Rate cut unlikely until 2025 as energy prices blamed for stronger-than-expected inflation of 2.3%
Any lingering hope that the Bank of England might deliver a pre-Christmas interest rate cut next month appears to have evaporated, after official data showed inflation jumping to 2.3% in October.
The CPI measure had been expected to tick up, after dipping to 1.7% in September, but 2.3% was stronger than expected.
Continue reading...Bipartisan human rights committee says there could be a ‘significant intervening period’ before non-citizens are accepted by other countries
The human rights committee has warned the Albanese government’s migration bill could result in lengthy spells in detention before non-citizens are deported to countries paid to take them.
In a report tabled on Wednesday the bipartisan committee, chaired by Labor MP Josh Burns, threw up significant roadblocks to the controversial bill and also queried the move by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, to reimpose ankle bracelets and curfews on those released from immigration detention.
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Continue reading...Founder of Apple Daily paper denies seeking to influence foreign policy against China and says advocating for the independence of Hong Kong was ‘a reality too crazy to think about’
Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai has said he “never” tried to influence foreign policy or ask foreign officials to take concrete action on Hong Kong, on his first day giving evidence at his national security trial.
Lai has been charged with one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion, under the city’s punitive national security law (NSL), introduced in 2020.
Continue reading...Jacinta Allan says project will be able to power more than 51,000 homes and include 119MW solar facility and 100MW two-hour battery
The Victorian government will spend $370m to build a massive solar and battery farm able to power more than 50,000 homes, which it says will be the first state government-owned energy project since the electricity grid was privatised in the 1990s.
Jacinta Allan announced the new project in Horsham, in Victoria’s west, which is the second investment made by the government-owned State Electricity Commission.
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Oxfam reacts to Australia’s Cop29 pledge
Oxfam Australia has welcomed the government’s Cop29 pledge of $50m towards a global loss and damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown.
If climate change losses and damages are not included in the new global climate finance goal, the new fund for responding to loss and damage risks becoming an empty vessel.
The danger is that developed country governments will prioritise meeting the new and ambitious climate finance goal, and will not prioritise a fund that doesn’t count towards it.
Continue reading...People with genital or pelvic symptoms may feel a sense of false reassurance with a negative result, sexual health expert warns
With rates of some sexually transmitted infections in Australia on the rise, women will soon be able to test themselves for chlamydia and gonorrhoea at home – but sexual health experts have urged caution.
Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has approved the rapid home test for sale, and it is expected to be available in pharmacies from 13 December, with a recommended retail price of $24. The test involves taking a vaginal swab, which is then placed in a container with testing solution.
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Continue reading...Three years after Halyna Hutchins was killed on set, Olga Solovey says there has been ‘no justice for my daughter’ and claims Baldwin has not apologised
The mother of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was fatally shot on the set of the film Rust by actor Alec Baldwin, has refused to attend the film’s world premiere on Wednesday, alleging the star has still not apologised to her over her daughter’s death.
Rust will premiere at the Camerimage festival in Poland, an event focusing on achievements in cinematography, three years after the prop gun Baldwin was holding went off and fatally injured Hutchins, the film’s cinematographer, on the set of the western in New Mexico. Tickets to the premiere sold out quickly on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Parents ‘want to ensure no other family’ feels same anguish as Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles remain in Thai hospitals
The family of one of two teenagers fighting for life in hospital after a suspected methanol poisoning incident in Laos hope authorities work out exactly what happened “as soon as possible”.
Melbourne friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both aged 19, had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng, north of the Laos capital Vientiane, when they fell critically ill last week.
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Continue reading...Coming hot weather prompts Australian Energy Market Operator to predict shortfall in electricity supplies for NSW and Queensland
South-eastern Australia will endure its first big heatwave of the season in the coming days, elevating fire risks and potentially straining the power grid in some states.
Dean Narramore, a senior Bureau of Meteorology forecaster, said day and night temperatures would be as much as 8-14C hotter than usual for this time of year.
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Continue reading...Madrid Exhibition intends to rescue the technique – coloured paint applied to statues – from centuries of indifference
In a darkened corner of the Prado, not far from an outsized crucifixion and a sculpture of a dead, recumbent Christ with eyes of glass, teeth of ivory and fingernails of horn, is another depiction of Jesus that is remarkable in its poignancy, its humanity and its history.
The tiny, painted terracotta scene, titled Los primeros pasos de Jesús (Jesus’s First Steps), is domestic rather than divine and shows a chubby, beaming infant ambling towards his equally beaming father. Its creator was the Spanish baroque artist Luisa Roldán who, despite becoming the first female sculptor to the royal court in 1692, is only now making her debut in the hallowed Madrid museum.
Continue reading...Targeting of substations connected to three working nuclear plants risks nuclear catastrophe in Europe, says Greenpeace
Ukraine’s power network is at “heightened risk of catastrophic failure” after Russia’s missile and drone attack on Sunday, Greenpeace has warned, raising fears about the safety of the country’s three operational nuclear power stations.
The strikes by Moscow were aimed at electricity substations “critical to the operation of Ukraine’s nuclear plants” and there is a possibility that the reactors could lose power and become unsafe, according to a briefing note prepared for the Guardian.
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