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All changes compared to 7am Friday, except Bit-coin

Papua New Guinea 'blessed' By China visit - Albo in hot Pursuit:

It's becoming a fairly regular pattern now in Papua New Guinea that foreign leaders appear to visit within a short window of time from one another.

China's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, will have departed Port Moresby's Jacksons International Airport just over 24 hours before Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese touches down for an extended visit to walk the Kokoda Track.

PNG prime minister James Marape summed it up neatly on Sunday morning:

"They didn't plan to be back-to-back … but PNG is blessed," he told reporters.

While relations between Canberra and Beijing are thawing, there's still considerable geo-political posturing taking place in the South Pacific.

Mr Wang spent the weekend in Port Moresby for meetings with Mr Marape and PNG's Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko, with the two nations signing several agreements, relating to trade and information communication technology.

In his remarks following a bilateral meeting on Saturday, Minister Wang took aim at Australia and the AUKUS partnership – a security relationship for the Indo-Pacific region between Australia, the US and UK — claiming it "instigated division … not in line with the urgent needs of Pacific Island countries."

He also said that China saw Pacific Island countries as an "indispensable partner", with assistance given to countries without "strings attached", or an "imposition of our will."

And in a not-so-veiled swipe at language used by Ex-PM Morrison, Mr Wang said Pacific Islands weren't the "backyard of any major country."

But Australian officials will be elated at what Mr Marape had to say ahead of the Australian prime minister's visit.

"Australia-PNG relationship is also second to none," he said.

Biden suggests ‘Uncle Bosie’ was eaten by PNG cannibals !

Joe Biden’s suggestion that his uncle may have been eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea during world war two has been met with a mixture of bemusement and criticism in the country.

Joe spoke about his uncle, 2nd Lt Ambrose J Finnegan Jr, while campaigning in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, describing how “Uncle Bosie” had flown single engine planes as reconnaissance flights during the war.

Biden said he “got shot down in New Guinea”, adding “They never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea.”

Official war records say Finnegan was killed when a plane on which he was a passenger experienced engine failure and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

No Comment !

London awards 'Bluey' for its cultural success:

'Bluey' has received a special recognition award from the Australian High Commissioner in London acknowledging its significant cultural impact in the UK and around the world. 

Australia House was transformed into "Bluey House" for the ceremony on Sunday morning, which featured a marching band procession, much to the delight of young onlookers.

As Bluey appeared out of Australia's oldest diplomatic mission, the beloved character was greeted to loud cheers and applause. 

"It's great that Bluey has expanded all over the world and it's not just an Australian thing," 14-year-old Henry said. 

Eight-year-old Annaliese found the performance "Amazing" and "The music was really catchy". 

High Commissioner Stephen Smith said this was a special one-off award.

"I will award today the highest honour I'm authorised to give," he said.

Show creator Joe Brumm paid tribute to "Everyone who helped bring Bluey to life". 

"Our beautiful country is a character in the show just as much as any of the dogs, so to have brought it into the living rooms of the whole world, encouraging people to come and visit is something I'll always be proud of," he said in a statement. 

US poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of violations in West Bank

The Guardian - Page Online : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Peter Beaumont - Portmac.News Summary

The US State Department is understood to be planning sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces' Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has been accused of serious human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

They would be imposed under the 1997 Leahy law, and would bar the transfer of US military aid to the unit, as well as prevent its soldiers and officers from participating in training either with the US military or in programmes that receive US funding.

Chalmers carries weight of the world

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Patrick Commins - Portmac.News Summary

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned that the global economic outlook is 'Fraught and fragile', which will be reflected in the federal government's budget on 14 May.

Chalmers says the uncertain outlook dominated the series of meetings attended by finance ministers and central banks in Washington DC, from which he has just returned.

He adds that the conflict in the Middle East is casting a shadow over the global economy.

The Treasury is expected to downgrade its 2023-24 and 2024-25 economic growth forecasts for Australia due to growing concern about the outlook for major trading partners such as China, Japan and the US.

China putting us to shame says Gina

The Australian - Page 2 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Adam Creighton - Portmac.News Summary

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has used her keynote address at an Institute of Public Affairs conference on the Gold Coast to claim that the Chinese government is 'Doing a better job than ours'.

Rinehart suggested that while the federal government is running down the nation's defence capacity, China is building up its defence capacity, while she also suggested China's policies in areas such as energy and education were superior to those of Australia's.

Rinehart also claimed that the federal government's net zero emission policies could lead to the demise of the agricultural sector.

Musk's taunts reflect 'weak laws'

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 4 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Tom McIlroy - Portmac.News Summary

Both sides of politics have attacked Elon Musk for likening eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant to a Communist enforcer.

Musk mocked her demands that his social media platform 'X' remove video of the Sydney church stabbing.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says the federal government expects platforms to remove violent content immediately, but Queensland University of Technology law professor Nicolas Suzor suggests Musk's self-styled position as a free speech absolutist means he is unlikely to act on the directions of a government regulator.

