Aboriginal protester arrested outside Sydney Opera House

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As crowds wait for a view of the King and Queen on their last day of their trip in Australia, an Indian activist has been taken into custody at the Sydney Opera House.

The imperial couple are scheduled to visit the harbourside plaza on Tuesday afternoon, but a large crowd has gathered there.

A popular aboriginal activist from Brisbane named Wayne Wharton was detained after he refused to comply with a police order to leave.

It comes as pushback over an Indian president’s booing of King Charles in Canberra on Monday increases, with officials and some Indigenous officials condemning Lidia Thorpe’s behavior.

Mr Wharton had shouted “he’s no my King”, echoing the words of Thorpe the day before.

Many of the crowd holding little union jack flags as they waited for the royals yelled” God save the King!” in response.

Additionally, Mr. Wharton had protested outside the Sunday princes ‘ church services.

The gathered crowd applauded officers when the Kooma gentleman was detained and placed in a police vehicle on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people had been queuing since early on Tuesday, with a few holding American colors. Some had accessorised with royal-themed jewels and bags.

With her young males Benjamin and Harrison who were both wearing crowns and scarves with fake leather trim,” We want to enjoy our land and all the persons in it,” says Karen Clark, who also wore leather trim.

We were raised with the King, and now we celebrate the King’s day with the kids. It’s fun to have great teas and dress up in our best clothes.

Bettina Bethuel, who traveled with her companion Taja Shephard, recalls her father’s interest in the Royals and says,” My papa was from England.”

Taja saw the heckling by Thorpe on TV and was n’t impressed.

She said,” I thought it was a small harsh, but I suppose she makes her place for indigenous people.” ” But I do n’t think it’s appropriate how she behaved”.

King Charles traveled to Redfern’s National Center of Indigenous Excellence on Tuesday to meet with Tribal elders on the other side of the area.

The separate senator’s rally has been praised by some Aboriginal activists as courageous, but condemned by different prominent Indian Australians as “embarrassing” and rude.

Her political contemporaries have likewise harshly criticized it.

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Nightclub, call centre employees could be at risk of noise-induced deafness: Experts

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SINGAPORE: Full hearing loss due to loud sounds is generally associated with staff dealing with heavy equipment, but employees at nightclubs, training studios and visit centres may also be at risk of the state, experts said. &nbsp,

In a statement released earlier this month by the Manpower Ministry, noise-induced impairment was named as the major occupational disease in Singapore. &nbsp,

Around 300 of these cases were identified in the first half of this year alone, making up nearly two-thirds of all vocational illnesses during that time. Those in the developing industry, &nbsp, particularly metal-working, are at the highest risk of developing the condition. &nbsp,

Clinical audiologist Alicia Tay told CNA that call center people, for example, have sought support at The Listening Lab, where she heads its financial department.

They must always raise the level in their headphones in order to discover the person speaking over the phone or through the ambient noise. So they do come in with some signs of noise-induced reading costs”, she said. &nbsp,

She added that trainers who teach inside cycling, or spin, several times a day, are also susceptible to hearing issues, despite their less well-known status.

The teachers must shout into a speaker to make the audience hear the extremely audible music that they play, she observed.

” That blend of sound is often reach 100 decibels, and that is a risk of hearing loss because they’re but generally exposed for long durations”.

For eight continuous hours, listening at 85 decibels is the maximum acceptable levels. The length of coverage that is considered healthy “rapidly decreases” when it gets louder, Ms Tay pointed out. &nbsp,

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Singapore grants conditional approval for Sun Cable to import 1.75GW of electricity from Australia

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SINGAPORE: Singapore has granted conditional approval to Sun Cable to import 1.75 gigawatt ( GW ) of low-carbon electricity from Australia to Singapore.

The Energy Market Authority ( EMA ) announced on Tuesday ( October 22 ) that the imported electricity will be able to be derived from Australia’s Northern Territory’s solar power and will be transmitted using new subsea cables measuring approximately 4,200 kilometers.

Sun Cable said its US$ 13.5 billion solar project in Australia, the Australia-Asia Power Link, is set to be the “world’s largest renewable land and battery backup system”.

The amount of solar energy imported represents about&nbsp, 15 per cent of Singapore’s full energy needs, the organization added.

According to EMA,” The contingent approval granted to Sun Cable recognizes that the project may be essentially and economically viable based on the proposal and information submitted to date.”

The business may gain the support needed to carry on the project’s development, which is anticipated to begin in 2035.

