The officials that regulate mining in Australia's Northern Territory say they were pressured to skimp on environmental review so as to let mining proceed.

I have no proof, but I would expect that the mining companies knew that they were paying officials to cheat in their behalf.

Australia has proposed a revision to its terrifying computer surveillance law.

I think the various kinds of warrants described in this article are acceptable in principle. That some do not require a judge's authorization is very dangerous.

The secrecy requirement — imprisonment for disclosing any information about a warrant — is a shield for the abuses which every system like this tends to generate.

The "assistance order" is extremely dangerous unless it has firm and clear limits about who can the ordered to assist, and what kinds of assistance can be demanded. Otherwise, what is to stop an agency from ordering you to put a back door into a program?

Statements about the usual "intended" usage scenarios of that power are meaningless if nothing stops the government from using it in other ways.

Australia frequently deports asylum-seekers to countries where they are in danger, and many have been attacked afterward.

Individuals and companies are starting to break off dealings with Xinjiang and companies there.

That is a good start, but China's existing totalitarian oppression of Uygurs is likely to be followed by China's future totalitarian oppression in Taiwan, if we don't stop it. We had better take action now to stop that, so that it doesn't come to a shooting war.

*Australian professor and son detained in Qatar for five months without charge.*

It's not impossible a priori that they committed a crime, but if Qatar can't say what it was, it must release them.