Top World News
‘Not enough air traffic controllers’: safety concerns at Sydney airport after Jetstar and Qatar planes involved in near-miss
Planes narrowly avoid collision on tarmac with Jetstar A320 forced to ‘brake firmly’ as Qatar Boeing 777 towed into its pathFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTwo planes have narrowly avoided a collision on the tarmac of Australia’s busiest airport as it struggles with staff shortages.The Jetstar and Qatar Airways planes almost collided at Sydney airport at 7am on Sunday. Continue reading...
Australia news live: Tim Wilson says Labor’s NDIS reforms make disability clients ‘feel like they’re being targeted, not the fraudsters’
Meanwhile, expert says bird flu detected on Murray-Darling basin ‘should be ringing alarm bells’. Follow updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastCoalition demands NDIS changes focus on fraud, corruptionLiberal frontbencher Tim Wilson also called on the government to focus more on fraud and corruption issues in the NDIS, as the Coalition and Labor negotiate on changes to the disability scheme.We have people who are awarding either packages to people when they shouldn’t be used, we’re having people taking advantage of the system and we know this is being exposed.And so as a consequence we’ve seen this massive growth continue to go on and we need to make sure that that’s the focus, not the targeting of the clients. You know, if you go out to voters in Australia, there are a lot of people who are on disability support packages who are very nervous about their future and it’s because of how this government has looked at reforms and they feel like they’re being targeted, not the fraudsters.We’re not wowsers, we do believe in protecting children, particularly from harm.Under the government’s proposed bill, it doesn’t limit the capacity to advertise to children and that’s something that I’m concerned about, making sure that we’ve got the measures that are consistent, appropriate, and also reflecting the changing nature of technology Continue reading...
Pilots of helicopter that crashed while fighting Utah wildfire confirmed dead, officials say
Officials did not identify the pilots but said they were employed by Helicopter Transport Services, which was contracted by US Forest ServiceTwo helicopter pilots who crashed while they were fighting a wildfire in Utah have died, officials confirmed Saturday. The pilots were killed when their Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter went down Friday morning, according to the Sevier County Sheriff.The helicopter was among those fighting a fire in the Fishlake National Forest. The crash ignited a new fire that spread to connect with the existing blaze, which has now scorched nearly 174 square miles (nearly 451skm). Continue reading...
Thailand school shooting toll rises to nine after 12-year-old dies, police say
Teenage girl treated in hospital after Friday’s school shooting has died, police sayThe death toll from a school shooting in Thailand rose to nine on Saturday, after police said a 12-year-old girl caught up in Friday’s incident had died.Police at the Plai Bang Police Station in Nonthaburi Province said the girl, who had been treated at hospital with critical wounds, had died, a day after a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot his grandparents and then killed more people at his school before turning the gun on himself. Continue reading...
H-1B Workers Could Lose 60-Day Lifeline Under New US Immigration Plan
A move like this could require affected workers and their dependants to leave the country almost immediately.
A Tibetan cooperative keeps a centuries-old weaving tradition alive
Artisans at a weaving cooperative in Tibet are working to preserve Pulu, a traditional wool fabric that has been used on the Tibetan plateau for centuries
Iran Claims Hormuz Deal Close, But Adds Caveat For Opening Strait
A US official, who declined to be identified, said on Friday that Washington anticipated an agreement soon between Iran and Oman, which sit on either side of the strait, so that normal oil traffic could resume.
Navy says it is spending 25% more time monitoring Russian vessels around UK waters
Warning of increased activity as patrols spent 21 days in July shadowing Moscow’s ships in Dover Strait and North SeaThe Royal Navy has warned of increasing Russian activity around the UK’s waters after it spent 21 days in July monitoring Moscow’s ships.Naval operations to monitor Russian vessels increased by 25% last month compared with the previous year, with warships making repeated voyages through the strait of Dover and the North Sea. Continue reading...
Centrelink pursuing debts that are more than 40 years old despite agreeing to waive old arrears
Advocates and legal bodies want the debt to be made ‘out of bounds’ given how hard it is to determine its accuracyFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastCentrelink is pursuing $4.93bn in unpaid debts, with the oldest dating back more than 40 years, despite the government agreeing to implement a six-year statute of limitations on debt recovery.A growing list of advocates, including peak legal body Economic Justice Australia, want the debts wiped, while Australia’s leading welfare expert has warned it is impossible to trust whether the huge amount of debt is accurate. Continue reading...
Hospitality recruitment app Supp calls gig-workers contractors. Some users say it leads to casual work without entitlements
Exclusive: Workers’ rights experts raise ‘alarm bells’ over app requiring ABNs for jobs they say lack worker autonomyFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastConcerns have been raised that workers using an increasingly popular Australian hospitality gig-work app may be missing out on entitlements such as superannuation by being hired as “independent contractors”, similar to delivery riders.Launched in Melbourne in 2017, Supp describes itself as a “jobs marketplace”, where hospitality businesses can advertise available shifts to potential workers at an hourly rate, and where workers can secure ad-hoc employment. It was created by Kate and Cameron Reid, the owners of Lune Croissanterie, who maintain a financial stake in the company but are no longer on its board. Continue reading...
Over 1 Lakh Migrants Have Suddenly Fled Or Been Deported From South Africa
South Africa said this week that some 19,000 people had been officially deported since April.
'Especially weird' twist uncovered in White House's leak denial: report
President Donald Trump has been raging against possible leakers over information he gave away months ago.Trump has spent the week vowing to hunt down "treasonous" leakers over a missile shortage he was warned about and that he publicly acknowledged months before he launched his war with Iran, points out a Saturday piece by the legal blog emptywheel."Donald Trump told us on February 23, before he started this war, that he was reading the stories describing that he was warned, including about the missile shortage," emptywheel wrote. "And his response was to say that the decision was his, that if we went in spite of the warnings, the decision was his."The depletion of long-range missiles and interceptors was never a surprise, but despite that, Trump's recriminations have been building as he even turns on people within his own administration.Emptywheel noted a recent report by The Washington Post that revealed Trump laid into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Camp David meeting because of the shortages, but White House and Pentagon spokespeople have denied the report. Trump took to Truth Social to deny the missile shortage as well, writing, "The U.S. has massive amounts of 'munitions,'" but also went after "the 'leakers' of those treasonous statements" about a shortage. He said they were "being hunted down."According to emptywheel, "the especially weird part" of the White House and Pentagon denials is that they insist Trump isn't angry at Hegseth at all. "Shouldn't the President be angry with a Secretary of Defense who conducted the war in such a dumba— way, losing the war while blowing the missile reserves?" the blog asked.The blog also mentioned reporting that suggests that missile supplies are indeed dangerously low. A CNN report estimated about 80 percent of U.S. THAAD interceptors are gone, and Reuters reported, citing sources, that "virtually all" of the Army's surface-to-surface weapons have been used up.
