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Treasurer flags power bill assistance
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is giving more specifics about how this IMF report may affect the upcoming May budget. He’s flagging the government will be helping Australians pay their electricity bills.
As we say these forecasts about a decline in the economy are because of these cost of living pressures, which is hurting families and pensioners and people right around Australia.
Because they are expected to be persistent because we expect inflation to be higher than we’d like for longer than we’d like and we do need to deal with in a responsible, methodical way those cost-of-living pressures and so we need to do that in a way that doesn’t make inflation worse.
On the view of the International Monetary Fund, the global economy is on an increasingly perilous path. The situation in the world has become more complex and more challenging even over the course of the last few months. And so we won’t be completely immune from that.
The Treasury does expect our own economy to slow considerably later this year because of that combination of a slowing global economy and the impact of higher interest rates here at home as well. So we’ve got a lot coming at us from around the world.
So is it your view that avoiding a recession is still possible but a lot harder now?
Of course, it’s still possible and it’s still the expectation of the Treasury and the Reserve Bank, and a number of other economic forecasters here in Australia.
But we need to be upfront … and say that a slowing global economy matters to us a great deal, and we do expect our own economy to slow considerably the Treasury and the Reserve Bank are not currently expecting a recession here at home.

Wis., said there was "broad support" for barring American asset managers from investing in Chinese AI companies among VCs they met.

The People’s Republic of China seemingly set its sights on breaking Airbus and Boeing’s duopoly over the commercial aviation market. According to CNBC, Airbus and Boeing combined control 99 percent of ...

With government concerns over national security growing, Beijing’s influence over platforms such as WeChat and Shein could come under scrutiny
As TikTok, the world’s most popular app, comes under increasing scrutiny in response to data privacy and security concerns, lawmakers in the west may soon set their sights on other Chinese platforms that have gone global.
TikTok was built by ByteDance as a foreign version of its popular domestic video-sharing platform, Douyin. But it is far from being ByteDance’s only overseas moneymaker. The Chinese company owns dozens of apps that are available overseas, many of them English-language versions of Chinese offerings.

Three cases of H3N8 detected in China since 2022 as World Health Organization says strain doesn’t appear to spread easily between humans
A woman has died from H3N8 bird flu in China, the World Health Organization reported – the first known human fatality from the avian influenza strain.
H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals.

Criticism of the French president’s performance in Beijing has been scathing among some allies, who saw him as cozying up to Beijing.

The materials assess Ukrainian war preparedness, Egypt’s and the UK’s involvement in the conflict, and other disclosures
US intelligence gave a downbeat assessment in February of the prospects for Ukraine’s expected spring counteroffensive, due to shortfalls in troop numbers and equipment deliveries.

The upcoming issue of NU Asian Magazine, which is being revived this quarter, seeks to depict “coming of age” through the perspective of Asian Americans.

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation said that accusations of Chinese meddling in its affairs had made it impossible for it to function as before.

Former PM to say in speech that any attempts by western leaders to appease Xi Jinping would be a mistake
Liz Truss will say Emmanuel Macron’s was a “sign of weakness”, after the French president asked Beijing for support in ending the war in Ukraine.
In the latest of a series of foreign policy interventions designed to encourage Rishi Sunak to take a tougher approach towards China, Truss will say in a speech that any attempts by western leaders to appease Xi Jinping would be a mistake.

Some people who’ve walked away from China’s grueling corporate culture say it’s worth the financial sacrifice. “I was tired of living like that,” one said.

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino is at the very center of the Asian American community in the San Gabriel Valley. Its collections have grown and its programming ...