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Ancient Sites, Sacred Snake Raise Risks For Australian Resources

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Gold miners in Australia are facing a slump in output that'll leave the nation trailing key rivals.
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Sacred sites, endangered sawfish and mythical rainbow serpents are the latest challenges confronting commodities powerhouse Australia as the nation's top mining companies meet for their biggest annual conference.
Since the destruction last year by Rio Tinto Group of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock shelter at Juukan Gorge, the industry has been scrambling to deal with a backlash over heritage protection and environmental issues. A national enquiry into the incident and new laws being drafted by the Western Australia government could have an impact on some A$18 billion ($13 billion) in projects planned by mining giants operating in the Pilbara, the nation's iron-ore heartland, as well as other resources projects.
The industry, which gathers on Monday for the three-day Diggers and Dealers conference on the edge of a huge gold mine in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, is already facing the threat of increasing restrictions on emissions, as well as a political spat with China, its biggest buyer. Now, Aboriginal communities are fighting for a stronger role to protect their culture from resources extraction and agriculture.
"The new legislation will put Aboriginal people at the center of decision making," the Western Australia government said in an emailed statement. "One of the primary objectives of the bill is to ensure that Aboriginal people have custodianship over their heritage."
The proposed new law will seek to strike a balance between giving indigenous people a stronger voice, without impeding growth in a resources industry estimated to have delivered a record A$310 billion in export revenue in fiscal 2021. Australia ranks among the top producers of metals from gold to lithium and some investors are concerned that if the rules don't provide traditional landowners with enough safeguards, it could increase the risk of another damaging incident.
"This is a once in a generation opportunity to get a piece of legislation and not just try and fix it at the edges," said Mary Delahunty, head of impact at pension fund Hesta, which has about A$60 billion in assets. She said the WA government's draft proposal does not appear to go far enough in giving indigenous groups a stronger voice.
Traditional landowners agree.
"The current draft won't prevent another Juukan Gorge," said Wayne Bergmann, interim chief executive officer of the Kimberley Land Council, which represents Aboriginal landowners in the far north of the state. Bergmann is concerned that, under the proposed legislation, the final decision on whether work can be carried out in an area of cultural significance will still be the responsibility of whichever minister is in power at the time, rather than an independent expert body.
"Fundamentally, the investment community needs to be worried because this places risk on projects," Bergmann said. The government says it was still drafting the bill, and had already made several revisions based on feedback from stakeholders.
Rio, the world's biggest iron-ore miner, said it is giving cultural heritage and environmental issues a higher priority in the wake of Juukan Gorge and has set up an indigenous advisory committee to improve its engagement with local communities. The London-based company said in April it had reviewed over 1,300 sites in the Pilbara for their potential impact on cultural heritage, with subsequent additional safeguards resulting in 54 million tons of dry ore being removed from its reserves.
The fallout from Juukan Gorge is affecting more than the mining industry. The new legislation will also affect agriculture.
One example is the plight of sawfish, which are under threat from the demands of cattle stations that extract water from the Fitzroy River, one of the last remaining nursery habitats of the critically endangered freshwater sawfish, which can grow up to 7 meters long.
The distinctive rays, with their chainsaw-like snouts, are seen in Aboriginal culture as protectors of the river. The global range of the species has declined by more than 60% since the turn of the century, according to a 2019 study by Murdoch University's Harry Butler Institute.
The WA government has extended a consultation process on water management plans for the Fitzroy River to the end of August.
The task of lawmakers is complicated by the fact that the new rules need to protect not only historical sites and the environment, but also cultural beliefs.
When iron-ore billionaire Andrew Forrest proposed building weirs on one of his cattle stations to hold water from the Ashburton River, the plan was rejected by the state government because of its potential impact on the rainbow serpent, which Aboriginal culture says resides in the river. Forrest's legal team is appealing the decision, arguing that the weirs will have minimal impact on the river flow, and the serpent will still be able to move freely.
Night Parrot
Forrest, who has a doctorate in marine ecology, has been a vocal supporter of the Aboriginal community -- indigenous people make up around 12% of the Australian-based workforce at his Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. The company vowed to protect the endangered night parrot, which had been feared extinct prior to a 2005 sighting near the group's Cloudbreak mine in the Pilbara.
Hesta's Delahunty says landowner groups should have the right to veto projects, which would reassure investors that local community concerns were being taken seriously. "It's important not just from a reconciliation point of view, but also to the financial outcomes of the company."
The WA government said it won't include a right of veto, which would be "a disincentive to agreement making."
Meanwhile, resources companies are aware that their social license to operate is under closer scrutiny than ever. Rio's former Chief Executive Officer Jean-Sebastien Jacques and other senior executives stepped down in the wake of the Juukan Gorge incident. Since Jacques' departure, Rio's shares have gained around 28% in London as iron-ore prices soared, but the FTSE All-Share Industrial Metals and Mining Index has more than doubled in the same time.
"Australia is watching," Delahunty said. "The investment community is watching this process, because on our watch we will not have another of these incidents."
--With assistance from Sanjit Das.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ancient-sites-sacred-snake-raise-risks-for-australian-resources-2498293">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ancient-sites-sacred-snake-raise-risks-for-australian-resources-2498293</a>

