After moving accommodation five times in five months, Nyangbal and Dunghutti woman Teresa Anderson has had enough.
Key points:
Flooding in the Northern Rivers displaced many Indigenous communities
Elders say a disproportionate number of First Nations people are still homeless almost six months on
They say the many in the community are suffering because of it
The elder’s Cabbage Tree Island home, nestled on a flood plain of cane fields in northern New South Wales, was deemed uninhabitable after the February floods.
She has been homeless since.
“I’ve been moved around five times,” she told the ABC.
“We were at the Ramada[hotel] then we went to Brisbane. Then we had to go outside of town.
“It’s taken a toll on my health. I couldn’t even cope, I couldn’t go to work. It just got me really emotional.”
Teresa in front of her grandmother’s house, which is unsafe for occupancy.(ABC NewsEmma Rennie )
Teresa Anderson was in good health before the floods.
But she believes a series of new health issues have been a direct result of the grief and stress of being displaced.
“YO‘I’m struggling,” she said.
As floods devastated Lismore and surrounding towns earlier this year, a sludge of sewage-contaminated water raged down the Richmond River, destroying every home in the Aboriginal community.
Floodwater damage at Cabbage Tree Island. (ABC News: Rani Hayman)
There are 23 homes on the island — with some housing up to 12 people — and at the time every single resident of the 180-strong community was left homeless.
Today, every house is still uninhabitable.
According to the Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council, today, almost six months after the disaster, about 500 of the 1,296 northern New South Wales residents who are still homeless are First Nations people.
“That tells me clearly that we’re disproportionate again in relation to the numbers of people who are homeless,” Widjabul man and Jali Land Council chief executive Chris Binge told the ABC.
Mr Binge said a disproportionate number of the Indigenous community remains homeless.(ABC News: Rani Hayman)
According to Ms Anderson, Indigenous flood victims have been pushed to the back of the line when it came to finding permanent accommodation.
“They are homeless and staying in tents in front of their homes,” she said.
“It’s hard for us to try to get accommodation like rental houses, because once they know it’s an Aboriginal family, they just say, ‘no, I’m sorry, it’s not available.”
Temporary housing plan
The NSW Department of Communities and Justice, the organization responsible for helping flood victims into emergency accommodation, told the ABC in a statement it did not collect data on Indigenous status.
But it said it had assisted “10,676 people into emergency accommodation across the Northern Rivers” since February.
The federal and state governments have promised $70 million for Aboriginal housing solutions for communities across the Northern Rivers.
There are plans for Cabbage Tree Island residents to move to a temporary housing site at the nearby Wardell Recreation Ground.
But according to Resilience NSW the “persistent wet weather has significantly impacted the progress of earthworks”.
Some residents have been told it could be three months before the project is finished, but Resilience NSW have not provided a specific time frame.
The temporary housing site at the nearby Wardell Recreation Ground, which is still in development. (ABC NewsEmma Rennie)
As members of the Cabbage Tree Island communities wait for news on when and if they’ll be able to return home, there are concerns the health and wellbeing of elders is deteriorating.
Nyangbal woman Delia Rhodes, also from Cabbage Tree Island, said not knowing when or if she’ll be able to return home to the country has severely impacted her mental health.
Delia Rhodes just wants to get back to her community.(ABC NewsEmma Rennie)
“I can understand the wider community has been affected, too,” she said.
“But it’s a slow process for us to get us back into housing, into a permanent home. It’s hard work.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — An OnlyFans and Instagram model from Austin who reportedly stabbed her boyfriend to death in Florida was arrested and charged for murder.
Courtney Clenney, also known as Courtney Tailor, was arrested on Wednesday in Hawaii. She is charged with second-degree murder for the April 3 stabbing of 27-year-old Christian “Toby” Obumseli, according to the Hawai’i Police Department. Obumseli was a Texas Tech University alumnus.
The Miami Police Department described Obumseli’s death as a domestic violence incident that involved a fight and ended with a stabbing, NBC reports.
Clenney’s defense lawyer, Frank Prieto, told KXAN’s sister station in Florida she acted in self-defense.
“Obumseli attacked her and choked her that evening; Courtney had no choice but to meet force with force,” Prieto said in a statement to NBC 6. “Further, we are disappointed that the State Attorney sought an arrest warrant in this matter; we have cooperated with the investigation from the beginning with both the State and the City of Miami Police Department. We have always offered to self-surrender if charges were filed in an effort to begin the legal process of clearing her of the charges.”
Clenney is being held at the East Hawai’i Detention Center and is expected to make a first court appearance Thursday, the department said. She will eventually be extradited to Florida.