Before the job can be considered for a provisional permission, Sun Cable must upgrade its plan to comply with EMA’s requirements.

These requirements include achieving a commercially viable rate that customers can afford and complying with EMA’s technical needs.

” Sun Cable will also need to secure all appropriate approvals of related areas, including nations which the cords will move through”, said EMA.

Next Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng described the proposal as” an ambitious project” at the Asia Clean Energy Summit on Tuesday, citing the scope, size, and range between Australia and Singapore.

We anticipate that it will take some time to build, and we anticipate that it will be available by 2035, according to Dr. Tan.

” But when completed, the job will be a valuable supplement to the ASEAN ( Association of Southeast Asian Nations ) &nbsp, Power Grid, and serve as an additional source of electricity for Singapore”.

The cords will become laid through Indian lakes, according to the company.

This is not the first day a task like this has been brought up. Sun Cable had intended to start building the undersea cables in 2024 and become operating by 2029, but the business went into voluntary leadership in January 2023.

The company had fallen little of resources, it announced finally. Voluntary management refers to a procedure by which a company’s directors assign separate administrators to guide the company’s operations, which are typically experiencing financial difficulties.

In February 2023, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong claimed that because the company had not made any responsibility to the project, Singapore’s decision to enter volunteer administration had no impact financially.

In May that time, the company’s officials said it had been rescued by element owner and American tech businessperson Mike Cannon-Brookes.

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Lidia Thorpe: King-heckling row grows as violent image taken down

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An Australian senator is being heckled by an Australian senator who is facing repercussions for a violent picture of the king that was quickly posted to her social media account, according to some indigenous leaders.

Lidia Thorpe, an Indian girl, made headlines on Monday when she yelled “you are certainly my prince” and” this is not your area” before being led away from a royal function in Canberra.

The separate president’s rally has been praised by some protesters as courageous, but condemned by other popular Aboriginal Australians as “embarrassing” and rude.

Thorpe has defended her steps at the occasion, but she claimed an improper cartoon was afterward uploaded to her Instagram profile.

A staff member was unaware that the King had been beheaded alongside his king, according to the lawmaker.

” I immediately deleted it as soon as I saw.” Something I consciously share might encourage crime against anyone.

The photograph, which has drawn criticism, adds to weighty attention of her actions on Monday.

Aunty Violet Sheridan, an Aboriginal elder who formally welcomed the King and Queen Camilla to Ngunnawal country, told the Guardian Australia:” Lidia Thorpe does not speak for me and my people, and I’m sure she does n’t speak for a lot of First Nations people”.

Nova Peris, a former legislator who was the first woman to serve in congress and is a long-standing democrat, even described Thorpe’s actions as “embarrassing and disappointing.”

” Australia is moving ahead in its journey of peace… as painful as that trip is, it requires respectful dialogue, shared knowledge, and a shared responsibility to healing- not controversial actions that draw attention away from the progress we are making as a state”, she wrote on X.

However, other prominent Indigenous activists have lauded Thorpe’s stand.

Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, a Bundjalung lawyer and author, said there was “nothing more harmful or disrespectful” than inviting the monarchy to tour the country in the first place, given its history.

” When Thorpe speaks, she’s got the ancestors right with her”.

Thorpe claimed on Tuesday that she had been asked to speak with the monarch about a “respectful conversation” with the monarch and that she had interfered with the King’s parliamentary welcome ceremony.

She pleaded with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to apologize and that the world should be aware of the state of the country’s citizens.

Why does n’t he declare,” I regret the many, many thousands of massacres that occurred in this country and that my ancestors and my kingdom are to blame for that”? she said.

A chorus of Australian politicians including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have also criticised her protest, and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended the monarch.

When asked by reporters if it was “disgraceful” for Australian politicians to shout at the King, Sir Keir replied:” Look, I think the King is doing a fantastic job, an incredible ambassador, not just for our country, but across the Commonwealth”.

Despite the health issues he himself has encountered,” He is out there doing his public service.”

Albanese said Thorpe had not met “the standard behaviour Australians rightly expect of parliamentarians”, while opposition leader Peter Dutton called for Thorpe to resign.

” I really do n’t care what Dutton says”, Thorpe told ABC radio in response.

” I’ll be here for the next three years so get used to truth-telling”.

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Money Talks Podcast: Healthcare costs are rising. What can we do about it?

