Australia raises national terror threat level
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has raised the country’s terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable” amid a worrying spread of extremism in the country.
The country’s intelligence agencies have disrupted eight possible terror incidents in just the last four months, according to spy chief Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
“Probable” is the midpoint of the country’s five-tier National Terrorism Threat Advisory System, which has been set at warning an attack could be “possible” since November 2022. Prior to that it was set to “probable” for eight years running.
Mr Albanese told a press conference that the decision reflected intelligence about the current climate of extremism in Australia, rather than any specific known threat.
“I want to reassure Australians probable does not mean inevitable, and it does not mean there is intelligence about an imminent threat or danger,” the prime minister said.
“The advice that we’ve received is that more Australians are embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies and it is our responsibility to be vigilant.”
Mr Burgess warned that the security environment in Australia had become more volatile as “more Australians are being radicalised and radicalised more quickly … (and) embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies.
He added: “More Australians are willing to use violence to advance their cause.”
“Provocative inflammatory behaviours are being normalised,” he said. “This trend increased during Covid and gained momentum after the terrorist attacks on Israel and accelerated during Israel’s military response. Individuals are embracing anti-authority ideologies, conspiracy theories and diverse grievances.”
The prime minister also asked lawmakers in the country to watch their language. “When the temperature of the security environment is rising, we must lower the temperature of debate – something I’ve been saying for some time. Our words and our actions matter.”
Mr Albanese said: “Living in a country as stable and open as ours, social cohesion cannot be taken for granted, it must be nourished and it must be cherished as a national asset.”
The ASIO said it had intercepted or responded to eight alleged terrorist attacks since April. Among these incidents was the Wakeley church stabbing in western Sydney, where a bishop was stabbed during a live-streamed sermon.
A “probable” terror rating indicates there is credible intelligence suggesting that individuals or groups have both the intent and capability to carry out an attack. The five-tier system ranges from “certain” to “not expected”.
Mark Dreyfus, the attorney general, said: “This is a return to the same national terrorism threat level that was in place in Australia for more than eight years. This return to a national terrorism threat level of ‘probable’ was informed by ASIO’s expert assessment of our current security environment.”
He added: “The director-general has outlined the dynamics that have raised the temperature of the security environment, but he has also said that these threats are not insurmountable. As the director-general and the prime minister have said, it does not mean that there is any imminent threat of terrorist attack in Australia.
“Rather, it means that ASIO’s experts in the national threat assessment centre have assessed current intelligence and made a decision that reflects our current security environment. I want to reassure the public that ASIO and our law enforcement partners are working hard to detect terrorist threats and are well-practised at disrupting them.”
Nine children killed after wall collapses during religious event
At least nine children died after a wall collapsed on them during a religious event in India’s Madhya Pradesh state on Sunday.
The children, aged between 10-15 years, were making religious figurines with clay as a part of a ceremony at a temple in Sagar district when the wall of the house next door collapsed.
The dilapidated house was nearly 50 years old and run down by heavy rain, the local administration said, according to NDTV.
An earth mover was pressed into the rescue action to remove the debris and save the trapped children.
“The children were sitting in a tent at the temple premises when the wall fell on them,” district official Deepak Arya told local reporters.
“The wall’s foundation became weak due to recent rainfall” and collapsed around 8.30am (local time), he added.
Several other children were rushed to a nearby hospital after sustaining injuries in the incident. “All the debris has been removed from the site of the incident,” Mr Arya added.
The bodies were taken to Sagar district hospital for autopsy.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav announced a compensation of Rs400,000 (£3,728) each for kin of the dead and Rs100,000 (£932) to the injured.
“I have directed the district administration to provide proper treatment to the injured children,” he said in a statement.
The wall collapsed in Sagar just a day after four other children were killed after a wall of an abandoned building crumbled in the state’s Rewa district. The students, aged 5-7 years, died while returning home from school, authorities said.
The local police on Saturday arrested two owners of the run down building.
At least 200 people have died in Madhya Pradesh in rain-related incidents during the monsoon season of 2024.
