Indigenous Australians minister says Albanese government will introduce enabling legislation in March
Good morning and happy new year.
The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, has told Nine newspapers that Australia will vote on the Indigenous voice to parliament as early as August, with the Albanese government planning to introduce the enabling legislation for the referendum “sometime in March”.
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Cabinet papers 2002: PM lifted ban despite opposition of conservatives and religious leaders, including then Archbishop Pell
John Howard’s decision to allow stem cell research using surplus IVF embryos might surprise people “who saw Howard as only a rightwing person”, the former senator and cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone has said.
Despite opposition from conservative and religious groups, and despite seeking advice from the then Catholic archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, the former Liberal prime minister lifted the national ban in 2002.
Continue reading...US aircraft forced to take evasive maneuvers during latest incident over contested shipping, fishing and gas field-rich region
A Chinese military plane came within 10ft (three meters) of a US air force aircraft over the contested South China Sea last week and forced it to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision in international airspace, the US military said.
The close encounter followed what the US called a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military aircraft.
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• Striker widely regarded as the best to have played the game
• Pelé scored a world record 1,281 goals in 1,363 games
• Pelé tops our list of the top 100 all-time World Cup footballers
• Observer Archive from 1970: ‘There is only one Pelé’
Pelé, the Brazilian virtuoso whose captivating skill and athleticism ensured he was universally regarded as one of football’s greatest players, has died at the age of 82.
Pelé, who had a colon tumour removed in 2021, was readmitted to Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo in November amid deteriorating health. After reports he was receiving end-of-life care, Pelé said he felt “strong, with a lot of hope” in a social media post on 3 December.
Continue reading...Colony cages are larger but animal welfare campaigners say the birds are still not able to behave naturally
Battery cages for layer hens will become illegal in New Zealand from 2023 but animal welfare campaigners are urging the government to scrap the replacement colony cages, which they say are just as bad.
The plan to ban battery cages has been 10 years in the making – in 2012, the previous National party government committed to phasing them out by 1 January 2023.
Continue reading...Putin bans supply of oil to countries participating in price cap; heavy fighting continues in southern and eastern Ukraine
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Story of Igor Pedin’s escape from Mariupol is one of about a dozen in an exhibition entitled What Would You Take?
The secret to Igor Pedin’s survival had been his invisibility, the 61-year-old had said.
With his dog, Zhu-Zhu, the former ship’s cook banked on being ignored by the trigger-happy Russian soldiers and their killing machines when he took the first step of a 140-mile journey from his home in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on 23 April, before stealing out into the badlands of Russian-occupied territories towards the relative safety in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
Continue reading...The prime minister will tell Woodford Folk festival that ‘it’s only the beginning’ for his government as he takes inspiration from Bob Hawke; five-year-old girl dies at lake north of Melbourne; two teenagers killed in boat accident in NSW. Follow the day’s news live
Soft plastic, not fantastic: what to do with Australia’s bread bags and chip packets
With the news of Redcycle’s collapse a couple months ago, like many Australians, I was left to reflect on how little I understood the recycling ecosystem.
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Mohammad Moradi posted video online saying he would kill himself to highlight Iran’s crackdown on protests
French authorities are investigating as suicide the drowning of an Iranian man in the south-eastern city of Lyon who had said on social media he was going to kill himself to draw attention to the protest crackdown in Iran.
Mohammad Moradi, 38, was found in the River Rhône that flows through the centre of Lyon late on Monday, a police source told AFP.
Continue reading...Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigating after two bodies found in aircraft wreckage at Appin
A light plane crash which killed two people and sparked a grassfire in south-west Sydney will be examined by the national transport safety agency.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Boxing Day crash.
Continue reading...Aggressor must first face war crimes tribunal, says foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who says war will end in ‘a diplomatic way’
Ukraine is aiming to hold a peace summit by the end of February – preferably at the United Nations with its secretary general, António Guterres, as a possible mediator – according to its foreign minister.
But Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia could only be invited if the country faced a war crimes tribunal first.
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Eight days of isolation will no longer be needed for some visitors, and officials say citizens’ ability to travel will be slowly restored
China will drop Covid-19 quarantine requirements for passengers arriving from abroad from 8 January, its National Health Commission has announced in the latest easing of the country’s once-strict virus-control measures.
Currently, arriving passengers must quarantine for five days at a hotel, followed by three days at home. At one stage there was a requirement to quarantine for three weeks.
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One person rescued so far after incident that occurred in the Lech/Zuers free skiing area at about 3pm on Sunday
About 10 people have been buried in an avalanche in Austria, one of whom has so far been rescued.
The avalanche occurred in the Lech/Zuers free skiing area at about 3pm (1400 GMT) on Sunday, the Austrian Press Agency said, adding that several helicopters and search teams were deployed soon afterwards.
Continue reading...The man, 69, was held on Friday after killing three people at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby cafe
The French man detained over the killing of three Kurdish people in Paris last week has told investigators he had a “pathological” hatred of foreigners, the city’s prosecutor said on Sunday.
The 69-year-old man was arrested on Friday after shooting dead two men and a woman in a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in the 10th district of Paris, which the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described as a “vile” attack on the Kurds of France.
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Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal government has no real idea about agricultural chemicals’ impact on environment
Serious shortfalls in Australia’s monitoring of pesticide residues in food, particularly food destined for the domestic market, were identified by the federal agriculture department nearly a decade ago, documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.
Bureaucrats in the department expressed concern about Australia’s food monitoring as early as 2014, the documents, obtained under freedom of information laws, show.
Continue reading...More than 100 countries stress ‘the urgency and importance’ of filling appeal judge positions as US continues years-long disruption started by Trump
Australia has teamed up with China and more than 100 countries to protest longstanding blockages at the World Trade Organization as the United States vetoes appeal judge appointments.
Australia and China remain at odds over specific trade disputes between them – such as Beijing’s tariffs on Australian wine and barley – but are united in concern about the years-long disruption to a key appeal body.
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The A380 reversed course near Tbilisi in Georgia before landing at Baku international airport
Sensor fault thought responsible for grounding Qantas plane
An intermittent fault indicator in the cockpit is thought to be responsible for forcing a Qantas flight heading from Singapore to London to make an emergency landing in Azerbaijan.
Our flight from Singapore to London has made an unscheduled landing at Baku Airport in Azerbaijan after pilots received an intermittent fault indicator in the cockpit.
Engineers will inspect the aircraft prior to continuing its journey.
Although it was considered likely to be a sensor fault, the aircraft diverted to Baku as a safety precaution.
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Kaili is one of four charged with corruption and money laundering in relation to Qatar and will go on trial in Belgium
Eva Kaili, the Greek member of the European parliament at the centre of a cash for influence scandal implicating Qatar, will remain in jail pending trial, a Belgian court has decided.
“In its order this morning, the pre-council chamber extended the pre-trial detention of EK by one month,” said a statement from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. If Kaili chooses to appeal against the decision within 24 hours, she will appear before a chamber at the Brussels court of appeal within 15 days.
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Chief minister pledges ‘rigorous and independent’ inquiry as police confirm the dead are nine missing after blast
The nine people who died after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey have been formally identified.
The blast, which took place just after 4am on 10 December, destroyed the building in St Helier. On Thursday, the States of Jersey police confirmed postmortems had been carried out and the people named as missing had been identified as those who died.
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The foreign affairs minister is on her way back to Australia after a crucial diplomatic mission to rebuild ties with Beijing; internal Liberal party review says it must rebuild grassroots to regain power, report says
The Liberal party brand is no longer “fit for purpose” and has lost its volunteer base on the ground, according to an internal review seen by the Australian. The report says membership numbers have dwindled amid factional battles and it is also expected to conclude that the unpopularity of former prime minister Scott Morrison was a key factor in May election defeat.
