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Julian Assange's wife shares first family photos since his release

<p>Julian Assange's wife has shared the first photo of the family enjoying their lives together, since the WikiLeaks founder was declared a free man after 14 years of legal battles.</p> <p>The 52-year-old returned to Australian soil in June after more than a decade fighting extradition to the United States on espionage charges after publishing confidential US documents in 2010.</p> <p>In the weeks after his release, Stella Assange, whom he married in 2022 while imprisoned in London, shared a photo on social media of herself with her husband and their two children, Gabriel, 7, and Max, 5.</p> <p>The picture, simply captioned “Family photo! #AssangeFree”, showed them smiling on a beach. </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9uSrR7NG4w/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9uSrR7NG4w/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Stella Assange (@stellaassange)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Supporters flooded the comments to express their joy at the moment, with one top comment saying, “The photo we were all waiting for!!!!”</p> <p>Another supporter wrote, “The photo I was hoping to see for years,” while another declared, “That’s exactly what we have been fighting for.”</p> <p>“So good to see Julian in the great outdoors!!” shared someone else.</p> <p>On his return home to Australia to start life as a free man last month, Ms Assange said her husband needed time to recuperate.</p> <p>“I ask you please to give us space, to give us privacy, to find our place, to let our family be a family,” she said at the time.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p> <p> </p>

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Julian Assange was isolated for more than a decade. Here’s what that does to the body and mind

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carol-maher-217811">Carol Maher</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-australia-1180">University of South Australia</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/johanna-badcock-995697">Johanna Badcock</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-western-australia-1067">The University of Western Australia</a></em></p> <p>Anyone who lived through the COVID pandemic would likely understand that even a small period of isolation can cause <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35787541/">physical and mental stress</a>.</p> <p>WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-will-be-freed-after-striking-plea-deal-with-us-authorities-233210">who will return to Australia</a> after reaching a plea deal with the US Department of Justice – is <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/his-health-is-very-risky-assange-s-brother-fears-for-his-life-20240327-p5ffjw">reported to have suffered</a> various mental and physical challenges during his almost 15 years in some form of isolation.</p> <p>Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 after Swedish authorities said they wanted to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden">question him over sex crime allegations</a>.</p> <p>After exhausting legal avenues to stop an extradition to Sweden, in June 2012 he entered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/julian-assange-ecuador-london-embassy-how-he-became-unwelcome-guest">Ecuador’s embassy in London</a>, where he remained for seven years.</p> <p>In early 2019, he was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1S73H5/">jailed for skipping bail</a> and held at London’s Belmarsh prison where he spent most of the following five years fighting extradition to the US. Now, he’s coming home.</p> <p>While we have no idea how Assange is coping from being cooped up inside for so long with few visitors, we do know that isolation can have <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-own-prison-ordeal-gave-me-a-taste-of-what-assange-may-be-feeling-hes-out-but-the-chilling-effect-on-press-freedom-remains-233215">a severe negative impact</a> on many people.</p> <p><iframe id="qxq2l" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qxq2l/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <h2>How physical inactivity impacts your body</h2> <p>Physical activity is vital for <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/2712935/jama_piercy_2018_sc_180005.pdf">overall health</a>. It keeps your heart strong, helps manage weight, and builds muscle and bone strength.</p> <p>Regular exercise also lifts your mood, reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, and sharpens your mind. Plus, it boosts your <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7195025/">immune system</a>, making you more resistant to infections and diseases.</p> <p>When you don’t move enough, especially in isolation, your health can take a hit. Muscles weaken and joints stiffen, making you less strong and flexible.</p> <p>Your <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/01.CIR.102.9.975">heart health</a> suffers, too, raising the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes because your heart isn’t getting the workout it needs.</p> <p>Metabolic issues such as obesity and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6908414/">type 2 diabetes</a> become more common with inactivity, especially if you don’t have access to healthy food.</p> <p>Isolation often means less fresh air and sunlight, both crucial for good health. Poor ventilation can lead to <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2927/pdf">respiratory problems</a>. Lack of sunlight can cause <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/95/6/2630/9067013/jcem2630.pdf">vitamin D deficiency</a>, weakening bones and the immune system, and increasing the risk of fractures.</p> <p>These effects fit with the reports that Assange suffered a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/23/today-i-will-marry-the-love-of-my-life-julian-assanges-fiancee">mini-stroke</a> in 2021 and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/18/julian-assange-press-freedom-wikileaks-uk-high-court">broken rib</a> from persistent coughing fits while in isolation.</p> <h2>What about mental health?</h2> <p>Social disconnection comes in two main forms, both of which have serious consequences for our mental health.</p> <p>The first is social isolation. The reasons for being isolated are many and varied, including geographical distance, lack of access to transport, or incarceration.</p> <p>The end result is the same: you have few relationships, social roles or group memberships, and limited social interaction.</p> <p>The second form of social disconnection is more invisible but just as harmful.</p> <p><a href="https://psychology.org.au/for-the-public/psychology-topics/loneliness">Loneliness</a> is that subjective, unpleasant feeling of wanting but lacking satisfying relationships with others.</p> <p>You can be isolated and not feel lonely, but the two are often unwelcome bedfellows.</p> <p>Social connection is not a luxury. It’s a fundamental need, as essential to our health as food and water.</p> <p>Just as hunger reminds us to eat, <a href="https://healthymale.org.au/health-article/what-is-loneliness-and-social-isolation">loneliness acts as a signal</a> alerting us that our social relationships are weak and need to be improved if we are to remain healthy.</p> <p>The science around the health impacts of social disconnection is clear, especially when it is prolonged. So much so, the World Health Organization recently launched a <a href="https://www.who.int/groups/commission-on-social-connection">Commission on Social Connection</a> to increase awareness of the impact of social isolation and loneliness on health and have it recognised as a global health priority.</p> <p>Substantial evidence shows social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer cognitive functioning and an increased risk of dementia, though possibly in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995915/">different ways</a>.</p> <p>Among adults aged 50 years and over, chronic (meaning persistent and severe) loneliness and social isolation may increase the risk of dementia by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13651501.2021.1959616">around 50%</a>.</p> <p>A lack of cognitive stimulation that naturally occurs when interacting with others, whether it’s old friends or strangers, might explain <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995915/">the link</a> between social isolation and cognitive difficulties (think “use it or lose it”).</p> <p>On the other hand, loneliness <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995915/">may impact cognitive health</a> through its effects on emotional wellbeing. It’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-13049-9">a well-known risk factor</a> for developing depression, anxiety and suicidality.</p> <p>For instance, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35583561/">studies show</a> the chances of developing depression in adults is more than double in people who often feel lonely, compared with those who rarely or never feel lonely.</p> <p>Other research examining 500,000 middle-aged adults over nine years showed living alone doubled the risk of dying by suicide for men, while loneliness <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33096330">increased the risk of hospitalisation</a> for self-harm in both men and women.</p> <p>In a <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf">2023 report</a>, the US Surgeon General’s advisory concluded:</p> <blockquote> <p>Given the totality of the evidence, social connection may be one of the strongest protective factors against self-harm and suicide among people with and without serious underlying mental health challenges.</p> </blockquote> <h2>What about after release?</h2> <p>When a person leaves long-term isolation, they’ll face many challenges as they re-enter society.</p> <p>The world will have changed. There’s a lot to catch up on, from technological advancements to shifts in social norms.</p> <p>In addition to these broader changes, there’s a need to focus on rebuilding physical and mental health. Health issues that developed during isolation can <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30460-8/fulltext?cid=in%3Adisplay%3Alfhtn0&amp;dclid=CNKCgb7nle0CFVUkjwodG0YCkg">persist or worsen</a>. A weakened immune system might struggle with new infections in a post-COVID world.</p> <p>To navigate this transition, it’s important to establish a routine that includes regular exercise, nutritious meals and comprehensive medical and psychological care.</p> <p>Gradually increasing social interactions can also help in rebuilding relationships and social connections. These steps are supportive in restoring overall health and wellbeing in a changed world.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/233214/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carol-maher-217811">Carol Maher</a>, Professor, Medical Research Future Fund Emerging Leader, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-australia-1180">University of South Australia</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/johanna-badcock-995697">Johanna Badcock</a>, Adjunct Professor, School of Psychological Science | Freelance Research Consultant, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-western-australia-1067">The University of Western Australia</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Ray Tang/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-was-isolated-for-more-than-a-decade-heres-what-that-does-to-the-body-and-mind-233214">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Mind

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Julian Assange's emotional message to Anthony Albanese

