January 28, 2021 Edition.
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The big news this week is the pace we find
the Biden Administration overturning the legacy of Trump while ramping up
efforts with the virus, the economic impact and climate change. All good so
far. How well it goes from now will be interesting to watch with a zillion executive orders!
In the UK it seems the COVID peak has been
reached and that we will see slow progress from now. Sure hope so.
In OZ we have managed to get through another
contested Australia Day commemoration!
We really do need a proper decent resolution for this but I suspect
zilch will happen with PM Morrison!
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Major Issues.
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-to-avoid-burnout-seven-changes-you-need-to-make-now-x9d6crsc6
How to avoid burnout: seven
changes you need to make now
Does it feel as though your
batteries are running out? Are you overwhelmed by work, or even the stress of
finding a job? Here are some achievable things you can do to help yourself
Hannah Evans
Sunday
January 17 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Times
Your head is aching, you can’t
sleep properly, you constantly feel under pressure from work, you can’t get on
top of your to-do list and you spend most of your time stressed and
overwhelmed. If this sounds like you, it’s likely that you’re experiencing
burnout.
Burnout
is defined by the World Health Organisation as unmanaged chronic workplace
stress, but it’s come to be recognised as something brought on not just by
career worries, but anxiety in all aspects of life, from rocketing rent prices
to financial insecurity. It is particularly widespread among millennials — a
LinkedIn study discovered that 72 per cent of young Brits have experienced a
quarter-life crisis.
Almost
everyone experiences burnout during their lifetime. According to the 2020
Global Culture Report, 79 per cent of adults suffer from mild, moderate or
extreme symptoms at some point. Add in a pandemic, rising unemployment, home
schooling and the end of the office as we knew it, and burnout has reached
fever pitch. According to the recruitment website Monster, two thirds of
employees feel as thought they are burning out now they are working from home.
A study by the wellbeing brand Healthspan found that people in their twenties
now feel anxious for an hour and 45 minutes each day.
“For
me it’s getting to the point where the usual back-up mechanisms for recharging
don’t work,” says Imogen Dall, the author of the Burnout Survival Kit.
“Sleep, holidays, the weekend don’t feel like enough. Your work blurs into your
life and your life blurs into your work.”
With
the nation in lockdown it’ll be months before things return to normal and for
many people working from home — or living at work — is permanent. These are the
changes you can make before it’s too late.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/editorials/uni-arts-students-sold-short-on-riches-of-their-heritage/news-story/afadb225223629e923c6f88817c7e8f0
Uni
arts students sold short on riches of their heritage
12:00AM
January 18, 2021
Gender
and race are legitimate themes for study, analysis and debate in universities’
humanities courses. Disciplines such as history, literature and social science
should encourage students to take a broad view of the world and think
independently, grounded in a deep knowledge of their subjects. Humanities
courses overrun by identity politics and ideology, however, fail to provide the
liberal arts education students are entitled to expect. To the contrary, such
courses narrow students’ understandings of the world around them. The problem
fuels divisions within the general community, evidenced by perennial
controversies around Australia Day and “cancel culture’’ campaigns for the
removal of public statues associated with European settlement. The trend is
then perpetuated in schools, as a high proportion of humanities graduates become
classroom teachers.
An audit of Bachelor of Arts subjects at 10
top universities last year by the Institute of Public Affairs found 572
subjects, or 44 per cent of 1181 subjects analysed, were concerned with
identity politics. A further 380 featured critical race theory, a US-born
framework for studying race and power. It coined such concepts as “white
privilege” and “structural racism”. About 25 per cent of subjects focused
specifically on gender issues. Such themes were dominant in humanities courses
at Macquarie (70 per cent), and Melbourne (61 per cent) and Sydney universities
(59 per cent). The dominance of such themes — which should be fair game for
critical scrutiny — short-changes many students.
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https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/free-speech-is-not-a-free-pass-20210117-p56urh
Free speech is not a free pass
The
right to freedom of expression cannot be interpreted as a right to incite crime
or violence.
Craig Emerson Columnist
Jan
18, 2021 – 2.01pm
Given all the words spoken about
free speech in the past week or so, it would be easy to leave the matter behind
and move on to something new like our quarantine system. But as the son of a
World War II veteran who fought fascism and spent the rest of the war in a
prisoner-of-war camp, it would dishonour him to let some of the absurd and
dangerous arguments go unchallenged.
Pre-war Nazi Germany taught us
that fascism does not spring up overnight. It gathers momentum over time as
good people feel too intimidated to speak up, or decide that to do so would
give fascists the notoriety they crave.
Neither Prime Minister Scott
Morrison nor acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack was willing to criticise
an American president for inciting
violence by white supremacists
who broke into the Capitol, ransacked offices of members of Congress and killed
a policeman – though they did condemn the insurgents.
The harsh utterances of a US
president in an American political contest are not ordinarily an Australian
leader’s business, but a world leader inciting violence certainly is. Our leaders
wouldn’t hesitate to condemn an ayatollah for inciting violence against
Westerners. Nor should they.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/israeli-firm-storedot-rolls-out-electric-car-batteries-that-recharge-in-5-minutes/news-story/b20e0aaa661b7dfab3bddf3fdd9711cb
Israeli firm StoreDot rolls out
electric car batteries that recharge in 5 minutes
Chris
Griffith
·
10:16AM January 20, 2021
It’s
been a dream of EV battery makers to charge a car battery as fast as a petrol
car refuels at the bowser. That dream is becoming reality with Israeli battery
company StoreDot overnight announcing the availability of its first-generation
five-minute charge battery engineering samples that use its extreme fast
charging (XFC) technology.
It
says this is no longer at the design stage, the batteries have been
demonstrated working with an electric scooter and commercial drone, and samples
are rolling out the door. “This represents a significant milestone for the
company in its mission to eliminate the range and charging anxiety of electric
vehicles (EVs), demonstrating the commercial viability of XFC batteries for the
first time via a small form-factor battery cell,” StoreDot says.
The
fact StoreDot is on this path is not new. In 2016, The
Australian visited the StoreDot pavilion at the Mobile World Congress forum in
Barcelona, at which the company spoke of its promise of the five-minute charge.
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https://www.afr.com/wealth/superannuation/safety-nets-can-get-frugal-retirees-spending-super-without-higher-sg-20210120-p56vns
Safety nets can get frugal
retirees spending super without higher SG
Rather
than higher forced savings, we must give retirees the confidence to use their
superannuation to live well, not die with a large balance.
Jane Hume Contributor
Jan
21, 2021 – 12.44pm
We all tend to make the most of
our best assets. If you’re a great cook, you tend to enjoy entertaining.
Inquiring minds are best exercised through intellectual pursuits and
challenging conversation. If you have a fabulous bikini body, surprise,
surprise, you tend to wear bikinis. It’s human nature to make the most of what
we’ve got.
Except, strangely, when it comes
to our retirement savings.
Australians are retiring with more
savings than ever, largely because of our compulsory super system that
quarantines nearly $1 in $10 of earnings. And the super guarantee (SG) is
legislated to rise by 0.5 per cent every year for the next five years, taking
more money away from your standard of living today so you can retire with a
higher balance in the future.
Logic would say that if we were to
make the most of our assets in both our working and retired lives, we would aim
for a smooth transition between the two.
The release of the independent retirement income review in November found that rather
than maximising our standard of living in retirement by effectively using our
retirement savings, an extraordinary number of retirees live unnecessarily
frugal lives. More and more are living only on earnings, eventually dying with
most of their savings still intact.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/more-than-devastating-one-in-five-tourism-businesses-could-fail-20210121-p56vu9
'More than devastating': One in
five tourism businesses could fail
Tom McIlroy and Fiona Carruthers
Jan
21, 2021 – 10.00pm
As many as one in five businesses
in Australia's $50 billion tourism
industry
could fail in 2021, with operators and advocates pushing the Morrison
government to extend temporary wage assistance.
New modelling by the Tourism &
Transport Forum shows nearly 32,000 businesses are at risk this year, amid
coronavirus travel restrictions and Australia's ongoing international border shutdown.
Prepared for the federal government
by modellers Stafford Strategy, the figures show of the nearly 160,000 tourism
businesses nationally, those more than three hours' drive away from major
cities are particularly at risk if the $90 billion JobKeeper scheme isn't
extended beyond March.
Currently the national tourism
workforce is 55 per cent of its pre-pandemic size. Under a worst case scenario,
it could drop as low as 35 per cent by September.
A targeted extension of JobKeeper
could see the 621,000-strong industry grow back to 72 per cent of its 2019 size
by December, the data suggests.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/morrison-left-to-utter-sacre-bleu-amid-french-subs-snafu-20210121-p56vq9
Morrison left to utter sacre bleu
amid French subs snafu
The
government is approaching the last exit ramp for the troubled $90 billion
Future Submarines project. But will it take it?
Andrew Tillett Political
correspondent
Jan
21, 2021 – 5.22pm
First, some good news for
taxpayers. Not all defence acquisition programs at the moment are a disaster.
It went little noticed but earlier
this month, West Australian engineering firm Civmec and German shipbuilder
Luerssen announced they had started work on the fourth of what will eventually
be 12 offshore patrol vessels for the navy.
In the overall scheme of the
shipbuilding program, it's costing a rather modest $4 billion, using a base
design that was already in service.
As billions of dollars flow into
the industry, it's one of the few shining lights in what should be a positive
for the Morrison government.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/australias-220-billion-submarine-disaster-surfaces-as-pms-nightmare-sinks-in/news-story/5ff56317ab7385ad9cc4d8a57662e083
Australia’s
$220 billion submarine disaster surfaces as PM’s nightmare sinks in
Robert
Gottliebsen
·
8:14AM January 21, 2021
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison and recently appointed Assistant Defence Minister
Andrew Hastie appear to have discovered why the French submarine project went so
horribly wrong.
The
key to gaining that understanding starts with reading the original 2016 French
tender document which, in writing, estimated the cost of the submarine project
at between $20bn and $25bn in 2016 dollars.
Years
later the defence minister and naval officials claimed that the tender price
was $50bn in 2016 dollars, or twice the level stated in the tender.
Partly
at my urging, Morrison and Hastie appear to have checked the original contract
documents and confirmed the lower figure.
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https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/australian-tv-needs-a-dose-of-nordic-courage-20210121-p56vtx.html
Australian TV needs a dose of
Nordic courage
By Cat Woods
January 21, 2021 — 11.55pm
I spent the day in tears. I’d come
to the final episode in the Danish drama Follow The Money (Bedrag) and though I’d suspected the ending, it
totally broke me. Fear not, I won’t be revealing anything that will give away
twists or endings. The compelling characters and the series' intrepid
examination of greed and financial crime set a new standard in TV storytelling.