The Australian reports:
A key recommendation, which the report says was fundamental to the party being competitive at the next election, was the resurrection of a volunteer base and grassroots campaign activity. This, it claims, was a major factor in the party’s inability to defend against teal independents who had swamped key Liberal seats with volunteer brigades of 1500-2000 people.
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Farmers’ lobby welcomes move by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition, claiming animals are getting ‘ever closer’ to homes
Italy’s ruling right-wing coalition is set to loosen hunting rules to deal with what the country’s farming lobby has called an “invasion” of wild boars.
The boars are common in the countryside, but have recently also been spotted in central parts of Rome, attracted by the Eternal City’s chronically overflowing rubbish skips.
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Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, brother of cartel boss ‘El Mencho’, is third member of family to be arrested by Mexican authorities
The brother of one of Mexico’s top drug lords has been arrested, the Mexican military said, marking another high-profile capture amid a wave of violence that has overwhelmed the country.
Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, brother of the Jalisco New Generation cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, was arrested on Tuesday in the state of Jalisco by the Mexican army working with the national guard, the attorney general’s office and the national intelligence agency.
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Ben Wallace says Putin regime will supply military technology in return for drones used to attack Ukraine
Russia plans to deepen its military cooperation with Iran in return for Shahed drones that have been used to bomb Ukraine’s cities and energy network since September, according to Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace.
The west must hold Russia’s “enablers to account”, he said, in a Christmas update in which he was also forced to admit the UK had not completed a Ukraine “action plan” by the end of the year as promised.
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Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister says country has not agreed to ‘30 by 30’ deal
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister has said her country has not agreed to a deal to halt the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems, prompting behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to keep the agreement alive just hours after it was adopted.
Ève Bazaiba, the DRC’s environment minister, said her country would be writing to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Convention on Biological Diversity to express the DRC’s position on the final text. It comes after the Chinese Cop15 president, Huang Runqiu, appeared to force through the agreement in the final plenary just moments after the DRC negotiator had said did not support the deal, which is typically negotiated by consensus. His interventions prompted further objections from Uganda and Cameroon.
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Months of talks end with ‘dynamic cap’ deal after Germany persuaded by global reference-price condition
EU ministers have agreed a plan to cap the price of gas, ending months of argument over how to handle the cost of soaring energy prices after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe.
“Mission accomplished,” said the Czech minister for trade and industry, Jozef Síkela, who chaired talks between energy ministers, adding that negotiations had not been easy.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy proposes global peace summit; archbishop of Canterbury says Russia’s invasion has opened ‘gates of hell’
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Exclusive: Some young detainees are so anxious about lockdowns they request anti-psychotic medicine, ex-employee claims
A nurse who worked at the Don Dale youth detention centre alleges it is an unsafe environment for staff and that children detained there are so distressed they ask for anti-psychotic medication.
The nurse, whodoes not want to be named, says Don Dale is “only fit for a bulldozer” and feels that not enough has changed since a royal commission into the notorious Northern Territory facility.
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‘Considerable portion’ of priceless treasures from Green Vault museum recovered amid trial of suspects
German authorities said they have found a “considerable portion” of items stolen in a spectacular 2019 robbery of priceless 18th-century jewels from a state museum.
The authorities retrieved 31 individual items in the capital, Berlin, the police and prosecutors said.
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French foreign minister Catherine Colonna said the countries had returned to ‘full consular cooperation’ on visit to Rabat
France and Morocco have announced they were mending fences after months of tensions over visas, and said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, would visit the north African kingdom in early 2023.
Speaking in Rabat alongside her Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita, the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said it was time to “write a new page together”.
Continue reading...Pressure grows on Elon Musk as EU says social media platform could face sanctions over suspensions
The United Nations is “very disturbed” by Twitter’s abrupt and arbitrary suspension of a group of US journalists, a spokesperson has said, warning that the move sets a “dangerous precedent” – as the EU said the social media platform could face penalties over the decision.
Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday the UN was “very disturbed” by the barring of prominent tech reporters at news organisations including CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times who have written about Musk and the tech company he owns.
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Gas company boss Kevin Gallagher hits out at the government’s price capping scheme
Linda Burney to announce 52 new health infrastructure projects
The Australian government is funding 52 new health infrastructure projects across the country – building and renovating clinics, improving staff housing and building the capacity of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health sector.
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Power blackouts are crippling Ukrainian economy; head of Ukraine’s armed forces expects renewed Russian attempt to capture Kyiv
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Experts said lessons appeared to have been learned from previous incidents as teams scrambled into action after dinghy capsized
The emergency call came through at 2.53am. “Please help me bro, please, please, please. We are in the water. We have a family.”
The unidentified man, on a stricken dinghy, used WhatsApp to contact the French NGO Utopia 56, a humanitarian association, which works to support migrants in the camps in northern France.
Continue reading...Eva Kaili awaits bail decision as lawyer says prison strike stopped her attending court
The Greek MEP at the centre of a corruption scandal engulfing the European parliament will have to wait in prison until next week to find out whether she will be released on bail pending a trial.
The Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili is one of four suspects arrested last week in connection with a major police investigation into cash for influence involving Qatar’s government.
Continue reading...The 16-year-old was shot in the head after reportedly driving from service station without paying for 20 euros of petrol
Thousands of protesters have marched through Thessaloniki and Athens, as Roma community leaders appealed for calm after the death of a teenager shot in the head last week during a police chase.
The 16-year-old boy, who has not been officially named, died on Tuesday, eight days after he was shot by a police motorcyclist after reportedly driving away from a service station without paying for 20 euros of petrol.
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Lawyers for the former Liberal staffer said she had agreed a ‘confidential’ settlement after a ‘short mediation’
Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has settled her personal injury claim against the commonwealth after a short mediation, according to her lawyers, but the dollar value of the settlement will remain confidential.
Noor Blumer of Blumers Lawyers issued a statement on Tuesday night confirming the development. “At a mediation held today, the commonwealth and Ms Higgins settled her claims,” it said.
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Third nation in conservative Caribbean region to do so this year, in pivotal moment for those who have long fought against such laws
A top court in Barbados has struck down colonial-era laws that criminalize gay sex, becoming the third nation in the conservative Caribbean region to do so this year.
The ruling issued Monday by the Barbados high court is a pivotal moment for activists and non-profit organizations who have long fought against such laws on the eastern Caribbean island, including one that demands up to a life sentence for gay men found guilty of having sex.
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Prime minister Denys Shmyhal says western air defence systems needed to counter Russian attacks and stop people from fleeing
Ukraine has called for the west to supply Patriot missiles batteries and other modern air defence systems, amid growing concern that attacks by Russia on its electricity grid could prompt a new wave of refugees from the wartorn country.
The country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, speaking on Monday before a Ukraine humanitarian aid conference the following day in Paris, said Russia wanted “to trigger another wave of migration toward Europe” during the depths of winter.
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Barry and Honey Sherman found dead in Toronto home five years ago but family frustration mounts as crime remains unsolved
The son of a billionaire couple murdered five years ago has tripled a cash reward for information about the unsolved crime amid frustration over a lack of progress in the investigation and deep rifts within the family.
Barry Sherman, the founder of drug giant Apotex, and his wife, Honey, are believed to have been killed in their Toronto home on 13 December 2017. A realtor found the couple in the basement pool area of their home two days later, with belts looped around their necks and attached to a pool railing.
Continue reading...Belgian prosecutors say 20 searches conducted since Friday, prompting warning that EU’s credibility at stake
Belgian police have searched European parliament offices as part of a growing investigation into alleged bribery and corruption, as senior EU leaders warned the credibility of the bloc was at stake.
Belgium’s federal prosecutor announced on Monday it had carried out 20 searches since Friday, including 19 at private homes and one at the European parliament offices.
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