<p>Julian Assange has shared an emotional message with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after he touched down in Australia for the first time in over a decade. </p> <p>On Wednesday, the WikiLeaks founder <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/finance/legal/julian-assange-returns-to-australia-after-guilty-plea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pleaded guilty</a> to a single count of espionage in exchange for his freedom after a 14-year long legal battle.</p> <p>After fronting a federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, on Wednesday morning, Assange then boarded a plane to Australia and landed in Canberra on Wednesday night.</p> <p>When he landed, Assange was greeted by a throng of waiting media and a small group of supporters, who he dodged as he headed straight toward his wife, 40-year-old lawyer Stella Assange who is the mother of his two sons, Gabriel and Max.</p> <p>After the emotional family reunion, the 52-year-old spoke with Anthony Albanese, telling him simply, "You saved my life."</p> <p>Mr Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson went on to say that his statement "wasn't an exaggeration".</p> <p>Ms Robinson told the media that her client is “absolutely delighted” to arrive home following “long and complex” negotiations with the government.</p> <p>She said the development was a “huge win” for Australia and showed that Mr Albanese had “stood up to our ally”, the US.</p> <p>“That Julian came home today is the product of 14 long years of legal battles, political advocacy and ongoing campaigning — not just by us, but by so many people in this community,” she said.</p> <p>Mr Albanese later tweeted a picture of himself on the phone with the caption, “Earlier tonight I was pleased to speak with Julian Assange to welcome him home to his family in Australia."</p> <p>“His arrival home ends a long-running legal process. I want to express my appreciation to the United States and the United Kingdom for their efforts in making this possible."</p> <p>“As Prime Minister, I have been clear – regardless of what you think of his activities, Mr Assange’s case had dragged on for too long. I have clearly and consistently – at every opportunity and at every level – advocated for Mr Assange’s case to be concluded.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Wikileaks/UPI/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p> <p> </p>

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Julian Assange has been in the headlines for almost two decades. Here’s why he’s such a significant public figure

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-ricketson-3616">Matthew Ricketson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p>“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is a famous quotation usually attributed to Thomas Jefferson, a founder of US democracy.</p> <p>For Julian Assange, the price of freedom has been five years in jail while he fought extradition to the United States to face charges no democracy worthy of the name should ever have brought.</p> <p>It is profoundly heartening news to see Assange’s release from London’s Belmarsh prison and flight home to Australia via a US territory in the western pacific. He’ll face a hearing and sentencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-plea-deal-what-does-it-mean-for-the-wikileaks-founder-and-what-happens-now-233207">this morning</a> in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, to formalise a plea deal with the US government.</p> <p>It is profoundly disheartening, though, to see the lengths to which a nation state has gone to punish a publisher who released documents and videos that revealed US troops allegedly committing war crimes in the Iraq war two decades ago.</p> <p>Assange has been a controversial international figure for so many years now it’s easy to lose sight of what he has done, why he attracted such fiercely polarised views, and what his incarceration means for journalism and democracy.</p> <h2>What did he do?</h2> <p>Assange, an Australian national, came to prominence in the 2000s for setting up <a href="https://wikileaks.org/">WikiLeaks</a>, a website that published leaked government, military and intelligence documents disclosing a range of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47907890">scandals</a> in various countries.</p> <p>Most of the documents were released in full. For Assange, this fulfilled his aim of radical transparency. For critics, it led to the release of documents that could <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/9/3/wikileaks-criticised-over-uncensored-cables">endanger the lives</a> of intelligence sources.</p> <p>This remains a point of contention. Some have asserted Assange’s attitude toward those named in leaked documents was cavalier and that the publication of some documents was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/b70da83fd111496dbdf015acbb7987fb">simply unnecessary</a>.</p> <p>But critics, especially those in the US military, have been unable to point to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622">specific instances</a> in which the release of documents has led to a person’s death. In 2010, Joe Biden, the then vice-president, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna40702904">acknowledged</a> WikiLeaks’ publications had caused “no substantive damage”. Then US Defense Secretary Robert Gates <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/12/712659290/how-much-did-wikileaks-damage-u-s-national-security">said</a> at the time countries dealt with the US because it was in their best interests, “not because they believe we can keep secrets”.</p> <p>The key to WikiLeaks’ success was that Assange and his colleagues found a way to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-11026659">encrypt the documents</a> and make them untraceable, to protect whistleblower sources from official retribution. It was a strategy later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/05/guardian-launches-securedrop-whistleblowers-documents">copied</a> by mainstream media organisations.</p> <p>WikiLeaks became famous around the globe in April 2010 when it released hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47907890">documents</a> in tranches known as the Afghan war logs, the Iraq war logs and Cablegate. They revealed numerous alleged war crimes and provided the raw material for a shadow history of the disastrous wars waged by the Americans and their allies, including Australia, in Afghanistan and Iraq following the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks.</p> <p>Documents are one thing, video another. Assange released <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/CollateralMurder.ogv/CollateralMurder.ogv.360p.vp9.webm">a video</a> called “Collateral Murder”. It showed US soldiers in a helicopter shooting and killing Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists in 2007.</p> <p>Apart from how the soldiers in the video speak – “Hahaha, I hit them”, “Nice”, “Good shot” – it looks like most of the victims are civilians and the journalists’ cameras are mistaken for rifles.</p> <p>When one of the wounded men tries to crawl to safety, the helicopter crew, instead of allowing their US comrades on the ground to take him prisoner as required by <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/rules-of-war">the rules of war</a>, seeks permission to shoot him again.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="tc-infographic-1064" class="tc-infographic" style="border: none;" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/1064/0f0903c8d2249ac24316f2a86f5e0f231b6546e6/site/index.html" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <p>The soldiers’ request for authorisation to shoot is granted. The wounded man is carried to a nearby minibus, which is then shot to pieces with the helicopter’s gun. The driver and two other rescuers are killed instantly while the driver’s two young children inside are seriously wounded.</p> <p>US army command investigated the matter, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622">concluding</a> the soldiers acted in accordance with the rules of war. Despite this, US prosecutors <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/15/julian-assange-indictment-fails-to-mention-wikileaks-video-that-exposed-us-war-crimes-in-iraq">didn’t include</a> the video in its indictment against Assange, leading to accusations it didn’t want such material further exposed in public.</p> <p>Equally to the point, the public would never have known an alleged war crime had been committed without the release of the video.</p> <h2>Going into exile</h2> <p>Assange and WikiLeaks had no sooner become famous than it all began to come to a halt.</p> <p>He was alleged to have sexually assaulted <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792">two women</a>. He holed up the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/world/americas/ecuador-to-let-assange-stay-in-its-embassy.html">Ecuadoran embassy</a> in London for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/7276b35e8d5944e7b5ca280ab0390b26">seven years</a> to avoid being extradited to Sweden for questioning over the alleged assaults, from where he could then be extradited to the US. Then he was <a href="https://mondediplo.com/2024/02/11assange">imprisoned in England</a> for the past five years.</p> <p>It has been confusing to following the byzantine twists and turns of the Assange case. His character has been reviled by his opponents and revered by his supporters.</p> <p>Even journalists, who are supposed to be in the same business of speaking truth to power, have adopted contradictory stances towards Assange, oscillating between giving him awards (a <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/board-statement-4-16/">Walkley</a> for his outstanding contribution to journalism) and shunning him (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/opinion/julian-assange-wikileaks.html">The New York Times</a> has said he is a source rather than a journalist).</p> <h2>Personal suffering</h2> <p>After Sweden eventually <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792">dropped</a> the sexual assault charges, the US government swiftly ramped up its request to extradite Assange to face charges under the Espionage Act, which, if successful, could have led to a jail term of up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/25/explainer-who-is-julian-assange-and-what-are-the-details-of-his-plea-deal#:%7E:text=After%20his%20departure%20from%20the,to%20175%20years%20in%20prison.">175 years</a>.</p> <p>Until this week, most of the recent headlines about Assange have been about this extradition attempt. Most recently, he was granted the <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assanges-appeal-to-avoid-extradition-will-go-ahead-it-could-be-legally-groundbreaking-227859">right to appeal</a> the UK Home Secretary’s order that he be extradited to the US.</p> <p>This brings us to now, where if all goes according to legal planning, Assange will <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-plea-deal-what-does-it-mean-for-the-wikileaks-founder-and-what-happens-now-233207">plead guilty</a> to one count under the US Espionage Act, then fly back to Australia.</p> <p>But the long, protracted and very public case, legal or otherwise, has raised questions yet to be fully reckoned with.</p> <p>Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, thoroughly investigated the case against Assange and laid it out in forensic detail in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622">2022 book</a>.</p> <p>In it, he wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Assange case is the story of a man who is being persecuted and abused for exposing the dirty secrets of the powerful, including war crimes, torture and corruption. It is a story of deliberate judicial arbitrariness in Western democracies that are otherwise keen to present themselves as exemplary in the area of human rights.</p> </blockquote> <p>He’s also suffered significantly in legal and diplomatic processes in at least four countries.</p> <p>Since being imprisoned in 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/25/julian-assange-plea-deal-with-us-free-to-return-australia#:%7E:text=WikiLeaks%20said%20on%20X%20that,isolated%2023%20hours%20a%20day%E2%80%9D">Assange’s team says</a> he’s spent much of that time in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day, has been denied all but the most limited access to his legal team, let alone family and friends, and was kept in a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54060427">glass box</a> during his seemingly interminable extradition hearing.</p> <p>His physical and mental health have suffered to the point where he has been put on <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wikileaks-julian-assange-at-very-high-risk-of-suicide-attempt-psychiatric-expert-tells-court/">suicide watch</a>. Again, that seems to be the point, as Melzer writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>The primary purpose of persecuting Assange is not – and never has been – to punish him personally, but to establish a generic precedent with a global deterrent effect on other journalist, publicists and activists.</p> </blockquote> <p>So while Assange himself is human and his suffering real, his lengthy time in the spotlight have turned him into more of a symbol. This is true whether you think of him as the hero exposing the dirty secrets of governments, or as something much more sinister.</p> <p>If his experience has taught us anything, it’s that speaking truth to power can come at an unfathomable personal cost.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/233232/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-ricketson-3616">Matthew Ricketson</a>, Professor of Communication, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Vianney Le Caer/Shutterstock Editorial</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-has-been-in-the-headlines-for-almost-two-decades-heres-why-hes-such-a-significant-public-figure-233232">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

