Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre says incorrect email sent while testing notification process
The Queensland university admissions body has apologised after it accidentally emailed tens of thousands of year 12 students telling them they were “ineligible” for a university admissions score.
Due to an IT bungle, 24,000 students in the state received an email at midnight on Friday from the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre, a week before official results were due to be released.
Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, has urged politicians involved in the UK-EU trade negotiations to “dial down the language”. In comments which seemed to be aimed at Boris Johnson, Coveney told reporters at a press conference in Berlin:
What I would say to politicians, we need to try and dial down the language in terms of the division and differences of views and focus on the detail.
There is a bigger picture here that goes beyond trade in a world that is changing and has a lot of risk.
The Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan has criticised Angela Merkel for refusing to let Boris Johnson lobby her over the UK-EU trade talks. (See 10.57am and 12.37pm.) You can tell Ahmad Khan’s a Brexiter, because he’s brought up the war ...
I stand with millions of Britons that are deeply insulted at the shocking news that the German Chancellor has refused the British Prime Minister’s request for a telephone call. This is an insult to every Briton, whether they support our PM or not.
Have our EU “friends” no regard or respect for the UK and our nations’ sacrifices that permit them to live in freedom and prosperity today, safely away from the shadow of totalitarianism?
The EU’s contemptuous treatment of the UK makes it clear there cannot be a deal until it accepts the UK as a sovereign equal and awards us the respect and regard we merit.
That’s where I’ll leave you for this evening. Thanks as always for reading.
Here’s what we learned today:
Five asylum seekers, who were transferred to Australia under Medevac, have been released from immigration detention this week, it has been confirmed.
Three asylum seekers were released today – including musician and artist Farhad Bandesh – and two people were released on Tuesday, according to the Refugee Advocacy Network.
Underarm ads for deodorant believed to be a world first
Umpires to wear the ads during Big Bash League games
Cricket advertising is set for areas never before reached, with umpires in Australia’s Big Bash League to advertise a new sponsor in their underarms.
In a groundbreaking “armpit advertising” campaign revealed on Thursday, Cricket Australia announced a commercial partnership with the Australian deodorant and antiperspirant brand Rexona.
Australian mum desperate for flight home after autistic son stops talking without vital therapy
A four-year-old Sydney boy with autism stranded in India and separated from his father since March has missed specialist treatment for so long he has become non-verbal.
Concerns for the health of Yuvraj Krishna and other Australians stranded overseas have been raised by Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, who is urging the Morrison government to intervene and help reunite the family.
Australia declared in 2013 that asylum seekers who arrive by boat would never settle here. Hundreds of people’s lives are still on hold to prove that point
For more than seven years, Australia’s policy has been clear: if you seek asylum by boat you will never be settled here. You will be sent offshore and have your asylum claims heard there.
Between the declaration of that policy by prime minister Kevin Rudd on 19 July 2013 and the last transfer offshore in December 2014, Australia sent 3,127 people seeking protection as refugees to Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.
Prime minister Scott Morrison wanted to announce the policy shift at a weekend summit but he’s not yet secured a speaking spot
The Morrison government will release updated national greenhouse gas emissions projections that claim Australia is nearly on track to meet the target for 2030 it set under the Paris agreement.
An annual emissions projection report to be released on Thursday shows the government now estimates emissions in 2030 will fall just short – by 56m tonnes – of meeting its target of a 26-28% cut compared to 2005 levels if Australia doesn’t deploy Kyoto credits to hit the target.
Parliament committee says miner must negotiate a compensation deal with traditional owners and ‘ensure a full reconstruction’ of the caves
A parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of 46,000-year-old caves has delivered a scathing report criticising the actions of Rio Tinto and calling for the Western Australian government to put a stop to the destruction of heritage until new laws are passed.
The majority bipartisan interim report said Rio Tinto’s decision to destroy two rock shelters in Juukan Gorge, against the wishes of the traditional owners and despite knowing the archaeological value of the site, was “inexcusable”.
Fair Work Commission to be given power to approve agreements that don’t guarantee workers are better off overall. Follow all the latest updates
Earlier, the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, set out the union movement’s objection to the “extreme” industrial relations bill. Those are:
On the other side of that debate:
Take the sand out of your ears – and let's hope we can soften your hearts. Because all this legislation does is push people further and further in the ground. Please Senators, vote no to this horrendous legislation. My full speech: https://t.co/MTYbj02hyw
Brazil will “quite likely” begin vaccinations to stem the coronavirus pandemic in January or February, the health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, said in a Wednesday interview with CNN Brasil, according to a report by Reuters.
Pazuello said on Tuesday that Brazil had signed a letter of intent to receive 70m Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer starting in January
Oman will exempt nationals of 103 counties from needing an entry visa for a stay of up to 10 days, Reuters reports, in a move to support tourism and shore up its struggling economy.