news world Ancient Sites, Sacred Snake Raise Risks For Australian Resources

Gold miners in Australia are facing a slump in output that'll leave the nation trailing key rivals. Sacred sites, endangered sawfish...

Sydney Covid Cases Ease Amid Tightening Of Lockdown Rules

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Australia has handled the coronavirus crisis much better than many other developed countries.
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Sydney:
Sydney on Friday reported a slight easing in locally acquired cases of COVID-19 amid a further tightening of restrictions in the worst-affected suburbs, with the military summoned to help enforce lockdown rules.
Millions in Australia's largest city began one of the country's harshest lockdowns since the pandemic started, after nearly five weeks of increasingly tough restrictions failed to quell an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.
Although cases dipped for the first time in nearly a week, state Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned cases could again rise due to the growing number of people positive with the Delta strain moving around in the community.
"We are expecting to see those numbers bounce around," Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
New South Wales reported 170 new local cases, most of them in the state capital Sydney, down from a record high of 239 set a day earlier. Of the new cases, 42 spent time in the community while infectious and 53 remained under investigation.
Berejiklian also implored people to avoid attending an anti-lockdown protest planned for Saturday in Sydney, warning they may be giving their loved ones "a death sentence".
Thousands of people joined an anti-lockdown protest in the city last weekend, drawing condemnation from police and politicians who labelled it a potential "superspreader" event.
As the city of five million heads into its sixth week of an extended lockdown, due to run until Aug. 28, the tougher new rules will affect eight local council areas, where most new infections have been reported.
More than two million people must stay within 5 km (3 miles) of their homes and have to wear masks when they step outside.
Police have been given sweeping new powers to close businesses flouting rules, while the military will begin assisting police with ensuring compliance with restrictions from Monday.
Members of the military, who won't be armed and will be under the command of the state's police, will undergo training this weekend.
New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller used the case of a worker who allegedly attended his worksite after knowing he had tested positive to defend the tougher rules.
"That sort of behaviour is exactly why we need strong health orders, law enforcement," Fuller said.
Officials are increasingly concerned about the strain on healthcare systems with hospitalisations and deaths expected to rise from the fast-moving Delta variant.
A total of 187 cases are in hospital, with 58 in intensive care, 24 of whom require ventilation. Thirteen deaths have been recorded so far in the latest outbreak.
Later on Friday, the country's national cabinet - the group of national and state leaders - will meet to discuss the country's exit strategies from the pandemic.
Australia has handled the coronavirus crisis much better than many other developed countries, with just over 34,000 cases and 923 deaths, but has been among the lowest in administering vaccines.
With about 18% of people aged over 16 fully vaccinated, Australia's immunisation drive hit several roadblocks due to changing medical advice for AstraZeneca doses over blood clot concerns and supply constraints for Pfizer shots.
Queensland state, meanwhile, is on alert after a 17-year-old school student contracted the virus, baffling officials.
"(This) is quite concerning because I'm struggling to understand how she has acquired it," state Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young told reporters.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sydney-covid-cases-ease-amid-tightening-of-lockdown-rules-2498291">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sydney-covid-cases-ease-amid-tightening-of-lockdown-rules-2498291</a>

news world Sydney Covid Cases Ease Amid Tightening Of Lockdown Rules

Australia has handled the coronavirus crisis much better than many other developed countries. Sydney: Sydney on Friday reported a sligh...

