This is an op-ed by Jennifer Parker, a defence and national security expert associate at the ANU’s National Security College. She has served for more than 20 years as a warfare officer in the Royal Australian Navy.

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A major flaw in Australia’s Taiwan debate is the simplistic “will we or won’t we intervene?” framing, which assumes any conflict would be confined to Taiwan. In reality, an invasion would be far more complex. The Taiwan Strait’s geography, weather and Taiwan’s defences already make it a formidable task. That challenge is amplified by expected US and Japanese intervention from bases in Japan and the Philippines, forces China would try to neutralise pre-emptively.

Any invasion would almost certainly immediately trigger a broader regional conflict involving one of Australia’s key allies and at least two of its closest security partners. In a region-wide conflict, Australia’s national security interests would be jeopardised, and it would have little choice but to respond. Its key role would be defending Australia and its sea lines of communication.

[...]

Staying on the sidelines would be inconsistent with our national interests. Australia’s security, including maritime trade, would be directly threatened. Not to mention Australia’s obligations under the 1951 ANZUS Treaty.

It would also seriously damage Australia’s credibility with key security partners and regional neighbours. Moreover, if China resorts to force against Taiwan, it is unlikely to stop there. Beijing is also engaged in maritime and territorial disputes with South-East Asian states and South Korea and Japan. A successful invasion would embolden further aggression.

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would not be an isolated act – it would trigger a regional conflict with direct consequences for Australia’s security. An invasion may not be imminent or inevitable, but China’s clear preparations demand serious attention. Australia must invest in its own defence – not because war is certain, but because deterrence depends on capability. And if deterrence fails, we must be ready to defend our vital interests.

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As China prepares to invade Taiwan, a reality check: sitting on the sidelines won’t help us

Australia must prepare. China attacking Taiwan is not inevitable, but if it happens, it will become a wide-ranging Indo-Pacific conflict.

^{Jennifer Parker (The Sydney Morning Herald)}

In recent weeks, the US State Department implemented a policy requiring all university, technical training, or exchange program visa applicants to disclose their social media handles used over the past five years. The policy also requires these applicants to set their profiles to public.

This move is an example of governments treating a person’s digital persona as their political identity. In doing so, they risk punishing lawful expression, targeting minority voices, and redefining who gets to cross borders based on how they behave online.

Anyone seeking one of these visas will have their social media searched for “indications of hostility” towards the citizens, culture or founding principles of the United States. This enhanced vetting is supposed to ensure the US does not admit anyone who may be deemed a threat.

However, this policy changes how a person’s online presence is evaluated in visa applications and raises many ethical concerns. These include concerns around privacy, freedom of expression, and the politicisation of digital identities.

New US visa rules will force foreign students to unlock social media profiles

Diplomats to look for ‘indications of hostility towards citizens, culture or founding principles of United States’

^{Andrew Roth (The Guardian)}

Mobile money allows people without banks to securely transfer funds via text message, and its adoption is growing rapidly.

By the end of today, you'll probably have used your bank account — maybe to buy groceries, pay rent, or send money to a friend. Even better, to receive your salary. It's something many of us take for granted.

However, for more than a billion people globally, transactions only happen with cash. That means carrying around physical notes and coins, traveling long distances just to send or receive money, and facing the constant risk of losing it or having it stolen. The absence of formal banking services adds yet another hurdle for people trying to escape poverty.

But in recent years, “mobile money” has transformed how many people access financial services. Mobile money differs from traditional bank accounts; you don’t need a physical bank branch or even an Internet connection. Instead, you use text messages for services like deposits, transfers, and payments via a mobile phone. In this sense, it’s not the same as standard Internet banking, which many of us now use for most transactions.

Many people might be unfamiliar with how mobile money works, so let me briefly explain. You dial a short code for the mobile money provider, choose “send money”, and enter the recipient’s phone number (which serves as their account number). Next, type the amount and your secure PIN. That’s it — both the sender and recipient get an SMS confirmation within seconds. If you need to add funds to your mobile money account or retrieve your PIN, you can visit a local mobile money agent, often found in small shops or kiosks, which can be easier to reach than traditional banks.

There are now more than half a billion mobile money accounts in the world, mostly in Africa — here's why this matters

^{Simon van Teutem (Our World in Data)}

Israeli warplanes on Sunday night launched at least 20 airstrikes on Hodeidah in western Yemen.

The Yemeni Armed Forces said in a statement that the Air Force confronted the Israeli aggression on Yemen.

“Gaza is not alone and Yemen will not remain silent in the face of oppression,” he said, adding that the regime “has not been able and will not be able to stop Yemeni strikes deep into the occupied territories.”

Yemen’s Ansarullah vows to ‘rob Zionists of sleep’ following Israeli aggression

A senior Ansarullah official pledged that the Yemeni armed forces will “rob the Zionists of their sleep” following the Israeli regime’s recent aggression against the country.

^PressTV

cross-posted from: feddit.org/post/15373488

A few excerpts:

That night, the settlers moved from home to home forcing families out at gun point.

Resident Aliya Mlihat immediately rang the police, who were slow to respond. When border police and three military jeeps arrived on the scene, they did nothing to stop the onslaught, even facilitating the raids on people's homes.

Mlihat recalled that "the expressions on the soldiers' faces revealed satisfaction - even joy - as if they were endorsing the settlers' actions".

In one photo taken by Mlihat, settlers can be seen lounging in chairs and grinning alongside soldiers in fatigues.

The attack was led by sanctioned Israeli settler Zohar Sabah, who had set up the new outpost. According to Mlihat, Sabah stormed the area armed with an M16 rifle, shouting at residents to "flee to Jordan".

Israeli rights group Stop the Wall reported that settlers pitched a tent in the middle of the village, hooking it up to running water from a nearby outpost. They then proceeded to expand the outpost, forcing the 125 residents to flee to the industrial zone of Beitunia, where they do not have access to water or electricity.

"It involves just a couple of people setting up an outpost, herding their own flocks on the community's traditional grazing land, taking over access to water resources, stealing sheep, intimidating the community and preventing them from having access to all the natural resources around them.

"And then we'll see this escalation of violent attacks, often at night. This is what we're seeing now, just copy-paste, replicated all across the area east of Ramallah."

"It means that the two-state solution that the international community purports to support will no longer be viable, or is not viable if there's no Palestinian presence in large parts of the West Bank."

Low emphasised that despite frequent visits by diplomats to imperilled Palestinian villages in the West Bank, the international community is doing little to prevent their displacement.

Palestinians left 'without shelter and water' as settlers empty West Bank village

On Thursday evening, Israeli settlers erected a tent just metres away from a Palestinian Bedouin village in the Al-Mu'arrajat area in the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley.

^{Katherine Hearst (Middle East Eye)}

Remember when you could pop open a phone, swap the battery, and keep going? Fairphone remembers. Their latest release, the Fairphone 6, feels like a nostalgic nod to sanity, with plenty of modern upgrades.

This is a phone that puts people and planet before profits. Sure, it doesn’t have the camera chops to take on a flagship, and USB-2 feels a bit retro in 2025, but what it lacks in bragging rights, it makes up for in staying power.

Fairphone 6 Teardown: Proof Phones Don’t Have to Be Disposable

In a world full of glued-together gadgets designed for obsolescence, the Fairphone 6 earns a well-deserved 10 out of 10 on our repairability scale.

^{Elizabeth Chamberlain (iFixit)}