MIL Email Publisher – Foreign Submissions

Source: Amnesty International

Responding to the reported arrest of five people in police raids on two independent bookstores in Hong Kong today, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks said:

“This year’s escalating attacks on Hong Kong’s independent bookstores hammer home the chilling reality of what the city has become: a place where you can be criminalized simply for what’s on your bookshelf.

“Booksellers should never face arrest simply for doing their jobs: selling, publishing or distributing books. The use of ‘sedition’ offences to target bookstores once again demonstrates how Hong Kong’s national security framework is being weaponized to silence dissenting voices and eradicate spaces for free thought and debate.

“The growing uncertainty over so-called ‘red lines’ for booksellers leaves publishers and writers guessing which titles could lead to criminal investigation, arrest or closure. Such ambiguity is intentional: fueling fear and self-censorship, with devastating consequences for freedom of expression.

“Hong Kong’s authorities must immediately stop using national security and sedition laws to criminalize the peaceful exercise of human rights, and ensure that everyone in Hong Kong can access, publish and share ideas without fear of arrest.”

Background

According to local media reports, Hong Kong police raided the independent bookstores Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield Bookstore on 15 July and arrested five people on suspicion of sedition-related offences.

The operation took place one day after Have a Nice Stay announced it would close, citing financial difficulties and “unclear red lines” surrounding which books may be legally sold.

Two bookstores have previously been raided by police in 2026, with their owners and staff arrested. Book Punch was raided in March with four people arrested, reportedly for selling books including a biography of jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Hunter Bookstore, another shop that reportedly stocked the Jimmy Lai biography, was raided in June with two people arrested.

All official statements surrounding the arrests refer to “seditious” publications or acts under Hong Kong’s Article 23 law (also known as the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance).

OP-ED by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

America never agreed to a world tribunal that can override our own courts and the Constitution.

Most of us would struggle to imagine a world in which U.S. soldiers, police officers, Border Patrol agents and elected leaders could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries across the globe, found guilty under international laws we neither consent to nor control, and then imprisoned thousands of miles from America.

But that is what the International Criminal Court now claims the power to do.

The ICC was born at the turn of the century. At first, it was marketed as a narrow backstop to prosecute the gravest crimes. Now the ICC and its allies seek a standing world tribunal with near-unlimited reach, empowered to override the courts and constitutions of the U.S. and other sovereign states—and to prosecute and arrest our citizens.

Americans never agreed to any of this. Both of our major political parties opposed the prospect of handing a distant global court the power to prosecute and jail our own citizens. President Clinton refused to submit the Rome Statute (the ICC’s founding charter) to the Senate for ratification due to his “concerns about significant flaws in the Treaty.” Two years later, a bipartisan Senate supermajority passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, authorizing the president “to use all means necessary”—including military force—to prevent the ICC from detaining or arresting Americans.

Americans found themselves in the crosshairs anyway: In 2020 the ICC launched an investigation into what chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of Gambia described as “war crimes by members of the United States armed forces” in Afghanistan, declaring that the U.S. government hadn’t prosecuted enough American soldiers to satisfy the court. In effect, Ms. Bensouda was anointing herself the final judge of U.S. military policy and the entire U.S. justice system.

The Afghanistan investigation was only the opening move in the assault against American self-government. The ICC is backed and run by a powerful network of leftist nongovernment organizations, smug globalists, and hostile Third World governments united by their enmity toward the U.S.

In the second Trump administration, these calls have continued to grow. Last year, major activist groups urged high-ranking international officials “to take immediate and meaningful action” against the Trump administration’s deportations of violent criminals to El Salvador. Months later, a former ICC chief prosecutor declared that President Trump’s strikes against narcoterrorists amounted to “a crime against humanity” and should be treated as such under international law—a line that was echoed by United Nations leaders, and major leftist nongovernmental organizations, Democratic Party officials and politicians. In March, the Washington-based Democracy for the Arab World Now urged the Iranian regime to request an ICC investigation of “apparent war crimes” committed by American personnel.

U.S. efforts to push back against the ICC’s illegitimate interventions have been framed as a further reason for the ICC to target Americans. When 12 U.S. senators wrote to the ICC prosecutor about their concerns, the prosecutor’s office accused them of crimes. When Mr. Trump imposed sanctions against ICC personnel, a former head of Human Rights Watch said that “all 125 ICC member states would have a legal duty to arrest him were he to show up.”