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Julian Assange returns to Australia after guilty plea

<p>Julian Assange is set to return to Australia on Wednesday night after pleading guilty to a single count of espionage, ending his 14-year legal saga. </p> <p>The WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty at a court hearing in a federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, on Wednesday morning. </p> <p>The 52-year-old was accompanied by Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd as he pleaded guilty to a single felony charge for publishing US military secrets, in a deal with the US justice department that will secure his freedom. </p> <p>The hearing is the culmination of the US government’s years-long pursuit of Assange, who has been painted both as a hero of press freedom and a reckless criminal for exposing hundreds of thousands of sensitive military documents through WikiLeaks. </p> <p>During the hearing, Assange was asked by the judge to explain “what it is you did”, as Assange explained, “working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information.”</p> <p>Under the deal with the US justice department, Assange will be free to leave the court due to time already served in a UK prison and to travel on to Australia to be reunited with his family.</p> <p>Assange's wife Stella, a lawyer who married the WikiLeaks founder in prison in 2022, told the BBC from Australia that it had been “touch and go” over 72 hours whether the deal would go ahead.</p> <p>“He will be a free man once it is signed off by a judge,” she said, adding that she is still coming to terms with the news. </p> <p>Following the hearing, Assange's lawyer addressed the press and praised the judge for withholding a jail sentence.</p> <p>"The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented," he said.</p> <div> <p>"In the 100 years of the Espionage Act it has never been used by the US to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange."</p> <p>He went on to say that Assange has "suffered tremendously" over the last 14 years, adding that he would remain a "powerful voice" as WikiLeaks continues its work when Assange lands in Australia.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Samantha Solomn/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p> </div>

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Two iconic locations officially given dual Indigenous titles

<p>In a significant move to recognise and honour the rich cultural heritage of the Indigenous peoples of Australia, two iconic locations in northern NSW will now be officially known by their Indigenous names. This decision comes after impassioned calls from the community to acknowledge the profound significance these sites hold in Indigenous culture and history.</p> <p>Walgan, translating to "shoulder" in the Bundjalung language, has been designated as the dual name for Cape Byron, marking it as the Australian mainland's most easterly point. Cape Byron, situated in the picturesque town of Byron Bay, has long been a hotspot for tourists seeking stunning coastal views. However, beyond its natural beauty, this area holds deep cultural significance for the Arakwal and other Bundjalung people. It has served as a sacred site for important gatherings and traditional ceremonial practices, anchoring it firmly in the cultural tapestry of the region.</p> <p>Similarly, Nguthungulli, referred to as the "Father of the World", will now share its name with Julian Rocks, a renowned diving destination located 2.5km off Cape Byron. This underwater marvel, steeped in Aboriginal lore and legend, is intricately tied to the dreaming stories of the Arakwal and other Bundjalung communities.</p> <p>By bestowing these dual names, authorities aim to not only pay homage to the Indigenous heritage of the land but also to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of its significance among all Australians.</p> <p>The decision to officially recognise these dual names was approved by the NSW Geographical Names Board, following a submission from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Additionally, in a nod to preserving local Indigenous language and culture, a reserve in the suburb of Bangalow will be formally named Piccabeen Park. The term "Piccabeen" originates from the Bundjalung language, referring to the bangalow palm and the traditional baskets crafted from its fronds.</p> <p>Jihad Dib, the Customer Service Minister, emphasised the NSW government's commitment to safeguarding and promoting Indigenous language and culture through place naming. "All Australians share a relationship to the land and the names we give to places convey their significance, sense of history and identity," he said "Dual-naming acknowledges the significance of Aboriginal culture and represents a meaningful step towards the process of unity in NSW."</p> <p>Echoing these sentiments, David Harris, the Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty Minister, underscored the enduring connections that the Arakwal and other Bundjalung peoples have maintained with these sites since time immemorial. "It is only right to honour that history and that connection through names that bring story and language to life for all Australians to enjoy," he said.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

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Tragic confirmation of Julian Sands' death

<p>Missing British actor Julia Sands has been confirmed dead at age 65.</p> <p>Californian hikers <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/news/news/human-remains-found-in-search-for-missing-actor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discovered human remains</a> in the surrounding area where the actor was said to have vanished, and the remains have now been identified as Sands, according to authorities.</p> <p>"The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood," the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department said in a statement.</p> <p>"The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results," it continued.</p> <p>"We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands.”</p> <p>Sands’ tragic death comes days after a search and rescue was resumed by the San Bernardino Sherrif’s Office, which had been leading the searches for the missing actor over the past six months.</p> <p>The local region experienced wild and uncharacteristic weather which led to a more difficult search.</p> <p>Sands was first reported missing in January after setting out to hike the notoriously dangerous Mount Baldy, which rises more than 10,000 feet (approx. 3048 metres) east of Los Angeles and has been hit with severe storms during their winter season.</p> <p>"We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer," the statement said.</p> <p>Sands’ family released a statement at the time of his disappearance, saying, "Our heartfelt thanks to the compassionate members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department who are coordinating the search for our beloved Julian, not least the heroic search teams listed below who are braving difficult conditions on the ground and in the air to bring Julian home,”</p> <p>Sands’ son Henry also released a statement in April to praise the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department for their continued efforts in rescuing his father.</p> <p>"I am hugely appreciative for all the efforts made so far from the volunteer search and rescue climbers and the San Bernardino county sheriff team to bring my father home," Henry Sands told <em>The Times</em>.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

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Human remains found in search for missing actor

<p>Californian hikers have discovered human remains in the wilderness area where actor Julian Sands disappeared more than five months ago, according to authorities.</p> <p>Officials have not yet identified the victim.</p> <p>The remains were transported to the coroner’s office for confirmation, which is expected to be completed next week, <em>The New York Post</em> reported.</p> <p>Sands was reported missing on January 13 after he failed to return from a hiking trip in Mount Baldy, located about 72 kilometres east of Los Angeles.</p> <p>The search – consisting of 80 volunteers and officials – resumed on June 12 after a temporary suspension.</p> <p>Police have conducted eight ground and air searches since the actor's disappearance on the mountain.</p> <p>“Despite the recent warmer weather, portions of the mountain remain inaccessible due to extreme alpine conditions. Multiple areas include steep terrain and ravines, which still have 10-plus feet [about 16 metres] of ice and snow,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said.</p> <p>Sands’ family spoke publicly for the first time since he vanished, releasing a statement on June 23 to express their gratitude for the ongoing search and rescue efforts.</p> <p>“We are deeply grateful to the search teams and co-ordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian,” the family said.</p> <p>“We continue to hold Julian in our hearts, with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer.”</p> <p>Sands is known for starring in films such as Arachnophobia, A Room with a View, Warlock and Leaving Las Vegas.</p> <p>Mt. Baldy is renowned for being one of the most dangerous peaks to climb in California.</p> <p>According to the<em> Los Angeles Times</em>, six people have died with crews conducting over 100 searches as daredevils and avid hikers alike are drawn to the daunting challenge of the more-than-16,000 metre climb.</p> <p>In January, officials found hiker Jin Chung, 75, who had become lost on Mount Baldy and was hospitalised with a leg injury and other weather-related injuries.</p> <p>Before Chung’s brief disappearance, a mother of four fell more than 500 to 700 feet to her death.</p> <p>Crystal Paula Gonzalez, renowned as a “hiking queen”, slipped on the steep icy hillside and later died from her injuries, officials reported.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Facebook / Getty</em></p>

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Coastal property prices and climate risks are both soaring. We must pull our heads out of the sand

<p>Australians’ <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/australians-beach">well-documented</a> affinity with the sun, surf and sand continues to fuel <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/stunning-holiday-hotspots-where-house-prices-have-doubled-in-five-years-20221109-p5bwuk.html">coastal property market growth</a>. This growth defies rising interest rates and growing evidence of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/23/against-the-tide-storm-battered-wamberal-residents-cling-to-beachfront-homes">impacts of climate change</a> on people living in vulnerable coastal locations.</p> <p>People in these areas are finding it harder to insure their properties against these risks. Insurers view the Australian market as sensitive to climate risks, as climate change impacts can trigger large insurance payouts. They are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/12/australians-facing-prohibitive-insurance-premiums-after-climate-related-disasters">pricing their products accordingly</a>.</p> <p>Clearly, there is a vast disconnect between the coastal property market and climate change impacts such as increasingly severe storms, tidal surges, coastal erosion and flooding. There is no shortage of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/32-billion-of-cba-mortgages-exposed-to-extreme-weather-risks-climate-analysis-finds-20220819-p5bb5p.html">reports</a>, <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/australian-homes-uninsurable-2030-climate-risk-map/">studies</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-18/gold-coast-council-additional-88-000-properties-at-flood-risk/101664596">analyses</a> confirming the climate risks we are already living with. Yet another alarming <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/research/environmental-impacts/climate-change/State-of-the-Climate">State of the Climate</a> report was released last week.</p> <p>We keep talking about reaching global net-zero emissions. But this “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwD1kG4PI0w">blah blah blah</a>” masks the fact that climate impacts are already with us. Even if we make deeper, faster cuts to emissions, as we must, our world is now warmer. Australians will <a href="https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/science-policy-and-analysis/reports-and-publications/risks-australia-three-degrees-c-warmer-world">feel the effects of that warming</a>.</p> <p>We ultimately cannot afford the price of business as usual, as embodied by so many coastal developments.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZwD1kG4PI0w?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Greta Thunberg denounces the ‘blah, blah, blah’ from world leaders in response to the climate emergency.</span></figcaption></figure> <p><strong>Risks are worrying banks and insurers</strong></p> <p>In Australia, the disasters and the environmental collapse we are experiencing will get worse. While a range of businesses see this as opening up <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-internet-sweeps-target-greenwashing-fake-online-reviews">new market and product frontiers</a>, the fact is climate change is creating a fundamentally uncertain, unstable and difficult world.</p> <p>Banks have a <a href="https://law-store.wolterskluwer.com/s/product/banking-on-climate-change-how-finance-actors-regulatory-regimes/01t0f00000J3aMk">central role</a> in addressing climate risks. They are <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-can-your-bank-help-reduce-climate-change-risks-to-your-home-60049">exposed to climate risk</a> through residential lending on properties that are vulnerable to climate impacts and now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/26/australias-unraveling-climate-risk-leaving-more-homes-uninsurable-against-flooding-expert-warns">face insurance pressures</a>.</p> <p>One in 25 Australian homes are <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/australian-homes-uninsurable-2030-climate-risk-map/">projected to be uninsurable by 2030</a>. The Australian government risks bearing the large costs of supporting the underinsured or uninsured – otherwise known as <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/disaster-funding/report">being “the insurer of last resort”</a>.</p> <p>This costly legacy shows why planning decisions made now must take account of climate change impacts, and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40641-020-00161-z">not just in the wake of disasters</a>.</p> <p>The rapidly escalating impacts and risks across sectors demand that we undertake mitigation and adaptation at the same time, urgently and on a large scale. This means reducing emissions to negative levels – not just reaching net zero and transitioning our energy sector, but also actively removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.</p> <p>We must also respond to climate change risks already locked into the system. We have to make substantial changes in how we think about, treat, price and act on these risks.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Australia’s ‘unraveling’ climate risk leaving more homes uninsurable against flooding, expert warns <a href="https://t.co/cLj1SKei72">https://t.co/cLj1SKei72</a></p> <p>— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) <a href="https://twitter.com/GuardianAus/status/1596294943529893888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p><strong>As the climate shifts, so must our coastal dream</strong></p> <p>The consequences of a warming climate, including reaching and crossing tipping points in the Earth’s weather systems, are <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950#core-collateral-purchase-access">occurring sooner than anticipated</a>. The required behavioural, institutional and structural changes are vast and challenging.</p> <p>People are often attached to places based on <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/tran.12368">historical knowledge</a> of them. These lived experiences, while important, inform a worldview based on an understanding of our environment before the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-2428-6_2">rapid onset</a> of climate change. This can skew our climate risk responses, but compounding climate impacts are outpacing our ability to adapt as we might have in the past.</p> <p>Institutional signalling, such as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/property-values-are-at-risk-in-climate-change-hot-spots-rba-warns-20210917-p58skt.html">warnings by the Reserve Bank</a>, support greater public awareness of climate impacts and risks.</p> <p>When buying a property, people need to consider these factors more seriously than, say, having an extra bathroom. Obligatory disclosure of regional climate change impacts could inform buyers’ decision-making. The data and models used would have to be clear on the validity and limitations of their scenarios.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">A great presentation from <a href="https://twitter.com/Tayanah?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Tayanah</a> at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/C2C2021?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#C2C2021</a> about the legal status of property rights in Australia enabling (or otherwise...) managed retreat as a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/climateadaptation?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#climateadaptation</a> solution. Once again we find the climate projections are ahead of our legal preced…<a href="https://t.co/XgDVV5O0Gj">https://t.co/XgDVV5O0Gj</a></p> <p>— Anthony Boxshall (@ScienceN2Action) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScienceN2Action/status/1420173588217303044?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2021</a></p></blockquote> <p><strong>Nature-based and equitable solutions</strong></p> <p>In recent years there has been an increasing focus on nature-based solutions. This approach uses natural systems and tools for tackling societal issues such as the enormous and complex risks posed by climate change. Indeed, many Indigenous peoples, communities and ways of knowing <a href="https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/full/10.1139/facets-2019-0058">have long recognised</a> the fundamental role of nature in making good and safe lives possible for people.</p> <p>Nature-based solutions provide a suite of valuable tools for remedying issues we’re already facing on coasts. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964569121000399">For example</a>, in many contexts, building hard seawalls is often a temporary solution, which instils a false sense of security. Planting soft barriers such as mangroves and dense, deep-rooting vegetation can provide a more enduring solution. It also restores fish habitat, purifies water and eases floods.</p> <p>Acknowledging the well-being of people and nature as interconnected has important implications for decisions about relocating people from high-risk areas. Effective planned retreat strategies must not only get people out of harm’s way, but account for where they will move and how precious ecosystems will be protected as demand for land supply shifts. Nature-based solutions must be built into retreat policies too.</p> <p>As the Australian Academy of Science’s <a href="https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/events/launch-national-strategy-just-adaptation">Strategy for Just Adaptation</a> explains, effective adaptation also embeds equity and justice in the process. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02535-1">Research</a> on historic retreat strategies has shown that a failure to properly consider and respect people’s choices, resources and histories can further entrench inequities. Giving people moving to a new home as much choice as possible helps them work through an emotional and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964569116301119">highly political process</a>.</p> <p>We all need to find the courage to have difficult conversations, to seek information to make prudent choices, and to do all we can to respond to the growing climate risks that confront us. As climate activist Greta Thunburg <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwD1kG4PI0w">says</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>“Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah blah blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people.”</p> </blockquote> <p>Acting on this kind of hope can put us on an altogether different and more positive path.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195357/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em>Writen by Tayanah O'Donnell and Eleanor Robson. Republished with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/coastal-property-prices-and-climate-risks-are-both-soaring-we-must-pull-our-heads-out-of-the-sand-195357" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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Why this mum who stabbed a man to death was hailed a hero by her sons

<p>UK mother Sarah Sands stabbed a paedophile to death after finding out her children were sexually abused.</p> <p>The paedophile, Michael Pleasted, aged 77, was stabbed eight times in 2014 in a “determined and sustained attack” that saw him bleed to death.</p> <p>Pleasted was already a convicted paedophile and had legally changed his name from Robin Moult to conceal a long past of abusing children.</p> <p>Ms Sands’ three children told her Pleasted, who lived across the road from the family in London, had abused them.</p> <p>She took matters into her own hands. “For paedophiles, if you touch children, there has to be consequences,” Ms Sands told BBC Breakfast.</p> <p>“And hiding behind name changes … it has to be taken away from them. That right to change their name has to taken away from them.”</p> <p>Her children, who have waived their anonymity, said they think their mum is a hero for killing their abuser.</p> <p>Bradley, who was 11 at the time, said: “I thought, ‘hats off’. I’m not going to deny it.”</p> <p>Alfie added: “It did make us feel safer. It didn’t slow down the nightmares. But it did give us a sense of security because you didn’t have to walk down the street thinking he was going to come around the corner.</p> <p>“He lived literally across the road from us. I could open that window over there and I’d see his house.”</p> <p>Pleasted’s council flat overlooked a playground and school in Canning Town, East London. However, nobody knew of his past because he had changed his name and his crimes predated the sex offenders' register.</p> <p>Ms Sands was convicted of manslaughter on the basis of loss of control after trial in 2015, and was eventually jailed for seven and a half years after having her sentenced increased by the Court of Appeal.</p> <p>She said she originally intended to threaten Pleasted, who was on bail awaiting trial, to make him plead guilty so her children did not have to give evidence in court.</p> <p>Labour MP Sarah Champion told the BBC some offenders are using name changes to avoid criminal records checks needed for jobs – including working with children.</p> <p>“Once they have changed their names, they are able to get a new driving licence and passport in that name. That enables them to get a new DBS (disclosure and barring service) check,” she said.</p> <p>The UK Home Office said it has already carried out a review of the issue and the UK already has strict rules in place to deal with sex offenders living in the community.</p> <p><em>Image: BBC</em></p>

Family & Pets

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The wild weather of La Niña could wipe out vast stretches of Australia’s beaches and sand dunes

