Acoss

With Australian governments and communities still grappling with the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, more than 2 million people without paid work face grave uncertainty about how they will make ends meet when the Federal Government cuts Coronavirus Supplement payments again on 31 December by another $100 to just $150 per fortnight. Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said: “The Federal Government is on a course to undo the remarkable achievement of alleviating poverty for 2.3 million people, plus over a million children, by repeatedly slashing the historic Coronavirus Supplement of $550 per fortnight introduced in March. “People struggling to get by on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, parenting and family payments were suddenly able to pay their rent and bills, buy fresh fruit and vegetables, get the medical care they needed and regularly eat three meals a day. “We heard from many families and individuals who were able to buy new clothes and shoes, visit the dentist and take care of medical needs, some for the first time in years. “As 2021 begins and everyone tries to put 2020 behind them, people without paid work will be trying to get by on just $50 a day, which simply isn’t enough to cover housing, food, transport and bills. The number of people on JobSeeker doubled to 1.5 million during the pandemic and is expected to rise still more when JobKeeper ends in March. There is currently only one job vacancy available for every 11 people looking for a job or more paid working hours, and even fewer jobs in regional areas. “To make matters worse, the Government has not ruled out sending people back to the old, brutal Newstart rate of just $40 a day in March. “Millions are facing agonising decisions like whether they will be able to afford to stay in their homes after the New Year, and which essential items, like food, bills or medicine, they will have to cut back on even further. “This is not the way to restore economic confidence in order for the country to recover from recession. Both people and the economy need security in order to be able rebuild. "We know that JobSeeker is an investment in people’s futures both for people relying on this lifeline payment and for jobs – virtually every dollar of the Coronavirus Supplement goes straight back into the local economy helping to keep other people in employment. “We need a permanent increase to the base rate of JobSeeker of at least $25 a day more than the old Newstart rate, so that people can cover the basics. “This minimum increase would bring the Jobseeker payment only just above the poverty line, and closer to the pension rate, as it used to be. It would a much better spend than the high-end income tax cuts that the Government is planning. “We also need to fix rental assistance and restore adequacy to family payments and deliver billions of investment into social housing. See ACOSS proposal for fixing the adequacy of social security here. "Today we must also remember that over 1 million people who rely on temporary visas still don’t have access to any regular income support at all. Many face destitution. It is vital we close this glaring gap if we are to truly bring communities together in 2021. “In 2020, Australian governments showed what they are capable of doing to protect people and keep people safe. Now is the time to secure people’s futures, focusing first on those most in need. “This year has been tough for many but for millions of people with the least, their need is urgent. As we rebuild from the crisis, we can’t turn our back on those who are being left behind,” Dr Goldie said.

The Age

In 1979, the year America formally recognised the communist People’s Republic of China, Victoria's then premier, Rupert Hamer, initiated a sister-state relationshipwith the Chinese province of Jiangsu, on the country's east coast. Since then the arrangement has fostered ties in education, the arts, medicine, business, science and technology. But a program in which Victorian businesses and researchers are eligible for grants of up to $200,000 from the state government for joint ventures with counterparts in Jiangsu is in jeopardy under new foreign relations rules introduced by the federal government that give Canberra veto power over such agreements. This has been backed up by Dr Paul Monk, a former head of China analysis in Australia’s Defence Department, who said the Jiangsu program could allow firms linked to the Chinese government to obtain access to Australian intellectual property, and it should be viewed through the prism of President Xi Jinping's recently stated intention, reported by Chinese state media, of increasing his nation's military-industrial strength. Advertisement There is also no getting around the fact that Australia's relationship with China is at its lowest ebb for many years. Beijing has made its displeasure with Australia well known, and Victoria has become part of the dispute. China's recently released 14 grievances with Australia included its unhappiness with the Morrison government’s attempt to “torpedo” Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with the new legislation. RELATED ARTICLE Canberra considers axing Victorian research agreement with China The Age has already stated that, on balance, Victoria needs to accept that its Belt and Road agreement with China should be terminated. For Mr Xi, the Belt and Road program is a signature policy that unites all of China’s efforts to exert influence around the globe. For that reason, it is a key foreign policy issue in an increasingly difficult environment, and Canberra should take the leading role.

Percy Granger Marxism and USA Communist Party

Between 1957 and 1961 Grainger and the young Scottish pianist and composer Ronald Stevenson enjoyed a correspondence which grew to include 32 letters.14 They covered a wide range of topics from Bach to folk music to the latest musical innovations. What follows are some of Stevenson's thoughts on Grainger, including a little-known aspect, culled from an interview given at his home in West Linton, Scotland, on 25 March 2009. Teresa Balough My correspondence with Grainger began in the wrong way because I was researching Busoni and contacting everybody I could who had known Busoni. Percy Grainger had been a Busoni student. That's how it began, on the wrong foot: it should have begun about Percy, not about Busoni; but it soon got round to Percy. There was certainly the theme of Marxism in the correspondence. (I was very interested in Shostakovich, so that linked up.) Percy's physician and close friend K. K. Nygaard told me that he knew that Percy had been a member of the American Communist Party for two years and Percy came out of it, decided to stop attending meetings, because he felt that it was a narrow view of Marxism that they had. Percy's friendship with the American composer Henry Cowell, I think, may have been part of this because, as is well known, Henry Cowell was certainly a member of the American Communist Party. I think possibly that Percy knew Cowell through Ruth Crawford Seeger, Pete Seeger's stepmother. In America I met Pete Seeger who remembered that his father, the musicologist Charles Seeger, knew Percy and spoke very often of him. In our correspondence I questioned Percy about electronic music, Free Music,

Aljazjzeera

The reported treatment of Azarova is consistent with a broader and intensifying climate of suppression. Lawyers, academics, journalists, teachers, artists, students, activists, and trade unions in Canada have been subjected to smear campaigns, event cancellations, physical violence, professional disciplinary measures, and condemnation by the prime minister and other political leaders for opposing Israel’s gross violations of international law and expressing solidarity with Palestinians. In August, Indigenous CBC journalist Duncan McCue was required to apologise simply for using the word “Palestine” on-air.

Peak Australian medical body calls for release of the Tamil Biloela family from detention

Peak Australian medical body calls for release of the Tamil Biloela family from detention

The habitat of the platypus has shrunk by almost a quarter in just three decades

The habitat of the platypus has shrunk by almost a quarter in just three decades, researchers have warned. An egg-laying mammal known for its duck-like bill, the platypus is found in river systems in eastern Australia. But human intervention in those waterways, bad droughts and introduced predators - among other things - have ravaged its habitats, scientists say. The researchers and conservation groups have called for Australia to classify the species as nationally threatened. The habitat loss amounted to 22% - or about 200,000 sq km (77,000 sq miles) - since 1990, according to the team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). "Protecting the platypus and the rivers it relies on must be a national priority for one of the world's most iconic animals," said lead author Professor Richard Kingsford. "There is a real concern that platypus populations will disappear from some of our rivers without returning, if rivers keep degrading with droughts and dams." Which animals fare best and worst in fires? Extinction threat to overlooked species New South Wales had seen a 32% drop in platypus observations within the past 30 years, followed by Queensland (27%) and Victoria (7%), the research said. In some areas near Melbourne, however, the rate was as high as 65%.

