This all seems to be based on the people tested rather than the people sick.
How can the following have anything to do with public health?
Victoria’s battle to stop a second wave of coronavirus cases from spiralling could take months, with predictions from one expert that the state may need to return to a hard lockdown for eight weeks.
Australian governments and industry are being targeted by major cyber attacks that could put pressure on critical infrastructure and public services, with China understood to be a likely source of the threat.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed the "malicious" attacks on Friday morning after briefing state premiers as well as Labor leader Anthony Albanese on Thursday night, saying the threat showed a level of sophistication that could only come from a state-based actor.
"Based on advice provided to me by our cyber experts, Australian organisations are currently being targeted by a sophisticated state-based cyber actor," Mr Morrison said.
"This act is targeting Australian organisations across a range of sectors including all levels of government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure."
Asked whether the attack came from China, Mr Morrison did not name the foreign state but emphasised the level of sophistication of the intrusion
"What I can confirm, with confidence, based on the advice, the technical advice that we have received, is that this is the action of a state-based actor with significant capabilities," he said.
"There aren't too many state-based actors who have those capabilities."
Mr Morrison raised the attacks with United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday night and also sought co-operation from Australia's Five Eyes intelligence partners, the United States, Canada, New Zealand as well as the UK.
Others who were aware of the attacks named China as a likely source. Government sources say the attack bore many similarities to a cyber attack on Parliament House's computer system in February 2019, which security agencies attributed to China.
While Mr Morrison called the Friday morning press conference to warn about the problem, his office later said there was no specific incident this week and that the concerns were about a growing trend over recent months.
Mr Morrison used a prepared statement to say that Australian governments and businesses were "currently being targeted" but this was a reference to the broader trend.
The Australian Signals Directorate said it was aware of the "sustained targeting of Australian governments and companies by a sophisticated state-based actor".
It said links to fake websites designed to steal users' details, links to malicious files, and use of email tracking services to identify when users were opening emails were being used by the sophisticated actor.
"The actor has been identified leveraging a number of initial access vectors, with the most prevalent being the exploitation of public-facing infrastructure," the intelligence organisation said.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre was working with the organisations subject to the malicious cyber attack.
The ACSC named "copy-paste compromises" as part of the state-based actor's "heavy use of proof-of-concept exploit code, web shells and other tools" to enable the attacks.
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said companies should "patch" their internet-facing devices promptly to make sure any web or email servers are fully updated with the latest software and ensure they used multi-factor authentication to secure any internet access.
The government has seen an increase in threat activity in recent months in a trend that has overlapped with Australia's tensions with the Chinese government over an investigation into the source of the COVID-19 virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Former National Cyber Security Adviser Alastair MacGibbon said the threat was "likely a campaign by a sophisticated state-based actor" and part of a wider trend.
"It is an affront to our national interest and sovereignty that such events occur," said Mr MacGibbon, who is now chief strategy officer at CyberCX after a long career in public policy including as head of the ACSC.
"And that's why the Prime Minister has stood up to make a statement."
The US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI warned last month that hackers based in China were using cyber attacks and "cyberthefts" to steal intellectual property in the field of vaccines and healthcare.
INFORMATION SECURITY
'Cyber crisis' deepens at Lion as second attack bites beer giant
The US warning was followed by an Australian alert from the ACSC within days telling critical infrastructure providers to do more to protect themselves from cyber attack when key staff were working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal Parliament revealed in February last year that malware had made its way into the parliamentary computer network via several politicians' computers.
Those of you receiving government checks every month, MUST prepare to lose those monthly funds. The debt of the federal government topped $26 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, when it climbed from $25,960,547,920,986.11 to $26,003,751,512,344.91, according to data released today by the Treasury Department. This amount of debt is unsustainable. The government does not have enough funds to pay the interest, never mind pay down the debt.
The United States Government is heading for complete economic collapse.
When that collapse takes place, there will be no money to pay any federal program: No Social Security, No Medicare, No Food Stamps, No Section 8 Housing, . . . nothing.
