Fire shuts down busy Launceston street as local laundry business ignites - Pulse Hobart

Fire shuts down busy Launceston street as local laundry business ignites. Image / Pulse

A busy Launceston city street has been shut this afternoon after a fire started at a local laundry business.

York Street, between Charles Street and St John Street, has been closed after the fire broke out at George’s Dry Cleaners shortly after 3:30pm on Sunday.

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The Tasmania Fire Service say multiple crews are on the scene and are actively working to contain the blaze.

The full extent of the fire and its cause is currently unknown.

Fire shuts down busy Launceston street as local laundry business ignites. Image / Pulse

Fire shuts down busy Launceston street as local laundry business ignites. Image / Pulse

Updated 6:30pm, Sunday 3 December: Tasmania Police have confirmed that the fire is not being treated as suspicious.

York Street has now reopened following the blaze, while the cause remains under investigation.

The total amount of damage caused by the fire is unknown.

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Support local at Canberra's markets - Our Canberra - ACT Government

Markets are a great way to find original and unforgettable gifts.

Looking for unique gifts made with love? Support local and find the perfect Christmas present for your loved ones at one of Canberra’s great markets.

Here are some of the markets on across December:

Haig Park Village Christmas Markets

Haig Park, Braddon

3 December, 8.00am to 2.00pm

This free, family-friendly event will feature over 120 stalls, a ‘Christmas Spirit’ drinks garden, multicultural cuisines, a visit from Santa and an all-day line up of musicians.

Super Christmas Sunday at the Old Bus Depot Markets 

21 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston

3,10 & 17 December, 9.30am to 2.30pm

Find handmade gifts for family and friends, or decorations for your own Christmas party. Super Christmas Sundays will have a wide selection of stallholders, along with Christmas trees, family photos with Santa or for your pet, handcrafted decorations and more.

Handmade Canberra's Christmas Market 

Exhibition Park in Canberra

8 December, 5.00pm to 9.00pm and 9-10 December, 10.00am to 4.00pm

Canberra’s favourite handmade markets are back, and just in time for your Christmas shopping! Discover everything from fashion, artwork, jewellery, handcrafted furniture, children’s toys and clothing, food and more.

Hawker Community Repair Café and Market 

Hawker International Softball Centre

10 December, 10.00am to 1.00pm

Listen to music and enjoy a sausage sizzle as you browse market stalls.

Shop artwork, books, jewellery, toys, flowers, plants, pre-loved tools and more.

The Little Burley Market's Big Christmas Bash

Queen Elizabeth Terrace, Parkes

16 December, 8.00am to 8.00pm

Canberra’s beloved lakeside market is going all out for their Christmas event. Santa will stop by for photos, there will be face painting, music and circus performances, and over 80 stalls showcasing local businesses. Shop food, jewellery, plants, clothes, homewares and more.

The Pearce Crafters Market

Pearce Community Centre

2 December, 10.00am to 3.00pm and 3 December, 10.00am to 1.00pm

A gathering of talented crafters and artisans from across ACT, providing high quality handmade items. You can also enjoy food, tea, coffee, and live music.

Enjoy your festive shopping!

Stay up to date with news and events in the ACT, sign up to our email newsletter:Subscribe to OurCBR

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Failed bid to ban property investors from local council reignites debate - Sydney Morning Herald

A failed bid to ban property investors from serving as local councillors has reignited debate about who should sit on local councils following a wave of scandals involving property developers and the state’s ongoing housing crisis.

Georges River Labor councillor Veronica Ficarra last week put forward a motion for a ban on property developers, real estate agents and property investors from standing as candidates in council elections.

“These individuals all receive a substantial source of their financial prosperity from targeted speculation on the property and rental market”, she said.

Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig pledged to examine any measures to improve the integrity of council decisions.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Her motion failed to win support from fellow councillors, but Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig said strengthening probity mechanisms to ensure greater transparency about council decisions “is a priority of mine”.

NSW Labor made two unsuccessful attempts while in Opposition to introduce a ban on property developers and real estate agents from serving as councillors.

A ban on property developers and agents serving on council has the support of the Greens and NSW’s peak local government body, but is opposed by the property industry.

Balmain Greens MP Kobi Shetty said her party supported a ban as there was always more that could be done to strengthen provisions to ensure vested interests do not influence decision-making at any level of government.

