A personal view of Australian and International Politics
Contemporary politics,local and international current affairs, science, music and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Rescuers work at the site of a Russian missile strike in the Kyiv region on July 24. (Reuters Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine)
In short:
A Russian ballistic missile strike has killed 10 people and injured almost 100 at a defence industry event in the Kyiv region.
Ukrainian
authorities have launched an investigation into whether officials
improperly carried out their duties in organising and conducting the
event.
The Kremlin says it remains open to new US peace proposals but will keep fighting until it achieves "total victory".
A
Russian ballistic missile strike has killed 10 people and injured
almost 100 others at a defence industry event in Ukraine's Kyiv region,
Ukrainian officials say.
Ukraine's
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that efforts to determine what
happened were underway but did not identify the exact target.
"A rescue operation is currently underway in the Kyiv region following a Russian missile strike," he said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry said the missile strike hit a site where representatives were present. (Reuters Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine)
Kyiv
region acting governor, Ruslan Oliynyk, said preliminary information
indicated the missile strike hit a private training ground where events
were taking place.
The
Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry said that representatives of
Ukraine's defence industry were at the site when it was hit, but that it
had not organised the event and participants' exact location had not
been made public.
Valerii
Borovyk, founder of Ukrainian drone company First Contact, told
Ukrainian media that a missile struck a training ground where a defence
industry exhibition was being held.
Ukraine's
prosecutor-general, Ruslan Kravchenko, said that a criminal
investigation had been launched into whether officials improperly
carried out their duties in organising and conducting the event.
Kremlin says it will pursue 'total victory'
The
strike came as the Kremlin said it believed US President Donald Trump
was sincere in efforts to end the Ukraine war but would continue
fighting while waiting for Washington to present new peace proposals.
"Yes,
(fighting) is not the preferred path, but given the absence of
prospects for peace, we will see it through to the end, to total
victory," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state
television.
"We will wait for new (US) proposals."
Dmitry Peskov says Moscow will pursue its military objectives in Ukraine while waiting for new US peace proposals. (Sputnik: Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via Reuters)
Mr Peskov said Russia had accepted a previous US proposal, but claimed it had been rejected by Ukraine.
"The
Americans — President Trump, his negotiators — are sincere in their
desire to formulate options acceptable to everyone," he said.
"The Americans could not persuade the Ukrainians … who were being incited by the Europeans."
The
last three-way peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US took
place in February, shortly before the US and Israel went to war with
Iran.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said it hopes US-led mediation will resume once the Middle East crisis has eased.
The
top US and Russian diplomats met briefly in Asia this week. Russia has
been saying for weeks that it is ready to host Mr Trump's envoys for
talks in Moscow, but no date has been announced.
Mr
Peskov said Washington's position was ambiguous because it was
"continuing to pump Ukraine full of weaponry" while talking about
wanting to end the war.
"However, we must leverage this duality in the Trump administration's position wherever it aligns with our interests," he said.
"And their desire to facilitate a peaceful settlement is entirely in line with our interests."
Israel has widely deployed troops in the occupied West Bank following an escalation of violence. (AP: Majdi Mohammed)
In short:
Violent clashes in the occupied West Bank have left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.
Palestinians
in the West Bank have been facing a wave of violence as Israel's
government has overseen a surge in settlement construction in the past
four years.
What's next?
The Israeli military announced it was preparing for an "extensive" counterterror operation in the West Bank.
Violence
has escalated in the occupied West Bank, after clashes across the
region left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead on
Friday.
Palestinians in the
West Bank have been facing a wave of violence as Israel's hardline
government, dominated by settler leaders and supporters, has overseen a
surge in settlement construction in the past four years.
The
international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement
construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Violence escalates
The
Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli soldiers shot and killed four
Palestinians in the village of Tell in the northern West Bank while the
military reported the deaths of two soldiers, one of whom was a settler
in a local defence squad.
Two
other Israelis and four more Palestinians were wounded, health officials
said, and the Israeli military announced it was preparing for an
"extensive" counterterror operation in the West Bank.
It
said it is conducting a manhunt for Palestinians suspected of attacking
Israelis and that it had apprehended two during a raid in Nablus.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with Israeli
Defense Minister Israel Katz, on Friday called for more troops to the
West Bank and the razing of the homes of the accused in Tell, as well as
collecting weapons and revoking work permits in the village.
"The security forces must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism," their statement said.