There are 33 islands in Kiribati, a small nation in the central Pacific Ocean. Only 20 of these are inhabited.
Key points:
Residents of several small, relatively poor nations have a large number of Australian bank accounts holding hundreds of millions of dollars
The biggest foreign holdings in Australian financial institutions come from the United States and China
The ATO says there are no more accounts linked to ‘residents’ of uninhabited places such as Antarctica
Yet data released by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and found that $682 million in Australian bank accounts belonged to foreign tax residents apparently from Kiribati, up from just $14 million in 2019.
Fewer than 120,000 people inhabit Kiribati and, according to Kiribati’s 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), the median household income was just $12,000 in 2020.
The nation’s residents are also quite young: the median age of the population is 23 and 35 per cent of the population is under 15 years old.
But the 876 Australian bank accounts apparently held by Kiribati residents had an average balance of almost $800,000.
Kiribati is not the only remote area where people, companies or trusts that hold Australian bank accounts apparently reside.
Tuvalu, with a population of 11,792 in 2020, had 212 accounts registered to “residents” holding $194 million in Australia.
That is an average of more than $900,000 per account, when the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person in Tuvalu is around $7,500 per person.
Equatorial Guinea, in central Africa, had 52 accounts registered’ to residents holding $4 million.
Individuals, trusts or companies from the eleven notorious secrecy jurisdictions of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Jersey hold $6.3 billion in accounts in Australia. On average each of these accounts holds more than $1 million.
Mark Zirnsak notes ‘red flags’ for money laundering and tax evasion.(Supplied: Uniting Church in Australia)
“The latest data of accounts held in Australia from offshore continue to present red flags for money laundering and tax evasion,” according to the Tax Justice Network’s Mark Zirnsak.
Jurisdictions like ‘Antarctica’ generally reported by mistake, says ATO
The data shows that holdings from uninhabited subantarctic Bouvet Island, Heard Island and McDonald Island have now disappeared, which means there are no Australian bank accounts linked to places with penguins but no people.
The previous year’s data for 2019 showed several million dollars held in uninhabited jurisdictions, such as Antarctica and Bouvet Island.
ATO deputy commissioner Hector Thompson said the information the agency received from Australia’s international exchange partners under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) had assisted in better data matching that allowed them to catch out tax cheats.
The CRS is the single global standard for the collection, reporting and exchange of financial account information on foreign tax residents.
“[It] helps the Tax Avoidance Taskforce to identify, investigate and ensure that foreign-sourced income and assets held in foreign financial accounts by Australian residents are declared,” Mr Thompson said.
The ATO also uses data analytics to detect data anomalies in the CRS data, such as uninhabited jurisdictions.
“Our compliance activities have confirmed jurisdictions such as Antarctica are generally reported by mistake.
“For example, a customer or front-line employee from a financial institution might select Antarctica instead of Australia from a drop-down box when opening an account.”
He said the ATO requires that such mistakes are verified and corrected by the financial institution.
“Data verification steps taken mean that accounts incorrectly reported for Bouvet Island, Heard Island and McDonald Island have been eliminated in the most recent CRS reporting,” he said.
Labor promise to stop money flowing into tax havens
Labor has promised to introduce a “beneficial ownership register” that would make it harder for the people behind companies to hide who they are and what they get up to.
Since the Panama Papers and various other tax leaks there have been calls for governments around the world, including Australia’s, to introduce a register that gives the public free access to the names of people behind companies, trusts, assets and bank accounts.
Mr Zirnsak welcomed Labor’s commitment to a public beneficial ownership register, saying it may help expose who are the people behind companies holding accounts in Australia.
“The government should also strengthen unexplained wealth laws, to be able to seize money shifted into Australia where there is a high likelihood the money has an illicit source,” Mr Zirnsak said.
“The new government should also act on the recommendations made by the recent parliamentary inquiry into money laundering, to reduce the ability of criminals to shift profits from crime into Australia.”
Not all the financial flows are from tax havens
Not all the money flowing into Australian bank accounts was coming from small nations that have few inhabitants.
US resident companies and individuals held $33 billion across more than 588,000 accounts.
Residents of China held $30 billion across more than a million accounts.(ABC News: Steve Wang)
Residents of China held $30 billion across more than a million accounts. And another $15 billion across more than 341,000 accounts was held by people residing in Hong Kong.
Big amounts were also held by residents of the United Kingdom ($14 billion across almost 630,000 accounts), New Zealand ($13.7 billion across almost 511,000 accounts) and Singapore ($13.55 billion across nearly 233,000 accounts).