Such expertly crafted drama has
provided much for Australian screenwriters, producers and actors to aspire to.
Follow The Money spans three seasons and delves
into the world of white collar crime, corrupt banks and politicians. That same
interrogation of corruption informs the third season, but the action takes
place on the street. Actor Esben Smed has justifiably received awards for his
masterful portrayal as drug-trafficking mastermind and single father Nicky,
with his angular face and determined, animalistic need to survive.
Here in the news, money laundering
was one of the multibillion-dollar failings exposed in the royal banking
commission. The high rates of incarceration of Indigenous and Torres Strait
Islander youth and the devotion to mining at the expense of environmental
protection have merely formed side storylines in shows like ABC’s Total Control.
Is it because our public broadcasters fear their funding will suffer if
they push the envelope too far?
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https://www.smh.com.au/national/crucial-to-sign-up-for-a-nuclear-free-celebration-20210121-p56vtl.html
Crucial to sign up for a
nuclear-free celebration
By Kym
Pfitzner
January 21, 2021 — 11.55pm
It’s taken 75 years since the
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to reach the historic day when we finally
have a ban on nuclear weapons enshrined in international law.
Today is a day for celebration.
From January 22, all nations that ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons are banned from possessing, developing or having any direct
dealings with these weapons of mass destruction.
This development heralds progress
towards a safer and more humane world. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
across the globe has been striving towards this moment for three-quarters of a
century. How timely it is to achieve this milestone after a year of uncertainty
and difficulties.
I commend the 86 countries which
have already signed this important treaty – from Austria to Zimbabwe – and
particularly the 51 nations that have ratified it. They’ve put the interests of
humanity and the environment above other considerations.
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https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/push-for-seniors-to-dig-deep-into-super-nest-egg-20210122-p56w5x
Push for seniors to dig deep into
super nest-egg
John Kehoe Senior writer
Jan
23, 2021 – 12.00am
The federal government will nudge
cashed-up seniors to spend more of their assets by compelling superannuation
funds to offer new retirement income products and, potentially, making it more
attractive for people to withdraw income from their home equity.
Superannuation Minister Jane Hume kicked off a national debate about
retirement incomes
this week, drawing the ire of Labor, trade unions and the $3 trillion
superannuation industry.
Senator Hume declared people need
to be more confident to spend – not hoard – retirement savings to improve
living standards throughout their lives, without “ever more” compulsory super
contributions increasing to 12 per cent.
The government’s retirement income
review led by former Treasury official Mike Callaghan identified that many
retirees die with most of their wealth intact and do not run down their super
or tap equity in their home, so they may be saving too much.
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https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/why-economists-get-so-many-of-their-predictions-wrong-20210121-p56vyr.html
Why economists get so many of
their predictions wrong
Economics Editor
January 22, 2021 — 3.30pm
Sometimes the study of economics –
which has gone on for at least 250 years – can take a wrong turn. Many economists
would like to believe their discipline is more advanced than ever, but in the
most important economics book of 2020 two leading British economists argue
that, in its efforts to become more “rigorous”, it’s gone seriously astray.
The book is Radical
Uncertainty: Decision-making for an unknowable future, by Professor
John Kay of Oxford University and Professor Mervyn King, a former governor of
the Bank of England.
The great push in economics since
World War II has been to make the subject more rigorous and scientific by
expressing its arguments and reasoning in mathematical equations rather than
words and diagrams.
The physical sciences have long
been highly mathematical. Economists are sometimes accused of trying to
distinguish their discipline from the other social sciences by making it more
like physics.
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https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/order-of-australia-biased-against-women-admits-governor-general-20201222-p56pk2.html
Order of Australia biased against
women, admits Governor-General
January 22, 2021 — 11.55pm
The Order of Australia honours
have a historical bias against women and have not included enough Indigenous recipients,
says Governor-General David Hurley, who has personally campaigned to improve
representation in the honours.
In a rare, wide-ranging interview
on the Order of Australia, which is run out of the Governor-General’s office,
he said criticisms that the honours had been mostly given to men were
“certainly valid”.
“The data supports it. You can’t
walk away from that,” he told the Herald and The Age.
“I don’t like that, I don’t think
it’s appropriate, I don’t think it’s right and I want to change it.”
The Order of Australia honours
came under renewed criticism on Friday when it was leaked that controversial
tennis champion Margaret Court would be upgraded to the highest
honour possible
on Australia Day – a Companion in the Order of Australia (AC). She was made an
Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 2007.
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Coronavirus And Impacts.
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https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/full-recovery-means-getting-back-to-macro-policy-normal-20210114-p56u2j
Full recovery means getting back
to macro policy normal
The
RBA's internal warning about financial stability risk underscores the need to
return fiscal and monetary policy settings to normal as soon as possible to
propel Australia's self-sustaining recovery.
Jan
18, 2021 – 12.00am
At the start of the final holiday
week before the traditional post-Australia Day return to work, one of the
leading economic and business forecasters in the country has issued a bullish
outlook for the national recovery from COVID-19 in 2021. Deloitte Access
Economics says ongoing success in keeping virus numbers low and the
“game-changer” rollout of vaccines create the realistic prospect of the
international borders reopening and migrants, tourists and students gradually
returning some time this year.
The economy could grow 4.4 per
cent in 2021, as it catches up with the pent-up demand for goods and services
following the shutdowns, lockdowns and border barriers of 2020. Unemployment
not rising as high and falling faster than first expected means less long-term
scarring, with Access forecasting the jobless rate to be back down to the
pre-COVID-19 level of 5.5 per cent by mid-2023. Even Victoria is now emerging
from the wreckage of its long and hard second wave lockdown and catching up to
the recovery under way in the rest of the country.
This kind of bounce back and
almost automatic V-shaped recovery should not be surprising, especially when
governments have also borrowed so heavily from the future to pay for the
emergency budget measures, and which by necessity has pulled the fiscal arm of
macro policy temporarily out of shape. The virus success is boosting business
confidence. Last week’s surge in job advertisement shows employers are keen to
hire, with vacancies now higher than before the crisis. In turn, this shows why
a full and self-sustaining recovery from COVID-19 now requires getting fiscal
policy settings back to normal as fast as possible.
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https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/james-murdoch-blasts-us-media-for-unleashing-insidious-forces-20210117-p56uoy
James Murdoch blasts US media for
unleashing ‘insidious forces’
Alex Barker
Jan
17, 2021 – 11.27am
London | James Murdoch has castigated the US media for the “toxic politics”
threatening American democracy, saying proprietors are as culpable as
politicians who “know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies”.
The remarks by Rupert Murdoch’s
youngest son, made in an interview with the Financial Times and a further joint statement with his
wife Kathryn, are his strongest public rebuke of America’s news industry since
he parted ways with the family business built by his father.
Asked whether America’s dominant
conservative news network Fox News had played a role in the riot
that rocked Washington on January 6, James Murdoch said media groups had
amplified election disinformation, leaving “a substantial portion” of the
public believing “a falsehood”.
“The damage is profound,” Mr
Murdoch said. “The sacking of the Capitol is proof positive that what we
thought was dangerous is indeed very, very much so. Those outlets that
propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable
forces that will be with us for years.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/australian-industry-group-chief-innes-willox-says-business-cannot-let-china-bully-them-in-2021/news-story/e3cdc3e9ac5c9da782dc722773e28947
Australian Industry Group chief
Innes Willox says business cannot let China bully them in 2021
Richard
Ferguson
·
5:28AM January 18, 2021
A
leader of a powerful business group has called for a better alignment of the
nation’s economic and strategic interests, urging Australian companies to
resist bullying from China and for diplomats to get “their hands dirty’’ by
helping to find alternative export markets.
Australian
Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox’s call to drive export
diversification and maintain Australian values received support from senior
members of the security community.
Writing
in The Australian on Monday, Mr Willox said diplomats and business must unite
to overcome trade obstacles.
“Better
alignment of our economic and strategic interests has never been so crucial.
Let’s pull every lever to overcome the obstacles that China has chosen to put
in our way,” Mr Willox writes.
His
comments come amid renewed trade tensions. Last week, it emerged that a bid by
a Chinese state-owned enterprise to buy an Australian-based builder, Probuild,
was rejected on national interest grounds, sparking an angry rebuke from the
Chinese embassy in Canberra. More than $1bn of coal from Australia is also
being refused entry to Chinese ports.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/chinas-mistakes-in-its-war-on-australia/news-story/aa50ce4a36cb725bb74b76f64ab51f1e
China’s
mistakes in its ‘war’ on Australia
Robert
Gottliebsen
·
January 18, 2021
China’s
President Xi Jinping, in his “war” on Australia, appears to have applied many
of the strategies set out by the master Chinese General and philosopher Sun Tzu
some 2000 years ago. In his manifesto “The Art of War” Sun Tzu sets set out
rules for winning a war without fighting and how to use the enemy to defeat the
enemy.
But
in applying the principles of Sun Tzu to their Australian campaign, President
Xi and his advisers have made mistakes.
As
a result, Xi’s plan to punish Australia is simply not working, and on some of
the battle fronts it is China that is suffering more than Australia. Worse
still, some Chinese actions have made it look foolish in the region.
But
it can’t be easy for Xi’s advisers to tell the dictator what has really
happened.
On
the surface Xi’s original strategy was classic Sun Tzu. By banning Chinese
imports and/or imposing high tariffs on Australian exports like barley, wine,
timber and coal, he would show Australians that they could not win against the
might of China. Moreover, given the turmoil in the US, Australia would develop
doubts as to whether the US will come to Australia’s defence. Given Australia
is economically dependent on China, Australia would either accept the Chinese
view of the world or be an example to the region of what happens when you
criticise China.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/general-motors-offers-latest-sign-of-quiet-but-powerful-revolution/news-story/c721cfa926da4981f31cdc00def2ef5c
General Motors offers latest sign
of quiet but powerful revolution
·
By The Economist
·
6:19PM January 15, 2021
Mary
Barra, boss of General Motors, took to the virtual stage on January 12 to
launch BrightDrop. The carmaker’s new logistics division will peddle such
unsexy things as delivery vans and autonomous electric pallets for use in
warehouses. Hardly stuff to set pulses racing.
Suppress
your yawn, for Ms Barra’s announcement is the latest sign of a quiet but
powerful revolution.
“The
convergence of software and hardware seen in the carpeted parts of enterprises
is now seen on factory floors in every industry we serve,” says Blake Moret,
chief executive of Rockwell Automation, a giant of the industry.
His
firm runs a full-scale manufacturing facility at its Milwaukee headquarters, to
prove that automation enables it to make competitive products despite America’s
high labour costs. Its share price has risen 28 per cent in the past year,
nearly twice as much as the S&P 500 index of big American firms. Other
purveyors have done even better.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/the-hidden-jobs-shift-during-covid-19-20210111-p56t9f
The hidden jobs shift during
COVID-19
John Kehoe Senior writer
Jan
18, 2021 – 4.29pm
Jobs are booming in major sectors
of the economy, despite the virus-induced recession inflicting employment
losses on more than 100,000 Australians.