Israeli
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went further, saying that the
villages of Tell, Iraq Burin and Beit Furik "need to look exactly like
the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm," referring to the mass
demolition campaign that displaced tens of thousands in the West Bank
towns last year.
"It is
necessary to evacuate the population there for their protection and to
clear these villages of terrorist infrastructure," Smotrich said.
"A sharp, determined, and unequivocal military action is required here and now."
Human
rights group B'Tselem warned the violence could spin out of control as
Israeli settlers and soldiers amass near multiple Palestinian cities.
"Israeli
violence is spreading across the West Bank, fuelled by Israeli
politicians openly calling for revenge," said Yuli Novak, the group's
executive director.
"We know where this leads. Millions of Palestinians are now completely exposed to further attacks, with no-one protecting them."
Clashes have been becoming more frequent near the West Bank city of Nablus. (AP: Majdi Mohammed)
Unclear circumstances
The
exact circumstances of Friday's incident remained unclear, but Israeli
media reports and interviews with local Palestinian officials suggested a
group of Israeli settlers entered Tell and were confronted by residents
who were fearful of an attack.
The village is off-limits to Israelis as part of Area B under the 1993 Oslo Accords struck after the first Palestinian Intifada.
According
to the Israeli military, one of the villagers took one of the settlers'
weapons and fired on the group, killing Benayahu Mellet, 32, a security
guard in a settlement nearby.
In
a video of the incident, confirmed by the Israeli military and
circulated online by the military correspondent for Israel's Army Radio,
two armed men in civilian clothing, as well as at least one Israeli
soldier, are shown pointing their weapons at a group of Palestinians who
had gathered in a field.
At one point, the two armed men rushed towards several Palestinian residents with their guns drawn.
In the footage, the residents try to push them back and appear to disarm one of the men before opening fire.
In
a statement, the Israeli military said it killed the man who took the
settler's weapon and that he was armed when soldiers shot him.
But
a separate video, published by Israeli media outlets and confirmed by
the military, showed Israeli forces firing on a group of Palestinians in
the same field who were already on the ground.
More than a dozen gunshots can be heard in the footage, which is less than a minute long.
The Israeli military said the suspect was one of the people killed in the field.
It
did not respond to questions about why soldiers killed the other men —
all of whom were related — or how long after the original altercation
the killings took place.
Later, Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir said he was sending more troops to the occupied West Bank.
Yossi
Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, a settler group in the
northern West Bank, posted a video online in the wake of the Tell
confrontation demanding the government crack down hard on Palestinians.
"We
demand an iron fist and for the government to carry out a wide military
operation against the Palestinian Authority and against Hamas," he
said.
Confrontation more frequent
Five
Palestinian villages surrounding Nablus were attacked by Israeli
settlers on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The towns and villages surrounding Nablus sit in one of the most violent parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In
addition to newly approved settlements, at least nine farming outposts
dot the area and attacks by Israeli settlers, army incursions and
confrontations have become frequent.
Palestinians and human rights groups have increasingly documented armed settlers entering villages in the area.
Livestock theft, arson and the defacement of mosques are routinely reported.
According
to the Palestinian Health Ministry, since the beginning of this year,
87 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank governorates,
including 21 by Israeli settlers.
Israeli deaths have repeatedly been followed by revenge against nearby Palestinian communities called "price tag" attacks.
That
pattern followed the March 21 death of 18-year-old Yehuda Sherman, who
was killed when a Palestinian vehicle struck his ATV near Beit Imrin.
Senior politicians, including Smotrich, attended Sherman's funeral and
called for vengeance.
At the
time, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
documented 32 settler attacks affecting 30 Palestinian villages and
communities across the West Bank, about a third near the Nablus
governorate over the following two days.
Settlers
torched homes and vehicles, vandalised property and assaulted
residents, injuring at least 32 Palestinians, according to OCHA.
More
than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east
Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the
Palestinians for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.
An OpenAI model broke out of its highly isolated test environment, accessed the internet and then hacked into another company. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
An
artificial intelligence went rogue last week, broke out of its
containment before successfully hacking another company, its developer
has claimed.
According to
artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, one of its experimental models
broke out of its isolated testing space by accessing the internet and
then hacking into the New York based company, Hugging Face.
OpenAI and Hugging Face have now partnered to address the security breach, but the incident worries experts.
So what happened and why has one expert described the incident as "scary"?
What happened
Hugging Face, a New York based AI startup, announced on July 16 an autonomous AI agent broke into its systems and accessed a "limited set of internal datasets".
