LAST WEEK THIS MORNING
Anti-war protests in Israel
Last week protests demanding Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government to enact a ceasefire and hostage deal broke out across Israel.
After the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six of the remaining 90 captives some 700,000 protestors took to the streets and striked causing an hours long economic shutdown.
The general strike called by Histadurt, Israel's national trade union, was soon halted by a government petition which labelled the act ‘political’.
Before October 7 there had been widespread demonstrations disapproving of a proposal by Netanyahu which sought to increase his government's power and help him avoid corruption charges.
Since October 7 where 1,100 people were killed and 240 taken captive, over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Protests have since erupted putting pressure on the Israeli government to secure a hostage deal.
Out of the 1,240 protests since that day, 82 percent were peaceful, while nine per cent ended violently.
Israeli pollster and a former aide to several senior political figures, Mitchell Barak, told Al Jazeera the plight of Palestinians is still neglected.
“Young people are also demonstrating, because many of those taken on October 7th [from the Nova music festival or the young soldiers taken that day] were around the same age, and the responsibility for defending the country falls on their shoulders,” he said.
He added that many protesters believe Netanyahu’s government is deliberately stalling a deal.
Israeli analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg also said the protests seem to exclusively focus on Israeli captives.
“The issue of returning the hostages is centre stage,” Israeli analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said.
“An understanding that a deal would also mean an end to the conflict is there, but rarely stated.
“A few voices among the demonstrators were calling for an end to the conflict [but] as far as the protests’ leadership goes it’s all about the hostages.”
Netanyahu's response to the killing of the six captives was that a “heavy price” would be paid by Hamas but did not respond to allegation of deal stalling.
Last November a temporary seven day ceasefire was achieved which saw the release of 105 Israeli captives and the return of 210 palestinian prisoners held by Israeli forces most of whom were women and children.
Brazil banned X
Brazil, the fifth largest internet user globally has banned X.
The ban came into effect last weekend following a long-running battle between X owner Elon Musk and Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes
The battle began when De Moraes ordered the platform to block far-right users.
From 2020 to 2023 initiated three criminal inquiries related to social media platforms.
The first was in investigation into fraudulent news, and the second investigated groups that spread manipulated information.
The third looked at individuals involved in Brazil's attack on Congress which followed the defeat of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Back in April de Moraes ordered Musk to shut down several accounts which had spread far right misinformation and disinformation about Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat.
After the attack on Congress in January 2023 the Brazilian Supreme Court also ordered several social media platforms including X to block far right accounts.
Although he opposed the order Musk complied with the January order.
This time Musk has refused to comply and removed X’s Brazilian legal representative, which further breaches Brazilian law which mandates that foreign companies have legal representation in the Country.
De Moraes gave Musk a deadline by which he had to appoint a new representative, which Musk did not meet.
This resulted in the platforms banning in Brazil and de Moraes also blocking the financial accounts of Starlink, Musk’s internet satellite service.
It will not be until Musk meets the requirements of the orders, including appointing a representative and paying a $4.85 million fine that the ban on X will be lifted.
Any Brazilian, including the 22 million X users who tried to use the platform is set to face a fine of $13,000 each day they use the app.
In response to the ban Musk has claimed that de Moraes is a “fake judge” and that “the oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries.”
However the ban suggests a broader shift in Brazil, and globally, of governments putting stricter restrictions on tech giants and social media platforms.
Family Violence funding
National cabinet has pledged $4.7 billion in a plan to improve frontline support for people escaping family violence.
The plan builds on about $1 billion in the federal budget allocated to the Leaving Violence program, which offers survivors financial support packages to leave abusive relationships.
The federal government has committed further to funding extending beyond the five-year deal as stated by Prime Minister Albanese.
“What those legal services will benefit from is the certainty of knowing what is coming as they go forward.” he said.
“ending family, domestic and sexual violence in a generation” needs an “all-hands-on-deck approach”.
National cabinet’s commitment arrives after the domestic and sexual violence commissioner’s rapid review blamed alcohol, gambling and porn industries for failing to address their products’ influence in inciting violence.
The federal government is continuing to work on a ban on gambling advertising while states and territories have agreed to review their alcohol laws.
Approximately $800 million will be committed to increasing funding to legal aid services, with a focus on gender-based violence.
This comes after the review also advocated for a “significant funding uplift” in specific frontline areas such as the legal assistance sector.
Women’s Legal Services Australia told the rapid review that an estimated 52, 000 people, many of whom experience domestic, family and sexual violence, are turned away every year.
Chair of Community Legal Centres Australia Arlia Fleming told ABC News that services will be forced to continue turning away people until the funding kicks in next July.
“At my centre, we have a four-week waitlist that has been consistent now for over 12 months and we need $550, 000 a year.” she said.
The review also emphasised the “dire need” for crisis accommodation, particularly in remote and regional areas such as the Torres Strait.
Other issues the National cabinet will debate include measures to electronically monitor high-risk perpetrators, and ways to help young people who have been exposed to violence.
Some criticisms have arisen over support worker shortages with Queensland Premier Steven Miles saying that states could not just “magic these workers up”.
Possible Recession?
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia’s economy grew by one percent over the last year.
This is the weakest annual growth rate recorded in years, in seasonally adjusted terms.
Aside from the pandemic years, this year's economic growth rate is the slowest since 1991-92.
RBA forecasts predicted that the economy would record an annual growth rate of 0.9 per cent in the June quarter.
APAC economist at Indeed Callam Pickering told ABC News that “For the sixth consecutive quarter, Australian economic activity declined on a per capita basis”.
“That’s why it feels like a recession for many Australians, despite economic growth remaining positive and unemployment relatively low,” Pickering said.
Economic growth was driven by increased government spending and international students and visitors and hindered by high inflation and interest rates during the June Quarter.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers blamed successive interest rate rises for “smashing the economy”.
“With all this global uncertainty on top of the impact of rate rises which are smashing the economy it would be no surprise at all if the national accounts on Wednesday show growth is soft and subdued,” Mr Chalmers said.
The RBA has raised interest rates 13 times since May 2022 in an attempt to slow spending.
Consumer spending also declined by 0.2 per cent in the June quarter. This is the largest quarterly decline since the global financial crisis - excluding COVID.
Westpac senior economist Pat Bustamante told ABC News that “weakness in consumer spending is spilling over into business…with new business investment up just 0.1 per cent in the June quarter.”
Since this economic slowdown is in line with RBA forecasts, economists say that the RBA board will not be making any sudden interest rate moves.
Currently, “trimmed mean” inflation is at an annual pace of 3.8 per cent, above the RBA’s 2-3 per cent target.
Russian spy whale found dead
A beluga whale thought to be a Russian spy has died after a stick became stuck in its mouth in Norway.
The whale, named Hvaldimir, became infamous after his tame nature and strange harness fitted with a camera mount prompted suspicions that it had been trained by Russia as a spy.
This is not the first instance of Russians allegedly training marine animals. The Russian navy has reportedly trained dolphins and whales.
Hvaldimir, named after Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Norwegian word for whale, was found deceased on 31 August in Risavika Bay in Southern Norway.
Police investigated Hvaldimir’s death after animal rights groups OneWhale and NOAH alleged that the whale had been shot.
The organisations alleged that circular holes in Hvaldimir’s body were deliberate gunshot wounds.
However, the autopsy indicated a far more mundane cause of death; a stick.
Norwegian police said that “There is nothing in the investigations that have been carried out to establish that it is human activity that has directly led to Hvaldimir’s death.”
Theories on what caused the ‘gunshot wounds’ include that they were created by hungry seabirds.