From balkan bike trails to the Swahili coast of Africa: long-running travel guide Lonely Planet has released their list of the ten best regions to travel to in 2024. One Australian gem nearly topped the global list.
Tag Archives: oceania
Bowling club green could be converted as little-known sport rises
Bowling clubs have traditionally been the popular choice for seniors looking for some light exercise, socialisation and potentially a couple of cheap pints.
But as a new generation starts their retirement, pickleball is rapidly rising in popularity.
Sydney's Canterbury Leagues Club is planning to capitalise on the recent demand for the sport by converting one of their grass bowling greens in Punchbowl into eight pickleball courts.
READ MORE: Elite school worker found dead in 'apparent' murder
A spokesperson from the Canterbury Leagues Club said pickleball was a good fit and they expected it to attract a "large market" of players.
"Some of those regional areas have attracted a lot of seniors where bowls is quite popular," the spokesperson said.
"I think adding something like pickleball for them (seniors) would be an absolute natural progression."
READ MORE: Need a career change? This industry has 2 million job openings
Pickleball courts are also quite small, meaning people can play games in a much smaller space, making it an attractive prospect from an urban development perspective.
Tennis court is 23.7 metres long and 11 metres wide compared to a pickleball court that is 13.4 metres long and six metres wide.
"It can be played by all ages so I think that's why it's becoming so popular," the spokesperson said.
"Tennis you're going to reach an age limit on that, whereas people can keep playing (pickleball) well into your 70s, 80s."
One of the club's directors who is in his 80s plays pickleball, which spurred the decision to convert a bowling green as there are not many courts around Sydney.
READ MORE: Trump supporter now the second-most powerful man in America
A Canterbury Bankstown council development application has been lodged that will see the bowling green turned into a concrete playing surface with walkways and windbreak fencing.
A City of Canterbury Bankstown spokesperson said the development application was being publicly advertised until November 7.
"Council will consider all comments and carefully assess the application against all relevant plans, policies and controls," the spokesperson said.
Pickleball is played with a paddle and a plastic whiffle ball.
"Pickleball is both fun and challenging with a combination of long rallies and a blend of soft and rapid-fire shots where the best athlete must earn their points not purely by athleticism, power and speed, but also through the use of positioning, patience, tactics and touch," Pickleball Australia said on its website.
Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the US and there are 36.5 million pickleball players in the US according to the Association of Pickleball Professionals.
About 12,000 Australians play the sport according to Pickleball Association Australia (PPA).
The sport is now played in about 60 countries.
Biden 'confident' AUKUS will pass Congress, he tells Albanese
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden have presented a united front amid current global uncertainty after holding talks in Washington.
Albanese arrived at the White House on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) as a military band played and 4000 guests watched from the South Lawn.
The pair later held a press conference during which they reiterated the importance of the Australian-United States alliance in what Biden said was a difficult time, with ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
READ MORE: Woman's body found on school grounds in Sydney's CBD
It was part of a state visit intended to bolster American ties in the Pacific against the backdrop of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Albanese said the relationship between the two nations was one of "trust'.
"I regard the United States as a very reliable partner. I regard the relationship that I have with the President as second to none of the relationships that I have around the world or, indeed, domestically for that matter," he said.
Both leaders also stressed advance the $370 billion AUKUS defence deal between Australia, Britain and the US, under which the Australian navy will acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
Albanese said he was confident the US Congress would pass key legislation, enabling the AUKUS pact to proceed despite concerns by some Republican members.
"I have had with Democrats and Republicans that there is very broad support for the AUKUS arrangements and that will be support for the legislation going forward and I think that would be a very good thing," he said.
READ MORE: Uber fined $412,500 for spam emails to customers
"It is in the interests of Australia, but it's also in the interests of the United States and everyone that I have spoken to similarly in the United Kingdom, across the political spectrum, are all supportive of the AUKUS arrangements."
Biden said he was confident the necessary legislation would be passed by the end of his current term of office.
"It is overwhelmingly in our interests," the president said.
That looks more likely after weeks of US political chaos ended with the election of Republican Mike Johnson as the new House Speaker.