Overall, the 2020 data released under the common reporting standard (CRS) scheme — the single global standard for the collection, reporting and exchange of financial account information on foreign tax residents — revealed the amount held by foreign tax residents in Australia totaled $186 billion.
Global authorities’ greater exchange of information helps identify tax evaders
The OECD has recently bolstered efforts to track financial flows, with the automated exchange of information on cross-border financial activities.
Data shows that, in 2020, information on more than 75 million financial accounts worldwide covering total assets of around 9 trillion euros was exchanged automatically by 102 jurisdictions.
The data also shows the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters has also helped identify 112 billion euros of additional revenues (including tax, interest and penalties), thanks to voluntary disclosure programs and similar initiatives, as well as offshore investigations.
At least 3 billion euros of these additional tax revenues have been linked directly to the use of the information exchanged.
Mr Thompson said the ATO works closely with other international jurisdictions to catch tax evaders.
“CRS data is exchanged globally using exchange of information agreements with foreign tax authorities,” he said.
“This includes work with the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) and the Joint International Taskforce on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration (JITSIC).”
Meta is testing additional end-to-end encryption (E2EE) features in Facebook Messenger—and not just because it has been roundly criticized for not enabling these protections by default.
“We’re working hard to protect your personal messages and calls with end-to-end encryption by default on Messenger and Instagram,” Meta says. “Today, we’re announcing our plans to test a new secure storage feature for backups of your end-to-end encrypted chats on Messenger, and more updates and tests to deliver the best experience on Messenger and Instagram.”
The marquee change is the introduction of encrypted backups. Messenger currently stores E2EE messages on a single device; there is no way to access them on another device. (At least in theory.) This can be inconvenient for people who lose their primary device, but if the company had backed up the messages without encrypting them, Messenger users would be at risk.
That isn’t a theoretical problem. Apple uses E2EE for iMessage, but many people choose to back up their message histories via iCloud. That backup isn’t encrypted, so even though the messages rely on E2EE in transit, someone can access those messages via iCloud. Meta avoids that problem with Messenger by restricting E2EE messages to a single device.
Now the company is testing what it calls Secure Storage. This encrypted backup will allow people to recover their messages using the method of their choice—supplying a PIN or entering a generated code—if they lose access to their device. Meta says it will also let Messenger users back up their E2EE messages to “third-party cloud services,” if they prefer.
“For example, for iOS devices you can use iCloud to store a secret key that allows access to your backups,” Meta says. “While this method of protecting your key is secure, it is not protected by Messenger’s end-to-end encryption.” (Which is effectively the company’s way of saying that it’s not responsible if otherwise-secure Messenger chats are accessed via iCloud.)
Meta will start testing Secure Storage on Android and iOS this week. The feature isn’t available via Messenger’s website, desktop apps, or for “chats that aren’t end-to-end encrypted,” though.
The company says it will also “begin testing the ability to unsend messages, reply to Facebook Stories, and offer other ways to access your end-to-end encrypted messages and calls”; test an extension dubbed Code Verify that “automatically verifies the authenticity of the code” on Messenger’s website; and make E2EE messages available to more Instagram users.
But perhaps the most important test will be making E2EE the default for some Messenger users rather than requiring people to enable these protections on a chat-by-chat basis. Meta says:
“This week, we’ll begin testing default end-to-end encrypted chats between some people. If you’re in the test group, some of your most frequent chats may be automatically end-to-end encrypted, which means you won ‘t have to opt in to the feature. You’ll still have access to your message history, but any new messages or calls with that person will be end-to-end encrypted. You can still report messages to us if you think they violate our policies, and we’ll review them and take action as necessary.”
Making the most secure option the default is the best way to encourage people to protect themselves. This has become even more important in a post-gnaws Roe country where law enforcement can—and have—use message histories to build cases against people who’ve had or have sought abortions. (Meta tells wiredwiredthis rollout wasn’t prompted by those concerns.)
Meta says it “will continue to provide updates as we make progress toward the global rollout of default end-to-end encryption for personal messages and calls in 2023.”
Dimity Blundell was 35 weeks pregnant with her son, Finley, when she was suddenly woken up in the middle of the night by her cat.
Warning: This story discusses stillbirths and contains photos and other content that may be distressing to some people.
“I used the bathroom and started bleeding, a lot,” she said.
Dimity, and her husband Michael, rushed to hospital, where doctors told them the news no parents want to hear: “we can’t find a heartbeat.”
Dimity had had a placental abruption, a rare but serious pregnancy complication where the placenta partly or completely separates from the uterus before delivery.
She was taken into an operating theater at 12:16am on February 22 this year.
“I was prepped by 12:17am, knocked out at 12:18am, the surgery started at 12:19am, and Finley was born at 12:20am,” Dimity said.