A Local Government NSW spokesman said it supported a ban on property developers, real estate agents and their relatives and close associates – investors, owners and beneficiaries - from serving as councillors in urban areas.

The spokesman said more planning decisions are made by the state government, yet there is no prohibition on the types of jobs MPs may have before their election.

Real Estate Institute of NSW chief executive Tim McKibbin, however, said the proposed ban was a political response.

“Addressing corruption and driving community confidence in their councillors will come from improved governance,” he said.

Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said property developers took the risk of developing land into housing and commercial and industrial buildings for jobs, and accounted for more than 15 per cent of employment in NSW.

“They have real-life experience and should not be casually dismissed in a cheap shot from any politician,” he said.

NSW Liberals leader Mark Speakman said integrity in local government “and for that matter in all levels of government, is very important”.

However, Speakman declined to say whether he supported prohibitions on who can serve as local councillor.

Centre for Public Integrity director Geoffrey Watson SC said banning property developers and real estate agents from sitting on councils was an “obviously good” reform that would have widespread support in the community and across the crossbenchers.

The Australia Institute’s democracy and accountability program director Bill Browne said there was a long history of property developers exercising undue influence on local and state governments, including outright bribery.

This justified the restrictions on property developer political participation, including NSW’s donation ban, he said. “Any limitation on the right to run for office should be very narrow and firmly justified.

“Ultimately, it is for voters to decide whether a candidate understands and cares about their needs.”

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From Australia To Bangladesh And Beyond: Mobilizing Local ... - Health Policy Watch

Dharriwaa Elders Group staff and Elders protesting the need to buy bottled water given the poor quality of Walgett’s tap water.

A project born from community advocacy and Indigenous leadership has catalysed a unique partnership between a small, rural Australian community and global health experts, shining a light on the link between climate, health and the power of community-driven change.   

Systematic water mismanagement combined with droughts and floods exacerbated by climate change has led to unreliable town water supplies for residents of Walgett in New South Wales.

Early this year, a survey led by local Aboriginal community-controlled organisations conducted in the Aboriginal community found that 43% of people were experiencing moderate to severe water insecurity. The drinking water supplied to the town from bores was found to be so high in sodium that it posed a threat to the many community members living with high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.

The survey showed the levels of water insecurity in Walgett were even worse than those recorded in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka; a city of 23 million people struggling to cope with the impacts of extreme heat. A rise in the salinity of drinking water in Bangladesh has been linked to increases in hypertension and chronic kidney disease and elevated rates of pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension in pregnant women.

The George Institute partners with communities in both these contexts, and we are keenly aware that for the people most impacted by the interlinked threats of environmental change and chronic disease, the climate crisis is a health crisis and vice versa.

Indeed, to separate the two is incompatible with Indigenous peoples’ holistic understanding of health, which encompasses not only the physical, social, emotional and spiritual well-being of the whole community, but also its connection to Land and Country, including the earth, waterways and skies.

As we prepare for the first-ever ‘Health Day’ at this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates, we argue that progress in breaking down siloes between climate and health is welcome, but far too slow. To accelerate urgently needed inter-sectoral action, we need to put affected communities at the heart of decision-making processes.

Integrating climate in health priorities

World Health Assembly 76 in progress.

At the World Health Assembly in May, the climate crisis made an appearance in several official agenda items, as well as multiple side events.

The links between environmental change and health were at least nodded to in resolutions to address the health challenges faced by Indigenous peoples; the burden of drowning; and actions for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. In addition, the first-ever resolution on the impacts of chemicals, waste, and pollution on human health was approved at the Assembly – ironically, without naming fossil fuels. 

The integration of environmental considerations across multiple health priorities was a positive step, as is progress towards the adoption of a resolution on climate change and health in 2024, supported by the Global Climate and Health Alliance and partners. Nevertheless, the visibility of the climate crisis at the World Health Assembly was by no means congruent with its status as one of the greatest threats to health this century. 

Integrating health in climate priorities

World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered his first speech at COP28 on the eve of ‘Health Day’, which will take place on December 3.

The inclusion of a ‘Health Day’ on this year’s COP agenda aims to signal a shift in focus, highlighting the recognition of health as a central pillar in climate discussions at the highest level.

Last year’s conference laid some foundations to build on. For example, with the launch of the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, which aims to enhance resilience for four billion people living in the most climate-vulnerable communities by 2030.

