Today's News - Monday 21 December 2020
Today's news - Monday 21 December 2020
Our Backyard
Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) has pleaded guilty to environmental charges over a 2018 incident where chemicals were mistakenly released into the atmosphere, and fined $500,000 in Gladstone Magistrates Court — one of the largest environmental fines in Queensland.
In September 2018, an over-pressure safety system was opened during unplanned maintenance, releasing up to 3 tonnes of alkali bauxite slurry into the atmosphere.
The contaminant caused over $70,000 in damages to homes and cars in the coastal industrial suburb of South Trees in Gladstone.
Alkali bauxite slurry is a chemical created in the process of creating alumina.
A technical specialist was dismissed as a result of the incident.
Qantas adds key new routes to fuel greater travel options across regional Australia.
Regional Express warns expansion will deliver "devastating" long-term impacts on regional aviation.
SA's second largest city will attract a second carrier following its multi-million-dollar redeveloped airport terminal.
Technology billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has become the first Australian to own an NBA team, buying a minority stake in the Utah Jazz.
Mr Cannon-Brookes’ investment in the US basketball team, said to be in the hundreds of millions, will see the co-founder and co-chief executive of software firm Atlassian join the exclusive list of technology entrepreneurs owning NBA teams.
Spacecraft for Australia‘s first ever mission to the moon, Lunar Ascent, will be built by an Australian aerospace outfit Space Machines Company, in what’s being described as a giant leap for the local manufacturing industry.
Space Machines founder and CEO Rajat Kulshretha saidmanufacturing for the spacecraft would take place in a facility in Mascot, close to the airport, with the initiative to be launched in early 2021.
Interested parties can book cargo starting from around $US200,000 per kilogram, which the executive said was a third less expensive than the US-based competition. Sydney based Spiral Blue and HEO Robotics have signed a letter of intent to be the first commercial customers sending a payload to the moon on the Lunar Ascent mission, while Deloitte is an early backer.
Australian Finance Group (AFG) has launched Customer360, a new broker fact-find and document collection tool available to all AFG brokers nationally.
AFG chief operating officer John Sanger said: “Customer360 is the first product to be rolled out as part of AFG’s full technology and platform refresh and will sit as part of our game-changing platform for brokers called Suite360.”
The product is part of AFG’s broader suite of broker tools, which includes other products like SMART Marketing and Learn L&D platforms.
Mr Sanger added that the ability for a broker to deliver a frictionless and user-friendly fact-find to their customers is key to ensuring a good experience and driving their efficiency.
The product aims to save time in the application process and “lays the groundwork for a faster application process by securely collecting supporting documents and integrating seamlessly with AFG’s new CRM platform,” Mr Sanger added.
Property owners, Airbnb hosts and holiday rental guests were scrambling to manage masses of booking cancellations after the announcement of a five-day lockdown on the northern beaches.
Many holiday home bookings had been made months in advance, with the northern beaches a favoured destination for those intent on a relaxing escape following a year of disrupted plans and border closures.
A planned corporate metamorphosis by neobank Xinja — handing in its banking licence and emerging as a share-trading service under the new name “Dabble” — could be dead on arrival, after a tech entrepreneur beat it to the trademark for Dabble and is now refusing to relinquish the rights.
Lawyers have been sending “cease and desist” letters and a courtroom stoush may bee looming that could lead to a costly fight over the name and potentially delay Xinja’s shift into investment services.
Luc Pettett, the former co-founder and chief executive of horse racing publisher punters.com.au, said he began planning his next business venture in the finance space in 2019 after selling the racing site to News Corporation in 2017 and leaving the business a year later.
In February he approached the owners of dabble.com and eventually purchased their domain name.
By October Mr Pettett finished setting up his company in Australia and Delaware and lodged the trademark “Dabble” in the US and “Dabble Australia” in Australia.
CBA and Westpac have chosen to join forces with the competition. CBA has a 5.5 per cent stake in Swedish BNPL Klarna which is making a splashy scandi pink push into the Australian market over Christmas. Westpac, which began with a holding in Zip, changed horses suddenly in October, selling out and then partnering with Afterpay which will offer banking services white-labelled by Westpac.
Zip chief executive Peter Gray says banks are looking to claim a share of the millennial and new generation market.
