Australia on Monday evacuated 11 migrant children from a Pacific detention center for medical treatment in the country, one of the largest groups to be transferred since offshore detentions began in 2013.
The 11 children were resettled from the Pacific island of Nauru and all would likely remain in Australia, Australian Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs Michael Pezzullo said at a hearing.
More than 50 children and 600 adults remain at the detention center on Nauru.
Australia had steadfastly refused to allow any refugees arriving by boat to enter the country, but two independent lawmakers on Monday said that their support for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s shaky government was tied to the fate of the child detainees on Nauru.
Morrison is poised to lose his one-seat parliamentary majority after voters in Sydney’s Wentworth by-election on Saturday shunned the ruling Liberal Party amid anger at the ousting of former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Although counting continues, Morrison is likely to have to rely on the support of five independents to prevent a no-confidence motion that could trigger an election. The next poll is due by May next year.
Kerryn Phelps, who is on course to win in Wentworth, said that Morrison should immediately relocate child refugees from Nauru.
“The first order of business is to get kids off Nauru,” Phelps told Sky News Australia, echoing a similar demand from another independent lawmaker, Cathy McGowan.
“Ideally, I’d like the government to go full term, but we, the crossbenchers, will have those discussions today,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of