Australia banned TikTok on Tuesday from all federal government-owned devices over security concerns, becoming the latest U.S.-allied country to take action against the Chinese-owned video app.
The ban underscores growing worries that China could use the Beijing-based company, owned by ByteDance Ltd, to harvest users' data to advance its political agenda, undermining Western security interests.
It also risks renewing diplomatic tension between Australia and its largest trading partner after things eased somewhat since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took office in May at the head of a Labor government.
TikTok said it was extremely disappointed by Australia's decision, calling it "driven by politics, not by fact".
The ban will come into effect "as soon as practicable", Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement, adding that exemptions would only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security measures in place.
With Australia's ban, all members of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network - which consists of Australia, Canada, the United States, Britain and New Zealand - have banned the app from government devices. France, Belgium and the European Commission have announced similar bans.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, in testimony before the U.S. Congress last month, repeatedly denied the app shares data or has connections with the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok's Australia and New Zealand General Manager Lee Hunter said TikTok should not be singled out.
"There is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians and should not be treated differently to other social media platforms," Hunter said in a statement.
The Australian newspaper late on Monday reported Albanese had agreed to the ban after a review by the Home Affairs department.
Dreyfus confirmed the federal government had recently received a "Review into Foreign Interference through Social Media Applications" report and that its recommendations remained under consideration.
The ban comes on the day Australian and Chinese officials held talks in Beijing in a bid to normalise trade as the World Trade Organization prepares to release findings into an Australian complaint on barley tariffs.
"Things are going well, but of course, it'll take some time to turn this ship around," Trade Minister Don Farrell told Sky News, referring to prospects for improving trade relations.
In 2018, Australia banned China's Huawei from providing equipment during the rollout of its 5G network, riling China. Ties soured further after Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origin of COVID-19.
China responded by imposing tariffs on Australian commodities.
Australian lawmakers can still use TikTok on personal phones but some, including federal Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews, have decided to delete their accounts.
Victoria state will also ban the app on state government-owned phones, a government spokesperson told Reuters.
While TikTok comes under mounting pressure over the potential Chinese influence over the platform, it also faces criticism over its influence on children.
TikTok has said the administration of President Joe Biden demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a potential U.S. ban. (Reuters)
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will help tackle violent extremism online and will also be on the board of an environmental prize set up by Prince William as she looks ahead to a life after politics.
Ardern stepped down as prime minister in January saying she had "no more in the tank" to lead the country and would also not seek re-election to parliament. She is due to give her final speech in parliament on Wednesday.
Ardern, who became the youngest female leader in the world when she won power in 2017 at the age of 37, will serve as an unpaid special envoy for the Christchurch Call, an initiative she co-founded in 2019 to bring together countries and technology companies to combat extremism, the government said.
Attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand's second-largest city, in March 2019 killed 51 people dead and wounded 40. The white supremacist gunman who carried out the assault live-streamed part of it on Facebook.
"The Christchurch Call is a foreign policy priority for the government and Jacinda Ardern is uniquely placed to keep pushing forward with the goal of eliminating violent extremist content online," her replacement as prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said in a statement.
"Terrorist and violent extremist content online is a global issue, but for many in New Zealand it is also very personal."
Ardern will also join the board of Prince William's Earthshot Prize, awarded for contributions to environmentalism, Kensington Palace said in a statement.
Ardern rode a wave of popularity dubbed "Jacindamania" after she took over as prime minister and campaigned for women's rights, and an end to child poverty and economic inequality.
She also won plaudits internationally for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But her popularity waned during her final year in power as inflation rose to nearly three-decade highs, along with rising crime and a contentious overhaul of water infrastructure.
"Five years probably felt more like nine, just because of what we all went through as a nation," Ardern said in an interview with state broadcaster TVNZ on Tuesday.
"I will miss the people ... but I won't miss the weight, because it is heavy." (Reuters)
Buying milk is getting expensive in India and the price could soon hit an all-time high, forcing the world's biggest producer to step up imports to boost supplies and ease cost of living pressures.
Farmers are wrestling with a rare double whammy: a lethal condition called lumpy skin disease in their cows and a drawdown in market-ready cattle stock after the coronavirus pandemic slowed breeding.
Milk prices have already jumped more than 15% to 56 rupees ($0.68) a litre over the past year - the fastest rise in a decade - making it difficult for the government to bring retail inflation below the central bank's target.