Antony Blinken Meets WHO Chief, Supports Probe Into Covid Origins

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Antony Blinken Meets WHO Chief, Supports Probe Into Covid Origins" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/60dpgpog_antony-blinkenicelandafp_625x300_19_May_21.jpg" title="Antony Blinken Meets WHO Chief, Supports Probe Into Covid Origins" /></div>
The meeting with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had not been on the US diplomat's published schedule. (File)
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Kuwait City, Kuwait:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Kuwait on Wednesday where he pledged his support to the UN agency's investigation in China into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. 
"The U.S. supports the @WHO plans for additional studies into COVID-19 origins, including in (the People's Republic of China), to better understand this pandemic and prevent future ones," Blinken tweeted after arriving in the Gulf Arab state.
The meeting with Tedros had not been on the US diplomat's published schedule.
In a statement, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Blinken "stressed the need for the next phase (of the investigation) to be timely, evidence-based, transparent, expert-led, and free from interference."
And he "emphasized the importance of the international community coming together on this matter of critical concern".
The UN health agency has been under intensifying pressure for a new, more in-depth investigation of how the disease that has killed more than four million people around the world first emerged.
The WHO was only able to send a team of independent, international experts to Wuhan in January, more than a year after Covid-19 first surfaced there, to help Chinese counterparts probe the pandemic's origins. 
Long derided as a right-wing conspiracy theory and vehemently rejected by Beijing, the idea that Covid-19 may have emerged from a lab leak has been gaining momentum.
Beijing has repeatedly insisted that a leak would have been "extremely unlikely", citing the conclusion reached by a joint WHO-Chinese mission to Wuhan in January. 
But earlier this month, the WHO said a second stage of the international probe should include audits of Chinese labs, amid increasing pressure from the United States for an investigation into a biotech lab in Wuhan. 
China said that such a proposal showed "disrespect" and "arrogance towards science". 
Blinken and Tedro also "discussed opportunities for collaboration to continue reforming and strengthening the WHO," State Department spokesman Price said. 
Former President Donald Trump had begun pulling the US out of the WHO, accusing it of being in thrall to China, but on his election to the White House, Joe Biden reversed that decision. 
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-meets-who-chief-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-supports-probe-into-covid-origins-2498283">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-meets-who-chief-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-supports-probe-into-covid-origins-2498283</a>

news world Antony Blinken Meets WHO Chief, Supports Probe Into Covid Origins

The meeting with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had not been on the US diplomat's published schedule. (File) Kuwait City, Kuwait: US Se...

