PERTH Airport chairman Nev Power has rejected claims by Qantas that the airport is putting at risk extra nonstop flights from Europe amid a long-running spat over the use of an ageing domestic terminal. At the weekend, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce was reported as saying the carrier could walk away from plans to introduce new services direct from Paris and Frankfurt unless the airport agreed to let it use terminals three and four. The terminals are in a separate building to the regular international facility at terminal one, but under an agreement thrashed out in 2016, Qantas was given permission to use them for its nonstop London-Perth service. That agreement also allows Qantas to put other nonstop European services through T3 and T4 until 2025, when the airline has given in-principle agreement to move its operations to a “consolidated” T1. However, Qantas is now threatening to scrap those plans because of the airport’s refusal to allow it to use T3 and T4 for a proposed seasonal service between Johannesburg and Perth. Mr Joyce said the London-Perth service, which has enjoyed occupancy rates of 94 per cent for business class and 92 per cent for economy class, “only worked” at T3 and T4. “They’re trying to stop us growing significantly in international from the domestic side (of the airport), but Perth-London only works through that hub,” Mr Joyce told Fairfax Media. He also described Mr Power as a “really good guy” and said he was “hopeful” the two parties could reach a breakthrough. Mr Power, a former Fortescue Metals Group chief executive, responded by reminding Mr Joyce of the commitment by Qantas to eventually move to T1. He also noted that T1 would be serviced by the $1.8 billion Forrestfield-Airport rail line, along with Gateway WA, the State’s most expensive road project. “(Perth Airport chief executive) Kevin Brown and I look forward to meeting with Alan Joyce and the Qantas team to progress these matters,” Mr Power said. “We believe that by working together we can deliver something special for both Qantas and for Western Australia. “Perth Airport is committed to working with Qantas ... to ensure Perth Airport has the capacity, amenity and efficiency to deliver passengers a seamless, quality travel experience.” The salvo comes as Perth Airport and the airlines hammer out a deal that will set the prices paid by Qantas to use the airport’s runways and terminals. Although a draft proposal includes a reduction in the prices paid by Qantas, which is the airport’s biggest customer with 55 per cent of the domestic market and 15 per cent of international, it is believed the carrier is pushing for further concessions. The two are also deep in negotiations over the T4 lease, which expires at the end of the year and which the airport will take back subject to paying Qantas compensation for “fair and reasonable” improvements.

THE federal budget deficit for the 2018 financial year has been slashed to just $10.1 billion — its lowest level in a decade. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said bigger tax takings, lower welfare payments and a growing economy all helped trim the deficit to its lowest level since 2009-10. “We are seeing across the economy good growth, and in 2017/18 that’s been reflected in these better numbers,” he said. The deficit of $10.1 billion equates to 0.6 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product, and was a $19.3 billion improvement on the deficit originally forecast for the year. Receipts were $13.4 billion higher than expected, total cash payments were $6.9 billion lower than estimated at the time of the May budget, and real spending growth is sitting at 1.9 per cent — its lowest level in 50 years. Mr Frydenberg said welfare dependency for working age Australians was now at its lowest level in 25 years and in 2017-18, there were 90,000 fewer working age Australians on welfare. “Today’s outcome is the result of a strong economy. Nominal GDP grew by 4.7 per cent, which was stronger than the 2017-18 budget forecast of four per cent,” Mr Frydenberg said. “Labour market conditions continue to be strong with almost 350,000 jobs created in 2017-18; around a thousand jobs a day.” Mr Frydenberg said the budget was on track for reaching its projected surplus in 2019-20, and said the upcoming Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) in December will have the latest surplus forecast. “We … are still on track to come back to balance in 2019-20. That is the most recent forecasts and as you know, the next forecasts will be updated in MYEFO — that’s what normally happens, which is scheduled for the end of the year, after the December National Accounts,” he said. WAGE GROWTH “SUPERSTAR” technology firms are to blame for Australia’s sluggish wage growth, according to independent economist Geoff Weir. In a discussion paper released yesterday by the Reserve Bank, Mr Weir pointed the finger at technology companies like Apple and Google for our wage growth conundrum. “High productivity firms would appear to be using most of their higher levels of productivity to reduce prices and increase profit margins rather than passing most of it on to their workforce in higher wages, while the productivity ‘laggards’ have limited scope to pay higher wages,” Mr Weir wrote. He believes these firms are also “leading the way with respect to domestic outsourcing and casualisation of the workforce, in the process reducing the bargaining power of their employees”. His views are not necessarily shared by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

ABC journalist Emma Alberici has fired back at the chairman of the public broadcaster after he demanded she be sacked. Ms Alberici suggested Justin Milne may have a conflict of interest, because he is also chair of a company she has written about regarding corporate tax. An explosive email has revealed Mr Milne instructed former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie to fire the broadcaster's chief economics correspondent in May. "They [the government] hate her," he wrote in an email obtained by Fairfax Media. "We are tarred with her brush. I think it's simple. Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma. There is no guarantee they [the coalition] will lose the next election." The comments were circulated to members of the ABC board a week before Ms Guthrie was sacked on Monday. Ms Alberici only learnt of Mr Milne's direction for her to be sacked through the media reports. She said the instruction was concerning because her report, on the amount of tax some big companies had paid, or not paid, had mentioned the company MYOB, of which Mr Milne is also the chairman. "I found yes, MYOB was one of those companies that hadn't paid corporate tax and they were listed in my article," she told ABC radio on Wednesday. "I don't think someone should be making recommendations on something if they have a conflict of interest or at least have an appearance of a conflict of interest." Ms Alberici said she had no conversations on the prospect of her being sacked at a board level or with Ms Guthrie. But there was a lot of misreporting about her story, Ms Alberici said, and it's concerning that the board could have been involved. "There was a lot of mud hurled that shouldn't have been. If the board got involved in that then, there is a problem and that is very upsetting," she said. Mr Milne issued a statement without directly responding to the Fairfax claims. "The job of the ABC board is to independently govern the corporation, protect its best interests, ensure that it is well funded, well managed, and that our content is of the highest standards," he said. "That is precisely what the board has done and will continue to do. I do not propose to provide a running commentary on the day-to-day issues which arise as we carry out our duties." Labor is demanding a full explanation from Mr Milne, while the Greens say he cannot be trusted and must stand down. "Protecting the ABC from political interference is the most important responsibility of the chair," Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said. "There can be no more serious breach than the apparent demand that a journalist be sacked at the behest of the prime minister of the day." The journalists' union said reports of the ABC chairman seeking to interfere in editorial and staffing decisions at the ABC were deeply disturbing. "If true, Mr Milne should resign immediately," the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said.

Nufarm has slumped to a $15.6 million full-year loss on the back of $91.5 million in drought-related impairments, and the cost of acquiring crop protection products from Europe. The agricultural chemical supplier's revenue increased 6.3 per cent to $3.31 billion, growing in every region except for Australia and New Zealand. Australia's severe drought dragged down sales in the local business nearly 10 per cent to $590.1 million. "The major driver of the lower profit outcome was the drought here in Australia, with conditions in large and important growing regions in the eastern states being the driest on record for around 100 years," he said on Wednesday. WA will deliver close to a record harvest after healthy winter rains, but the drier season in the east has extended into the spring, which Nufarm says severely limited sales of its higher-value weed killer. Large parts of Queensland and New South Wales have been declared drought affected, with crop production expected to be 30 to 40 per cent down on a year earlier. European sales increased 19 per cent to $642.6 million, boosted by the acquisition of product portfolios from FMC Corporation, Adama and Syngenta. The company recorded $22.2 million in acquisition costs. Nufarm expects 2018/19 underlying earnings of between $500 million and $530 million - up from $385.7 million - but this relies on the drought easing. "Key drivers will be continued revenue growth both in North and South America, the full-year forecast from our European acquisitions and a partial earnings recovery in Australia on the back of return to more normal seasonal conditions for the winter cropping season," Mr Hunt said. The company will pay an unfranked dividend of six cents per share, down from eight cents in 2017. Nufarm shares last traded at $6.40 before entering a trading halt on Tuesday pending a capital raising. They were worth $9.52 four months ago. DROUGHT PUSHES DOWN NUFARM PROFIT * $15.6m loss v $114.5m profit in pcp * Revenue up 6.3pct to $3.31b * Final dividend down two cents to eight cents, unfranke