<p>Australians along the east cost are bracing for yet another round of heavy rainfall this weekend, after a band of stormy weather soaked <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-our-wettest-days-stormclouds-can-dump-30-trillion-litres-of-water-across-australia-191949">most of the continent</a> this week.</p> <p>The Bureau of Meteorology has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUsNQ_-fNbM&amp;ab_channel=BureauofMeteorology">alerted</a> southern inland Queensland, eastern New South Wales, Victoria and northern Tasmania to ongoing flood risks, as the rain falls on already flooded or saturated catchments.</p> <p>This widespread wet weather heralds <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-nina-3-years-in-a-row-a-climate-scientist-on-what-flood-weary-australians-can-expect-this-summer-190542">Australia’s rare third</a> back-to-back La Niña, which goes hand-in-hand with heavy rain. There is, however, another pressing issue arising from La Niña events: coastal erosion.</p> <p>The wild weather associated with La Niña will drive more erosion along Australia’s east coast – enough to wipe out entire stretches of beaches and dunes, if all factors align. So, it’s important we heed lessons from past storms and plan ahead, as climate change <a href="https://theconversation.com/2022s-supercharged-summer-of-climate-extremes-how-global-warming-and-la-nina-fueled-disasters-on-top-of-disasters-190546">will only exacerbate</a> future coastal disasters.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QUsNQ_-fNbM?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Ongoing flood risk for eastern Australia | Bureau of Meteorology.</span></figcaption></figure> <h2>How La Niña batters coastlines</h2> <p>La Niña is associated with warmer waters in the western Pacific Ocean, which increase storminess off Australia’s east coast. Chances of a higher number of tropical cyclones increase, as do the chances of cyclones travelling further south and further inland, and of more frequent passages of east coast lows.</p> <p>Australians had a taste of this in 1967, when the Gold Coast was hit by the largest storm cluster on record, made up of four cyclones and three east coast lows within six months. 1967 wasn’t even an official La Niña year, with the index just below the La Niña threshold.</p> <p>Such frequency didn’t allow beaches to recover between storms, and the overall erosion was unprecedented. It <a href="https://impact.griffith.edu.au/seawall-engineering/">forced many</a> local residents to use anything on hand, even cars, to protect their properties and other infrastructure.</p> <p>Official La Niña events occurred soon after. This included a double-dip La Niña between 1970 and 1972, followed by a triple-dip La Niña between 1973 and 1976.</p> <p>These events fuelled two cyclones in 1972, two in 1974 and one in 1976, wreaking havoc along the entire east coast of Australia. Indeed, 1967 and 1974 are considered <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/one-of-the-storms-that-hit-us-in-1974-was-among-the-three-worst-since-white-settlement/news-story/0cd5ca874d6b37206762d8485e4eb442">record years</a> for storm-induced coastal erosion.</p> <p>Studies show the extreme erosion of 1974 was caused by a combination of large waves coinciding with <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1066&amp;context=scipapers">above-average high tides</a>. It took over ten years for the sand to come back to the beach and for <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4300263">dunes to recover</a>. However, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00437-2">recent studies</a> also show single extreme storms can bring back considerable amounts of sand from deeper waters.</p> <p>La Niña also modifies the direction of waves along the east coast, resulting in waves approaching from a more easterly direction (<a href="https://www.surfline.com/surf-news/forecaster-blog-la-nina-conditions-mean-surf/97904">anticlockwise</a>).</p> <p>This subtle change has huge implications when it comes to erosion of otherwise more sheltered <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/how-la-nina-may-damage-queensland-tourist-hot-spots-041805874.html">north-facing beaches</a>. We saw this during the recent, and relatively weaker, double La Niña of 2016-18.</p> <p>In 2016, an east coast low of only moderate intensity produced extreme erosion, similar to that of 1974. Scenes of destruction along NSW – including a collapsed backyard pool on <a href="https://www.wrl.unsw.edu.au/news/wrl-coastal-engineers-document-the-worst-erosion-at-collaroy-since-1974">Collaroy Beach</a> – are now <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-06/nsw-weather-large-waves-hit-collaroy-coast/7479846#:%7E:text=NSW%20weather%3A%20Collaroy%20swimming%20pool%20collapses%20as%20giant%20waves%20hit%20beachfront%20houses,-Posted%20Sun%205&amp;text=Waves%20up%20to%208%20metres,as%20wild%20weather%20battered%20NSW.">iconic</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05792-1">This is largely</a> because wave direction deviated from the average by 45 degrees anticlockwise, during winter solstice spring tides when water levels are higher.</p> <h2>All ducks aligned?</h2> <p>The current triple-dip La Niña started in 2020. Based on Australia’s limited record since 1900, we know the final events in such sequences tend to be the weakest.</p> <p>However, when it comes to coastal hazards, history tells us smaller but more frequent storms can cause as much or more erosion than one large event. This is mostly about the combination of storm direction, sequencing and high water levels.</p> <p>For example, Bribie Island in Queensland was hit by relatively large easterly waves from ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth earlier this year, coinciding with above-average high tides. This caused the island to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-27/bribie-island-changes-could-create-new-caloundra-bar/100777038#:%7E:text=Ex%2DTropical%20Cyclone%20Seth%20has,splitting%20the%20island%20in%20two.">split in two</a> and form a 300-metre wide passage of seawater.</p> <p>Further, the prolonged period of easterly waves since 2020 has already taken a toll on beaches and dunes in Australia.</p> <p>Traditionally, spring is the season when sand is transported onshore under fair-weather waves, building back wide beaches and tall dunes nearest to the sea. However, beaches haven’t had time to fully recover from the previous two years, which makes them more vulnerable to future erosion.</p> <p>Repeated <a href="https://www.usc.edu.au/about/structure/schools/school-of-science-technology-and-engineering/coast4d">elevation measurements</a> by our team and citizen scientists along beaches in the Sunshine Coast and Noosa show shorelines have eroded more than 10m landwards since the beginning of this year. As the photo below shows, 2-3m high erosion scarps (which look like small cliffs) have formed along dunes due to frequent heavy rainfalls and waves.</p> <p>On the other hand, we can also see that the wet weather has led to greater growth of vegetation on dunes, such as native spinifex and dune bean.</p> <p>Experiments in laboratory settings show dune vegetation can dissipate up to 40-50% of the water level reached as a result of waves, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272771418307583">reduce erosion</a>. But whether this increase in dune vegetation mitigates further erosion remains to be seen.</p> <h2>A challenging future</h2> <p>The chances of witnessing coastal hazards similar to those in 1967 or 1974 in the coming season are real and, in the unfortunate case they materialise, we should be ready to act. Councils and communities need to prepare ahead and work together towards recovery if disaster strikes using, for example, sand nourishment and sandbags.</p> <p>Looking ahead, it remains essential to further our understanding about coastal dynamics – especially in a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-03/gold-coast-no-stranger-to-beach-erosion/101381812#:%7E:text=a%20huge%20challenge-,Millions%20spent%20to%20protect%20Gold%20Coast%20beaches%2C%20but,change%20poses%20a%20huge%20challenge&amp;text=In%201967%2C%20Gold%20Coast%20beaches,and%20ruined%20the%20tourist%20season.">changing climate</a> – so we can better manage densely populated coastal regions.</p> <p>After all, much of what we know about the dynamics of Australia’s east coast has been supported by coastal monitoring programs, which were implemented <a href="https://www.publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/coastal-observation-program-engineering">along Queensland</a> and NSW after the 1967 and 1974 storms.</p> <p>Scientists predict that La Niña conditions along the east coast of Australia – such as warmer waters, higher sea levels, stronger waves and more waves coming from the east – will become <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-fuelled-wave-patterns-pose-an-erosion-risk-for-developing-countries-184064">the norm under climate change</a>.</p> <p>It’s crucial we start having a serious conversation about coastal adaptation strategies, including implementing a <a href="https://www.usc.edu.au/about/unisc-news/news-archive/2022/january/coastal-erosion-may-force-retreat-from-the-sea#:%7E:text=Giving%20up%20land%20to%20the,of%20the%20Sunshine%20Coast%20researcher.">managed retreat</a>. The longer we take, the higher the costs will be.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191941/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/javier-leon-262182">Javier Leon</a>, Senior lecturer, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-sunshine-coast-1068">University of the Sunshine Coast</a></em></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wild-weather-of-la-nina-could-wipe-out-vast-stretches-of-australias-beaches-and-sand-dunes-191941">original article</a>.</p>

Domestic Travel

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A new book argues Julian Assange is being tortured. Will our new PM do anything about it?

