." Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said any military action would lead to a "bloodbath." . [The World Cup and the border-control instinct] The 2026 World Cup opens Thursday (Mexico v South Africa at the Estadio Azteca, 5am AEST Friday); 48 teams, 104 matches, 39 days, three host countries. Trump gave FIFA's Gianni Infantino its inaugural "Peace Prize" and the US launched the second wave of strikes on Iran on the eve of the tournament. Omar Abdulkadir Artan, Africa's 2025 referee of the year and on track to be the first Somali referee at a World Cup finals, was denied entry to the US at Miami International. A Trump administration source cited "derogatory information, including association with suspected members of terror organisations." Artan was questioned 11 hours about al-Shabaab, then put on a flight to Istanbul; he arrived in Mogadishu to a hero's welcome, thousands at a stadium, and a meeting with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Artan: "I promise you that I'll be officiating you in the next World Cup." Iraq's team photographer was turned back at Chicago O'Hare; striker Aymen Hussein was held and questioned for nearly seven hours before being permitted to enter. Iran's team relocated its training base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico. Delegation members were denied US visas. Per Homeland Security, the team can enter the US only the day before each match. Their ticket allocation was withdrawn days before the tournament, leaving supporters who had already made travel plans unable to attend. Iran's Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali warned FIFA that if "unofficial flags are brought or slogans against the national team are chanted in the stadiums where Iran plays in the World Cup, the team manager will definitely be responsible for stopping the match." Iran plays Egypt in Seattle on 26 June, a match Seattle organisers had designated a Pride Match. . [Ebola - WHO declares an emergency, and three labs run out of reagents] The WHO has formally declared the DRC Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency. Reuters' Wednesday total: 635 confirmed cases and 127 deaths across three eastern provinces (Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu); 37 new cases and 12 deaths in the previous 24 hours, all in Ituri. The outbreak has reached 26 health zones, with 18 in Ituri accounting for 94 per cent of confirmed cases. Three DRC laboratories (Bukavu and Lwiro in South Kivu, Goma in North Kivu) have run out of supplies to test for Ebola and are awaiting reagents. The testing kits in country were designed for the Zaire Ebola virus, not the rarer Bundibugyo strain currently spreading; that delayed diagnosis at the outset. Contact tracing is at 64 per cent, against a usual 80-90 per cent. WHO's incident manager Marie Roseline Belizaire: "There is no preparedness in the region where we are. We are starting a response from scratch to put everything in place... the average score of all the health infrastructure in Ituri province has been low, less than 30 per cent." Professor Jean-Jacque Muyembe Tamfum, co-discoverer of Ebola in 1976: "The big challenge on the ground is to restore the trust of the communities. The second is the security situation in the field, because we have a lot of armed groups working in this region." . [Philippines - the toll rises, and a key road reopens] The Sarangani earthquake's toll continues to climb: at least 47 dead, 688 injured, 31 missing; 45,000+ displaced. President Marcos Jr. visited General Santos on Wednesday, inspected damaged hospitals and schools, and ordered 100 million pesos ($1.6m) for city hall repair and 50,000 pesos ($820) per victim family. Glan, where a landslide buried houses, took 20 dead, the highest toll of any affected municipality. Mayor Victor James Yap: 10 of 31 villages remain inaccessible due to landslides; he pleaded for air force helicopters to deliver food: "people there are already very hungry." A key access road reopened Thursday allowing fuel delivery. . [Platforms - Canada follows Australia, and what's heading to trial in the US] Canada's Culture Minister Marc Miller introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which would ban social media for children under 16. The BBC describes it as mirroring Australia's law (passed in December 2025, the world's first) but with a carve-out: tech firms can sidestep the ban if they demonstrate policies to minimise harm to minors. Penalties reach C$10 million or three per cent of global revenue. The bill comes in the wake of the February 2026 mass school shooting in British Columbia, in which the 18-year-old suspect had used ChatGPT to discuss gun violence in the months before the attack. The UK is expected to announce a similar ban next week; Greece's under-15 ban takes effect in January. Marles, asked at AUKMIN whether UK ministers should "copy" Australia's social media ban: "we feel really confident about the position that we've taken. It's been received really well in Australia and we think it is going to make a major difference, as I say, in terms of enabling kids to have their childhood, but also addressing a whole lot of adolescent mental health conditions, which, since the advent of social media, we've really seen take off." The legal pressure on the platforms is also building in California. The Social Media Adolescent Addiction MDL (more than 1,000 school districts accusing Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok of intentional addictive design harming children) is set for jury trial in February. People of the State of California v. Meta, a 29-state COPPA case demanding Meta better prevent under-13 access, is set for trial in August. Andrew Forrest's lawsuit against Meta over scam ads using his name and likeness asks the court to find Section 230 does not protect the company; the BBC's Kali Hays: a Forrest win "could upend decades of defences by online platforms." . [Also moving] Jingye Steel started a formal process under the UK-China bilateral investment treaty seeking more than £1 billion in compensation over the UK government's Scunthorpe nationalisation; the UK plans to lower steel import tariffs and is seeking new private owners with large subsidies for electric arc furnaces. Saudi crude supply to China is expected to remain at record lows in July as elevated prices weigh on demand. AirAsia X postponed its planned Kuala Lumpur-Bahrain-London Gatwick route until at least August due to the regional conflict. . [Sources] BBC (McCauley and Doyle Belfast human cost; O'Connor Belfast water cannon; Wong and Sandford Hall and CTA; Kipling Alodid court; Yousif Canada bill; Hays platforms) · Reuters (Russell and Ferguson Belfast colour; Peleschuk Mariupol/Chonhar; Diakonov and Ukrinform Kuibyshev; Tunik-Fryz Russia asset law; Reuters/Ukrainska Pravda E3 G7 push; Erickson and Heavey US domestic; Stewart Cuba; Haji Iran World Cup) · AP (Morrison and Lawless Belfast; Faruk and Imray Artan; Calupitan and Sepe Philippines) · Guardian (UK politics live blog Saunokonoko, Badshah, Sparrow) · NYT (Wong G2/Taiwan, via West Australian) · CBS News (Coren and Reals Xi-Kim) · ABC News (Miller Belfast analysis; ABC Sport Artan) · Al Jazeera (Al Jazeera Staff Lebanon UN team; Iran-Syria; Cuba) · Amnesty International report via Al Jazeera staff (West Bank, 10 June 2026) · AUKMIN Joint Statement and Press Conference transcripts, London, 10-11 June 2026 · Joint statement on Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (Wong and Cooper, 11 June 2026) · Al Jazeera (UK-Australia-Canada peace fund) · Wong interview transcripts: Sunrise, RN Breakfast, ABC News Breakfast, 11 June 2026 · NCA NewsWire (Schmidt, Wong/Ciccone Belfast response)
This signal has not been scored yet.