It will probably be even harder to get a home loan after the banking royal commission hands down its interim report. A tightening of lending standards since the inquiry began is likely to become more pronounced, with royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC expected to focus on ensuring banks are lending money responsibly. Banking analysts expect the availability of credit will be further restricted after Mr Hayne's interim report, which may be released as early as Friday. Banks will have to do more to verify customers' income and their actual living expenses, rather than relying on the widespread use of benchmark expenditure measures. Citi banking analysts say the interim report is expected to mark a mea culpa for the industry, tipping Mr Hayne will deliver a "blistering" review of existing practices. "The banks have had systems, processes and norms which have allowed them to lend too much," a recent Citi research note said. "This is visible across the system, with issues in mortgage broking all the way through to expense verification." The Citi analysts expect Mr Hayne will conclude lenders have not made sufficient inquiries about a customer's financial situation nor taken necessary steps to verify the information they provide. They suggest Mr Hayne will recommend a move away from the use of the benchmark household expenditure measure, backing up regulator efforts to reduce reliance on HEM. In a recent report, UBS banking analysts said most banks are yet to fully verify customers' living expenses and a large number of customers are still not providing pay slips and tax returns. "As a result we believe there is likely to be much work required for the banks to comply with the royal commission's likely more rigorous interpretation of responsible lending and improve mortgage underwriting standards," the report said. Consumer advocates believe the tighter lending standards are a positive outcome. "Consumers probably aren't aware that it's probably in their interests that it's being tightened up," Financial Rights Legal Centre principal solicitor Alexandra Kelly told AAP. "For individual consumers here and there, they might be a little bit annoyed that a loan they would otherwise have got a few months ago or a year ago they no longer can get. "I think ultimately turning the tap off or restricting its flow is really important." Citi analysts also expect Mr Hayne will find the financial advice industry is extremely poorly governed and will hold regulators and financial institutions accountable for an array of failures. The royal commission's interim report will cover policy issues out of its first four hearing rounds that focused on consumer lending, financial advice, loans for small businesses and financial issues affecting farmers and indigenous Australians. The report has to be handed to the government by Sunday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the report will be released immediately after it has been handed over.

THE thought of giving back to the community in some way appeals to many and often translates to donating cash to a charity or community organisation. While this provides charities with precious funds to provide valuable services to the community, it just so happens there are other ways to give back through the workplace — via corporate volunteering programs. These are emerging in businesses of all shapes and sizes as they strive to have a positive impact on communities, portray their organisation as responsible and enhance employee satisfaction levels. Organisations involved in corporate volunteering actively encourage employees to support a given charity or community group. That can include encouraging employees to undertake volunteer work for a charity outside regular working hours, providing paid time-release for employees to volunteer within normal working hours, or even allowing employees to use an organisation’s resources to support a charity or group. Corporate volunteering programs can range from a single employee offering support to an organisation of their choice, through to a more formal program, which may represent a significant partnership between a business and the charity or community group. And there is a raft of benefits for organisations and employees who participate in corporate volunteering. Organisations engaging in the programs often report enhanced employee satisfaction, engagement levels and retention, along with a more positive corporate image in the business and broader community. Equally, there are considerable benefits for employees. Many who participate cite the opportunity for increased knowledge and skills as key to their involvement. At the same time as being able to assist an organisation that does great work for the community, they are exposed to a new context. The learning that takes place in that context can be enormous. Engaging in corporate volunteering programs outside of an individual’s usual work environment allows volunteers to develop their leadership and management capability and improve their communication skills. Participants of programs report a sense of personal achievement and increased personal and professional growth through their involvement. Are you interested in encouraging your employer to participate in corporate volunteering? If so you should encourage your management team to undertake due diligence on appropriate charitable or community organisations to maximise the success of a program — and perhaps put them in contact with Volunteering WA. Several factors need to be considered, including alignment of the business’ policy and procedures with that of the volunteer organisation. And then there are insurance issues, along with occupational health and safety matters. Careful due diligence in selecting a partner volunteer organisation will ensure volunteering offers a raft of benefits for a business and its employees, as well as significant advantages for the partner volunteer organisation.

AGL expects to appoint a new chief executive by the end of the year but has already decided to stick with the departed Andy Vesey's strategy, which includes moving away from coal and other carbon-intensive energy sources. Interim chief executive Brett Redman says he does not anticipate any change in direction from a company that has weathered criticism from pro-coal groups and politicians including former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce for scheduling the Liddell power station for closure. "It is not a question of ideology on our part," Mr Redman told AGL's annual general meeting on Wednesday. "And neither is the need to address our carbon exposure more generally." Mr Redman said the shift was simply "a question of prudent and pragmatic risk management". Nonetheless, Mr Redman said coal-fired generation would be part of Australia's power mix for "at least the medium term". AGL had backed former PM Malcolm Turnbull's now-scrapped national energy guarantee policy, and chairman Graeme Hunt said the company is now focused on working with new federal energy minister Angus Taylor on areas of energy policy. "These include affordability, especially for the most vulnerable in our society, developing policy that can stimulate further investment in new supply, and ensuring Australians feel confident in the industry as a whole," Mr Hunt said. Dozens of protesters gathered outside Wednesday's meeting in Melbourne to rally against AGL's plans for a floating gas processing factory in Victoria. AGL plans to build a gas import terminal in Westernport Bay - which is protected by a wetlands conservation covenant - and the protesters say the project is polluting and would dump chlorinated water into the bay. Mark Wakeham, chief executive of not-for-profit Environment Victoria, said the project would increase greenhouse pollution and do significant damage to the bay. "This project is unnecessary," he told AAP. "It will lock in higher gas prices, more climate pollution and it will damage Westernport's really important natural values."

THERE are bathers ... and then there are Gucci bathers. With Australia’s swimsuit season only months away, the Italian fashion house has confused online shoppers with a $470 one-piece that you can’t actually get wet. Gucci’s so-called “sparkling swimsuit” is made of 80 per cent nylon and 20 per cent elastane. The catch? The sold-out racer-back togs can’t “come into contact with chlorine”. “Due to the nature of this particular fabric, this swimsuit should not come into contact with chlorine,” a statement on Gucci’s website says, in the pricey item’s product description. Gucci styled the bathers with a biker-style leather jacket and a pair of high-waisted denim jeans, along with a gold crown (as you do). The strange swimwear is not the first item Gucci has stocked that has raised eyebrows. Gucci is currently selling a $350 stretch-knit headband (aka a tennis-style sweatband) and a $255 wool balaclava. It is also pushing the bum bag trend, with a $950 version dubbed the “belt bag”, and a $650 hot pink leather baseball cap Meantime, Gucci showed its spring/summer 2019 collection in Paris today, at a show attended by Jared Leto, Salma Hayek and Petra Collins. According to US Vogue, it featured “Janis Joplin–inspired hats and a sleeveless denim jacket painted with Dolly Parton’s face and name on the back”. Thankfully, the runway did not seem to feature any bathers.

CONTROVERSY-plagued ride-sharing app Uber will introduce a shortcut to phoning triple-0 from its app from today, after a series of sexual assault allegations in Australia. The new feature, introduced in the United States and Canada earlier this year, followed two alleged sexual assaults on female Uber passengers in Sydney in recent weeks, and two further assault allegations against a driver posing as an Uber employee in Brisbane this month. The Safety Toolkit will also be rolled out just one year after the arrival of new Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, charged with cleaning up a multibillion-dollar company tainted by sexual harassment allegations, executive departures, and a questionable approach to international transport regulators. Uber Australia and New Zealand general manager Susan Anderson said Mr Khosrowshahi had been “very clear that safety (was) our number one priority,” and the new emergency assistance shortcut would use technology from passengers’ smartphones to help police or paramedics identify their location. “It’s a feature that shows your real-time location on a map but also as a GPS address so you can share it directly with law enforcement,” she said. “We know that law enforcement is finding this particularly useful when investigating if there are incidents because they can find out where a rider’s phone was, where a driver’s phone was, and that can give real, concrete technical timestamps that help them build a case.” When triggered, the safety feature displays an estimated street address that victims can pass on to emergency services. The new safety additions will also let riders share their location with up to five nominated friends, and will appear in Australians’ Uber apps “over the coming weeks”. Ms Anderson also revealed the tech giant had hired former New South Wales police detective Justin Gallagher as its first law enforcement liaison lead in Australia to work with police “not just on trip issues” but in other cases.

