Good afternoon. The focus in Gaza has narrowed today to al-Shifa hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, where Israeli and Palestinian sources confirm the presence of Israeli forces.
The Israel Defence Forces said it was “carrying out a precise and targeted operation” against Hamas in al-Shifa hospital. Gaza’s health ministry was quoted by a Palestinian news agency as saying that “dozens of soldiers” have entered the hospital’s emergency department building, and that tanks have entered the complex.
Israel claims that Hamas has built its headquarters in bunkers and tunnels under the hospital, which Hamas and Gaza’s health authorities strenuously deny. Human Rights Watch said it could not corroborate the Israeli allegation. A White House official, speaking after the operation was announced, said the US does not want to see a firefight in a hospital.
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Top news
Labor to rush through immigration detention legislation after court ruling | Labor will try to push legislation this week to deal with the fallout of the high court’s decision that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful. The home affairs minister suggested the government was considering non-detention options which could include greater powers to put conditions on release, and electronic monitoring. The high court ruling led to the release of 81 people from immigration detention.
Critical infrastructure under regular and rising attack from hackers | Just days after a major ports company was forced to shut down operations due to a cyber-attack, the Australian Signals Directorate has issued a strong warning of regular cyber-attacks. In the last financial year, ASD responded to 1,100 cybersecurity incidents, 10% of which were ransomware attacks. The agency informed 158 entities of ransomware activity on their networks.
Wages grew by 1.3% in September quarter | The quarterly increase was the most since the series began in 1997 while the annual pace of 4% was the highest since the March quarter of 2009. In real terms, inflation still outpaced wages by 1.4%.
Employers urged to create more part-time management roles | Making more senior positions open to part-time workers could assist in decreasing the gender pay gap and retaining talented staff, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, which has found only 7% of managers are employed part-time in Australia.
Sydney airport accuses Qantas of strategically cancelling flights | Qantas has been accused of continuing to strategically cancel flights to block competition by Sydney airport’s chief executive, Geoff Culbert, who warns the embattled airline is making it difficult for Australians to “fall in love with Qantas again”. Speaking at an industry conference, Culbert said September cancellation data showed the Qantas-owned Jetstar cancelled 9.9% of flights, Virgin cancelled 9.3% and Qantas cancelled 7.4% of flights on the Sydney-Melbourne route. “Interestingly, the cancellation rate for Rex was zero,” he said.
Elon Musk’s X fails to pay $610,500 Australian fine | The fine was issued by Australia’s e-safety commissioner last month over the company’s communications around its handling of child abuse material. Experts have suggested that it is unlikely X would respond to the fine.
Xi Jinping in US for first time in six years | China’s president is due to meet Joe Biden at an undisclosed location in San Francisco and then attend the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Anthony Albanese will also be attending the summit. The meeting comes as a new global survey found many in major non-western nations were split on their preferences between better relations with the US or China.
New Zealand bird of the century | New Zealand has crowned the pūteketeke – a bird that grunts, pukes and has a highly unusual repertoire of mating rituals – as its bird of the century. The annual competition was inundated with a record number of votes after the comedian John Oliver took the Australasian crested grebe under his wing.
Full Story
How big banks are cashing in on mortgage stress
Australia’s major banks are reporting huge profits at a time when many are struggling to pay their mortgage or rent. Click here to listen to this 19-minute episode.
What they said …
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“The figures are so huge, 11,000, 12,000, either way, too many Palestinians have paid a price.” – Ed Husic
The federal minister was speaking this morning on ABC Breakfast TV.
In numbers
That’s a significant drop from the 56% who held that view in November 2020 amid the pandemic.
Before bed read
Last year Australians lost a record $3.1bn to scams – and Tim Watkins was one of them, losing a staggering $222,000.
Except banks in Australia aren’t required to reimburse scam victims, and Tim thinks they should be. Read about his story.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: SORT. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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