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Category Archives: headline
More than 40 new COVID-19 deaths reported across three states
COVID-19 cases have risen in Queensland while remaining relatively stable in New South Wales and Victoria but the three states have recorded a combined 44 virus fatalities.
NSW recorded 11,709 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
This is a slight drop from yesterday's 11,903 cases.
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20 people died with the virus.
There are 1623 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 69 admitted to ICU.
Hospital admissions have decreased since yesterday, from 1645 hospitalisations, while ICU admissions are up by one.
Queensland
Queensland has recorded 5885 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, an increase from yesterday's 4477 infections.
Five people have died with the virus.
There are 468 people in hospital and nine people admitted to ICU, both of which have dropped since yesterday.
Victoria
Victoria recorded 9064 COVID-19 cases overnight, a drop from yesterday's 11,083 infections.
Nineteen people died with the virus.
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There are 448 people in hospital with the virus and 30 admitted to ICU.
Hospitalisations have risen from 428 yesterday, but ICU admissions have dropped from 35.
Showdown between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin looming
President Joe Biden and his advisers are still in conversations about how to approach November's Group of 20 summit, whose hosts received confirmation that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend.
Mr Biden has said Russia should be ejected from the G20. Senior members of his administration have walked out of G20 events where Russian delegates are present. And there were discussions with Indonesia, which is hosting the summit, about stepping up its condemnation of Russia.
But no decision on boycotting the leaders' summit, still six months away, has been made. Officials said there wouldn't likely be a decision in the near term as they weigh the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.
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"The President has expressed publicly his opposition to President Putin attending the G20," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.
She said it was too early to say how the summit would look.
"It is six months away. So we don't know how to predict, we can't predict at this point, what that will look like," she said, adding: "We've conveyed our view that we don't think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well."
The White House is realistic the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks, since the decision would likely require consensus and China has been clear it doesn't support such a move. That makes this a different scenario than when Russia was expelled from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea.
Ms Psaki said the White House's understanding was that Indonesia invited Mr Putin to attend prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yet in a statement, the country's President stressed unity among the member countries.
"Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don't let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy," President Joko Widodo said in a statement from Indonesia's Cabinet on Friday, confirming Mr Putin had accepted his invitation to attend.
Mr Widodo also extended an invitation earlier this week to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who tweeted he was "grateful" for the invite, but did not specify whether he would attend the summit.
Mr Widodo spoke with Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky in separate phone calls this week, during which he conveyed to the Russian president the importance of ending the war in Ukraine "immediately" and Indonesia's desire to contribute to a peaceful resolution to the conflict, according to the statement.
Mr Widodo said he conveyed to Mr Zelensky Indonesia's readiness to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine but not military assistance, which he said is prohibited by Indonesia's constitution and its foreign policy principles.
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Confirmation of Mr Putin's attendance sets up a potentially complicated summit on the Indonesian island Bali, which is scheduled to begin in the beginning of November. White House officials have mulled a number of different scenarios, including potentially sending a lower-level delegation or participating remotely. But Mr Biden attending in person is still considered the likeliest outcome, even if Mr Putin is also there, according to officials.
Ms Psaki said there were no indications Russia was willing to engage in serious diplomacy.
"There's a lot that could happen between now and then, but we certainly haven't seen an indication to date of Russia's plan to participate in diplomatic talks constructively," she said.
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"Our hope certainly is that will change because obviously diplomatic talks and conversations is the way to bring an end to this conflict and President Putin could end this tomorrow, could end this right now."
Earlier this month, finance ministers from multiple nations, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, walked out of a closed-door G20 session in Washington when the Russian delegate began his prepared remarks, a show of protest against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Ahead of the meeting, US officials had said Ms Yellen would not participate in certain sessions of the gathering that included Russia. And Mr Biden said during a snap NATO summit in March he would support Russia's ejection from the G20.
Short of that, Mr Biden said Ukraine should be invited to participate. He said he'd discussed the matter with other leaders during his meetings.
Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Seven new Covid deaths, 7043 community cases
There are seven new Covid deaths and 7043 community cases, the Ministry of Health says.There are 468 people in hospital with the virus, 15 of them in intensive care.This is down from the highs of 1016 people in hospital on March…
Injured paraglider in hospital after Redcliffs, Christchurch rescue
About 25 fire crew were involved in a two-hour mission to rescue a stranded paraglider who had been blown into a cliff face this morning. The paraglider has been taken to hospital with moderate injuries after he was rescued 20m…
This image shows why your deliveries have been delayed
An image has revealed why deliveries around the globe have been delayed as thousands of ships queue around the port in the Chinese city of Shanghai.
The graphic shows thousands of ships sitting idly around Shanghai due to China's zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19, meaning anything on the shipping containers is stuck in transit.
Ten per cent of the world's items currently being shipped are reportedly stuck in the country's ports.
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Supply chain management lecturer at Australian National University David Leaney said the image is "as bad as it looks".
"To give you an idea of the scale, Shanghai's greater port area is about 60 kilometres wide so that's about 3600 square kilometres so it usually handles 2000 ships a month and 40 million shipping containers," Mr Leaney said.
"It is impacting a lot of different items, if you've ordered white goods, furniture, clothes you're in for major delays."
The backlog is causing delays to both imports and exports.
As inflation has reached a 20-year high in Australia, Mr Leaney warned these shipping delays are only going to add to the costs.
"Costs are going up which are adding to inflation pressures and that will, of course, add to pressures on interest rates," he said.
Mr Leaney warned the delays may last months.
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"Even if we were to fix the COVID-19 situation magically in China, it will still take months to clear the backlog," he said.
"It's like when you have a traffic accident and the accident is cleared but it still takes ages for the traffic to flow again after the cars have been towed away because of the congestion caused by it.
"I think we will see delays for the rest of 2022."
Jack Tame: Labour, National tax policies – Is a fairer system on the way?
OPINION: You know it must be a slow news week when tax spends so much time in the headlines. But no matter which major party finds itself in government after next year’s election, it looks increasingly likely we’ll see changes…
Ghislaine Maxwell's attempt to have trafficking conviction dropped fails
A request by Ghislaine Maxwell's attorneys to have her sex trafficking convictions dropped has been denied.
"The testimony and other trial evidence established the Defendant's role in grooming and recruiting underage girls and using the cover of massage to perpetrate sexual abuse," US District Judge Alison Nathan wrote in her opinion.
Ms Nathan did, however, grant Maxwell's motion regarding some counts being repetitive.
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"The Government concedes that Count One is multiplicitous with Count Three, and the Court further concludes that Count Five is multiplicitous with Count Three," Ms Nathan wrote.
"Count Five, like Counts One and Three, charged the Defendant's participation in the same decade-long unlawful agreement with the Defendant's continuous coconspirator, Jeffrey Epstein, to groom and sexually abuse underage girls."
Maxwell's sentencing is set for June 28, and the court will enter judgment of conviction on counts three, four and six.
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Maxwell, 60, was found guilty of five federal charges: sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy.
She was acquitted on the charge of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
A previous motion for a new trial due to an issue over a juror was denied earlier in April.
Maternal suicide: Leading cause of deaths of pregnant women, new mothers, report reveals
WARNING: This story may be distressing for some readers. Suicide is the leading cause of deaths among pregnant women and new mums, a worrying report by the Helen Clark Foundation reveals. The findings have sparked anger from…
The world's rarest animals
From a tiny porpoise to an all-white deer that roams one army base; these are world's rarest, and in some cases most endangered, animals.