MacKenzie Scott, Melinda Gates Give $40 Million To Gender Equality Groups

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Melinda Gates has also pledged to spend $1 billion to support gender equality through Pivotal Ventures
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Philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates joined forces Thursday to give $40 million to four organizations that promote gender equality.
The recipients were part of the Equality Can't-Wait Challenge, which was announced last year by Scott and French Gates and also funded by billionaire Lynn Schusterman's family foundation. The projects winning $10 million each were selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants working in fields including technology, education, care-giving and indigenous communities. An additional $8 million was split between two finalists.
"The awardees are strong teams working on the front lines and from within communities to help women build power in their lives and careers," Scott said in a statement. French Gates said she hoped the funding would help "break the patterns of history and advance gender equality."
Scott is the world's third-richest woman, with a fortune of $64.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while French Gates has a net worth of $3.2 billion.
Both women have renewed control over the directions of their fortunes after separating from their husbands in recent months and years. They've also made supporting gender equality a centerpiece of their charitable efforts.
Record Giving
The challenge, launched the year after Scott and Amazon.com Inc. co-founder Jeff Bezos divorced, was one of Scott's first major philanthropic efforts, only to be overshadowed a month later when she announced that she'd given away $1.7 billion to 116 nonprofits. Since then, Scott distributed more than $6.8 billion to hundreds of other organizations in what is likely an annual record for a living person. The beneficiaries include groups that focus on women's health and education.
Earlier this year, French Gates announced a divorce of her own, throwing into question the future of the largest private family foundation on the planet.
She and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates initially insisted their split wouldn't affect the foundation, but since the May announcement there have been several major changes. Those include a plan to add more trustees and an agreement that French Gates might leave in two years if the ex-couple can't work together.
In a show of commitment, they promised an additional $15 billion to the foundation's endowment and launched a $2.1 billion gender equity-focused campaign. French Gates has also pledged to spend $1 billion to support gender equality through Pivotal Ventures, which hosted the joint challenge with Scott and Schusterman.
The $10 million recipients announced Thursday are Building Women's Equality through Strengthening the Care Infrastructure, Changing the Face of Tech, Girls Inc.'s Project Accelerate and The Future is Indigenous Womxn. The $8 million recipients are FreeFrom, which fights intimate-partner violence, and IGNITE, which trains women to enter political activism.
--With assistance from Sophie Alexander.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mackenzie-scott-melinda-french-gates-give-40-million-to-gender-equality-groups-2498270">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mackenzie-scott-melinda-french-gates-give-40-million-to-gender-equality-groups-2498270</a>

news world MacKenzie Scott, Melinda Gates Give $40 Million To Gender Equality Groups

Melinda Gates has also pledged to spend $1 billion to support gender equality through Pivotal Ventures Philanthropists MacKenzie Scott a...

World Races To Contain Delta Variant, US Steps Up Anti-Virus Plan

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The surge in cases has left early vaccine adopters angry at those who have so far opted against the jab.
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Washington, United States:
Governments around the world on Thursday raced to head off a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the Delta variant, with US President Joe Biden offering new incentives to vaccine holdouts and Israel authorizing booster shots.
The World Health Organization warned the highly transmissible strain of the virus, first detected in India, could unleash a "fourth wave" of cases in its Eastern Mediterranean zone -- an area stretching from Morocco to Pakistan.
Those countries are especially at risk because vaccination rates are low -- only 5.5 percent of the region's population has been fully vaccinated. So in nations where vaccines are more available, public officials are sounding the alarm.
"People are dying -- and will die -- who don't have to die," Biden said in a speech on his administration's new initiatives aimed at curbing the spread. "If you're out there and unvaccinated, you don't have to die."
He said all federal government workers would be asked to reveal their vaccination status -- and those without the jab would have to mask in the workplace and submit to Covid-19 tests.
The Democratic president also said he would ask the Pentagon to consider making the coronavirus vaccine mandatory for active duty military personnel, and asked state and local governments to offer $100 to holdouts who get the shot.
"If incentives help us beat this virus, I believe we should use them. We all benefit if we can get more people vaccinated," Biden said.
In Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that those over the age of 60 would be offered a third dose of vaccine -- a booster shot available from Sunday.
"I call on all elderly people who have already been vaccinated to receive this additional dose," Bennett said. "Protect yourselves."
"The decision was based on considerable research and analysis, as well as the rise in risk of the Delta variant wave," Bennett said.
Israel quickly rolled out its vaccination campaign and had dropped many restrictions on public gatherings in June, but infections soared, and masks are once again mandatory in enclosed public places.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also urged people living in Covid hotspots -- even the vaccinated -- to mask up indoors.
The surge in cases across America has left the early vaccine adopters angry at those who have so far opted against the jab.
"It's almost like they don't care about the rest of the world. They're being selfish and self-centered," Alethea Reed, a 58-year-old health care administrator in Washington, told AFP.
Mixed bag of measures
The global coronavirus situation is a mixed one: while some places like the French territory of La Reunion and Spain's Catalonia region are instituting new curbs, others are easing up on restrictions.
Portugal said it would lift its anti-virus measures in several phases from Sunday, with shops and restaurants allowed to open for longer hours and working from home no longer compulsory.
But at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, already delayed by a year due to the pandemic, the virus continued to wreak havoc, with nearly 200 infections among the athletes, media and employees taking part in the Games.
Among them were US pole vault hopeful Sam Kendricks, a two-time world champion, and two high-profile golfers: world number one Jon Rahm and 2020 US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau.
Japan hit a new record for the number of daily cases -- more than 10,000 -- on Thursday, and a state of emergency already in place in Tokyo was to be extended to four more regions.
"The current situation is the worst ever," a top government advisor on the virus, Shigeru Omi, warned, according to national broadcaster NHK.
In Mexico, the national statistics institute said more than 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus were recorded in 2020 -- 35 percent more than originally reported by the government
And in China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged in the city of Wuhan, small outbreaks driven by the Delta variant were reported in three provinces. 
China is racing to vaccinate at least 65 percent of its 1.4-billion population by the end of the year.
So far, the virus has killed more than 4.1 million people around the world, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources. The United States has the highest death toll, at more than 612,000.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/world-races-to-contain-delta-variant-us-steps-up-anti-virus-plan-2498264">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/world-races-to-contain-delta-variant-us-steps-up-anti-virus-plan-2498264</a>