Myanmar gang-rape victim wins legal battle with military

Myanmar gang-rape victim wins legal battle with military Three rapists were jailed for 20 years with hard labour in a case that pitted a 36-year-old mother of four against the powerful military. In a rare acknowledgement of wrongdoing, the military on Saturday announced the verdict and sentence against the three rapists [Stringer/AFP] 19 Dec 2020 After being gang-raped by soldiers, steely eyed Thein Nu went up against Myanmar’s powerful military in a months-long fight for justice – a fight that paid off with a rare legal victory. Her three rapists were jailed for 20 years with hard labour, a sentence she hopes will give other survivors the courage to speak up and challenge the military’s impunity. The crime was committed in June in northern Rakhine state – the site of a nearly two-year battle between the military and the Arakan Army, which is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population. “Many women like me have already endured the same thing,” Thein Nu – who has been given a pseudonym to protect her identity – told the AFP news agency.

BBC Nemonte Nenquimo: The indigenous leader named 'environmental hero'

An indigenous leader from the Ecuadorean Amazon is one of the winners of the Goldman environmental prize, which recognises grassroots activism. Nemonte Nenquimo was chosen for her success in protecting 500,000 acres of rainforest from oil extraction. She and fellow members of the Waorani indigenous group took the Ecuadorean government to court over its plans to put their territory up for sale. Their 2019 legal victory set a legal precedent for indigenous rights. 'Our rainforest is not for sale' For Nemonte Nenquimo, protecting the environment was less a choice than a legacy she decided she had to carry on. "The Waorani people have always been protectors, they have defended their territory and their culture for thousands of years," she tells the BBC. The Waorani people Nemonte Nenquimo celebrates with other Waorani after a court ruled in their favour in Puro, Ecuador, on April 26, 2019 Number around 5,000 people Traditional hunter-gatherers organised in small clan settlements Among the most recently contacted peoples: reached in 1958 by US missionaries Waorani territory overlaps with Yasuni National Park, one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems 80% of the Waorani now live in an area one-tenth the size of their ancestral lands Ms Nenquimo says that when she was a child she loved to listen to the elders tell stories of how the Waorani lived before they were contacted by missionaries in the 1950s. "My grandfather was a leader and he protected our land from incursions from outsiders, he literally spearheaded that defence by confronting intruders, spear in hand." Ms Nenquimo says that from the age of five, she was encouraged by the elders to become a leader herself. Quotebox Nemonte Nenquimo: "When it comes to taking decisions, the women pull no punches, and everyone listens up." "Historically, the Waorani women have been the ones to make the decisions, the men went to war," she explains. "Waorani women made the men listen to them and it wasn't until we had contact with the evangelical missionaries that we were told that God created Adam and that Eve came second and was created from Adam's rib, that's when the confusion [about women's role] started." But Ms Nenquimo insists that the role of women in Waorani society continues to be a key one. "When it comes to taking decisions, the women pull no punches, and everyone listens up". Nemonte Nenquimo says that she may be the first woman to have been chosen as president of the Waorani of Pastaza province but "there are many women leaders" among the Waorani, who she says have been guiding her in her fight to protect their territory from oil extraction. While Ms Nenquimo grew up in an area of rainforest where there was no drilling for oil, she recalls the first time her father took her to visit her aunts, who lived near an oil well.

Lloyds to stop new insurance cover for coal

Lloyd’s, the world’s biggest insurance market, has bowed to pressure from environmental campaigners and set a market-wide policy to stop new insurance cover for coal, oil sands and Arctic energy projects by January 2022, and to pull out of the business altogether by 2030. In its first environmental, social and governance report, Lloyd’s, which has been criticised for being slow to exit fossil fuel underwriting and investment, said the 90 insurance syndicates that make up the market would phase out all existing insurance policies for fossil fuel projects in 10 years’ time. Less than 5% of the market’s £35bn annual premiums comes from insurance policies in this area. “We want to align ourselves with the UN sustainability development goals and the principles in the Paris [climate] agreement,” said the Lloyd’s chairman, Bruce Carnegie-Brown. “A lot of syndicates are already doing some of the things we are setting out here but we are trying to create a more comprehensive framework for the whole market.” The Lloyd’s market will also end new investments in coal-fired power plants, coalmines, oil sands and Arctic energy exploration by 1 January 2022, and phase out existing investments in companies that derive 30% or more of their revenues from this area by the end of 2025. Carnegie-Brown defended the 2030 target date for ending fossil fuel insurance. “We want to try to support our customers in the transition and we don’t want to create cliff edges for them,” he said. “Oil is too fundamental an energy supply source for the world today and it would be impossible to get out of that without creating real dislocation to our customers. It’s an issue of calibration over time.” Lindsay Keenan, European coordinator of the Insure Our Future campaign, which has pressured many insurers globally into divesting from coal, said: “It’s a good step forward but it’s clearly not ambitious enough. The 2030 deadline is hard to justify given the science.” He voiced concerns about two controversial projects: the Trans Mountain tar sands oil pipeline extension in Canada, which is partly underwritten by Lloyd’s insurers, and Adani’s Carmichael coalmine in Australia, where Lloyd’s insurers have also been involved. Lloyd’s declined to comment on those two projects. Lloyd’s also committed itself to having women in 35% of leadership positions across the insurance market – board level and the two layers below the board – by the end of 2023. At the moment, women make up less than 25% of leadership roles. The firm will also set targets for black, Asian and minority ethnic representation next year, once it has collected more data from its members. The environmentalist and journalist Flemmich Webb, who died in November aged 49, worked tirelessly with colleagues on the Lloyd’s sustainability report released on Thursday. “This will be a fitting and long-lasting legacy for a deeply respected colleague,” the company said in a statement.

The Morning Star ---- Super rich pharma companies making ‘privatised’ vaccines with public cash, campaigners warn

Super rich pharma companies making ‘privatised’ vaccines with public cash, campaigners warn BIG pharma companies toting more income than many wealthy and oil-rich nations are posing a “serious obstacle to wiping out Covid-19” having produced “privatised” vaccines with public money, campaigners warned today. Some of the corporations producing Covid-19 treatments have a history of ripping off the NHS, profiteering from disease and market manipulation, research by Global Justice Now has found. Six of the biggest corporations in the coronavirus market generated about £200 billion last year, with profits totalling £35bn, according to their report The Horrible History of Big Pharma. Johnson & Johnson alone rakes in more revenue than New Zealand or Hungary. Pfizer’s revenues are higher than those of oil-rich Kuwait or Malaysia. The firms have also taken billions of pounds from governments in research and manufacturing funding, as well as pre-sales of medicines. Campaigners argue that these vast sums of money have funded producing vaccines in record time, but that treatments and vaccines have essentially been “privatised.” It means that rich countries are prioritised for distribution and governments are left with no leverage over the pricing of the drugs, making it harder to control coronavirus, they say. Pfizer has made no promise to limit profits on its Covid-19 vaccine, and has pre-sold over 1bn doses to rich governments representing just 14 per cent of the world’s population. Moderna’s vaccine has been made with public money, yet the company is expected to charge up to £55 per person for immunisation. The vaccine being developed by Oxford University was to be produced on a non-exclusive, royalty-free basis. However, on entering a deal with AstraZeneca, it is now exclusive and while the company maintains it will not profit during the pandemic, it has failed to release details of its contract. Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said the vaccines should be “owned by the public” and distributed fairly. He added: “It’s beyond disgusting that a group of wealthy corporate executives and hedge funds are using this opportunity to further enrich themselves.” Global Justice Now also pointed towards many instances of price gouging, such as Pfizer and its British distributor hiking the price of an anti-epilepsy drug which 48,000 NHS patients relied upon. As a result, NHS annual expenditure on the capsules rose from about £2 million to £50m in a year. Wholesalers and pharmacies faced price hikes of 2,300 per cent to 2,600 per cent.

