Australia’s government, which will preside over the next UN climate summit, should gather the world’s 25 biggest greenhouse gasemitting countries and push them to draw up a roadmap to end the era of fossil fuels, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said. Only by “hard-nosed” confrontation with fossil fuel producers, and reducing their consumption in major economies, would the world be able to tackle the climate crisis, he said. Australia’s climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has been given the role of “president of negotiations”, even though…
Tag: Australia news
Inside Trump’s scramble to reduce US dependence on Chinese rare-earth metals
Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, returned from South Carolina last week brandishing a small piece of metal, proclaiming that it was the first rare-earth magnet made in the US in a quarter of a century. It was, he indicated to Fox Business, proof that the US is ending “China’s chokehold on our supply chain”. Thanks to the South Carolina company eVAC’s new rare-earth mineral processing center, Bessent added: “We’re finally becoming independent again.” Breaking China’s processing and manufacturing dominance in these materials, essential for some semiconductors, batteries and armaments,…
Asio accuses Chinese hackers of seeking access to Australia’s criticial infrastructure
Australia’s intelligence agency has accused “Chinese hackers” of seeking to gain access to critical infrastructure assets, including telecommunications networks. In a speech to a business forum in Melbourne, the director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, said the nation now faced a threat of “high-impact sabotage”. Burgess referenced the activities of two hacking units known as Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, which he said were “working for the Chinese government and their military”. He said the groups had successfully targeted the United States. “Salt Typhoon’s intent was…
Google to build new AI datacentre on tiny Australian Indian Ocean outpost after signing defence deal
Google plans to build a large AI datacentre on Australia’s remote Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island after signing a cloud deal with the Department of Defence earlier this year, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with officials. Plans for the datacentre on the tiny island located 350km south of Indonesia have not previously been reported, and many details, including its projected size, cost and potential uses, remain secret. However, military experts say such a facility would be a valuable asset on the island, which is increasingly seen…
‘China is watching’: Finland warns defeating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine key to stability in Indo-Pacific
Defeating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is critical to restraining China in the Indo-Pacific, Finland’s defence minister has said, warning Europe and democratic partners, including Australia, face a fight of global consequences. Antti Häkkänen praised Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on two Russian oil companies last week, calling the move a major sign of resolve by the US president against Vladimir Putin’s three-year long war. In an interview with Guardian Australia at the ministry of defence in Helsinki, Häkkänen said the West’s willingness to stay the course in opposing Russia’s…
Australia ‘increasingly alone’ in countering China’s influence in Pacific, aid report shows
Australia is “increasingly alone” in countering Beijing’s influence in the Pacific and remains the largest foreign aid donor to the region as the US and other western partners cut funding, a new report shows. The 2025 Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map, released late on Sunday, tracks official development finance (ODF) from 2008 to 2023. It finds ODF to the Pacific fell by 16% in 2023 to US$3.6bn, marking a second consecutive year of record decline in development support. Australia makes up 43% of official development finance in the region, four…
The world dropped the ball on critical minerals and China pounced. Is it too late for Australia and the US to close the gap?
Almost eight years to the day after the last Holden rolled off an Adelaide factory assembly line, Anthony Albanese announced a $13bn deal with Donald Trump to help champion a domestic rare-earth industry. Announcing the deal this week in Washington, the prime minister called it “a really significant day” that would take the relationship between the two countries “to the next level”. “We’re just getting started,” Albanese said. The US president claimed “in about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths, that you won’t…
Albanese’s critical minerals deal isn’t good economics – but in Trump and Xi’s new world, bargaining chips matter
Anthony Albanese has struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Donald Trump to develop critical minerals projects in Australia that will never be commercially viable. When it’s laid out like that, it very much sounds like our prime minister fell victim to the president’s “art of the deal”. But we are in a new world where the national value of our critical minerals extends beyond economics, experts say. “This is a really significant deal, and I’m surprised how good it is,” says Hayley Channer, the director of the economic security program…
Australia and the US have signed a critical minerals deal to take on China’s monopoly. Here’s what you need to know
1. Albanese named two ‘priority projects’ in Australia The Australian prime minister specifically referred to two “priority projects”, one by Alcoa and the other by Arufura Rare Earths, that will get an injection of capital from the government as part of a broader list. The first is a proposed gallium plant in Western Australia, to be co-located at one of Alcoa’s alumina refineries. Gallium is a strategic mineral vital for modern technologies like military equipment – including in advanced electronic warfare systems such as missile guidance technology and radar. The…
What could a Trump deal on critical minerals mean for Australia – and could MAGA be a sticking point?
Australia’s rich deposits of minerals used for green energy technologies and military hardware are increasingly prized, especially because of rising anxiety about China’s stranglehold on the global supply chain. That anxiety escalated after Beijing imposed new restrictions on rare earths exports, prompting a furious rebuke from Donald Trump and a warning from his treasury secretary that western allies would need to “decouple” from China if it proved an unreliable supplier. The timing of the latest US-China trade conflict could be good for Anthony Albanese, who will arrive at next week’s…