The US President said AUKUS was not a threat to China but about maintaining stability in the Indo Pacific region.
READ MORE: Trump supporter Mike Johnson elected new US House Speaker
"It is about maintaining stability, stability in the straits, the Indian Ocean, the whole area.
"It is going to increase the prospects for long-term peace rather than anything else."
Biden and Albanese also announced measures to build infrastructure Pacific nations to counter China's growing influence.
They included Australian-US funding to build a new subsea cable to improve internet connectivity in the region.
Albanese acknowledged there was "strategic competition" in the Indo Pacific region.
Why it could take 2 million Aussies changing jobs to reach net zero
If Australia is going to stick to its word and become a "net-zero nation" within the next 27 years, it's got a serious staffing problem.
The top bodies representing Australia's renewable energy industry say that Australia is desperately short of workers for "clean economy jobs" – by about 2 million people.
It's long been the dream of the nation's energy industry, but if they're going to make it a reality, they'll need millions more "boots, brogues and heels" on the ground.
READ MORE: Earth's vital signs have never been worse
Martine had spent her career working in the high-flying world of fashion and publicity, until one day she woke up and felt the need to leave the world of marketing.
"I was working for an agency and our values just completely didn't align," she told 9news.com.au.
"It wasn't interesting to me anymore."
So she quit the industry that, in her words, just cared about "putting things on football players".
Trading the world of fashion for the farm and field, she is one of the thousands of Australians who have reskilled into "clean economy jobs".
Now, she's a community consultant for Tilt Renewables and travels the country to meet with the people of small towns and regional communities, where she hears feedback on the energy infrastructure developments proposed for their area.
She's one of the thousands of Aussies who have taken the leap into a "clean economy job", even if it's not welding wind turbines or assembling solar panels.
The top peak bodies for the renewables sector have estimated that Australia needs 2 million new jobs to reach net zero by 2050.
They say the lower target of 43 per cent less emissions by 2030 will still need 200,000 people to change jobs to make it happen.
Holly Taylor, the Energy Efficiency Council's head of strategy, said workers of all backgrounds were needed.
"The whole point is that we don't just need electricians and engineers," she said.
"Of course, we definitely need them.
"But we also need project managers and investment analysts and insulation installers, net zero business advisors, blade technicians, the list goes on."
"So it doesn't matter if you've studied a STEM subject or an arts degree.
"There's a role for you in Australia's clean economy."
Ashleigh was initially on her way to finishing a carpentry apprenticeship when an injury forced a switch in career.
Now she installs roof insulation with Alexander Watson Home Insulation, a Canberra-based company.
"Being an installer is rewarding work – there's always a better end goal to reach," she said.
"And for people in need of a job, there's so much work – we're booked up to January for ceiling insulation."
That doesn't mean the work is easy.
With hot, confined spaces and labourers' wages, it's still hard work by anyone's definition.
But it is a good example of a "clean economy" job with the highest predicted demand for employment in the future.
Kane Thornton, CEO of the Clean Energy Council, told 9news.com.au there was a huge level of capital funding and enthusiasm in the private sector for a clean energy transition.
But at a national level, he stressed, Australia is now locked in a "clean energy arms race."
"Every other country in the world is doing essentially what we're trying to do," he said.
"And that is really quickly moving away from coal and gas to renewables."
To make it happen, he claimed strong and clear government policy on green jobs was needed so businesses could "have more confidence that these are good quality jobs, and that they'll be here soon".
While they were once fighting for relevance in a market crowded by fossil fuels, finding and reskilling a workforce is now one of the main challenges facing the renewable energy industry.
"And that says something about the opportunity before us," Thornton said.
A broad group of industry associations, education institutions, local governments and other non-government organisations is calling for the federal and state governments to take action to secure these workforce goals so Australia's global emissions commitments can also be met.
Hezbollah leader holds talks with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures
The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday in Beirut with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza.
In neighbouring Syria, meanwhile, state media said an Israeli airstrike hit the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, damaging its runway and putting it out of service.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reported strike.