<p>It is easy to forget why Julian Assange has been on trial in England for, well, seemingly forever.</p> <p>Didn’t he allegedly sexually assault two women in Sweden? Isn’t that why he holed up for years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid facing charges? When the bobbies finally dragged him out of the embassy, didn’t his dishevelled appearance confirm all those stories about his lousy personal hygiene?</p> <p>Didn’t he persuade Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning to hack into the United States military’s computers to reveal national security matters that endangered the lives of American soldiers and intelligence agents? He says he is a journalist, but hasn’t the New York Times made it clear he is just a “source” and not a publisher entitled to first amendment protection?</p> <p>If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you are not alone. But the answers are actually no. At very least, it’s more complicated than that.</p> <p>To take one example, the reason Assange was dishevelled was that staff in the Ecuadorian embassy had confiscated his shaving gear three months before to ensure his appearance matched his stereotype when the arrest took place.</p> <p>That is one of the findings of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, whose investigation of the case against Assange has been laid out in forensic detail in <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/trial-of-julian-assange-9781839766220/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Trial of Julian Assange</a>.</p> <p>What is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture doing investigating the Assange case, you might ask? So did Melzer when Assange’s lawyers first approached him in 2018:</p> <blockquote> <p>I had more important things to do: I had to take care of “real” torture victims!</p> </blockquote> <p>Melzer returned to a report he was writing about overcoming prejudice and self-deception when dealing with official corruption. “Not until a few months later,” he writes, “would I realise the striking irony of this situation.”</p> <p>The 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council directly appoint <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-torture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">special rapporteurs on torture</a>. The position is unpaid – Melzer earns his living as a professor of international law – but they have diplomatic immunity and operate largely outside the UN’s hierarchies.</p> <p>Among the many pleas for his attention, Melzer’s small office chooses between 100 and 200 each year to officially investigate. His conclusions and recommendations are not binding on states. He bleakly notes that in barely 10% of cases does he receive full co-operation from states and an adequate resolution.</p> <p>He received nothing like full co-operation in investigating Assange’s case. He gathered around 10,000 pages of procedural files, but a lot of them came from leaks to journalists or from freedom-of-information requests. Many pages had been redacted. Rephrasing <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-von-Clausewitz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carl Von Clausewitz</a>’s maxim, Melzer wrote his book as “the continuation of diplomacy by other means”.</p> <p>What he finds is stark and disturbing:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Assange case is the story of a man who is being persecuted and abused for exposing the dirty secrets of the powerful, including war crimes, torture and corruption. It is a story of deliberate judicial arbitrariness in Western democracies that are otherwise keen to present themselves as exemplary in the area of human rights.</p> <p>It is the story of wilful collusion by intelligence services behind the back of national parliaments and the general public. It is a story of manipulated and manipulative reporting in the mainstream media for the purpose of deliberately isolating, demonizing, and destroying a particular individual. It is the story of a man who has been scapegoated by all of us for our own societal failures to address government corruption and state-sanctioned crimes.</p> <h2>Collateral murder</h2> <p>The dirty secrets of the powerful are difficult to face, which is why we – and I don’t exclude myself – swallow neatly packaged slurs and diversions of the kind listed at the beginning of this article.</p> <p>Melzer rightly takes us back to April 2010, four years after the Australian-born Assange had founded WikiLeaks, a small organisation set up to publish official documents that it had received, encrypted so as to protect whistle-blowers from official retribution. Assange released video footage showing in horrifying detail how US soldiers in a helicopter had shot and killed Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists in 2007.</p> <p>Apart from how the soldiers spoke – “Hahaha, I hit them”, “Nice”, “Good shot” – it looks like most of the victims were civilians and that the journalists’ cameras were mistaken for rifles. When one of the wounded men tried to crawl to safety, the helicopter crew, instead of allowing their comrades on the ground to take him prisoner, as required by the rules of war, seek permission to shoot him again.</p> <p>As Melzer’s detailed description makes clear, the soldiers knew what they were doing:</p> <blockquote> <p>“Come on, buddy,” the gunner comments, aiming the crosshairs at his helpless target. “All you gotta do is pick up a weapon.”</p> </blockquote> <p>The soldiers’ request for authorisation to shoot is given. When the wounded man is carried to a nearby minibus, it is shot to pieces with the helicopter’s 30mm gun. The driver and two other rescuers are killed instantly. The driver’s two young children inside are seriously wounded.</p> <p>US army command investigated the matter, concluding that the soldiers acted in accordance with the rules of war, even though they had not. Equally to the point, writes Melzer, the public would never have known a war crime had been committed without the release of what Assange called the “Collateral Murder” video.</p> <p>The video footage was just one of hundreds of thousands of documents that WikiLeaks released last year in tranches known as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Afghan war logs</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-war-logs-military-leaks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Iraq war logs</a>, and <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/488953/wikileaks-cablegate-dump-10-biggest-revelations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cablegate</a>. They revealed numerous alleged war crimes and provided the raw material for a shadow history of the disastrous wars waged by the US and its allies, including Australia, in Aghanistan and Iraq.</p> <h2>Punished forever</h2> <p>Melzer retraces what has happened to Assange since then, from the accusations of sexual assault in Sweden to Assange taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in an attempt to avoid the possibility of extradition to the US if he returned to Sweden. His refuge led to him being jailed in the United Kingdom for breaching his bail conditions.</p> <p>Sweden eventually dropped the sexual assault charges, but the US government ramped up its request to extradite Assange. He faces charges under the 1917 Espionage Act, which, if successful, could lead to a jail term of 175 years.</p> <p>Two key points become increasingly clear as Melzer methodically works through the events.</p> <p>The first is that there has been a carefully orchestrated plan by four countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and, yes, Australia – to ensure Assange is punished forever for revealing state secrets.</p> <p>The second is that the conditions he has been subjected to, and will continue to be subjected to if the US’s extradition request is granted, have amounted to torture.</p> <p>On the first point, how else are we to interpret the continual twists and turns over nearly a decade in the official positions taken by Sweden and the UK? Contrary to the obfuscating language of official communiques, all of these have closed down Assange’s options and denied him due process.</p> <p>Melzer documents the thinness of the Swedish authorities’ case for charging Assange with sexual assault. That did not prevent them from keeping it open for many years. Nor was Assange as unco-operative with police as has been suggested. Swedish police kept changing their minds about where and whether to formally interview Assange because they knew the evidence was weak.</p> <p>Melzer also takes pains to show how Swedish police also overrode the interests of the two women who had made the complaints against Assange.</p> <p>It is distressing to read the conditions Assange has endured over several years. A change in the political leadership of Ecuador led to a change in his living conditions in the embassy, from cramped but bearable to virtual imprisonment.</p> <p>Since being taken from the embassy to Belmarsh prison in 2019, Assange has spent much of his time in solitary confinement for 22 or 23 hours a day. He has been denied all but the most limited access to his legal team, let alone family and friends. He was kept in a glass cage during his seemingly interminable extradition hearing, appeals over which could continue for several years more years, according to Melzer.</p> <p>Assange’s physical and mental health have suffered to the point where he has been put on suicide watch. Again, that seems to be the point, as Melzer writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>The primary purpose of persecuting Assange is not – and never has been – to punish him personally, but to establish a generic precedent with a global deterrent effect on other journalist, publicists and activists.</p> </blockquote> <p>So will the new Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, do any more than his three Coalition and two Labor predecessors to advocate for the interests of an Australian citizen? In December 2021, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/02/labor-backbenchers-urge-albanese-to-stay-true-to-his-values-on-julian-assange-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Guardian Australia reported</a> Albanese saying he did “not see what purpose is served by the ongoing pursuit of Mr Assange” and that “enough is enough”. Since being sworn in as prime minister, he has kept his cards close to his chest.</p> <p>The actions of his predecessors suggest he won’t, even though Albanese has already said on several occasions since being elected that he wants to do politics differently.</p> <p>Melzer, among others, would remind him of the words of <a href="https://theelders.org/news/only-us-president-who-didnt-wage-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">former US president Jimmy Carter</a>, who, contrary to other presidents, said he did not deplore the WikiLeaks revelations.</p> <blockquote> <p>They just made public what was the truth. Most often, the revelation of truth, even if it’s unpleasant, is beneficial. […] I think that, almost invariably, the secrecy is designed to conceal improper activities.</p> <p><em><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</strong></em></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p> </blockquote> </blockquote>

Books

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John Lennon’s son performs Imagine for the first time

<p dir="ltr">Julian Lennon has performed his late father John Lennon’s legendary song <em>Imagine</em> for the first time. </p> <p dir="ltr">Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the singer-songwriter shared a video of him performing the 1971 hit song in a candlelit room accompanied by acoustic guitarist Nuno Bettencourt.</p> <p dir="ltr">In the caption, Julian explained that by delivering his own rendition of the song, he was breaking a vow that he would only perform the song "if it was the end of the world".</p> <p dir="ltr">He shared the video during a benefit for Ukrainian refugees, closing out a televised European Union pledge drive that raised $10.1 billion in grants and loans for the cause.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcGJArDlNdK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcGJArDlNdK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Julian Lennon (@julespicturepalace)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">"Today, for the first time ever, I publicly performed my Dad's song, <em>Imagine</em>," the 59-year-old wrote. "I had always said that the only time I would ever consider singing Imagine would be if it was the End of the World…”</p> <p dir="ltr">"The war on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy... As a human, and as an artist, I felt compelled to respond in the most significant way I could."</p> <p dir="ltr">Of the track, Julian said, "Within this song, we're transported to a space, where love and togetherness become our reality, if but for a moment in time...The song reflects the light at the end of the tunnel, that we are all hoping for."</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’m calling on world leaders and everyone who believes in the sentiment of <em>Imagine</em>, to stand up for refugees everywhere!”</p> <p dir="ltr">The fundraiser drive, called Stand Up for Ukraine, closed on April 9th, however international humanitarian organisations are still taking donations to help with the ongoing crisis of the Russian invasion. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Instagram @julespicturepalace</em><span id="docs-internal-guid-6e975720-7fff-2c99-f31d-f4dd8072848f"></span></p>

Music

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Princess Sofia shares stunning new photos of Prince Julian

<p>Princess Sofia of Sweden has taken to social media to share some new family photos.</p> <p>The 36-year-old, who welcomed her third child last week, gushed over the latest addition to their family.</p> <p>Sharing a photo of husband Prince Carl Philip, with their sons, the mum-of-three told fans: "Life gave me not just one but four beautiful princes."</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CM9ty9sA5xc/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CM9ty9sA5xc/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Kungahuset 🇸🇪 (@kungahuset)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>"A heartfelt thank you from us for all the warm congratulations in connection with Julian's birth."</p> <p>The Duchess of Varmland appears to have taken the beautiful black and white photos, which feature older kids Prince Alexander, four, and Prince Gabriel, three, playing with newborn Prince Julian.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CNE-3apnDvA/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CNE-3apnDvA/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Prinsparet (@prinsparet)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Princess Sofia gave birth to Julian Herbert Folke at Danderyd Hospital in Stockholm on March 26, at 11.19 am (9.20 pm AEDT).</p> <p>The bub is seventh in line to the throne behind his aunt Crown Princess Victoria, her two children, his father, and his brothers.</p> <p>As per tradition, a Council of State was held at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on the occasion of the birth of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia's son.</p> <p>In a statement the palace said: "In accordance with His Majesty The King's decision of 7 October 2019 regarding changes in The Royal House, Prince Julian is a member of the Royal Family but not of The Royal House. The Prince will therefore not enjoy the style of Royal Highness."</p>

Family & Pets

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Is Australia looking the other way as Assange is hung out to dry?