Interestingly NAB and ANZ have chosen to stay away from BNPL, but two of the four, NAB and CBA, are now offering no-interest credit cards with a fee, to compete with the BNPL offering.
World News
Crews aboard ships carrying blockaded Australian coal remain stranded near China
Some seafarers have reported self-harm and the declining quality of drinking water.
They've called for international assistance as they remain in administrative limbo.
Millions of people in central and eastern China have had power outages
Residents of Hunan and Zhejiang have been issued notices stipulating the "orderly use of electricity", along with other power restrictions that haven't been seen for a long time, according to local media reports.
The restrictions have come during a particularly cold Chinese winter, where millions of people have switched on energy-intensive heating to cope with sub-zero temperatures.
In Hunan, authorities said the province of more than 67 million people had reached the electricity grid's maximum load, with a predicted gap of 3 million to 4 million kilowatts of energy during winter's peak period, according to local media.
While coal makes up the lion's share of China's energy mix, it has been on a minor downward trajectory in recent years as Beijing begins a transition to clean energy.
China isn't dependent on Australian coal for its energy — that being said, Australian coal has been a part of China's energy mix for several decades now.
Australian coal exports comprise two varieties: thermal coal, which is burnt for electricity, and metallurgical coal, which is used for making steel and iron ore.
Last year, 18 per cent of all Australian thermal coal exports were sent to China, with a value of $4 billion, while total coal exports were worth $13.7 billion.
This month, no ships carrying thermal coal from Newcastle — Australia's busiest coal port — have left for China, and none are scheduled to leave before Christmas.
Security forces on Thursday, local time, rescued nearly 350 schoolboys who had been kidnapped by suspected Islamist gunmen in northern Nigeria and taken into a vast forest, the governor of Katsina state said.
The abduction last Friday night had been claimed by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in an unverified audio recording.
Gunmen raided the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara town, Katsina state, on motorbikes and carried off the boys in the biggest such incident in the lawless region in recent years.
The New York Times has been stripped of one award and handed back another after the newspaper admitted it could not verify key claims in its 2018 podcast Caliphate.
The Times said it could not verify the claims of a Canadian man whose account of committing atrocities for the Islamic State in Syria was a central part of the series.
The Times assigned an investigative team to look into the story after Canadian police in September arrested Shehroze Chaudhry, who used the alias Abu Huzayfah, for perpetrating a terrorist hoax.
Investigators concluded they could not be sure Mr Chaudhry had ever been in Syria and almost certainly did not commit the atrocities he had claimed.
Supposed evidence he offered to back up his story, including photos from Syria, were gathered from other sources.
A fire broke out on Saturday at an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients in southern Turkey after an oxygen cylinder exploded, killing nine people, the health minister said.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the fire took place at the privately-run Sanko University Hospital unit in Gaziantep, 850 kilometers south-east of Istanbul. It cited a hospital statement identifying the victims as being between 56 and 85. The fire was quickly brought under control.
The death toll from a category five cyclone that tore through northern Fiji has risen to four, as emergency crews work to assess the full extent of the damage from one of the year's strongest storms.
Tropical Cyclone Yasa was packing winds of up to 345 kilometres per hour when it struck the country's northern islands on Thursday night and Friday morning
A 50-year-old man and a 70-year-old man were confirmed dead, National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) director Vasiti Soko said, bringing the toll to four.
Suspected Russian hackers who broke into US government agencies also spied on less high-profile organisations, including groups in Britain, a US internet provider and a county government in Arizona, according to web records and security sources.
The US cybersecurity agency CISA warned of a "grave" risk to government and private networks, after federal agencies and "critical infrastructure" were hacked in the sophisticated attack.
Boeing officials "inappropriately coached" test pilots during recertification efforts after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people, according to a lengthy new US congressional report.
The report from the Senate Commerce Committee raised questions about whether this year's testing of a key safety system known as MCAS — tied to both fatal crashes — was contrary to proper protocol.
The report cited a whistleblower who alleged Boeing officials encouraged test pilots to "remember, get right on that pickle switch" prior to the exercise that resulted in pilot reaction in approximately four seconds, while another pilot in a separate test reacted in approximately 16 seconds.