The number of people employed in
the retail, education and training, mining, agriculture, financial services and
public safety industries has risen to well above pre-pandemic levels.
An analysis of detailed labour
force data by The
Australian Financial Review shows the wide-ranging disparity in the
employment market and how the COVID-19 recession is reshaping the economy.
Overall, there were about 140,000
fewer people employed across the economy, with a big fall in full-time
positions more than offsetting a rise in part-time roles between February and
November 2020.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/europe/who-warns-of-catastrophic-moral-failure-on-vaccines-20210119-p56v3g
WHO warns of 'catastrophic moral
failure' on vaccines
Hans van Leeuwen Europe
correspondent
Jan
19, 2021 – 8.12am
London | Rich countries may seek to
"jump to the front of the queue" for vaccines, in a jab grab that has
left the world "on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure", World
Health Organisation boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned.
"Even as vaccines bring hope
to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the
world's haves and have-nots," Dr Tedros said in a fiery speech in Geneva
on Monday.
He said that while 49
higher-income countries had administered 39 million doses of vaccine between
them, by contrast in the lowest-income group of countries just a single nation
had handed out a mere 25 doses.
"Not 25 million Not 25,000.
Just 25. ... The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,"
he told the WHO's executive board.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/operating-in-the-dark-a-year-since-australia-s-first-public-covid-19-concerns-20210118-p56uyp.html
'Operating in the dark': A year
since Australia's first public COVID-19 concerns
January 19, 2021 — 5.00am
It's been exactly one year since
health authorities in Australia went public with their concerns over a new
illness emerging from central China.
Unbeknown to them, January 19,
2020, was the same day the first case to be detected on our shores quietly
arrived in Australia.
In fact, two other cases were
already in the country.
Most Australians weren't familiar
with the term "coronavirus", many didn't understand "contact
tracing", and the idea of watching daily press conferences hoping for
"doughnut days" was inconceivable.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/qbe-expands-covid-19-provision-after-losing-uk-insurance-case-20210118-p56uy4.html
QBE expands COVID-19 provision
after losing UK insurance case
January 18, 2021 — 2.23pm
Global insurer QBE has expanded
its provision for COVID-19 losses by $US185 million ($240 million) after facing
another defeat in the UK courts and being threatened by a local class action.
QBE told the market it would
increase its COVID-19 allowance to $US785 million, up from $US600 million,
after the UK courts delivered another blow to insurers battling potentially billions
of dollars in business interruption claims.
QBE’s share price sunk more than 5
per cent after it added an additional $US185 million risk margin to include the
potential for Australian business interruption claims. Its shares closed down
5.72 per cent at $8.08.
The insurance industry was caught
by surprise last year after it discovered the bulk of business interruption
policies included pandemic exclusions that referenced an outdated Act of
Parliament.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/signal-was-ignored-independent-inquiry-criticises-china-and-who-over-covid-20210119-p56v9e.html
'Signal was ignored': Independent
inquiry criticises China and WHO over COVID
January 19, 2021 — 2.05pm
A global inquiry has identified
crucial failures in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic when Chinese
authorities could have acted "more forcefully" to protect public
health.
The inquiry, which reports to the
World Health Organisation, has also found that most countries did not act on
warnings about early cases and did not share information fast enough when cases
emerged.
The report also criticises the WHO
for taking three weeks to form an emergency group to counter the virus and
being too slow to declare the crisis to be a pandemic.
The findings are part of a second
report from an ongoing inquiry chaired by former New Zealand prime minister
Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who said they
would look further into the "coherence" of the health response.
-----
In evening vigil, Biden, Harris
call on Americans to remember coronavirus victims
By Susan
Heavey and Gabriella Borter
January 20, 2021 — 10.00am
Washington: US President-elect Joe Biden on
Tuesday, local time, led a national memorial observance on the eve of his
inauguration to honour the 400,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 during
the 11 months since the novel coronavirus claimed its first US victim.
The sundown commemoration came
just hours before US President Donald Trump was due to leave the White House
and hand over a country in crisis. The ceremony, spearheaded by Biden and Vice
President-elect Kamala Harris from the base of the Lincoln Memorial, marked the
federal government's first official nod to the staggering death toll from the
pandemic.
"We must remember. It's hard
sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a
nation," Biden said in brief remarks to kick off a tribute that was to
include observances in cities across the country.
As darkness fell over the nation's
capital, 400 electric lamps lining the sides of the Reflecting Pool were
illuminated to honour the 400,000 lives lost, followed by gospel singer Yolanda
Adams' performance of the song "Hallelujah," then a moment of silence
in memory of the COVID-19 dead.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/national/national-stockpile-masks-deemed-defective-by-medical-watchdog-20210121-p56vri.html
National stockpile masks deemed
'defective' by medical watchdog
By Liam Mannix
January 22, 2021 — 12.01am
Some of the masks distributed to
hospitals and aged care homes at the height of the pandemic as part of the
federal government's national medical stockpile have been judged defective by
the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Laboratory testing by Australia’s
medical regulator identified a range of issues with some disposable surgical
masks branded Softmed and imported by M House.
The issues include quality
control, lack of proper labelling, and inconsistent fluid resistance between
batches. Fluid resistance is vital for medical masks, as fluid droplets
generated by coughing and sneezing have been found to spread COVID-19.
A Kirby Institute study, published
in November, estimated Australian healthcare workers were nearly three times
more likely to become infected with coronavirus than other Australians. More
than 3560 healthcare workers have been
infected with COVID-19 in Victoria. Nearly three-quarters of them caught the
virus at work.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/how-australian-scientists-and-doctors-led-the-global-fight-against-covid-19-20210121-p56vrd
How Australia’s rebel scientist
triggered the global vaccine hunt
Our
quietly smart scientific community took a global lead early in the pandemic
Jill Margo Health editor
Updated
Jan 22, 2021 – 1.16pm, first published at 12.09pm
Modesty has its limits and on this
anniversary of Australia’s first COVID-19 case, it’s time to tell the story of
how our scientists took a bold leading role, bringing the world with them, as
the pandemic began.
For the first three months,
through preparedness and agility, they were able to bestow a number of
scientific gifts that would help the world manage COVID-19.
In early January 2020, there was
increasing chatter in the global infectious disease community about an unusual
“pneumonia” in Wuhan.
Edward Holmes, a renowned and
somewhat rebellious virologist from the University of Sydney was the only
Westerner working on this, with his Chinese colleagues.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/emerging-evidence-that-new-uk-virus-strain-is-more-deadly-boris-johnson-announces-20210123-p56waw.html
‘Emerging evidence’ that new UK
virus strain is more deadly, Boris Johnson announces
January 23, 2021 — 6.37am
London: British scientists are discovering
“emerging evidence” that the new and more transmissible mutant coronavirus
strain running rampant across the country might be 30 per cent more deadly.
In a downbeat press conference,
chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick
Vallance also warned they were “concerned” existing vaccines might not work
against other variants emerging in South Africa and Brazil.
Prime
Minister Boris Johnson during Friday evening’s Downing Street press conference.
Credit:
Getty
Images
The new British strain, named
B.1.1.7, is up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original virus and is
partly responsible for a surge in
cases
which has made the United Kingdom’s second wave far more deadly than the first.
National cabinet recently slashed the number of citizens allowed
into Australia over fears the variant would spread rapidly in the community if
it escaped hotel quarantine.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/national/cast-out-by-their-universities-vagabond-scholars-are-now-saving-the-world-for-free-20210121-p56vsf.html
Cast out by their universities,
vagabond scholars are now saving the world for free
By Gabrielle
Carey
January 23, 2021 — 12.15am
In a single year, Australian
universities have farewelled, voluntarily separated from, or made redundant
vast numbers of researchers and academics. A huge resource of knowledge and
scholarship is now loose in the community. Researchers and research projects
have been sacrificed in an effort to scramble out of a COVID-induced financial
crisis. But as the American health advocate, Mary Lasker, once commented,
"If you think research is expensive, try disease." After 2020, those
words surely resonate more than ever.
Then again, not all research is
about disease or finding a pandemic vaccine or requires billions in investment.
And not all researchers work in a lab or spend their days wearing a hairnet
while leaning over a microscope syringing substances into vials. The reason why
this stereotyped image of the white-coated researcher is the go-to whenever the
subject comes up on television news is because medical and biological research
is what we prioritise. This is real research, hard research. All the
rest is soft.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/complex-contemporary-covid-questions-remain-20210122-p56w3o
How to check if you had COVID-19
Jill Margo Health editor
Jan
22, 2021 – 12.49pm
The experts answer all your
enduring uncertainties about vaccines, the hunt for herd immunity and how to
find out if you’ve had COVID-19.
How to check if you actually did have COVID-19 last year?
If you think you may have had
COVID-19 but didn’t get a test, Allen Cheng, Professor of Infectious Diseases
Epidemiology at Monash University, says you can ask your GP for a serological
test.
This laboratory blood test looks
for antibodies to see if an infection has been and gone.
There are instant home tests
available elsewhere in the world but many of these are unreliable.
Another swab test won’t help
because if the suspected infection was months ago, there may be no trace of
virus left in your mucus.
-----
Climate Change
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/us-under-biden-to-test-morrison-government-s-do-little-climate-stance-20210122-p56w2a.html
US under Biden to test Morrison
government's do-little climate stance
January 24, 2021 — 12.00am
Those hoping new United States
President Joe Biden would make action on climate change one of his top
priorities would have been cheered by the flurry of activity from his first
days in office.
With a few strokes of his pen,
Biden cancelled a Trump administration permit for the $US8 billion ($10.3
billion) Keystone XL pipeline linking Canada’s oil sands to the Gulf coast,
slapped a moratorium on oil and gas leases in Alaska’s pristine Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, began a review of pollution regulations and ordered that the
US rejoin the Paris climate agreement 77 days after it had formally left it.
And kicking off the new
administration’s first full day in office, Biden’s special climate envoy, John
Kerry, was up at Washington’s crack of dawn to tell business leaders of G20
nations the US was on the “road back to progress” on climate action after “four
wasted years” under Donald Trump.
“The early hour is appropriate
because we really don’t have a minute to waste,” Kerry said, adding that “very
few” nations were on a trajectory of cutting greenhouse emissions to meet even
the current goals, “let alone the targets we need to avert catastrophic
damage”.
-----
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/victoria-gets-trillion-dollar-bad-news-sea-level-rises-will-swamp-parts-of-the-state-20210122-p56w8h.html
Victoria gets trillion-dollar bad
news: sea level rises will swamp parts of the state
The
Andrews government has been provided two new scientific reports that show sea
level rises well above those they are planning for, threatening its
development-led recovery.
By Royce
Millar
January
23, 2021
New scientific and economic
research for the Andrews government warns of the grave risk of rising seas
along the Victorian coast including trillions of dollars of damage to homes and
other assets, if global warming is not slowed and planned for.
The research will add pressure on
the government to further restrict development on the coast by lifting its
current sea level rise planning benchmark of 0.8 metres by 2100, and to start
planning for the “retreat” of some low-lying coastal towns.
University of Melbourne professor
of environmental economics Tom Kompas, is in the early stages of a risk
analysis for the government and its advisory body, the Victorian Marine and
Coastal Council.
He said sea level rise was the
“biggest risk to the Australian economy from climate change” – bigger even than
bushfires, heat stress and the damage to agriculture.
-----
Royal Commissions And The Like.
-----
https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal-finance/check-to-avoid-getting-dodgy-smsf-advice-20210114-p56u0t
Check to avoid getting dodgy SMSF
advice
In
the wake of recent DIY fund rip offs, here's what to research before you pick
an adviser or follow investment advice.
Tim Mackay Contributor
Jan
18, 2021 – 12.00am
Trust. It’s what all relationships
are based on. Trust is crucial if you need help to manage your self-managed
super fund, but how do you know if an adviser is trustworthy?
Late in 2020, a woman described in
the media as a "financial planner", Melissa Caddick, mysteriously disappeared
following a raid by Australian Federal Police on her Sydney eastern suburbs
home, leaving a trail of financial devastation in her wake.
Caddick was no more a financial
planner than the rapper Dr Dre is a doctor. Caddick’s firm, Maliver, never
operated under an Australian
Financial Services Licence,
which is required under the Corporations Act to call yourself a financial
planner or financial adviser.
This is an open case so we will
not rush to premature judgment, but we can take lessons from how similar people
attract clients.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/thousands-of-elderly-wait-more-than-28-months-for-access-to-high-needs-home-care-packages-20210119-p56v9a.html
Thousands of elderly wait more
than 28 months for access to high-needs home care packages
January 20, 2021 — 12.15am
Thousands of older Australians
waited more than two years to access already approved high-level home care
packages.
And more than half of all older
people approved for residential aged care waited more than three months in
2019-20 to enter their new home, a Productivity Commission report on government
services found.
Nationally, 34 per cent of older
people living at home but requiring some level of care reported their needs
were not fully met. But of those aged over 65 who received services in the
previous six months, 84.4 per cent said they were satisfied with the quality of
help they received.
Home care packages, funded by the
federal government, are designed to support older Australians still living at
home with tasks including cleaning and showering. They can be approved at four
levels: from level one for basic care, costing roughly $9000 a year, through to
level four for high care at a cost of about $52,000 a year.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/complaints-surge-in-aged-care/news-story/b088b9c9104ec03b809237f764a42faf
Complaints surge in aged care
Olivia
Caisley
·
12:00AM January 20, 2021
Aged
care-related complaints have risen in the past four years, with 34 per cent of
older Australians reporting that their needs are not being fully met.
While
waiting times for a level-four package dropped slightly from 30 months to 28
months in 2019-20 from the previous year, it is still taking elderly
Australians more than two years to be approved for the highest level of aged
care.
The
Productivity Commission’s report into government services, released on
Wednesday, says the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission received 8539
complaints in 2019-20, of which 6335 were from nursing homes.
The
complaints, which equate to 33.4 complaints per 1000 residents, compare with
30.4 in 2018-19 and just 23.1 in 2017-18.
-----
National Budget Issues.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/low-rates-inflate-asset-prices-rba-20210117-p56upq
Low rates inflate asset prices:
RBA
John Kehoe Senior writer
Jan
18, 2021 – 12.00am
Confidential analysis by the
Reserve Bank of Australia suggests house values could jump 30 per cent over
three years if borrowers believe the cut in interest rates is permanent.
The RBA is on alert for ultra-low
borrowing costs inflating a credit-fuelled asset bubble and financial
regulators are ready to act if necessary, but so far the central bank believes
lending standards are prudent.
An internal RBA document released on Friday in response to
a Freedom of Information request says the biggest risk to the economy was high
unemployment, and that stronger household balance sheets from low rates could
help counteract the danger.
While some market economists have
warned that the current extremely low interest rates pose medium-term financial
stability risks to the economy, on balance the central bank saw rising asset
prices as a net positive.
RBA staff analysis conducted in
November said the $200 billion in ultra-cheap loans to commercial banks,
government bond buying and the 0.1 per cent interest rate would assist the
recovery from the COVID-19-induced recession.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/that-s-all-folks-should-the-government-be-pulling-back-fiscal-support-20210112-p56tds.html
'That's all, folks': Should the
government be pulling back fiscal support?
Economics correspondent
January 18, 2021 — 5.00am
Bugs Bunny is trying to evade
capture from Willoughby the hound in the 1941 cartoon The Heckling
Hare when the two end up falling off an impossibly tall cliff
together. Plummeting towards the ground, a patchwork of farms below, they put
their hands over their eyes, grab one another for support and desperately look
for something to break their fall. They both seem doomed to end the episode in
an animated splatter. Instead they land gently on their feet. With his carrot
still in hand Bugs breaks the fourth wall: "Fooled you, didn't we?"
The Australian economy seems to be
repeating this skit. When the coronavirus pandemic broke out last year and
entire industries were forced to close to stop the spread of the disease,
graphs published by the official statistics bureau went into free-fall.
International migration figures dropped dramatically, spending fell through the
floor and forecasts for everything from house prices to the dole queue seemed
dire.
There are undoubtedly businesses
still struggling and households finding it hard to make ends meet. But this is
not the sky diving plummet from 10,000 feet it initially appeared to be.
The message from the nation's top
economists now is that we've landed gently. Deloitte partner Chris Richardson's
business outlook report for 2021 says "we got this" on the cover. On
his estimates this calendar year is when most categories tipped into the red by
the virus start improving. "Opening back up creates a big bounce,"
Richardson says in the report.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/jobless-rate-drops-to-6-6pc-in-december-20210121-p56vsd
Jobless rate drops to 6.6pc
Matthew Cranston Economics
correspondent
Jan
21, 2021 – 11.49am
Australia’s unemployment rate fell
to 6.6 per cent in December from 6.8 per cent after the economy gained 50,000
new jobs as Victoria’s COVID-19 restrictions
were eased.
The improvement was in line with
economists' expectations of 50,000 extra jobs in December, but the unemployment
rate dropped even further than forecasts of 6.7 per cent.
The numbers show more than 790,000
jobs were added to the economy in the past seven months. More than 90 per cent of the jobs
lost since March have now been regained.
Full-time employment increased by
35,700 to 8.7 million and part-time employment increased by 14,300 to 4.1
million. Monthly hours worked rose again by another 2 million or 0.1 per cent.
-----
Health Issues.
-----
https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/facility-admin/news/chp-australia-backs-call-to-action-on-health-misinformation-221569926
CHP Australia backs call to action
on health misinformation
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
Consumer
Healthcare Products (CHP) Australia has announced
its support of the Australian Medical Association’s
(AMA) call for action to tackle health misinformation on the internet and
social media. The organisation also welcomes the AMA’s Position Statement on
Health Literacy.
CHP
Australia has previously advocated for the development of a robust strategy to
combat health misinformation, and that increased and ongoing investment should
be provided to improve Australia’s health literacy.
In September 2020 — responding to
the National
Preventive Health Strategy Consultation Paper — CHP Australia submitted the
following:
“Considering the evolving power
and influence of social media in disseminating information and shaping public
opinion and perception, a robust and responsive strategy to combat health
misinformation must form part of our health literacy and preventive health frameworks.”
CHP Australia CEO Dr Deon
Schoombie said, “Health literacy affects an individuals’ ability to discern
what is genuine health information and to identify misleading information
sources, heavily impacting governments’ and health authorities’ ability to
manage and protect public health.
-----
https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/medibank-poised-to-snap-up-myhealth-from-crescent-capital-20210119-p56v59
Medibank poised to snap up
Myhealth from Crescent Capital
Carrie LaFrenz Senior
reporter
Jan
20, 2021 – 8.00am
Private equity group Crescent
Capital Partners is poised to sell its Myhealth medical centre business to
ASX-listed health insurer Medibank Private.
Gerry Harvey's family office, with
another two family offices acting as a syndicate, were interested in buying
Myhealth but Crescent Capital opted to sell its stake to Medibank.
It is understood Medibank and
Crescent Capital have penned a heads of agreement for the sale of its stake in
the business for around $240 million – or about 9.6 times to 12 times its
estimated annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
of between $20 million to $25 million.
It marks the first healthcare deal
this new year, which is tipped to have a high level of M&A activity in the
sector.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/science/australian-scientists-produce-quick-and-safe-coronavirus-vaccine-method/news-story/2cbcb61c4829f66234c036e9b868183b
Australian scientists produce
quick and safe coronavirus vaccine method
Rhiannon
Down
·
January 20, 2021
Scientists
have created a new method for synthesising vaccines that will enable quicker
and safer production of vital immunisations for disease such as tuberculosis
and, potentially, COVID-19.
The
researchers, led by Sydney University professor Richard Payne and Centenary
Institute professor Warwick Britton, have become the first in the world to
synthesise a bacterial vaccine with a built-in enhancer as a single molecule.
Early
trials on a tuberculosis vaccine made using the method, which fuses the
bacterial protein to an enhancer, or adjuvant, using synthetic chemistry and
allows vaccines to be inhaled rather than injected, has generated a powerful
immune response in mice.
For
vaccines to provide any protection, the body’s immune cells need to encounter
the protein antigen and the adjuvant simultaneously, which is why they need to
be fused together.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/science/coronavirus-ama-call-for-mass-upscaling-of-homemade-drug-manufacture/news-story/5379799ecbfe3896deb4f284290fa378
Coronavirus: AMA call for mass
upscaling of home-made drug manufacture
Jess
Malcolm
·
7:56PM January 20, 2021
The
Australian Medical Association has warned of a shortage of essential
medications because of supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic, and is
calling for a mass upscaling of critical drugs to be manufactured onshore.
The
drugs range from normal routine medications used for reflux and heartburn and
hormone replacement therapy for women to more serious medications for
gastrointestinal issues, antidepressants and allergies.
AMA
vice-president Chris Moy said Australia’s ability to secure basic and
life-saving medications had diminished, exposing the medical system’s
overreliance on international supply chains.
“This
year has exposed the fact that Australia has essentially relied on the world
market because for other countries, it’s easier for them to manufacture drugs
and at a cheap price,” Dr Moy said.
