Big insurers will not cover Adani coal mine
In a sign that environmental pressure is escalating, many of the world’s biggest insurers have now said that they will not cover the proposed Adani coal mine in Carmichael. The coal-powered plant needed to be self-funded, as major investors were concerned over the long-term viability of the resource. Many companies are under pressure to move…
New payout for victims of Madoff Ponzi scheme
Victims of Bernie Madoff’s multi-billion-dollar fraud, who lost their savings when the Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2008, are receiving additional compensation, bringing the total payout so far to nearly $2 billion, US officials announced Thursday.The Madoff Victim Fund paid out another $695.4 million to over 27,000 victims of the investment scam, the Justice Department said…
Australian government clarifies Pacific fund
As another Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum concluded, representatives from different nations posed many more questions than they received answers to. Two of the main lines of talks centered around China and how its relationships with both the US and Australia will affect the future of the Pacific. The trade war between the US and…
Spying on bees reveals pesticides impair social behavior
A new study that allowed humans to spy on bumblebees inside their nests showed that pesticides can impair social behavior, making it hard for bees to eat and rear their young, researchers said Thursday.Previous research has shown that the common class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids can harm bees’ ability to forage outside the nest.The…
Petrol at new decade highs
Petrol: new decade highs, but light in the tunnelPetrol prices; New home salesUnleaded petrol price: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum the national average price of unleaded petrol rose in the past week by 1.2 cents to 160.5 cents a litre – the highest level for over a decade (highest prices since the week…
CommSec Daily Report Monday
Latest NewsInvestor nerves are still rattled after the worst weekly loss on the Australian sharemarket since January 2016 last week with the ASX 200 stumbling again on Monday. The index is down another 88 points or 1.5% to 5807 and accelerating towards lunch despite a strong rally for Wall Street on Friday where the Dow rebounded…
Lockheed Martin unveils its lunar lander concept vehicle
US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, responding to NASA’s plans to renew the exploration of the moon and Mars in the next decade, unveiled Wednesday a concept spacecraft able to land on the lunar surface.The US space agency said it plans to send astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 as the initial…
Shorten skeptical of Adani mine project
Bill Shorten has distanced himself from Labor’s climate change spokesman’s comments about Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine. Mark Butler made his thoughts clears about what should happen to the Galilee Basin in Queensland in a video posted to social media on Friday. ‘I do not support opening new mines in the Galilee Basin, whether it’s…
Rights groups urge Google not to bend to China censors
Human rights groups and other advocacy organizations Tuesday urged Google to abandon any plans to craft a censored version of its search engine that could pass muster with regulators in China.A reported Dragonfly project, which Google has not publicly confirmed, ‘would represent an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights,’ argued a letter signed by…
ASX lifts FY profit on higher trading
Markets operator ASX Limited has posted a 2.5 per cent lift in full-year net profit to $445.1 million with a strong contribution from its listings service, capital raisings and futures trading. The statutory profit result was weighed down by a $20.2 million impairment charge on ASX’s investment in electronic interest rate market operator business Yieldbroker….
