Author: Press Room

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Fitzroy Crossing and flood-affected regions of Broome, Western Australia, are “keen to make sure that power and access to basic services can be restored”.“There are major challenges being faced, but I believe this community was incredibly resilient,” Mr Albanese said during a media conference on Monday.“They’re positive about the future, they want to work together, and there was that real sense of community and belonging – they’re very proud of Fitzroy Crossing and the community they’ve built.” Source: Sky News

A woman has drowned while swimming at a popular beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.The 47-year-old was pulled unconscious from the water at Gordons Bay at about 1.40pm after appearing to have suffered a medical episode.Three young females found the woman floating face down and pulled her out of the water to start CPR immediately.Love news? Stream 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2023The rocky terrain of Gordons Bay made it difficult for emergency services to access the woman, so lifeguards accessed the beach using jetskis and took over CPR…

China’s heavy-handed crackdown on tech giants is coming to an end and the country’s economic growth is expected to be back on track soon, according to a top central bank official. The crackdown on fintech operations of more than a dozen internet companies is “basically” over, said Guo Shuqing, the Communist Party boss at the People’s Bank of China, in an interview with state-run Xinhua news agency on Saturday. “Next, we’ll promote healthy development of internet platforms,” said Guo, who is also chairman of China’s Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. “We’ll encourage them to come out strong in leading economic…

BEIJING: Almost 90 per cent of people in China’s third most populous province have now been infected with COVID-19, a top official said Monday (Jan 9), as the country battles an unprecedented surge in cases. Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, told a press conference that “as of January 6, 2023, the province’s COVID-19 infection rate is 89.0 per cent”. With a population of 99.4 million, the figures suggest about 88.5 million people in Henan may now have been infected. Visits to fever clinics peaked on Dec 19, Kan said, “after which it showed a…

A family in Michigan is thanking their lucky stars — and a series of fortunate coincidences — after their car was totaled in a crash early in the morning on New Year’s Day. Nate and Kathleen Ayers, of Fruitport Township, Michigan, along with their children Gideon, 3, and Gwen, 11 weeks, were driving home from a combination Christmas/New Year’s Eve party at about 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day when a car in the opposite lane suddenly hopped the median, slamming into their car.”We had just left my parents’ house, where we were combining a celebration of Christmas and New Year’s,…

FIRST ON FOX: Speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital over the weekend, actor-writer Kirk Cameron announced that he’ll be traveling to a string of public libraries to take his messages of faith, freedom, family and love of country to millions of Americans in major cities — people who are “crying out,” he said, “for someone to push back” against today’s woke culture.”I’m hitting the road,” Cameron told Fox News Digital.”I’m going out” to speak to Americans in major cities, he said, particularly at some of the public libraries that either denied his earlier requests to hold story hours at their…

KAOHSIUNG CITY, Taiwan — After close to a decade, men over 18 in Taiwan will again be required to serve a full year in the military rather than just four months, a return to a conscription policy that had been in place since 2013. The new requirement will be phased in over the year and will reportedly apply to males born on or after Jan. 1, 2005.Speaking to the nation late last month, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen pointed to Ukraine holding off the might of the Russian military for more than 300 days, something she argued was due in no…

The first flight of Chinese visitors since the pandemic started arrived in Thailand on Monday, carrying an initial group of an expected 3,465 passengers on the first day, Anutin said. One of Asia’s most popular travel destinations, Thailand is enjoying an influx of tourists during its first peak season since the removal last year of tight entry restrictions. In November, it recorded 1.75 million visitors, quadruple the number received for the whole of last year when flights and foreign arrivals were limited. Anutin said Thailand was now expecting 7 to 10 million Chinese visitors, compared to an earlier estimate of…

Good morning. Scenes in Brasília over the weekend brought back painful memories of two years ago in Washington. Trump might be receding into the rear-view mirror, but anti-democratic populism is not. Send me some good news, please: robert.armstrong@ft.com.The news on wage growth was not all *that* good, everyone please calm downThe markets saw last Friday morning’s jobs report — and in particular its data on slowing wage growth — as more evidence that inflation will continue to cool rapidly and the Federal Reserve will be able to begin cutting rates before the end of this year. The S&P rose 2.3…

Shrugging off those gloomy forecasts, investors are betting that China’s reopening will help revive the US$17 trillion economy and bolster the outlook for global growth. Those hopes lifted Asian shares to a five-month high on Monday while China’s yuan firmed to its strongest level against the dollar since mid-August. China’s blue-chip index gained 0.7 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.6 per cent. “The ending of the zero-COVID policy is … going to have a major positive impact on domestic spending,” Ralph Hamers, group chief executive officer at…