Australia set for first recession in three decades

June 3, 2020

Australia is set for its first recession in 29 years as the country feels the impact of the virus pandemic.

Official figures show that the economy shrank by 0.3% in the first three months of the year, amid bushfires and the early stages of the outbreak.

Economists expect data for the current quarter to confirm that the shutdowns have pushed the country into recession.

It comes even after the government and central bank stepped up measures to support the economy.

The latest gross domestic product (GDP) figures highlight that the economy was struggling from a devastating bushfire season, a slowdown in tourism and weak domestic demand even before the virus-related restrictions started.

“This was the slowest through-the-year growth since September 2009, when Australia was in the midst of the global financial crisis, and captures just the beginning of the expected economic effects of Covid-19,” Bureau of Statistics chief economist Bruce Hockman said.

In March the Reserve Bank of Australia cut its main interest rate to a record low of 0.25%. The central bank also launched an unlimited bond buying programme.

While the central bank kept the cost of borrowing on hold at its meeting on Tuesday, Governor Philip Lowe said the country was facing the toughest conditions since the Great Depression.

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“The Australian economy is going through a very difficult period and is experiencing the biggest economic contraction since the 1930s.”

However, he did add a note of optimism to his outlook: “It is possible that the depth of the downturn will be less than earlier expected.”

Glimmer of hope

“The rate of new infections has declined significantly and some restrictions have been eased earlier than was previously thought likely,” he said.

The Australian government has also pledged hundreds of billions dollars to help support businesses and individuals and has signalled that more stimulus measures would be announced soon.

Last month Japan fell into recession for the first time since 2015 as the world’s third biggest economy shrank at an annual pace of 3.4% in the first three months of the year.

The week before Germany, Europe’s largest economy, slipped into recession, while other big economies, including the UK and the US are also seeing sharp downturns.

A recession is widely defined as two quarters in a row of economic contraction, or shrinking GDP.

World leaders react to China’s controversial national security bill

May 29, 2020

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China on Thursday approved a controversial proposal to impose a national security law for Hong Kong, reigniting concerns over the financial hub’s diminishing freedoms.

The law will effectively bypass Hong Kong’s legislature, and raises concerns over whether it is a breach of the Chinese city’s autonomy, which was promised under the “one country, two systems” principle.

It comes after months of pro-democracy protests, which sometimes spiraled into chaos and violence, that have rocked Hong Kong and devastated key sectors in its economy, including tourism and retail.

Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is a special administrative region of China. Under the “one country, two systems” framework, the city is given some freedoms that citizens in the mainland do not have. That includes self-governing power, limited election rights, and a largely separate legal and economic framework from mainland China.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said the decision to implement the law was “designed for steady implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ and Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”

But critics of the law say it violates that policy and promise of freedom to the Hong Kong people.

Prior to the approval of the bill, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Hong Kong was no longer highly independent from China.

Here’s how other leaders around the world say about China’s move to pass the bill.

JOINT RESPONSE FROM U.S., UNITED KINGDOM, AUSTRALIA, CANADA

In a joint statement, the four countries expressed their “deep concern” regarding Beijing’s proposed law.

“Hong Kong has flourished as a bastion of freedom. The international community has a significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” it said.

“Direct imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by the Beijing authorities, rather than through Hong Kong’s own institutions as provided for under Article 23 of the Basic Law, would curtail the Hong Kong people’s liberties.” The Basic Law is Hong Kong’s mini constitution.

The move will “dramatically erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and the system that made it so prosperous,” they added.

The joint statement pointed out that the law “will exacerbate the existing deep divisions in Hong Kong society” and “does nothing to build mutual understanding and foster reconciliation within Hong Kong.”

“Rebuilding trust across Hong Kong society by allowing the people of Hong Kong to enjoy the rights and freedoms they were promised can be the only way back from the tensions and unrest that the territory has seen over the last year,” they added.

GERMANY

“Hong Kong’s autonomy must not be undermined,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Mass said in a statement, adding that it was an opinion shared by the European Union. “The citizens of Hong Kong enjoy freedoms and rights, that are afforded to them through the Basic Law and on the principle ‘one country, two systems’. We expect that law and order to be upheld.”

“The principle ‘one country, two systems’ and law and order are the base for Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity. Even the security law must not question these principles,” he added.

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“Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly as well as the democratic debate in Hong Kong have to be respected in the future.”

TAIWAN

Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen pledged support for Hong Kong immediately after Beijing proposed the law last week. She said Taiwan “stands with the people of Hong Kong,” and pledged “necessary assistance” to those who need help.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and considers the self-ruled island as a Chinese province, that must be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. The Chinese Communist Party has never governed Taiwan.