Vale Peter Parkhill Folklorist Extraodinaire

Parkhills NLA original collection comprised 222 tapes and cassettes, with over 60 hours of playing time. They were mostly recorded in Melbourne in 1975-83 and include traditional songs and dance music of Turkey, songs and dances of Abruzzi and Compo Basso, Russian songs and liturgical chants, traditional music of Greece, Greek Macedonia, Crete and Syria and Lebanese improvised poetry. There are also yarns, rhymes and songs of rural Gippsland and Pacific Islander music. In 1990 Parkhill added 32 tapes and cassettes recorded in Sydney in 1986-87, including Timorese and Paraguayan music, a Vietnamese music ensemble and interviews with directors of Greek, Turkish and Serbian music and dance organisations. In 1993 further tapes were added relating to Arabic, Persian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and South American music.

Chile’s Mapuche people vs the State: A battle for ancestral lands

Chile’s Mapuche people vs the State: A battle for ancestral lands We travel to Chile to meet some of the Mapuche groups on the offensive to reclaim their culture. In Chile, the Mapuche communities make up roughly 12 percent of the country’s population. They have historically been the poorest and most discriminated-against sector of society. In fact, Chile is one of a few countries in the world whose constitution does not recognise its Indigenous peoples. The conflict against the state has been simmering for years, but in recent months more radical Mapuche groups have been attacking and torching hundreds of trucks, farms, homes, forest lands owned by lumber companies and even trains. So, is there a path to peaceful coexistence?

No unfair advantage’: Vietnam rejects US ‘currency manipulation’ charge, but vows to work with Washington to resolve row

‘No unfair advantage’: Vietnam rejects US ‘currency manipulation’ charge, but vows to work with Washington to resolve row

President-elect Joe Biden’s team plans to bring the U.S. closer to normalized relations with Cuba, reversing many of the sanctions and regulations imposed during the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter. That strategy includes reducing restrictions on travel, investment and remittances for the island nation that are perceived to disproportionately hurt Americans and ordinary Cubans, said the people, who requested anonymity because the new administration is still coming together. Other measures that target Cuba for human rights abuses would remain in place, the people said. The prospect of a détente between Washington and Havana rekindles memories of the thaw that Biden helped champion during the Obama administration, when the two nations restored diplomatic ties that had been broken for decades following Fidel Castro’s rise to power. But the president-elect is returning to an even messier scene: the Cuban economy is suffering its worst crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union amid fallout from Covid-19 and U.S. sanctions. At the same time, Cuban intelligence officers have helped prop up Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, allowing his regime to consolidate its grip on power in defiance of demands for free and fair elections. Earlier: Wealthy Nations Defy Trump With Debt Lifeline to Ailing Cuba With a packed domestic agenda, it’s unclear how quickly Biden will move on implementing his Cuba policy. Even if some changes happen early, the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown could delay the benefits of any measures that allow for greater travel to the island. It’s also unclear whether Biden will increase staffing at the U.S. embassy in Havana. The Trump administration pared back diplomatic operations after strange illnesses, including brain trauma, afflicted some U.S. diplomats and their families.

Cuba and Coronavirus

Some countries seem to be weathering the coronavirus pandemic better than others. One country that moved rapidly to deal with the emerging threat was Cuba. Cuba has several advantages over many states, including free universal healthcare, the world’s highest ratio of doctors to population, and positive health indicators, such as high life expectancy and low infant mortality. Many of its doctors have volunteered around the world, building up and supporting other countries’ health systems while gaining experience in emergencies. A highly educated population and advanced medical research industry, including three laboratories equipped and staffed to run virus tests, are further strengths. Also, with a centrally planned, state-controlled economy, Cuba’s government can mobilise resources quickly. Its national emergency planning structure is connected with local organisations in every corner of the country. The disaster-preparedness system, with mandatory evacuations for vulnerable people such as the disabled and pregnant women, has previously resulted in a remarkably low loss of life from hurricanes. However, COVID-19 presents differences. Cuba’s lack of resources, which hampers recovery from disasters, also contributes to a housing shortage that makes physical distancing difficult. And the island’s poor infrastructure creates logistical challenges. Get news that’s free, independent and based on evidence. Get newsletter Also, the pandemic comes at a particularly difficult time, as tightened US sanctions have sharply cut earnings from tourism and other services, deterred foreign investment, hampered trade (including medical equipment imports) and obstructed access to international finance – including emergency funds. Given these strengths and weaknesses, Cuba provides an interesting case study in responding to the current pandemic. Cuba’s reaction to the coronavirus threat was swift. A “prevention and control” plan, prepared in January 2020, included training medical staff, preparing medical and quarantine facilities, and informing the public (including tourism workers) about symptoms and precautions. So, when the first three reported cases were confirmed on March 11, arrangements were in place to trace and isolate contacts, mobilise medical students for nationwide door-to-door surveys to identify vulnerable people and check for symptoms, and roll out a testing programme. On March 20, with 21 confirmed cases reported, the government announced a ban on tourist arrivals, lockdown for vulnerable people, provision for home working, reassignment of workers to priority tasks, employment protection and social assistance. As issues arose, the Cuban government adjusted its response. For example, when face-masks and physical distancing proved insufficient to keep public transport safe, services were suspended and state and private vehicles and drivers were hired to transport patients and essential workers. And to reduce crowding in shops, the distribution system was reorganised and online shopping introduced. Physical distancing enforcement has also been stepped up in response to instances of non-compliance. With 766 reported cases by April 15 (68 cases per million of population), Cuba is around the middle of the range for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Morrison Government’s omnibus IR Bill will allow employers to make agreements that cut the wages and conditions of workers. The Bill will allow the Fair Work Commission to approve agreements that do not meet the BOOT test for a period of two years. In addition, the Bill will significantly undermine and weaken the current protections and safeguards workers have to prevent employers imposing unfair agreements, the Bill weakens these tests. Currently the Fair Work Commission must ensure workers have access to an agreement for seven days and it must be properly explained to workers before voting, these requirements will be removed. Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus: “These changes are dangerous and extreme. Workchoices allowed employers to cut wages, and this proposal will do that as well. When Workchoices was introduced employers rushed out to cut wages, the same will happen if this law passes. Some workers are still stuck with WorkChoices pay cuts some 13 years later. “These proposals were never raised during months of discussions with employers and the Government. The union movement will fight these proposals which will leave working people worse off. This was not the spirit of the talks with employers and the Government, this is not about us all being in this together. “Working people, essential workers, have already sacrificed so much during this pandemic, these proposed laws will punish them. “The economy, local businesses will not be able to recover if workers are facing pay cuts. Families need the confidence to spend. You can’t heal the economy by hurting working people.”

Twitter has signalled that it will begin removing posts containing vaccine “conspiracies,” including claims that they are purposely used to cause harm and “control populations,” its latest effort to suppress “misinformation.” Starting next week, the social media giant will excise all posts that “invoke a deliberate conspiracy” or “advance harmful, false or misleading narratives” about vaccines, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday, putting particular focus on inoculations against the coronavirus. “Using a combination of technology and human review, we will begin enforcing this updated policy on December 21, and expanding our actions during the following weeks,” it said, adding that the new rule would be enforced “in close consultation with local, national and global public health authorities around the world.”