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Andrea: 
So it’s watching what you spend fundamentally. &nbsp,

Dr Lim: &nbsp,
Definitely, because it is your own funds. &nbsp, But, because MediSave is intended to last you over a life, there will have to be boundaries and boundaries over what MediSave is ( and could ) be used for.

The health department then decides what is and is not worth paying for because we need to spread MediSave over a lifetime. From a population perspective, the ministry of health looks at it.

So I’m afraid you have to tell your neighbor that yes, MediSave can and does pay for many procedures ( and ) many tests on an outpatient basis, but it cannot be comprehensive. But this is a list that is constantly under review, so it will keep evolving, and… ( it’s ) always good to give feedback.

Andrea: 
But the truth is that there will be times when we will reduce the amount we will spend on our MediSave money. What are the benefits and drawbacks of increasing MediSave consumption when it actually comes down to that? &nbsp,

Dr Lim: &nbsp,
Also, the benefit is that we have a nest egg that we’ve been forced to keep, which is a great thing. And ( with a ) 4 per cent interest, until interest rates came up relatively recently, MediSave was a really good deal. And I may tell my family that no one would give you a 4-percent guaranteed transfer if you had money, so instead of using MediSave, you could pay for it yourself.

But of course, this full dynamic… has changed. But actually, MediSave as the voluntary element, gives you the optionality. And one other item that’s worth noting about MediSave is that it is generational, meaning that MediSave can be used for another first-degree equivalent.

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Haryana: India start-ups eye rural markets to drive next leg of growth

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Getty Images An Indian woman using a mobile phone outdoors in a rural settingGetty Images

The small towns of Haryana state in India’s remote north-western are now in an unlikely position in the spotlight.

Farmers ‘ homes in towns close to the industrial area of Rohtak are suddenly in demand and can now double as movie set.

Alongside the mooing of cows, it is n’t unusual to hear a director shouting “lights, camera, action” here.

A fresh start-up, called STAGE, has spawned a budding movie industry in this countryside.

” Batta”, a high-octane drama about power and injustice, is just the latest in half-a-dozen shows under production in the area, Vinay Singhal, founder of STAGE, told the BBC on the film’s models.

” Before we came in, there were just a few odd Haryanvi movies made in India’s story.” Since 2019, we’ve made more than 200″, says Mr Singhal.

STAGE makes information for generally under-served municipal audiences, keeping hyper-local tastes, philosophical quirks and the remote social grammar in mind.

There are 19 500 distinct languages in India, and STAGE has identified 18 that are spoken by a large enough population to justify their own independent movie industry.

Information is already available in Haryanvi and Rajasthani, respectively. It has three million paying clients and is planning to develop and include different languages like Maithili and Konkani, which are spoken in north-east and coastal-west India, both.

“We’re also on the verge of closing a funding round from an American venture capitalist firm to expand into these territories,” says Mr Singhal, who appeared along with his co-founders on the Indian version of Shark Tank, a business reality show, a year ago.

Saraskanth Lakh A regional movie scene being shot at a farmer's house in India's Haryana state. Saraskanth Lakh

One of the growing number of Indian start-ups is STAGE, which is betting heavily on the potential for growth in rural areas. People like DeHaat and Agrostar are among the people.

While a large of India’s 1.4 billion people still live in its 650, 000 villages, they’ve almost been a business for its flourishing software start-ups so much.

Asia’s third-largest economy has been a hotbed for innovation, birthing several dozen unicorns- or tech companies valued at over$ 1bn- but they’ve all largely built for the” top 10 %” of urban Indians, according to Anand Daniel, partner at Accel Ventures, which has funded some of the country’s most successful ventures, from Flipkart to Swiggy and Urban Company.

While there have been significant exceptions like online market Meesho, or a few land systems people, the start-up growth has mostly bypassed India’s villages.

As more owners succeed in reaching remote customers and receiving funding for their ideas, that is now changing.

” Investors do n’t show you the door anymore”, says Mr Singhal.

” Five years ago, I did n’t get any money at all. I had to genesis the business”.

Through its pre-seed accelerator program, Accel itself announced it will invest up to$ 1 million in rural start-ups, cutting more checks to entrepreneurs looking to solve problems for the rural market.

Unicorn India Ventures, another regional VC account, says 50 % of their assets are now in start-ups based in level 2 and tier 3 places. Suzuki, the auto industry’s biggest player, announced a$ 40 million India fund in July of this year to fund rural-market startups.

