What a heavy news week it’s been, aye. And it’s only Wednesday. On November 14, The Headlines reported on the massive floods wrecking NSW. On November 15, we reported on Iran sentencing someone to death.
Moreover, some big news stories are being reported today that are equally as important. So let’s get into the facts:
Two Missiles Have Hit Poland
On November 15, Russia shot a flurry of missiles at the Ukrainian power grid. That same day, two people in the Polish village of Przewodów were killed by a projectile explosion. Przewodów is a village that’s close to the border of Ukraine.
A senior US intelligence official has stated that Russia is behind the Polish missile strike. However, the US Government is yet to state that this is the case.
Another person who stated that Przewodów was attacked by Russia is Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He said: “The longer Russia feels impunity, the more threats there will be to anyone within reach of Russian missiles. To fire missiles at a NATO territory! This is a Russian missile attack on collective security! This is a very significant escalation. We must act.”
In response to this situation, the Russian Defence Ministry has said, “Statements by Polish media and officials about ‘Russian’ missiles allegedly falling in the area of the settlement of Przewodow are a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation. No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction.”
The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has organised an urgent meeting of his national security and defence affairs advisors to discuss what’s happened and what to do next. He’s also speaking with the President of the US, Joe Biden.
Early reports claiming the missiles to have been fired by Russia have been countered by statements from Biden who said that the missile (singular) was probably not fired from within Russia.
“There is preliminary information that contests that,” he said at a press conference.
“I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate, but it is unlikely, from the lines of trajectory, that is was fired from Russia. But, we’ll see”.
The Associated Press is now reporting that three anonymous US officials have said the missile was in fact fired by Ukrainian forces at incoming Russian missiles.
How Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping’s Meeting Went
Yesterday, for the first time in six years, a Prime Minister of Australia sat down with the President of China to have a chat. That’s right: The Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping meeting at the Bali G20 happened.
Moreover, Albanese has said that this conversation was very constructive.
“I think both countries took an important step to move forward. There are many steps, of course, that we are yet to take. And where I have said consistently, since before I became Prime Minister, we will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and act in the national interest,” said Albanese.
“I put forward Australia’s position when it comes to the blockages in our trading relationship. I put forward the differences that we have on human rights issues, including Xinjiang. I put forward, specifically, as well, the cases of Cheng Lei and Dr. Yang.”
In Xinjiang, Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims have been tortured in mass detention centres. Additionally, the journalist Cheng Lei and the writer Yang Hengjun are currently being detained in China in a manner that’s concerning human rights groups.
Meanwhile, Xi said that “China and Australia are both important countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We should improve, maintain, and develop the relationship between the two countries.”
He also said, “The potential for economic and trade cooperation between the two sides is huge, and it is hoped that the Australian side will provide a good business environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and operate in Australia.”
Related: Why The Winter Olympics Were So Controversial
Related: Anthony Albanese’s $2.4 Billion Plan to Fix the NBN
Australia Will Cut Its Electricity Prices By Christmas
In some hopeful news, our Federal Government has said that it’ll have a plan in place to tackle Australia’s sky-high electricity prices by the time Christmas rolls around.
Our Treasure, Jim Chalmers, has said that his team is currently determining “whether there’s some kind of intervention that we can make to keep these prices down.”
“That’s our preference, but we don’t want to rule out subsidies or tax. It may be necessary down the track, but let’s see if we can do something with regulation first.”
Chalmers also said, “We are working on it more or less around the clock right now, and we will move on it as soon as we responsibly can.”
We’ll keep you in the loop once Chalmers announces something more concrete.
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