Tim Berners-Lee: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it

"The web evolved into a powerful, ubiquitous tool because it was built on egalitarian principles and because thousands of individuals, universities and companies have worked, both independently and together as part of the World Wide Web Consortium [established by Berners-Lee so that stakeholders could work together in open groups to build a better web than any company could build by itself], to expand its capabilities based on those principles." But, in spreading from the grassroots up, his invention has arguably lost many of the egalitarian principles Berners-Lee hoped for. It has become less straightforwardly a force for good. Earlier this month, Charles Leadbeater, former policy adviser to the Labour government and a champion of the web's potential to give power to hitherto deprived groups, published a report called A Better Web for the Nominet Trust pointing to the pervasive misogyny of the web as an example of how the democratising potential of the internet has not been fulfilled. "There is some sense in which the internet is in danger of not meeting its potential," says Leadbeater, "the promise that was there in the mid-2000s, which was about collaborating to create better ways to do things." That promise was something Leadbeater and other Pollyanna-ish proselytisers for the web only a few years ago believed would be realised. In 2008, he published a book called We-Think: Mass Innovation, Not Mass Production; at the same time in the US, fellow web evangelist Clay Shirky published Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Both stressed the internet's genesis in 60s counterculture and its historic ethos of sticking it to the Man. Both revelled in the fact that new web-based social tools helped single mothers looking online for social networks or pro-democracy campaigners in Belarus. When I reviewed these books for the Guardian at the time, I worried that neither sufficiently realised that these tools and this rhetoric could just as readily be co-opted by the Man (by which I meant profit-based organisations and overbearing governments). But arguably that is precisely what has been happening in the intervening period. "We've had a year now in which the internet is regarded with a sort of weary cynicism by a lot of people, because Facebook are just locking you in, and others are using your data without you knowing it. Some people are enthusiastic about that, because they get really good services and they love it, but quite a lot of other people are either quite doubtful or outright sceptical," says Leadbeater. Sceptical is right. The world wide web has increasingly facilitated the global spread of misogyny, the hate crime of revenge porn, corporate and state surveillance, bullying, racism, the life-ruining, time-wasting, Sisyphean digital servitude of deleting spam, the existentially crushing spadework of fatuous finessing of those lies, one's Facebook profiles. It has spread from the grassroots up, from Berners-Lee's desktop to the world, has been coterminous with lots of other intolerable things. Yes, you might well reply. We can all draw up lists of how terrible our experience of online life is. But you're moaning about the internet, not the world wide web: they are two very different things. (Basically, the internet contains the web; the web is a particular pipe inside the broader "internet" pipe. "Web" tends to mean, "take these files and lay them out on a screen in a particular way"; "internet" means, "here's a file, do whatever you want with it.") Indeed, Wired magazine, only four years ago, had an all-orange cover with four black words that read: "The Web is Dead". It went on to argue that Berners-Lee's beautiful egalitarian vision had been supplanted by a customised, commercialised online paradise or hell (depending on your politics). Internet penseur Chris Anderson wrote that increasingly we're abandoning the open, unfettered web for simpler, sleeker services online that work – and make lots of money for app creators.

London: Britain's independent Climate Change Committee is encouraging Australia to pass its own Climate Change Act to legislate carbon reduction targets, pointing to the support received by the business community when the UK took the step in 2008. The committee was established by that legislation, which was the first in the world to legally require a government to meet its emissions reductions targets. The law was passed by the then Labour government led by Gordon Brown with overwhelming cross-party support in Parliament. Independent Member for Warringah, Zali Steggall started a parliamentary inquiry into whether Australia should also legislate its carbon goals. Independent Member for Warringah, Zali Steggall started a parliamentary inquiry into whether Australia should also legislate its carbon goals.CREDIT:CHRISTOPHER PEARCE It compelled the UK to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 compared to its carbon output in 1990. But last year, the government led by former conservative prime minister Theresa May went a step further, becoming the first country to legislate a net-zero target by 2050. The independent Member for Warringah, Zali Steggall, successfully sought a parliamentary inquiry into whether Australia should also legislate its carbon goals to end a decade-long climate change tussle. British Labour demands Boris Johnson blacklist Cormann's OECD bid over climate record Steggall has introduced into the House of Representatives a bill that mimics the UK's. It was rejected by Prime Minister Scott Morrison who has increased the government's reduction targets to net-zero even as he refuses to specify when they will become effective, committing only to a time frame of "as soon as possible". The British committee's chief economist Mike Thompson wrote to Steggall's inquiry and endorsed Australia adopting a UK-style legislation, saying it was the reason for Britain's progress in bringing down its carbon emissions by 45.2 per cent on 1990 levels as of last year. "Over-arching climate legislation such as the proposed Climate Change Bill and the UK’s Climate Change Act can provide the frameworks for meeting those targets at the least cost, while adapting to the further climate impacts that cannot be avoided," Thompson said.

The Independent Trump carries out first ‘lame duck’ execution for 130 years

Incoming House Democrat Cori Bush is calling on president-elect Joe Biden to offer clemency to all prisoners on death row. Her comments come as the outgoing Trump administration presses ahead with a spate of federal executions despite a surge of coronavirus cases in prisons. Writing in a piece published by Time magazine on Monday, Ms Bush, representative-elect for Missouri's 1st congressional district, called on Mr Biden to consider permanently ending the federal government's "legal torture" of inmates when he assumes office. “There is no place for the death penalty in a just, humane society,” she wrote. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Under the Constitution, presidents have the extraordinary power to shorten sentences and erase convictions altogether. CBiden to select former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary, reports say She added: "With the stroke of a pen, he can grant clemency to all who are on federal death row, reducing their sentences or pardoning them altogether. “If he truly opposes the death penalty, he must do everything in his power to stop it for good”. Ending executions is about "making it clear that our government should not have the power to end a life",. Please enter your email addressPlease enter a valid email addressPlease enter a valid email address S The Independent would like to keep you informed about offers, events and updates by email, please tick the box if you would like to be contacted Read our full mailing list consent terms here Ms Bush, a trained nurse and pastor who was once homeless, referenced Brandon Bernard, a black American who was put to death last week. Aged 40, Bernard was the youngest offender to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years. He was sentenced to death for a murder he committed when he was a teenager almost 20 years ago. The Department of Justice announced last year that it would resume federal capital punishment following an almost two-decades-long hiatus.

The Independent A senior Conservative MP has called on Boris Johnson to step down as prime minister if he fails to secure a trade deal

A senior Conservative MP has called on Boris Johnson to step down as prime minister if he fails to secure a trade deal with the European Union. Sir Roger Gale said that if no free trade agreement is secured by the end of the transition to Brexit, just 17 days away on 31 December, Mr Johnson would have “failed the people of the United Kingdom” and his position as PM would no longer be tenable. In those circumstances, he should stand aside and make say for “somebody more able to pick up the pieces”, said the North Thanet MP. Gale is the first serving Tory MP to call on the PM to resign if he fails to reach a deal. In the House of Commons since 1983, Sir Roger is one of the Conservatives’ longest-serving MPs and a former vice-chair of the party. But he is a long-standing critic of Boris Johnson, who voted Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, backed Jeremy Hunt in last year’s leadership election and has spoken out against hard Brexit. As such, it is unlikely that his stance will be echoed by more than a handful on the Tory benches. “If Mr Johnson fails to reach an acceptable trade agreement with the EU, the prime minister will also have failed the people of the United Kingdom.

Spies on John Le caree

The tweet from the current chief of MI6 paying tribute to his "evocative and brilliant" novels would have raised a wry smile from John le Carré. The writer's relationship with his former colleagues was always deeply complicated - as has been their attitude towards him. Le Carré's career was shaped by his time in the secret world and, in turn, his own fiction shaped the way much of the world saw British intelligence, including the way even spies talked about themselves. Writers often draw on real life experience but because le Carré's experience was inside a world that was secret - and much more secret in his time than today - it is particularly hard to know where fact ends and fiction begins, creating a mystery whose value he understood. The author's time working at MI5 and MI6 may have been the wellspring of his fiction but he chose to closely guard the truth. "I have such conflicting memories of my former service - actually of both services - and such conflicting emotions, that I am perpetually at a loss to know what I really think," he once told me, before adding. "It's a matter of pride to me that nobody who knows the reality has so far accused me of revealing it." The defining aspect of the time which David Cornwell (le Carré's real name) spent inside British intelligence was that they were bleak years. Complex and morally ambiguous A series of traitors were, one by one, being unearthed. "I had barely finished my basic training when George Blake, a longstanding and greatly treasured officer of the service, was exposed as a Russian spy," le Carré later reflected. The discovery of another bad apple in MI6, Kim Philby, would provide the inspiration for le Carré's most famous work - the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy trilogy. His gift was combining the high-stakes Cold War world of treachery with the very human emotions and personal dramas of those who betrayed and were themselves betrayed. The unmasking of traitors within the intelligence services - such as Kim Philby - inspired Le Carré Some say the term "mole" to describe an enemy agent burrowing into an intelligence service comes from le Carré and many more of his phrases would become common currency - including among spies themselves. The CIA team which works against Moscow has for many years been known as "Russia House" - a name which some believe is drawn from the 1989 novel of the same name. Some of those who have worked in Russia House have also described to me one particular real-life Russian adversary as their "Karla" - a reference to George Smiley's foe in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and other books. While Ian Fleming's James Bond was a Technicolor escapist fantasy, le Carré's spies were rooted in a grey, complex and morally ambiguous reality. But that meant some veterans of MI6 were, it is fair to say, not fans. "He dares to say that it is a world of cold betrayal. It's not. It's a world of trust. You can't run an agent without trust on both sides," Baroness Daphne Park, who was in MI6 at the same time as le Carré, once told me. image caption Le Carré was known for morally complex spies such as George Smiley, portrayed by Alec Guinness Sir Richard Dearlove, a former MI6 chief, criticised le Carré at the Cliveden Literary Festival a few years ago for perpetuating a cynical view (remarks le Carré said were excellently timed as publicity for his next novel). But just as le Carré had a deeply conflicted relationship with the reality of spies, so spies have had a deeply conflicted relationship with fiction, sometimes disliking the way it shapes perceptions of their world, but also relishing the mythology it provides both at home and around the world. "There were two feelings I think in the service over the years," Sir Colin McColl, chief of MI6 at the end of the Cold War, told me in 2009. "There were those who were furious with John le Carré because he depicts everybody as such disagreeable characters and they are always plotting against each other… But I thought it was terrific because… it gave us another couple of generations of being in some way special." A mythology of spies In recent years though, the Secret Service has become less secret and more keen to distance itself from fictional portrayal, seeking to root itself in reality instead. "In my experience, there is fact and there is fiction," Sir John Scarlett, former head of MI6 told the BBC on hearing of the writer's death and paying tribute to him as an exceptional novelist. "They must not become confused." But fact and fiction have often been confused, especially in the years when secrecy meant there was a vacuum. Le Carré himself knew that his fiction had fuelled the mythology of spies and, at times, sounded conflicted about that as well. "The trouble is that the reader, like the general public to which he belongs, and in spite of all the evidence telling him that he shouldn't, wants to believe in his spies," he once wrote.

Fiji’s PM refuses to let the Pacific be the 'sacrificial canary for coal-burning countries

Fiji’s PM refuses to let the Pacific be the 'sacrificial canary for coal-burning countries'

London: Britain's opposition is demanding Prime Minister Boris Johnson boycott

London: Britain's opposition is demanding Prime Minister Boris Johnson boycott Australia's campaign to have Mathias Cormann installed as the next head of the OECD saying the former cabinet minister's denialist climate change record makes him unfit for the job. Cormann announced in July that he was quitting as finance minister and is running to replace Angel Gurria as secretary-general of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Labour's spokeswoman for trade. Emily Thornberry has written to the British Prime Minister, demanding he guarantee that Britain will not back Cormann, who was instrumental in twice removing Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal party leader, over his record on climate policy. Australia's Labor Party has backed Cormann's OECD bid. Johnson hosted an international climate summit on the weekend from which Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison was denied a speaking slot, widely viewed as a result of the Liberal and National party's resistance to mitigating carbon emissions.

Vale John Le Carre

His output continued to be prolific with a 1989 novel, The Russia House, marking the end of the Cold War, and the reappearance of George Smiley in The Secret Pilgrim in 1991. The 1996 novel, Tailor of Panama was inspired by the Graham Greene story, Our Man in Havana, while The Constant Gardener, published in 2000, saw him switch his attention corruption in Africa. In 2003 he joined a number of writers attacking the US led invasion of Iraq in an essay entitled, The United States of America Has Gone Mad. "How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history", he wrote. His remarks probably contributed to accusations of anti-American bias in his 2004 book Absolute Friends, an examination of the lives of two radicals from 1960s America, coming to terms with advancing age. In 2006 his 20th novel, Mission Song, detailed the sometimes complex relationships between business and politics in the Congo. Notably self-disparaging about his own achievements he consistently refused honours, insisting that there would never be a Sir David Cornwell. "A good writer is an expert on nothing except himself", he once said. "And on that subject, if he is wise, he holds his tongue". Le Carre reportedly turned down an honour from Queen Elizabeth II — though he accepted Germany’s Goethe Medal in 2011 — and said he did not want his books considered for literary prizes. In later years he was a vocal critic of the government of Tony Blair and its decision — based partly on hyped-up intelligence — to go to war in Iraq, and criticised what he saw as the betrayals of the post-World War II generation by successive British governments. “The changes that I was promised since I was about 14 — I remember being told when Clement Atlee became prime minister and (Winston) Churchill was slung out after the war that that would be the end of the [private] school system and the monarchy,” he said, in 2008. “How can we have achieved the poverty gap that we have in this country? It’s simply unbelievable.” In 1954, le Carre married Alison Sharp, with whom he had three sons before they divorced in 1971. In 1972 he married Valerie Eustace, with whom he had a son, the novelist Nick Harkaway. Although he had a home in London, le Carre spent much of his time near Land’s End, England’s southwesternmost tip, in a clifftop house overlooking the sea. He was, he said, a humanist but not an optimist. “Humanity — that’s what we rely on. If only we could see it expressed in our institutional forms, we would have hope then,” he told the AP. “I think the humanity will always be there. I think it will always be defeated.”