Suzor says Musk's response is an example of the showdowns between international platforms and governments around the world who are seeking to regulate them.

Linda Reynolds welcomes Brittany Higgins's 'olive branch'

abc.net.au - Page Online : 22 April 2024 - Portmac.News Summary

Brittany Higgins has released a statement in response to Bruce Lehrmann's failed defamation case against Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten.

With Justice Michael Lee ruling on a balance of probabilities that Higgins was raped by Lehrmann at Parliament House in 2019.

Higgins used her statement to apologise to Senator Linda Reynolds and then chief of staff Fiona Brown, noting they too had been hurt and for that she apologised.

Reynolds says that she welcomes Higgins' 'Olive branch', but that she will continue with her defamation case against her if Higgins does not accept Lee's findings that there was no attempted political cover-up of her rape claim by the then Morrison government.

WA energy giants told to use gas fields

The Australian Financial Review - Page 6 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Tom Rabe - Portmac.News Summary

Santos and Chevron are among the companies that have applied to renew their licences for gas fields located off the coast of Western Australia.

Meanwhile, the WA government has urged its federal counterpart to direct energy companies to either develop offshore gas fields or surrender their licences under the 'Use it or lose it' regime.

Premier Roger Cook says his government is encouraging energy groups to do so, contending that an ongoing supply of gas is crucial to the state's energy security.

Ocean spray emits more PFAS than industrial polluters

The Guardian - Page Online : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Tom Perkins - Portmac.News Summary

Researchers have found that waves crashing on the world's shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world's industrial polluters.

With PFAs being a class of 15,000 chemicals used to make products resistant to water, stains and heat that have been dubbed 'forever chemicals' because they do not naturally break down and are highly mobile once in the environment.

The findings of the research raises concerns about environmental contamination and human exposure along coastlines, with PFAs linked to cancer, birth defects and a range of other serious diseases. 

Fortescue slams Biden hydrogen incentive rules

The Australian Financial Review - Page 19 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Peter Ker - Portmac.News Summary

Iron ore miner Fortescue is seeking to become a major player in hydrogen and renewable energy, and has previously flagged plans to construct a $US550 million ($857 million) green hydrogen project in Arizona.

However, with Fortescue attacking the proposed design of the Biden administration's green hydrogen tax rules, it is likely that it might announce that the rules may force it to make changes to the project when it issues its quarterly financial update on Wednesday.

Fortescue has claimed the rules could triple the cost of low-carbon hydrogen projects.

Inside the rise and fall of EV player Tritium

The Australian Financial Review - Page 12 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Mark Ludlow - Portmac.News Summary

Brisbane technology company Tritium was placed into voluntary administration on Friday, just a little over two years after CEO Jane Hunter was invited to speak at a press conference at the White House.

The press conference, at which US President Joe Biden thanked the company for building a factory in Tennessee to produce 30,000 of its electric vehicle fast chargers a year, came not long after it had listed on the NASDAQ with a $2 billion valuation.

The inability of Tritium management to keep its costs under control has been seen as one of the reasons for its demise, as was its insistence on having a factory in Brisbane as well as the US.

Cettire's top backer sells over 'red flag'

The Australian Financial Review - Page 17 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Joshua Peach - Portmac.News Summary

LHC Capital has sold out of online luxury platform Cettire, despite previously having been one of its biggest supporters.

LHC co-chief investment officer Marcus Hughes had said in 2023 that he thought that Cettire was likely to form a global duopoly with Farfetch - a Nasdaq-listed retailer that went on to be rescued from collapse in December.

In announcing it had sold out of Cettire, LHC stated that the fact that founder and CEO Dean Mintz had sold Cettire shares totalling $362 million "In quick time" could not be seen as anything other than a "Red flag".

Don't settle for lazy old habits, says brain expert

The Australian Financial Review - Page 11 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Jill Margo - Portmac.News Summary

Leading neuroscientist Raymond Dolan says that regular routines might be seen by people as less demanding, but they can cause the brain to get lazy and can increase a person's chances of getting dementia.

A professor of neuropsychiatry at University College London and director of the UCL-Max Planck Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing, Dolan says he tries to keep his brain stimulated by changing his environment as often as he can.

Meanwhile he says that decision making is the result of complex interactions between three systems in the brain - impulsive, habitual and goal-directed.

TV networks' cry for help as 83% of young viewers dump free-to-air

The Australian Financial Review - Page 31 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones - Portmac.News Summary

The federal government has proposed expanding the range of sports that are included in the anti-siphoning list.

However, digital streaming rights will not be part of the reforms.

Free TV Australia's chairman Greg Hywood contends that having access to digital rights rather than just broadcast rights is crucial to the sustainability of commercial networks.

