It's news you can use from places with different views! (Don't misuse or abuse you yahoos.)
The Ray family are part of a growing Indian community in Australia.Nearly 220,000 additional people reported they were born in India in the latest census, compared to when the previous census was conducted in 2016, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released today.
This led to India overtaking China and New Zealand to become the third-largest country of birth, behind Australia and England.
And in total, more than 1 million people have migrated to Australia since the 2016 census.
Ms Ray says there is a large Indian community her family connects with for cultural activities, but she has also seen a wider recognition of India's traditional celebrations.
Another notable migration trend was the growth of the Nepalese population, which doubled since the previous census.Nepal had the second-largest increase in country of birth, with an additional 67,752 people counted.
Although India overtook China to become the third-largest country of birth, Mandarin continues to be the most-common language spoken at home other than English.Nearly 700,000 people reported speaking Mandarin at home, followed by Arabic with about 367,000.
Punjabi had the largest increase of 80 per cent since the 2016, with just over 367,000 Australians now using the language at home.
For reference, Australia's population is ~26m.
Tokyo residents told to conserve power as Japan endures heatwave
After the rainy season in Tokyo ended at its earliest since record-keeping began, the Japanese archipelago has seen record high temperatures for June in some areas.
Power supply is relatively tight after Japan idled most of its nuclear reactors after 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima.It also has been closing down old coal plants to meet promises for reducing carbon emissions.
Japan also faces a potential shortage of fossil fuel imports amid sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
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For reference, Australia's population is ~26m.
This is extra-funny to me because I just recently watched a video about yet another RW lunatic who referred to Australia as a "ethnostate" where they all "get along with each other."
I mean, I know facts don't matter to fascists, but still.
This is extra-funny to me because I just recently watched a video about yet another RW lunatic who referred to Australia as a "ethnostate" where they all "get along with each other."
I mean, I know facts don't matter to fascists, but still.
They would love other results. We are now 'flooded' with Muslims as they are up to 3.6% of the population. (Surveys suggest that most people think this number is 10-20%)
I think the biggest note from the census was No-Religion is now up to 39%. It was 30% in 2016 and 22% in 2011. Christianity in all forms is at 47%. I feel it is very likely that these 2 categories will change places next census.
Frankly, my favorite part was that you all "get along with each other."
Like, I'm not particularly familiar with Australian politics AT ALL and even I know that's a load.
AU has the same problems with racism and a dark colonial history as many other countries.
As an Australian-born POC in Australia, in my (just under) 40 years of life, I've seen racism come in three general forms:
1. The overt racist: is unapologetic about being an a$sh4t. Quite rare to encounter but will leave you shaking in anger / fear fight or flight mode. Tends to be found in higher concentrations in lower socio-economic demographic areas.
2. I'm not racist but...: the person who is racist but thinks it's excused by prefacing racist comments claiming they are not racist. More common than no. 1 category, not quite as common as category 3. This one tends to be found in the middle class of society - trying to disguise boorish behaviour under a thin veneer of apparent politeness.
3. The quietly racist: these are the ones that do not openly support measures to bring diversity to all spheres of society (they also overlap in Venn diagrams with sexist and other discriminatory types). They'll happily enjoy eating ethnic cuisines domestically and travelling internationally and you wouldn't be able to pick them out as a racist person in a crowd, but these folks won't go out of their way to promote diversity and are content to maintain status quo when it suits them. Which basically means they're happy to see corporate C-suite / upper management, our judiciary and parliament full of old white dudes. These are the top 10% wealth holders in the country and just like any other jurisdiction they hold a disproportionate power over the rest of the population.
I'm not sure she gets much international recognition, but Senator Penny Wong (our current Foreign Minister) is gay and Malaysian Chinese background. She is a rare being in Australian politics - not just because of her personal history and preferences but because she is also eloquent and capable as hell. I wish she'd run for Prime Minister - she's one of the most capable politicians our country has ever had the privilege of voting into parliament.
