Australia - Page 23

(AFP) — Thousands of residents in several high-rise apartments in Melbourne went into lockdown for at least five days Saturday, as officials struggle to control a virus outbreak in Australia’s second-biggest city.

Australia announced a major military investment program Wednesday, beefing up its long-range missile strike capabilities and airbase expanions amid escalating regional tensions with China, reinforcing Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s commitment to an “open, sovereign Indo-Pacific, free from coercion and hegemony.”

Australians are turning away from a sagging jobs market and looking to the country’s military forces for a stable career alternative as the global coronavirus epidemic shows no sign of easing.

China’s state-run Global Times published a lengthy report on Sunday describing “vigorous countermeasures” supposedly taken by Chinese intelligence against a years-long espionage campaign waged by Australia.

The notion that somehow the ancient pastime of chess is inherently racist due to the rule of white pieces moving first has been broached on an Australia taxpayer-funded national radio network.

Australia was hit by “a sophisticated state-based cyber actor” Friday morning in an escalating cyber campaign threatening all levels of national government, businesses, essential services and critical infrastructure, the prime minister said.

The UK has launched post-Brexit trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand, with the Australian high commissioner saying that a deal is “top priority” for Canberra, which he expects could be signed “fairly soon”.

Australian schools have been teaching children as young as eight that Greta Thunberg should be their role model on climate change.

Australia’s trade minister denied allegations on Saturday by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism that Chinese and Asians face increased “racial discrimination and violence” in Australia due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Epoch Times reported on Monday.

A senior member of Australia’s parliament has taken protesters to task for massing on city streets across the country, saying their defiance of public health rules endangered the lives of others by being “reckless” and “irresponsible” at a time of a pandemic.

A man has been charged after allegedly assaulting an Australian journalist live on air while reportedly shouting “Allah Akbar”.

In an interview with Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage, the former prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, said that Britain needs to take a hard stance in stopping illegal boat migrants sailing across the English Channel from France in order to halt the growing crisis.

The former prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, warned the UK might face its own migrant crisis unless it turns the boats back in the English Channel.

President Donald Trump proposed on Saturday hosting the G7 Summit in September and inviting additional countries, including Russia and Australia.

A cartoon in a Chinese Communist Party-controlled newspaper has laughed at Australia’s long alliance to the U.S. through war and peace, deriding it as something to be ridiculed.

Australian student Drew Pavlou claims that he is facing expulsion from the University of Queensland over his criticism of the Chinese government and its influence on his university.

NORCROSS, Georgia — Vice President Mike Pence told Breitbart News exclusively that China “let the world down” on the coronavirus pandemic, and that the Trump administration is developing plans to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its actions.

The former head of UK Border Force has called illegal boat migration from across the English Channel a “major threat” to Britain’s border security and has called for the British government to adopt a strict Australia-style approach and return illegal aliens to France.

Researchers have claimed the rate of people dying as a result of global warming may be 50 times higher than is officially acknowledged.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media celebrated this week’s World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting as a big win for China, projecting confidence that the CCP has stymied the worldwide movement to investigate the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus and retains commanding influence in the World Health Organization (WHO). State media claimed China’s nemeses – including the United States, Australia, and Taiwan – were the “largest losers” at the WHA.

After weeks of howling that calls for an international investigation of the Wuhan coronavirus were nothing but political dirty tricks intended to scapegoat China for the failure of other governments to manage the pandemic effectively, and effectively declaring economic war on Australia for daring to demand such an investigation, the Chinese delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) suddenly decided on Tuesday to co-sponsor a resolution calling for an independent review.

President Donald Trump signaled support on Monday for Australia’s push for a probe into the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

China’s foreign ministry on Monday dismissed as “premature” growing calls an independent investigation into the origins and spread of the deadly Chinese coronavirus, as nations prepare to canvas the possibility at this week’s World Health Assembly (WHA).

Australia’s demand for an investigation into the World Health Organization’s bungled response to the deadly Chinese coronavirus pandemic now has the backing of 62 nations, all willing to support a draft resolution addressing the issue Tuesday at a meeting of the World Health Assembly.

The traditionally left-wing Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) has put partisan politics to one side and joined calls for China’s efforts at global supremecy to be defeated. It wants a “trade NATO” bloc powerful enough to take on “China’s preferred approach of bilateral bullying” as a preferred means of keeping free trade a reality.

(AFP) — BuzzFeed said on Thursday that it would be shuttering part of its loss-making news operations in Britain and Australia, as it scales back global ambitions to cut costs.

As the coronavirus lockdown eases across Australia, one brewer decided Wednesday the best way to get things moving again in the outback was to send free beer for pubs to disperse amongst their parched patrons. Lots of it.

The World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) top legal officer claimed on Monday that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the agency, has no power to invite Taiwan to this month’s World Health Assembly, despite widespread pressure on the group to do so.

China slapped an import ban on four Australian abattoirs Tuesday in an escalation of Beijing’s warning of a consumer boycott in retaliation for Canberra’s push for an independent coronavirus probe. The ban comes just days after China flagged plans to slap an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley, bringing the trade to its knees.

As Australia gradually emerges from its successful coronavirus lockdown, government priorities have been set. One of those began Friday with the urgent dispatch of beer kegs to remote outback pubs.

The rise in the suicide rate caused by lockdowns in Australia is predicted to exceed deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus by a factor of ten, the Australian reported Thursday.

New Zealand on Thursday joined a push by the U.S. and Australia to return Taiwan to the World Health Organisation (W.H.O.), sparking a furious response from Communist China.

Australian lawmakers of all political stripes have joined a call to slash migrant numbers after the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, saying the country’s historic reliance on immigration to boost growth has hurt workers while driving soaring house prices and crowded cities.

Three platypuses at the center of an emergency evacuation during Australia’s scorching bushfire season have been released back into their natural habitat.

Australia’s High Court unanimously dismissed all charges of “historic sexual abuse” against Cardinal George Pell and yet the New York Times has continued to cling doggedly to its narrative of Pell’s guilt.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on Friday applauded what she saw as the universal success of female leaders in tackling the Chinese coronavirus, praising their “ability to listen” and “having less ego” than their male counterparts as reasons for their achievements.