This year, a set of new ‘Health Outcomes’ will be integrated into the Agenda, comprising a plan to address the increasing impacts of climate change on human health and health systems. COP28 will also feature a Health Pavilion for the third time.

In addition, COP28 will see the inaugural Health and Climate Ministerial meeting, at which governments will be asked to endorse a Declaration on Climate and Health. The Declaration has been developed with the WHO, and is ‘intended as a clear signal of ambition and unity on health’, according to the COP28 Presidency.

However, the Declaration is a voluntary call to action which sits outside the formal conference negotiations, raising concerns that it may become just another commitment for which governments can’t be held to account. It also overlooks the importance of reducing emissions to limit health hazards and alleviate pressure on strained health systems.

Communities as catalysts for integrated approaches

Yuwaya Ngarra-li is a community-led partnership between the Dharriwaa Elders Group, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation working for cultural management and community development in Walgett for more than 23 years, and partners at the University of New South Wales.

There will likely be many more health-focused civil society organisations at COP28 than there were climate-focused groups at the World Health Assembly. However, there is still much room for greater intersectorality in advocacy, as well as policymaking. For example, those seeking tighter regulation of fossil fuels may have something to learn from advocates with decades of experience in battling tobacco and other health-harming industries. 

However, to really shift the dial on intersectoral action, we need to centre the voices of people who are experiencing every day the dire health consequences of environmental degradation; from increased heatwaves to the spread of vector-borne diseases, from failed food systems to rising drinking water salinity.

Moreover, it is imperative that we hear from and listen to Indigenous voices, which are often relegated to the margins yet hold sophisticated knowledge in climate mitigation and adaptation strategies that are land-informed, community-driven and holistic.

Through the Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership between the Walgett Dharriwaa Elders Group and UNSW researchers, advocacy around ongoing water crises and the important cultural connection to Country (lands and waters) has led to significant media coverage and a ministerial commitment to a long-term water solution.

The partnership has also led to innovative, community-driven actions, including the employment of a local food and water coordinator, the installation of a safe drinking water kiosk by the Dharriwaa Elders Group, and a drought-proof micro-farm at the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service.

In Bangladesh, as part of our work on non-communicable diseases and environmental change, we are in the process of setting up a Public Advisory Board, as we have in India and Indonesia. Comprised of members with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, the Board is a platform for community members to provide input and participate in decision-making processes. ensuring that their voices are prioritised in shaping interventions to reduce water salinity.  

Further examples of putting community voices at the heart of discussions to set policy agendas and allocate resources can be found in ongoing efforts to establish mechanisms for social participation in health, and the critical role played by communities in progress towards ending AIDS. 

Success will be rewarded with intersectoral policies and services that build on the Traditional Knowledges of Indigenous peoples and respond to community needs; particularly those of women, girls, young people and other groups who experience the impacts of the climate crisis disproportionately.

By mobilising local communities as communicators, advocates and agents of change – from Australia to Bangladesh and beyond – we can prioritise action that directly improves health outcomes for both people and planet, ensuring a more equitable and resilient future for us all.

About the authors

Chhavi Bhandari is the head of Impact and Engagement for India and Multilaterals at the George Institute, working from India on a programme of multilateral, regional and national advocacy and engagement. She is the Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) lead for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Centre for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Environmental Change and a member of the WHO-Civil Society Working Group to Advance Action on Climate & Health.

Keziah Bennett-Brook is a Torres Strait Islander woman and Program Head of Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health, Executive Member of the Australasian Injury Prevention Network, and Indigenous Committee lead. Keziah has chaired the Research Committee for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health since 2017 and leads the development and implementation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research strategy, policy, stakeholder partnerships and Indigenous research coordination within a global research institute. 

Emma Feeney is the Director of Impact & Engagement at The George Institute for Global Health, where she leads a global programme of activities including advocacy, policy engagement and thought leadership to help increase the impact of the institute’s health and medical research. Emma co-chairs the WHO’s NCD Lab on Women and Girls and the NCD Alliance Supporters’ Group.

Combat the infodemic in health information and support health policy reporting from the global South. Our growing network of journalists in Africa, Asia, Geneva and New York connect the dots between regional realities and the big global debates, with evidence-based, open access news and analysis. To make a personal or organisational contribution click here on PayPal.

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China to meet AI market demand with local chips - Asia Times

China is going to rely more on the use of local artificial intelligence (AI) chips than foreign chips, as it can no longer obtain Nvidia’s most-advanced chips due to the United States’ chip export controls.