The federal debt had topped $24 trillion for the first time on April 7, 2020.
It then climbed another trillion dollars in just 28 days, topping $25 trillion for the first time on May 5.
Only 35 days had elapsed from when the debt topped that $25-trillion threshold on May 5 to yesterday, when it topped $26 trillion for the first time.
The chart below shows the date on which the federal debt surpassed each trillion-dollar threshold from $5 trillion to $26 trillion:
The 28-day climb from $24 trillion in debt to $25 trillion and the 35-day climb from $25 trillion to $26 trillion are the two fastest periods in which the federal debt has risen from one trillion-dollar threshold to another.
For the record, there is only ONE entity in the entire federal government, that is constitutionally empowered to spend money: The US House of Representatives. No other branch of government can originate a spending Bill.
Put simply, the people DIRECTLY AND PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for this are __your__ members of Congress.
You would do well to research who they are, where they live, and what they look like so when the system collapses from their reckless spending, you can head over to their house and do what needs to be done.
Heads Up! Over 25,000 Stores Are Now Expected to Close Forever This Year
The Australian share market plunged nearly 3 per cent lower at the open of trade today following Wall Street deep into the red after a rise in coronavirus cases in the United States sparked fears the worst of the pandemic is yet to pass.
News of 44.2 million job losses in the world’s largest economy also landed a dagger to the optimistic belief of some investors who had hoped global growth would recover sharply from the economic shock of the deadly virus.
By midday, the ASX200 had pared losses and was 2.5 per cent lower at 5819.3 points.
The benchmark top-50 index ended the day down 2.2 percent, having fallen as much as 4.5 percent in early trading after opening 3 percent down.
Local investors were spooked by a plunge of more than 5 percent in US stocks overnight on fears of a resurgence of Covid-19 cases and the likelihood of a slower than expected economic recovery.
Brokers have been warning markets were looking overheated and were due for a correction, as investors got too carried away on expectations of recovery from the pandemic.
It's official: Australia is heading into recession. The news wasn't unexpected given the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. But there could be more bad news on the way.
Australia’s decades-long run of prosperity has come to an end, with the nation entering an official recession for the first time since the 1990s.
The grim news was confirmed yesterday by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, after it was revealed coronavirus-fuelled panic buying had failed to save us.
Instead, the Australian economy shrunk by 0.3 per cent over the first three months of the year – the first quarterly contraction since 2011.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, national accounts figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also showed annual GDP growth slowed from 2.2 per cent to 1.4 per cent.
And while the technical definition of a recession is two quarters of negative growth in a row, that’s all but certain to occur in the June quarter, meaning the “R” word is now inescapable.
FEELING THE PINCH
They are worrying statistics, and it’s no surprise that households are feeling the strain, with a recent Finder survey revealing more than one in three Aussies don’t feel financially prepared in the current climate.
The overwhelming majority are worried about a lack of savings, with job security and the plunging Australian dollar also causing concern.
Almost a quarter of us have had to defer bills or payments due to the coronavirus crisis, while we’ve upped our savings by 30 per cent compared to the beginning of 2020.
Finder’s money expert Bessie Hassan said families were tightening their belts as almost all of us had been impacted in some way since the crisis began.
“Regardless of your current situation, it’s important to safeguard your financial position however possible – every bit counts,” Ms Hassan said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is hoping the new HomeBuilder stimulus package will soften the blow of a recession. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP
RECESSION-PROOF YOUR MONEY
Ms Hassan said many Australians had asked for a rent freeze and applied for benefits such as JobSeeker and JobKeeper – but she warned these measures “won’t last forever”.
Therefore, it’s essential to transfer any spare cash into a buffer account that you can rely on once the Government assistance ends, or your landlord begins charging rent again.
“Make sure you prioritise your buffer account. It’s tempting to go to the pub or eat out now that restrictions are lifting, but recessions can last for a while – you don’t know what might happen down the track,” she said.