Finley was declared dead at 1:24am.
‘Is this the worst day of my life?’
Michael and Dimity are taking it “day by day” since their son’s death.(Supplied)
Later that morning, a midwife asked if the grieving couple wanted to meet their son.
Dimity recalled the midwife telling her: “he’s very cute, he really does just look like he’s sleeping.”
Finley spent four days in the loving arms of his parents, and a handful of other family members and friends.
Dimity said she always asks herself, “is the worst day of my life the day he was born, or the day I had to leave him? I think it was the day we had to leave him.”
“Then we came home, and we had a nursery and we had baby things, and then we became the people whose baby died,” she said.
“Everyone else gets to bring their baby home, so why didn’t we?”
Dimity and Michael with baby Finley, who was stillborn in February 2022.(Supplied)
Five-and-a half months on, Dimity and Michael said they were taking each day as it came.
But Dimity said Finley’s death “affects every single aspect” of their lives.
“Everything that you do, it’s just woven into the fabric of who you are,” she said.
Michael said it was hard to describe the pain, that still had not gone away, but said it had “certainly gotten a little easier to deal with, with all the counseling and work we’ve put in.”
“It definitely burns less; I’d say it would be a campfire now rather than a bonfire,” Dimity said.
“Moving forward is weird though, because the further forward you move, the further away you get from your baby.”
‘We are the strength of other people, we are the strength of the Red Nose families’
Bonnie Carter is the ACT representative for the Red Nose Community Advisory Committee.(ABC News: Dave Scasci)
Shortly after Finley’s death, the couple reached out to the charity Red Nose — best known for its annual major fundraiser Red Nose Day, which is today.
Each year, the national charity raises hundreds of thousands of dollars to continue vital research into the causes of stillbirth and sudden infant death and support families impacted by the death of a baby or child.
Through Red Nose’s Canberra branch, Dimity and Michael were able to participate in counselling, and said they discovered a whole community of people who had gone through the same experience as them.
“Once you step into the community, you realize how big it is, and we’re all here for one another,” Michael said.
“The mums and the dads and the siblings of the little people who are with Finley, those people are phenomenal, and they will get you through this,” Dimity said.
“People often tell Michael and I, ‘you’re so strong, you’re so brave’. And I say, ‘No. We are the strength of other people, we are the strength of the Red Nose families.'”
Bonnie Carter and her husband Steve had these tags made for their two little girls, who were stillborn.(ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
Another member of the Red Nose community in Canberra, is bereaved parent Bonnie Carter, who lost her two daughters, Grace and Matilda, in the span of 18 months.
“It was a very raw, unique pain that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy,” she said.
“There’s some sort of pain you cannot describe in words when a baby dies in the comfort of your belly.”
Bonnie is the ACT representative for the Red Nose Community Advisory Committee and said it was important to talk about stillbirth, as the latest statistics showed 3,000 Australian babies died suddenly and unexpectedly each year.
“By the time you roll into bed tonight, nine Australian families will have lost a baby,” she said.
Dimity and Michael said they found “talking about stillbirth took away the stigma.”
“You’re pregnant and you’re carrying a baby and then it dies, and there’s a lot of stigma around, ‘what did you do?'” Dimity said.
“By talking to Red Nose and hearing the different stories, people have a lot more understanding that it does just happen.”
Funds raised to assist research into stillbirth
Current research from Red Nose shows more than 50 per cent of stillbirths, that occur in the last weeks of an otherwise healthy pregnancy, have no known cause.
But Bonnie said she hoped that ongoing research undertaken at Red Nose could ensure “zero babies pass away, and zero little lives are lost.”
She said, until that time came, counseling and community support allowed bereaved parents and families to open up about their experience.
Bonnie has since welcomed baby daughter Evie, but continues to advocate for parents who have lost a baby through stillbirth or miscarriage.(Supplied)
“You need those other parents to lean on, to talk to, to vent to, to cry to, to laugh with,” she said.
“There is a whole community of families, especially in the Canberra region, who get it, who feel your pain, who understand it, and we’re your backbone. You can lean on us whenever you need to.”
Dimity and Michael said, one day, when they were “further down the path” they wanted to join Bonnie and become involved in the Red Nose charity.
“So that other people don’t have to sit in their hospital beds holding their baby and thinking ‘this doesn’t happen to other people,'” Dimity said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced a set of revamped water strategies on Thursday, warning that the state’s supply is expected to plunge by up to 10 percent by 2040.
In anticipation of these shortfalls, Newsom unveiled a 16-page action document that focuses on “adapting to a hotter, drier future” by adjusting state priorities “based on new data and accelerating climate change.”