READ MORE: UN agency warns its fuel will run dry in hours
Following the meeting in Lebanon, a brief statement said Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed with Hamas' Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad's leader Ziad al-Nakhleh on the next steps that the three — along with other Iran-backed militants — should take at this "sensitive stage" in the Middle East.
Their goal, according to the statement carried on Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, was to achieve "a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine" and halt Israel's "treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank".
No other details were provided. The meeting came as the war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, is now in its third week.
The fighting, triggered by Hamas' deadly incursion into Israel on October 7 that killed more than 1400 people in Israel, has killed more than 5700 Palestinians in Gaza.
READ MORE: 'This is a great honour': Albanese meets with Biden in Oval Office
As the Gaza death toll spirals, tensions have also been rising along the tense Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah members have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops since the day after Hamas' rampage into Israel.
For now, those exchanges remain limited to a handful of border towns and Hezbollah and Israeli military positions on both sides. Lebanese army soldiers and United Nations peacekeeping forces have deployed in large numbers.
Dozens of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the clashes so far, the group says, while the Israeli military has also announced some deaths among its ranks.
Nasrallah has yet to publicly speak about the war in Gaza and clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border. However, other Hezbollah top officials have warned Israel against its planned ground invasion into the besieged territory.
Israeli officials have said they would retaliate aggressively in case of a cross-border attack by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
"We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state (will be) devastating," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while visiting Israeli troops along the border with Lebanon on Sunday.
Lebanon's cash-strapped caretaker government, along with regional and international figures, has been scrambling to keep the country out of the war.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate. Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.
In its report on the airstrike on Syria's Aleppo, the state-run SANA news agency cited an unnamed military official as saying the strike came from the west, over the Mediterranean Sea near the coastal city of Lattakia. The report did not mention any casualties.
If confirmed, the attack would be the fourth time Israel has targeted the airport in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and financial hub, since the onset of the latest Israel-Hamas war.
The first attack took place on October 12, when Israeli missiles struck international airports in both Aleppo and Syria's capital of Damascus, putting them both out of commission. The Aleppo airport was later repaired.
Israel targets airports and sea ports in government-held parts of Syria in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militants backed by Tehran, including Hezbollah.
Thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the region joined Syria's 12-year civil war, helping tip the balance in favor of President Bashar Assad's forces.
Israel has carried out hundreds of such strikes in recent years, including on the Damascus and Aleppo airports, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
You can now use your mobile phone on a plane
The days of bill shock when travelling are long behind us, replaced by daily charges and international roaming "top ups" meaning we can stay in touch from almost anywhere in the world.
Today however, that concept takes a step even further, with Vodafone announcing in-flight roaming on a select set of international airlines.
Designed to work in tune with the company's $5-a-day roaming in a large number of countries around the world, in-flight roaming allows you to turn your phone off airplane mode when you reach cruising altitude.
READ MORE: How households can save up to $123 a year on electricity bills
Soon after, your phone will connect to a network within the plane, allowing you to send messages, use your mobile data and even make or take calls.
"We have customers joining Vodafone every day who are sick of the great roaming rip off. Whether you're in another country or on your way there, Vodafone is working hard to help you stay connected and save money," Vodafone group executive Kieren Cooney said.
"For a flat fee of only $5 per day, customers can use their device to stay in touch with loved ones, share their travel selfies, and even get some work done, all while cruising above the clouds.
"Best of all, customers won't have to worry about any hidden costs or bill shock when they arrive home."
READ MORE: Parents warned about illegal energy drinks on Australian shelves
The in-flight roaming feature will work on participating airlines including Emirates, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Malaysian and Singapore Airlines.
For travellers looking to be online while they fly, the options currently require you to use in-flight wifi, which can be expensive and have limitations.
Vodafone says the use of data on board a plane will "deliver download and upload speeds similar to 3G", more than enough to check your emails, browse the web and even social media.
The $5 charge applies to a 24-hour period, so even if you are flying for half the day, then on the ground in a country with Vodafone's roaming for the other half of the day, you'll only pay the $5 for that given day.
Use of in-flight roaming is optional, you can also simply have your phone off or in airplane mode to avoid the charge and not use any of the connected services.