<p>Right now, the substantial extradition hearings involving the US government request that the UK hand over publisher and journalist Julian Assange <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-09/julian-assange-what-does-extradition-hearing-mean/12642972">are underway</a>. The Wikileaks founder has been held in British custody at London’s Belmarsh prison since April 2019.</p> <p>The Trump administration is attempting to extradite the Australian through the mechanisms of the UK-US Extradition Treaty.</p> <p>However, due process has been thrown out the window when it comes to the way our fellow citizen has been dragged before the Old Bailey in London.</p> <p>The terms of the 2003 treaty specifically ban extradition over <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-assange/uk-u-s-treaty-bans-extradition-of-assange-lawyer-says-idUSKBN1YN1G9">political offences</a>. And Julian is facing multiple espionage charges in relation to the publishing of classified US government documents: distinctly political crimes.</p> <p>Another major middle finger to the rule of law is the fact that the United States has reached across international jurisdictions and arrested Assange <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/julian-assange-the-afp-raids-and-the-crime-of-dissent/">by proxy</a> for alleged crimes that were committed outside of its own borders.</p> <p>And on top of all this, the UK has been holding Assange on remand on behalf of the States <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/14/julian-assange-to-remain-in-jail-pending-extradition-to-us">since September 2019</a>.</p> <p>A dangerous precedent</p> <p>“There’s no due process being followed whatsoever,” said <a href="https://www.facebook.com/julianassangesydney.townhallgathering?ref=bookmarks">Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering</a> spokesperson Tony Wakeham. “The judicial system couldn’t do more to hobble Assange, than they’re doing – short of killing him.”</p> <p>“It goes right back to him being gaoled for <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/unacceptable-risk-in-bail-laws-what-does-it-mean/">bail jumping</a>,” he told Sydney Criminal Lawyers. “By the time they put him in gaol for the maximum time for bail jumping, they did so after the Swedes had dropped their attempt to extradite him on what were false grounds in the first place.”</p> <p>Wakeham also warns that if the extradition is successful it will set a dangerous precedent for the entire planet, as anyone anywhere in the world involved in publishing information about crimes committed by the US in either the mainstream or social media will be open to the same treatment.</p> <p>Assange published over <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=where+is+the+extradition+trial+assange+taking+place&amp;rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU887AU887&amp;oq=where+is+the+extradition+trial+assange+taking+place&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j33.9919j0j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">700,000 classified US government documents</a> over 2010 and 2011. These were leaked by former US military intelligence officer Chelsea Manning. And if Assange ends up in America, he’ll be facing 18 espionage charges with a combined maximum penalty of 175 years.</p> <p>A not so fair go</p> <p>The lawyer representing the US government in the extradition proceedings, James Lewis QC, told the Old Bailey <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/this-is-nonsense-julian-assange-interjections-earn-stern-warning-20200909-p55tpj.html">on the first day of hearings</a> this week that Assange is not facing charges for the blanket publishing of the files, but rather he’s charged over conspiring to obtain some of them.</p> <p>At that point Julian was heard to call out, “This is nonsense.” But he was promptly silenced by the judge.</p> <p>Meanwhile, back in his homeland, there’s been a lot of radio silence around what’s happening to this Australian. And Wakeham’s none too impressed about it.</p> <p>The social justice activist questions why PM Scott Morrison and foreign minister Marise Payne don’t step up and speak out to protect a fellow citizen, as the government has done this before on behalf of journalists  <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/australian-journalist-imprisoned-in-cambodia-seeks-royal-pardon/">James Ricketson</a> and <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/free-assange-incarcerated-for-exposing-the-truth/">Peter Greste</a> when they were imprisoned overseas.</p> <p>Wakeham posits that the ministers of the Morrison cabinet aren’t doing their jobs because there’s not enough opposition to what’s happening to Assange.</p> <p>“And this brings me to the most disheartening thing about all of this, which is that we Australians, by and large, don’t give a shit about what’s happening to him,” the fervent Wikileaks supporter concluded.</p> <p><em>Written by Paul Gregoire. Republished with permission of <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/australia-looks-the-other-way-as-assange-is-hung-out-to-dry/">Sydney Criminal Lawyers.</a> </em></p>

Art

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Sailors rescued from tiny island after writing giant "SOS" in the sand

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text "> <p>Three missing sailors have been found on a tiny island in the western Pacific after a desperate message saying SOS in the sand that was spotted from the air. </p> <p>The men were found on Sunday after they had been missing for three days, and were reportedly "in good health", according to the Australian Defence Ministry. </p> <p>Their call for help was written on the beach of Pikelot Island, 190 kilometres west of where they had set out and was seen by Australian and US aircraft.  </p> <p>A ship, the HMAS Canberra, headed to the sailors' aid and a helicopter landed on the beach. </p> <p>The ship brought water and food for the men as well as carrying out identity and health checks. </p> <p>The men were reportedly sailing between the atolls Poluwat and Pulap, a journey of 42 kilometres when they veered off course and ran out of fuel. </p> <p>A Micronesian patrol vessel, FSS Independence, is heading to the island to pick up the men. </p> <p>Canberra's Commanding Officer Captain Terry Morrison said the response by the ship's company to the operation was outstanding. </p> <p>"The ship's company responded to the call and had the ship quickly prepared to support the search and rescue," Captain Morrison said. </p> <p>"In particular, our embarked MRH90 helicopter from No. 808 Squadron and the four armed reconnaissance helicopters from 1st Aviation Regiment were instrumental in the morning search that helped locate the men and deliver supplies and confirm their welfare. </p> <p>"I am proud of the response and professionalism of all on board as we fulfil our obligation to contribute to the safety of life at sea wherever we are in the world."</p> <p><em>Photo credit: Australian Department of Defence</em></p> </div> </div> </div>

Travel Trouble

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Sun, sand and uncertainty: The promise and peril of a Pacific tourism bubble