The country does not lack AI chip makers, which include Huawei Technologies, Moore Threads, Cambrian and Stream Computing.

Their total shipment will reach 1.34 million units in 2023, up 22.5% from last year, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a market intelligence provider.

However, technology experts said a lot more has to be done before Chinese AI chips can become popular.

Lin Yonghua, vice president and chief engineer at the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, said China should develop some technology frameworks that enable servers to use different kinds of AI chips at the same time.

He said such a move can help resolve the nation’s AI chip shortage problem. He said there’s reason to hope that more and more of China’s data centers will shift to use local AI chips.

Robust market growth

China’s AI server markets will grow 82.5% to US$9.1 billion yuan this year, according to a report published by IDC and Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co Ltd during the annual AI Computing Conference (AICC) in Beijing on November 29.

The figure will increase to US$13.4 billion yuan in 2027, 47% up from the 2023 level, said the report.

The compound annual growth rate of China’s AI computing power will be 33.9% in 2022-2027, compared with the 16.6% annual growth of traditional computing power.

IDC said the global AI server markets will grow from US$19.5 billion in 2022 to US$34.7 billion in 2026. Globally, servers that can create AI-generated content (AIGC), including texts, images, songs and videos, will account for 31.7% of all servers in 2026, up from the current level of 11.9%. 

ChatGPT, launched by the Microsoft-backed OpenAI in November 2022, is a form of generative AI. November 30 marked the one-year anniversary of the debut of ChatGPT.

After seeing the success of ChatGPT, many Chinese companies have increased their investments in chatbots over the past year. They include the companies collectively called BAT – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent – as well as Huawei Technologies. 

Baidu is based in Beijing while Tencent and Huawei are in Shenzhen. Huawei and Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), a China-Singapore cooperation area, co-founded the Huawei (Suzhou) Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center. Alibaba has its headquarters in Hangzhou. 

The top five cities in terms of AI investments are now Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Suzhou. In 2018-2022, the top five were Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. 

Zhou Zhengang, a vice president of IDC, said many Chinese companies are interested in investing in generative AI services while two thirds of these firms have already made their investments.

He said many Chinese internet firms and telecom operators have also started building their AI computing centers. He said as of August this year, China has AI computing centers built in 30 cities with a total investment of 20 billion yuan (US$2.82 billion). 

Competing with humans

In August last year, the Biden administration ordered US chipmakers to stop exporting to China or Russia graphic processing units (GPUs) that operate at interconnect bandwidths of 600 gigabytes per second or above. 

Due to this rule, Nvidia could not ship its A100 and H100 chips to China. It then unveiled the A800 and H800 processors, which work at 400 and 300 gigabytes per second respectively, targeting the Chinese markets.

On October 17 this year, the US tightened its rules, making Nvidia unable to ship its A800, H800, L40, L40S and RTX 4090 chips to China.

Reuters reported on November 9 that Nvidia planned to release three AI chips, namely H20, L20 and L2, for China’s markets. But reportedly, on November 24, the company delayed the launch of H20 to the first quarter of 2024. 

Technology experts said the H100 is 6.68 times faster than the H20 in general. At the same time, the H20 is 20% faster than the H100 in large language model (LLM) reasoning. 

LLMs are deep learning algorithms that can recognize, summarize, translate, predict and generate content using very large datasets, according to Nvidia’s website.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said at an event in the US on Wednesday that AI will be “fairly competitive” with humans in as few as five years. 

Huang said the rising competition in the AI industry will lead to the launch of more off-the-shelf AI tools that companies in different industries will tune according to their needs, from chip design and software creation to drug discovery and radiology.

Fastest AI supercomputer

While it’s uncertain that Chinese firms can import the H20 chips next year, their US counterparts meanwhile are using Nvidia’s most cutting-edge chips. 

On November 28, Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon, became the first cloud service provider to use Nvidia’s GH200 NVL32 multi-node platform, which connects 32 Grace Hopper Superchips into one instance. 

AWS and Nvidia are partnering on Project Ceiba to design the world’s fastest GPU-powered AI supercomputer, which uses 16,384 GH200 Superchips and is capable of processing 65 exaflops of AI. The machine will be used by Nvidia for generative AI innovation. 

A GH200 NVL32 server can train a trillion-parameter model over 1.7 times faster than Nvidia’s HGX H100 server.