It is only a matter of time before the ICC begins making good on these threats. Border Patrol agents working to remove violent criminals from our country, U.S. Marines risking their lives to restore order in the Western Hemisphere, federal prosecutors working to dismantle terror networks plotting attacks on the American homeland—all would face the constant risk of persecution for the “crime” of defending our country.

The ICC’s interfering with American military and law enforcement operations isn’t only a grave overreach of its purported authorities. It would mean the death of the U.S. as a sovereign and independent nation. Our decision and our people would be at the mercy of the ICC and its collaborators in the “international community.” To accept the ICC is to surrender control of our national destiny.

Perhaps more polite and compliant nations could make their peace with that arrangement. But this is America. Our forefathers fought a revolution against a foreign power “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.” Independence is our birthright. We don’t intend to trade it for rule by a self-appointed priesthood of “international law.”

The Trump administration will always protect American service members from this threat. The U.S. is launching a diplomatic campaign with a simple message—sovereign states over globalism. Those who benefit from American security must not stand idly by while those who provide that security are targeted. This is only the beginning. Using all the tools at our government’s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC—brick by brick, if necessary.

Marco Rubio was sworn in as the 72nd Secretary of State on January 21, 2025. The Secretary is creating a Department of State that puts America First.

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

13 July 2026 – Today, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released “No Safe Place to Heal”, a report documenting relentless attacks on healthcare and medical personnel in Ukraine, which appear to constitute a deliberate strategy to destroy the medical system and collectively punish the population – rather than being an incidental product of Russia's invasion.

Between April 2022 and December 2025, MSF documented more than 20 attacks on medical facilities associated with its activities. Four hospitals where MSF worked have been completely destroyed. Seven ambulance bases had to be abandoned. MSF has lost access to over 80 villages it supported across six regions with primary healthcare mobile clinics. The World Health Organization documented 2,811 attacks on healthcare from February 2022 to the end of 2025, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Health reports that Russian forces have damaged or destroyed over 2,500 medical facilities in the same period, including 327 that have been completely destroyed.

“These attacks are too consistent, too frequent, and too precise to be incidental; when hospitals are struck repeatedly, when ambulances are targeted with precision drones, when medical workers are killed en-route to delivering medicines in clearly marked vehicles – this is not coincidence,” said Robin Meldrum, MSF Country Coordinator in Ukraine. “This is a pattern; patterns have intent behind them.”

Strikes on medical infrastructure and the crippling fear of attacks on civilians have created a crisis in access to healthcare for people in need of non-emergency medical treatment or treatment for chronic conditions. An MSF survey of 187 civilians in near-frontline regions found that those who ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’ had access to healthcare diminished from 72% before the war’s escalation to just 35% since. Those accessing care ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ rose from 7% to 35%. This translates directly into suffering and even death from manageable conditions – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, epilepsy – conditions that have become life-threatening due to interrupted treatment and delayed access. Healthcare facilities that remain operational are cruelly understaffed: in one MSF-supported hospital in Kherson, the number of doctors has fallen by 66% since 2022.

MSF teams in eastern and southern Ukraine work under the constant threat of First-Person View (FPV) drone attacks — weapons that allow soldiers to identify and strike targets with precision in real time. On 29 September 2025, a nurse and a director from an MSF-supported health centre delivering medicines in a clearly marked vehicle in Lyman, Donetsk, were struck by a Russian FPV drone. The director lost a leg in the attack. Under international humanitarian law, deliberately attacking clearly marked medical personnel or vehicles may amount to a war crime.

MSF medical workers near the front line, and in an early rehabilitation treatment centre in Cherkasy, are witnessing how drone warfare is fast outstripping the medical response. Where injuries were once predominantly caused by artillery, drone strikes now account for a growing share of trauma cases – producing multiple victims with multiple simultaneous wounds, higher infection rates, and rising rates of sepsis.  
 
An MSF surgeon describes a patient who arrived with an amputated right leg, an open fracture of the left leg, an open fracture of the right arm, shrapnel in the left arm, and multiple wounds to the chest, abdomen and head. Five surgeons operated simultaneously for around six hours. The same surgeon noted, “The first battle is against bleeding. If the patient survives that, the second battle is against infection. And many lose that second fight.”

This year marks ten years since the adoption of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2286, which unequivocally reiterates the protection of humanitarian and medical personnel, patients, and healthcare infrastructure in armed conflict. MSF calls on all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law; on states with influence over Russia to use it to demand an end to attacks on healthcare; and on the Security Council to properly investigate and make public denunciations about attacks on healthcare as a way of showing commitment to UNSC Resolution 2286.