AN Indiana man is facing charges after pistol-whipping his lifelong friend during an argument over a Bruno Mars song, police said. According to the New York Post, Roger D. Washburn, 71, of Greenwood, was taken into custody late last week by police from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office after the victim and another man said they were hanging out at Washburn’s home when they started to fight over a song and who performed it, the Indianapolis Star reports. The victim insisted the track in question was sung by Mars, but Washburn disagreed. That prompted the victim to show Washburn proof that the song was, in fact, part of Mars’ catalogue, but instead of diffusing the argument, the squabble went to another level when Washburn pulled out a .38-caliber revolver on the man, deputies said. The victim then called Washburn a “chickens — t,” leading him to swing his gun at the man, striking him in the face and arm. Washburn’s gun went off twice as he struck the victim and took another swing at him, but no one was shot during the feud about the singer, whose hits include “Uptown Funk,” “That’s What I Like” and “Locked Out of Heaven.” The victim told investigators he and his friend — Washburn’s pal of 50 years — were so shocked over what happened that they didn’t end up calling police until hours later. Washburn later admitted to responding officers that he struck his friend in the face with his revolver, according to a police report, which does not indicate which Mars song had been playing at the time The victim suffered a “small gouge on his right cheek,” as well as an abrasion to his right forearm. He did not seek medical attention, local station WXIN reports. Washburn was charged with battery with injury and criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, according to the station.

IT’S A TV show known for its unpredictable rose ceremonies, but The Bachelor shocked viewers when two female competitors professed their love for each other in Vietnam’s iteration of the dating show. In Thursday night’s episode, contestant Minh Thu said she had to leave the show because she’s smitten with fellow competitor, Truc Nhu “I went into this competition to find love,” Thu told bachelor Nguyen Quoc Trung. “But I’ve found that love for myself. But it isn’t you. It’s someone else.” She then walked over to Nhu to embrace her and pleaded for Nhu to come home with her. As the other contestants watched in shock, Nhu walked up to the bachelor to return her rose. “I know you’ll find someone who really loves you, who understands you, who knows how to take care of you, who can look at you from afar and know how you’re feeling,” Nhu said. “I’m sorry.” Both women walked out of the ceremony together, but Nhu had a change of heart. She returned to Trung’s arms and said, “I’ve changed my mind to accept this rose and continue this journey,” Next Shark reported. While Thu left the show alone, her story has captured the hearts of social media users. “The Bachelor Vietnam now has the best queer moment of any Bachelor/ette season anywhere,” wrote one user on Twitter. “Further proof that there ought to be more Asian Bachelors and Bachelorettes. This is beautiful, heartwarming and just plain great TV,” wrote another user. In 2016, two contestants on Australia’s version of The Bachelor, Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon, ended up falling in love.

PRESIDENT Donald Trump will meet later this week with Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein, the White House said on Monday amid indications that Mr Rosenstein was about to lose his job. The meeting will be on Thursday, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. That’s the same day as an extraordinary Senate hearing that is to feature Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school. Any termination or resignation would have immediate implications for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible collaboration between Russia and the Trump campaign before the 2016 election. Mr Rosenstein appointed Mr Mueller and oversees his investigation. Mr Rosenstein and Mr Trump, who is in New York for a UN meeting, had an extended conversation to discuss recent news stories about negative comments Mr Rosenstein is reported to have made last year about the president, Ms Sanders said. The deputy Attorney-General was reported as having discussed possibly secretly recording the president and invoking the Constitution to have the Cabinet remove him from office. Mr Rosenstein expected to be fired on Monday as he headed to the White House for a national security meeting on opioid abuse, according to a person familiar with the situation. But he left with no action taken, and the White House statement suggested he may be in his job for at least several more days. “At the request of Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein, he and President Trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories,” Ms Sanders said in a statement. “Because the President is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, DC.” Solicitor General Noel Francisco, the highest-ranking Senate confirmed official below Mr Rosenstein in the Justice Department, would take control of the Mueller investigation. A spokesman for Mr Mueller declined to comment. The reports about Mr Rosenstein add to the turmoil roiling the administration, just six weeks before midterm elections with control of Congress at stake. In addition to dealing with the Mueller investigation, the White House is also struggling to win confirmation of its Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. Mr Trump had previously floated the idea of firing Mr Rosenstein in April after FBI raids of the office and home of the president’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who has since pleaded guilty to several felonies and taken part in interviews with Mr Mueller’s team. But the latest move comes after a New York Times report of Mr Rosenstein comments in May 2017. That report and an unsigned opinion piece by a senior official in the Republican administration played to some of the president’s concerns about a secret “Deep State” trying to undermine him from within the government. The administration official, whom Mr Trump has called for a federal investigation to unmask, wrote that there was a group of officials working to safeguard the country from the president’s most dangerous impulses. And Mr Trump’s behaviour had prompted “whispers” in the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, a move that was backed away from due to concerns it would “precipitate a constitutional crisis,” the writer said. In Rosenstein’s case, he has said that the Times report was inaccurate and was based on “biased” anonymous sources “advancing their own personal agenda.” “Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment,” Mr Rosenstein said. The Justice Department also released a statement from a person who said Mr Rosenstein’s recording comment was meant sarcastically. If Mr Rosenstein were to resign instead of being fired, it would allow the White House to use the Vacancies Reform Act to fill his role. The federal provision allows the president to circumvent the existing agency line of succession in most instances. But experts doubt it can be applied when the president creates the vacancy, by firing the office holder. As of Sunday, Mr Trump said he had not decided what to do about Mr Rosenstein. He angrily asked confidants, both inside and outside the White House, how to respond. He received mixed messages. Some urged him to fire Mr Rosenstein. Others suggested restraint while seeing if the report was incorrect or if it was planted by some adversary. Congressional Republicans, Democrats and some Trump aides have warned for months that the president shouldn’t fire Mr Rosenstein, saying such a move could lead to impeachment proceedings if the Democrats retake the House in the upcoming midterms. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whose private memos document comments made by Mr Rosenstein, said on Monday he was concerned that a Rosenstein departure would put the investigation at risk. “There is nothing more important to the integrity of law enforcement and the rule of law than protecting the investigation of special counsel Mueller,” Mr McCabe said in a statement. “I sacrificed personally and professionally to help put the investigation on a proper course and subsequently made every effort to protect it.” Mr Rosenstein appointed Mr Mueller in May of last year after Jeff Sessions, who ordinarily would have overseen the investigation, recused himself because of his close involvement in the Trump campaign. Those developments came one week after Mr Rosenstein laid the groundwork for the firing of Comey by writing a memo that criticised Comey’s handling of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server. The White House initially held up that memo as justification for Mr Comey’s firing, though Mr Trump himself has said he was thinking about “this Russia thing” when he made his move. As deputy Attorney-General, Mr Rosenstein has made two public announcements of indictments brought by the special counsel — one against Russians accused of hacking into Democratic email accounts, the other against Russians accused of running a social media troll farm to sway public opinion.