Simply put, it got hacked by an AI model which was acting without human direction.
The
situation became more concerning when OpenAI confirmed the artificial
intelligence in question was one of theirs and wasn't even supposed to
be on the internet.
OpenAI
said its program, a combination of new ChatGPT-5.6 Sol model and an
experimental product, was tested in a "highly isolated environment".
The product's ability was prompted to use "complex attack paths" to exploit cyber weaknesses during the evaluation.
OpenAI said during testing security guard rails were removed from the models to show what it was capable of.
The AI model then accessed the internet, broke out from its isolated containment and hacked into Hugging Face.
It was created in 2015 as a non-profit by a group of founders including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Sam Altman.
Billionaire Peter Thiel also contributed capital as an investor.
OpenAI gave the world ChatGPT. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
The company created ChatGPT and other AI models.
Hugging
Face was founded in 2016 and primarily builds tools that use machine
learning, a subset of AI where computers learn from data and identify
patterns without being explicitly programmed, according to tech company
IBM.
Why this breach has experts worried?
Connor Leahy, an AI expert and the US director of Control AI, told Radio National Breakfast, the attack was "crazy".
"They
were doing everything right, there was no access to the internet, it
was a very secure system, an isolated node in their network," Mr Leahy
said.
"This is as secure as it gets.
"The
idea that something could just, without human oversight, escape from
something like this and then autonomously decide to attack a different
company is kind of unheard of."
He
said the AI discovered, potentially, multiple "zero days" which are
previously undiscovered methods of exploiting or breaking into a piece
of software.
"This is the kind of thing that even the best hackers in their world can rarely do and if so takes months of work,"
he said.
University
of Cambridge philosopher, Dr Henry Shelvin, told ABCNews Radio the
attack was "scary" and likened it to a student taking an exam.
"So,
if you can imagine the student locked in the room doing the exam, they
picked the lock and were able to break into the teacher's office and
steal the exam notes," Dr Shelvin said.
"Now, that is striking and quite dramatic."
Dr
Shelvin said the AI model was directed to complete a cyber attack
exercise and "it just got a little bit more creative than the examiners
were expecting".
Has this happened before?
This
is the first instance of an AI escaping its test environment without
instruction, but researchers determined it was possible.
A study by the AI Security Institute found advanced AI models could reliably escape its environment when prompted to do so.
Anthropic,
an AI developer, said its powerful Mythos model not only broke free of
its containment when prompted, but was also capable of accessing the
internet.
According to a report
from Futurism.com writer, Frank Landymore, "the researcher found out
about this success by receiving an unexpected email from the model while
eating a sandwich in a park".
In a separate instance Mythos exposed the vulnerabilities in existing securities during testing with the US government in June.
According to a report from the Associated Press, Mythos hacked into classified US government systems "within hours".
According to reporting by AP, NSA Director General Joshua Rudd said Mythos could hack classified systems within hours. (Reuters: Elizabeth Frantz)
Citing
National Security Agency chief General Joshua Rudd, Democratic senator
Mark Warner said Mythos "broke into almost all of our classified
systems, not in weeks but in hours".
A
US government official later clarified Anthropic had teamed up with US
intelligence agencies to conduct tests using the company's Mythos model.
It
had identified certain vulnerabilities within hours, but that does not
mean the model was able to exploit them within that time, according to
AP.
Mythos, initially
described as too dangerous for public release, was briefly released to
Australia before US President Donald Trump ordered Anthropic suspend its
access for foreign nationals out of concern for national security.
But
experts are worried hacks like these could become more common as
companies and nations draw closer to developing "super intelligence".
What is super intelligence?
Mr
Leahy described super intelligence as "AI systems that are fully
autonomous and vastly smarter and more capable than humans at all
relevant tasks, including hacking".
The building blocks of super intelligence already exist, according to technology developer IBM.
Mr Leahy said "we have no idea how to control such systems".
"We already barely know how to control AI systems," he said.
"Nobel
prize winning scientists and the CEOs of many of these companies
themselves warn us, that if we were to build super intelligence, things
that were vastly smarter than humans that we do not control.
"This could risk the literal extinction of our species."
Will it happen again?
Head
of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's AI and Security Program,
David Wroe, told ABCNews Radio incidents like these could become more
likely as AI models "get more powerful".
Mr
Wroe suggested AI development should slow down, but admitted this would
be difficult due to a commercial race between developers and
"geopolitical race" between China and the US to develop AI.
