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    Policy

    Foreign Affairs & Security

    Today

    Australia can start marketing wine in China again after tariffs were removed this year.

    High-level dialogue shows China chill is ending

    The resumed annual face-to-face meeting of government and industry has been crucial to stabilising the relationship.

    • 1 hr ago
    • Craig Emerson
    Then-prime minister Paul Keating’s principal adviser Don Russell and Robert Zoellick, a senior US president George HW Bush’s White House, sparred by correspondence.

    When Keating went to war with the White House

    Secret cables reveal for the first time how Keating’s right-hand man and a senior White House official engaged in an extraordinary war of words in 1992, sometimes in personal terms.

    • James Curran
    Then-prime minister Paul Keating’s principal adviser Don Russell and Robert Zoellick, a senior US president George HW Bush’s White House, sparred by correspondence.

    Washington can be a prickly and insecure great power ally

    The Russell-Zoellick correspondence reveals an Australian government not afraid to talk truth to American power, an art largely lost over recent years.

    • James Curran

    Yesterday

    A digital mock-up of a Virginia Class nuclear-powered submarine.

    Albanese is losing the AUKUS debate

    The government is prioritising platitudes over substance as critics question the $368 billion nuclear submarine project.

    • James Curran

    This Month

    (From left) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Foreign Minister Penny Wong; Defence Minister Richard Marles and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in Brisbane on Saturday.

    Next AUSMIN needs to turn alignment into outcomes

    This year’s ministerial consultations moved away from defence announcements. But progress on many key initiatives is yet to deliver tangible results.

    • Jennifer Parker
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    Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, at a campaign rally on Tuesday.

    The big risk in Kamala Harris’ surprise choice for VP

    Tim Walz’s down-to-earth language was transformed into the equivalent of a political magic wand, but there’s a risk in overlooking Josh Shapiro in the must-win swing state of Pennsylvania.

    • Jennifer Hewett
    Former US Secretary of Defence Chris Miller is more of a rebel than you would think.

    ‘You don’t embarrass the New Yorker in Trump’ says military adviser

    Chris Miller, a former acting secretary of defence and Project 2025 contributor, says the AUKUS military alliance will be fine if Donald Trump wins the election, but Vladimir Putin could be in a jam.

    • Kevin Chinnery
    The Albanese government expects the final report by Peter Varghese, Chancellor, University of Queensland into think tank funding to be submitted “shortly”.

    Prominent think tank fears the loss of its ‘superpower’

    The rarefied world of public intellectuals and scholars is braced for a bombshell following a government review into think tank funding.

    • Emma Connors

    July

    British shipbuilder BAE Systems will build six Hunter-class frigates for the navy, down from a planned nine.

    The ‘criminal price tag’ for the navy’s new warships is $4b a pop

    A new fleet of frigates will cost almost $4 billion each, even before weapons are fitted, it can be revealed, making them the navy’s most expensive warship.

    • Andrew Tillett
    American shipyards will be able to deliver the first Virginia class submarines for Australia in 2032.

    AUKUS critics fail to match their speculation with substance

    There is a long list of loud objections to the project. But how many of them really stand up to scrutiny?

    • Ross Babbage
    Royal Australian navy chief Vice Admiral Mark Hammond in Perth.

    Submariner in charge of AUKUS says the debate is being hijacked

    Navy chief Vice Admiral Mark Hammond has offered a fierd defence of the big-money nuclear-powered submarine pact in an interview with AFR Weekend.

    • Andrew Tillett
    President Joe Biden addresses the US from the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday.

    Hoarse but coherent Biden bows out, sets up Democrats’ last hope

    Joe Biden says his decision to step aside as the Democrats’ presidential candidate was because the greatest need is to defend American democracy.

    • Jennifer Hewett
    Protesters take a break near the front line of a conflict between farmers and police in Rajpura, India, on Thursday.

    India’s have-nots are expressing their displeasure

    While Mumbai’s super-rich show off their wealth, a chastened Narendra Modi moves to shore up support among the poor.

    • Hamish McDonald
    It’s not a gun: DroneShield chief Oleg Vornik

    DroneShield rubbishes critics, courts politicians

    No sooner had we written off Rodney Forrest than he totally crashed the share price of ASX-listed DroneShield.

    • Myriam Robin

    One issue where Kamala Harris gives the Democrats an edge

    The party hopes to use the burning issue of abortion rights – and the elevation of Kamala Harris – to change what has been a losing election hand.

    • Jennifer Hewett
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    Ukraine goes all-in on ground robots

    The battlefield has become a laboratory of innovation and Ukraine is further along than most nations when it comes to developing robots.

    • Jack Detsch
    Kamala Harris’ approval rating has fallen below that of Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

    Trump will relish a fight against ‘DEI candidate’ Harris

    The former president would clearly have preferred to cruise to victory against Joe Biden, but Republicans have always had plenty of attack lines to launch against the vice president.

    • Jennifer Hewett
    Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during an NCAA championship teams celebration on the South Lawn of the White House on July 22.

    Harris secures Democratic majority needed to be nominee

    Survey finds Kamala Harris has enough Democratic delegate support to become new nominee; Joe Biden will return to Washington; Campaign raises record-breaking $122 million. How the day unfolded.

    • Updated
    • Timothy Moore and Lucy Slade
    Ordnance aboard a US aircraft carrier in the Red Sea has yet to make a difference to Houthi attacks in the region.

    Australia goes missing as Red Sea crisis deepens

    The Houthis have been remarkably persistent in disrupting global trade. But there is a deeper strategic cost to Australia as well.

    • Jennifer Parker
    There is one good reason why President Biden will not follow his one-term predecessor.

    The tragedy of Joe Biden: a cruel exit after 50 years in politics

    History will ultimately decide whether the Biden presidency was one of relative political normalcy, or an aberration sandwiched between the Trump presidencies.

    • James Curran