How households can save up to $123 a year on electricity bills
Many consumers do not realise they may be paying for electricity they're not even using as a result of something known as "phantom power".
Phantom power is when common household appliances drain energy while they're plugged in, even when not being actively used.
According to new calculations by Canstar Blue across homes in south-east Queensland, it could be adding approximately $123 to power bills every year.
READ MORE: Man fighting for life after being shot by police south of Brisbane
"If something's got a flashing light, it's showing you the time or runs by remote control, it's definitely using standby power," Christine Seib of Canstar Blue told 9News.
Smart TV's carry the highest phantom load, costing an extra 37 cents an hour, or $32.80 a year.
Gaming consoles also drain electricity when not in use, approximates $24.60 over a year.
READ MORE: Australia's most iconic spread has reached a 100-year milestone
Washing machines and microwaves use the same amount, which is an estimated 12 cents per hour when not in use.
An air conditioner costs nearly $5.50 a year in standby power mode and a computer monitor adds about three cents per hour, or $2.73 per year.
"Wifi modems are a surprisingly high standby power user [because] it's switched on all the time and active," Seib said.
Switching appliances off at the wall is obviously the best way to ensure your bill isn't inflated by phantom load but this of course isn't always practical.
You could also try using a smart power board, which can detect when to cut an appliance's electricity feed.
Alternatively, you can adjust the settings on some appliances to minimise standby activity.
What will National’s crackdown on gangs look like?
Party’s police spokesperson says ban for gang facial tattoos is on the cards.
Millions of Aussies set for hip pocket hit on Melbourne Cup day
It's looking increasingly likely that luckless punters won't be the only Australians copping a nasty hit to their hip pocket on Melbourne Cup day.
Higher-than-expected inflation data for the September quarter released today has market analysts predicting the Reserve Bank will hike interest rates when they next meet on November 7, just half an hour before the race that stops the nation.
The figures today came less than 24 hours after governor Michele Bullock warned the central bank "will not hesitate to raise the cash rate" for a 13th time if CPI doesn't come back to its 2-3 per cent target band quickly enough.
READ MORE: Inflation rises in September quarter, deepening fears of further rate rises
Given the quarterly rise of 1.2 per cent was higher than market forecasts, that seems to be exactly what is happening – and there was even more concerning reading in the ABS's inflation data.
"The bigger upside surprise today was in the core readings of inflation – mainly the 'trimmed mean' which is the RBA's preferred measure," AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina said.
"[It] was up by 1.2 per cent over the quarter (above consensus estimates of 1 per cent and our own forecast of 1.2 per cent) which took annual growth to 5.2 per cent and was up from a 1 per cent rise last quarter.
READ MORE: 'The board will not hesitate': RBA governor issues interest rate rise warning
"Annual growth in trimmed mean inflation slowed to 5.2 per cent from 5.9 per cent last quarter and is lower than the peak of 6.8 per cent in December last year.
"However, this is quite a miss from the RBA's forecasts of 4.8 per cent annual growth and we think will concern the central bank because it could indicate that inflation is proving too 'sticky'."
She says the data will force Bullock and her board to hike rates by a quarter of a percent.
"We think today's inflation figures will cause some concern for the central bank and is likely to push the RBA over the line to hike the cash rate by another 0.25 per cent," Mousina said.
READ MORE: 'I thought it was all over': Wing surfer cleaned up by leaping whale
Bank of Queensland (BOQ) chief economist Peter Munckton agrees.
"Another rate hike is imminent, particularly given that Australia's cash rate is about one percentage point below that of peer countries," he said.
"To me, this makes a move at the November board meeting look likely."
However, while AMP, BOQ and other market analysts are predicting a hike, Mousina cautioned the Reserve Bank against moving in November.
"We think that RBA needs to allow more time for the full lags of monetary policy to work through the economy and risks a significant slowing in economic growth in 2024 if it continues to raise interest rates," she said.
NZ First leader Winston Peters claims former PM Jacinda Ardern never told him of Christchurch terrorist’s email in bizarre post
The day after the attack, Ardern’s office confirmed they had received the email.