U.S. reaches outline of TikTok deal with China | Two giant deals: U.A.E. got chips, Trump team got crypto riches | Final social media ban rules coming, no enforceable standard
Plus, OpenAI ramps up robotics work in race toward AGI
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U.S. and Chinese negotiators reached a framework deal on TikTok after two days of trade talks here, a crucial step toward ending the yearslong saga over whether the video-sharing app can operate in America just days before it was set to be banned. The Wall Street Journal
A lucrative transaction involving the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm and an agreement giving the Emiratis access to A.I. chips were connected in ways that have not been previously reported. The New York Times
Tech companies will not need to test the age of every social media user or disclose how many teenagers they have booted off their platforms when the social media ban comes in force in December. ABC News
🚀 We’re rebuilding ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker from the ground up. The major expansion adds richer profiles, rankings powered by the Critical Technology Tracker, new mapping of links to China’s state-owned defence industry, analysis of China–Russia research ties, and data on the surge in dual-use research centres—now covering 180+ entities with faster search. Be first to get early-access invites and launch updates: https://unitracker.aspi.org.au/
World
Shipping industry enlists AI to tackle rising number of cargo fires
Financial Times
Peter Foster
The global shipping industry is turning to artificial intelligence to try to cut the number of deadly fires at sea, which hit a decade-high in 2024 thanks to the growing number of cargoes containing batteries and other flammable materials. The failure of shipping agents to declare dangerous goods — either accidentally or to avoid higher fees for hazardous cargo — was the biggest reason for the rise in fires, said the World Shipping Council, the industry body that is launching a programme to detect offenders.
Australia
Final rules for social media ban set to be revealed, with no legally-enforceable effectiveness standard
ABC News
Tom Crowley
Social media companies will not need to test the age of every social media user or meet a minimum standard for how many teenagers they boot off their platforms, with the federal government confirming a lighter-touch approach to enforcing its under-16 ban. Long-awaited details about the operation of the ban will arrive on Tuesday, setting out the steps Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and other platforms must take to avoid falling foul of the law. While the platforms must satisfy the eSafety watchdog that they have taken "reasonable steps" to remove the accounts of those aged under 16, there will be no legally-enforceable standard for accuracy.
Tech giants get rules on banning kids from social media The Canberra Times
eSafety recruits Roblox to Aussie child safety standards
CyberDaily
David Hollingworth
“We’ve been engaging with Roblox on this issue for several months to make it clear to the platform that under Australian law, they are required to take meaningful action to prioritise the protection of children.” Inman Grant said that some of Roblox’s newer or soon-to-be-released features, such as short-form video feeds and dating, were particularly concerning and that the platform needed to demonstrate the compliance of these add-ons. “I have recently met with senior Roblox executives in person, including their chief legal officer and chief safety officer, to outline our compliance concerns and what we as the regulator expect of them when it comes to tackling harms as serious as grooming, sexual extortion and other forms of child sexual exploitation. I am pleased to see them come to the table with these new safety commitments,” Inman Grant said.
Claire Chandler appointed as shadow minister for cyber security
CyberDaily
David Hollingworth
Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler has been appointed to the Liberal National Party’s shadow ministry, taking over the cyber security and science portfolios. “In recent months, Senator Chandler has worked diligently in prosecuting Labor’s national security missteps,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said in a 14 September statement. “She has a deep passion for the subject matter in both these important portfolios.”
NSW man charged over mobile phishing scheme
CyberDaily
David Hollingworth
An NSW South Coast man has been charged with scam-related offences and is expected to face a Batemans Bay Local Court today (15 September) following an AFP investigation. The AFP alleged that the man sent phishing messages to the customers of a particular telco, telling them that their service was in danger of being restricted due to late payments. The messages linked to a website that harvested victims’ credentials and banking details.
China
U.S. reaches outline of TikTok deal with China
The Wall Street Journal
Rebecca Feng, Lingling Wei and Amrith Ramkumar
U.S. and Chinese negotiators reached a framework deal on TikTok after two days of trade talks here, a crucial step toward ending the yearslong saga over whether the video-sharing app can operate in America just days before it was set to be banned. Beijing had previously shown little appetite for a deal on the popular app but likely conceded to an agreement to keep alive its ambition for President Trump to visit China.