CHINA’s island-grabbing campaign is getting close to home. It’s muscling in on tiny nations from the Indian to the Pacific Oceans. But Australia’s begun pushing back. Ceylon. Savo Island. Coral Sea. Guadalcanal. Gilbert and Marshall Islands. Tarawa. Truk. Guam. These were names plucked from obscurity by bloody battles against Japan during World War II. They were battles fought because these seemingly insignificant islands — some little more than coral atolls and volcanic outcrops — are important. They are remote outposts, rare landfalls in vast oceans. They sit astride shipping lanes that carry the lifeblood of South-East Asia’s and Oceania’s economies. Those controlling these specks on the map potentially have an impact on world affairs seemingly out of all proportion. Not since the darkest days of World War II has Australia begun to feel the pressure of isolation and constraint. Germany did little more than harass our shipping in the Indian Ocean, carrying troops and equipment to the Middle East and vital resources in return. But Japan’s overwhelming raids on Darwin and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1942 brutally demonstrated just how vulnerable we were. And once the Pacific Islands began to fall, the links between Australia and the United States began to look tenuous as well. That encirclement of Australia was with steel ships, aluminium aircraft and the blood and sweat of tens of thousands of troops. It’s an encirclement some analysts fear we are experiencing again. But in place of warships and tanks, China is steamrolling across our region with promises of grand works of infrastructure — and weaponised loans. Debt-trap diplomacy is behind a new land grab. It’s the lure of loans pushed on poor countries that cannot afford to repay them. Now new regional names are registering on Australia’s radar as they teeter and fall. Male. Manus. Luganville. Wewak. China has showered small nations such as Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands with concessional loans. The Lowy Institute think-tank estimates Beijing pushed more than $2.3 billion into to the region between 2006 and 2016. The fates of these far-flung places could be a bellwether of our own. ISLANDS IN CHAINS Last week, the scattering of tiny islands that is the Maldives Archipelago in the Indian Ocean opened an enormous new runway. Velana International Airport is on the island of Male. The broad new airstrip was built on land reclaimed from the sea by a Chinese state-backed company, using money from … Beijing. It followed close on the heels of another controversial Maldives-China project. “The nation celebrated the opening of the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, hailed as the project of the century in the small Indian Ocean nation and a hallmark project of the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative (BRI),” the state-run Global Times reported in August. “Although some said the Maldivian government will bear a heavy debt from the massive infrastructure co-operation with China, Maldivian officials said they appreciate China’s generosity.” It was a pointed — if unconvincing — rebuttal of the ‘debt-trap’ narrative. But Beijing is already in a position in the tiny strife-torn nation to seize both as collateral — and turn them towards military purposes. Then there’s Manus. Once part of the British Admiralty Islands, it was seized from the Japanese by the United States for use as a major World War II naval staging post. Now part of Papua New Guinea, it has once again returned to the world’s stage. China has been showing interest. Having airfield and port facilities there could boost its ‘Island Chain’ ambitions, and establish a prickly thorn between Australia and US facilities on the island of Guam. But Australia has begun pushing back. “The Pacific is a very high-priority area of strategic national security interest for Australia,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, refusing to confirm or deny reports Australian defence officials had visited the Lombrum Naval Base on Manus to assess its potential for expansion. Details of any future jointly-operated, upgraded facility there will not be revealed before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Port Moresby in November. The Maldives and Manus are just the most recent in a rapid-pace series of international powerplays in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Relations between Canberra and Beijing plunged to a new low earlier this year after we criticised China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ and undue influence in the politics of countries throughout the region — including our own. Beijing lashed back, using its state-run media to label Australia as an “arrogant overlord”. WAKING DRAGON It’s about President Xi Jinping’s grand vision. He sees China’s influence extending far beyond its own borders. In 2013, he detailed his grand scheme to revitalise the ancient Silk Road and sea spice routes. It would ‘restore’ China’s position at the centre of a trade hub extending to Europe and Africa. The Belt and Road Initiative — as it has become known — demands a networks of ports, airfields, roads and railways spanning the globe. Chinese companies now control about 76 ports in 35 countries — including Darwin. While nominally many of these are private (including the one controlling Darwin Port), each is required to have close Chinese Communist Party ties and approval in order to operate. And while Beijing openly insists it only wants to use these ports for commercial purposes, its warships and submarines have already been seen docked in several. Now President Xi wants another ‘Silk Road’ — this time extending into the Pacific. Ministers from Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Fiji were among those invited to Beijing in 2017 for the launch of the Belt and Road project. They were offered access to $55 billion in loans. This sparked alarm in Australia, the US and Europe. Beijing’s loans do not come cheap. “Such indebtedness gives China significant leverage over Pacific Island countries and may see China place pressure on Pacific nations to convert loans into equity in infrastructure,” the Lowy Institute’s recent Safeguarding Australia’s Security Interests report warns. “It’s not ‘win — win’ for China and the recipient, but simply ‘win’ for China, which not only gets access to local resources and new markets, and forward presence, but can coerce the recipient state to pay a ‘tribute’ to Beijing by ceding local assets when it can’t pay back its debts,” the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Dr Malcolm Davis notes. Beijing rejects this. An editorial published by the state-run Global Times says South Pacific nations had been ‘bewitched’ by Western countries including Australia and the US “who sought to gain political leverage in the region”. “Unlike Western aid, which always comes with political and economic conditions, Chinese aid has been widely welcomed by South Pacific nations as it has no political conditions,” it quoted research fellow in Australian Studies Yu Lei as saying. But China does not openly declare its international aid projects in the same way other nations such as Australia does. This has raised a degree of anxiety about exactly how much it is spending, where — and why. Now, China’s taking a leaf out of the US playbook. It wants strong military facilities spaced around its ‘sphere of influence’. It calls that sphere the Second Island Chain — a rough line from Japan in the north to Papua New Guinea in the south. But as Beijing’s dominance over the First Island Chain (including Taiwan, the Spratleys, and Paracels) of the South China Sea seems all but complete, a ‘Third Island Chain’ appears to be emerging — extending from the Maldives in the west to Fiji in the east. “The most troubling implication for Australian interests is that a future naval or air base in Vanuatu would give China a foothold for operations to coerce Australia, outflank the US and its base on US territory at Guam, and collect intelligence in a regional security crisis,” Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, wrote in a recent Lowy Institute report. It’s a similar story for the Maldives, potentially cutting Australia’s fuel supplies and trade links to Singapore, India and Europe. GAME OF THRONES China’s rapid expansion has not gone unnoticed. In a speech to Australia’s Parliament in 2011, then US President Barack Obama announced a ‘pivot’ back to the Asia-Pacific. Existing military facilities would be reinforced and strengthened. Forces would be based in Darwin. It wasn’t all about troops. Fresh efforts would be made on the diplomatic and economic fronts. Chief among these was the proposed (now abandoned) Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). “This allowed Washington to counter Beijing’s concerns that the pivot was primarily a military move aimed at containing a rising China,” the Lowy Institute says. “However, the decision by the Trump administration to abandon the TPP has given US strategy in the Indo-Pacific more of a military character.” President Trump’s attitude towards international agreements and treaties has unsettled South-East Asia. Will he be true to his nation’s word? Or would he pull the US out? It’s a question that has prompted the region to look to strengthen its own relationships. Generally, the Melanesian states have been seen as Australia’s area of responsibility while the US and New Zealand watch over the Polynesian islands. In recent decades, that influence has weakened. “Being the dominant traditional power has not always made Canberra popular in Pacific Island nations, despite being the region’s largest provider of aid,” the Lowy Institute notes. “However, failing to forge stronger regional partnerships now, in the hope that the current geostrategic dynamics will not change, contains significant risk.” Things haven’t been getting better. The Pacific Islands have repeatedly expressed dismay at the deep state of denial Australian and US politicians are in over the looming global warming crisis. After all, their low-lying islands are already falling victim to rising sea levels. President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement earlier this year was called “pretty selfish” by the former president of Kiribati. The Prime Minister of Tuvalu went further: “I think this is a very destructive, obstructive statement from a leader of perhaps the biggest polluter on earth and we are very disappointed as a small island country already suffering the effects of climate change.” China, at least, pays lip-service to the international threat. So, with this issue at least, it has stolen the moral upper ground. And then there are the promises of President Xi. He’s been touting his ‘Chinese model’ as a “new option for other countries who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence.” But his real purpose, says Dr Davis, is more ominous. “Chinese ambitions don’t end at the reunification of Taiwan and China on Beijing’s terms or control of the South China Sea. China is clearly emerging as a hegemonic power, exploiting both soft-power inducements and hard-power threats to reassert itself as a new Middle Kingdom, and overturning what it sees to be a century of humiliation. Part of the ‘China Dream’ is ensuring that its periphery is secure through a belt of vassal states that accede to Beijing’s interests.” DRAGONS AT THE GATES The US Pentagon is alert — and alarmed. “China is using its economic penalties, influence operations, and implied military threats to persuade other states to heed its political and security agenda,” the US National Security Strategy of December 2017 reads. “Chinese dominance risks diminishing the sovereignty of many states in the Indo-Pacific region”. That includes Australia. Beijing has been doing all it can to expand its status as a maritime power. It now has 43 attack submarines at its disposal — that’s more than the United States. It’s also been launching surface ships at an unprecedented rate, some 24 new destroyers and 31 new frigates since 2000 alone. While formidable, it’s not likely to rival the US for another 20 years. But it will be powerful enough to project significant power wherever it desires. “China’s confidence on the international stage has been bolstered by its perceived successes in the South China Sea where it has occupied, and physically enhanced, a series of uninhabited reefs,” the Lowy Institute report warns. Now China is pursuing a military and diplomatic strategy which “seeks Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near-term and displacement of the United States to achieve global pre-eminence in the future”, the US National Defense Strategy of 2018 states. China’s actions are “undermining the international order from within the system by exploiting its benefits while simultaneously undercutting its principles.” And that brings it head-to-head with the US along the ‘Second Island Chain’. At its heart is the island of Guam. It is a US territory and major defence facility. The free compact states of Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia all operate under a post-war agreement with the US, allowing a base on the Marshall Islands and the veto over any military access by any other nation. From the outset, this was intended to provide the US with a Pacific ‘buffer zone’ between itself and Asia. Now China wants a ‘buffer zone’ between itself and the US. At the bottom of the ‘Second Island Chain’ is Papua New Guinea, and the island of Manus. Australia’s moves to thwart Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ projects are a sign of growing ‘push-back’ from the West. But Beijing is determined — and persistent. “Powerful drivers are converging in a way that is reshaping the international order and challenging Australia’s interests. The United States has been the dominant power in our region throughout Australia’s post-second world history. China is challenging America’s position,” Australia’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper reads. LOOK TO YOUR MOAT The 2016 Defence White Paper made the situation pretty clear: “Australia cannot be secure if our immediate neighbourhood including Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Pacific Island Countries becomes a source of threat to Australia. This includes the threat of a foreign military power seeking influence in ways that could challenge the security of our maritime approaches or transnational crime targeting Australian interests …” Three of Australia’s five main maritime trade routes pass through the Pacific. The two largest are in the Indian Ocean. Our trade with the US passes near New Caledonia and Fiji. Those to and from Japan, Taiwan — and China — largely go past New Britain and Papua New Guinea, or through the Solomon Islands, Bougainville and New Britain. In the west, our trade funnels past Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia. If there is trouble in the Pacific, trade will have to divert through the Torres Strait to Indonesia’s Suda and Lombok Straits. If there is trouble in the Indian Ocean, exports from Western Australia — such as gas and iron ore — would have to take a long detour through the Tasman Sea. “Australia’s reliance on maritime trade with and through South East Asia, including energy supplies, means the security of our maritime approaches and trade routes within South East Asia must be protected, as must freedom of navigation, which provides for the free flow of maritime trade in international waters,” the Defence White Paper notes. “The Government will work with Pacific Island Countries to strengthen their ability to manage internal, transnational and border security challenges … This includes working to limit the influence of any actor from outside the region with interests inimical to our own.” Australia is gifting 19 new patrol boats to 12 Pacific Island Nations. The project, which includes maintenance and support and costs $2 billion over 30 years, has seen the first boats delivered this year. They are part of a co-ordinated project including RAAF surveillance and visits by RAN warships. The Solomon Islands has recently signed a security treaty with Australia. Security partnership understandings have been negotiated with Tuvalu and Nauru. Kiribati is in talks. Australia has also been showing the flag. One of our new helicopter-carrying assault ships, HMS Adelaide, joined three other warships on a 13 week Indo-Pacific Endeavour exercise. Just in case our Pacific partners had forgotten. Restoring Australia’s place in its region will take considerably more effort, the Lowy Institute warns. We must offer government services, access to labour markets, and assist with defence “in return for an undertaking that foreign military forces or installations would not be allowed in these countries. This would mitigate the risk of China gaining access to dual-use facilities in these nations in return for debt reduction, while safeguarding the sovereignty of these independent nations.” ISLAND CHESSBOARD PACIFIC OCEAN While not having ‘traditional’ trade links to justify its interest in the region, China has aggressively stepped forward with the promise of cheap loans into a region somewhat disillusioned by Australia and the US. FIJI: After a 2006 military coup, Australia — among others — imposed sanctions on Fiji until it returned to democratic rule. China places no value in such systems of government. So it stepped in, offering loans for infrastructure projects built by Chinese labourers. While not entirely welcomed by the populace, it gave Beijing powerful influence among Fiji’s leaders. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Its military officers have also been invited to China to attend training courses. SAMOA: Beijing is increasingly pressuring this island nation to repay its debts. Like many others. SOLOMON ISLANDS: Earlier this year, Prime Minister Turnbull promised the Solomons (and Papua New Guinea) that Australia would pay for a new undersea internet cable in order to brush aside the state-controlled Chinese telco giant Huawei, as well as relieve the island nations of the financial burden. TONGA: In 2013, 64 per cent of Tonga’s foreign debt was owed to China. That amounted to 43 per cent of its annual GDP. Previously, Tonga has said it may have to seek a write-off of this burden by allowing Beijing to establish a naval base on the island. VANUATU: Vanuatu owes Beijing some $US1.7 billion. Earlier this year, reports that China was seeking a ‘permanent military presence’ on the island sparked dismay in Australia. Both Vanuatu and China denied any such proposal had been made. But Prime Minister Turnbull sounded unconvinced: “We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific island countries and neighbours of ours,” he said. the country’s newly built $85 million Luganville wharf, which was funded by China and seems more suited to navy vessels than cruise ships INDIAN OCEAN Beijing is already well advanced in its moves to establish a network of naval and air bases in the Indian Ocean. The number of ships and submarines it has stationed there has been steadily growing. But China needs more. Chief on its shopping list are major airfields capable of supporting its long-range reconnaissance aircraft and bombers. It also needs submarine support facilities and logistics infrastructure extending from the northeastern Indian Ocean to the west. DJIBOUTI: In 2017, Beijing opened its first overseas military facility. This is in Djibouti on the shores of the troubled Red Sea. It’s already been openly tussling with a neighbouring US facility, allegedly blinding its pilots with lasers. MALDIVES: This archipelago in the central Indian Ocean underwent a coup earlier this year, installing Abdulla Yameen - who has been implicated in several corruption scandals and is seen as a close friend of Beijing - as president. But elections this week has seen him deposed. How the Maldives will pay for a major Chinese-funded and built airstrip, and an equally ambitious bridge project, is yet to be seen. And there’s an abandoned British naval facility ripe for the pickings on the island of Gan. MYANMAR: A naval base on the Indian Ocean side of the chokepoint Malacca Strait would give China the ability to project power across the region and the Bay of Bengal. Beijing has built a new port at Kyaukpyu — and taken a 70 per cent controlling stake in it after Myanmar defaulted on repayments. PAKISTAN: China is in advanced talks with Pakistan to build a base on the Arabian Sea, near the city of Gwadar. SRI LANKA: An inability to repay $6 billion in debt to China has already given Beijing a windfall in Sri Lanka. A controlling 70 per cent stake, along with a 99-year-lease, in the port of Hambantota has been given to a state-run Chinese company in an effort to pay-down the burden. This port sits close to the major Indian Ocean sea lanes. THAILAND: China is pushing Thailand for the construction of a 100km canal on the scale of Panama, linking the South China Sea with the Bay of Bengal and bypassing the crowded Strait of Malacca. India fears the economically unviable Kra Canal will quickly fall under the control of Beijing, dramatically improving its ability to influence the balance of power in the Indian Ocean. Thailand, under pressure from all sides, is yet to accept — or reject — the project.