Meanwhile, seven people died and another 40 sustained injuries after a bus fell into a ditch in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. The double-decker bus, en route capital Delhi, collided with a car coming from the wrong direction on the highway during the early hours.
At least four out of the 60 passengers on the bus died in the incident along with all three people in the car.
Woman rescued after falling into 100ft-deep gorge while taking selfie
A 29-year-old woman in India was rescued to safety after she fell nearly 100ft into a gorge reportedly while clicking a selfie.
The woman, along with a group of friends, was visiting the Bhorane Ghat in the Maharashtra state on Saturday when she fell near the Thoseghar waterfalls, according to reports.
The local administration had banned visits to the waterfall, one of the popular tourist spots in the state, due to challenging weather conditions amidst heavy rainfall.
The group had initially planned to visit the waterfall but upon finding it closed, took a detour to the mountain pass, reports said.
While clicking pictures, the woman slipped from the edge and fell, theTimes of India reported.
Her friends immediately called the police, who rushed to the spot along with home guard personnel.
The woman was successfully rescued and taken to a hospital. She remains in a stable condition.
A video from the rescue operations showed the woman being brought up from the gorge by a home guard personnel with the help of a rope.
The incident comes nearly a fortnight after a 27-year-old woman died after falling into a gorge at Kumbhe waterfall near Maharashtra.
Aanvi Kamdar died after falling 350ft from a hillock near the waterfall while filming a video for her Instagram page. Authorities conducted a six-hour rescue but she was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
India reportedly has recorded the highest number of selfie deaths followed by the US and Russia.
There have been 379 selfie-related deaths recorded worldwide between 2008 and 2021, according to a study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.
Vietnam president To Lam appointed new Communist Party chief
Vietnam’s president To Lam has been named the new chief of the Communist Party following the death of his predecessor two weeks ago.
Mr Lam, 67, had taken over the country’s most powerful political role temporarily on 18 July, a day before the death of previous secretary general Nguyễn Phú Trọng.
The Communist Party on Saturday unanimously supported Mr Lam’s nomination to the top post.
Addressing the delegates in Hanoi, he vowed to inherit and promote his predecessor’s legacy, make no changes to the Southeast Asian nation’s foreign policy, focus on achieving its socio-economic development goals, and continue a campaign against graft.
Trọng dominated Vietnamese politics since he became party chief in 2011 and viewed corruption as the gravest threat facing the party.
“In the coming time, the work on anti-corruption will be continued fiercely,” Mr Lam told the press conference.
“Personally, I feel fortunate that I have much experience in handling anti-graft campaign during the time I worked at the police ministry.”
Mr Lam spent over four decades in the ministry of public security before becoming the minister in 2016. He then led Trọng’s sweeping anti-graft campaign until May, when he became president following the resignation of his predecessor.
The Communist nation has become a major destination for manufacturing investment due to its political stability, but experienced major turbulence in recent months that officials said was fuelled by the anti-graft effort.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr Lam would retain both top jobs until the legislative session ends in 2026, or whether a new president would replace him.
If Mr Lam retains both jobs, that could pave the path for him to adopt a more autocratic leadership style similar to that of Xi Jinping, who is China’s party chief and state president.
It would not, however, be unprecedented. Trọng held both top jobs for nearly three years until April 2021 after the death of a former president.
“It is a sign of a temporary halt of internal fighting within the party,” Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnam expert at Singapore think tank the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“Although Lam vowed to push forward the anti-corruption campaign, the campaign may slow down a little as he may prioritise stabilising the party system before the party congress in 2026.”
Officials and diplomats said the party had discussed possibly naming a new president so that Mr Lam could focus on the party chief’s job, Reuters reported.
“In case the plenum ends without naming any new state president to replace Lam, it is a signal of a new chapter for Vietnam,” Mr Giang said.
Mr Xi congratulated Mr Lam on his new role, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Additional reporting by agencies.
Singapore hangs man for trafficking 36g of heroin
Singapore has executed a man for trafficking 36.93g of heroin, making it the city-state’s second hanging this year.
The 45-year-old man was sent to the gallows at the Changi prison after being found guilty of trafficking more than twice the 15g of pure heroin that merits the death penalty, the Central Narcotics Bureau said on Friday.
