Daily News Round-up

February 8, 2022

Picture: CNS photo/Paul Haring

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 

Pope Francis admitted he had “no explanation” for why God would allow children to suffer during a rare TV talk show appearance on Sunday.

The head of the Catholic Church appeared on the Italian talk show Che tempo che fa, hosted by journalists Fabio Fazio and Filippa Lagerback, for an hour-long interview that aired on Sunday night, local time.

He answered a wide range of questions on serious issues, such as the threat of Russia invading Ukraine, and some lighter ones, like his love of classical music.

But one question had no answer.

Asked why he thought God would allow children to suffer, the Pope conceded he was stumped.

“I have no explanation for that,” Francis responded, according to The Associated Press.

“I have my faith and try to love God, my father. But why children suffer? I have no answer for that.”

On the tensions with Russia, Francis did not explicitly take sides, merely stressing that “war is always destruction”.

He prodded European nations to be more welcoming towards migrants, particularly refugees who have crossed the Mediterranean, usually in dangerous circumstances.

“Each country must say how many migrants they can take,” he said.

Francis said gossip, bullying and aggression were great dangers to modern society, adding that “gossip destroys identity”.

Asked whether he had friends, the Pope said he had a small circle of them, who were “few but true”.

He also explained that he shuns the spacious papal apartments used by his predecessors because he is “no saint” and needs to be close to people.

To end the interview, he made his usual plea for viewers to not “forget to pray for me”. From those who don’t pray, he requested “at least send me good thoughts”.

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Property prices will take a turn for the worse midway through this year and by 2023 house prices will plunge by a whopping 11 per cent.

That’s according to the latest NAB forecast, released last Friday, reports news.com.

NAB drastically revised its initial outlook for property prices over the next two years after the Reserve Bank flagged that interest rates could rise at some point in 2022.

In its Residential Property Survey for the latest quarter, NAB warned: “With our view on rate hikes coming forward, we now expect the turning point in property prices to occur in the second half of 2022.”

The looming promise of rising interest rates means their outlook for this year will see prices significantly “flatter” than before while we will see “a slightly larger fall” for 2023.

Property is set to rise in value by just three per cent in the coming year.

That’s a pitiful amount compared to last year, when Australian real estate soared by 22 per cent in a boom that hadn’t been seen since the mid-1980s.

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Queensland has recorded another 12 COVID-19 deaths, and 5,178 new cases in the latest reporting period.

Of the deaths, nine were in aged care, but one person was in their 30s.

Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said it was a “somewhat unusual case”.

“It’s not clear to what extent COVID played a part in this person’s death but it could have played a part so we include this case for the sake of transparency,” he said.

There are 663 COVID patients in public hospital, 42 in ICU and 22 of those are ventilated.

Eleven children between the ages of five and 17 are currently in hospital.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the state was still “nudging very, very slowly closer” to the 90 per cent double dose mark with 89.97 per cent of the  population above 16 years of age now receiving two doses.

*NSW has recorded 18 COVID-19 deaths as the number of people being treated in the state’s hospitals continues to drop.

There are 2,068 people with the virus in hospital, of which 132 are in intensive care.

Hospital numbers have dropped by another 31 patients after a dramatic fall of 222 people the day before.

Booster rates for people who are aged 16 and over or who are immunocompromised have risen to 44 per cent.

Vaccination rates for children aged five to 11 (43.2 percent single dose) and 12 to 15 (83.4 percent single dose, 78.6 percent double dose) are also slowly increasing.

*Victoria has recorded another 20 COVID-19 deaths.

The number of people in hospital after contracting the virus sits at 575, down from 638 a day earlier.

Of those patients, 72 are in intensive care units, with 30 people on ventilators.

The state reported 9,785 new infections — 2,569 from PCR results and 7,216 from rapid antigen tests. 

It takes the number of officially reported active infections to 58,449, down from 59,801 yesterday.

About 46 per cent of the state’s adult population has now had a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

*The Victorian government has announced more than 1.6 million rapid antigen tests will be distributed to childcare centres for children aged three to five for voluntary twice-weekly testing.

The government is highly recommending parents take up the offer of free tests.

A total of 7,046 school students and 925 staff have reported positive COVID-19 test results in just over a week, Education Minister James Merlino said.

The government’s free RAT scheme for students is due to run for a month, but Premier Daniel Andrews said it may be continued for longer.

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Border lockdowns and supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 have failed to slow the huge uptake of rooftop solar in Australia, with householders installing record amounts of new capacity last year, according to the ABC. 

Figures from the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) show more than 3,000MW of small-scale solar capacity was added to grids around the country in the 12 months to December 31, pipping the previous high of 2,964MW in 2020.

Combined, the capacity of the newly installed solar eclipsed the size of Australia’s biggest power station, the 2,880MW Eraring coal-fired plant operated by Origin Energy in New South Wales.

Also, the CER said there was typically a lag of up to 12 months in the reporting of new units, meaning the figure was likely to be even higher.

Across Australia, more than 360,000 customers had solar panels installed on their roofs last year, in line with 2020 and more than double the number that went up in 2015.

A spokesman for the CER said this was expected to rise to 380,000 installations with a total capacity of 3,200MW for the period.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready for compromise and would look at proposals put forward by French leader Emmanuel Macron during talks on Monday, while still blaming the West for raising tensions over Ukraine.

Emerging from a meeting in the Kremlin that lasted more than five hours, the two leaders voiced hope that a solution could be found to the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

The West has repeatedly warned of “severe consequences” if Russia invades, and Macron was the first major Western leader to meet with Putin since the start of the crisis in December.

A number of his ideas, proposals… are possible as a basis for further steps,” Putin said, adding: “We will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone.”

“President Putin assured me of his readiness to engage,” Macron said, adding: “There is no security for the Europeans if there is no security for Russia.”

Putin again denied that Russia was to blame for the tensions.

“It is not us who are moving towards NATO’s borders,” he said, in reference to alliance deployments in eastern Europe.

ENDS

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