Columbia University, explained how “music functions as a social glue that binds the minds and bodies of those who create it”

In a recent article reflecting on the music of the George Floyd protests in the US, Mariusz Kozak, Assistant Professor of Music at Columbia University, explained how “music functions as a social glue that binds the minds and bodies of those who create it”, thereby creating a unification of purpose which is key for the sustenance and success of social justice protests. During the #EndSARS protests, there was a rediscovery of music both on and off the protest grounds, with a resurgence of interest in socially conscious songs like Zombie, Sorrow Tears and Blood, Beast of No Nation, and Coffin for The Head of State by Fela Kuti, Jailer by Asa, Mr President by African China, Dem Mama by Timaya, and Nigeria Jaga Jaga by Eedris Abdulkareem. Songs like these are an important driving force for the movement because of clear, powerful messages that criticised an oppressive government at the time of their release. Kuti’s Beast of No Nation was released during President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime as Nigeria’s military head of state (1983 to 1985), and serves as a commentary on what was perceived to be the autocracy of the then military government, a forerunner of Buhari’s current administration. In a country where history was removed from basic school curriculums between 2007 and 2019, Nigerians are learning key historical events (for example, the 1999 Odi Massacre, which is the focus of Timaya’s Dem Mama) through these songs. There are also softer versions of this socially conscious music that inspire hope and pride in Nigeria and Nigerians; The Future (We’re Nigeria) and The Land Is Green by TY Bello, and Originality by Faze. But it’s not the only type of music that drove the #EndSARS protests. Nigerians love gbedu (meaning “big drum”, a word that has come to describe types of Afrobeat and hip hop), even while protesting. So dancehall songs like Davido’s Fem, Tiwa Savage’s Koroba, Ogene by Zoro featuring Phyno and Flavor, and Killing Dem by Burna Boy and Zlatan, were so prominent during the protests to keep morale high.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australia's top diplomat

Listen closely: The sound we heard this week was the penny dropping. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australia's top diplomat, Frances Adamson, have both set out a vision for Australia that accepts the old order is changing. In a speech to a British think tank, Morrison sent a message to China that Australia will not be America's "deputy sheriff" and Canberra will not be making decisions based on a choice between Washington and Beijing. Meanwhile, Adamson candidly argued that Australia "is not about imposing our views on others", adding that "an era within which we felt comfortable has passed". She isn't telling us anything we shouldn't already have known, but when it comes to China, Australia has been a slow learner. Our strategy has been caught between what former prime minister Tony Abbott once described as a mixture of "fear and greed". The messaging has at times been cringe-inducing. When I lived in China, I lost count of the number of times I heard visiting politicians or business leaders talk about "exploiting" the relationship. We got rich and we assumed China would become just like us. As China defied history, building a powerful economy while doubling down on authoritarianism, our greed turned into fear. Why were we surprised that China began acting like the big power that it is? Big powers seek to bend the world to their will and control what is theirs. Two tigers can't live on the same mountain In the mid-19th century, the Monroe Doctrine — named after US President James Monroe — defined American sphere of influence and warned off European powers from any interference. The American dominated post-World War II global order served US interests, while Washington also meddled in the affairs of foreign countries — even propping up dictators when it suited. It was also broadly good for the world, and helped provide the stability for China's rise. There was always going to be a turning point. Morrison and Adamson have now sketched a world of greater competition. Adamson has said it is about building a more resilient, flexible and open system that can sustain peace "for all countries in the Indo-Pacific". What she didn't say is that the order cannot be America dominated; if it is, then American exceptionalism and Chinese authoritarianism are on a collision course. As the Chinese saying goes: Two tigers cannot live on the same mountain.

Alexandra Domontovich

Alexandra Domontovich, the daughter of a General Mikhail Alekseevich Domontovich, was born in the Ukraine in 1872. The family moved to St. Petersburg but Alexandra was not allowed to go to school as her parents were worried that she would meet "undesirable elements." She later recalled: "My mother and the English nanny who reared me were demanding. There was order in everything: to tidy up toys myself, to lay my underwear on a little chair at night, to wash neatly, to study my lessons on time, to treat the servants with respect." A family friend, Victor Ostrogorsky, the literary historian, gave her private lessons, and told her she had literary talent and suggested she became a writer. In 1893 Alexandra married the engineer Vladimir Kollontai. In her autobiography Alexandra admitted that she "married early, partly as a protest against the will of my parents". Alexandra had a son but left her husband after three years of marriage. She later claimed that this was mainly motivated by her growing interest in politics: "We separated although we were in love because I felt trapped. I was detached, (from Vladimir), because of the revolutionary upsettings rooted in Russia". Kollontai worked for a number of educational charities. This involved her visiting people living in extreme poverty. It was at that this time she began studying Marxism. This included reading radical journals such as Nachalo and Novoye Slovo . During the 1896 strike of textile-workers in St. Petersburg, Kollontai organized collections for the strikers. She also began writing articles for political journals about the plight of industrial workers in Russia.

Guterres said the state of emergency should remain in place until carbon neutrality is achieved

Declare ‘state of climate emergency’, UN boss urges world leaders Antonio Guterres urges countries that already announced net-zero targets to make good on promises at the one-day virtual Climate Ambition Summit. Guterres said the state of emergency should remain in place until carbon neutrality is achieved [File: Bob Strong/Reuters] 12 Dec 2020 The United Nations chief has called on world leaders to declare states of “climate emergency” in their countries to spur action to avoid “catastrophic” global warming. Antonio Guterres’s comments on Saturday came during his opening statement to the Climate Ambition Summit, a virtual gathering aimed at building momentum for much steeper cuts in planet-warming emissions on the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris climate accord. More than 70 world leaders are due to address the one-day summit. Lessons learned from COVID-19 can help us fight climate change Climate crisis: Is it making weather forecasting harder? New Zealand declares climate emergency UN chief denounces ‘suicidal’ failure to tackle climate change In Paris, five years ago, states promised to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as much as possible, Guterres said via video-link. But he pointed out that the pledges made to meet that goal were insufficient, and in some cases were themselves being ignored. The UN secretary-general warned that if the global community does not change course, the globe may be headed towards a “catastrophic” temperature increase of more than 3C (5.4F) this century. “Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency,” Guterres asked. “That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.” The state of emergency should remain in place until carbon neutrality is achieved, meaning that no more additional greenhouse gases are being pumped into the Earth’s atmosphere, Guterres said. He said G20 nations – responsible for the lion’s share of carbon pollution – were spending 50 percent more in their rescue packages on sectors linked to fossil fuels than to low-carbon energy. “This is unacceptable. We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden future generations with a mountain of debt on a broken planet,” Guterres said, urging countries that had already announced net-zero targets to make good on their promises and to accelerate emissions cuts in line with the science. “Every country, city, financial institution and company needs to adapt plans reach zero emissions by 2050, and start executing them now, including by providing clear short-term targets,” Guterres added. The UN chief said key emitting sectors such as aviation and shipping must also “present new transformational road maps in line with this goal”. “Climate action can be the catalyst for new jobs, better health and resilient infrastructure.”

The ITF Dockers’ Section and affiliated dockers unions have extended their solidarity to support the people of Beirut

The ITF Dockers’ Section and affiliated dockers unions have extended their solidarity to support the people of Beirut, Lebanon, as they rebuild their lives and communities following a deadly explosion in August. On 4 August 2020, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded at the port of Beirut, killing at least 204 people and injuring at least 6,500 more. An estimated 300,000 people were also made homeless. Ripping through the heart of downtown Beirut and port, the blast also killed several dockers and seafarers. In a blow to the port community’s ability to respond to the disaster, the explosion also destroyed key union offices. In the four months since the blast, dockworkers through their unions have been extending their solidarity to the people of Beirut as they rebuild their lives and communities. “As soon as we heard the horrific news, we as a global union family knew we had to come together and do everything we could to help ease the pain and suffering of our Lebanese brothers and sisters,” said Paddy Crumlin, Chair of the ITF Dockers’ Section. Crumlin said a majority of the solidarity support fund raised by the ITF, the ITF Seafarers’ Trust, and union affiliates from across the world, went directly to assiting families who lost a family member, or were injured, in the disaster. “The priority was getting hardship relief to the families of the dockers and seafarers who were injured or killed. Hundreds of families were facing the double blow of losing their loved ones and then the prospect of losing their homes as the bills piled up.”