An unnamed chip industry expert told the China Securities Journal that Chinese AI chips are lagging behind foreign ones in terms of performance. However, he said, more and more Chinese firms are now willing to use Chinese AI chips or build hybrid servers with different chips due to the limited supply of foreign chips.

Liu Jun, senior vice president of Inspur Electronic Information, said Wednesday that the quality of China’s AI development will depend on the computing powers of AI servers. He said China needs to boost the computing power and processing efficiency of its AI servers in order to support more complex and large-scale AI applications in the coming few years.

Inspur is a state-owned AI server distributor that relies heavily on Nvidia’s chips. It has a more-than-50% share in China’s AI server market. Its customers include Baidu’s Ernie Bot.

The company said on November 27 that it will build its servers with chips made by a variety of companies. 

Read: Nvidia dumbs down AI chips for Chinese markets

Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3

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Aussie rock legend pulls out of local festival - Bay 93.9

By The C organisers have announced headline act Jimmy Barnes has pulled out of playing at Saturday’s Torquay festival, after being hospitalised in Sydney.

The Australian rock legend was due to play alongside the likes of Kasey Chambers, The Living End and Pete Murray at Torquay Common.

Festival organisers say Barnes is struggling with a bacterial infection and on doctors orders is being told to stay in Sydney, but they say it’s not all bad news for ticket holders.

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“Ticket holders are still in for a treat with some big last-minute additions to this already star-studded line-up,” a statement from By The C read.

“Firstly, Jimmy’s mate Jon Stevens has agreed to step in and perform a set that includes Noiseworks and INXS hits.

“Then in a unique climax to the show, Jimmy’s whole live band will be fronted by Oz Rock royalty including Jon Stevens, Daryl Braithwaite, Mahalia Barnes, David Campbell and Jimmy’s legendary bandmate Ian Moss, plus some other big surprise guests, performing a very special set of classic songs by Cold Chisel and Jimmy Barnes.”

Barnes apologised for his absence, and said he wished he could be there.

“I know a lot of people travel a long way for this gig so I’m really sorry that I won’t be able to see you in Torquay as I’d hoped,” he said.

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“This infection has knocked me for six so there’s no chance that the Doctors will let me out of bed for the next few days.

“I’d like to thank my dear friends Mossy, Jon and Daryl, plus my wonderful kids Mahalia and David for putting together this unique show with my live band.

“It’s never been done before so I wish I could be there to see it myself.

“Again, I’d like to apologize to everyone – if I could be there I would be there – but it’s still going to be a helluva show.”

The show festival kicks off Saturday at 11am.

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Aussie rock legend pulls out of local festival - Bay 93.9
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Aussie rock legend pulls out of local festival - Bay 93.9

By The C organisers have announced headline act Jimmy Barnes has pulled out of playing at Saturday’s Torquay festival, after being hospitalised in Sydney.

The Australian rock legend was due to play alongside the likes of Kasey Chambers, The Living End and Pete Murray at Torquay Common.

Festival organisers say Barnes is struggling with a bacterial infection and on doctors orders is being told to stay in Sydney, but they say it’s not all bad news for ticket holders.

Article continues after this ad

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“Ticket holders are still in for a treat with some big last-minute additions to this already star-studded line-up,” a statement from By The C read.

“Firstly, Jimmy’s mate Jon Stevens has agreed to step in and perform a set that includes Noiseworks and INXS hits.

“Then in a unique climax to the show, Jimmy’s whole live band will be fronted by Oz Rock royalty including Jon Stevens, Daryl Braithwaite, Mahalia Barnes, David Campbell and Jimmy’s legendary bandmate Ian Moss, plus some other big surprise guests, performing a very special set of classic songs by Cold Chisel and Jimmy Barnes.”

Barnes apologised for his absence, and said he wished he could be there.

“I know a lot of people travel a long way for this gig so I’m really sorry that I won’t be able to see you in Torquay as I’d hoped,” he said.

Article continues after this ad

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“This infection has knocked me for six so there’s no chance that the Doctors will let me out of bed for the next few days.

“I’d like to thank my dear friends Mossy, Jon and Daryl, plus my wonderful kids Mahalia and David for putting together this unique show with my live band.

“It’s never been done before so I wish I could be there to see it myself.

“Again, I’d like to apologize to everyone – if I could be there I would be there – but it’s still going to be a helluva show.”

The show festival kicks off Saturday at 11am.

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