AFTER spending more than two days in the remote southern Indian Ocean, an injured Indian sailor is receiving medical treatment after being rescued. Abhilash Tomy was "conscious and talking" and in a stable condition on Monday night after he was located about 3000km southwest of Perth by a French fisheries patrol boat. The 39-year-old had been taking part in an around the world solo sailing competition - the Golden Globe race - when his yacht Thuriya lost its mast in a storm on Friday. Mr Tomy was taken to Ile Amsterdam, a tiny island in the southern Indian Ocean which has a small hospital but no airport big enough to take a fixed-wing aircraft. Given the extent of the sailor's injuries he is likely to spend time on HMAS Ballarat, which will get there on Friday and can take him back to Perth. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority took to Twitter to thank those involved in the efforts. "FPV Osiris has successfully located and rescued Abhilash Tomy who is reported to be in a stable condition," AMSA wrote on Monday evening. An uninjured Irish sailor, whose yacht also lost its mast in the race, was reportedly also picked up by the French fisheries patrol boat. RESCUED INDIAN SAILOR 'CONSCIOUS, TALKING' A French fisheries patrol boat found the sailor after he was able to provide information via text messages, although the battery power of his devices were diminishing. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is running the rescue operation, taking to Twitter to thank those involved in the efforts. "FPV Osiris has successfully located and rescued Abhilash Tomy who is reported to be in a stable condition," AMSA wrote on Monday. "The vessel will now transport Tomy to Ile Amsterdam for further medical treatment." The Indian Navy tweeted: "Tomy rescued safely". Before the Indian Navy commander was found, search and rescue officer Phil Gaden said Mr Tomy had a severely injured back. "We believe that he's very severely restricted in his ability to manoeuvre, his mobility is affected," Mr Gaden told reporters in Canberra earlier on Monday. "The yacht's very badly damaged, it's been dismasted and we know the gear is hanging over the side. "At the moment our indications are it is upright and floating high in the water, however at any moment a wave could push one of those damaged masts into the vessel." The yacht was in Australia's search and rescue zone, 3500km southwest of Perth and 3000km southeast of the French island Reunion. An Irish sailor, whose yacht also lost its mast as part of the Golden Globe yacht race, will be picked up after the rescue as he is uninjured. The race organisers "are extremely grateful" for all rescue efforts and are continuing to work closely with rescue teams.