Saraskanth Lakh A woman showing her phone to a group of friends in India's Haryana stateSaraskanth Lakh

So what’s driving this move?

The untapped market opportunity is large, says Mr Daniel, and there’s a growing realisation among investors and founders that rural does n’t necessarily mean poor.

Two-thirds of India’s population live in the countryside and spend about$ 500bn annually. In reality, the top 20 % of this demographic spends more money than half of those that live in the cities, according to Accel’s individual quotes.

” As India adds$ 4tn to GDP over the next decade, at least 5 % of that will be online influenced, and coming from’ Bharat’ or remote India”, says Mr Daniel.

That’s a$ 200bn incremental opportunity.

The growing penetration of phones among middle-class remote communities is a contributing factor to this.

More than half of the population in the US currently uses one outside of its locations, or 450 million.

And for businesses looking to expand their offerings beyond the towns, the highly praised UPI program has changed the way they do business.

” Five or seven years ago, the ability to reach this goal group- get it online, economically or in terms of getting obligations- was n’t simple. However, the right time is also much better for this era of start-ups trying to enter this industry,” says Mr. Daniel.

In addition, a decade ago, the majority of development occurred in cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru, but a growing number of businesses are now emigrating from smaller towns, fueled by factors like lower operating costs, native talent presence, and state initiatives aimed at promoting innovation in less-metropolitan regions, according to a statement from Primus Ventures.

Being close to the ground may have also contributed to exposing members to the potential of the enormous non-metro business.

Saraskanth Lakh A group of women sitting together on the ground as one of them uses her phone in India's Haryana stateSaraskanth Lakh

But it’s simpler to crack remote India.

The little town customer is price-conscious and regionally dispersed. In any given location, there are much less addresses for buyers than in cities.

Infrastructure also continues to lag, so “distribution is n’t easy, and operating costs are high”, says Gautam Malik, chief revenue officer at Frontier Markets, a rural e-commerce start-up that does last-mile deliveries to villages with populations below 5, 000.

Besides, those using industrial designs and force-fitting them to the village environment may fail, says Mr Malik.

His business quickly realized why traditional e-commerce could n’t get to the very last mile. The customer in the village genuinely did n’t trust her money with a business that did n’t have a local presence.

To increase that level of trust, Mr. Malik and his team needed to collaborate with village-level women entrepreneurs to operate as their sales and distribution representatives.

Such diversity and a responsibility for the long haul will be important, he says, to winning rural India and cracking that iterative$ 200bn business prospect.

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Surfer dies after reported Indonesia swordfish attack

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A surf who apparently was impaled by a fish in Indonesia has received monuments.

Giulia Manfrini, 36, from Turin in northern Italy, had been surfing in the lakes of the Mentawai Islands Regency, West Sumatra Province, before the event on Friday, according to reports.

After a fish struck Ms. Manfrini in the chest, two testimony are said to have attempted to revive her. She was eventually taken to a hospital.

James Colston, who set up a travel agency with Ms Manfrini, said on Instagram:” Even with the courageous efforts of her lover, local hotel staff and doctors, Giulia was n’t get saved”.

According to reports, Lahmudin Siregar, the acting head of the Mentawai Islands Regency Regional Disaster Management Agency ( BPBD),” the information we received from the Head of Southwest Siberut District was that an incident occurred with an Italian citizen while surfing.”

He added:” Surprisingly, a fish jumped towards Manfrini and stuck her straight in the neck”.

We believe she died doing what she loved, in a position she loved, according to Mr. Colston, who claimed that his former coworker had been in” a monster incident.”

Giulia was the essence of this business, and she will be remembered by everyone who encountered her, he said.

Fabio Giulivi, the governor of Ms Manfrini’s home Venaria Reale, said:” The announcement of her death has left us stunned and makes us feel powerless in front of the horror that took her life so quickly”.

He added that she had a “double dream” of starting a travel agency and searching.

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Why Australian senator Lidia Thorpe heckled King Charles

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It’s not the first day Lidia Thorpe has voiced her opinions on the British king, but she’s no stranger to controversy.

The second Indian lawmaker from that state, the person who has served as a senator for Victoria since 2020, is known as the Gunnai, Gunditjmara, and Djab Wurrung person.

Prior to that, she had a history of Aboriginal engagement. She also served as the state of Victoria’s Naidoc, a group that recognizes and instructs Australians about First Nations nations and their histories.

In 2022, while being sworn in to legislature after a re-election, she called the delayed Queen a coloniser.