The committee's chair said the report highlighted failed leadership and lack of oversight in the aviation agency.
The report accuses Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration of trying to cover up important information.
Covid-19
Victoria has decided to shut its borders to people from Greater Sydney and the Central Coast as an outbreak in the NSW capital grows.
The new rules will be in place from midnight Monday.
Queensland residents who are in the Greater Sydney area have until 1:00am on Tuesday to return to the state and will have to get tested and quarantine at home on arrival, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says.
Two people have been caught breaching home quarantine in Queensland in as many days as the state announces it will close its border to greater Sydney tomorrow night.
Queensland’s Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski confirmed a person from the northern beaches and a member of an international flight crew were found not following instructions to quarantine in the last two days.
Since 4pm on Friday Queensland Police have checked more than 10,000 passengers on 87 flights from Sydney.
108 people have been ordered to quarantine as a result.
South Australia will require all arrivals from the greater Sydney area to quarantine for 14 days from midnight tonight, the state's Chief Public Health Officer says.
They will be required to have a coronavirus test three times — on arrival, on day five and on day 12.
Anyone who has been in Sydney's Northern Beaches area will be barred from South Australia entirely.
People arriving from regional New South Wales will be required to have a test but do not need to isolate.
Sunday, NSW has recorded 30 new COVID-19 cases linked to the Northern Beaches outbreak, but Premier Gladys Berejiklian says infections have yet to spread to Greater Sydney.
Twenty-eight of the cases are directly linked to the Avalon cluster while the other two cases are under investigation but are linked to the Northern Beaches outbreak.
Ms Berejiklian said there had been no evidence of infections spreading outside of the Northern Beaches at this stage.
Further restrictions will be introduced from [Monday] with residents in Greater Sydney, including the Central Coast and Blue Mountains, not allowed more than 10 people in homes.
Rules for hospitality venues and places of worship will revert back to the four-square-metre rule from the current two metres.
There will also be a cap on those venues of 300 people.
Singing and chanting will also not be permitted.
Dancefloors will also not be allowed, apart from weddings when up to 20 people from the bridal party will be permitted.
The restrictions will be in place until the end of the Northern Beaches lockdown on Wednesday at midnight.
Fears have been raised of a coronavirus outbreak in Queensland after almost a dozen close contacts of the Sydney’s northern beaches cluster were discovered in the sunshine state.
The connection was made by NSW contact tracers who have alerted Queensland Health to the precarious situation.
Health Minister Yvette D‘Ath said 11 people had been tested and asked to isolate until the results came back after Queensland recorded no new cases overnight.
The scare comes after a woman in her 50s, who had travelled from the Northern Beaches region, had tested positive to COVID-19 in Brisbane.
British Prime Minister Johnson has cancelled Christmas for 18 million people in England – with London and the South East of the country to be plunged into a new Tier 4 lockdown from midnight tonight.
Travel and different households mixing will be banned under the new highest level tier – with families elsewhere only allowed to form ‘Christmas bubbles’ on December 25 itself, Johnson told Britons today.
The drastic move will dash families’ hopes of Christmas together after a torrid year and force millions of people to stay home for weeks to come.
In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has introduced a travel ban meaning Scots are not allowed to visit other parts of the UK.
Britain has notified the WHO about a new fast-spreading strain of COVID-19.
There is no evidence it has a higher mortality rate, but urgent work is underway to confirm this.
Authorities are blaming the surge in UK coronavirus cases — which almost doubled in the past seven days — on VUI2020/12/01, a mutant strain.
Early data suggests the new VUI2020/12/01 strain could be “up to 70 per cent more transmissible” than previous COVID-19 strains, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a televised briefing Saturday.
Thailand confirmed 576 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, including 516 migrant worker cases announced the day before, according to a health ministry statement.
The outbreak came as South Korea reported a record 1097 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, including a cluster in a Seoul prison that infected 185 as the country's latest wave of COVID-19 worsens.
Thailand's new cases include 19 locally transmitted cases in Bangkok. It reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest daily tally in a country that had largely brought the pandemic under control.
Property
US build-to-rent specialist Greystar has swooped on a major site in Melbourne that can accommodate more than 700 units, with the acquisition signalling the sector will keep firing even as developers struggle to sell apartments.
