Australians start voting in general elections as pope’s death overshadows campaigning

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Updated 22 April 2025
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Australians start voting in general elections as pope’s death overshadows campaigning

Australians start voting in general elections as pope’s death overshadows campaigning
  • Polling stations opened to voters who, for a variety of reasons, will be unable to vote on May 3
  • Around half the votes are expected to be cast before the election date

MELBOURNE: Australians began voting Tuesday at general elections as the death of Pope Francis overshadowed campaigning.
Polling stations opened to voters who, for a variety of reasons, will be unable to vote on May 3. Around half the votes are expected to be cast before the election date.
Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton canceled campaign events planned for Tuesday out of respect for the late pontiff.
Flags were flown at half staff from government buildings across the country, where a 2021 census found 20 percent of the population were Catholics.
Albanese was raised as a Catholic but chose to be sworn in as prime minister when elected in 2022 by making a secular affirmation rather than by taking an oath on a Bible.
Albanese, who has described himself as a “flawed Catholic,” attended a Mass in honor of the pope in Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Tuesday morning.
“I try not to talk about my faith in public,” Albanese said.
“At times like this, I think what people do is they draw on who they are and certainly my Catholicism is just a part of me,” he added.
Albanese and Dutton, who leads the conservative Liberal Party, will meet in Sydney later Tuesday for the third televised leaders’ debate of the campaign.
A fourth debate is planned Sunday.
Dutton, who was raised by a Catholic father and Protestant mother and attended an Anglican school, attended a Mass on Tuesday afternoon at Sydney’s St. Mary’s Cathedral.
“I don’t think it’s a day for overt politicking at all. I think that the day is best spent reflecting,” Dutton said.
“I don’t think there’s a place for the body blows of politics today. I think it’s a very different day from that,” Dutton added.
Albanese’s center-left Labour Party is seeking a second three-year term.
The government held a narrow majority of 78 seats out of 151 in the House of Representatives, where parties form administrations during their first term.
The lower chamber will shrink to 150 seats after the election due to redistributions.
The major parties are both predicting a close election result.


Malaysia trade ministry probing reports of Chinese firm’s use of Nvidia AI chips

Malaysia trade ministry probing reports of Chinese firm’s use of Nvidia AI chips
Updated 4 sec ago
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Malaysia trade ministry probing reports of Chinese firm’s use of Nvidia AI chips

Malaysia trade ministry probing reports of Chinese firm’s use of Nvidia AI chips
  • WSJ earlier reported that a Chinese group is seeking to build AI models in Malaysian data centers containing servers using Nvidia chips

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s trade ministry is verifying media reports that a Chinese company in the country is using servers equipped with Nvidia and artificial intelligence chips for large language models training, it said on Wednesday.
The ministry “is still in the process of verifying the matter with relevant agencies if any domestic law or regulation has been breached,” it said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Chinese engineers had flown into Malaysia in early March carrying suitcases filled with hard drives.
It said they sought to build AI models in Malaysian data centers containing servers using Nvidia chips.
The Biden administration had put in place curbs on the export of sophisticated AI chips. Malaysia was in a second tier of countries subject to restrictions, with caps on the number of chips that it could receive.
The Trump administration has since scrapped the curbs, but it has issued guidance reminding US companies that if they have knowledge that an AI chip used in Chinese AI model training will be used for a weapon of mass destruction then a license may be required.


Regime change in Tehran? Putin says Iran is consolidating around its leaders

Regime change in Tehran? Putin says Iran is consolidating around its leaders
Updated 19 June 2025
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Regime change in Tehran? Putin says Iran is consolidating around its leaders

Regime change in Tehran? Putin says Iran is consolidating around its leaders
  • “We see that today in Iran, with all the complexity of the internal political processes taking place there...that there is a consolidation of society around the country’s political leadership,” Putin says

ST PETERSBURG, Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Iranian society was consolidating around the Islamic Republic’s leadership when asked by Reuters if he agreed with Israeli statements about possible regime change in Tehran.
Putin was speaking as Trump kept the world guessing whether the US would join Israel’s bombardment of Iranian nuclear and missile sites and as residents of Iran’s capital streamed out of the city on the sixth day of the air assault.
Putin said all sides should look for ways to end hostilities in a way that ensured both Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear power and Israel’s right to the unconditional security of the Jewish state.
Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks that regime change in Iran could be the result of Israel’s military attacks and US President Donald Trump’s demand for Iran’s unconditional surrender, Putin said that one should always look at whether or not the main aim was being achieved before starting something.
“We see that today in Iran, with all the complexity of the internal political processes taking place there...that there is a consolidation of society around the country’s political leadership,” Putin told senior news agency editors in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg.
Putin said he had personally been in touch with Trump and with Netanyahu, and that he had conveyed Moscow’s ideas on resolving the conflict.
He said Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facilities were still intact.
“These underground factories, they exist, nothing has happened to them,” Putin said, adding that all sides should seek a resolution that ensured the interests of both Iran and Israel.
“It seems to me that it would be right for everyone to look for ways to end hostilities and find ways for all parties to this conflict to come to an agreement with each other,” Putin said. “In my opinion, in general, such a solution can be found.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday
that Moscow was telling the United States not to strike Iran because it would radically destabilize the Middle East.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry also warned that Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclar facilities risked triggering a nuclear catastrophe.