Among the strategies are plans for the expansion of water storage and water recycling capacity, as well as the elimination of water waste and the deployment of new technologies.
“The science and the data leads us to now understand that we will lose 10 percent of our water supply by 2040 — if all things are equal, we will lose an additional 10 percent of our supply by 2040,” Newsom said at a press conference in the Bay Area city of Antioch on Thursday.
“As a consequence of that deeper appreciation, that deeper understanding, we have a renewed sense of urgency to address this issue head on,” the governor continued. “But we do so from a multiplicity of perspectives and ways, not just from a scarcity mindset.”
One of these ways, as outlined in the supply strategy document, involves creating a storage space for up to 4 million acre-feet of water. Doing so, according to the document, would allow the state “to capitalize on big storms when they do occur and store water for dry periods.”
Another strategy included in the document involves recycling and reusing at least 800,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2030, which could optimize the use of wastewater currently released into the ocean.
An average California household uses between one-half and one acre-foot of water each year, according to the Water Education Foundation. California has about 13.1 million households, based on US Census data.
The governor’s plans also call for freeing up 500,000 acre-feet of water for new purposes each year by permanently eradicating water waste and using water more efficiently.
Newsom characterized these strategies as “moving away from a scarcity mindset to one more of abundance.”
“How can we take the existing resources and be more resourceful, in terms of advancing policies, and direct our energies to create more water, to capture more water?” I have asked.
Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, stressed that implementing these plans will require a firm partnership with local municipalities.
The new strategy, she said, “means we have to do absolutely everything.”
Joaquin Esquivel, chairman of the State Water Resources Control Board, echoed these sentiments, adding that “Mother Nature is not providing us the budgets that we all thought that we were going to depend upon.”
“But there is a path forward,” Esquivel said, stressing the importance of creating and investing “in a 21st-century way.”
One such way, according to the strategy document, requires California to “move smarter and faster” to upgrade its water systems. Such modernization effort could generate enough water for more than 8.4 million households.
Additional water could become available by capturing stormwater, diversifying supplies and optimizing high flows during storm events, as well as through desalinating ocean water and salty—or brackish—water in groundwater basins, according to the document.
Thursday’s press conference took place near the site of a forthcoming, $110 million brackish water desalination plant. That facility will be the first such site in the San Francisco Bay Delta, Antioch’s mayor, Lamar Thorpe, said at the press conference.
The plant, Thorpe said, will “provide the city with a reliable source of drinking water for generations to come.”
With the desalination construction site in the background, Newsom urged Californians to adapt to a changing reality, noting that the new strategies include “specific goals with specific timelines and dollar figures.”
And those dollars, he said, will come from last year’s $5.2 billion surplus and this year’s $2.8 billion surplus.
Californian will be using these funds “to update, not just promote” these critical water supply plans — “moving these projects and doing them with urgency,” without “waiting for the voters,” according to Newsom.
“Money’s not the issue. It’s our ability to attract those dollars, by being more aggressive to draw down those dollars because we have a plan,” the governor added.
A Coles supermarket customer has come under fire after criticizing a single mother who attempted to pay for his groceries at the checkout.
Sharing on Facebook, the NSW shopper said he was “embarrassed” by the mum’s gesture and said “I’m dead set over this pay it forward rubbish”.
His controversial “rant” attracted widespread backlash, with hundreds of social media users slamming the “ungrateful” man for his harsh words.
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In his post, the Central Coast shopper urged people who “pay it forward” to “just stop”.
“I’m dead set over this pay it forward rubbish,” he wrote.
“So I was at Coles Woy Woy this morning when a single mum with a pram went to pay for my coffee, milk, banana and frozen chips.
The shopper’s post attracted widespread criticism. Credit: Facebook
“Just stop, I was embarrassed and can afford my own groceries.
“If you want to help, go donate to a charity please stop embarrassing me at the checkout, rant over.”
Hundreds reacted angrily to the man’s post, sparking an intense debate.
“Wow, what a beautiful lady and a lovely gesture. what a shame it was wasted on yourself,” said one.
“She has definitely inspired myself to do something lovey and kind for someone today #keeppayingitforward.”
Another wrote: “I could afford my own fuel too, but one day a lovely old man paid for mine and his.
“And you know what? I was very grateful and paid it forward a few days later. I’m also a single mum and helped someone.”
File image inside a Coles supermarket. Credit: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A third wrote: “I think anyone that does anything nice these days gets a big smile and virtual hug from me – kindness is catching.
“The more you do the better the world gets. So she picked the wrong person that day but next time she might be that person that’s really is in need and very grateful.