ACTU President will update superannuation trustees on preparations being made by the peak body for working people to defend workers’ retirement savings today at the ACTU’s Superannuation Trustees Forum. The Morrison Government is continuing its long-running campaign against superannuation by threatening to reverse the legislated increase to the superannuation guarantee at a time when the average Australian is expected to run out of super 10 years before they die. This comes at a time when 70 per cent of women have estimated super balances of less than $150,000 and almost a quarter have balances less than $50,000. Women retire with roughly half as much super as men, and older women are currently the fastest growing group of homeless Australians. In 2014 Tony Abbott delayed an increase in the superannuation guarantee, promising that wages would rise. Wages did not rise. In fact, at every point since 2014, annual wage growth has been lower than any other period since 1997. The ACTU is campaigning to defend workers’ legislated increase of the superannuation guarantee, which would mean $100,000 more in retirement for the average worker. There is reform needed in the super system – super should be paid on every dollar earned, including on parental leave, for all workers, no matter their age, income or how they’re employed. 2.1 million workers – many who work multiple jobs - earning less than $450 a month per job are excluded from earning superannuation. This must change. Quotes attributable to ACTU President Michele O’Neil: “In campaigning against the legislated rise in super the Morrison Government is punishing those hardest hit by the pandemic. Refusing to honour their election promise to increase the super guarantee would only cause further damage to working people, many of whom have had to raid their retirement savings to fund their own crisis response. “The pandemic cannot be used to justify an attack on super, the average worker is already expected to run out of super 10 years before they die. We need to reform the system to make it stronger, not gut it. “Older women represent the fastest growing group becoming homeless, they need a better deal on super in order to avoid poverty in retirement. Rather than doing anything to help, the Government is attempting to kick out the ladder from under them. “The union movement stands ready to resist any attacks on workers’ retirement savings. Like with Medicare, we need to improve and strengthen our retirement system, which is already the envy of the world – not tear it down.”

MEAA Respect. Consent. Support.

Australia’s first Intimacy Guidelines for Stage and Screen will establish new processes for work involving nudity, intimacy, simulated sexual activity and sexual violence to ensure performers are prepared, supported and able to do their best and most daring work. After 18 months of consultation by the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) with performers, directors, producers, writers, educators, agents and casting directors, the guidelines are believed to be the most comprehensive anywhere in the world. “I’m very proud our union has led the way on the development of these guidelines because they have been needed for a long time,” says Australia actor, director, producer and MEAA Equity president Jason Klarwein. “The expectation is that these guidelines are used on every production in the country”. Equity national director Andrew Crowley says the creation of the guidelines was a huge collaborative effort: “Our former president Chloe Dallimore and our dedicated Intimacy Committee has done a remarkable job of creating clear procedures for intimate work that still keep play, trust and goodwill central to the creative process.” Actor and Intimacy coordinator Michala Banas believes the industry has been in desperate need of boundaries and processes for the creation of intimate work: “Finally, with the Intimacy Guidelines, we have an essential tool to support the navigation of intimate content in our industry,” says Banas. “Creatives across the board are relieved to know that now there is a pathway to make our sets safer for everyone. I look forward to seeing them put into practice.” The guidelines encourage the participation of an intimacy coordinator or intimacy director where appropriate and guide best practice, particularly when a production does not engage an intimacy coordinator or intimacy director. The guidelines were created in consultation with and are endorsed by MEAA, Screen Producers Australia (SPA), Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG), Casting Guild of Australia (CGA), MEAA National Stunt Committee, in addition to consultation with individual performers, fight directors, theatre directors, stunt coordinators, intimacy coordinators and intimacy directors. The Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) was also consulted throughout the process. Theatre director Jessica Arthur says the Intimacy Guidelines are of the “utmost importance” in creating safe and supportive practices for those working in theatre. “I look forward to these guidelines contributing to a more transparent, secure and open creative environment.” The comprehensive guidelines cover all instances for a stage or screen production that may require intimate work; auditions, preproduction, rehearsals, preparation, performance and post production. When it comes to auditioning, the guidelines stipulate that there are no circumstances where nudity or semi-nudity should ever be required and that the casting director or producer will provide the performer and/or their agent with the audition script at least 48 hours in advance of the audition with the required action of the intimate scenes detailed. Dave Newman, president of the Casting Guild of Australia (CGA), says an audition is a workplace environment like any other and no artist should ever feel uncomfortable or compromised in an already difficult situation: “These common sense guidelines provide a clear path forward that should be adopted by all aspects of the industry from amateur productions to professional environments. The CGA also encourages individual artists to be empowered by these guidelines, to know your rights in relation to scenes involving intimacy - and to call out bad practice where necessary.” Melbourne Theatre Company casting director Janine Snape described the guidelines as an “invaluable tool” that have the full support of Melbourne Theatre Company. “As an industry we have an obligation to create respectful and safe processes for intimate work.” Open communication and “informed consent” lie at the heart of the guidelines, which require performers’ consent for each and every intimate action. The guidelines point out that in order to genuinely consent “a performer must be informed of the intimate scene and its specific requirements in advance.” “It is so crucial that informed consent is at the heart of intimacy work on screen and stage,” says filmmaker and Australian Directors’ Guild president, Samantha Lang. “I am encouraged that our industry guilds have worked together to create these Intimacy Guidelines. When observed they will benefit all those who work in our profession. The Australian Directors’ Guild fully supports the guidelines and will certainly advise directors to adhere to them on all future projects”. The new respectful processes also have the support of Australian screen producers, with many consulted by their industry guild, Screen Producers Australia (SPA), during the development of the guidelines. “Screen Producers Australia is pleased to support Equity’s Intimacy Guidelines for Stage & Screen so that everyone on set knows what to expect and performers can do their best work from a place of informed consent,” says SPA CEO Matt Deaner. Producer Samantha Turi of Australian television production company Playmaker says her company has thrown their support behind the guidelines because the type of consultation and open communication promoted by the guidelines leads to “a harmonious work environment, which in turn leads to the highest standards of performance and quality of production.” Australia performer Jamila Main was among those on the Intimacy Committee responsible for bringing the much-needed guidelines to life. “Whether you're working in professional, independent, community, or amateur theatre or screen, or in an educational institution, these Intimacy Guidelines are here to support everyone involved to advocate for their safety and wellbeing while telling stories.”

'Overjoyed': Uighur family reunited in Australia after being forcibly separated for three years

'Overjoyed': Uighur family reunited in Australia after being forcibly separated for three years https://www.sbs.com.au/news/overjoyed-uighur-family-reunited-in-australia-after-being-forcibly-separated-for-three-years?cid=newsapp:socialshare:other 'Overjoyed': Uighur family reunited in Australia after being forcibly separated for three years https://www.sbs.com.au/news/overjoyed-uighur-family-reunited-in-australia-after-being-forcibly-separated-for-three-years?cid=newsapp:socialshare:other