‘I’d like to do it for the kids’: How TikTok could bring Trump and Xi together The Age
US and China reach deal to transfer TikTok ownership, trade officials say The Guardian
US-China trade talks set for day two as TikTok deadline looms BBC
China says Nvidia violated antitrust law
The Wall Street Journal
Raffaele Huang
China said an initial probe found Nvidia NVDA -0.04%decrease; red down pointing triangle violated the country’s antimonopoly law, heightening pressure on Washington during the latest round of U.S.-China trade talks that ended Monday. Beijing’s antitrust regulator cited the violations in connection with Nvidia’s acquisition of an Israeli company that was completed in 2020. The regulator said the investigation was continuing, and it didn’t elaborate on the preliminary findings or say whether it would punish Nvidia.
China launches discrimination and dumping probes into US chips ahead of trade talks
Reuters
Ryan Woo
China's Ministry of Commerce initiated an anti-discrimination investigation into U.S. trade policy over chips on Saturday, as well as a separate investigation into dumping, a day ahead of a new round of U.S.-China trade talks in Spain. The first investigation would examine whether Washington had discriminated against Chinese companies in its policies on trade in chips. The second would look into suspected dumping of imports of some U.S. analog chips used in devices such as hearing aids, Wi-Fi routers and temperature sensors.
Tech war: Chinese chipmaker Fudan Microelectronics shrugs off impact of US sanctions South China Morning Post
China’s Xpeng launches EV production in Europe with Austria’s Magna Steyr
South China Morning Post
Daniel Ren
Xpeng, part owned by Volkswagen Group, has begun production in Europe in partnership with a contract manufacturer in Austria, as mainland Chinese electric vehicle makers make inroads into the continent and circumvent punitive tariffs. The Guangzhou-based carmaker said on Monday that it had started assembling the G6 and G9 SUVs at Magna Steyr’s plant in Graz. Xpeng did not elaborate on its planned output, but added that cooperation with its partner would deepen over time.
Jack Ma Returns With a Vengeance to ‘Make Alibaba Great Again’
Bloomberg
During China’s yearslong crackdown on the tech sector, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s internal messaging boards lit up with dreams to “MAGA” – Make Alibaba Great Again. Now, the company is deploying one of its most potent weapons to accomplish that mission: Jack Ma. After vanishing from the public eye at the outset of an antitrust investigation in late 2020, China’s most recognizable entrepreneur is back on Alibaba’s campuses – and he’s more directly involved than he’s been in half a decade, according to people familiar with the company.
USA
Anatomy of two giant deals: The U.A.E. got chips. The Trump team got crypto Riches.
The New Tork Times
Eric Lipton, David Yaffe-Bellany, Bradley Hope, Tripp Mickle and Paul Mozur
This summer, Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, paid a visit to the coast of Sardinia, a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea crowded with super yachts. On one of those extravagant vessels, Mr. Witkoff sat down with a member of the ultrarich ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. He was meeting Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a trim figure in dark glasses who controls $1.5 trillion of the Emiratis’ sovereign wealth. It was the latest engagement in a consequential alliance.
California age verification bill backed by Google, Meta, OpenAI heads to Newsom
POLITICO
A California bill to check kids’ ages online is heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, after it secured rare support from major tech giants, including Google, Meta and Snap. The proposal, which would require device makers and app stores to verify user ages, cleared the state Assembly 58-0 in the early hours of Saturday with backing from Republicans and Democrats. Google and Meta, plus other tech firms like OpenAI and Pinterest, rallied around the online age verification plan this week despite recently sparring over similar measures in Utah and Texas.
The FBI destroyed an internet weapon, but criminals picked up the pieces
The Wall Street Journal
Robert McMillan
The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently disrupted a network of hacked devices used by criminals in some of the largest online attacks yet seen. Now those devices have been hacked by someone new to build an even bigger weapon. Law-enforcement agencies and technology companies are waging a war against increasingly powerful networks of hacked devices, called botnets, that can knock websites offline for a fee. They are used for extortion and by disreputable companies to knock rivals offline, federal prosecutors say.