-----
International Issues.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/dont-fall-for-magicians-tricks-on-trump-ban/news-story/95b913c1839694c5bac3b4377de4cbde
Don’t
fall for magicians’ tricks on Trump ban
JACK
THE INSIDER
·
3:13PM January 13, 2021
As
eyes turn to Trump’s social media bans – Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, Reddit
etc., and the online obliteration of Parler, thousands of fingers dance across
keyboards piling out furious denunciations and babbling about impingements on
free speech.
One-time
White House press secretary (there have been four during Trump’s presidency),
Sarah Sanders moaned that she had lost 50,000 followers on Twitter since
Trump’s ban on the platform had been made permanent. Whether Sanders’ followers
had left of their own volition or been banned themselves, was not immediately
clear. One of Sanders’ followers offered some uninvited advice. “Calm down.
Five people are dead.”
Our
own federal government was concerned. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was concerned.
Acting Prime Minister, Micheal McCormack, tossed word salads madly about until
he admitted that he was concerned. The member for Wentworth, Dave Sharma, on
his Twitter account believed Trump’s Twitter ban was necessary under the
circumstances but he, too, was concerned.
Such
reactions should be seen as a magician’s trick; misdirection, a distraction
from the issue that frankly, everyone should be talking about. How the Right in
the US has veered so close to fascism.
-----
https://www.afr.com/markets/debt-markets/the-us-inflation-pressure-cooker-may-be-steaming-20210117-p56uq2
The US inflation pressure cooker
may be steaming
The
Fed’s tone is still dovish. But what is here now is a shift in inflation
probabilities from 'very low to 'not so low'. Investors are thus correct to
hedge their bets, however gloomy the news about the pandemic.
Gillian Tett Contributor
Updated
Jan 17, 2021 – 2.01pm, first published at 1.47pm
What was the best-performing asset
class in 2020? If you think "tech stocks" or "bitcoin",
think again.
Instead, as the Bridgewater hedge
fund recently wrote to its clients, "among the more interesting and least
recognised outcomes" of 2020 was that US inflation-linked bonds beat other
assets by delivering a 35 per cent return, on a risk-adjusted basis, as
investors hedged against inflation risks.
This is a notable straw in the
wind. It might seem bizarre that anyone should fret about American inflation now. Data on Wednesday showed
that annual US consumer price inflation was a measly 1.4 per cent in December.
Wage growth is also weak, unemployment high and economic activity dragged down
by the pandemic.
Even if growth resumes in 2021,
recent decades suggest that the twin forces of globalisation and digitisation
should keep prices in check.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/biden-outlines-10-day-blitz-of-executive-actions-to-nullify-trump-era-20210117-p56uq7.html
Biden outlines 10-day blitz of
executive actions to nullify Trump era
By Zeke
Miller
January 17, 2021 — 3.11pm
Washington: In his first hours as president,
Joe Biden plans to take executive action to roll back some of the most
controversial decisions of his predecessor and to address the raging
coronavirus pandemic, his incoming chief of staff said on Saturday.
The opening salvo would herald a
10-day blitz of executive actions as Biden seeks to act swiftly to redirect the
country in the wake of Donald Trump's presidency without waiting for Congress.
The promised executive actions to
be taken on Day One include policy changes on housing, student loans, climate
change and immigration.
On Wednesday, following his
inauguration, Biden will end Trump's restriction on immigration to the US from
some Muslim-majority countries, move to rejoin the Paris climate accord and
mandate mask-wearing on federal property and during interstate travel. Those
are among roughly a dozen actions Biden will take on his first day in the White
House, his incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, said in a memo to senior staff.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/records-reveal-trump-allies-behind-rally-that-ignited-capitol-riot-20210118-p56usx.html
Records reveal Trump allies behind
rally that ignited Capitol riot
By Richard
Lardner and Michelle Smith
January 18, 2021 — 6.57am
Washington: Members of President Donald
Trump’s failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the
Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the US Capitol, according to
a review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the
President's grassroots supporters.
A pro-Trump nonprofit group called
Women for America First hosted the “Save America Rally” on January 6 at the
Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House.
But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted
to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the
event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump’s 2020
re-election campaign. Other staff scheduled to be “on site” during the
demonstration have close ties to the White House.
Since the siege, several of them
have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.
The riot at the Capitol, incited
by Trump’s comments before and during his speech at the Ellipse, has led to a
reckoning unprecedented in American history. The President told the crowd to
march to the Capitol and that “you’ll never take back our country with
weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/blood-on-his-hands-as-us-nears-400-000-covid-deaths-experts-blame-trump-20210118-p56uu8.html
'Blood on his hands': As US nears
400,000 COVID deaths, experts blame Trump
By Jorge L.
Ortiz
January 18, 2021 — 10.21am
San Francisco: Besides being the first president
to get impeached twice, Donald Trump will have a stain on his legacy with
arguably longer-lasting consequences: He's about to become the only American
leader in a century with more than 400,000 deaths from one event on his watch.
The US is expected to cross that
sombre threshold soon, likely on Monday, yet another reminder of how poorly the
nation with the world's largest economy has fared during the coronavirus
pandemic. The current COVID-19 death toll is about 396,000.
Not since Woodrow Wilson was in
office during the 1918 flu pandemic – which killed about 675,000 in this
country and 50 million worldwide – had a president overseen the loss of so many
American lives.
That total is fast approaching the
405,000 US fatalities from World War II – thousands of them recorded when Harry
Truman was president after Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in April 1945 – to
rank as the third-deadliest event in the history of the republic. About
618,000-750,000 were killed in the Civil War of 1861-1865.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/the-verdict-s-in-on-trump-s-trade-deal-with-china-20210118-p56uw7.html
The verdict's in on Trump's trade
war with China
Senior business columnist
January 18, 2021 — 11.48am
Last Friday was the first
anniversary of the signing of the “Phase One” trade deal with Beijing that
paused the Trump administration’s trade war with China. Twelve months on, it is
obvious that, contrary to Donald Trump’s conviction, trade wars are neither
good nor easy to win.
Trump will end his presidency
having presided over the three largest US trade deficits in history even as
China recorded a record monthly trade surplus in December and, in the midst of
a global pandemic, its second-highest annual surplus.
Trade data released late last week
showed China’s overall surplus rose 27 per cent to $US535 billion ($696
billion) in 2020, the highest since 2015. The December surplus, powered by an
18 per cent increase in exports, was a record $US78 billion. The $US317 billion
full-year surplus with the US was 7 per cent higher than in 2019.
Earlier this month US trade data
showed its overall trade deficit for the first 11 months of the year had grown
13.9 per cent over the same period of 2019, to $US605 billion, with analysts
forecasting a deficit of close to $US900 billion for the full year when those
numbers are released next month. The US trade deficit in November was the
highest in 14 years.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/national/global-threat-from-three-strongmen-20210118-p56uvr.html
Global threat from three strongmen
Peter Hartcher
Political and international editor
January 19, 2021 — 12.00am
Vladimir Putin is embracing a new
brazenness. It was always obvious that he was directing the years-long series
of assassinations and disappearances of his opponents. But he at least tried to
feign innocence.
By killing people with radioactive
isotopes and nerve agents, he was using methods that might go undetected in
most circumstances. And even when the covert instrument of assassination was discovered,
Putin always denied any involvement by the Russian state.
It wasn’t convincing, of course –
you can’t buy the Russian military’s home-grown nerve agents of the Novichok
variety at the local chemists, or even on the dark web. But Putin always protested
his innocence. It was important to him to keep up a facade of deniability, no
matter how thin.
His spokespeople denied any state
involvement again when the hero of Russia’s opposition movement, the
charismatic Alexei Navalny, was suddenly taken gravely ill on a flight in
August 2020, suspected poisoned. The doctors in the Russian city of Omsk
diagnosed the problem as low blood sugars, which supposedly triggered a
metabolic disorder.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/new-era-joe-biden-and-the-old-establishment-step-back-in/news-story/b4608fddd86bdad23746ad8b9e0e48fd
New era: Joe Biden and the old
establishment step back in
Gerald
F. Seib
Senior
Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
·
The Wall Street Journal
·
January 19, 2021
They
are 78, 80, 70 and 78 years old.
One
started in Washington when Richard Nixon was president, the others when Ronald
Reagan was. They have seen it all: wars, recessions, control by one party and
then another, terrorist attacks, and, now, a pandemic.
They
are, in short, the very personification of the political establishment that was
attacked by American citizens who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Now they are,
collectively, in charge of handling the aftermath.
Together,
they all face the same question: Are they really in control?
They
are, respectively, President-elect Joe Biden; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi;
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer; and Senate Republican leader Mitch
McConnell. They have known one another for decades, so there will be no
surprises. They will be overseeing a Washington where the Senate is perfectly
divided between the two parties and the House nearly so — a power alignment
that, at least in theory, ought to draw them all a bit closer together near the
political centre.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/we-only-obeyed-orders-from-president-donald-trump-say-rioters/news-story/7625ac9a8533fefa3dcbac34fc0d0dbb
We only obeyed orders from
President Donald Trump, say rioters
·
By Henry Zeffman
·
The Times
·
6:30PM January 18, 2021
Members
of the mob that stormed the US Capitol Building are telling police they felt
President Donald Trump told them to, potentially making him liable to criminal
charges for incitement.
With
more participants in the siege being arrested every day, explanations of their
actions are emerging.
One
Kentucky man told the FBI that he went to Washington with his cousin and
marched towards congress because “President Trump said to do so”.
A
retired Pennsylvania firefighter, charged with throwing a fire extinguisher at
police, said he believed he was “instructed” to go to the Capitol by the
President, according to court documents seen by The Washington Post.
Jenna
Ryan, a Dallas estate agent charged with illegally entering the Capitol, begged
Mr Trump for a pardon on local television. “I thought I was following my
president,” she said.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/asia/america-s-disarray-is-china-s-opportunity-20210119-p56v5g
America’s disarray is China’s
opportunity
A
dispassionate assessment of world affairs, as it stands, cannot avoid the
conclusion that the US is currently in deep trouble — and China is well placed
to take advantage of that.
Gideon Rachman Columnist
Jan
19, 2021 – 9.45am
On January 20, 1961, John F
Kennedy, America’s youngest-ever, elected president, gave his inaugural address
from the steps of the Capitol. Exactly 60 years later, Joe Biden, America’s
oldest-ever president, will be sworn in at the same place – just days after it
was stormed by a riotous mob.
Kennedy used the magisterial
backdrop of Congress to proclaim that the “torch has passed to a new
generation”. Biden is the representative of an older generation – one that now
fears the torch of liberty is in danger of being extinguished, even in the US
itself.