WARNING: This story contains graphic content and images. This man dug up 29 dead children before mummifying them and turning their corpses into dolls in the flat he shared with his oblivious parents. Anatoly Moskvin, 52, admitted to the horrific crimes in court, where he told distraught parents: “You abandoned your girls, I brought them home and warmed them up.” The Russian man mummified the dead children and dressed them in stockings, girls clothing and knee length boots to make them look like dolls, applying lipstick and make-up to their faces. In another grisly twist, he wedged music boxes inside their rib cages. Moskvin also marked the birthdays of each of his dead victims in his bedroom. By the time he was detained by police, Moskvin had kept one of his young girl’s remains for nine years. The little girl’s mother, Natalia Chardymova, 46, did not realise on her regular visits to her daughter’s gravesite that the coffin was empty. Moskvin confessed to 44 counts of abusing the graves and corpses of girls aged three to 12 in 2013. However he was ruled to have schizophrenia and could not stand trial, and was sent to a secure psychiatric clinic. The historian — described in court as a “genius”, who was the author of various scientific papers — gave various explanations for his deeply disturbing behaviour. Moskvin told his interrogators he was waiting for science to find ways for these girls to live again, as well as wanting to be an expert in making mummies. Now a court is due to rule on an official request from psychiatrists to release him from a secure hospital — and continue his treatment at the home where he kept “my girls”. But Ms Chardymova is furious he is being considered for release. The corpse of her daughter, Olga, was one of the 29 girls he dug up and stole from graveyards — all found at the flat he shared with his parents in the large city of Nizhny Novgorod, western Russia. She had been murdered aged ten in 2002. Since his conviction, psychiatrists have passed a recommendation to the court every six months to keep him locked up. But this has now changed due to what they claim is progress in his treatment. Russian courts are known to follow the recommendations of experts, sparking fear over his release, which could come as soon as this week. Ms Chardymova, who now has a son aged nine, said she was appalled that Moskvin could be freed. “This creature brought fear, terror and panic into my (life),” she said. “I shudder to think that he will have freedom to go where he wants. “Neither my family nor the families of the other victims will be able to sleep peacefully. “He needs to be kept under surveillance. “I insist on a life sentence. Only under medical supervision, without the right of free movement.” Moskvin’s mum Elvira, then 76, told police after he was arrested: “We saw these dolls but we did not suspect there were dead bodies inside. “We thought it was his hobby to make such big dolls and did not see anything wrong with it.”

BELEAGUERED social network Facebook has taken another hit after both founders of its photo-sharing app Instagram announced their resignations and plans to leave the company within weeks. Creators Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, who developed the popular picture-based network in 2010, notified Facebook’s leadership team of their departures on Monday, according to the New York Times, and confirmed their move today. The Instagram exodus follows resignations from another prominent Facebook acquisition, WhatsApp. Its remaining co-founder and chief executive, Jan Koum, quit the company in May, saying it was “time to move on”. Fellow WhatsApp creator Brian Acton departed in November last year with a more pointed message, which he demonstrated by donating $US50 million to a rival messaging app. Mr Krieger confirmed the new double resignation in a statement today, saying the pair was “grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team,” but was “ready for our next chapter”. “We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again,” he said. “Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs. That’s what we plan to do.” The pair sold Instagram to Facebook for $US1 billion in 2012. There’s no official word on what caused the Instagram founders to leave, although rumours hint at clashes between the two men and Facebook executives over diminishing independence and demands to direct more users from Instagram to Facebook. The company also recently added new ways to shop within the network, and introduced a streaming mobile video service called IGTV. Facebook has yet to comment on the Instagram departures, but they follow a year of controversy and scandal for the world’s biggest social network, which has been widely criticised for its cavalier use of personal information. Any significant changes to Instagram could hurt Facebook’s bottom line as, unlike its parent company, the network has retained its popularity during the scandals. While Facebook doesn’t release separate financial information for the firm, Instagram broke through the 1 billion monthly active user barrier in June, and eMarketer estimated it would generate 70 per cent revenue this year, about $US5.48 billion.

A SCHOOL bus driver has been arrested in the United States, accused of letting students drive the bus. Joandrea McAtee, 27, allegedly allowed Boone Grove High School students behind the wheel as they made their way home in rural Valparaiso, Indiana. The students were aged 11, 13 and 17. In videos posted on social media, McAtee can be heard guiding the kids. “OK, first what you gotta do is put your foot on the brake,” she tells one student. “There you go.” In another clip she can be heard saying: “It’s all good, it’s all good. I’m letting her stop at Michael’s stop.” McAtee has been fired and charged with neglect of a dependent. The bus company she worked for and the school district issued statements condemning the driver’s actions.

PRINCESS Mary of Denmark has showed off her funny side as she cracked a beer while in New York for UN week. Mary pulled a mock grimace as she cracked open a can of Carlsberg — one of Denmark’s biggest exporters — at an event to highlight her adopted country’s achievements in sustainability. The royal, 46, then pretended to hold it up for a toast before taking a sip. Mary, who was born in Tasmania but moved to Denmark in 2001 to be with future king Crown Prince Frederik, has spoken about her passion for sustainability before. “I believe that in order to find solutions to some of the most pressing global challenges of today we need to take a holistic approach that requires us to consider the social, environmental and economic aspects and work together in new and innovative partnerships, maybe with people and organisations we wouldn’t have thought about working with before,” she told Vogue in 2016. “It will require a continuous effort and patience, and strong and authentic leadership: it takes time to create real and sustainable change. “I try, as effectively as possibly, to use the platform that I have built up over the years to advocate and work for the empowerment of women and of their human rights,” she said. Mary and Frederik have four children together; Prince Christian, 12, Princess Isabella, 11, and twins Princess Josephine and Prince Vincent, seven. In December, in a candid interview with Australian Women’s Weekly, the Crown Princess revealed that moving to the other side of the world was difficult. “I did experience a feeling of loneliness — short-term — when I first moved to Denmark,” she told the magazine. “Moving to Denmark was a huge change in my life — a new culture, new language, new friends, and another way of life. So, I see it as quite natural that at times I felt quite alone or a little bit like I was on the outside looking in.”

A BELUGA whale has been spotted in the River Thames by an ecologist. The Sun reports that birding expert Dave Andrews saw the white whale, which an expert has confirmed to be a Beluga, at 11am today near Gravesend, Kent. He tweeted: “Can’t believe I’m writing this, no joke — BELUGA in the Thames off Coalhouse Fort”. He claims the whale has remained in the same spot for the last three hours as it has been feeding around the barges in the river. Marine experts told the BBC it is “almost certainly” a Beluga whale and urged the public “to watch it from the shore”. Belugas can weigh up to 1400kg and measure more than four metres long. The Port of London authority confirmed it was aware of the video. Sightings of Beluga whales are extremely rare on the coasts of the UK and normally only occur off the coast of Scotland, as this is closest to their native waters. While Beluga whales usually travel in groups or ‘pods’, and a sighting of a solo whale could indicate it has got lost, or is disorientated. Andrews has since sent the exact location of the sighting and now whale conservationists are worried an influx of whale-watchers will cause distress to the suspected Beluga. Lucy from ORCA told The Sun: “We want to urge people not to disturb the animal. It’s out of range and probably distressed. People rushing to the site in boats or with drones will only disturb the whale and cause it more distress. “If you wish to see the whale for yourself, stay on the shore and do not get in the water.” The last time a whale was spotted in the River Thames was a bottlenose whale, now known as the River Thames Whale. In January 2006 a female northern bottlenose whale swam up the Thames and caused hysteria in London. She sadly died during a rescue mission near Battersea. A spokesperson for Whale and Dolphin Conservation said: “Belugas are High Arctic species and this one is thousands of miles from where it should be! Belugas are usually associated close to the ice in places like Greenland, Svalbard or the Barents Sea. “He or she is obviously very lost and quite possibly in trouble. There are a few reports of belugas in the UK in recent years. “In the summer of 2015 two were spotted off the Northumberland coast and one in Northern Ireland. We would urge that the whale is given space and disturbance is kept to a minimum.”