Under Singapore’s law, which dictates harsh punishments for drug trafficking, anyone convicted of trafficking more than 500g (17.6oz) of cannabis or 15g (0.5oz) of heroin will be executed.
The identity and details of the case were kept private by rights groups at the request of the man’s family.
The man was convicted and subsequently sentenced to death in February 2019, AFP reported. His legal petitions for clemency were dismissed.
“He was accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process,” the narcotics bureau said.
In February, Singapore executed Bangladeshi national Ahmed Salim, making him the first person convicted of murder to be hanged since 2019.
Singapore’s authorities had put execution sentences on hold in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but resumed the hangings in 2022 despite calls to cease capital punishment for drug-related crimes.
In 2023, Singapore conducted its first execution of a woman in 19 years for trafficking nearly 31g of pure heroin.
Human rights groups, international activists and the UN have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug offenses and say there is increasing evidence it is ineffective as a deterrent.
Singapore authorities insist capital punishment is key to halting drug demand and supply. “Capital punishment is used only for the most serious crimes in Singapore that cause grave harm to the victim, or to society,” the Singapore Police Force previously said in a statement.
There are just over 50 people on death row with all but two convicted of drug offences, according to the Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore-based NGO that campaigns against the death penalty.
Singapore has so far executed 18 convicts since 2022.
“Singapore reversed the Covid-19 hiatus on executions, kicking its death row machinery into overdrive,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, previously said.
“The government’s reinvigorated use of the death penalty merely highlighted its disregard for human rights protections and the inherent cruelty of capital punishment.”
Could scores of deaths in Kerala landslides have been avoided?
More than 300 people were killed and entire villages wiped out after landslides caused by heavy rainfall struck Wayanad in the southern Indian state of Kerala earlier this week, sounding alarm all over the country about the growing frequency and intensity of such disasters.
Heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides are common during South Asia’s monsoon season from June through September, but they have grown more destructive in recent years, in large part because of human activities.
Kerala’s case is illustrative. Though the occurance of the flooding and landslides was beyond human control, the extent of the disaster was not.
The first landslide hit Wayanad an hour past midnight on Tuesday. The villagers of Meppadi, Mundakkai and Chooralmala ran for their lives. Many of those who stayed were buried by landslides that followed one after the other until early dawn.
“We thought the entire mountain was going to fall on us. We were fighting death that time,” a villager identified only as Jayesh told India Today.
The proximate cause of the disaster was unrelenting monsoon rain. The Indian Meteorological Department said Wayanad had received 28cm of rain in the 24 hours before the landslides struck and destroyed critical infrastructure like roads, bridges and power lines along with homes and crops.
Kerala is no stranger to intense moonsoon rainfall given its geography, flanked by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Western Ghats mountain range to the east. But this monsoon has been particularly severe, leading to swollen rivers, landslides and extensive flooding in the southern state as also elsewhere in the country.
Studies have shown that the climate crisis is making the monsoon particularly harsh, with rain falling in short and heavy bursts.
“Climate change is drastically altering rainfall patterns in the region,” said Dr Akshay Deoras, a researcher at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science.
“What was once a predictable monsoon season has become increasingly erratic, with long dry spells followed by sudden, intense downpours.”
This shift heightens the risk of floods and makes landslides more likely as dry soils are unable to absorb heavy rains effectively, he explained.
The rainfall is also not distributed equally. While rainfall in Kerala’s nothern Kannur district was 21 per cent above average between 1 June and 30 July, it was 14 per cent below average in neighbouring Wayanad and nearly 25 per cent below average in Idukki and Ernakulam.
“The co-occurence of two extreme scenarios, landslides and rainfall deficit, in the same state reflects a strong spatial variability in this year’s monsoon rainfall,” Dr Deoras said.
“The expectation is that such a pattern would become more intense in the future if global warming continues.”
Kerala was devastated by Cyclone Ockhi in 2017 and again by massive floods in 2018, among the worst in its history.
What Dr Deoras described isn’t unique to Kerala. It’s a global phenomenon driven by rising temperatures and shifting climate patterns.