Watching Kennedy’s address again,
it is striking how much of it was addressed not to the American people but to
the leaders of the Soviet Union. JFK was speaking at the height of the cold
war. Much of the American elite now believes the US is on the brink of a second
cold war – this time with China. But, unlike Kennedy, Biden cannot promise to
“pay any price, bear any burden” to ensure the “survival and success of
liberty” around the world.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/why-are-free-societies-sinking-into-an-anarchic-pit-of-hate-20210118-p56uwq
Why are free societies sinking
into an anarchic pit of hate?
Big
tech's legal obligations are a sideshow: the bigger question is where the bile
and venom come from.
Janet Daley Contributor
Jan
19, 2021 – 2.45pm
Is it right to deny people who
incite violence a public platform? You bet it is. All free societies do this to
a greater or lesser extent. Open democracies which guarantee freedom of
expression have always drawn lines. You cannot attend a civic meeting, or even
stand on a street corner, and shout death threats without being arrested. The
obvious charge would be of threatening behaviour or causing an affray. Scarcely
anyone would be likely to dispute this.
So that's the easy one. There are
far more difficult questions to examine in what is becoming a major political
issue for our time. So while we wait to see if the Trump mob will turn up at Joe
Biden's inauguration
on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) to test the principle once again, perhaps we can
examine the more difficult problems, some of which are new and others of which
are not new at all, in spite of their technological dimension.
This is not really a debate about
"free speech". What that properly entails was established long ago
and is (or was) accepted by general consensus. It involves respecting the rule
of law and the rights of others to hold differing views – which is to say, not
threatening the safety of people you disagree with. But something peculiar has
happened to public discourse in the past few years. It now has a dimension – or
an arena – in which participants expect to ignore all the previous
understandings of what constitutes acceptable conduct.
The hot topic has become: are the Big Tech outfits, which
make available wildly irresponsible messages, publishers or simply platforms? If the former, then they are
liable for what appears; if the latter, they are not. The tech giants are
clearly terrified by this debate since a judgment that they are, in fact,
publishers would involve them in an enormous and hugely expensive extension of
their duties to monitor everything that appears on their sites.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/the-american-republic-s-near-death-experience-20210120-p56vgn
The American republic’s near-death
experience
Trump
failed. However, if US politics unfolds as seems likely, there will be more
Trumps. One of them, more competent and ruthless, may succeed.
Martin Wolf Columnist
Jan
20, 2021 – 9.34am
Here is what has happened. US
President Donald Trump asserted for months, without evidence, that he could not
be defeated in a fair election. He duly attributed his defeat to a rigged election. Four in
five Republicans still agree.
The President pressured officials
to overturn their states’ votes. Having failed, he sought to bully his
vice-president and Congress into rejecting the electoral votes submitted by the
states. He incited an assault on the Capitol, in order to
pressure Congress into doing so. Some 147 members of Congress, including eight
senators, voted to reject the states’ votes.
In brief, Trump attempted a coup.
Worse, the great majority of Republicans agree with his reasons for doing so. A
huge number of federal legislators went along. The coup failed, because courts
rejected evidence-free cases, and state officials did their jobs. But 10 former
defence secretaries felt the need to warn the military to stay out.
In March 2016, before Trump had
even won the GOP nomination, I argued he was a grave threat. It was evident he
lacked any of the qualities required in the leader of a great republic. But, it
turned out, he had the redeeming flaw of gross incompetence.
-----
https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/how-us-media-policy-paved-the-road-to-insurrection-20210118-p56v1m
How US media policy paved the road
to insurrection
Sure
Donald Trump may have incited the mob, but history shows that it was flawed
media regulation decisions that made America so very vulnerable to the Trump
agenda.
Malcolm Long
Jan
19, 2021 – 12.28pm
The political mess that has
engulfed the United States can be directly traced to almost a century of bad US
government decisions about how to regulate its all-pervasive mass media.
The riotous mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6 may well have been directly
incited by Donald Trump’s calls to action on the day. But years of relentless,
unfiltered streams of fake news and toxic commentary on US television, radio
and social media prepared the ground.
It didn’t have to be this way.
History shows it was some key media regulation decisions that made America so
very vulnerable to the Trump agenda.
In the late 1920s, at the birth of
radio – the first mass medium – both the US and Britain recognised that whoever
controlled the content on this new medium would possess extraordinary power.
They would have unprecedented ability to sway public opinion, with significant
implications for democracy.
The two countries reacted very
differently. The US decided broadcasting was too powerful to be entrusted to
government. It would be the exclusive domain of commercial corporations,
selling content to consumers in the marketplace. Britain decided broadcasting
was too powerful to be entrusted to commercial magnates; it would be a publicly
owned activity. Hence the BBC was created, with a charter of editorial independence
from government
and providing a well-resourced national news and information service.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/deeper-causes-of-america-s-troubles-are-economic-and-social-20210119-p56v4j.html
Deeper causes of America's
troubles are economic and social
Economics Editor
January 19, 2021 — 11.55pm
The older I get the more I prefer
movies where nothing much happens. I’m increasingly impatient with car chases,
gunfights and sword fights. I like movies that look at people’s lives and the
way their relationships develop. Truth be told, I prefer escapist movies, but
make an exception for those that help me better understand the difficulties
encountered by people living in circumstances very different to mine. They may
not be much fun, but they are character-building.
I put Frances McDormand’s
memorable Nomadland
in that category. If you want to understand how the richest, smartest, most
“advanced” civilisation in the world could be tearing itself apart before our
very eyes, Nomadland
is an easy place to start.
McDormand plays an older woman
who, having recently lost her husband, finds the global financial crisis and
its Great Recession have caused her to lose her job, her home and even the
small company town she’s lived in for years.
She fits out a second-hand
campervan and takes off on the roads of middle America in search of somewhere
to earn a bit of money and somewhere to camp for a few weeks that doesn’t cost
too much.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/china-s-aiming-for-8pc-growth-can-it-do-it-without-australian-coal-20210119-p56v7g.html
China's aiming for 8% growth. Can
it do it without Australian coal?
Senior business columnist
January 19, 2021 — 12.47pm
China ended 2020 as the only major
economy that didn’t shrink as a result of the pandemic and, if the forecasts
are right, will grow at a startling rate in 2021. If it wants to meet those
forecasts it might be forced to rethink its ban on Australian coal.
The 2.3 per cent rise in China's
GDP last year might have been its weakest growth since the end of the Cultural
Revolution in 1976, but was a global standout in a year when the pandemic
wrecked all the other big economies.
China’s economic statistics do
have to be taken with a pinch of salt – it is remarkable that it was able to
produce the data from its sprawling economy within a couple of weeks of
year-end – but the performance of its economy does accord broadly with both its
response to the pandemic and third-party data on its exports.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/mob-was-fed-lies-mitch-mcconnell-accuses-trump-of-provoking-riot-20210120-p56vew.html
'Mob was fed lies': Mitch
McConnell accuses Trump of 'provoking' riot
By Richard
Cowan
January 20, 2021 — 5.19am
Washington: US Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell has accused President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, of provoking
the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
"The mob was fed lies. They
were provoked by the President and other powerful people," McConnell said
in a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, local time.
The US House of Representatives
last Wednesday impeached Trump for a second time. The Senate has yet to schedule a
trial to determine Trump's guilt or innocence.
McConnell last week said he would
listen to the arguments presented during the Senate trial before deciding how
to vote on the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection that resulted in
the siege of the Capitol.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/we-cant-combat-chinas-grey-zone-war-while-polarised/news-story/74355acba3fdaba366212d689e6e2866
We
can’t combat China’s ‘grey zone’ war while polarised
Ben
Scott
·
12:00AM January 20, 2021
China
is gearing up for global competition with a Biden-led United States. That’s
reducing Australia’s room to move. But it also makes it more important for us
to get right the things we can control. To make smarter China choices,
Australia should change the way it debates, formulates and implements China
policy.
From
China’s perspective, Australia is a frustrating anomaly in need of correction;
a country that remains firmly allied with the US despite its apparent economic
dependence on China. Not only has Canberra failed to toe Beijing’s line, it has
actively questioned China on issues ranging from 5G telecommunications to
COVID-19.
As
Beijing’s economic pressure on Australia begins to bite, our national debate
will intensify and could polarise. It’s not hard to imagine populist arguments
and simplistic solutions gaining wider appeal.
That’s
part of China’s goal; as DFAT Secretary Frances Adamson told a Senate estimates
committee last year, “what … I think Beijing is looking for, is division”.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/donald-trumps-best-deserve-to-be-known-for-more-than-his-final-days/news-story/94bdaae635576234988a30e56cb65575
Donald
Trump’s best did their job well: they deserve to be known for more than his
final days
The
Wall St Journal Editorial Board
·
The Wall Street Journal
·
January 20, 2021
As
the Trump presidency ends in the disgrace of the Capitol riot, an effort is
already underway to erase everything in the last four years as disgraceful too.
That’s a lie — a Big Lie, to borrow the cliche of the moment. Donald Trump’s
profound character flaws need to be separated from what so many people in his
administration accomplished for the country.
These
men and women didn’t “enable” Trump. Sixty-three million Americans did that
when they elected him in 2016, with a significant assist from the Democrats who
nominated Hillary Clinton, perhaps the only candidate who could have lost to
Trump.
President-elect
Joe Biden's inauguration on Thursday will bring an end to outgoing President
Donald Trump's four years in the Oval Office where he leaves as the first
one-term President in nearly 30 years.
Trump
appointed people who had the usual varying combinations of conviction and
ambition. They served despite the hostility of the bureaucracy and press, and a
president who often didn’t appreciate their work. Sometimes — in some cases,
often — they protected the country by stopping Trump from his worst impulses.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/we-must-end-this-uncivil-war-biden-takes-charge-20210121-p56vrm
'We must end this uncivil war':
Biden takes charge
Trevor Hunnicutt
Jan 21, 2021 – 9.18am
Joe Biden was sworn in as president
of the United States, offering a message of unity and restoration to a deeply
divided country reeling from a battered economy and a raging coronavirus pandemic
that has killed more than 400,000 Americans.
Standing on the steps of the US Capitol two
weeks after a mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the
building, Biden called for a return to civic decency in an inaugural address marking the end of
Trump's tempestuous four-year term.
Joe Biden has arrived to the White house
after he was sworn in as the 46th US president.
"To overcome these challenges, to
restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than
words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity,"
Biden, a Democrat, said after taking the oath of office.
"We must end this uncivil war that pits
red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do
this - if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts."
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/there-was-no-carnage-just-poetry-20210121-p56vpg
There was no carnage, just poetry
Americans
heard a call for unity and a staunch defence of their most hallowed
institutions as Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United
States.
Jacob Greber United States
correspondent
Updated
Jan 21, 2021 – 8.09am, first published at 8.07am
There was no carnage. No riot. No
insurgency nor division.
Instead, Americans heard a call
for unity and a staunch defence of its most hallowed institutions.