One more added: “Sorry you felt embarrassed. How about feeling appreciated?
“Wonder how it was for that lady to get up the courage to offer you the kindness and you slapped her in the face.
“You should feel ashamed. If you felt embarrassed ask yourself why. That’s your problem, not one else’s.”
But some could understand his hesitation.
“You would be bit miffed wouldn’t you … If you were merrily doing your own thing and you realized people thought you were homeless or something,” a Facebook user said.
Backlash
The incident comes weeks after a woman slammed a social media influencer for sharing his “random act of kindness” towards her.
Influencer Harrison Pawluk went viral with a video that showed him giving a bunch of flowers to the woman as she sat in the street.
Maree – whose surname was withheld – told ABC Radio Melbourne she felt “dehumanized” over the stunt which had racked up 97 million views online.
“He interrupted my quiet time, filmed and uploaded a video without my consent, turning it into something it wasn’t, and I feel like he is making quite a lot of money through it,” she told the ABC.
“It’s the patronizing assumption that women, especially older women, will be thrilled by some random stranger giving them flowers.”
Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event is finally over and we got two new foldable devices this time as a part of the company’s 2022 foldable lineup. We’re looking at the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4, both of which offer a lot of improvements over their predecessors while preserving a lot of the great features that made them famous in the first place. The Galaxy Z Flip 4, for instance, has a slightly different hinge design, and the device itself is both narrower and smaller when folded. Despite all the changes, the company has made the Galaxy Z Flip 4 water-resistant.
Like the Galaxy Flip 3, the new foldable clamshell also has an IPX8 rating, meaning it’s water-resistant for up to 30 minutes in up to 1.5 meters of freshwater. According to Samsung, you shouldn’t submerge the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in salt water as the salt may accumulate and block the primary microphone, earpiece, and more. It’s also worth noting that the phone isn’t equipped to handle dust or debris. In short, this new foldable can handle occasional sprays or shallow water, but it’s best to keep it away from salty water and even dust and other debris that may enter the hinge to cause permanent damage. If you take your phone with you inside the water, then you should let it dry for a few hours before using it. That way you avoid causing some permanent damage to the device.
The fact that Samsung’s new foldable devices have an IP rating is quite commendable. We say that because a lot of other foldable phones including the likes of the OPPO Find N and Moto Razr can only handle occasional sprays and have no official IP rating. That makes the Galaxy Z Flip 4 a lot more durable and gives you more confidence to use it as your primary phone.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 4, just like its predecessor, comes with an IPX8 rating. It’s good to handle shallow water, but it’ll not fair well dust and debris.
If you’re interested in buying this phone then be sure to hit the link in the box above to find the best price for it online. Alternatively, you can check out our collection of the best Galaxy Z Flip 4 deals to find the places to grab it from. We’ve also rounded up some of the best Galaxy Z Flip 4 cases for you to check out in case you want to add more protection to your phone.
The Southern Moreton Bay Islands sit in the middle of a picturesque marine park that’s home to turtles and dugong, protected from the open sea by North Stradbroke Island and just an hour from the Brisbane CBD.
But residents of the islands say behind the beauty, social and physical infrastructure has fallen drastically short of what is required in the face of a dramatic population boom.
The population of Karragarra, Lamb, Macleay and Russell islands grew by nearly 20 per cent, from 6,153 to 7,635 between 2016 and August last year, according to the 2021 census.
In addition, Redland City Council has approved almost 1,000 new builds since 2018, a boom that has added to the population growth as well as an influx of traditions to the area.
The population on the islands has grown in recent years.(ABC News: Julius Dennis)
And part of the reason why residents say the population growth feels a lot higher than the census figures show.
For locals, the car parks at either end of the ferry, where islanders return to and from the mainland, are the funnel point where transport pressures are felt the most.
Helen Thompson has lived on the islands for almost 20 years, commuting to Redland Bay by ferry before driving to work. She says parking in the area has “always been a nightmare”, but the population spike has made it increasingly difficult.
“There are more parking facilities now, but there are also more people,” she says.
Many people keep a car on the mainland in Redland Bay.(ABC News: Julius Dennis)
Redland City Council says about 2,000 parking spaces are available around the terminal, but Ms Thompson says on the weekend it is nearly impossible to find a park.
“I generally avoid coming to the mainland on the weekend because of parking. Once you move your car there’s very little chance of getting another park.”
Helen Thompson says she struggles to find a park on weekends.
(ABC News: Julius Dennis)
Lack of sewers ‘not feasible’
Another concerning infrastructure limitation for residents is the requirement for all homes to have their own septic system. There is no sewage on the islands.