The Indian Ocean, a critical driver of the region’s climate, has warmed significantly, nearly 1.5C, since the industrial era began. This warming has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including the kind of heavy rains that contributed to Kerala’s recent disaster, experts said.
Human activities also played a crucial role in amplifying the disaster’s impact.
Deforestation, unplanned urban development and poor land-use practices have significantly compromised the region’s natural defenses.
As India has sought to develop economically over the past few decades, it has built roads, bridges and mines in hilly regions. From the Himalayas in the north to the Western Ghats in the south, however, these mountainous areas are fragile.
More than half of the Western Ghats mountain range is at risk of landslides, a government panel found and called for it to be declared ecologically sensitive with the most sensitive regions protected from any kind of human activity.
According to a 2021 study, 56 per cent of Kerala’s landslides occurred in plantation areas. The plantations often stand where lush forests once thrived.
Wayanad lost 62 per cent of its forest cover between 1950 and 2018, according to a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Studies have also suggested that a changing climate, a stronger monsoon in the past two decades and land cover changes have contributed to the increased frequency of the “heavy rainfall events”.
Such ecological warnings very rarely alter India’s construction plans.
“We see roads being constructed and widened without proper measures such as slope stability, retaining walls, or adequate drainage systems,” said professor YP Sundriyal, head of geology at the HNB Garhwal University.
“Such infrastructure projects, carried out without considering the region’s geological sensitivity, can exacerbate the risk of landslides.”
Kerala has witnessed a construction boom in the last few decades, driven by rapid urbanisation and a growing population, that has often ignored ecological considerations. Buildings have been erected in areas prone to floods and landslides, with insufficient regard for safety regulations. The result is a landscape where natural disasters can have disproportionately severe consequences.
One of the most vital components of disaster management is the implementation of effective early warning systems. While Kerala has made strides in this area, significant gaps remain. Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, emphasized the need for localised early warning systems.
“Landslide-prone areas are mapped and known, yet timely evacuation and preventive measures are often lacking,” he said. “We need to monitor rainfall data in these hotspots and prepare targeted early warning systems to save lives and livelihoods.”
The disaster in Wayanad revealed shortcomings in the state’s ability to communicate risks and coordinate evacuation. In some cases, people were unaware of imminent danger or reluctant to leave because of the lack of clear and timely information.
In any case, the response to the disaster has got mired in politicking. India’s home minister Amit Shah said in the parliament that the Kerala government did not gauge the severity of the situation accurately despite the federal government despatching nine National Disaster Response Force teams to the state on 23 July.
“Had those blaming the government read the warnings, the situation would have been different,” he declared.
The Kerala government denied they were warned. “None of the agencies had issued a red alert for Wayanad ahead of the July 30 landslides,” it said.
If disasters like this are to be avoided, experts said, urgent mitigation measures need to be implemented.
“Kerala has not been witnessing typical monsoon rains and has been struggling to achieve its average rainfall,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president of meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather.
“Despite these heavy showers, it is yet to surpass its average rainfall so far. The rise in air and ocean temperatures has led to a drastic increase in moisture, making the atmosphere unstable.”
This instability underscores the need for a comprehensive strategy involving both mitigation and adaptation measures.
“Several measures can be taken to mitigate the impact of landslides and excessive rains linked to climate change,” Mr Palawat said.
“Implementing robust early warning systems through enhanced weather forecasting technologies can provide timely alerts, enabling residents to evacuate and prepare.”
Death toll from bridge collapse in China rises to 38
The death toll has risen to 38 from the partial collapse of a highway bridge in northwestern Shaanxi province two weeks ago, China‘s state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday evening. The bridge failure on 19 July sent at least 25 vehicles into a fast-flowing river.
The report said 24 people were still missing. One person was saved after the collapse.
The area where the bridge on the Danning highway fell had experienced heavy rains in the preceding days.
Teams have searched miles downstream looking for victims. A photo released by the Xinhua news agency shortly after the incident showed a section of the bridge snapped and folded at almost a 90-degree angle into the rushing brown water below.
The river passes through a mountain valley and the waters are turbulent, the report said.