Watch
22-year-old Amanda Gorman, the youngest-ever inauguration poet, recite the
entirety of her work moments after Joe Biden was sworn in as 46th US president.
In her 5-minute poem, she referenced the violence of January 6th, called for
reconci...
And poetry.
The verse came from an
extraordinary 22-year-old woman, Amanda Gorman, who stole the show as the
youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration, with a reminder of just
how fragile those institutions can be.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/we-all-got-played-qanon-fans-in-shock-as-reality-of-defeat-dawns-20210121-p56vph
'We all got played': QAnon fans in
shock as reality of defeat dawns
Drew Harwell and Craig Timberg
Jan
21, 2021 – 5.54am
Washington DC | Followers of the extremist
ideology QAnon saw their hopes once again dashed Wednesday as President Donald
Trump left Washington on the final day of his presidency, without any of the climactic scenes of
violence and salvation
that the sprawling set of conspiracy theories had preached for years would
come.
As Trump boarded Air Force One for
his last presidential flight to Florida, many QAnon adherents - some of whom
had earlier this month stormed the Capitol in a siege that left at least two
QAnon devotees dead and others in jail - began to wonder whether they'd been
duped all along.
When one QAnon channel on the chat
app Telegram posted a new theory that suggested Biden himself was "part of
the plan," a number of followers shifted into open rebellion: "This
will never happen"; "Just stfu already!" "It's over. It is
sadly, sadly over." "What a fraud!"
But while some QAnon disciples
gave way to doubt, others doubled down on blind belief or strained to see new
coded messages in the Inauguration Day's events. Some followers noted that 17
flags - Q being the 17th letter of the alphabet - flew on the stage as Trump
delivered a farewell address.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/the-link-between-lincoln-in-1865-and-biden-in-2021-20210121-p56vqd
The link between Lincoln in 1865
and Biden in 2021
Ronald G. Shafer
Jan
21, 2021 – 7.57am
In delivering an inauguration
speech to try to heal a bitterly divided nation, President Joe Biden faced
perhaps the greatest challenge since Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
In his "America United"
address, Biden spoke "about the need to bring the country together during
an unprecedented moment of crisis". His address follows an attack on the
Capitol by supporters of a president who still won't accept defeat and refused
to attend his successor's swearing in and a pandemic that has killed more than
400,000 Americans.
Democrat
Joe Biden was sworn in as president of the United States, vowing to end the
'uncivil war' in a deeply divided country.
In his second inauguration on
March 4, 1865, Lincoln sought to begin the healing of a divided country
emerging from a bloody Civil War that took more than 700,000 lives in the North
and the South.
The new dome of the Capitol with
the statue of Freedom on top gleamed in the bright sunlight behind the
56-year-old Lincoln as he stepped forward to deliver his address. The clearing
sky seemed symbolic of the ending of the dark war to the special correspondent
for the New
York Times, poet Walt Whitman.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/a-total-failure-the-proud-boys-now-mock-trump-20210121-p56vqw
‘A total failure’: The Proud Boys
now mock Trump
Sheera Frenkel
Jan
21, 2021 – 8.23am
After the presidential election
last year, the Proud Boys, a far-right group, declared its undying loyalty to
President Donald Trump.
In a November 8 post in a private
channel of the messaging app Telegram, the group urged its followers to attend
protests against an election that it said had been fraudulently stolen from
Trump. "Hail Emperor Trump," the Proud Boys wrote.
But by this week, the group's
attitude toward Trump had changed. "Trump will go down as a total
failure," the Proud Boys said in the same Telegram channel Monday.
As Trump departed the White House
on Wednesday, the Proud Boys, once among his staunchest supporters, have also
started leaving his side. In dozens of conversations on social media sites like
Gab and Telegram, members of the group have begun calling Trump a
"shill" and "extraordinarily weak," according to messages
reviewed by The
New York Times. They have also urged supporters to stop attending
rallies and protests held for Trump or the Republican Party.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/biden-gives-the-world-permission-to-exhale-after-four-chaotic-years-20210121-p56vq1.html
Biden gives the world permission
to exhale after four chaotic years
January 21, 2021 — 7.56am
Washington: You could feel it as President Joe
Biden began delivering his inaugural address: the resting heart rate of
American politics returning to something resembling normal.
For the past four years Donald
Trump kept America - and the world - in a state of constant anxiety. At any
moment of the day or night, you could expect a tweet threatening war against
North Korea, announcing new tariffs on Chinese goods or falsely declaring
himself the winner of the presidential election.
Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as
president of the United States, vowing to end the 'uncivil war' in a deeply
divided country.
For his most loyal supporters,
Trump’s chaotic style was an exhilarating departure from presidential norms;
for everyone else, it was simply exhausting.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/joe-biden-inauguration-president-gives-america-the-words-it-wanted-and-needed-to-hear/news-story/8b63b82efd520d51993539b76cbdba2e
The words a divided America wanted
and needed to hear
Joe
Biden spoke directly to a country struggling with a deadly pandemic, a battered
economy and deep political divisions.
By Cameron Stewart
21
January, 2021
Joe
Biden gave the inauguration speech that most of America wanted to hear and the
rest of America needed to hear.
It
was an address that spoke directly to this turbulent time in the country’s
history as it struggles with a deadly pandemic, a battered economy and the
deepest political divisions since the civil rights era.
Biden’s
key message was that he would be the anti-Donald Trump, that he would not
inflame this political divide, but would rather seek to draw the country’s
warring tribes closer together.
“We
must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban,
conservative versus liberal,’ Biden said.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/biden-takes-power-with-pax-americana-on-the-ash-heap-of-history/news-story/7768aa5b49476258fcc6840ededa1e0a
Biden
takes power with Pax Americana on the ash heap of history
Tom
Switzer
·
10:30PM January 20, 2021
Now
that Joe Biden is President, it is widely believed that he will repair some of
the damage inflicted during the Trump era. After four years of chaos and
instability, we are told, the incoming administration will reassert America’s
democratic leadership across the globe.
Don’t
believe the hype. The Pax Americana is on the ash heap of history. And the
reasons have more to do with Washington’s flawed policies of the post-Cold War
era and the rise of China than with the America First nationalism of the Trump
era.
Go
back three decades. The US had emerged the victor from the Cold War without a
shot being fired across Europe. It achieved global hegemonic status not by
especially assertive or ambitious action on its part, but by the self-induced
collapse of the Soviet empire. The decades-old strategy of containment had
worked.
With
the end of the East-West standoff, a dangerous bipolar world had been replaced
by a unipolar world in which America had no serious rivals. As a result,
“American global leadership”, a “New America Century”, “indispensable nation”
and “benign hegemony” became the new credos of US foreign-policy elites.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/like-lincoln-biden-must-bind-up-america-s-wounds-20210120-p56vnr
Two raging viruses among Biden's
biggest challenges
A
dim prospect of national unity does not doom progress on ending America's
uncivil war, as Joe Biden outlined in a speech full of allusions to Abraham
Lincoln.
Simon Jackman Contributor
Jan
21, 2021 – 3.54pm
The high watermark of inauguration
speeches is Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, delivered in 1865 to an
exhausted Union, with the end of the Civil War just a month away. Its spare 700
words are inscribed in the Lincoln Memorial at the western end of the National
Mall.
Lincoln concluded his speech with
the aspiration to “to bind up the nation’s wounds”. Biden reached for the same
sentiment – and aspired to Lincoln’s eloquence – in his first speech as
President to a crisis-weary nation.
Biden’s speech abounded with
allusions and references to Lincoln, too many to list here. But they were all
apt.
Without undue risk of hyperbole,
American democracy is being subjected to its greatest stress
since the time of Lincoln, who spoke at Gettysburg of the “great civil war”
testing whether a nation “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal” could “long endure”. And so Biden
called for an end to the “uncivil war” rending America.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/we-will-be-back-in-some-form-trump-s-final-warning-20210121-p56vvb
Trump exits with a whimper and a
final pardon
Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker
Updated
Jan 21, 2021 – 2.34pm, first published at 2.02pm
Palm Beach, Florida | Donald Trump's final act as the
45th President of the United States was announced as his official government
motorcade rolled through the palm-lined streets of South Florida one last time:
a full pardon for Albert Pirro, the ex-husband of Trump loyalist and Fox News
host Jeanine Pirro.
Mr Trump had decided on Wednesday
morning to grant a final gift of clemency after issuing 143 other pardons in an early-morning spree that
included his controversial former chief strategist Stephen Bannon.
His remaining aides had hoped that
Mr Trump's departure remarks at Joint Base Andrews earlier that morning – where
he thanked his supporters and wished the incoming administration "great
success" – would serve as the enduring image of his already fraught exit
from the presidency. Instead, they scrambled to explain another whim from their
boss.
Away from his twin cravings – the
public and the press – the outgoing president announced the Pirro pardon in a
brief written statement as much of the world spun forward without him. Many of
his once-close Republican allies eschewed his sparsely-attended Air Force One
farewell to attend President Joe Biden's inauguration instead.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/american-decline-the-spectre-that-will-haunt-president-biden-20210121-p56vw5
Can Biden really unite America?
Probably not
Can
Joe Biden really bring the US people together and restore faith in America’s
future? Alas, the terrible deterioration of American public life in the 21st
century means there is every reason to think not.
Tom Switzer Contributor
Updated
Jan 21, 2021 – 3.00pm, first published at 2.56pm
The day of the presidential inauguration is when an American president
must rise above the deep divisions of politics and reach to the higher duty of
representing the nation. Joe Biden made that leap today with an authentic,
heartfelt speech calling for repair and renewal.
Every president faces their own
particular set of challenges, but the 78-year-old veteran senator and former
vice-president was right when he said: “Few periods in our nation’s history
have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now.”
Indeed, the challenges are
daunting: a pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans, the greatest economic crisis
since the Great Depression and widespread racial and cultural tensions. Add to
this what Biden cited as environmental “survival” and “a rise in political
extremism, white supremacy [and] domestic terrorism”. and it’s no wonder he
repeatedly called for “unity”.
But can Biden — or anyone else for
that matter — really bring the American people together? Can he restore their
faith in their future?
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https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-populism-may-grow-despite-trump-s-departure-20210121-p56vrr.html
Why populism may grow, despite
Trump's departure
By Andrew
Hammond
January 21, 2021 — 11.55pm
Donald Trump’s departure from
office will be welcomed by many who decry the rise of global populism. Yet
Trump is a symptom, not a cause, of populism whose rise may grow significantly
into the 2020s fuelled by the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis.
As of 2020, some two billion of
the world’s population was governed by populist leaders, including the more
than 300 million US populace, according to academic research from the Global
Populism Database – a comprehensive tracker of populist discourse. That data,
from an international network of academics analysed speeches – through textual
analysis – of key leaders in 40 countries during the last two decades.