“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising her majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said, as she was being sworn in.

After criticism from different senators, she then repeated the vow as printed.

So Monday’s incident had n’t had come as little shock to anyone who follows American politics. Some First Nations people in Australia also have scars from colonization, as Lisa Thorpe has stated in her statement.

Whether or not you believe with Lidia Thorpe’s method or not, there are significant differences between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians on issues like education, health, and life expectancy.

Last year Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a young Indigenous man was more likely to go to jail than university, which is borne out by statistics, as ABC showed.

And between 2020 and 2022, the life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was estimated to be eight years shorter than non-Indigenous Australians.

“I wanted to send a clear message to the King of England that he’s not the King of this country, he’s not my king, he’s not sovereign,” Thorpe told the BBC after being removed from the Great Hall after heckling. “To be sovereign you have to be of this land. He’s not of this land.”

She went on.

How does he claim to be the King of our nation when he has robbed so much of our citizens and our property and needs to return it? And he needs to start a dialogue about a peace agreement in this nation,” she said.

” We can lead that, we can do that; we can be a better country, but we ca n’t bow to the colonisers whose ancestors are responsible for mass murder and genocide,” he said.

Reuters King Charles is heckled by Australian politician Senator Lidia Thorpe before she was escorted away by security at the Australian Parliament House for Ceremonial Welcome and Parliamentary Reception, Canberra, Australia October 21, 2024Reuters

The fact that Australia is the only Commonwealth country to have never ratified a treaty with its native folks is one of Lidia Thorpe’s biggest problems. She’s been pushing for that as a goal.

For her, the election on a Voice to Parliament next year, which would have allowed First Nations people to form a system to guide the congress, was a backward step in the direction of that goal.

She was one of the few people in the majority among First Nations who likewise voted no. Australians emphatically voted against the plan.

She claimed to the BBC that the Voice was on “assimilating us into the imperial law to render us nice, neat little Aboriginal Australians that will continue to be oppressed by the coloniser.”

But she was in the majority among First Nations people who did so. Aboriginal Australians made up close to 4 % of Australia’s population, but regions with a large proportion of Aboriginal voters overwhelmingly voted yes. Nationally, only over 60 % of voters across Australia voted against.

Not all Indigenous leaders appear as troubled by royal visits as Lidia Thorpe.

Allira Davis, co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue, said she respected the late Queen, perhaps describing her as “beautiful”.

What about King Charles’s most recent attend?

” I do n’t think it’s that important. We’re our personal state”, Allira Davis told the BBC, speaking before Lidia Thorpe heckled him in Canberra.

Understanding the history of what has occurred in this nation is extremely important. We’re not just a bright land again. We’re a pretty colored state. We’re a pretty diverse country.

” So I’m every for becoming a nation, but we need to deal with recognising our First Nations folks.”

Therefore, Lidia Thorpe reflects a viewpoint that many people hold about the harm that colonization caused and still does. Not everyone agrees with her view.

Local media have reported that former co-workers have found her difficult to work with.

However, Lidia Thorpe, who is now an impartial after leaving the Greens due to her group’s support for the Yes voting in the election, is unlikely to change her mind. She believes that the King should take a bigger part in redressing the nation’s failings.

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Small modular reactors a possible solution to power Singapore’s data centres, says Energy Market Authority CEO

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Singapore: The CEO of the Energy Market Authority stated on Monday ( October 21 ) that small modular reactors being considered for powering AI data centers by big tech might one day be used there.

Modern nuclear units with a power capacity of about a fourth of the generating power of conventional nuclear power reactors are known as small modular units.

On the outside of the Singapore International Energy Week mountain, Mr. Puah Kok Keong told CNA that the country has been considering using nuclear power for some time.

He noted that the government conducted a feasibility study on nuclear power about ten years ago, and the result was that Singapore’s size would be incompatible with standard nuclear energy reactors due to space constraints. &nbsp,

However, systems designers are looking at smaller, safer modular units, and it is a place that Singapore is “going to be watching quite closely”, he said. &nbsp,

These have much more passive safety features that will shield the units from panic, they claim. They are suitable for smaller energy techniques like Singapore’s, he said because of their smaller size.

Singapore may look into the choice when it is available, he said, even though there are no commercially operated small modular reactors however.

” Once those are available, we will be very willing to look at how they are operated, to look at, in more depth, their safety features, their health problems, and then we make another analysis whether or not those may be ideal for deployment in Singapore”, he said.

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