news world World Races To Contain Delta Variant, US Steps Up Anti-Virus Plan

The surge in cases has left early vaccine adopters angry at those who have so far opted against the jab. Washington, United States: Gov...

Lockdown Advocate Now Says Official COVID Infection Rates are “Fishy” Because They’re Dropping

Lockdown advocates who have repeatedly cited rising infection rates as a reason to maintain restrictions are now saying that those same figures are “fishy,” “suspicious,” and unreliable after they started to drop.
Who are the ‘conspiracy theorists’ now?
Reported COVID cases in the UK have <a href="https://dailysceptic.org/2021/07/29/reported-covid-cases-down-by-more-than-a-fifth-on-last-thursday-in-u-k/">dropped</a> by 22% since Thursday last week and cases are falling in every English local authority.
Up until Wednesday, official day to day statistics showed that cases had dropped for seven days in a row, despite restrictions largely being lifted on July 19th.
The fact that the Euro football championships, ‘freedom day’ and the delta variant haven’t combined to create an explosion of new COVID cases seems to have disappointed lockdown advocates like Professor Tim Spector.
According to Spector, who previously called for mask mandates to remain indefinitely, the “sudden drop” in people testing positive for the virus in the government’s data is “very suspicious”.
“It’s dropped something like 30% in two days, which is pretty much unheard of in pandemics, and remember this is happening without restrictions, without lockdowns, without some sudden event,” <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-uks-daily-coronavirus-data-looks-a-bit-fishy-as-major-symptom-study-suggests-cases-on-the-rise-12366866">said</a> Spector.
“To me, it looks a bit fishy. It looks as if there’s some other explanation for this other than suddenly the virus has given up,” he added.
OK, calm down Mr. tin foil hat.
Spector’s rhetoric is particularly funny given that the media has previously demonized anyone who questions official government statistics on COVID infection rates and death tolls as dangerous conspiracy theorists.
Now that the numbers appear to be disproving the argument for lockdown, suddenly those numbers are “suspicious” and unreliable.
As we previously <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/26/government-adviser-who-warned-of-200000-covid-cases-a-day-faces-scrutiny-after-dramatic-fall-in-uk-infections/">highlighted</a>, Professor Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist who predicted there would be as many as 200,000 COVID cases a day by this point, was also proven spectacularly wrong yet again.
This also speaks to the fact that lockdown advocates who have built up significant acclaim and media exposure over the last 16 months are seemingly upset that the pandemic might be coming to an end.
Irate Twitter mobs who have repeatedly demanded harsher lockdowns also seem to be genuinely upset when COVID infection rates and death tolls begin to drop.
While all the time grandstanding as “kind” and “compassionate” as they screech at you for “killing granny.”
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/29/lockdown-advocate-now-says-official-covid-infection-rates-are-fishy-because-theyre-dropping/">https://summit.news/2021/07/29/lockdown-advocate-now-says-official-covid-infection-rates-are-fishy-because-theyre-dropping/</a>

revolution summit Lockdown Advocate Now Says Official COVID Infection Rates are “Fishy” Because They’re Dropping

Lockdown advocates who have repeatedly cited rising infection rates as a reason to maintain restrictions are now saying that those same figu...