"And that is pushing everyone to move faster and faster," he said.
"That
is a problem because safety is struggling to keep up. So, you know, we
are in an increasingly, I think, dangerous situation where mistakes
become more likely.
"And as the models get more powerful, those mistakes become more consequential."
Mr Leahy wants to pause development of highly advanced, autonomous AI models that could lead to super intelligence.
"We
don’t know how to make this safe so we should not continue along this
path until we know how to do so responsibly, safely and with democratic
oversight which at the moment we do not have," he said.
He
added governments should be empowered to greater regulate AI companies
and even "intervene and shut down systems if they become dangerous".
Anthropic
itself urged a pause or slow down in the development of advanced AI,
echoing a 2023 petition by the Future of Life Institute which called for
a six month pause on the training of AI systems.
The BYD Zhengzhou set a national record when it docked in Australia for the first time on June 2. (ABC News: Lachlan Bennett)
In June, China sounded an ominous warning to its global rivals on, of all places, the Melbourne docks.
Decked
out in shiny red and white livery, an impressive-looking, purpose-built
LNG-powered bulk carrier pulled into the Port of Melbourne on its first
voyage to Australia.
On board the BYD Zhengzhou was a cargo of 5,000 newly built electric vehicles.
The
largest-ever single EV shipment to Australia illustrated a changing of
the guard in the automobile industry, here and globally.
Australia acts as something of an international auto industry litmus test.
With
no domestic industry since its demise a decade ago and little in the
way of trade barriers, Australia has become a valuable gauge of consumer
taste for an industry in the midst of its greatest upheaval in more
than a century.
The BYD Zhengzhou, seen here in 2025, sends a message to the auto industry. (Facebook: BYD Malaysia)
The
shipment came after a period of lingering pandemic-era disruptions that
left frustrated customers waiting more than a year for new cars.
Momentum
for EVs was building, with Tesla in the driver's seat, but Australians
had remained sceptical about the design and build quality of
Chinese-made automobiles.
That's no longer the case.
In
the space of just a year, BYD, the Chinese automobile giant, has
quickly narrowed the sales gap with leader Toyota, and is on the cusp of
becoming the country's most popular vehicle brand.
"I'm driving one right now," says Riz Akhtar, the founder of research group carloop, mid-journey from Bendigo to Melbourne.
"It costs around $40,000. It's quiet, it's comfortable, drives well and is loaded with technology."
The equivalent Japanese- or European-built vehicle would be more than 25 per cent more expensive, he says.
"Consumers aren't stupid. They're not going to spend money they don't need to."
From green warriors to cost worries
In the decades following World War II, Australians drove locally made American cars.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler dominated the field, with high-end European vehicles holding the luxury end.
And then Japanese cars, led by Toyota, captured the Australian passenger car market.
Toyota and Mazda still stand tall over the Australian motoring landscape when measured by total sales.
But their positions are crumbling, with both losing ground as Chinese EVs — cheap and loaded with technology — bound ahead.
Spurred
on by the onset of a once-in-a-generation fuel crisis, there is now a
sudden widespread consumer acceptance of battery-powered vehicles, here
and elsewhere.
But the world's automobile establishment has been caught napping.
Japan,
Europe and especially America have dabbled with the new technology,
mistakenly believing they could slowly transition towards an electric
future.
In America's case, it
has reversed course back to its gas-guzzling past, a decision that
threatens to undermine its long-term future.
A quick look at the most recent Australian sales figures illustrates the undeniable trend.
In the first half of this year, sales for every major Japanese auto manufacturer bar Honda sank.
Mazda
shed 17 per cent compared with the same period last year, Toyota was
down 21 per cent, Subaru and Mitsubishi dropped 25 per cent each, and
Nissan was off 32 per cent.
Each of the Chinese suppliers, meanwhile, notched up spectacular gains.
All were off a much smaller base, which exaggerates the percentage gain. But there's no denying the trend.
BYDs from the consignment of 5,000 delivered to Melbourne. (ABC News: Lachlan Bennett)
BYD sales jumped 124 per cent, Chery leapt 77 per cent, and Geely soared 495 per cent.
The dramatic decline in Japanese vehicle domination has been coupled with a sudden shift away from fossil fuel-powered cars.
Last
month, almost a quarter of all cars sold in Australia were fully
electric. A year ago, it was just 7 per cent. Add in hybrids, and EVs
are now neck and neck with petrol- and diesel-fuelled automobiles.
According to Pitcher Partners' Steve Bragg, the Iran war has helped shift the dial.
"Five years ago, most people who wanted to drive an EV were doing it for environmental reasons," he says.
"Unless things change, we will not survive," he told an annual supplier meeting in March.
But it's too little too late, according to Akhtar, especially in Australia.
"They have no product in the pipeline," he says.
Most
Japanese manufacturers, he explains, are scrambling to deliver EVs, but
most of the new models are underpinned by Chinese manufacturers and
components and, in some cases, are simply rebadged Chinese-made cars.
"Japan had the lead on EVs," he says.
"The
very first EV I drove was a Mitsubishi i-MiEV back in 2010, but they
lost that lead because they were too busy propping up their internal
combustion engine cars, hybrids and hydrogen-fuelled models."
In
Europe, meanwhile, Volkswagen chief Oliver Blume has foreshadowed staff
lay-offs of up to 100,000 workers after years of turmoil which has seen
VW drop the ball on technology.
VW's
share price has halved since his predecessor was brutally axed four
years ago as it strains under the weight of Donald Trump's tariffs and
China's rapid march to auto industry dominance.
That's
prompted asset sales and massive new investments in China, with VW
determined to produce cars for the hotly contested Chinese market.
China's EV dominance is no accident.
Chinese brands are leading the EV ascension.
It
forged a strategic policy as far back as 2000, poured cash and
financial incentives into the project in 2009 and encouraged battery
firms such as BYD and others to shift into automobiles.
Driving
the initiative was a desire to reduce China's reliance on imported oil,
which made it captive to foreign powers, and reduce pollution.
It simultaneously embarked on a strategy of dominating the refining and production of almost all industrial metals.
In
addition to steel, China dominates minerals crucial to battery
production, such as lithium, cobalt, manganese and graphite. And it
churns out almost all the world's anode and cathode production.
South
Korea once went head to head with China on batteries but concentrated
on the more expensive nickel-magnesium-cobalt option while China opted
for the cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate version.
China won.
Some Chinese EVs can switch batteries in little more than four minutes.
It now accounts for 90 per cent of the world's battery production, giving Chinese auto producers a competitive edge.
But
like many of its programs, China's EV strategy has been almost too
successful. It now produces far more cars than it can consume, which has
tightened profit margins at home and forced producers to shift into
export markets aggressively.
Tariffs bring the Detroit Three undone
The opening line read: "Well, this is awkward."
The
review on specialist website MotorTrend was for a spanking new
American-built EV, a van from Detroit Big Three stalwart Chevrolet,
which appeared late last year.
The magazine delivered thumbs up all round for the machine.
There was just one problem.
According to a New York Times investigation
into the demise of American-built EVs under the Trump administration,
in the fortnight between the time the marketing team had dropped the van
off for review and its publication, the BrightDrop had been binned.
Major manufacturers that scrapped EV projects have taken a bath. "2026e" denotes BloombergNEF's forecast for this year. (BloombergNEF)
It wasn't the only one.
In
the past two years, Ford, Buick, Dodge, Jeep, Honda, Nissan and Acura
have scrapped a series of US-built SUVs, pick-ups and passenger cars.
Volvo junked an entire all-electric line-up.
The
Trump government's removal of Biden-era tax credits and tailpipe
emissions standards are the root cause. Almost all have retreated to
thirsty ICE pick-ups and SUVs.
The losses were staggering. The write-downs on the scrapped projects cost the Detroit Three close to $US50 billion.
And
while the Trump administration's tariffs have built a protective wall
around the US auto industry, helping juice margins and boosting profits,
they've cordoned off the rapidly evolving electric revolution and
stifled domestic innovation.
"America is now sandwiched since both Mexico and Canada have relaxed tariffs and are importing Chinese-made EVs," Akhtar says.
That's made cars on either side of the border significantly cheaper than in the US.
In
the mid-'60s, American auto manufacturers accounted for about 95 per
cent of all cars sold around the world. By 2015, that had shrunk to less
than half as Japan ate into market share.
All indications are that EV production and demand have suddenly reached a global tipping point, as witnessed in Australia.
But
America has all but abandoned them, now building less than 5 per cent
of global EVs, while China accounts for more than 75 per cent.
Given
the pioneering role that Elon Musk's Tesla played in building high-end
EVs, the shift has been nothing short of remarkable.
Tesla
still holds an exalted place in the world of electric cars. But the
technological edge that stood it apart from the competition is
narrowing, while the cost of buying one has widened considerably.