US starts evacuating some diplomats from its embassy in Israel as Iran conflict intensifies

US starts evacuating some diplomats from its embassy in Israel as Iran conflict intensifies
Updated 19 June 2025
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US starts evacuating some diplomats from its embassy in Israel as Iran conflict intensifies

US starts evacuating some diplomats from its embassy in Israel as Iran conflict intensifies
  • Those warnings have increased as the conflict has intensified, with the embassy in Jerusalem authorizing the departure of nonessential staff and families over the weekend

WASHINGTON: The State Department has begun evacuating nonessential diplomats and their families from the US embassy in Israel as hostilities between Israel and Iran intensify and President Donald Trump warns of the possibility of getting directly involved in the conflict.
A government plane evacuated a number of diplomats and family members who had asked to leave the country Wednesday, two US officials said. That came shortly before US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on X that the embassy was making plans for evacuation flights and ships for private American citizens.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic movements.
“Given the ongoing situation and as part of the embassy’s authorized departure status, mission personnel have begun departing Israel through a variety of means,” the State Department said.
“Authorized departure” means that nonessential staff and the families of all personnel are eligible to leave at government expense.
There was no indication of how many diplomats and family members departed on the flight or how many may have left by land routes to Jordan or Egypt.
The evacuations, comments from the White House and shifting of American military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East have heightened the possibility of deepening US involvement in a conflict that threatens to spill into a wider regional war.
Trump has issued increasingly pointed warnings about the US joining Israel in striking at Iran’s nuclear program, saying Wednesday that he doesn’t want to carry out a US strike on the Islamic Republic but suggesting he is ready to act if it’s necessary.
The State Department also has steadily ramped up its warnings to American citizens in Israel and throughout the region, including in Iraq.
Last week, ahead of Israel’s first strikes on Iran, the department and the Pentagon put out notices announcing that the US embassy in Baghdad had ordered all nonessential personnel to leave and that the Defense Department had “authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East.
Those warnings have increased as the conflict has intensified, with the embassy in Jerusalem authorizing the departure of nonessential staff and families over the weekend and ordering remaining personnel to shelter in place until further notice.
The embassy has been closed since Monday and will remain shut through Friday.


Iran says committed to diplomacy but acts in ‘self-defense’ against Israel

Iran says committed to diplomacy but acts in ‘self-defense’ against Israel
Updated 19 June 2025
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Iran says committed to diplomacy but acts in ‘self-defense’ against Israel

Iran says committed to diplomacy but acts in ‘self-defense’ against Israel

TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday his country has remained committed to “diplomacy” but will continue to act in “self-defense” following Israel’s surprise attack nearly a week ago.
“Iran solely acts in self-defense. Even in the face of the most outrageous aggression against our people, Iran has so far only retaliated against the Israeli regime and not those who are aiding and abetting it,” said Araghchi in a post on X.
“With the exception of the illegitimate, genocidal and occupying Israeli regime, we remain committed to diplomacy,” he added.


Putin says NATO rearmament not a ‘threat’ to Russia

Putin says NATO rearmament not a ‘threat’ to Russia
Updated 55 min 46 sec ago
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Putin says NATO rearmament not a ‘threat’ to Russia

Putin says NATO rearmament not a ‘threat’ to Russia
  • Says Russia is "self-sufficient in terms of ensuring our own security,” and “constantly modernizing our ... defensive capabilities”
  • NATO is pushing members to increase their defense spending to counter the Russian threat

SAINT PETERSBURG: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that NATO’s push to ramp up defense spending was not a “threat” to Russia, as Moscow had all the weapons it needed to defend itself.
The military alliance is pushing members to increase their defense spending to five percent of GDP, under pressure from US President Donald Trump.
“We do not consider any rearmament by NATO to be a threat to the Russian Federation, because we are self-sufficient in terms of ensuring our own security,” Putin told reporters, including AFP, at a televised press conference in Saint Petersburg.
He added that Russia was “constantly modernizing our armed forces and defensive capabilities.”
Though he conceded higher spending by NATO would create some “specific” challenges for Russia, the Kremlin leader said it makes “no sense” for NATO members themselves.
“We will counter all threats that arise. There is no doubt about that,” he said.
Putin has cast his offensive in Ukraine as part of a wider conflict between Russia and NATO.
Kyiv is seeking security guarantees from NATO as part of any deal to end the fighting, more than three years after Russia ordered its full-scale military offensive.