In a tweet after the bill was approved, Tsai said she has moved to create a “humanitarian assistance action plan” for Hong Kong citizens, some of whom have already emigrated to Taiwan amid the uncertainty.

JAPAN

Even before the bill was passed, Japan’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying: “Japan is seriously concerned” about China’s decision toward Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong is an extremely important partner for Japan with which Japan maintains close economic ties and people-to-people exchanges,” the ministry said. “It is the long-standing policy of Japan to attach great importance to upholding a free and open system which Hong Kong has been enjoying and the democratic and stable development of Hong Kong under the ‘One Country Two System’ framework.”

The statement added that Japan has conveyed such views to China and “will continue to carefully observe developments surrounding Hong Kong.”

Online child abuse rising during lockdown

May 29, 2020

Police forces across the world are warning that criminals and paedophiles are using the coronavirus lockdown to target children.

Data gathered by the BBC reveals demand for abuse imagery has shot up.

Reports of obscene online material more than doubled globally to more than four million between March and April.

The US-based Center for Missing and Exploited Children said some of that rise related to one especially horrific and widely-circulated video.

In the UK, where 300,000 people are considered a threat to children, there were nearly nine million attempts in the last month to access child sexual abuse websites which had been previously blocked by the Internet Watch Foundation.

The anti-child abuse charity which reports sites to internet service providers, says that since the lockdown began there has been an 89% drop in site deletions by the tech companies.

It believes this may be because many of these firms have fewer people staffing their hotlines during the pandemic.

Spanish National Police say reports of online child sex videos leapt by just over 20% since just before the lockdown there began on 13 March.

Their counterparts in Denmark revealed the number of attempts to access child abuse websites has trebled.

With most schools closed, children are spending more time online. Experts say that puts them at greater risk of grooming for sexual abuse.

Cathal Delaney of Europol told the BBC: “Children are more vulnerable, they’re isolated, they’re not being as well supervised online and they’re spending more time online during this period than they would have previously.

Dark web surge

“Those conditions lend themselves to children being approached in different ways or coerced or exploited.”

Demand for abuse imagery has also shot up in Australia, where police say the downloading leapt by 86% in the three weeks after the 21 March lockdown.

Commander Paula Hudson of the Australian Federal Police, said many offenders see the pandemic as an ideal opportunity to target children.

“Across the dark web we’ve actually identified Covid-19-themed child exploitation forums,” said Cdr Hudson.

“One particular one we’re monitoring has grown by more than 1,000 members. They’re actively discussing the Covid opportunity to find more victims.

“The internet traffic is so heavy that we’ve been finding that dark web systems are crashing.”

Real world abuse

Many child abuse videos commissioned to order by paedophiles are made in the Philippines, where children are trafficked by abuse rings.

The children who are held captive by the gangs are subjected to appalling violence on camera. These attacks are live-streamed to paying customers in western nations, including the UK.

Officials in the Philippines say reports of online abuse material have soared – from approximately 59,000 in February to more than 101,000 in March, the month that the country’s coronavirus lockdown began.

The International Justice Mission (IJM), a global organisation that works in the Philippines, says half of the children rescued from abuse gangs are 12 years old or younger – and it has come across two victims who were babies less than three-months-old.

Earlier this month, police in the country intercepted one gang and took three children into care, the youngest of whom was just six.

Detectives suspect they may have been forced to take part in live-streamed abuse videos.

A 34-year-old woman arrested in the operation was the mother of two of the allegedly abused children. This is consistent with IJM research that found two-thirds of abuses are either parents or close relatives of the victims.

Child abusers already face life terms in the Philippines – and some legislators are proposing changing the law to introduce the death penalty.

Advice for parents, carers and children

The National Crime Agency in the UK has created the ‘ThinkuKnow’ website
It has advice for parents and others working with children on how best to protect them online.
The website includes advice written for children themselves
It’s received more than 250,000 hits since the pandemic began
The BBC, also has Own It, a guide to staying safe online

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But Emmeline Villar, under-secretary at the country’s Department of Justice, warned adults are being lured into the online child sex abuse industry because work is hard to find in the pandemic-hit economy.

“It’s a grave concern to us,” she said. “Especially as we know that these factors that are present right now, because of the lockdown, are contributing to the situation which would allow both the demand and supply to increase.”

The hope is that as the lockdown eases in countries across the world and schools reopen, the risks to children will drop.

But for those who have fallen victim to abusers the road to recovery can be long and painful.

Ruby from the Philippines endured two months of non-stop sexual abuse, live-streamed to western men, before she was finally rescued by police.

“It’s like being trapped in a dark room without any rays of light at all,” she said. “There’s no point of living at all. They made my life so miserable for years. How much more will I suffer from the damage they did to me?”