MSF is an international, medical, humanitarian organisation that delivers medical care to people in need, regardless of their origin, religion, or political affiliation. MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. Every year more than 120 Australians and New Zealanders go on assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières  working as: doctors, midwives, psychologists, laboratory technicians, human resource/finance coordinators, pharmacists, mental health specialists and logisticians. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au  

Source: KOF Economic Institute

The Global Coincident and Leading Barometers rise in July. The Global Coincident Barometer increases in July after having remained virtually unchanged in the previous month, while the Global Leading Barometer rises for the second month in a row. Both indicators remain near the 100-point mark but move somewhat further above it, suggesting that global economic momentum is picking up slightly.

In July, the Global Coincident Economic Barometer rises 0.6 points to 104.5 points, the highest level since March 2022 (108.2 pts.), while the Leading Global Barometer rises 0.7 points, reaching 102.5 points. This month, all regions contributed positively to the aggregated result, except for the Western Hemisphere, which contributed slightly negatively to the Leading Barometer.

'For three consecutive months, the economic situation in the Western Hemisphere, Asia, the Pacific and Africa has clearly been above average, while Europe has only just reached average levels. Furthermore, last month's turn towards peace talks between the US and Iran has improved expectations for the upcoming months specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. Despite all the political turmoil, the world economy appears to be in better shape overall than many fear', comments Jan-Egbert Sturm, Director of KOF Swiss Economic Institute.

Coincident Barometer – regions and sectors

The 0.6-point rise in the Coincident Barometer in July results from a positive contribution of 0.4 points from the Western Hemisphere and 0.1 points from both Asia, Pacific & Africa and Europe. With this result, the Western Hemisphere records the highest level among the regions and the highest level since February 2022 (110.2 pts.). This is the only region that moves upward consistently since March this year, while the indicator for Asia, Pacific & Africa rises, but with fluctuations, and Europe moves sideways since April.

The coincident sectoral indicators recorded heterogeneous results in July. Services, Industry, and Economy (which is based on variables representing overall business and consumer evaluations) (aggregated business indicators added to consumer indicators) rise, while Construction and Wholesale and retail trade decline. The Industry indicator shows the highest level since March 2022 (110.1 points), and Construction loses momentum throughout 2026.

Leading Barometer – regions and sectors

The Leading Global Barometer rises 0.7 points in July, with the Asia, Pacific & Africa region contributing positively by 0.7 points. The contributions of Europe and the Western Hemisphere are minor, at +0.1 and -0.1 points respectively. Despite the adjustment this month, the Western Hemisphere indicator remains the highest among the regions, with 108.9 points. The Leading Global Barometer leads the world economic growth rate cycle by three to six months on average.

The leading sectoral indicators present heterogeneous results this month, with increases in Economy (aggregation of business and consumer indicators) and Industry, the latter recording the highest level since March 2022 (105.2 points). In contrast, Wholesale and retail trade, Services, and Construction decline. Economy is the only indicator below 100 points.

Source: Equinor

10 July 2026 – The number of serious incidents remains stable, while the number of personal injuries per million hours worked has increased somewhat in the second quarter of 2026.

At the end of the quarter, the serious incident frequency per million hours worked (SIF) was 0.25, a slight improvement from the first quarter of 2026 (0.26). Serious personal injuries are also included in these statistics.

As of the second quarter, the total recordable injury frequency per million hours worked (TRIF) was 2.8 for the last 12 months, up from 2.7 in the first quarter of 2026.

Five oil and gas leaks were registered over the last 12 months, down from nine in the first quarter 2026. The degree of severity is classified according to the discharge rate.

No serious well control incidents have been recorded in the second quarter 2026, as well as no incidents with major accident potential.

Preventive work

Through the “Always Safe Annual Wheel”, Equinor cooperates with other operating companies and suppliers to enhance the understanding of factors that prevent safe work. The focus in the “Always Safe” learning package for the third quarter is on safe work at heights.

Several of the serious incidents over the past year are linked to moving objects, vehicles, releasing pressure and falling objects.

“We see that this is a challenge throughout our industry, which is why we need to work together with our suppliers and partners to improve,” says Camilla Salthe, executive vice president for safety, security and sustainability (SSU).

Courses and training of employees and suppliers across facilities, roles and responsibilities is an important measure to ensure that everyone has the same fundamental understanding of health, environment, safety & security.