Uvalde school district says ransomware attack forcing closure until Thursday
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
A ransomware attack has forced the public school district in Uvalde, Texas, to shut down for most of the week as officials attempt to restore systems. The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District serves about 5,000 students in Uvalde County as well as parts of Zavala and Real counties. Anne Marie Espinoza, chief of communications for the school district, said on social media this weekend that they are dealing with a “significant technology incident.”
Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in a post-content-moderation world
WIRED
Lauren Goode
Minutes after conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was shot yesterday at a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University, jarring videos of the incident began circulating on apps like TikTok, Instagram, and X. In the immediate aftermath, the majority of the videos viewed by WIRED did not contain content warnings. Many began autoplaying before viewers had the option to consent. And on X, an AI-generated recap of the incident falsely indicated that Kirk had survived the shooting.
Americas
How the true cost of data centres’ energy consumption is hidden by ‘industrial secrets’ and NDAs
Crikey
Pablo Medina, Francisca Skoknic, Alberto Pradilla, Justin Hendrix, Laura Scofield and Julia Gavarrete
Sandra García, a 38-year-old factory worker who lives with her husband and son, opens a faucet in her home, but no water comes out. This has become the new normal for her and many of the inhabitants of Colón, a small municipality in the central Mexico state of Querétaro, a region increasingly hit hard by drought. In May this year, the local water authority, Conagua, declared that 17 out of the state’s 18 municipalities had not received enough rainfall, leaving its dams running dangerously dry.
North Asia
Japanese AI robot swarms to scout sites for underground moon bases
Nikkei Asia
Mana Kuroda
Japanese researchers aim to put artificial intelligence-powered robots, each small enough to be held in one hand, on the lunar surface to test new technology for helping humans live on the moon. Tiny red robots could be seen navigating a sandy surface at a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency test site in Sagamihara, west of Tokyo, in July. During the tests, the rolling machines moved to designated locations, avoiding collisions. One machine could jump about one meter high.
South & Central Asia
Jack Dorsey’s bitchat gains traction during Nepal’s unrest
Forbes
Javier Bastardo
The Nepali government blocked access to 26 major social media platforms on September 4, including Facebook, X, YouTube, and Instagram. The decision triggered protests in Kathmandu, largely led by young people. Just five days later, on September 9, demonstrators stormed and set fire to key government buildings, deposing the administration, as the BBC reported. Meanwhile, an app called Bitchat, which is gaining traction among bitcoin users because it uses Bluetooth meshes, and the Nostr protocol to emulates the peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin, saw a sharp increase in downloads across Nepal, with thousands of new users.
NZ & Pacific Islands
New Zealand sanctions Russian military hackers over cyberattacks on Ukraine
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
New Zealand has imposed sanctions on Russian military intelligence hackers accused of cyberattacks on Ukraine, including members of a notorious hacking unit previously tied to destructive malware campaigns. The sanctions announced Friday target Unit 29155 of Russia’s GRU intelligence agency. Western security agencies say the unit — also tracked by researchers as Cadet Blizzard and Ember Bear — has been involved in espionage, sabotage, and assassination plots across Europe. It was behind the 2022 WhisperGate malware attack on Ukrainian government networks ahead of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Ukraine – Russia
Romania condemns Russian drone violation of its airspace
Financial Times
Marton Dunai
A Russian drone entered Romania’s airspace and was tracked by its air force for nearly an hour before leaving, the country’s defence minister said on Sunday, condemning Moscow’s second breach of Nato territory within a week. The incident on Saturday came three days after a swarm of about 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, prompting Nato fighter jets to shoot them down in the most serious incident between the US-led military alliance and Moscow since the all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Ever-faster weapon cycles: innovation and economics in the war in Ukraine
The Strategist
David Kirichenko
The rate of innovation and the economics of war in Ukraine are changing almost daily. Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022 expecting a quick victory, with soldiers even bringing parade uniforms and leaving behind important supplies. But it performed poorly, much to the surprise of the West. Instead, it is stuck in a war of attrition—but it has learned from its mistakes. Its learning is evident in its ability to scale up drone production. On 7 September, Russia carried out its largest drone campaign of the war, launching 805 Iranian-designed Shahed drones and decoys against Ukraine. Ukrainian experts note that Russia has been gaining ground technologically.
