French President EmmanuelMacron has pledged to hold another aid conference to support Lebanon after a follow-up visit to the site of Beirut's devastating explosion.
French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to hold another aid conference to support Lebanon after a follow-up visit to the site of Beirut's devastating explosion.
Mr Macron said any French bailout would be conditional on a new cabinet which implemented wide-spread reforms. Protesters gathered in the days following the deadly explosion to voice their anger over the mismanagement and state corruption which dragged Lebanon into crisis. The French President said the next six weeks would be vital for the country. Image: AP
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Barilaro calls on National Cabinet to support struggling agricultural sector | Sky News AustraliaNSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has highlighted the importance of supporting agriculture and farmers through the pandemic.\n\nSpeaking of the upcoming National Cabinet meeting this week, Mr Barilaro said “if we fail this Friday in relation to a code for a workforce for the agricultural sector, we can all hang our heads in shame”.\n\n“What we will be doing is sending regional and rural NSW again down a path of destruction and despair off the back of drought, bushfires and the COVID pandemic,” he said.\n\nThe Deputy Premier described the Friday meeting as a “test of the National Cabinet” and questioned the capacity of the group to enact real change. \n
Read more »
Over $550 million in federal funding to ‘expand and extend’ aged care support | Sky News AustraliaHealth Minister Greg Hunt has announced $563.4 million will be spent on “significant extensions and expansions” to existing aged care support programs as part of the national aged care COVID-19 plan.\n\nThe Health Minister outlined key areas which would receive additional funding in a bid to protect vulnerable elderly Australians from the coronavirus.\n\nHe said support for facilities would be extended until the end of February 2021 in order to reduce workforce gaps and provide for PPE needs and the extension of support for aged care workers in COVID-19 areas to operate on a single workforce basis.\n\nThe expansion of short-term home support and the extension of the aged care workforce retention payment was listed by Mr Hunt as a critical area to which funds would be directed. \n\nMr Hunt reiterated the cost of the new measures at $563.4 million, noting the expanded support would take the total Australian investment in COVID-19 aged care to $1.5 million.\n\n“All of these things come together with a very simple goal. To save lives and protect lives within our aged care facilities and across Australia,” he said.\n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »
Democrats support 'anarchy and lawlessness' in a bid to 'make Trump look bad' | Sky News AustraliaSky News host Rowan Dean says what the Democrats have done to America is “tragic beyond belief”.\n\nViolent riots continue to plague major cities in the US in the name of Black Lives Matter.\n\nRiots in Kenosha, Wisconsin – spurred by the shooting of an African American man by police - have matched the violence and looting which occurred immediately following the death of George Floyd.\n\nBlack Lives Matter activists have been storming through American streets shouting the catch cry ‘Death to America’. \n\n“What we’ve seen is this grovelling on the part of many Democrats to the Black Lives Matter movement which is Marxist, anti-Semitic, anti-capitalist, anti-law and order, which is basically anarchy,” Mr Dean told Sky News host Paul Murray. \n\n“So you have the second major political party in the US actually supporting anarchy and lawlessness.”\n\nMr Dean said the Democrats were weak, pathetic and were trying to the blame the unrest on Trump. \n\n“They tried to get rid of Trump through the Russian collusion thing, then that failed,” he said. \n\n“They tried to get rid of Trump through the nonsense of impeachment.\n\n“They are so desperate they would have anarchy on the streets in some of the poorest places in America simply to try and make Trump look bad.”\n\nImage: AP\n
Read more »
Labor Party ‘will not support’ bill allowing enhanced ABF powers: Tudge | Sky News AustraliaPopulation Minister Alan Tudge says he is “disgusted” that the Labor Party will oppose a bill allowing border force officials enhanced seize and search powers. \n\nUnder current laws, ABF officers are not permitted to search or seize detainees' property suspected to contain or be used for illegal purposes, such as the dissemination of explicit materials or illicit drugs. \n\nThe Morrison government has moved twice to legislate laws allowing border force to act in the appropriate circumstances however last time the Labor Party and the Greens voted this legislation down, according to Sky News host Peta Credlin.\n\n“The Labor Party will oppose this bill and frankly I’m pretty disgusted with them,” Mr Tudge told Ms Credlin.\n\n“I cannot understand why the Labor Party is on the side of these criminals.”\n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »
Australia’s 'overreaction' to COVID-19 'damaged our society and economy' | Sky News AustraliaSky News host Chris Kenny says Australia should have done more to protect the elderly and less to harm society and hurt the young in responding to COVID-19. \n\nMr Kenny said the fact Australia overreacted to the threat of the virus is becoming increasingly apparent as the country learns more about the virus, treatments improve, and fatality rates around the world drop. \n\nAustralian National University’s Professor Peter Collignon said in a tweet on Tuesday the estimated infection fatality rate was close to zero for children and younger adults, but reached 0.4 per cent at 55 years, 1.3 per cent at 65, 4.5 per cent at 75, and 15 per cent at 85.\n\n“We should have been doing less to harm society, and hurt the young, and more to protect and support the elderly,” Mr Kenny said. \n\nMr Kenny said while the virus itself posed a moderate health risk to Australia, it was the country’s management of it which had damaged the nation’s society and economy incalculably. \n\nHe said the virus, as looked likely in February, “might always have been dealt with better by pulling out all stops to protect the vulnerable, to ring fence aged care homes and support the elderly, rather than crush society.”\n\n“The more we know about this disease, how it behaves, how we can combat it, and the mistakes we've made, the more it's clear we need to open up more, like Europe and North America, and learn to live with the disease,” he said. \n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »
Treasurer to announce Australia in first recession in three decades | Sky News AustraliaThe Treasurer is today expected to announce Australia has entered its first recession in almost three decades with an expected six per cent contraction in Gross Domestic Product during his national accounts address.\n\nJosh Frydenberg said the coronavirus pandemic swung 'a wrecking ball' through the economy but said Australia was doing better comparatively than other nations.\n\n'The impact... on GDP in the June quarter across the world has been staggering,' Mr Frydenberg said.\n\n'In the United Kingdom, it has been around 20 per cent. In France, it has been around 14 per cent.\n\n'The expectation is the fall here will not be as large as we've seen in other countries around the world indicating the remarkable resilience of the Australian economy.'\n\nThe contraction represented the worst economic downturn since records began in the 1950s - dwarfing a two per cent quarterly drop in 1974.\n\nThe Reserve Bank of Australia unsurprisingly announced yesterday it would again keep the cash rate on hold at the record low 0.25 per cent but Governor Philip Lowe confirmed another cut was unlikely for the 'forseeable future'.\n\nMeanwhile, the parliament has greenlighted the government's plan to cut Jobseeker and Jobkeeper payments beyond September when a two-tiered, revised system comes into effect through to March 2021.\n\nThe Treasurer argued it was time to begin winding back the government's high level of fiscal support, but said no Australian would be 'left in the lurch'.\n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »