The alleged plot was “likely in retaliation” for the January 2020 US air strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Justice Department said. After the strike, leaders of the terrorist organization vowed “revenge against Americans” for Soleimani’s death and publicly lashed out against then-President Donald Trump and other high-ranking officials in his administration.
Prosecutors said Shahram Poursafi, a 45-year-old Iranian national and IRGC member, attempted to pay $300,000 to an individual in the United States to kill Bolton and said he had a “second job” for $1 million.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also a target of an Iranian assassination plot, according to a federal law enforcement source familiar with the investigation and a source close to Pompeo. A known Iran policy hawk, Pompeo served as Trump’s secretary of state at the time of the airstrike that killed Soleimani.
CNN has attempted to reach Pompeo for comment.
Poursafi has not been arrested and remains at large.
Poursafi originally contacted the US-based individual — who was secretly working as an FBI informant, also known as a “confidential human source,” or CHS — and asked them to take photos of Bolton “for a book that Poursafi was writing, “court documents say.
He later asked if the informant could hire a person to “eliminate someone,” who was later revealed to be Bolton, and promised protection for the CHS and the assassin, prosecutors say. Poursafi also allegedly suggested the murder should be done “by car,” provided the CHS with an address for Bolton’s office, and noted that Bolton had a habit of taking walks alone.
In November 2021, the informant traveled to Washington, DC, and sent Poursafi photos of Bolton’s office and descriptions of the building. Poursafi allegedly said that the killing should happen in the building’s garage, as it was a “high traffic” area.
Poursafi has been charged with the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, which carries a 10-year maximum prison sentence, and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot, which carries up to 15 years in prison.
In a statement, Bolton thanked the Justice Department, FBI and Secret Service for their efforts.
“While much cannot be said publicly right now, one point is indisputable: Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States,” Bolton said. “Their radical, anti-American objectives are unchanged; their commitments are worthless; and their global threat is growing.”
Bolton was Trump’s fourth national security adviser for a little over a year, starting in April 2018 until Trump fired him from the role in September 2019 via Twitter for “strongly” disagreeing with “many” of Bolton’s suggestions.
A hawkish neoconservative, Bolton had previously advocated for regime change in Iran and backed Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the multinational Iran nuclear deal.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
An Australian tech company sacked around 10 per cent of its staff despite announcing its revenue had jumped by 40 per cent to $109.7 million in the past financial year.
The Brisbane-based telecommunications and IT infrastructure company called Megaport revealed that a whopping $1.6 million was spent paying out employees who had been made redundant.
Around 35 staff members – out of its 345 estimated workforce on LinkedIn – were impacted by the cuts.
“On July 14 2022, management made the decision to reduce its workforce in order to reduce costs and prepare for rising prices and inflation across the group’s key markets,” Megaport revealed in its report to investors.
Its revenue had grown from $78.3 million from the previous financial year, its results showed, while its monthly recurring revenue soared by 43 per cent to $10.7 million in June, mainly as a result of new customers from the US.
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The 10-year-old company, which was founded by multi-millionaire Bevan Slattery, is one of the many Aussie tech outfits that have suffered from a battering on the share market this year.
Its shares have plummeted by 53 per cent since the start of the year, but its results reported on Tuesday helped its stock rise by 9 per cent defying the broader trend of investors selling off loss making tech shares.
Megaport reported a full year net loss of $48.5 million down from $55 million the year earlier, while it increased customers from 2,285 to 2,643.
It currently has $82.5 million in cash, according to its report.
tech bloodbath
Aussie employees from the tech sector have suffered a brutal round of cuts in recent times, with Megaport’s staff the latest casualties.
An Australian social media start-up called Linktree that was recently valued at $1.78 billion is sacking 17 per cent of staff from its global operations, it revealed this week.
Immutable, an Australian crypto company valued at $3.5 billion was facing a fierce backlash last week after sacking 17 per cent of its staff from its gaming division, while continuing to “hire aggressively” after raising $280 million in funding in March.
Australian healthcare start-up Eucalptys that provides treatments for obesity, acne and erectile dysfunction fired up to 20 per cent of staff after an investment firm pulled its funding at the last minute.
Debt collection start-up Indebted sacked 40 of its employees just before the end of the financial year, despite its valuation soaring to more than $200 million, with most of the redundancies made across sales and marketing.
Then there was Australian buy now, pay later provider Brighte, that offers money for home improvements and solar power, which let go of 15 per cent of its staff in June, with roles primarily based on corporate and new product development.
Another buy now, pay later provider with offices in Sydney called BizPay made 30 per cent of its redundant workforce blaming market conditions for the huge cut to staffing in May.
Earlier this year, a start-up focused on the solar sector called 5B Solar, which boasts backing from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, also sacked 25 per cent of its staff after completing a capital raise that would inject $30 million into the business
Spotify has apparently unveiled a new website to sell concert tickets to consumers. Spotify Tickets is the mysterious new feature from the streaming company that could chip away at sites like Ticketmaster and StubHub.
Ask any concertgoer about their experience buying tickets, and they’ll likely bring up a certain company’s name with a shudder: Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster is known for refusing refunds, and peddling outrageous prices and fees, all because it is the company to purchase concert tickets. While apps like Dice have entered the fold to disrupt Ticketmaster’s looming hand, it appears that music and podcast streaming service Spotify is looking to get in on the action too. Tickets.spotify.com is a new, barebones website that appears to be the company’s attempt at testing a way to provide music fans with a new way to purchase tickets. While promising this test is almost as vague as Spotify’s comment to Gizmodo, which reads:
At Spotify, we routinely test new products and ideas to improve our user experience. Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings. Tickets.spotify.com is our latest test. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time.
Fair enough! While Spotify is tight-lipped on future plans for the rollout, a spokesperson did point me to MusicAlly’s coverage of Spotify Tickets. MusicAlly argues that Spotify Tickets is a pre-sale option for a select amount of tickets from a show’s broader pool of available tickets. Spotify has experimented with concert integration in the past — namely a list of upcoming concerts on artists’ profiles as well as a feature that sends ticket pre-sale codes out to active fans — but this would be a more direct attempt by the company to sell tickets. Artists currently listed on Spotify Tickets include Limbeck, Annie DiRusso, Dirty Honey, Crows, TOKiMONSTA, Four Year Strong, and Osees, with concerts ranging from September to December of this year.
I’m a relatively avid concertgoer and I’ll support anything that makes purchasing tickets even just a little bit less of a headache. I’m also a devoted Spotify user, and the company’s decision to target people like me is a smart move.
As large parts of Europe and North America swelter and then ignite, a future of endless climate destruction seems inevitable.
In Australia, we’ve already felt the flames and know we will again.
And many other places now find themselves stuck in an ecocidal tennis match, bouncing from one extreme to another, from devastating fires to heartbreaking floods.
The Black Summer bushfires sent tons of ash and smoke into the atmosphere.(Supplied: CSIRO/Richard Matear)
There’s a growing consensus on the urgent need to bring down carbon emissions, and the global rallying cry is net zero. This isn’t just a climate target, it’s become a badge of commitment.
There’s also a realization that it won’t be easy.
“Transitioning to a net zero world is one of the greatest challenges humankind has faced,” the United Nations declares on its Climate Action website, urging a “complete transformation of how we produce, consume and move about.”
But a schism has emerged among the faithful, with major environmental groups and several leading climate experts now washing their hands of the net zero concept.
Their warning is blunt: the methods and technologies we’ve adopted to reverse global warming simply won’t work.
Worse still, they could do more harm than good.
hijacked for profit
One way that countries have sought to achieve their net zero ambitions is by setting up a carbon market to allow heavy-polluting industries to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits.
The money generated is then channeled into activities that help the environment, like growing more trees, for instance.
Carbon markets are still in their infancy, but the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney – who’s now a UN Climate Envoy – believes they have a significant future role to play.
He estimates they could facilitate transactions of around US $1 trillion by 2050.
But Gilles Dufrasne, a policy officer at Carbon Market Watch, warns that if carbon markets are allowed to grow unchecked, they could compromise and ultimately distort net zero goals.
“The main concern is to ensure that the money is actually flowing to climate action and not to financial players or intermediaries,” he told ABC RN’s Future Tense.
He says some carbon credits get traded up to 100 times, with no added benefit to the environment.
“It’s absurd to have so little transparency around where the money is going since it’s the actual primary objective of the entire system.”
Former chief scientist, Ian Chubb, has been tasked by the new federal government with investigating Australia’s widely criticized carbon credit scheme.
Mr Dufrasne says the integrity of other schemes is also in question, including one operated by the European Union.
“The whole concept is being exploited by companies who don’t want to take any meaningful action and who see a cheap way out of their responsibility by just purchasing these carbon credits,” he says.
‘Burn now, pay later’
Last year, a former chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Robert Watson, broke ranks to denounce net zero as a fraud – a “dangerous trap”.
Experts say our goals should be zero emissions, rather than emissions balanced by carbon credits. (Getty: James Jordan Photography)
Writing in The Conversation, he and two other leading climate scientists declared they had abandoned the concept.
“Sometimes realization comes in a blinding flash,” they wrote.
“The premise of net zero is deceptively simple – and we admit that it deceived us.
“We have arrived at the painful realization that the idea of net zero has licensed a recklessly cavalier ‘burn now, pay later’ approach which has seen carbon emissions continue to soar.”
Earth Systems scientist James Dyke says that net zero was originally designed as a last-resort measure to allow a very small number of essential industries, like aviation and steelmaking, to offset their emissions and decarbonise over time.
But he says the term lost credibility when it began to be indiscriminately used as an excuse to delay taking action, pushing the problem onto future generations.
“So, when you hear ‘net zero by 2050’ what is being proposed is not that we just offset these hard-to-address sectors, but that we actually will be overshooting 1.5 degrees Celsius, maybe even 2 degrees Celsius,” says Dr Dyke.
Overshooting, that is, with the vague promise that by the middle of the century scientists will have invented effective ways to remove large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere.
But the flaw in that argument, Dr Dyke says, is that all attempts to build large-scale carbon reduction systems have so far failed – including the much-hyped carbon capture and storage (CCS).
“Many people are very surprised to learn that carbon removal technologies don’t really exist.
“I mean, there are ideas about how we might be able to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere, and when I say large, we are talking billions of tonnes. But whatever the proposed technology is, these are just placeholders, “he says.
“They are saying to future generations, by the time that we need these kinds of technologies, they will emerge.
“And as long as we can supply some kind of plausible idea for how we might be able to remove carbon dioxide, the net zero train keeps on running.”
Nature won’t do the work for us
Global warming has been linked to an increase in the calving of glaciers. (Unsplash: NOAA)
Another net zero skeptic is Jannes Stoppel, from Greenpeace Germany.
Like Dr Dyke, he’s skeptical of any technological fix. And while he supports efforts to plant more trees and strengthen forests, he cautions against overestimating nature’s capacity to solve what is a human-generated problem.
Our natural ecosystems are already stressed, he warns.
And their ability to absorb more carbon in future is far from guaranteed
While planting trees has benefits, experts say this is not enough.(Unsplash: @eyoel_kahssay_photographer)
“What we are doing by further talking about this net zero lingo, by further thinking that we can increase the ability (of forests and oceans) to draw down massive amounts of carbon in the future, it’s a very, very dangerous game we are playing. “
Net zero is a distraction, he says, our real emissions reduction goal should be zero. And getting there as quickly as possible.
That means, biting the bullet and phasing out all fossil fuel-using technologies now, rather than relying on elaborate trading systems and vague political promises of future cuts to save the day.
Claire Tyson of Climate Analytics, a non-profit institute that monitors the commitments of 40 governments to net zero, including the richest nations, admits the concept is struggling, but she still has faith it can work.
“I think we are facing a challenge because the world suddenly became very aware of this need for net zero and everyone sort of piled on to the concept. That does mean that there will be free riders in that, but that doesn’t mean we should give up.”
But Dr Dyke doubts the industrialized world is really serious about decarbonisation.
“At the moment there is this sort of phoney war on climate action where we continue to say that 1.5 [degrees Celsius] is still alive and that, with one great leap in ambition, we can still do it, whilst knowing that that’s just not going to happen.”
Humankind needs to stop gambling on the future, he argues, and start asking ourselves the difficult questions.
“I think in many instances this notion of future removals, and the framing around net zero, is being used to stop those questions,” he says.
“It’s really important for us to have these discussions now because warming is going to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that whatsoever.
“We are currently still on course for around 3 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
“So, when that does happen, we need to have an idea of what we are going to do to respond to the increase in vulnerability, the increase in damage and destruction and death that it’s going to produce — and make sure that we don’ t respond in ways that are going to make the situation much, much worse.”
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Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a member of the select progressive group in the House of Representative dubbed the Squad, eked out a closer-than-expected Democratic primary victory on Tuesday night against a centrist challenger who questioned the incumbent’s support for the “defund the police” movement.
The evening went far smoother for another progressive, Becca Balint, who won the Democratic House primary in Vermont – positioning her to become the first woman representing the state in Congress.
But Tim Michels, backed by Donald Trump, was projected to winthe Republican nomination for governor of Wisconsin, a day after the FBI searched the former US president’s home in Florida reportedly seeking classified documents.
Michels defeated rival and former lieutenant governor Rebecca Kleefisch, who had been endorsed by Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence.
Kleefisch served with right-wing former governor Scott Walker and she conceded to Michels on Tuesday night.
Michels has falsely asserted that Trump, rather than Democratic US president, Joe Biden, won the vital swing state in the 2020 presidential election, echoing the former president’s claims.
Michels has also vowed to enforce a 19th-century abortion ban that went into effect in Wisconsin after the US supreme court in June eliminated the nationwide right to the procedure with its overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling.
He will face the incumbent Wisconsin governor and Democrat, Tony Evers, in November’s election.
With a Republican-majority legislature, Michels could push through new abortion restrictions if elected. Evers and his administration have filed litigation challenging the 1849 law while promising not to prosecute doctors who violate it.
Other Trump-backed candidates also prevailed.
In Connecticut, Leora Levy surprised observers by winning the Republican primary race for the US Senate after being supported by Trump, upending moderate Themis Klarides who had a lot of party support in the state, the Hartford Courant reported.
Levy faces the high-profile incumbent Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.
In her Minneapolis district, Omar, who is one of the left’s leading voices in Congress, has defended calls to redirect public safety funding more into community-based programs.
She squared off with former city council member Don Samuels, whose north Minneapolis base suffers from more violent crime than other parts of the city.
Samuels argued that Omar is divisive and helped defeat a ballot question last year that sought to replace the city police department with a new public safety unit.
He and others also successfully sued the city to force it to meet minimum police staffing levels called for in Minneapolis’s charter.
But Omar narrowly prevailed on the night, seeking her third term in the House. She crushed a similar primary challenge two years ago from a well-funded but lesser-known opponent.
“She’s had a lot of adversity already and pushback. I don’t think her work is done, ”said Kathy Ward, a 62-year-old property caretaker for an apartment building in Minneapolis who voted for Omar. “We’ve got to give her a chance.”
Two other members of the Squad – Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Cori Bush of Missouri – won their Democratic primaries last week.
Meanwhile, Republicans see a pickup opportunity in Wisconsin’s third congressional district, the seat being vacated by the retiring Democratic incumbent Ron Kind.
The district covers a swath of counties along Wisconsin’s western border with Minnesota and includes La Crosse and Eau Claire.
Republican Derrick Van Orden was unopposed in his primary on Tuesday and has Trump’s endorsement.
Van Orden narrowly lost to Kind in the 2020 general election. He attended Trump’s rally near the White House on 6 January 2021, where the then president urged his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden, but has said he never set foot on the grounds of the Capitol during the insurrection that followed.
State Senator Brad Pfaff topped three other Democrats to secure the party’s nomination and will face Van Orden in the fall. Pfaff, a one-time state agriculture secretary, had previously worked for Kind and received his endorsement from him.
Vermont is the last state in the country yet to add a female member to its congressional delegation. Balint, who immediately becomes the favorite in November’s general election, would also be the first openly gay member of Congress from Vermont.
She was endorsed by some of the nation’s leading leftwing figures, including the Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“Vermont has chosen a bold, progressive vision for the future, and I will be proud to represent us in Congress,” Balint said in a statement.
Balint is vying to fill the state’s lone House seat, which is being vacated by Peter Welch who is running for Senate and easily secured the Democratic nomination on Tuesday.
Welch is trying to succeed retiring Senator Patrick Leahy, the US Senate’s longest-serving member.
Samsung’s annual August Unpacked, where the company detailed its updated line of foldable phones.
why it matters
In addition to showing if foldables are “there” yet for you in their fourth generation, both the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 features may foreshadow features that we’ll see in potential competing models from companies like Motorola and Google.
As we’ve come to expect from Samsung’s semiannual Unpacked announcement events, for its August 2022 launches the company delivered news about its latest phones, watches and earbuds: the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro and Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. The Galaxy ZFlip 3 will get one of our favorite last-gen perks, at $100 price cut.
Among its new product announcements, Samsung brought us up to speed on its sustainability initiatives, including incorporating recycled fishing nets in its latest foldables. Plus we got to see a new promo featuring Korea’s other major global star: BTS.
All the products are expected to ship on Aug. 26.
Want a play-by-play, detailed summary? Check out our archived live blog of the event.
Now playing: Watch this:
Galaxy Z Flip 4: Samsung’s Flip Phone Gets New Software,…
4:23
Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
Like the Z Fold 4, the Flip 4 gets the bottom-screen trackpad feature in its Flex Mode and the nighttime photography improvements that were launched with the S22, including night portrait-mode photos. You’ll also be able to send quick replies to texts, make calls and shoot portrait-mode photos from the cover screen.
You’ll also be able to get a Bespoke Edition like the Flip 3.
Refreshed components include:
A brighter wide lens and larger pixels in the 12-megapixel cameras
Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor
Battery boost to 3,700mAh
Readmore:
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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 First Take: Bigger Cover Screen,…
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Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a wider cover screen that makes apps look more like they’re intended and that’s designed to make it look like a typical phone when it’s closed. A new Flex Mode feature, also coming to the Flip 4 lets you use the bottom half of the screen as a trackpad.
Samsung claims it’s more durable than its predecessor, notably the internal tablet-sized display. We were treated to a discourse on the upgraded hinge, the new screen-layer architecture and shock-absorbing sponge. The company also Samsung also says the inner screen is brighter, and will have a less noticeable under-screen camera. It inherits the nighttime photography improvements launched with the S22 line, including night portrait-mode photos.
Samsung says this is the first device with Android 12L, the version of Android optimized for tablets. 12L brings a new task bar for streamlining app switching.
Refreshed components include:
50-megapixel main camera and a telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom in addition to the existing 12-megapixel wide-angle lens
Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor
Readmore:
Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
In addition to the existing Watch sizes, there’s a new, larger and heavier Pro model with a more durable titanium build. Samsung says both Watches have longer battery life over earlier models thanks to higher-capacity batteries (590 mAh in the Pro), an infrared skin temperature sensor and a more durable sapphire crystal for the watch face instead of Gorilla Glass. Plus, there will be new faces available.
There’s a larger surface area for sensor contact on your wrist, which Samsung says will provide more accurate results, and a smaller combined sensor size.
Samsung’s offering some trade-in discounts on preorders: $75 off the Watch 5, or $125 off the Pro if an “eligible” watch is traded in, along with a $50 credit for accessories.
Readmore: Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 Now Includes a Pro Model and Better Battery Life
Richard Peterson/CNET
The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro have beefed up surround and hi-fi audio — as long as they’re connected to a Galaxy phone running Samsung’s One UI 4.0 or later. Samsung’s also eked out another two hours from its battery.
Later in the year, Samsung will be updating the Buds 2 Pro with better 360 LE audio.
When Brett Clements got his first job at 15, he dreamed that, if he worked hard, he would be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor and retire at 40, but it wasn’t to be.
Key points:
The Superannuation Association of Australia estimates a single person needs $545,000 to retire comfortably
One million people who withdrew some of their super early during the pandemic have been left with less than $1,000 in their account
Share market volatility has also had an impact on super balances
A modest superannuation balance and the rising cost of living mean the 60-year-old Perth-based cleaner expects to be working for at least another 10 years.
“I have about $150,000 in superannuation, and I’ll end up with $10,000 left out of my superannuation after the house is paid for, which isn’t a lot to live on after 45 years of working,” he told ABC’s 7.30.
“[I’m] definitely behind the eight ball … because the wages aren’t good. So, therefore, your [amount] is not that great going into super.”
Another decade of labor will be painfully hard for Mr Clements, who still suffers physically and financially from breaking his back when he owned his own cleaning business 20 years ago.
“We tried to keep that business going. In the end, we just had to fold it,” he said.
“I’ve suffered with this ever since.”
Mr Clements’ 75-year-old wife works alongside him as a cleaner and can’t afford to retire either.
Brett Clements expects he will be working for at least another 10 years.(ABC News: Phil Hemingway)
“She’ll tell you that I’ve become more and more depressed,” he said.
“We buy mainly home-branded stuff but … an $80 shop is now $130.”
What’s making Mr Clements even more uneasy is that his superannuation balance is fluctuating daily because of the global economic uncertainty.
“I have a balanced superannuation, so I’m not a big risk-taker,” Mr Clements said.
“COVID hit, the war in Ukraine has hit. Now, suddenly, everything’s volatile.”
According to consultancy firm SuperRatings, only three superannuation funds have reported that they made money for their members with balanced investments during the past financial year.
SuperRatings’ top 10 balanced super options over 12 months:
Rank
Option name
1-year returns (%)
1
Hostplus – Balanced
1.6
two
Qantas Super Gateway—Growth
0.6
3
Christian Super — MyEthicalSuper
0.5
4
Legalsuper — MySuper Balanced
-1.0
5
Australian Retirement Trust — Super Savings – Balanced
-1.0
6
Energy Super—Balanced
-1.2
7
Aust Catholic Super and Ret—Balanced
-1.2
8
CareSuper—Balanced
-1.7
9
HESTA—Balanced Growth
-1.8
10
Telstra Super Corp Plus — Balanced
-1.9
Glenn McCrea says Australians shouldn’t be focused on short-term share market volatility when it comes to their super.(Supplied)
However, the Association of Superannuation Funds Australia’s deputy chief executive, Glenn McCrea, is urging older Australians not to panic about share market volatility.
“The reality is [the previous] financial year, we saw returns of 20 per cent. Este [past] year, it has fallen slightly, on average about 3 per cent,” he said.
“Call your fund. Understand where your fund invests. Understand your balance and how your balance has changed over time.
“I do encourage people to look at returns over 10 years, rather than follow what happens day to day.”
The downturn in superannuation amounts comes as the government and opposition clash over the level of detail that superannuation funds provide to their members about political donations, marketing and sponsorship expenses.
super balances at retirement
Estimates vary on how many Australians need to retire.
Mr McCrea said that, on the association’s calculations, a single person would need $545,000 and a couple $640,000 in retirement to live comfortably.
“[It] basically means you can afford to go to a dentist, you can catch up with friends and have that cup of coffee, you can fix the washing machine or car,” he said.
“We estimate that, by 2050, 50 per cent of Australians will get to that dignity in retirement.”
Despite wanting to be self-sufficient, Mr Clements knows his superannuation won’t be enough to sustain his retirement.
“I’ll have to go, cap in hand, to the government and try [to] draw on a pension,” he said.
“Pride gets in the way sometimes.”
Young Australians also worried
It’s not just those hoping to retire soon who are feeling nervous about their superannuation and their future.
Hairdresser Michaela Marshall-Lawrence, 27, was forced to withdraw $5,000 from her superannuation at the start of the pandemic to keep her salon afloat.
She’d just opened the business, and faced the brunt of lockdowns amid a drop in bookings.
Michaela Marshall-Lawrence had only just opened her business when COVID-19 hit.(ABC News: Edward Gill)
“I wasn’t eligible for any government support, in any way, shape or form,” she said.
“I had already exhausted 95 per cent of my savings on purchasing the salon.
“[The $5,000 super withdrawal] it was enough that it paid for another month’s worth of rent, and I could pay my staff and I could afford to live.”
Under the former Coalition government’s scheme, up to $20,000 could be withdrawn from a person’s super during the pandemic if they were experiencing hardship.
However, withdrawing the money early meant missing out on potentially tens of thousands of dollars of compound earnings across future years, something that concerns Ms Marshall-Lawrence.
Michaela Marshall-Lawrence is making extra super contributions to try to grow her balance faster.(ABC News: Edward Gill)
“I’m now paying myself 22 per cent super,” she said.
“I know so many people, they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s just super. I can’t access it for another 50-60 years anyway, so what’s the point?’
“And it’s like, ‘Well, there is a big point, you know’.”
Data exclusively provided to ABC’s 7.30 by the Association of Superannuation Funds Australia shows that, out of the 3 million people who accessed their super early, 1 million were left with less than $1,000 in their super account, while 163,000 people were left with no super at there.
Mr McCrea said those who took out money early were mostly single parents, women and those on low incomes, and 44 per cent of applicants were aged under 35.
“There’s no doubt younger people were the main people to take money out through early release,” he said.
“What we do know is a younger person who took the full $20,000 out, will be $43,000 worse off in retirement, so that’s for a 30-year-old,” he said.
Council on the Aging chief executive Ian Yates said those who had withdrawn early would find it tougher to fund their own retirement.
Council on the Aging Australia’s Ian Yates predicts early withdrawals may see higher pension costs in future.(ABC News: Marco Catalano)
“The impact of that withdrawal is that there’ll be higher pension costs into future years,” he said.
Shadow Minister for Financial Services Stuart Robert maintains the former Coalition government policy was a necessary one at a time of crisis.
“This was a one-in-100-year pandemic. This is a not normal state of affairs,” he said.
“Australians are pretty canny and Australians are able to make decisions themselves.
“The requirement, and the responsibility, was with individual Australians because, remember, it’s their money.”
Fund spending in the spotlight
How superannuation funds spend their members’ money is currently under scrutiny before Federal Parliament.
Mr Robert said the Labor Government was trying to wind back the Coalition’s policy to force funds to itemise disclosure of political donations, marketing, and sponsorship expenses.
Shadow Minister for Financial Services Stuart Robert says members should be able to see how super funds are spending their money.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
“We believe them [super funds] should be transparent. All members should be able to see how every dollar of their money has been spent,” he said.
“The transparency and integrity of superannuation of members’ money is being watered down so the Labor government can try and hide what super funds are spending their money on when it comes to political donations, when it comes to football sponsorships.”
Mr Robert has written to crossbenchers urging them to support itemized disclosure and disallow Labor’s proposal for less detail, which has been drawn up as a draft regulation.
The government said there would still be a requirement for super funds to disclose payments to industrial bodies, including unions and employer associations, but it would be an aggregate figure and not itemised.
Watch this story on 7:30 tonight on ABC TV and ABC iview.
President Joe Biden has said he will announce a decision on student-loan relief before August 31.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Tuesday that he wasn’t ready to announce.
Borrowers are awaiting an announcement on debt cancellation and a payment-pause extension.
With the potential for broad student-loan relief and an extension of the payment pause, August is a high-stakes month for millions of federal borrowers.
But it appears President Joe Biden isn’t quite prepared to announce relief.
Biden said last month that he would give himself until August 31 to decide on broad student-loan forgiveness. That’s also when payments are set to resume. He’s said to be considering $10,000 in relief for borrowers making under $150,000 a year. And while Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in June promised borrowers “ample notice” about any change to their balances, there hasn’t been an update.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters on Tuesday that Biden would stick with his end-of-August timeline.
“So we’re still kind of at the beginning, getting into the middle of August,” Jean-Pierre said. “So when he’s ready to make that decision, we will let you know.”
She said Biden “understands how student loans could affect a family and how the pressure of that can really be a lot and put a lot of weight on a family’s purse or economic situation,” adding: “So we understand that. He is making — he is going to make his decision on this, and when he has something to say, we will share that.”
Lawmakers, advocates, and student-loan companies have criticized the uncertainty surrounding student-loan payments. Some have speculated that Biden will extend the pandemic-era payment pause for the fifth time, as the Education Department recently instructed loan companies to halt messaging about payments resuming.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have requested information on how the department plans to execute student-loan relief efficiently, and while the department has not provided information, Politico recently obtained a memo outlining detailed plans to implement debt relief within months of Biden’s sign- off.
But borrowers have little time to prepare. Scott Buchanan, the executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group that represents federal student-loan servicers, told Insider earlier in August that companies should have been communicating with borrowers “a month ago.”
“And that needs to happen,” he said. “At this point, until the White House gives any different guidance, payments resume on September 1.”
While Republican lawmakers have criticized broad relief — three recently introduced legislation that would block Biden from implementing expansive loan forgiveness — some advocates want the president to go big to reach as many borrowers as possible.
Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, wrote a letter in July urging Biden to extend the payment pause and cancel at least $50,000 in student debt per borrower.
“The American people are anxious. Voters are anxious. Your base is anxious. Extending the freeze will only extend the anxiety that millions of Americans feel,” Johnson wrote. “Thus, any extension must be accompanied by meaningful cancellation,” he added. “We urge you to cancel a minimum of $50,000 as Black borrowers — drowning in an average of $53,000 in student debt — have virtually no realistic way to pay it back in today’s unjust economy.”
With pre-downloads available for fantasy towerThe Official Website Also provide the minimum recommended specifications to run the game. You can check them out in the table below:
to program
iOS
Android
computers
Minimum Requirements
iPhone 8 Plus and iPad Air (2nd generation)
Kirin 710 / Snapdragon 660 processor
Windows 7 SP1 64-bit / Windows 8.1 64-bit / Windows 10 64-bit
Recommended requirements
iPhone 13 / iPhone 13 Pro / iPhone 13 Pro Max / iPhone 13 mini / iPhone 12 / iPhone 12 mini / iPhone 12 Pro / iPhone 12 Pro Max / iPhone 11 Pro / iPhone 11 Pro Max / iPhone 11 / iPhone SE (2nd generation) / iPhone Xs / iPhone Xs Max / iPhone XR, 12.9-inch iPad Pro (4th generation) / 11-inch iPad Pro (4th generation) / 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation) / 11-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation) / iPad mini (5th generation) / iPad Air (3rd generation)
Kirin 980/985/990/9000, Snapdragon 855/865/870/888, Dimensions 800/1000, Android 7.0 and above
Intel Core i7 or better, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or better, DirectX 12
It seems as usual that PC specifications are more demanding than mobile devices fantasy tower, but hopefully it will still work well. The game is not currently available for consoles, so we have to see how it goes.
fantasy tower
Developed by: Hotta Studio
Release date: 12-16-2021
Android, iOS and Microsoft Windows
Set hundreds of years in the future on the distant planet Aida, the open-world, sci-fi tower-packed MMORPG and anime adventure from developer Hotta Studio and publisher Level Infinite is now available on PC and mobile platforms globally. Players will be able to experience anime-inspired sci-fi art style, free-to-play character development, and exciting battles through exciting battles and exciting open-world exploration.
“Lifelong beer expert. General travel enthusiast. Social media buff. Zombie Maven. communicator.”
LANSING, MI — An employee at Tribar Technologies in Wixom overrode the company’s waste treatment alarms 460 times in the span of nearly three hours on the night which state regulators believe a toxic chemical release to the Huron River initially began last weekend.
That extraordinary detail is among new information about the circumstances surrounding a hexavalent chromium release to the Wixom wastewater system contained in violation notices issued by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).
In an Aug. 9 “egregious” violation letter sent to Tribar, an auto supplier which manufacturers chrome-finished parts using toxic chemicals, state regulators demanded more information about what transpired at the company’s Wixom Plant No. 5 on Alpha Drive on Friday, July 29.
According to the EGLE notice, that’s when a 14,923-gallon rinse waste tank holding about 10,000 gallons of “acid etch material” with about five percent total chromium was emptied into the Wixom wastewater system as a contamination slug, which overwhelmed the sewage plant.
Wixon’s plant discharges to the Huron River via the Norton Creek drain upstream of Milford.
Between 4:59 and 7:46 pm on July 29, the tank operator overrode the waste treatment alarms 460 times, or about once every 20 seconds, according to the notice. Another “high level” alarm was recorded at 11 pm
How and why that occurred is unclear. EGLE says the company has not been fully forthcoming with its investigation, which involves the state’s criminal environmental investigative arm.
Tribar did not report the release until Monday, Aug. 1, when employee Ryan O’Keefe made an 8 am state Pollution Emergency Alert System (PEAS) report attributing the release to “operator error.”
“We have asked them repeatedly for critical information about their systems and the timeline for what happened. They have provided some information but have not provided the level of information we need for the investigation,” said EGLE spokesperson Hugh McDiarmid.
“That whole weekend timeline is not clear to us and they have not been helpful in putting it together,” McDiarmid said.
Last week, Tribar said it “took immediate action, including making certain the release was stopped and contacting the wastewater treatment plant” last Monday.
In a statement to MLive on Wednesday, Tribar said it was reviewing the violation notices with environmental consultants at Barr and August Mack and would share internal investigation findings this week.
The tank operator is no longer employed by Tribar, the company said.
“Tribar has invested millions of dollars in sophisticated environmental controls to prevent an accidental release of wastewater prior to treatment at our facility. Based on an initial investigation, those automated controls were all functioning properly at the time the plating solution was released to the wastewater treatment plant,” the company stated. “However, the controls were repeatedly overridden by the operator on dutywhile the facility was shut down for the weekend. That individual is no longer employed by our company, and we are in the process of further improving our internal controls to prevent a future occurrence.”
EGLE announced the violation notices on Wednesday, Aug. 10, more than a week after the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued an Aug. 2 ‘no contact’ advisory for the Huron River downstream of Wixom.
The violations are part of an “accelerated enforcement” process against Tribar which EGLE says will involve administrative consent negotiations and attempts at recovering costs incurred by the state in response to the spill, which has sparked a week of widespread testing on the river.
The company failed to immediately notify EGLE about the, interfered with a city’s wastewater treatment and failed discharge to maintain a pollution prevention plan, EGLE says.
The citations follow unrelated violation notices from the agency’s air quality division following a July inspection, which found the company was not keeping adequate records and was not properly operating equipment which controls nickel and chromium emissions.
Tribar has until Aug. 20 to respond to the water violations and Aug. 30 to respond to the air quality violations, EGLE said.
Tribar operates four plants in Wixom and two in Howell. The company was previously named Adept Plastic Finishing before it was acquired by HCI Equity Partners in 2016.
The state has maintained the contact advisory so far this week although river testing has turned up minimal detections of the contaminants, leading state and local officials to express optimism that the contaminants were largely bound up in filters at Tribar and the Wixom plant.
There has been widespread concern over the potential for contaminants to reach the city of Ann Arbor’s water intake downstream at Barton Pond, although computer modeling has shown that the slow-flowing river wouldn’t likely bring any chromium to the city for several weeks.
Hexavalent chromium, or hexchrome, is a carcinogenic chemical used in plastic finishing. It can cause a number of health problems through ingestion, skin contact or inhalation.
EGLE says its testing data has been turned over to DHHS, which is expected to make a determination on the continuance of the contact advisory in the coming days.
On Wednesday, activists outraged at the spill rallied at Heavner Canoe Rental in Milford to call for stronger polluter accountability laws and punitive action against Tribar.
The company has polluted the river before. Tribar is chiefly responsible for the existing “Do Not Eat” fish advisory in the river due to PFAS chemicals, which were also discharged to the river through the Wixom wastewater plant.
State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, led the crowd in chants of “shut them down!” and urged people to call lawmakers in Lansing to support “polluter pay” legislation.
“They need to be shut down. They need to be held accountable — GM, Ford, every single manufacturer needs to stop doing business with them,” said Rabhi.
“I want them sued into oblivion.”
Related stories:
Dingell seeks greater EPA hand in Huron River spill