“When everyone has the same understanding of risk and safe behaviour, it strengthens safety at our facilities. Based on lessons learned and research, we have developed a broad training offering that we will continuously refine and develop,” Salthe says.

Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)

In a cooling labour market, there are signs fewer Australians are changing jobs for new opportunities, CBA’s latest monthly Wage and Labour Insights shows.

10 July 2026 – Key points

The estimated share of workers who voluntarily left their job continues to fall, indicating a cooling labour market

Wages rose 0.8% in the three months to June, while annual wages growth held steady at 3.1%

Employment increased by an estimated 17,000 jobs in June, down slightly from 18,000 in May

Australia’s wage growth remained steady in June, but the picture could change in coming months, according to the latest CommBank Wage and Labour Insights report, a monthly indicator tracking wage and employment trends.

Wages increased by 0.8 per cent over the three months to June, while annual wage growth held steady at 3.1 per cent over the year, indicating that higher inflation has not translated to stronger wages growth.

“The next few months will be important to watch. The increase in minimum and Award wages of 4.75% will likely see Q3 wages pressure pick up,” CommBank Economist Harry Ottley said.

CommBank’s Wage Insights data has been broadly in line with the Australian Bureau of Statistic’s wage and prices index (WPI) data, which has also held steady in recent quarters, albeit at a marginally stronger level, Ottley said.  

“The quarterly rate of growth showed no signs of higher actual and expected inflation having translated into higher wages pressure at this stage.”

But CBA Economists expect wage growth to tick higher, and soon, he said.  “We forecast WPI growth of 1.0%/qtr in Q3 and we will get an early read on this in next month’s CBA Wage and Labour Insights report, well ahead of the official data due in November.”

Employment growth is starting to slow

But while wages could tick higher, the Australian labour market is showing signs it continues to slowly soften, with the CBA Labour Insights series indicating jobs growth of 17,000 in June, down from 18,000 in May.

The data suggests employment growth is a touch below the ‘break-even’ level required to keep the unemployment rate from rising. CBA Economists expect the unemployment rate to rise to a peak of 4.8 per cent in Q4 2027 from 4.4% at present.

“We expect employment growth to continue to ease going forward. The economy is slowing due to higher interest rates and a cooling housing market. And business confidence remains very low.”

‘Quits rate’ points to easing conditions

The ‘quits rate’ measures the share of workers who voluntarily leave their job as a proportion of total employment. A higher quits rate usually points to a ‘tighter’ labour market, as more people are leaving for other opportunities.

CBA Economists proxy this concept using internal CBA data: the share of accounts recording large wage increases, on the basis that sizeable pay rises tend to accompany a change of job.

“Our quits rate proxy continues to fall, consistent with a labour market that has kept cooling since peak tightness in 2022,” Ottley said.

“Overall, the data supports our broader view that the labour market continues to loosen gradually but remains a little too tight for comfort for the RBA.

“From here, we expect the unemployment rate to drift higher and the labour market to move closer to balance over the coming years, assisting in bringing inflation back to target over time.”

Western Australia and South Australia lead wage growth

At the state level, Western Australia retained the strongest wages growth in the nation at 3.7 per cent, easing slightly from May. South Australia’s wages growth lifted to 3.7 per cent in June, making the southern state equal-highest with WA.

Tasmania recorded the biggest pick-up in wages growth, jumping to 3.3 per cent in June from 2.9 per cent in May, lifting from the bottom of the pack. Victoria recorded the slowest wages growth at 3.0 per cent.

Source: Amnesty International

A year after Amnesty International documented widespread abuse of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, a new briefing from the organization reveals that Filipino women are facing many of the same abuses, including being overworked, exploited and subjected to degrading treatment, as well as sexual assault in some cases.

Source: Amnesty International 

A year after Amnesty International documented widespread abuse of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, a new briefing from the organization reveals that Filipino women are facing many of the same abuses, including being overworked, exploited and subjected to degrading treatment, as well as sexual assault in some cases. 

“Once we step in their homes, we are no longer human”: Testimonies of Filipino women domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, documents the experiences of 19 Filipino women who returned from Saudi Arabia, mostly between 2023 and 2026. In their interviews the women shared how, once inside their employer’s homes, the terms of their contracts no longer mattered, and they were left at the mercy of their employer’s unchecked authority. The stories mirrored many elements of those of Kenyan women interviewed for an Amnesty International report released in 2025, who were routinely deceived by recruiters about the nature of their work and subjected to gruelling and abusive conditions, as well as racial discrimination.