That sentiment was echoed by Dominic Beattie, editor of online financial resource Savings.com.au, who told news.com.au people should build up an emergency savings fund that would cover three to six months’ worth of bills if you experience sudden hardship.
And if you do have savings stashed away, make sure you are getting a competitive interest rate.
“Both AMP and Macquarie Bank are offering 2.26 per cent per annum and Rabobank is also offering up to 2.25 per cent per annum,” Ms Hassan said.
HOUSING COSTS
Both Ms Hassan and Mr Beattie said as housing was one of the biggest expenses most of us faced, now was the time to look into your options.
“If your lease is due to expire soon, consider moving to a cheaper property. Rental prices have fallen significantly during the pandemic, and you can save a small fortune by relocating. Consider moving into a sharehouse to split the rent even further,” Ms Hassan said.
“If you’re a homeowner, refinancing to a lower interest rate can save you thousands of dollars over the life of your loan by lowering your monthly or fortnightly repayments.
“If you’ve been paying above the minimum repayment amount, you may also have the option to access redraw. This can help to free up cashflow if you’re falling behind on your bills.”
Mr Beattie went a step further, and said Aussies shouldn’t be afraid to downsize, or sell their home and rent temporarily.
"This is a classic example of law makers introducing ‘temporary’ measures to deal with a public threat. When the threat has passed sunset clauses are not honoured, and authorities use the opportunity to make amendments to laws permanent."
Under its original strategy to enforce public health laws which were created at the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Victorian Government expanded the powers of ‘protective services officers’ (PSOs) on an emergency basis. Now, they want those powers not just to remain, but to be further expanded.
PSOs have been deployed in Victoria since 2012. They are trained officers recruited to patrol train stations after dark. They have similar powers to police and carry guns, but could, prior to COVID-19, only use their powers on duty, and in designated areas.
Permanent PSO presence
But during the pandemic, the Victorian Government extended their areas of responsibility and PSOs were dispatched to major shopping strips and commercial centres too, under state-of-emergency laws. Originally, it was expected that this move was a temporary one, but now, Victoria Police and the State Government want the arrangement to be permanent.
They also want to employ PSOs at more locations, as well as major events when they are able to occur, at the same time as maintaining a PSO presence on the rail network.
Since the start of April, PSOs have arrested 406 people, handed out 293 infringement notices – including for breaches of COVID-19 restrictions – and stopped and checked more than 7000 people.
While Police report that in the areas PSOs were deployed crime rates are down and people have felt ‘safer’ during this uncertain time, the data shows that during the pandemic, the top reasons PSOs made arrests were theft, shop theft and being drunk in a public place.
Arrests for public drunkenness
The latter is an offence that the Victorian Government has said it is committed to abolishing.
Victoria and Queensland are currently the only states or territories in Australia where being drunk in public is still considered a crime.
The incremental ‘creep’ of increased police powers
Police Accountability advocates in Victoria are concerned that any expanded powers for PSOs need serious consideration, warning that increased police powers are incrementally eroding hard-won civil rights.. Added to this, there is very little public confidence in the police complaints system.
This is a classic example of law makers introducing ‘temporary’ measures to deal with a public threat. When the threat has passed sunset clauses are not honoured, and authorities use the opportunity to make amendments to laws permanent.
Australia has introduced more than 80 harsh new laws under the guise of dealing with the threat of terrorism since 911. Over time these have eroded our privacy and freedoms and resulted in increased powers and weaponry for police.
While harsh new laws were put in place, and police forces were bolstered by number and increased powers, and have indeed flexed their muscle, handing out many fines in questionable circumstances, by and large people got the message and stayed home, or kept their distance from each other in public places.
This had nothing to do with a fear of being fined, but rather a strong buy-in to health advice, and a desire to ensure their own personal safety, as well as adhere to sensible measures which they understood would slow the spread of COVID-19, so that life could return to some sense of ‘normality’ sooner, rather than later.
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