Europe
Europol adds Spanish academic suspected of aiding pro-Russian hackers to most wanted list
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Europol has placed a former Spanish university professor accused of helping the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16) on its most wanted list, according to Spain’s National Police. Spanish national Enrique Arias Gil, 37, is suspected of gathering information on Spain’s critical infrastructure and members of its security forces to facilitate cyberattacks. He is also accused of threatening journalists and business leaders who supported Ukraine.
Gucci owner Kering says it was hacked, limited data accessed
Bloomberg
Andrew Martin
was the victim of a data breach that was discovered in June, the latest in a string of attacks on the consumer goods sector. Hackers accessed “limited customer data from some of our Houses,” the company said in an emailed statement. Those houses, or brands, immediately disclosed the breach to relevant authorities and notified customers, the company said. No financial information, including bank account numbers, credit card details or government-issued identification numbers, was involved in the incident, the company said.
UK
Get serious on AI trust, Tim Ayres tells the tech sector
InnovationAus
Joseph Brookes
Industry minister Tim Ayres will on Tuesday call on the tech sector to come to the table with artificial intelligence skills and safety as the government pledges to play its part on regulation and investment. The clarion call comes after the government last month said it would make AI a national priority in recognition of its transformative potential, including fast-tracking industry and public service adoption plans. But with public doubts, a union backlash and tighter regulation like a dedicated AI Act still not ruled out, Senator Ayres will call for a sincere commitment to sharing benefits widely and not only with “AI firms or big corporate players”
Big Tech
Does Apple really need to become an AI company?
The Sydney Morning Herald
Tim Biggs
Apple hasn’t handled the sudden demand for generative AI products particularly well. It made too big a deal about its Apple Intelligence suite and a much smarter and proactive Siri but the actual implementation was underwhelming or did not show up at all. It’s become a familiar refrain at this point for analysts, industry watchers and some users to say that Apple is “behind” on AI, or that it is “playing catch-up”. And to be sure, Apple seemed to avoid the subject as much as possible at its iPhone 17 reveal event earlier this week.
Amazon expects Kuiper to serve five countries by early 2026
Bloomberg
Benoit Berthelot and Matt Day
Amazon.com Inc.’s satellite internet venture aims to be able to offer service to the US, Canada, France, Germany and the UK by the end of the first quarter of 2026, an executive said. Ricky Freeman, president of government solutions for the Project Kuiper satellite venture, said Amazon expected to have more than 200 satellites in low-Earth orbit by the end of the year. The company has said it expects to begin service by late 2025, though it hasn’t specified which markets will receive coverage or precisely when.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI ramps up robotics work in race toward AGI
WIRED
Will Knight
OpenAI appears to be ramping up its efforts in robotics, hiring researchers who work on humanoid systems as it explores new ways to advance artificial intelligence. The company has recently recruited a number of researchers with expertise in developing AI algorithms for controlling humanoid and other types of robots. Job listings show that the company is putting together a team capable of creating systems that can be trained through teleoperation and simulation.
Here’s what the data says people ask ChatGPT
The Washington Post
Gerrit De Vynck
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI released the first detailed study of what its users do with the popular chatbot and who they are, providing an unprecedented look at how people use the artificial intelligence tool and what they talk to it about. The company reports that most ChatGPT users are women and that the majority of requests sent its way are not work-related. The user base is dominated by young people — nearly half of the conversations studied were from people aged 18 to 25.
How a former junior lawyer created a $5bn AI legal start-up
Financial Times
Suzi Ring
When Winston Weinberg, co-founder of legal AI company Harvey, turned 30 last year, he marked the occasion with three work calls and a walk on the beach. While many young people would resent the lack of celebration, he thinks founders should be “willing to outcare and outwork other people”, adding: “In the AI space, we are on a compressed timeline, so what seemed fast execution-wise two years ago is simply not good enough now.”
Jobs
Defence Strategy Program Coordinator
ASPI
ASPI’s Defence Strategy Program analyses how Australia defends its national interests in an era of intensifying strategic competition. Our research focuses on three areas: understanding Australia’s security environment and regional partnerships; developing military strategy, deterrence concepts, and future force design; and strengthening the defence industrial base, supply chains, and economic resilience. Together, these efforts provide government, industry, and the public with evidence‑based insights to enhance Australia’s defence. The closing date for applications is Thursday 28 August 2025 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security Programs team at ASPI and supported by partners.