Visitors must have a confirmed hotel reservation, health insurance and a return ticket, Royal Oman Police said on its Twitter account.
South Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it battles a third wave of infection that is threatening to overwhelm its medical system, Reuters reports.
The daily tally was the second-highest since the start of the pandemic, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. New cases have been consistently around 600 over the past week.
Tougher social distancing rules took effect on Tuesday, including unprecedented curfews on restaurants and most other businesses.
The government has also introduced a new testing method to cater to surging demand, and eased rules to release some recovered patients faster to free up hospital beds. The government has signed deals with four global drugmakers to procure Covid-19 vaccines for 44 million people.
South Korea’s total infections stand at 39,432, with 556 deaths.
Destitution levels in Great Britain are expected to double in the wake of the pandemic with an estimated 2 million families, including a million children, likely to struggle to afford to feed themselves, stay warm, or keep clean as the recession deepens, according to a study.
The estimates, carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), described “increasing, intensifying” levels of extreme poverty experienced by some of the country’s poorest households in recent years, and highlight a social security system increasingly failing to protect society’s most vulnerable:
Trade minister Simon Birmingham says ‘targeted nature’ of China’s measures raise concern about its adherence to trade deal and WTO obligations
China appears to be breaching its trade deal with Australia by taking a series of “disruptive and restrictive measures” against Australian exports, the Morrison government has said.
As concerns grow among Australian exporters about the impact of a widening range of actions, the trade minister, Simon Birmingham, told the Senate on Wednesday all dispute settlement options were on the table.
Parents in Canberra were unaware daughter had allegedly paid substantial sum to purported hitman
A tip-off from a British journalist working for the BBC led to the arrest of an Australian woman who allegedly used the dark web to hire a contract killer to murder her parents, police say.
The 26-year-old Canberra woman is accused of agreeing to pay $20,000 to kill her parents, who are reportedly prominent businesspeople in the Australian Capital Territory.
Government extends country’s biosecurity emergency declaration; Josh Frydenberg unveils laws requiring Google and Facebook to pay for news. All the latest updates
Independent senator Rex Patrick has tabled a bill today to ban the importing of goods made by the forced labour of Uighurs in China.
The bill would stop Australia importing any goods made in the Xinjing province of China, or goods from other parts of China produced “using forced labour” as defined by Australian criminal law.
The Chinese Communist regime’s persecution of the Uyghur people is undeniable. More than 1 million people have been rounded up and put in internment camps across Xinjiang and subjected to gross human rights abuses.
Sydney and Melbourne nightclubs are finally open (with a few Covidsafe caveats) – and for LGBTQI people, an essential space has returned
The perfect lockdown anthem came pretty early in 2020: Charli XCX’s frantic, party-thirsty Anthems, from her album released in mid-May. She starts by declaring “I’m so bored” before recounting days in lockdown and everything she desperately craves about partying: anthems, late nights, her friends, “the heat from all the bodies”. Charli also misses New York – although the city that never sleeps is still very deep in its Covid-induced nap.
It’s a different story in Australia where, after seven months, Sydney and Melbourne finally got the green light to return to nightclubs on Monday. There was one sticking point: no more than 50 people on the dancefloor at once, with enough space for one person per four square metres.
Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the lower house correcting the record and apologising to the former Labor leader
Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the House of Representatives correcting the record and apologising to Kevin Rudd after declaring erroneously in question time that the former Labor prime minister had been allowed to leave and re-enter Australia during the pandemic.
The controversy began when Labor on Monday asked Morrison why Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer had been able to leave and re-enter the country multiple times this year “when there are thousands of vulnerable stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?”
Man, 29, says shark bite at Kangaroo Island’s D’Estrees Bay was ‘like being hit by a truck’
Paramedics have hailed the “remarkable” survival story of a South Australian surfer who swam back to shore alone and walked 300 metres for help after suffering “extraordinary” injuries from a shark bite at a remote beach.
Paramedic Michael Rushby said the man had “serious” lacerations on his back, backside and leg “consistent with quite a large shark bite”, but managed to haul himself to safety.
NSW to lift tranche of restrictions while in Victoria it will no longer be compulsory to wear face masks in offices or cafes; federal parliament returns for the final sitting week of 2020 – latest updates
Victoria will begin accepting international flights again from today – a flight from Sri Lanka is about to touch down in Melbourne. All up, there will be about 125 travellers arriving as part of the hotel quarantine program in Victoria today.
There is no longer any private security guards as part of the Victoria program – and any worker has to work exclusively for the Victorian government.
The latest foreign interference laws are also due to pass parliament this week – these ones are the ones looking at agreements with foreign governments that private organisations and state governments have made.
States, Territories and local governments will have three months to handover agreements with foreign governments which @dfat "will carefully and methodically consider against Australia's foreign policy settings" #auspol@Birmo@SBSNewspic.twitter.com/pwT5PtCEta