Build-to-rent is being promoted as a means of keeping the development industry ticking over while apartments are hit by the coronavirus crisis and also as a longer-term way of housing a generation of renters.
Big institutions, including GIC, which is backing Grocon’s Home brand, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which is backing Mirvac’s Australian Build-to-Rent Club, are moving to get a foothold.
In the latest play, Greystar has picked up a South Melbourne site from Singaporean developer Chip Eng Seng for $65m.
The commercial property market has been bolstered by foreign investment authorities waving through the purchase of an office tower in the heart of Sydney.
The Foreign Investment Review Board approval will see local office landlord Dexus finalise a long-running deal to sell off an office block in Clarence Street for $530m that was agreed to in June.
Dexus said it had settled on 45 Clarence Street with the move giving some confidence to the prospects of offshore buyers after one $80m building sale in Haymarket, Sydney, collapsed after the buyer could not obtain approval after months of review.
The FIRB is closely assessing commercial property sales but the harshest scrutiny appears to be reserved for buildings which may be occupied by sensitive government agencies.
Markets
QBE has flagged a $US1.5 billion ($1.97 billion) loss for the year, with the global insurance giant’s books buffeted by higher-than-expected claims from catastrophic weather and the coronavirus crisis.
QBE interim chief executive Richard Pryce said he was “very disappointed” by the figures that caused the company’s share price to plummet more than 12 per cent to $8.73 on Friday. He added that it was necessary to update the market as the insurer tackled the worst hurricane season on record and ballooning reinsurance costs.
Robinhood Financial agreed to pay $US65 million ($85 million) to settle government charges that it failed to disclose the full details of its dealings with high-speed traders and didn’t get the best prices for customers trading on its app, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday (US time).
Robinhood and other retail brokerage firms can bring in revenue by routing customers’ orders to high-speed traders and other big investors, which in turn pay for the right to execute many of the trades in hopes of making a profit.
The charges stem from an investigation by the SEC into how Robinhood disclosed its arrangements with high-speed traders. Robinhood neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings under the settlement.
Stem cell biotech Mesoblast has had its share price smashed after the company emerged from a trading halt on Friday to reveal its COVID-19 treatment trial was unlikely to meet its primary goal.
Shares in the biotech plunged 41 per cent at the start of trading before recovering some lost ground during the day to close 36 per cent lower at $2.41, shaving its market value by $800 million to $1.4 billion.
On Friday, Australian shares fell on Friday as a COVID-19 cluster in NSW grew to 28 cases and other states began to reimpose border restrictions.
The ASX 200 closed 1.2 per cent lower at 6,675 points, while the All Ordinaries index lost 1.1 per cent to 6,924.
Travel and casino stocks came under pressure, including Qantas (-3.5pc), REX (-5.4pc), Star Entertainment (-2.1pc) and Crown Resorts (-0.8pc).
Energy stocks dipped despite an uptick in oil prices, with Ampol (-4.7pc) and Worley (-3.5pc) among the biggest drags.
The big four banks fell, led by NAB (-2pc), while the miners were mixed, with Fortescue shares rising (+2.2pc) while BHP shares fell (-0.4pc).
The local currency rose above 76.2 US cents overnight, largely due to a weaker greenback, but pulled back through the local session.
By 5:05pm (AEDT), it was buying around 75.9 US cents.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones gained 147 points (or 0.5 per cent) to close at its highest lever ever, 30,302 points.
The benchmark S&P 500 closed up 0.6 per cent to 3,722 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.8 per cent to 12,764 points. Both indices also closed at record highs.
Jakob Stausholm has been named Rio Tinto's next chief executive, defying expectations it would pick an external candidate to repair its image after the destruction of sacred Aboriginal rock shelters in Western Australia.
Shares in Rio Tinto rose 0.9 per cent to $117.53.
Bitcoin has once again hit a new record, surging 10 per cent to $US23,655 ($AU31,031.7) overnight. The cryptocurrency has more than tripled in value this year.
Brent crude oil rose (+0.7pc) to $US51.45 a barrel, its highest level in nine months.
Spot gold and iron ore also saw big jumps, with the precious metal hitting $1,886 an ounce (+1.2pc) and the steel-making ingredient up 1.3 per cent to $US158.5 a tonne.