Jasmine Person is a long-time local and former president of the Chamber of Commerce, she says the conveyancing work done by her firm has “tripled” in recent years.
“I don’t think the council envisaged this much growth in such a short amount of time,” she says.
Jasmine Person says her work on the islands has tripled.(ABC News: Julius Dennis)
She says of all the infrastructure problems facing the islands, the lack of sewage on the islands poses the biggest risk.
“That should have been done back in the 2000s when the water was put on — now it’s an expense to council that is not feasible for them,” she says.
“I don’t know how they’re going to find a solution. It’s their responsibility.
“You can’t keep on having this much growth and that wastewater leaking into the ground on the back of a marine park. It’s just not going to work long term.”
The Southern Moreton Bay Islands are a collection of four islands off the Redlands Coast east of Brisbane.
(ABC News: Julius Dennis)
For Clem Ebber — another two-decade veteran of island life — it’s another example of poor planning for one of Queensland’s most unique communities.
From his deck on Lamb Island he can see North Stradbroke, a tourism jewel of Queensland with a full-time population of just over 2,000.
“We cannot understand that we’ve got here on our Southern Moreton Bay Islands about 10,000 people with no sewerage and Stradbroke has got sewerage,” he says.
Redland City Council says the islands are not within their “declared service area for reticulated sewerage”, but they do “ensure on-site sewerage facilities are constructed in accordance with the relevant plumbing, health and environmental standards”.
There is also a large community push to seal the roads after some residents claimed they were suffering lung issues from the unfinished roads.
Council agreed to a green sealing program.
“Unfortunately, the council has scrapped this green sealing program for this financial year,” Mr Ebber says.
Dirt roads on the islands have long been a contentious topic. (ABC News: Julius Dennis)
The council said it had identified 61 kilometers of island roads that may be suitable for green sealing, “pending future budget considerations and funding assistance from the state and federal governments.”
Boom fueled by cheap land
On the islands the signs of growth are everywhere.
“For sale” signs slapped with red “sold” stickers line the streets.
Vehicle barges laden with traditions come across every day, filling the air with the sound of power tools and filling cafes, fish and chip shops and pubs with their business.
Vehicle bars bookings fill up quickly. (ABC News: Julius Dennis)
One of the main drivers of the boom is property prices. An hour away in Brisbane, house prices have surged over $1 million, but on Russell Island an empty block can still be purchased for $40,000.
Angela Collins is the manager of Southern Moreton Bay Islands Community Services Incorporated (BICSI) — the longest tenured service provider on the islands with more than 100 volunteers and workers running op-shops, a Centrelink, plant nurseries and emergency relief.
Over the 28 years of operation Ms Collins says BICSI has, “basically been the first port of call for anything that goes on on the islands.”
Angela Collins is the manager of Southern Moreton Bay Islands Community Services Incorporated.(ABC News: Alexander Lewis)
She says the population spike in the past few years has resulted in a rent bubble that is putting strain on the locals.
Rent has jumped up to $80 a week in two years, from $270 to $350 on average for three-bedroom homes.
“What we’re finding is a lot of phone calls coming in saying, ‘Can you help me? I’m about to be evicted from my house I’ve rented for 20 years because the lease has expired’,” Ms Collins says .
“That’s very, very difficult for the unemployed and the pensioners and that’s why we’re seeing a change in our demographic.”
Rent on the islands has risen dramatically in recent years.(ABC News: Julius Dennis)
Hilton Travis is the president of SMBI Listeners, an organization which aims to link people and services on the island.
He says higher rents are not in the budgets of many islanders, many of whom are pensioners or survive off a low income base.
“Our average rent is about $80 or $90 cheaper than the average Australian rent, [but] the average income of people over here is a couple hundred bucks a week less than the average income,” he says.
“It means we’ve got a large percentage of people who have a lower income who spend a large percentage of that lower income on their rent.”
Hilton Travis is the president of SMBI Listeners.(ABC News: Alexander Lewis)
‘We don’t get a fair deal’
Both Mr Travis and Ms Collins say the boom is also putting pressure on service providers with many organizations physically based in Redlands and not on the islands.
“Services that are available on the mainland are not the same services that are available over here. Not only in number but also in their ability to actually deliver,” Mr Travis says.
“We don’t get a fair deal on that. There’s still a number of services who will only serve Redlands because they see the time taken to get here and it’s a fair issue — if it’s going to take you an hour over on a barge and an hour back on a barge.
A vehicle barge travels between the islands and the mainland. (ABC News: Julius Dennis)
“Services will start ringing us up saying, ‘We’re funded, we’re coming over to the islands, can we come and see you?'” Ms Collins says.