<p>Pacific nations have largely <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&amp;objectid=12328702">avoided</a> the worst health effects of COVID-19, but its economic impact has been devastating. With the tourism tap turned off, unemployment has soared while GDP has plummeted.</p> <p>In recent weeks, Fiji Airways laid off 775 employees and souvenir business Jack’s of Fiji laid off 500. In Vanuatu 70% of tourism workers have lost their jobs. Cook Islands is estimated to have experienced a <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/05/18/1177034/an-island-in-debt">60% drop in GDP</a> in the past three months.</p> <p>In response, many are calling for the Pacific to be included in the proposed <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/121727144/coronavirus-transtasman-travel-bubble-date-down-to-australians-winston-peters-says">trans-Tasman travel corridor</a>. Such calls have come from <a href="https://devpolicy.org/vanuatu-a-tourism-sector-perspective-on-potential-recovery-from-covid-19-and-tc-harold-20200506-1/">tourism operators</a>, <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/418156/pressure-mounts-on-nz-and-aust-to-include-pacific-in-bubble">politicians</a> and at least one <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/2020/05/28/1205479/nz-pacific-islands-bubble-should-come-first">health expert</a>.</p> <p>Quarantine concerns aside, there is economic logic to this. Australians and New Zealanders make up <a href="http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2019/06/tourism-sector-achieves-3-16-million-visitor-arrivals-in-18/">more than 50%</a> of travellers to the region. Some countries are massively dependent: two-thirds of visitors to Fiji and three-quarters of visitors to Cook Islands are Aussies and Kiwis.</p> <p>Cook Islands has budgeted NZ$140 million for economic recovery, but this will increase the tiny nation’s debt. Prime Minister Henry Puna has <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/travel/2020/06/cook-islands-prime-minister-calls-for-pacific-bubble-as-soon-as-new-zealand-enters-covid-19-alert-level-1.html">argued for</a> a limited tourism bubble as soon as New Zealand relaxes its COVID-19 restrictions to alert level 1. Cook Islands News editor Jonathan Milne <a href="https://player.whooshkaa.com/coronavirus-nz?episode=665993">estimates</a> 75-80% of the population is “desperate to get the tourists back”.</p> <p>A Pacific bubble would undoubtedly help economic recovery. But this merely highlights how <a href="https://www.eco-business.com/opinion/impact-of-covid-19-on-tourism-in-small-island-developing-states/">vulnerable</a> these island economies have become. Tourism <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337854342_Development_and_change_Reflections_on_tourism_in_the_South_Pacific">accounts</a> for between 10% and 70% of GDP and up to one in four jobs across the South Pacific.</p> <p>The pressure to reopen borders is understandable. But we argue that a tourism bubble cannot be looked at in isolation. It should be part of a broader strategy to diversify economies and enhance linkages (e.g. between agriculture and tourism, to put more local food on restaurant menus), especially in those countries that are most perilously dependent on tourism.</p> <p><strong>Over-dependence on tourism is a trap</strong></p> <p>Pacific nations such as Vanuatu and Fiji have recovered quickly from past crises such as the GFC, cyclones and coups because of the continuity of tourism. COVID-19 has turned that upside down.</p> <p>People are coping in the short term by reviving subsistence farming, fishing and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/08/two-piglets-for-a-kayak-fiji-returns-to-barter-system-as-covid-19-hits-economy">bartering</a> for goods and services. Many are still suffering, however, due to limited state welfare systems.</p> <p>In Fiji’s case, the government has taken the drastic step of allowing laid-off or temporarily unemployed workers to withdraw from their superannuation savings in the National Provident Fund. Retirement funds have also been used to <a href="https://www.fijivillage.com/news/We-need-Fiji-Airways-to-come-back-strongly-for-the-future-of-the-country---Koroi-48r5xf/">lend FJ$53.6 million</a> to the struggling national carrier, Fiji Airways.</p> <p>Fiji has taken on more debt to cope. Its debt-to-GDP ratio, which ideally should sit below 40% for developing economies, has risen from 48.9% before the pandemic to 60.9%. It’s likely to <a href="http://www.economy.gov.fj/images/Budget/budgetdocuments/supplements/SUPPLEMENT-TO-THE-COVID-19-RESPONSE-BUDGET-ADDRESS.pdf">increase further</a>.</p> <p>High debt, lack of economic diversity and dependence on tourism put the Fijian economy in a very vulnerable position. Recovery will take a long time, probably requiring assistance from the country’s main trading partners. In the meantime, Fiji is pinning hopes on joining a New Zealand-Australia <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/416392/fiji-keen-to-join-nz-australia-travel-bubble">travel bubble</a>.</p> <p><strong>Out of crisis comes opportunity</strong></p> <p>Supporting Pacific states to recover is an opportunity for New Zealand and Australia to put their respective Pacific <a href="https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/about-us/mfat-annual-reports/mfat-annual-report-2018-19/case-study-the-pacific-reset-a-year-on/">Reset</a> and <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/pacific/Pages/the-pacific">Step-Up</a> policies into practice. If building more reciprocal, equitable relationships with Pacific states is the goal, now is the time to ensure economic recovery also strengthens their socio-economic, environmental and political infrastructures.</p> <p>Economic well-being within the Pacific region is already closely linked to New Zealand and Australia through seasonal workers in horticulture and viticulture, remittance payments, trade and travel. But for many years there has been a major trade imbalance in favour of New Zealand and Australia. Shifting that balance beyond the recovery phase will involve facilitating long-term resilience and sustainable development in the region.</p> <p>A good place to start would be the recent United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific <a href="https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Policy%20brief_MPFD_Combating%20COVID-19%20in%20Asia%20and%20the%20Pacific%20updated.pdf">report</a> on recovering from COVID-19. Its recommendations include such measures as implementing social protection programs, integrating climate action into plans to revive economies, and encouraging more socially and environmentally responsible businesses.</p> <p>This is about more than altruism – enlightened self-interest should also drive the New Zealand and Australian agenda. Any longer-term economic downturn in the South Pacific, due in part to over-reliance on tourism, could lead to instability in the region. There is a clear <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/the-next-economic-crisis-could-cause-a-global-conflict-heres-why">link</a> between serious economic crises and social unrest.</p> <p>At a broader level, the pandemic is already <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Coronavirus-gives-China-an-edge-as-it-expands-sway-in-the-Pacific">entrenching</a> Chinese regional influence: loans from China make up 62% of Tonga’s total foreign borrowing; for Vanuatu the figure is 43%; for Samoa 39%.</p> <p>China is taking the initiative through what some call “<a href="https://devpolicy.org/chinas-coronavirus-covid-19-diplomacy-in-the-pacific-20200527-1/">COVID-19 diplomacy</a>”. This involves funding pandemic stimulus packages and offering aid and investment throughout the Pacific, including drafting a <a href="https://www.fbcnews.com.fj/news/free-trade-agreement-talks-underway-between-fiji-and-china/">free trade agreement</a> with Fiji.</p> <p>That is not to say Chinese investment in Pacific economies won’t do good. Rather, it is an argument for thinking beyond the immediate benefits of a travel bubble. By realigning their development priorities, Australia and New Zealand can help the Pacific build a better, more sustainable future.</p> <p><em>Written by Regina Scheyvens and Apisalome Movono. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/sun-sand-and-uncertainty-the-promise-and-peril-of-a-pacific-tourism-bubble-139661">The Conversation.</a> </em></p> <p><em> </em></p>

Cruising

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Where exactly does beach sand come from?

<p>There’s more to beach sand than meets the eye. It has stories to tell about the land, and an epic journey to the sea. That’s because mountains end their lives as sand on beaches.</p> <p>Over time, mountains erode. The mud, sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders they shed are washed into streams, which come together to form rivers. As they flow down to the sea, all this sediment is ground up and worn down in nature’s version of a rock tumbler.</p> <p>Big rocks break down into smaller pieces, so most of what reaches the sea is mud. These silt and clay particles are too small to perceive with the naked eye. But you can see individual grains of sand, which are just bigger bits of rock.</p> <p>Next time you’re at the beach, pick up a handful of sand and look closely at it. Are all the grains the same color, or a rainbow assortment? Are they jagged and angular, or smooth and round?</p> <p>Different colors of sand come from different minerals, like khaki <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/feldspar#/media/File:Feldspar_1659.jpg">feldspar</a>, smoky white <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz#/media/File:Quartz,_Tibet.jpg">quartz</a>, green <a href="https://geology.com/minerals/olivine.shtml">olivine</a> or black <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt#/media/File:BasaltUSGOV.jpg">basalt</a>. The mix of colors in beach sand tells you what kinds of rocks produced it.</p> <p>The shape of sand grains also provides clues about where they come from. Angular grains of the same type of sand have not traveled as far as smooth round grains, which have been more worn down. And weak rocks break down to mud faster than hard rocks, so sand tends to be made of the harder types that break down slowly.</p> <p>About a tenth of the supply of sediment that reaches the sea is sand. These particles are between about half a millimeter and 2 millimeters in size – roughly as thick as a penny. These particles are large enough that they don’t flow right out to the deep sea.</p> <p>But the beach is just a temporary stop for sand. Big waves pull it offshore, and smaller waves push it along the coast. So keeping a beach nourished with sand is essential for keeping it sandy.</p> <p>Many beach towns spend millions of dollars to rebuild eroded beaches with new sand.</p> <p>Yet today many beaches are starving. Many dams trap the sand that flows down rivers, piling it up in reservoirs. All in all, human activity has cut off about <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1109454">half the sand</a> that would otherwise end up on the world’s beaches.</p> <p>But humans haven’t turned the waves off, so as beach sand washes away and isn’t replenished, the shoreline erodes. That means that many beaches around the world are shrinking, slowly but surely.</p> <p>So next time you dig your toes into beach sand think about the epic journey it took to arrive beneath your feet. Take a moment to think about where the sand came from and where it’s going.</p> <p><em>Written by David R. Montgomery. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-does-beach-sand-come-from-126323">The Conversation.</a> </em></p>

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Tourists face jail time over sand theft

<p><span>“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time” – this often heard phrase has become a rule of thumb while travelling, but some still could not resist the urge to bring a piece of paradise home from the holidays.</span></p> <p><span>A French couple had to deal with the consequences as they are facing up to six years in prison for taking 40kg of sand from a beach in the Italian island of Sardinia.</span></p> <p><span>14 plastic bottles containing around 40kg of white sand from a beach in Chia, southern Sardinia were seized from the car during routine checks, police said.</span></p> <p><span>The couple, a man and a woman in their 40s, said they wanted to bring the sand home as a “souvenir” and did not realise they were committing a crime.</span></p> <p><span>The Italian island’s white sand is protected as a public good, and tourists who remove it from the island are subject to fines of up to €3,000 and possible imprisonment.</span></p> <p><span>Residents of the Mediterranean island have been protesting the theft of sand, stones and seashells by tourists, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41031029"><em>BBC</em></a> reported.</span></p> <p><span>“The people of Sardinia are very angry with tourists that steal shells and sand, because it's a theft [from] future generations that also puts at risk a delicate environment,” a police officer told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/sardinia-sand-theft-arrest-scli-intl/index.html"><em>CNN</em></a>.</span></p> <p><span>According to environmental scientist and Sardinian resident Pierluigi Cocco, there are two threats to the island’s sandy beaches. “One is due to erosion, which is partly natural and partly induced by the increasing sea level due to climate change; the second is sand stealing by tourists,” Cocco told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49394828"><em>BBC</em></a>.</span></p> <p><span>"Only a fraction of the tourists visiting Sardinia spend their time digging up to 40kg of sand each. But if you multiply half that amount times 5 per cent of the one million tourists per year, in a few years that would contribute significantly to the reduction of beaches – the main reason why tourists are attracted by the island of Sardinia.”</span></p> <p><span>In 1994, access to the famous pink beach on Budelli island off Sardinia were restricted over concerns about the degraded environment. In 2016, a woman who took the sand from the beach <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/19/french-tourists-in-hot-water-in-sardinia-over-sand-souvenir">returned it after more than two decades</a>. “I read in some newspapers and heard on the TV what this sand is and how it is made,” she said. “I understood how unique Sardinia is. I felt guilty.”</span></p>

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