Meanwhile, Free TV noted in its submission to a government review of junk food advertising that teenagers now watch commercial TV for an average of 13 minutes per day, compared with an average of 75 minutes in 2011.

Seven's Sunrise probed over Bondi bungle

The Australian - Page 23 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Sophie Elsworth - Portmac.News Summary

The Seven Network has launched an internal investigation to determine who at Weekend Sunrise was responsible for allowing Benjamin Cohen to be wrongly named on air as the Westfield Bondi Junction mass murderer.

Cohen was named by both Matt Shirvington and reporter Lucy McLeod on the 14 April broadcast of Weekend Sunrise as the culprit, when it was actually 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi.

It is understood that Seven has taken statements from all staff involved in the broadcast, and that the investigation process is focused on two news producers on the early morning news shift.

ABC's spending on advertising skyrockets

The Australian - Page 24 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Sophie Elsworth - Portmac.News Summary

Data obtained via freedom of information shows that the ABC spent $6.03m on advertising, promotions and audience research in the March quarter, which is 69% higher year-on-year.

This includes advertising expenditure of $3.84m, up from just $1.78m during the same period in 2023.

The FOI data was obtained by the Institute of Public Affairs; IPA research analyst Mia Schlicht says this "Wasteful expenditure" on self-promotion is unnecessary, given that the ABC's audience share is declining.

Councils battle to snare SBS homebase

The Australian - Page 24 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Cameron England, James Madden - Portmac.News Summary

A spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has indicated that the federal government's feasibility study into relocating SBS's headquarters from Artarmon to Western Sydney is 'Ongoing'.

Labor committed to undertaking the feasibility study prior to the 2022 election, and stated in April 2023 that a preliminary finding on whether or not the relocation of SBS is feasible was expected by the end of that year.

Meanwhile, local councils in Western Sydney have been promoting their credentials to host the multicultural broadcaster if a decision to relocate is made.

Aussie museums rank among world's most boring attractions

The New Daily - Page Online : 19 April 2024 - Original article by Ash Cant - Portmac.News Summary

Online gaming company Solitaired has released the findings of its research into the 100 most boring tourism destinations in the world.

The US accounts for eight of the 10 tourist attractions that are deemed to be the most boring, while the overall list is dominated by the US, Australia and Canada.

The Branson Scenic Railway in Missouri has been named the world's most boring tourist attraction, based on 66.7 million Google reviews of 3,290 tourist attractions worldwide.

The WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth is ranked 16th, ahead of other Australian tourist attractions such as Luna Park in Melbourne and the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart.

Port Hedland iron exports to take a $25b hit

The Australian Financial Review - Page 4 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Brad Thompson - Portmac.News Summary

A report from consulting firm ACIL Allen has found that the Port Hedland mining supply chain supports one in every nine jobs in Western Australia.

The report, which was produced on behalf of the Port Hedland Industries Council, also forecasts that the value of production linked to Port Hedland will peak at $89.2bn in 2023-24, before falling to $64.2bn by 2027-28.

The findings are based on price and export volume data for iron ore and lithium that was provided by port users, which include BHP, Fortescue, Roy Hill and Mineral Resources.

Rio Tinto ships salt from Port Hedland but uses separate port facilities for iron ore shipments.

There's a graphene called 'goldene' and it could enable gold semiconductors to make green hydrogen

Stockhead - Page Online : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Gregor Stronach - Portmac.News Summary

Researchers at Sweden's Linkoping University have discovered how to make goldene, which is just like graphene, except that it is made from gold.

The discovery opens the way for gold to be used in new applications such as carbon dioxide conversion, water purification and hydrogen production.

Meanwhile traditional applications that require gold could potentially see the amount of gold required reduced quite significantly.

Cautious buyers a dampener on Sydney auctions

The Australian Financial Review - Page 9 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Nila Sweeney - Portmac.News Summary

Preliminary auction data from CoreLogic shows that Sydney's residential clearance rate was 73.8% in the week to Saturday, down from 74.3% a week earlier.

Tim Lawless of CoreLogic says the clearance rate has eased over recent weeks, but it remains above the long-term average.

BresicWhitney CEO Thomas McGlynn in turn notes that growing expectations that interest rates will not fall in the near-term has made prospective Sydney buyers more reluctant to exceed their budget limit.

The preliminary clearance rate in Melbourne increased to 72.7%, while the national clearance rate rose to 74.4%.

ASX set to bounce

The Australian Financial Review - Page 25 : 22 April 2024 - Original article by Joshua Peach - Portmac.News Summary

Futures pricing suggests that the Australian sharemarket will open 27 points higher today.

The local bourse is expected to recover some of the losses incurred in the previous week, despite a mixed lead from Wall Street.

Experts say that the limited nature of Israel's retaliatory attack against Iran means that investors' focus is likely to shift to economic data this week, including Australia's CPI data for the three months to March and quarterly GDP data from the US.

The S&P/ASX 200 closed 1% lower at 7,567.3 points on Friday.