Robodebt: Illegal Australian welfare hunt drove people to despair
A landmark inquiry in Australia has found an illegal welfare hunt by the previous government made victims feel like criminals and caused suicides.
Known locally as "Robodebt", it was an automated government scheme which incorrectly demanded welfare recipients pay back benefits.
People received letters saying they owed thousands of dollars in debt, based off an incorrect algorithm.
More than half a million Australians were affected by the policy.
The scheme ran from 2016 until it was ruled illegal by a court in 2019. It had forced some of the country's poorest people to pay off false debts.
Many were forced into worse financial circumstances - taking out loans, selling their cars or using savings to pay off a debt they were told they had to pay within weeks. Others described being vilified and feeling shame after being told they owed money.
French authorities ban march for black man who died in police custody
Members of Adama Traoré justice campaign say stopping event could worsen tensions after police shooting of Nahel in Nanterre
French authorities have banned an annual march in memory of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016, sparking anger and a court challenge by lawyers.
The government is still reeling from six nights of unrest after Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian background, was shot dead by police during a traffic stop in Nanterre, outside Paris. More than 23,000 fires were lit as young men clashed with police and threw fireworks at officers, 12,000 vehicles were torched, more than 2,000 public buildings were damaged and shops and supermarkets were looted.
Climate: Landmark shipping deal aims to cut emissions faster
The UN's maritime agency announced an agreement to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping industry by about 2050. But many experts say the deal falls well short of what is necessary and possible.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Friday sealed a deal that sets more ambitious emissions-cutting targets than previously envisaged.
The IMO agreed to cut total annual emissions of greenhouse gases "by at least 20%, striving for 30% by 2030" and "by at least 70%, striving for 80%, by 2040."
The goals go well beyond a 2008 plan that targeted a 50% reduction by mid-century.
The agency called the deal "historic," adding that it "remains committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping and, as a matter of urgency, aims to phase them out as soon as possible."
The shipping industry contributes 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN, roughly the same as aviation. Most of the world's some 100,000 cargo ships are still powered by highly polluting diesel.
How Russian state media is tearing down Prigozhin’s reputation as a ‘man of the people’
The public broadcast of police raids on Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s home and office are an obvious attack on the mercenary’s cherished reputation as a straight-talking patriot fighting against corruption – and, experts say, a warning to anyone else who might challenge President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
As humilations go, they don’t come much more public.
On Wednesday night, state-owned broadcaster Rossiya-1 broadcast what it described as exclusive footage of raids launched on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s St Petersburg residence and office the night after the head of the mercenary Wagner Group called off his march on Moscow.
It was a rare look into the lavish lifestyle that only years of running an international mercenary force can buy. Among the obligatory grand piano, indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna, the footage showed more explicit mementos of almost a decade spent building a private militia with the full backing of the Russian state: an arsenal of automatic weapons, crates of gold bullion, a sheaf of false passports and, in one closet, shelf after shelf of unconvincing wigs.
Lottery to buy apartments at Olympic village set for July 17
By SOICHI TSUCHIDATE/ Staff Writer
July 7, 2023 at 16:49 JST
Applications to purchase units in the last two available skyscraper apartment buildings in a complex that housed athletes during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will begin on July 8.
This time around, measures have been taken to prevent resellers looking to make a quick profit.
In previous sales, buyers flocked to purchase the luxury apartments, attracted by their affordability compared to the surrounding market price and their location in the popular bay area close to Tokyo’s Ginza district.
The odds of winning an apartment in the lottery reached a high of 1 in 266.
This week’s record-breaking global temperatures are likely highest in ‘at least 100,000 years’
The planet’s temperature soared again on Thursday to levels not seen in the modern record-keeping era, marking the fourth straight day of record temperatures. These alarming new records are likely the highest temperatures in “at least 100,000 years,” one scientist told CNN.
The global average daily temperature climbed to 17.23 degrees Celsius (63.01 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, which uses data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
It’s been a week of record-breaking temperatures. On Monday, the average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest in the NCEP’s data, which goes back to 1979. On Tuesday it climbed to 17.18 degrees Celsius, where it remained on Wednesday.
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