The soaring prices of milk and other basic goods is expected to become a political issue heading into state elections later this year.
"Any upside risk coming from higher milk prices is going to pose an additional challenge," said Upasna Bhardwaj, chief economist at India's Kotak Mahindra Bank.
"Since milk has a weightage of 6.6% in the consumer price index, any spike could have a reasonable implication on headline inflation," she said.
Industry officials estimate demand for dairy products to rise 7% this year.
But milk production is likely to have risen just 1% in the fiscal year to March 2023, well below the average annual rate of 5.6% in the past decade, said a senior official of the government-backed National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). The official declined be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Ramavatar Sharma, a 57-year-old farmer from Khejri Bujurg village in Rajasthan, a major milk-producing state, is keen to cash in on higher milk prices but is struggling to find affordable cattle.
"Cattle prices have doubled as there are fewer cows in the market," said Sharma, who has been raising cattle since childhood.
That contrasts with recent years when prices dived in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. While cows were cheaper, coronavirus lockdowns weighed on milk consumption.
Those losses prevented farmers from increasing herds, which restricted milk stock even during the so-called flush season runs from October to February, when dairies build supply for the lean season.
Farmers and dairy managers say they now have to wait until the next flush season in October to ramp up market-ready cattle stocks and dairy products inventory.
"There is no way we can raise milk production in 2023," said Santosh Sharma, general manager of Saras Dairy, a leading supplier in Rajasthan.
Devendra Shah, chairman of Parag Milk Foods (PAMF.NS) in Maharashtra state, said the rare surge in milk prices during the flush season has created unusual market pressure, especially in the peak summer months.
"We will witness further rises in milk prices during summer," Shah said.
Those pressures mean India will rely more on imported SMP, farmers and dairy officials said, further tightening global supplies and setting off a rally in international prices.
India's SMP imports are likely to hit an all-time high in the fiscal year that started April, surpassing record purchases in 2011-12, dairy industry officials said.
To ease the burden, the government could allow limited duty-free imports of SMP and butter, although it would need to manage volumes to avoid crashing prices, the NDDB official said.
In January, India's milk and cream imports jumped 1,024% from the last year to $4.87 million, even with import taxes, as dairies increased purchases from France, Germany and Poland.
The temporary removal of those duties would mean imports rise even further, the NDDB official said.
Lumpy skin disease, which causes blisters and reduces milk production in cows, has infected millions of cattle and killed more than 184,000 in India, including around 76,000 in Rajasthan, according to government data.
Farmers in Rajasthan who managed to protect their cattle through vaccinations now complain about lower incomes as the disease has left them with low-yielding cattle.
"Even the cows that survived after spending a lot of money on medicines and vaccination are now producing less milk than earlier," Sharma said, pointing to one of his cows with lacerations caused by the disease.
Cattle breeding suffered during pandemic lockdowns due to a shortage of the village-level veterinarians needed to conduct artificial insemination.
The supply problems are already squeezing Indian consumers.
"Just to ensure that our children get milk, we have stopped adding milk to our tea," said Satyendra Yadav, a Mumbai construction worker. "But any further price rises will make milk out of our reach." (Reuters)
Malaysia is seeking to decriminalise suicide attempts, its law minister said on Tuesday, the latest in a recent slew of legal reforms pursued by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government.
The announcement comes a day after Malaysia's parliament on Monday voted to remove the mandatory death penalty, trim the number of offences punishable by death, and abolish natural-life prison sentences.
The law currently stipulates that anyone attempting suicide can be jailed for up to one year, fined, or both.
The government wants to repeal that but will retain "aiding and abetting" suicide as a criminal offense, Law Minister Azalina Othman Said said in a statement on Tuesday.
The government also proposes strengthening punishment for cases of aiding suicide involving children and mentally incapacitated people.
"This is based on the fact that suicide attempts are within the scope of suicidal behavior and this act is the impact of mental incapacity or psychiatric disorder," Azalina said.
In comments made last year, former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia had in 2021 recorded 1,142 suicide cases, compared to 631 cases in 2020.
Its suicide mortality rate was at 5.7 per 100,000 population in 2019, according to the most recent data from World Bank.
The proposal to decriminalise suicide attempts was introduced in the lower house on Tuesday, though a vote will likely only take place in the next parliament session, a law ministry spokesperson said.
Azalina said the government hopes the reform will encourage those affected to seek help, remove the stigma of suicide, and lower the country's suicide death rate. (Reuters)