MICHAEL Kors is buying the Italian fashion house Versace in a deal worth more than $US2 billion ($A2.75 billion), continuing its hard charge into the world of high-end fashion. The deal announced on Tuesday comes just 14 months after the New York handbag maker spent $US1.35 billion ($A1.86 billion) adding to its portfolio Jimmy Choo, the shoemaker that rocketed to fame on the high heels of Sex and the City. Creative director, Donatella Versace, has run Versace since the 1997 murder of her brother Gianni. She called the sale a “very exciting moment” and said it would “allow Versace to reach its full potential”. Donatella will continue to lead Versace’s “creative vision”, said Michael Kors chief executive John Idol. Mr Idol said Versace represented the “epitome of Italian fashion luxury” and its acquisition was an important milestone for the company, which is being renamed Capri Holdings. Like others in the fashion industry, Michael Kors Holdings Ltd is trying to fire up sales by cranking up the glamour. Tapestry, once known as Coach, acquired Kate Spade last year. Like Coach, Michael Kors is changing its name as it seeks to reframe how people in perceive it. Michael Kors is still the chief creative director and the honorary chairman, but his company will be renamed Capri Holdings Ltd as it brings more big names under its umbrella, it was announced on Tuesday Bringing in Versace adds a layer of glitter to the company, which sells handbags for less than $US500 ($A700). Versace bags can fetch five times that figure. Versace’s flamboyant styles have invoked collective gasps, perhaps most notably when Jennifer Lopez appeared at the 2000 Grammy Awards in a navel-bearing dress. Versace’s latest styles include midi-dresses with baroque print for $US2950 ($A4000), and vinyl skinny jeans for $US1250 ($A1700). Versace becomes the latest major Italian fashion house to be folded into the portfolio of a foreign entity, a trend that has raised no shortage of concern about the future of the made-in-Italy marquee. French conglomerates have been the biggest buyers, with Kering buying Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Pomelato and LVMH taking on Bulgari and Loro Piana. The Qatari royal family owns Valentino. Gianni Versace founded the brand in 1978, becoming a major force bringing to prominence Milan ready-to-wear and serving as a daring, sexy counterpoint to Giorgio Armani’s more subdued elegance. Versace’s flashy, rock ‘n ‘roll designs and Medusa logo became emblematic of a generation led by Princess Diana and Madonna. He also helped create supermodels, like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer and was the first to bring celebrities to the front row. The family-run business was thrown into chaos with Versace’s murder 21 years ago. His sister, Donatella, took over creative direction, while his brother Santo continued on the business side. It had been eyeing a public listing for several years. The Versace family still controls 80 per cent of the company. The investment firm Blackstone owns the remaining 20 per cent. Donatella presented her latest collection for next spring and summer last Friday during Milan Fashion Week. “This is a very exciting moment for Versace,” she said. “It has been more than 20 years since I took over the company along with my brother Santo and daughter Allegra.” Donatella, who holds a 20 per cent stake in the business, will stay onboard as creative director and the family will become shareholders in the larger business. Santo now holds a 30 per cent stake and Allegra, 50 per cent. “With the full resources of our group, we believe that Versace will grow to over $2 billion in revenues,” said John Idol, chairman and CEO of Michael Kors. “We believe that the strength of the Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo brands, and the acquisition of Versace, position us to deliver multiple years of revenue and earnings growth.” Kors said on Tuesday that it plans to open 100 new Versace stores (there are 200 in operation) at the same time that it amplifies online sales of the brand. Still, Versace’s sales have been slowing and despite some progress, Michael Kors hasn’t fully rebounded from a slump. It’s trying rebuild its reputation after broadly distributing its products to department stores and outlet malls, which damaged its image. Keeping the family involved and Donatella as the creative engine at Versace are both good ideas, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. The size of the company will provide Versace with a more global reach, especially in Europe and Asia, he said. “All that said, we maintain our view that Versace is not a perfect operation,” Saunders said. “While it is iconic and high-profile, there is a lot of work to be done to position it for higher growth. This will absorb both time and money from the group and has to be done in tandem with the ongoing efforts to put Michael Kors firmly on the right track.” The deal is expected to close in the fiscal fourth quarter. Shares of Kors rose almost 2 per cent before the opening bell.

DONALD Trump has attacked the second accuser of his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh saying that the woman was likely “drunk” and “messed up” when the incident allegedly occurred. It comes as a former roommate of Mr Kavanaugh said he believed the second woman accusing the Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct. In New York for his speech at the United Nations, Mr Trump sought to cast doubt on sexual misconduct allegations lodged against Mr Kavanaugh by a Yale classmate, Deborah Ramirez, who made her claims in an article published in The New Yorker magazine. “The second accuser has nothing,” Mr Trump said. “The second accuser doesn’t even know — maybe it could have been him, maybe not. She admits she was drunk. There are time lapses.” He slammed Ms Ramirez repeatedly for her accusations. “Now a new charge comes up and she says it may not be him and there are gaps. And she was totally inebriated and all messed up, and she doesn’t know. It might have been him, or it might have been him. Gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge,” Mr Trump said. He added: “I can tell you that false accusations of all type are made against a lot of people. “This is a high quality person, and it would be a horrible insult to our country if this doesn’t happen. And it’ll be a horrible, horrible thing for future political people. It cannot be allowed to happen. And the Democrats are playing a con game, C-O-N.” Mr Kavanaugh is set to testify on Thursday at a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, is also expected to testify. Ms Ramirez told The New Yorker magazine that Mr Kavanaugh exposed himself to her in college. Mr Kavanaugh denies both claims. A third woman has also reportedly claimed Mr Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her but she has yet to speak publicly on the allegations. Mr Kavanaugh’s university roommate James Roche said that he remembered the Supreme Court nominee as a “heavy drinker” who “became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk.” “I did not observe the specific incident in question, but I do remember Brett frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk,” Mr Roche told ABC News in the US. Mr Kavanaugh has slammed the allegations against him. During an interview with Fox News, where he appeared alongside his wife Ashley, he said that during his university days [he] “was focused on trying to be number one in my class and being captain of the varsity basketball team and doing my service projects, going to church”. Mr Trump continued to back his man. “He is one of the highest quality people. He said when he was focused on being No. 1 in his class at Yale, to me, that was so believable. I understand college very well, being number one in your class, I understand a lot of things,” Mr Trump said. He went back to slamming Democrats. He also lashed out at what has happened to Mr Kavanaugh and his family. “He has the chance to be one of the greatest justices in the United States Supreme Court. What a shame,” Mr Trump said. “His wife is devastated, his children are devastated. I don’t mean, ‘Oh gee, I am a little unhappy. They are devastated.’ And it is because of these Democrats.”

MEGHAN, Duchess of Sussex, has carried out her first solo engagement in London overnight, attending the opening of the Oceania art exhibition ahead of her tour down under. Wearing a long-sleeved, black Givenchy dress and black heels, the Duchess of Sussex received a tour of Oceania at the Royal Academy of Arts, viewing exhibits from regions in New Zealand, Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga and Australia. At one point, the Duchess could barely contain her giggles as she took part in a “hongi” - a traditional greeting of rubbing noses. She did hongis with a number of her hosts, including New Zealand’s high commissioner Sir Jerry Mataparae and his wife Janine, along with performers from Ngati Ranana - the London Maori Club - who had been entertaining the party guests. It’s the first time the former actress has carried out a royal engagement on her own and comes just days after she launched the charitable cookbook Together: Our Community Cookbook at Kensington Palace, where her mother Doria Ragland accompanied her with her husband Prince Harry. Oceania is the first major survey of Oceanic art to be held in the United Kingdom, with the exhibition commemorating art from Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Bringing together about 200 works from public collections, the exhibition spans over 500 years. The exhibition also marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Academy which was founded in 1768. It’s been a busy few weeks for the Duchess, who showed off her sporty side at the awards ceremony for Coach Core on Monday where she tried her hand at netball while wearing high heels. Meghan will fly to Australia with Prince Harry on October 16, which will be their first overseas tour as a married couple