Slowly, we are starting to see some change with our first authentic Hijab-wearing female senator (Senator Hanson wore one as a stage prop, back when she fell into category no. 1 - although she seems slightly less rabid than she was 20 years ago).
Whilst we certainly do have entrenched overt bureaucratic racism here (detaining political asylum seekers in contravention with UN charter for refugees, continuing to oppress and detain indigenous Australians disproportionately), Australians do however as a whole get along with each other.
Personally, I'd love to see our country grow even further non-religious. We don't need a basis for division between our people.
I still miss our great PM, Julia Gillard (she grew up the same place I did). Proudly atheist! The Labor Party has a lot to answer for.
I believe we have a goodjer or two living in/or have lived in Japan who can give us some greater detail as this develops?
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has collapsed after he was shot at an event in the city of Nara.
Mr Abe was shot twice, with the second shot hitting him in the back, causing him to fall to the ground. Reports say his attacker has since been arrested.
Ex-Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe said in a tweet that Mr Abe was in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest.
The term is often used before a death is officially confirmed in Japan.
Videos circulating on social media, which could not be verified, appear to show paramedics huddled around Mr Abe in the middle of a street. He has now reportedly been rushed to hospital.
Mr Abe was giving a stump speech for a candidate in Nara when the attacked happened - eye-witnesses say they saw a man with what they described as a large gun fire from behind, according to the BBC's Japan correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.
The first shot appears to have missed but the second shot hit Mr Abe in the back. He immediately fell to the ground bleeding.
Security then detained the attacker who made no attempt to run.
Local news broadcaster NHK reports that police have seized his gun and identified him.
Mr Abe, who was Japan's longest-serving prime minister, stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons. He later revealed that he had suffered a relapse of ulcerative colitis, an intestinal disease.
He was succeeded by his close party ally Yoshihide Suga, who was later replaced by Fumio Kishida.
Like so many of our world leaders, he’s scum, but I would have preferred the justice system to have dealt with him than this outcome. I expect it will be very impactful on people here, especially if he doesn’t make it. It is typical for political candidates to openly campaign with minimal security.
Looks like they officially announced him dead.
At the risk of seeming dark, I guess Abe couldn’t deny this political murder.
I don’t think he should be missed but, unfortunately, this doesn’t really count as justice and it certainly won’t act as any deterrent for other corrupt politicians. I’d say that they could still arrest his wife but that ship seems to have sailed.
I saw this on Twitter, but it's crazy to watch the video of Abe's shooting, because no-one in the crowd runs at the sound of gunfire, presumably because they don’t recognize it.
Compare this to the U.S., where we're all so traumatized at this point, I see a story every weekend about a stampede at a mall because a hat stand fell over.
EDIT: Good to see that all over the world, the far-right barely even tries.
Also I'm reading online that the Japanese far-right was attempting to say the suspect was a Zainichi Korean (Koreans living in Japan) despite that apparently being wholesale bullshit, so, y'know.
I wonder what the ultimate effects of this will be.
I think this goes nicely with the election of Bongbong Marcos in the Philippines.
I read at least a few articles about his re-election where, essentially, his supporters said that all that "Democracy" had gotten them was corruption, dysfunction, and economic instability.
It's that old misquoted Churchill quote about Democracy being "the worst form of Government except all those other forms."
Hell, I've seen Iraqis saying similar things post-invation. "Sure, Saddam was crap, but he was better than everything we got under 'democracy'."
Democracy is hard work, I think I'm saying, and isn't guaranteed to be good. And its failures explain, in part, some of the broad, global anti-democratic backlash we're seeing. For people who lived through or took part in the hope of the Arab Spring, it's got to be hugely demoralizing to see what it's actually gotten them in, Tunisia, for insance.
Democracy is hard work, I think I'm saying, and isn't guaranteed to be good. And its failures explain, in part, some of the broad, global anti-democratic backlash we're seeing. For people who lived through or took part in the hope of the Arab Spring, it's got to be hugely demoralizing to see what it's actually gotten them in, Tunisia, for insance.
Tunisia referendum approves expansion of president’s powers – officials
Analysis: South Korea's sudden property slump tests world's most indebted consumers
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's property market has abruptly gone from sizzling hot to floundering, piling pressure on some of the world's most debt-saddled consumers as the sector experiences the fastest interest rate hikes on record.
Prices of Seoul apartments last week reported their sharpest decline in 26 months, while transaction volumes in the capital dropped 73% in June from a year earlier.
The 2.6 quadrillion won ($1.97 trillion) debt tied to the property market faces a major test as borrowing costs rise, with a slump and higher mortgage repayments likely to result in weaker consumption.
With nearly three quarters of household wealth tied to real estate, policymakers worry higher mortgage rates could increase defaults and take the economy closer to a financial crisis.
Ordinary Koreans are already feeling the squeeze - for Jane Jeon, a 36-year-old mother of a six-month old in central Seoul, growing mortgage stress means she has had to make some hard choices.
"My husband's pay now isn't enough to cover our monthly repayment so I need to cut my maternity leave short and return to work," said Jeon, who had initially planned to take 15 months off.
Her family now pays 720,000 won more each month than last year for their 500 million won mortgage, which her broker said will probably rise further by year-end, bringing their total monthly repayment to almost 4 million won, or 70% of her husband's pay.
Financial regulators expect the number of people that could default on their loans to rise by half a million to 1.9 million once the average mortgage rate reaches 7% from current 5-6%.
With services and commodities consumption from construction investment accounting for about 15% of economic activity, a property slump, combined with dwindling exports, would pose a big drag on growth.
"South Korea's financial system is one of the most vulnerable in the world to interest rate hikes, as the debt increase over the pandemic has been one of the highest," said Seo Young-soo, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities.
"Those that had recently taken out both a mortgage and credit loans on top of that (for investment) face the most trouble."
Colombia peace deal failing as violent gangs recruit vulnerable children
Corinto has the vibe of a bustling town just like any other - motorbikes zip up and down the main streets, residents amble along the pavements and shop owners hover outside their premises, beckoning in customers.
But stop on any street corner and there is a more threatening presence here.
"Windows down or bullets," reads one graffitied wall, and it is signed "FARC-EP", short for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - the People's Army. It is a warning to drivers to make themselves known and is repeated on many walls in Corinto, in Colombia's south-west Cauca province.
The Farc guerrilla group demobilised in 2016 after signing a peace deal with the government. It ended more than five decades of civil conflict. But nearly six years on, the deal is yet to be fully implemented, and while violence overall has fallen since the peace deal, what is happening in rural Colombia is alarming experts.
Farc members who did not agree to the peace deal, right-wing paramilitaries, and newer criminal groups that have since cropped up are all vying for territory that was once controlled by the guerrilla group - and they are all on the lookout for new recruits.
Also, things in Haiti remain really, really bad.
A war between Haitian gangs which has left hundreds dead since it flared up three weeks ago has spread to the centre of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Gang members engaged in a fierce gun battle with each other and with police on Wednesday.
The city's temporary cathedral caught fire amid the fighting.
It is not yet known how many people were killed in this latest battle but UN figures suggest more than 200 died between 8 and 17 July.
Previously, the focal points of the battle between the G9 criminal alliance and a rival alliance calling itself G-Pèp had centred around the impoverished neighbourhood of Cité Soleil. But on Wednesday, video showed police confronting gang members not far from the presidential palace.
While Port-au-Prince has long suffered from gang violence, the war between G9 and G-Pèp has raised it to new levels.
Local media say members of a gang which forms part of the G9 alliance launched an incursion into the Bel-Air neighbourhood, where they met resistance from members of a gang allied with G-Pèp.
A spokesman for the Port-au-Prince archdiocese, Father Marc Henry Siméon, told Le Nouvelliste newspaper that firefighters had managed to extinguish a blaze at the church which has been used as the city's cathedral since the Notre-Dame Cathedral was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.
Fr Siméon said he did not know whether the church had been targeted deliberately or had become "collateral damage" but stressed that "bandits" were operating in the area with total impunity.