The collapse has raised questions about the safety of China’s road and bridge infrastructure, built rapidly in recent decades. A similar collapse in May in Guangdong province killed 36 people.
Rains intensified by climate change have caused a series of landslides and floods across Asia. In China this week, 48 deaths were attributed to Typhoon Gaemi, which had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached the inland, southern province of Hunan.
Sichuan’s hardest-hit Hanyuan county has seen both roads and communications infrastructure damaged or destroyed, complicating rescue efforts, and teams had been working since dawn to restore connectivity and clear debris from highways.
From record-breaking heatwaves to unprecedented rainfall, China has been facing increasing numbers of extreme weather events in recent years, testing the country’s ability to cope with the impact of the climate crisis.
Recently, nine months worth of rain pounded a small town in Henan in one day. Officials recorded 606mm of rain in Dafengying in 24 hours, the most anywhere in China, according to national weather forecasters. That compares with the average annual rainfall of 800mm in the area.
Changing rainfall patterns are coinciding with a dramatic decline in the country’s economic expansion, which in past decades has seen China build a huge network of motorways, high-speed railways and airports across even the country’s most remote districts.
There is speculation that the economic slowdown has led officials and industries to cut corners to try and continue expanding this network, leading to a proliferation of poor-quality infrastructure and poor safety supervision.
Attack on aid convoy that killed 7 was due to Israel military failings
The Israeli military’s attack on an aid convoy in Gaza in April that killed seven people was the result of serious failures of defense procedures, mistaken identification and errors in decision-making, according to an Australian investigation that was made public Friday.
Australia initiated the investigation to examine Tel Aviv’s response to the widely condemned Israeli Defense Forces’ drone strikes on three World Central Kitchen vehicles on 1 April. Australian Zomi Frankcom, three of her aid worker colleagues, and three British personal security staff died in the attack.
Former Australian Defense Force chief Mark Binskin was appointed the government’s special adviser on the matter and visited Israel in May. He also engaged with World Central Kitchen and Solace Global, the company that provided the convoy’s security team.
Mr Binskin blamed the fatal strikes on “serious failures to follow IDF procedures, mistaken identification and errors in decision-making”, a statement said.
The armed security guards were likely mistaken for Hamas operatives, Mr Binskin said. This was the primary factor behind a “significant break down in situational awareness.”
He found the strikes were not deliberately directed against World Central Kitchen.
But Mr Binskin wrote: “It is important to all the families that an appropriate apology be provided to them by the government of Israel.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she had told Israel that the families deserved an apology.
While Mr Binskin’s report outlined steps Israeli had taken to avoid a repeat tragedy, “stronger protocols” were needed to protect aid workers in Gaza, Wong said.
“Gaza remains the deadliest place on earth to be an aid worker. This was not a one-off incident,” Wong told reporters.
“The UN reports that more than 250 aid workers have been killed since the start of this conflict and in recent weeks, a number of UN vehicles have come under attack. This is not acceptable,” Wong added.
Mr Binskin said his conclusions were “fairly consistent” with an Israeli military investigation in April that led to two officers being dismissed and three being reprimanded within a week of the bungled attack.
Military Advocate General Brig Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, Israel’s top miliary lawyer, is considering further potential action against those responsible.
Wong said the Frankcom family felt that disciplinary action to date had been insufficient.
“The Australian government will continue to press for full accountability, including any appropriate criminal charges, and we will continue to advocate the views of the Frankcom family and the Australian government to Israel,” Wong said.
A family representative issued a statement Friday welcoming Mr Binskin’s report as an “important first step”.
“We hope it will be followed by further investigations in Israel regarding those responsible for this tragic event, followed by appropriate action,” the family statement said.
Mr Binskin said the Israeli Defense Forces had been “very forthcoming” toward his investigation. But the level of detail the Israelis provided on specific operational improvements they had made since the convoy blunder made it difficult for him to assess how effective the changes were.
The other World Central Kitchen staff killed were American-Canadian dual national Jacob Flickinger, Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha and Polish citizen Damian Sobol. On the British security team were John Chapman, James Kirby and Jim Henderson.