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SYDNEY: Australia’s spy chief has singled out Russia as an “aggressive espionage threat,” saying several Moscow-linked intelligence officers have been caught and expelled in recent years.
Intelligence boss Mike Burgess used a speech on Thursday night to warn of the mounting threat posed by foreign actors such as Russia and China.
Burgess said 24 major espionage operations had been dismantled since 2022 — more than the previous eight years combined.
“A new iteration of great power competition is driving a relentless hunger for strategic advantage and an insatiable appetite for inside information,” he said.
“Russia remains a persistent and aggressive espionage threat,” added Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization.
Without providing details, Burgess said a number of Russian spies had been expelled from Australia in recent years.
He also mentioned China and Iran as nations actively trying to pilfer classified information.
“You would be genuinely shocked by the number and names of countries trying to steal our secrets,” he said.
Repeating a warning sounded earlier this year, Burgess said foreign actors were targeting Australia’s fledgling nuclear-powered submarine program.
Australia plans to deploy stealthy nuclear-powered submarines in a pact with the United States and Britain known as AUKUS.
“In particular, we are seeing foreign intelligence services taking a very unhealthy interest in AUKUS and its associated capabilities,” said Burgess.
Australian police last year charged a married Russian-born couple with spying for Moscow.
The couple — accused of trying to steal military secrets — had lived in Australia for more than 10 years.
 

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that set new tariffs on a wide swath of US trading partners to go into effect on Aug. 7 — the next step in his trade agenda that will test the global economy and sturdiness of American alliances built up over decades.
The order was issued shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday. It came after a flurry of tariff-related activity in the last several days, as the White House announced agreements with various nations and blocs ahead of the president’s self-imposed Friday deadline. The tariffs are being implemented at a later date in order for the rates schedule to be harmonized, according to a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on a call on the condition of anonymity.
After initially threatening the African nation of Lesotho with a 50 percent tariff, the country’s goods will now be taxed at 15 percent. Taiwan will have tariffs set at 20 percent, Pakistan at 19 percent and Israel, Iceland, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana and Ecuador among the countries with imported goods taxed at 15 percent.
Trump had announced a 50 percent tariff on goods from Brazil, but the order was only 10 percent as the other 40 percent were part of a separate measure approved by Trump on Wednesday.
The order capped off a hectic Thursday as nations sought to continue negotiating with Trump. It set the rates for 68 countries and the 27-member European Union, with a baseline 10 percent rate to be charged on countries not listed in the order. The senior administration official said the rates were based on trade imbalance with the US and regional economic profiles.
On Thursday morning, Trump engaged in a phone conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on trade. As a result of the conversation, the US president said he would enter into a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico, one of the nation’s largest trading partners. The current 25 percent tariff rates are staying in place, down from the 30 percent he had threatened earlier.
“We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow and we got 90 days to build a long-term agreement through dialogue,” Sheinbaum wrote on X after a call with Trump that he referred to as “very successful” in terms of the leaders getting to know each other better.
The unknowns created a sense of drama that has defined Trump’s rollout of tariffs over several months. However, the one consistency is his desire to levy the import taxes that most economists say will ultimately be borne to some degree by US consumers and businesses.
“We have made a few deals today that are excellent deals for the country,” Trump told reporters on Thursday afternoon, without detailing the terms of those agreements or the nations involved. The senior administration official declined to reveal the nations that have new deals during the call with reporters.
Trump said that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had called ahead of 35 percent tariffs being imposed on many of his nation’s goods, but “we haven’t spoken to Canada today.”
Trump imposed the Friday deadline after his previous “Liberation Day” tariffs in April resulted in a stock market panic. His unusually high tariff rates, unveiled in April, led to recession fears — prompting Trump to impose a 90-day negotiating period. When he was unable to create enough trade deals with other countries, he extended the timeline and sent out letters to world leaders that simply listed rates, prompting a slew of hasty deals.
Trump reached a deal with South Korea on Wednesday, and earlier with the European Union, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. His commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” that there were agreements with Cambodia and Thailand after they had agreed to a ceasefire to their border conflict.
Going into Thursday, wealthy Switzerland and Norway were still uncertain about their tariff rates. EU officials were waiting to complete a crucial document outlining how the framework to tax imported autos and other goods from the 27-member state bloc would operate. Trump had announced a deal on Sunday while he was in Scotland.
Trump said as part of the agreement with Mexico that goods imported into the US would continue to face a 25 percent tariff that he has ostensibly linked to fentanyl trafficking. He said autos would face a 25 percent tariff, while copper, aluminum and steel would be taxed at 50 percent during the negotiating period.
He said Mexico would end its “Non Tariff Trade Barriers,” but he didn’t provide specifics.
Some goods continue to be protected from the tariffs by the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which Trump negotiated during his first term.
But Trump appeared to have soured on that deal, which is up for renegotiation next year. One of his first significant moves as president was to impose tariffs on goods from both Mexico and Canada earlier this year.
US Census Bureau figures show that the US ran a $171.5 billion trade deficit with Mexico last year. That means the US bought more goods from Mexico than it sold to the country.
The imbalance with Mexico has grown in the aftermath of the USMCA, as it was only $63.3 billion in 2016, the year before Trump started his first term in office.
 

resident Donald Trump signed an order Thursday imposing higher tariffs on dozens of countries in his latest bid to reshape global trade in favor of US businesses, with duties to take effect in seven days.
The order set out tariffs on imports that ranged as high as 41 percent on Syria, alongside various levels reflecting trade deals struck between Washington and major partners like the European Union and Japan.
Separately, the White House announced that Canadian imports will face 35 percent tariffs come Friday, up from an existing 25 percent level.
An exemption for Canadian and Mexican goods entering the country under a North American trade pact remained in place, according to the White House.
Mexico continues to face 25 percent tariffs.
The announcement capped a flurry of efforts to reach trade pacts with the Trump administration ahead of the president’s initial Friday deadline.
So far, Washington had announced pacts pacts with Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and the European Union.
But details of those agreements have remained vague.
Looming over the global economy is also an unresolved trade tussle between the United States and China.