It might not be making the news globally but we have a constitutional scandal erupting in Australia with the discovery that our former Prime Minister secretly swore himself into 5 ministries (Health, Home Affairs, Resources, Treasury and one more I cannot recall as I type) without informing his own party, intelligence, or the public.
This is about as spicy as constitutional law has gotten since the Governor General dismissed Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the late 70s.
It might not be making the news globally but we have a constitutional scandal erupting in Australia with the discovery that our former Prime Minister secretly swore himself into 5 ministries (Health, Home Affairs, Resources, Treasury and one more I cannot recall as I type) without informing his own party, intelligence, or the public.
Finance.
(PS. For non-Australians, the LNP (Liberal-National Coalition) is the party Scomo (Scott Morrison) leads, which was defeated by the Labor Party earlier this year.)
(PPS. Safari wanted to correct Scomo to Scam. After I rejected that, its next suggestion was Scum.)
Well, Scott Morrison formerly led the Coalition (the Aussie version of US Republicans). Now they're led by the guy whose idea of a legitimate exercise of exceptional Home Affairs/Immigration ministerial discretion was to not deport two au pairs unlawfully visiting Australia for his rich mates.
It's just madness. Ministers wield specifically powers under legislation. He was giving himself carte blanche even though the only apparent exercise of power was refusing a sensitive oil/gas exploration licence off the coast of Sydney (something which would have riled the "National" members in the Coalition had it been debated within the Coalition). That decision is now in the appeal courts.
I have no doubt there will be bipartisan support to enact measures to prevent this type of governance by secrecy; the Cabinet system is to reward loyalty to the Prime Minister and secret dual appointments undermine the Ministers' powers and influence.
Everything's just so f*cking weird now.
Japan urges its young people to drink more to boost economy
Japan's young adults are a sober bunch - something authorities are hoping to change with a new campaign.
The younger generation drinks less alcohol than their parents - a move that has hit taxes from beverages like sake (rice wine).
So the national tax agency has stepped in with a national competition to come up with ideas to reverse the trend.
The "Sake Viva!" campaign hopes to come up with a plan to make drinking more attractive - and boost the industry.
The contest asks 20 to 39-year-olds to share their business ideas to kick-start demand among their peers - whether it's for Japanese sake, shochu, whiskey, beer or wine.
The group running the competition for the tax authority says new habits - partly formed during the Covid pandemic - and an ageing population have led to a decline in alcohol sales.
It wants contestants to come up with promotions, branding, and even cutting-edge plans involving artificial intelligence.
Shinzo Abe, former Japan prime minister, shot during speech – report'
Yikes.
So.... uh... the reverberations of this are... unexpected?
Prederick wrote:Shinzo Abe, former Japan prime minister, shot during speech – report'
Yikes.
So.... uh... the reverberations of this are... unexpected?
Like, it appears to have gone better than the shooter could've possibly expected?
The brazen assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a handmade gun shocked a nation unused to high-profile political violence.
But there has been another surprise in the weeks since the murder as details have emerged about an alleged assassin who was well-off until his mother’s huge donations to the controversial Unification Church left him poor, neglected and filled with rage.
Some Japanese have expressed understanding, even sympathy, for the 41-year-old suspect, especially those of a similar age who may feel pangs of recognition linked to their own suffering during three decades of economic malaise and social turmoil.
There have been suggestions on social media that care packages should be sent to suspect Tetsuya Yamagami’s detention center to cheer him up. And more than 7,000 people have signed a petition requesting prosecutorial leniency for Yamagami, who told police that he killed Abe, one of Japan’s most powerful and divisive politicians, because of his ties to an unnamed religious group widely believed to be the Unification Church.
Experts say the case has also illuminated the plight of thousands of other children of church adherents who have faced abuse and neglect.
Today in "Headlines I absolutely was not expecting to see":
Today in "Headlines I absolutely was not expecting to see":
He's currently down here to promote one of the casinos in Sydney. Not sure how the incumbent party convinced him to do that.
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