Local News
The day Melbourne residents woke to the Maribyrnong ‘consuming’ their neighbourhoods – ABC News. Flooding has plagued Victoria, owing to large rainfalls last week, including some parts of near-inner Melbourne. What goes unmentioned in the news reports is that the large scale building on floodplains is in part a product of moral hazard and practical necessity as a result of the population pressures of Australia’s mass immigration programme.
Why could power bills rise by 35 per cent next year? It’s part of a bigger problem – ABC News. Once again, even despite the clickbait ‘explainer’ headline, we are not treated to the real causes of this problem, being chiefly the internationalisation of our natural resources, privatisation of the energy market, mining bans and the neglect of coal-fired power stations due to a lack of clarity on future regulation and subsidies to rooftop solar systems. Regardless, power bills will be rising, so personal preparations are in order for many.
‘Favourite whipping boy’: Market gloom takes toll on Aussie dollar – The Age. The ‘pacific peso’ continues to take a beating. The greenback, however seems to have held up against other major currencies including the Yen and the Euro. Given the degree to which Australia’s consumer prosperity is dependent upon consumer imports, this will only make wallets lighter in the coming months.
New hope for justice for Optus customers as compensation complaint made – News.com.au. Optus customers had their data leaked in a major hack this week, and there appears to be very little on the books to be able to punish their negligence and remediate the damage caused to affected customers. Class actions rarely amount to much when spread across this many claimants, and are often more for the lawyers, but something may be better than nothing. The real danger may be the encouragement this gives governments to centralise data verification and digitally validate identification, creating an ‘algorithm ghetto’.
Foreign Affairs
Yes, they claimed the vaccines would prevent transmission – News.com.au. Damning revelations that COVID-19 vaccines were not known to prevent transmission, as they were originally claimed to, have been exposed. The significance of this should not be underestimated, and the implications for the public’s trust in policy making (that was based on fraudulent claims) and acceptance of the authority of ‘science’ are not understood.
Pakistan Army enforces China’s zero-COVID restrictions at Belt and Road Initiative power plant – ABC News.
“We are not allowed to go home, meet with our loved ones, celebrate our religious or cultural festivals or pursue further education,” said Yusuf*, a Pakistani engineer who is working on the project. “Many of us had developed suicidal thoughts, and we are treated like prisoners.” ABC amnesia in action, as they failed to condemn the exact same treatment of Australians during the COVID lockdowns of 2020-2021.
Joe Biden on Iran: Women ‘should be able to wear in God’s name what they want’ – The Age. Biden invokes the name of the Lord to defend the righteously hypothetical immodesty of Persian women.
Just Stop Oil protesters throw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery – ABC News. The histrionics of pampered middle class adolescents continues to make headlines in an attempt to ‘draw attention’ to the ‘climate crisis’.