Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Pacific Island nations are urging Australia and New Zealand to include them in a planned travel “bubble”, as flights across the region resume.
Pacific governments face a delicate balancing act, weighing the devastating economic impact of border closures and travel restrictions on their tourism-dependent economies, with the risk of widespread and uncontrollable Covid-19 infections if the virus is introduced.
Exclusive: WA minister gave consent to BHP plan just three days after Juukan Gorge site was blown up by Rio Tinto in a move that has horrified the public
Mining giant BHP Billiton is poised to destroy at least 40 – and possibly as many as 86 – significant Aboriginal sites in the central Pilbara to expand its $4.5bn South Flank iron ore mining operation, even though its own reports show it is aware that the traditional owners are deeply opposed to the move.
In documents seen by Guardian Australia, a BHP archaeological survey identified rock shelters that were occupied between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago and noted that evidence in the broader area showed “occupation of the surrounding landscape has been ongoing for approximately 40,000 years”.
Japan’s lower house of parliament has approved an emergency budget worth nearly over £230bn, doubling the scale of measures to pep up the world’s third-biggest economy after the coronavirus tipped it into recession, AFP reports.
Their raucous clucking deprives residents of sleep. They leave the neighbourhood “wrecked”. And food left out for them attracts “rats the size of cats” to an otherwise peaceful, leafy suburb.
New Zealand’s national lockdown to quell the spread of Covid-19 appears to have vanquished the virus, but it has had one unintended consequence: the re-emergence of a plague – not of frogs or locusts but of feral chickens, a flock of which is once again menacing an area of west Auckland.
Three new cases of Covid-19 reported were all from overseas travellers and are in quarantine; Queensland high court calls requests from lawyers to access border closure documents ‘a fishing expedition’. Follow live updates
Pat Dodson has spoken in the Senate on the issue of Indigenous deaths in custody:
Thirty years ago, the royal commission that I was part of made recommendations to the parliament - 339 recommendations.
That Commission had been set up by the government. And at that time, there were 99 deaths that we were concerned about in this nation to effect a national Royal Commission never got over 400 deaths since that Royal Commission, and we have 30 years that have passed that have not addressed the underlying issues that give rise to people being taken into custody and consequently die in custody.
Tony Burke’s answer to that same question:
Her politics feeds on outrage. It effectively – for all the talk of proud nationalism, that party has imported an American style of politics here.
I don’t want that style of politics here. I don’t particularly want to join the outrage, because that in fact elevates what she said. I would simply refer to it in the way that I guess One Nation wouldn’t want it referred to – that is importing foreign politics into Australia. We should be better than that. And most of us are.
Researchers have pioneered a new way of calculating the large green sea turtle population on Raine Island in the Great Barrier Reef. Using drones and a stripe of white paint on the back of adult turtles, the researchers from the Raine Island Recovery Project estimated there were 64,000 endangered green turtles at the Raine Island rookery. The new count shows there may be 1.73 times the number of turtles previously believed and they have now been able to adjust historical data to paint a more accurate picture of the area’s endangered green turtle population
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has been the trigger for a global wave of activism against prejudice and police brutality that has spread to more than 50 countries, becoming a mirror for racism and inequality in societies around the world.
In Australia and Papua people protested for indigenous rights, as people took up the cry against injustices in New Zealand, Ghana, France, Germany and the UK
Almost 80% of those surveyed agree US authorities have been unwilling to deal with racism and that is why incidents continue to occur
A significant majority of Australians in the latest Guardian Essential poll sample believe Americans are correct to demand better treatment for African Americans in their society – but only 30% believe there is institutional racism in Australian police forces.
Mutual obligations for welfare recipients return today.
There are now about 1.6m people receiving the unemployment benefit jobseeker.
Mutual obligations return today & will be gradually phased in.
We are in Phase 1 meaning there are no financial penalties for not meeting activity requirements.
We don't have a timeline of each "phase" but I will keep following up with the Minister for more clarity.
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian was giving a press conference just now. She was pressed on comments from her police minister, David Elliott, who said yesterday that police would not approve future permit protests that did not comply for the health guidelines.
Surely Alex Hawke must realise that he represents Australia to a region of largely black and brown Indigenous peoples
On Friday, as the world was gripped by Black Lives Matter protests, Alex Hawke, Australia’s minister for the Pacific criticised those who attended the protests in Australia, because of health concerns due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“No one should risk the good position Australia is in, especially to attend a self indulgent ‘protest’ about matters in other countries,” he tweeted.
New Zealand has zero active cases; Global cases pass 7 million, deaths pass 400,000; Chile deaths jump after new fatalities added. Follow the latest updates
The Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, has delivered his withering verdict on Britain’s quarantine rules, which came into force today: “British people are ignoring this quarantine. They know it’s rubbish.”
The Philippines has reported 579 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 today, and eight deaths. Malaysia has reported seven new confirmed cases, and no deaths.
Other surfers fought off the 10-foot fish but the victim died from his injuries soon after
A 60-year-old surfer was attacked and killed by a 3-metre (10-foot) great white shark off the coast of northern New South Wales state on Sunday, officials said.
The man received a bite to the back of his thigh and was brought to the shore by other surfers who had fought off the shark, a surf rescue group, Surf Life Saving NSW, said in a statement. The victim, from Tugun, over the state border in Queensland, received first aid on the shore, but died on the beach.
Government spending on clean energy would deliver 100,000 new jobs, EY assessment finds
Stimulus programs backing clean energy as a path out of recession would create nearly three times as many jobs for every dollar spent on fossil fuel developments, according to a financial consultancy analysis.
The assessment by professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) says a government focus on renewable energy and climate-friendly projects to drive the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic could create more than 100,000 direct jobs across the country while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Chau Van Kham’s family has lost contact with him for nearly four months and fear the Australian government has ‘forgotten about him’
A 70-year-old Australian democracy activist has “disappeared” inside Vietnam’s prison system: no one from his family or the Australian government has been allowed to see or speak with him for nearly four months.
Human rights advocates, lawyers and Chau Van Kham’s family said the charges against him are baseless and politically motivated, his single-day multiple-defendant trial was grossly unfair, and his failing health means his 12-year prison sentence is “effectively a death sentence”.
When Susan had a baby daughter, she was not planning on having her vaccinated. It didn’t seem abnormal to her – most of her mothers’ group didn’t vaccinate either.
“I had friends who believed in natural healing, healthy food, being vegan, eating raw food. I just didn’t think that vaccines were necessary.”
The Sydney “Stop All Black Deaths in Custody” rally has been declared an authorised public assembly after a late decision by the court of appeal as thousands of protesters rallied in cities and towns across Australia to march against Indigenous deaths in custody and the killing of unarmed US man George Floyd.
The decision came minutes before the rally’s scheduled start at 3pm outside Town Hall on Saturday.
The commander of US forces in Japan has accused China of using the coronavirus crisis as a cover for a surge in naval activity to push territorial claims in the South China Sea.
In a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency, Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider said there had been a surged of activity by China, with navy ships, coast guard vessels and a naval militia of fishing boats in harassing vessels in waters claimed by Beijing.
Peru is beginning the second phase of its economic reopening on Friday, even as its ongoing coronavirus outbreak showed little signs of slowing, with 4,284 new confirmed cases reported on Thursday.
The president, Martin Vizcarra, announced the second phase of lockdown easing on Thursday, after his council of ministers approved a presidential decree calling for the restart of economic activity.