What the research found is that
leaders from across different continents won power through common campaign
tactics, including attacking multinational organisations, so-called ‘fake
media’, and immigrants. And this electoral success is itself a microcosm of a
wider upending of the tectonic plates of the global political landscape.
The research found that, some 20
years ago, only a handful of states with populations over 20 million –
including Italy, Argentina and Venezuela – had leaders classified as populists
through their speeches. This was an era that saw the controversial billionaire
businessman Silvio Berlusconi as a right-of-centre maverick prime minister in
Rome, presaging the rise of Trump; and Hugo Chavez as Venezuelan president.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/dozens-dead-in-rare-baghdad-suicide-attack/news-story/1cbd1803fe5a23c52e2dd62990678284
Dozens dead in rare Baghdad
suicide attack
·
AFP
·
10:09PM January 21, 2021
The
toll in a twin suicide bombing in an open-air Baghdad market on Thursday has
reached at least 28 dead and 73 wounded.
The
interior ministry said the first suicide bomber had rushed into the market and
claimed to feel sick, so that people would gather around him. He then detonated
his explosives.
As
people gathered around the victims, a second attacker detonated his bomb.
Medical
sources said they feared the death toll could be twice as high as officially announced.
The health ministry said it had mobilised medics across the capital to respond
to the deadliest attack in three years.
-----
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/donald-trump-after-presidency.html
Jan. 15, 2021
Trump Is on the Verge of Losing
Everything
By Jonathan Chait
President
Trump’s second impeachment, like the other repudiations he has suffered, feels provisional.
He is never quite banished. He is impeached, but Senate Republicans refuse to
convict or even allow evidence into his trial. He loses the election, but won’t
concede, and may just run again. He is impeached again, but his trial is delayed until after his departure date.
It feels as if we have spent four years watching the wheels come off, yet the
vehicle somehow still keeps rolling forward.
But
now, finally, the end is at hand. Trump is suffering a series of wounds that,
in combination, are likely to be fatal after Joe Biden is sworn in on January
20. Trump is obviously going to surrender his office. Beyond that looming
defeat, he is undergoing a cascading sequence of political, financial, and
legal setbacks that cumulatively spell utter ruin. Trump is not only losing his
job but quite possibly everything else.
One
crisis, though the most opaque, concerns Trump’s business. Many of his sources
of income are drying up, either owing to the coronavirus pandemic or, more
often, his toxic public image. The Washington Post has toted up the
setbacks facing the Trump Organization, which include cancellations of
partnerships with New York City government, three banks, the PGA Championship,
and a real-estate firm that handled many of his leasing agreements. Meanwhile,
he faces the closure of many of his hotels. And he is staring down two
defamation lawsuits. Oh, and Trump has to repay, over the next four years, more
than $300 million in outstanding loans he personally guaranteed.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/joe-biden-s-new-deal-20210122-p56w4n
Joe Biden’s new deal
Joe Biden and his team have worked hard to
put America’s diversity on display. These aren’t woke decisions - there are
hard-headed political calculations at play.
Jacob Greber United
States correspondent
Jan
23, 2021 – 12.01am
When governments change, Paul
Keating once noted, you change the country.
Nowhere is this more evident and immediate these last few days than in Washington DC where the speed of
adjustment has stunned even experienced watchers.
It might even be reaching Gough
Whitlam levels, with Joe Biden wasting no time obliterating, with a flood of
executive orders, as much of Donald Trump’s legacy as he can.
He’s been aided by the fact the
former president failed to enshrine many of his achievements in legislation,
making them fragile and easily unpicked or reversed with the briefest stroke of
a pen.
While there is continuity between
the Trump and Biden administrations on some things, like maintaining pressure
on China over the Uighur Muslims, retaining recognition of Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital and continuing for now the tariff war, much is being
dismantled.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/how-jill-biden-is-quietly-making-history-20210121-p56vvw
How Jill Biden is quietly making
history
The
new first lady is somewhat overshadowed by the other political firsts happening
around her, but she doesn't seem at all concerned.
Robin Givhan
Jan 23,
2021 – 12.00am
Jill Biden always seems to be
upstaged by the enormity of someone else's history-making presence. As second
lady, Dr Biden was arguably the emotional core of the Obama administration's
outreach to military families. As the mother of a veteran, she could speak
personally about the toll their service takes on their loved ones. But the
country was naturally focused on Michelle Obama, a groundbreaking first lady,
and had little bandwidth to deeply consider Biden's effort.
Now that Biden has moved into the White
House,
there's more history being made around her. Kamala Harris is the nation's first
female vice-president. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, fills the newly named role of
second gentleman. The country is in such a historically divided, volatile,
damaged state that almost all of the inaugural traditions and formalities have
fallen away. And the symbolism long attached to the first lady as healing and
consoling has been tarnished.
In the midst of all of that hope
and wreckage, Biden is poised to transform the way in which the presidential
spouse is perceived. She isn't angling to be a partner in governing. She's
planning to be her own person, which for her includes continuing to pursue her
career. It's a simple but profound decision that strikes a blow for gender
equity and barrier-breaking that resonates more intimately than the headlines
that scream madame vice-president.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/america-s-best-chance-for-unity-20210122-p56w2g
America’s best chance for unity
The
new US President is not a perfect person, but Joe Biden is the decent man that
the world has not had in the White House for four years.
Michael Fullilove
Jan
22, 2021 – 3.57pm
Watching the images of America on inauguration
day
was like seeing an old friend who has been in the grip of a terrible fever. But
now his vision is clear and his brow is cool, and you recognise him again.
America has indeed been febrile
these past months and years – suffering not only from the COVID-19 pandemic but
from the presidency of a despicable man who brought incompetence, corruption
and misrule to the Oval Office. Donald Trump has never accepted external limits on his behaviour. In the end, there was nothing he
wouldn’t do to feed his vanity and preserve his power, including inciting a violent assault on the Capitol.
It is unforgivable that so many
politicians and commentators went along with Trump, and for so long.
The Grand Old Party – the party of
Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan – now appears to be a
dried-up husk.
Kudos to the small band of
conservatives, including Republican senator Mitt Romney and observers such as Bret Stephens
and Bill Kristol, who adhered to their principles and maintained their dignity.
Shame on those who did not.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/trumpist-fantasy-still-captivates-the-odd-australian-politician-20210122-p56w8x.html
Trumpist fantasy still captivates
the odd Australian politician
Political and international editor
January 22, 2021 — 7.31pm
In the face of a sceptical reporter,
a senior Republican White House operative dismissed his views. Guys like you
were “in what we call the reality-based community”, he sneered. “That’s not the
way the world really works anymore.”
That comment could very well have
come from the Donald Trump White House. It did not. It was delivered by a
senior aide to the previous Republican president, George W. Bush, more than a
decade before Trump declared his candidacy.
But it was Trump who brought it
closest to fulfilment. By creating an alternative reality so powerful that many
tens of millions of Americans believe that fiction is fact. By creating a mass
delusion so persuasive that he tried to establish himself as America’s first
dictator on the strength of it.
Even now, even after the mob
invasion of the US Capitol and Trump’s fall in disgrace, even after the
unanimity of the courts’ rulings, a third of American adults believe Trump
actually won the election, according to the scrupulously non-partisan Pew
Research group.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/the-cult-of-trump-are-the-days-of-this-false-prophet-really-over-20210121-p56vvg.html
The cult of Trump: Are the days of
this false prophet really over?
Associate editor and special writer
January 22, 2021 — 11.08pm
My dad had skinned his knuckles
while trying to fix a stubborn water pump on the farm when a fellow with a
reversed collar came down the drive.
He held out a piece of paper and
requested a moment. It was a poorly timed approach.
“Clear off,” said my father, or
words to that general effect. When the visitor persisted, there was mention of
a stockwhip if he didn’t comply.
The fellow, my father explained
later, was a self-appointed pastor of one of the fringe religious groups that
had put their hooks into the farming district, and he was trying to drum up
support for a run at state Parliament.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/china-authorises-coast-guard-to-fire-on-foreign-vessels-if-needed-20210122-p56was.html
China authorises coast guard to
fire on foreign vessels if needed
By Yew Lun
Tian
January 22, 2021 — 11.21pm
Beijing: China passed a law on Friday that
for the first time explicitly allows its coast guard to fire on foreign
vessels, a move that could make the contested waters around China more choppy.
China has maritime sovereignty
disputes with Japan in the East China Sea and with several south-east Asian
countries in the South China Sea. It has sent its coast guard to chase away
fishing vessels from other countries, sometimes resulting in the sinking of
these vessels.
China’s top legislative body, the
National People’s Congress standing committee, passed the Coast Guard Law on
Friday, according to state media reports.
According to draft wording in the
bill published earlier, the coast guard is allowed to use “all necessary means”
to stop or prevent threats from foreign vessels.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/germany-to-cut-last-vestiges-of-nazi-law/news-story/f625647201a48075f085be04dc3b1cd7
Germany to cut last vestiges of
Nazi law
·
By Mathieu
Foulkes
·
AFP
·
6:18PM January 22, 2021
Germany
is moving to rid itself of a cluster of laws introduced by the Nazis, still
lingering on its books 75 years after World War II.
There
are 29 German legal or regulatory texts that still use wording introduced when
Hitler was in power, according to Felix Klein, the government’s point man for
fighting anti-Semitism.
Some
of them have “a very clear anti-Semitic background”, Mr Klein said.
Now,
with the support of several parties in the Bundestag lower house of parliament
as well as Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, Mr Klein wants to wipe the slate
clean — preferably before the end of the current term in September.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/the-trump-era-is-over-not-with-a-bang-but-with-an-elegant-troll-20210122-p56w34.html
The Trump era is over, not with a
bang but with an elegant troll
Columnist
January 24, 2021 — 12.06am
And it is done. The era of Trump
is over. Not with a bang, but with an amusingly elegant troll.
One of Donald Trump's last acts as
president was to issue an executive order for 244 statues to be erected in his National Garden of American Heroes. The statue park was originally
conceived as agitationists attacked and toppled statues in 2020, so they might
have expected a garden of Confederates and slavers. Trump's choice of American heroes has left many
puzzled.
Closing out his presidency, US
President Donald Trump leaves behind an even more polarized America, where
thousands are dying daily from the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy is badly
damaged and political violence has surged.
Entertainers Walt Disney, Elvis
Presley, Woody Guthrie (the working-class hero folk singer who penned a song
that lambasted the racism of ''Old Man Trump'', Donald’s father) and gameshow
host Alex Trebek will be joined in the garden by giants of the civil rights
movement Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, as well as recently deceased
left-liberal Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader-Ginsburg and, of all people,
political theorist Hannah Arendt.
-----
I
look forward to comments on all this!
-----
David.