“These stories are not isolated cases. The harrowing testimonies paint a worrying picture of ongoing state-enabled exploitation in a country with over four million domestic workers. It’s clear that for far too many workers, serious abuses and intimidation comes with taking a job in Saudi Arabia,” said Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Director of Climate, Economic and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability programme.

“In many of the most serious cases, the abuses domestic workers face amount to forced labour and may also constitute human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.”

Employers rule the lives of domestic workers

In Saudi Arabia, migrant workers are still excluded from the national labour law and are instead governed by the 2023 Regulations for Domestic Workers, which, although an improvement on earlier regulations, still fails to afford them equal protection and falls short of international human rights and labour law and standards.

According to the testimonies, the women’s well-being was shaped far more by the employer’s will than by the contract they signed, or the laws and regulations meant to protect them. Working hours stretched well beyond legal limits, from 14 up to 21 hours each day. Daily breaks were uncertain, while lunch breaks were non-existent – and for most, employers made it impossible to ever take a day off. 

“I worked for two years straight without a day off,” said Adelina*. 

Joy* said that “working 20 hour days” were normal, while Gemma’s* workload was so intense that “the rest and eating time is just for 10 minutes”. Her employer would tell her repeatedly “I brought you from your country, so I can do anything to you.”

Other women said their employer made them work in multiple households, contrary to the terms of their employment agreements. 

Hana* had to work in five households, “including my employer’s, their mother’s, siblings’ and other relatives. I would do the work in all five houses. Every day I would move from one household to another, all seven days of the week.” 

We can’t escape the abuse

The lack of freedom of movement, exacerbated by widespread passport confiscation, legal restrictions on them leaving the country without permission, and unfamiliarity with the local language and systems, meant many of the domestic workers interviewed were effectively dependent on their employer – not only for work, but also for their ability to return home, even when escaping abuse.

Cleo* arrived in Saudi Arabia in late 2023. After months of preventing her from leaving the house, Cleo’s employer began depriving her of food by locking the fridge and accusing her of theft. Cleo asked her employer to send her back to her recruitment agency so she could go home – a process that was not straightforward and involved further inhuman and degrading treatment, including an intrusive search by her employer to check that she had not taken anything from the house.

“It was so easy to leave the Philippines, but it was so difficult to go back,” said Cleo. “Before I got to leave my employer’s house, they stripped me naked, inspected every corner of my body.”

Several women described being subjected to sexual harassment or assault, often carried out when they were left alone with their male employer or another male relative in the household.

Isabel*, who was made to work in both her employer’s house and the employer’s mother’s, said: “One day I was pulling the comforter and there he was, in the bed, under the comforter, masturbating and calling me to lie beside him. I ran out of the room and went to the rooftop, where I would always hide from him… Sometimes I felt like I preferred staying at the [employer’s] mother’s house. The work there was too much and very difficult, but at least I felt safer.” 

All allegations of abuse must be investigated and justice secured for victims

The testimonies from Kenyan and Filipino domestic workers shared a common thread – for many women abuse was experienced as a normal part of being a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia. 

The kafala system also continues to bind migrant workers to their employer, who acts as their official “sponsor” (or kafeel) from the moment they enter the country and throughout their employment. Although reforms have been made to the system, domestic workers have not benefited from many of these, and key exploitative elements of kafala remain in practice for all migrant workers. 

“From Kenya to the Philippines and beyond, the rights of women who travel to work in Saudi Arabia are being exploited time and time again, facilitated by continued government inaction and a labour system which fosters exploitation and perpetuates systemic racism. Taking a job there should not mean domestic workers are entering a lottery, where their rights, safety and freedom are left to chance,” said Marta Schaaf.

“We are calling on the Saudi Arabian government to immediately investigate all allegations of abuse, including sexual violence and bring perpetrators to justice, implement effective inspections, and fully dismantle the kafala sponsorship system, removing all requirements for workers to have to seek employer consent to change jobs or leave the country. They should be able to leave at their own free will. The Philippines and other states sending workers abroad also have an obligation to protect their nationals from human rights abuses.”

Amnesty International is also calling for domestic workers to be brought under the labour law to guarantee equal rights, and enforce existing protections effectively, including by penalizing abusive employers. 

*Names changed for protection purposes

Source: Victorian Government

The Allan Labor Government is strengthening Victoria's multicultural communities and their leadership.

Minister Stitt today announced that applications will soon open for key positions for a new proposed statutory body, Multicultural Victoria, which would be established later this year.