Vale Mungo MacCallum

Political journalist and commentator Mungo MacCallum has died, aged 78. MacCallum lived in Ocean Shores near Byron Bay on the NSW North Coast in his later years. He spent many years in the federal press gallery and wrote for The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC during his career. MacCallum wrote his final piece last Wednesday on a blog. "I never thought I'd say it, but I can no longer go on working. It takes all my effort to breathe and I'm not managing that too well. And now my mind is getting wobbly – hard to think, let alone concentrate," he wrote. "So I am afraid there is not much point in continuing to push the rock up the hill. I shall retire to my Lazy Boy recliner, and doze over the television watching (or not) old sporting replays, propped up by drugs, oxygen and the occasional iced coffee. I am rapidly winding down. "I am sorry to cut and run – it has sometimes been a hairy career, but I hope a productive one and always fun. My gratitude for all your participation." The Monthly editor Nick Feik paid tribute to "a legend of Australian political journalism". "After years battling ill-health, he passed away this afternoon," Feik wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. "We will remember him for his irreverence and humour, his humanity and his insight. Mungo, you will be missed." MacCallum's local federal MP Justine Elliot said: "You will be dearly missed by so many of us on the North Coast. Thanks for your support and friendship over many years." Journalist Karen Middleton said he was "the last true larrikin". Fellow reporter Paul Bongiorno paid tribute to MacCullum's journalistic legacy, calling him "a giant of the craft. A razor sharp mind till the end and a sparkling wit." MacCallum grew up in Sydney and attended Cranbrook School and the University of Sydney. His uncle was federal Liberal politician Bill Wentworth, who was an MP from 1949 to 1977 and a minister of John Gorton's government. Despite his privileged upbringing and conservative family roots, MacCallum was known for his progressive values. In 2014 his death was falsely announced after journalist Anne Summers posted a tribute on Twitter and others joined the obituaries. It turned out MacCallum was eating lunch in a Mullumbimby cafe. MacCallum is survived by his wife Jenny Garrett.

NYT Paul Krugman

President Trump’s continuing attempts to overturn an election he lost decisively more than a month ago is, like so much of what he’s done in office, shocking but not surprising. Who imagined that he would go quietly? What some people may not have been fully prepared for is the way Trump’s party as a whole has backed his dangerous delusions. According to a survey by The Washington Post, only 27 Republican members of Congress are willing to say that Joe Biden won. Despite the complete lack of evidence of significant fraud, two-thirds of self-identified Republicans said in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that the election was rigged. But you really shouldn’t be surprised by this willingness to indulge malicious, democracy-endangering lies. After all, when was the last time Republicans accepted a politically inconvenient fact? It has been clear for years that the modern G.O.P. is a party that can’t handle the truth. Most obviously, Republican refusal to accept the election results follows months of refusal to acknowledge the dangers of the coronavirus, even as Covid-19 has become the nation’s leading cause of death, and even as a startling number of people in Trump’s orbit have been infected.

A recovery team in Australia has found a space capsual

A recovery team in Australia has found a space capsule carrying the first significant quantities of rock from an asteroid. The capsule, containing material from a space rock called Ryugu, parachuted down near Woomera in South Australia. The samples were originally collected by a Japanese spacecraft called Hayabusa-2, which spent more than a year investigating the object. The container detached from Hayabusa-2, later entering the Earth's atmosphere. The official Hayabusa-2 Twitter account reported that the capsule and its parachute had been found at 19:47 GMT. Earlier on Saturday, the capsule was picked up by cameras as a dazzling fireball streaking over Australia's Coober Pedy region. Rocks from an asteroid set for delivery to Earth Asteroid mission exploring a 'rubble pile' Screaming towards Earth at 11km/s, it deployed parachutes to slow its descent. The capsule then began transmitting a beacon with information about its position. The spacecraft touched down on the vast Woomera range, operated by the Royal Australian Air Force. At around 18:07 GMT, the recovering team identified where the capsule had landed. A helicopter, equipped with an antenna to pick up the beacon, took to the air shortly afterwards to hunt for the container.

Planet Hunter

13 November, 2020 00:01 The European Space Agency (ESA) has given the green light to the world’s first space telescope – dubbed the planet hunter – to study the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system. The telescope’s mission is to look at the links between a planet’s chemistry and its environment by charting approximately 1,000 known planets outside our own solar system: known as exoplanets. The information will provide scientists with a full picture of what exoplanets are made of, how they were formed and how they will evolve. We are the first generation capable of studying planets around other stars Professor Giovanna Tinetti The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (Ariel) has undergone a rigorous review process throughout 2020 and is now due for launch in 2029. With funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA), UK research institutions – including UCL, Cardiff University and the University of Oxford – are playing a critical role in the mission by providing leadership, contributing expertise, vital hardware and software, and shaping its goals. The Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) RAL Space, Technology Department and UK Astronomy Technology Centre have also offered essential support. Once in orbit, Ariel will rapidly share its data with the general public, inviting space enthusiasts and budding astronomers to use the data to help select targets and characterise stars. The spectrographs aboard the observatory will study the light that filters through a planet’s atmosphere as it passes across the face of its host star, revealing chemical fingerprints of gases that shroud the body. This ambitious, UK-led mission will mark the first large-scale study of planets outside the solar system Amanda Solloway The instruments will also try to refine estimates of a planet’s temperature. Ariel will be able to detect signs of well-known ingredients in the planets’ atmospheres such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane. For a select number of planets, it will also perform a deep survey of their cloud systems and study seasonal and daily atmospheric variations. Professor Giovanna Tinetti, principal investigator for Ariel from UCL, said: “We are the first generation capable of studying planets around other stars. “Ariel will seize this unique opportunity and reveal the nature and history of hundreds of diverse worlds in our galaxy. “We can now embark on the next stage of our work to make this mission a reality.” Some 4,374 worlds have been confirmed in 3,234 systems since the first exoplanet discoveries in the early 1990s. This mission will focus on planets unlikely to host life as we know it – from extremely hot to temperate, from gaseous to rocky planets. It will also look at planets orbiting close to their parent stars and those of different masses, particularly ones that are heavier than a few Earth masses. Science minister Amanda Solloway said: “Thanks to government funding, this ambitious, UK-led mission will mark the first large-scale study of planets outside the solar system and will enable our leading space scientists to answer critical questions on their formation and evolution.”

Young and Cheries

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres issues a stark warning to world leaders about the state of the planet "Our planet is broken," the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has warned. Humanity is waging what he describes as a "suicidal" war on the natural world. "Nature always strikes back, and is doing so with gathering force and fury," he told a BBC special event on the environment. Mr Guterres wants to put tackling climate change at the heart of the UN's global mission. In a speech entitled State of the Planet, he announced that its "central objective" next year will be to build a global coalition around the need to reduce emissions to net zero. Net zero refers to cutting greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible and balancing any further releases by removing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere. Mr Guterres said that every country, city, financial institution and company "should adopt plans for a transition to net zero emissions by 2050". In his view, they will also need to take decisive action now to put themselves on the path towards achieving this vision. The objective, said the UN secretary general, will be to cut global emissions by 45% by 2030 compared with 2010 levels. Has the world started to take climate change fight seriously? 'Earthshot': William and Attenborough launch prize to save planet You've got cheap data, how about cheap power too? Here's what Mr Guterres demanded the nations of the world do: Put a price on carbon Phase out fossil fuel finance and end fossil fuel subsidies Shift the tax burden from income to carbon, and from tax payers to polluters Integrate the goal of carbon neutrality (a similar concept to net zero) into all economic and fiscal policies and decisions Help those around the world who are already facing the dire impacts of climate change Lumberjack cutting tree with a chainsaw in the Amazon IMAGE COPYRIGHTEPA image captionOur war on the natural world will come back to haunt us, says Mr Guterres Apocalyptic fires and floods It is an ambitious agenda, as Mr Guterres acknowledged, but he said that radical action is needed now. "The science is clear," Mr Guterres told the BBC, "unless the world cuts fossil fuel production by 6% every year between now and 2030, things will get worse. Much worse."