“They have no idea of the logistical complexity with the water barrier that we have, which means that they’ve got funding for the islands, but it’s four islands.”
Service providers on the islands have long called for more “place-based” organizations with a full-time presence.
“People who live on the islands understand the logistical issues that we have here, while mainland people really don’t,” Ms Collins says.
“If the funding was presented to organizations on the islands or people who are qualified to even work for those organisations, but live on the islands, I think it would be massive.”
People catch ferries from Redland Bay to the islands. (ABC News: Julius Dennis)
Nowhere to go in a crisis
Julie “Chook” Larson manages Running Wild, a service founded in 2013 on Macleay Island, which is being forced to downsize despite the increasing demand.
Ms Larson is a trained support worker and says Running Wild has been fueled by grants for specific programs like training and employment or conservation projects but are involved in a wide range of other community services.
“We’re not a specific youth service. We’re not a specific DV service. We’re not a specific mental health service, but we’re here in the community,” she says.
Julie “Chook” Larson says there is not enough services on the islands for those in crisis. (ABC News: Alexander Lewis)
“We are the only organization on the islands that is based here and able to, through relevant qualifications and trauma informed training, be able to provide a response to a crisis,” Ms Larson says.
“On paper it would look like these islands are all being serviced by professional support workers, but they’re actually not — they’re mainland based. They’re not here, they come on an outreach basis.”
Ms Collins agrees.
She says once the last ferry has left at night there is nowhere for people in need to turn.
“I’ve turned up at work and found a family with children sitting outside in their car saying that they’ve just gone through domestic violence and they’ve been sleeping in the car overnight,” she says.
“They’ve got no money, they can’t get off the island.”
But the stream of grants Running Wild has relied on has dried up and the organization is being forced out of their location on Macleay Island.
Mr Travis says this will “leave a hole in local access, particularly after hours”.
“If anything happens and people need support [at night] you’ve just got to get it from the people on your island,” he says.
“There’s really nowhere that you can have that separation over here. Nobody’s got a safe place they can go to.”
Only one ambulance boat services the islands.(ABC News: Julius Dennis)
As well as being “just one grant away from closing”, Ms Larson says Running Wild is having difficulty finding a suitable home.
Previously, a council-owned 10-acre block was earmarked for Running Wild but after a council meeting in July Ms Larson says she was told there was no land available.
Ms Larson says the lack of facilities made it “even more difficult in a competitive grant environment”.
Redland City Council says if land or a facility became available Running Wild could put forward an expression of interest.
Ms Larson says she will continue her work as a volunteer, but will have to find another job.
“Shift the resources here. We know what works here, we’ve been here, we live here, we know what works for our community – give us the resources to do something.”
Twitter announced in a Thursday blog post that it is taking steps to combat misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
The social media giant said it would activate enforcement of the Civic Integrity Policy.
The policy covers harmful misleading information about elections and civic events, including false information about the election’s outcome.
Tweets may be linked with credible information or helpful content, and users could see a prompt prior to liking or sharing labeled tweets.
FORMER TWITTER EMPLOYEE CONVICTED OF ACCEPTING BRIBES FROM SAUDI ARABIA, SHARING PRIVATE USER INFORMATION
The company noted that decreases in engagement with labeled tweets were noted.
In this photo illustration, the logo of Twitter can be seen on a smartphone on March 10, 2022, in Berlin, Germany. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images / Getty Images)
In cases where there is potential for harm, the tweet may not be liked or shared.
Twitter said it would remain vigilant, looking for fake accounts.
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A Twitter logo is seen outside the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, California, April 25, 2022. (Reuters/Carlos Barria/Reuters)
Other initiatives include “prebunks” that will “get ahead of misleading narratives,” state-specific event hubs that are rolled out nationwide, a dedicated explore tab with national and local news as well as voter education public service announcements, candidate account labels on candidate tweets and profile pages, and improved recommendations.
“Earlier this year, in the US and Brazil, we tested ways to prevent misleading Tweets from being recommended through notifications. Early results show that impressions on misleading information dropped by 1.6 million per month, as a direct result of the experiment,” Twitter wrote .
The logo for Twitter is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, June 1, 2022. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
The tech company said it would apply additional proactive safeguards for the accounts of government officials, candidates and journalists, including increased login defenses, expedited account recovery support, and more “sophisticated” detections and alerts.”
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As election day nears, Twitter wrote that it would continue to share real-time information about its strategy.
“Twitter plays a critical role in empowering democratic conversations, facilitating meaningful political debate, and providing information on civic participation – not only in the US, but around the world. People deserve to trust the election conversations and content they encounter on Twitter,” it concluded.