SOME 15,000 life forms were detected in DNA sampled from the turnstiles, keypads and seats of 466 of New York’s subway stations. Most of it is what you’d expect: mozzarella, blowflies, staph — and anthrax. Then there’s the weird stuff: Tasmanian devil, Himalayan yak and Mediterranean fruit fly. But, that only accounts for half of the DNA collected and sequenced in the recent study of the thriving metropolis’ underground biome (habitat). The other half is, well … unknown. Is the New York subway the closest thing on Earth to the primordial goop that first sparked life on this planet? Or is it the favoured mode of terrestrial transport for extraterrestrials (the UN is based in New York, after all)? The Wall Street Journalhas compiled the results of the New York subway network study by the PathoMap project into an interactive map. Yes, there’s a thriving metropolis of bacteria down there. And it’s even divided itself into communities. It’s all been made possible due to the increasing speed and ease with which DNA analysis can be conducted. Samples don’t need to be big — simple scrapings will do. Your average lab can do the sequencing. “We know next to nothing about the ecology of urban environments,” evolutionary biologist Jonathan Eisen at the University of California at Davis told the Wall Street Journal. “How will we know if there is something abnormal if we don’t know what normal is?” And if you want to find something, a subway used by 5.5 million commuters every day is where you’re going to find it. They found more than 10 billion fragments of biochemical code, and sifted it through a supercomputer. The only problem was the library of known DNA it was all matched to. So, no. The unknown DNA isn’t likely to be our evolutionary future. Nor is it likely to be the Illuminati, Daleks, Cloverfields — or any number of other alien life form that has invaded New York on our screens. We’ve only just started mapping the DNA of all the world’s life. The digital shelves of that library are still largely bare. So when a result matches ‘no known life form’, that’s exactly what it means. It simply hasn’t been identified and catalogued yet. Humans. Blowflies. Beetles. The DNA of all of the above were found in abundance. But not cockroaches. That’s because they’ve not been fully sequenced yet. And why did the test throw up Tasmanian devils and Himalayan yaks — both somewhat unlikely to use the New York subway? Because fragments of DNA can be similar between species. And an incomplete catalogue will throw up only what it knows. This is why PathoMap later retracted its claims to have found anthrax and bubonic plague in the subway system: it blamed an ‘error of interpretation’ for the misdiagnosis. The study has a serious side. It is looking at what potentially harmful (disease carrying) bacteria is thriving beneath the city’s streets, where it came from and how it got there. It’s seeded by the bacteria on the food commuters eat, the pets and plants they keep, carried by their shoes and clothes, and left behind by their trash, couches and unwashed hands. More than half of the identified bacteria came from human gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts (faeces). About a third was the mostly harmless stuff that lives on our skin. Most of the remainder was associated with coughing or sneezing. The scientists pointed out the levels of bacteria they detected in the subway system poses no public-health problem. But the list of bacteria species they found at New York’s 466 stations is revealing: — 220 stations had traces of antibiotic resistant bacteria — 215 had food-poising bacteria — 192 carried urinary tract infections — 151 had traces of mozzarella cheese — 66 had meningitis and depsis — 60 had saurcraut — 37 were harbouring staph infections

MOSCOW has rejected outright Israel’s argument that its combat jets were nowhere near the reconnaissance plane shot down by Syrian air defences last week. Now it says it will deliver — and deploy troops for — an advanced new missile system to the war-torn region, and shoot down any attackers. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said President Vladimir Putin ordered new security measures to protect its military in Syria, including supplying the Syrian army with an S-300 air defence system and jamming radars following the downing of a Russian plane last week. A Syrian Soviet-era S-200 missile shot down the Russian surveillance plane by mistake, killing 15 in an accident Moscow blames on Israel’s fighter jet having used the surveillance plane to ‘hide’ behind. But the new moves make the likelihood of similar events much greater — with the all-encompassing threat by Russia to jam the navigation and communications systems of all foreign combat aircraft flying over Syria, and to shoot on anything it perceives as a threat. “This has pushed us to adopt adequate response measures directed at boosting the security of Russian troops” in Syria, Shoigu said in a televised statement. “(Russia will) transfer the modern S-300 air defence system to the Syrian armed forces within two weeks.” SCENE SET FOR DISASTER “In regions near Syria over the Mediterranean Sea, there will be radio-electronic suppression of satellite navigation, on-board radar systems and communication systems of military aviation attacking objects on Syrian territory,” Defence minister Shoigu said. This applies to all combatants, including Britain, France, Turkey — and the United States. Minister Shoigu said the Syrian military had already been trained to use the S-300 system, which was set to be sent over in 2013 but held up ‘at the request of Israel’. Now, Russian-manned S-300 missile launchers will be placed alongside those being operated by Syria. A major part of last week’s ‘friendly fire’ incident is that Syria does not possess secret Russian identification friend-or-foe (IFF) codes. “The S-300 systems Russia plans to supply to Syria will feature a compromise solution,” said Nikolai Sokov, a Senior Fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. “They will be fully equipped to distinguish Russian aircraft … but there will be Russian personnel present at controls.” Israel’s insistence that it will not be deterred striking targets it deems to be a risk to its national security therefore makes the chances of Russian troops being killed dangerously high. In the past two years Israel has carried out more than 200 air strikes in Syria against Assad’s government, its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and Iranian targets. Syria, in response, often fires its anti-aircraft guns and missiles indiscriminately into the skies — largely blinded by Israeli countermeasures. Only one Israeli F-16 fighter jet has been hit and forced to crash in a February clash. In retaliation, Israel launched an intensive strike across Syria — in which it claims it destroyed half its air defence network. Any future attack will run the risk of killing Russian troops. “Obviously, this seriously constrains not just Israeli, but also US operations in case of possible bombing of Syria,” Sokov told Business Insider. “Not only Syrian air defence will become more capable, but it will be necessary to keep in mind the presence of Russian operators at the Syrian air defence systems.” The US has not missed that point. “We think introducing the S-300s to the Syrian government would be a significant escalation by the Russians and something that we hope, if these press reports are accurate, they would reconsider,” US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, warned yesterday. “We have American forces in the area we’re concerned about,” Bolton said. PUTIN BLAMES ISRAEL An Israeli official said the Russian plane was shot down because Syrian batteries had “fired recklessly, irresponsibly and unprofessionally, long after our planes were no longer there”. But last week’s incident has soured relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russia’s President Putin. Putin said that he disagreed with the Israeli version of events and pinned the blame on the Israeli military. The Kremlin chief had taken a more conciliatory tone when he described the downing as the result of “tragic accidental circumstances”. But Moscow now says Israeli F-16 planes which struck Latakia in western Syria used a “premeditated” tactic to fly behind the landing Russian Il-20 surveillance plane as “cover,” which resulted in the larger Il-20 being hit by a Syrian missile. “According to information of our military experts, the reason (behind the downing) were premeditated actions by Israeli pilots which certainly cannot but harm our relations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The Russian military has said that Israel’s air force informed its command in Syria via the established conflict de-escalation hotline, but only one minute before the air strikes — and gave the wrong target location. Because of this, Moscow claims that the Russian air force could not keep its plane safe. “The information provided by the Israeli military … runs counter to conclusions of the Russian defence ministry,” the Kremlin said of Monday’s call between Putin and Netanyahu. “The Russian side proceeds from the fact that the actions by the Israeli air force were the main reason for the tragedy,” the Kremlin added. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned earlier the accident would affect relations between the two countries. “According to information of our military experts, the reason (behind the downing) were premeditated actions by Israeli pilots which certainly cannot but harm our relations,” Peskov told journalists. ADDITIONAL THREAT At the Pentagon, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis slammed Moscow’s move. “Any additional weapons going in to support Assad right now keeps him in a position of threat to the region — and the threat is refugee flows coming out of the region, it’s murder of his own people,” Mattis told reporters. “Anything like this puts (Assad) in a position, basically, to be more of an obstruction to resolving and ending this fight.” Military analyst Vladimir Sotnikov said that despite putting in place the new security measures Moscow would want to avoid a direct military clash with Israel, a key US ally. “I don’t think that the decision to send an S-300 to Syria would significantly worsen ties with Israel,” he said, ruling out an escalation of the Syrian conflict. Peskov reiterated Moscow’s stance that the new measures were only to boost the safety of its troops in Syria. “Russia in this case is acting in its interests only, these actions are not directed against third countries, but towards defending our own military,” he said. A spokesperson for the Israeli army declined to comment on Moscow’s S-300 delivery.

UNDERWATER art is springing up at popular tourist spots around the world. The eerie sight of sealife-clad human forms draws divers and snorklers to look at their world in a different light. But a popular honeymoon resort in the Maldives won’t have a bar of it. Police wielding pickaxes have smashed the British-designed art installation at the Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi resort. They say they took the drastic action after complaints by religious leaders. Islam is the official religion of the scattering of coral islands deep in the Indian Ocean. Outgoing president Abdulla Yameen ordered the removal and destruction of the sculptures, declaring them to be “idols” which are banned by the religion. He insisted there was “significant public sentiment” against the artwork, making him decide to demolish the structure. Hardline Islam rejects any man-made depiction of the human form. But that’s been increasingly hard to enforce in the modern world. British artist Jason DeCaires Taylor insists his statues had no religious meaning whatsoever. Instead, they sought to capture the simplicity of the human form and behaviour. “I was extremely shocked and heartbroken to learn that my sculptures have been destroyed by the Maldivian authorities at the Coralarium, despite continued consultations and dialogue,” he told The Guardian. “The Coralarium was conceived to connect humans to the environment and a nurturing space for marine life to thrive. Known as The Coralarium, the statues were fixed on a tidal reef within swimming distance of the hotel. It was intended to serve the dual purpose of tourist attraction and refuge for sea life. An illumination system lit it up at night to create both an otherworldly experience, and highlight the thriving underwater environment. Now local police have posted pictures to social media of themselves using pickaxes and power tools to remove the statues.