LONDON (Reuters) – Global shares treaded water on Monday as sharp falls in gold and oil prices briefly spooked sentiment, while the dollar reached four-month highs on the euro after an upbeat U.S. jobs report lifted bond yields.
European shares were mixed in early trading, as a fall in commodity prices weighed on Britain’s blue-chip index, while other regional indexes stayed near recent highs with earnings season winding down.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index was trading flat, Britain’s FTSE 100 index dipped 0.3% and Germany’s DAX 30 fell 0.3%.
MSCI’s All Country World Index, which tracks shares across 49 countries was flat on the day.
Markets were shaken early by a sudden dive in gold as a break of $1,750 triggered stop loss sales to take it as low as $1,684 an ounce. It was last down 1% at $1,745.
Brent also sank 2% on concerns the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus would temper travel demand.
Holidays in Tokyo and Singapore made for thin trading conditions, adding to the volatility. Yet after an initial fall, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan recovered to be up 0.1%.
They were helped by China’s blue chips index which added 1.3%. Japan’s Nikkei was shut but futures were trading a modest 20 points below Friday’s close.
Nasdaq futures slipped 0.1% and S&P 500 futures 0.2%.
Chinese trade data out over the weekend undershot forecasts, while figures out Monday showed inflation slowed to 1% in July offering no barrier to more policy stimulus.
The U.S. Senate came closer to passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package, though it still has to go through the House.
Investors were still assessing whether Friday’s strong U.S. payrolls report would take the Federal Reserve a step nearer to winding back its stimulus.
“What we’re seeing is a little bit of early profit-taking on the back of fear that tapering will come in earlier in September. But as you can see, it has little impact because the effect of a better economy far outweighs the substitution effect of higher interest rates,” said Sebastien Galy, senior macro strategist at Nordea Asset Management.
However, the pace of tapering was still up in the air and would decide when an actual rate increase came, he said. The Fed is buying $120 billion of assets a month, so a $20 billion taper would end the programme in six months whilst a $10 billion tapering approach would take a year.
The spread of the Delta variant could argue for a longer taper with U.S. cases back to levels seen in last winter’s surge with more than 66,000 people hospitalised.
Figures for July CPI due this week are also expected to confirm inflation has peaked, with prices for second-hand vehicles finally easing back after huge gains.
There are four Fed officials speaking this week who will no doubt offer enough grist for markets looking for clues on the timing of tapering.
In the meantime, stocks have been mostly underpinned by a robust U.S. earnings season. BofA analysts noted S&P 500 companies were tracking a 15% beat on second quarter earnings with 90% having reported.
“However, companies with earnings beats have seen muted reactions on their stock price the day following earnings releases, and misses have been penalized,” they wrote in a note.
“Guidance is stronger than average but consensus estimates for two-year growth suggest a slowdown amid macro concerns.”
Financials firmed on Friday as a steeper yield curve is seen benefiting bank earnings, while also penalising the tech sector where valuations are sky high.
Yields on U.S. 10-year notes were up at 1.29% in the wake of the jobs report, having hit their lowest since February last week at 1.177%.
That jump gave the dollar a broad lift and knocked the euro back to $1.1760, and briefly to its lowest since April at $1.1740. The dollar likewise climbed to 110.22 yen and away from last week’s trough of 108.71.
That took the U.S. currency index up to 92.882 and nearer to the July peak of 93.194.
Oil prices eased further after suffering their largest weekly drop in four months amid worries coronavirus travel restrictions would threaten bullish expectations for demand. [O/R]
Brent fell $1.29 to $69.41 a barrel, while U.S. crude lost $1.34 to $66.94.
(Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho; additional reporting by Wayne Cole in Sydney; editing by Robert Birsel)
A fearsome beast with wings spanning 22 feet. A mouth like a spear. The closest thing we’ve seen to a real-life dragon.
That’s how Tim Richards describes the Thapunngaka shawi, a flying reptile whose fossils he’s been studying at the University of Queensland’s School of Biological Sciences. The pterosaur is believed to have once flown above the Australian outback — long enough ago that it was soaring above inland seas rather than desert.
“This thing would have been quite savage,” Richards, a PhD student, said. “It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaur that wouldn’t have heard it until it was too late.”
The name Thapunngaka shawi means “Shaw’s spear mouth,” with the latter half a reference to its discoverer Len Shaw. The genus name, Thapunngaka, is inspired by the now-extinct language of the Wanamara Nation, one of Australia’s First Nations peoples.
Pterosaurs populated the earth as recently as 66 million years ago, before the asteroid death blast ended the dinosaurs’ reign, and as early as 228 million years ago. They’re distinguished for being the first vertebrae creature — that is, a creature with a spine — to take flight. The most famous pterosaur is the pterodacylus, which is why pterosaurs are often incorrectly known as pterodactyls.
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Scientists still have much to learn about the ancient creatures. Research published in journal iScience in April showed the secret to pterosaurs’ physiology was its neck, longer than a giraffe’s and ingeniously arranged by Mother Nature to support their heavy heads during flight. Research published just last month suggests many pterosaurs were able to fly the moment they hatched from their eggs.
To allow for flight, pterodactyls often have bones that are thinner and more brittle than other dinosaurs. That makes such well-preserved fossils as the one Richards is studying rare. Based on the jaw fossils being studied, Richards estimates the skull alone would extend over 3.2 feet and hold 40 (terrifying) teeth.
“By world standards, the Australian pterosaur record is poor, but the discovery of Thapunngaka contributes greatly to our understanding of Australian pterosaur diversity.”
Artist’s impression of the fearsome Thapunngaka shawi. Credit: Adobe stock
Australia’s largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur with an estimated seven-meter wingspan that soared like a dragon above the ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback Queensland.
University of Queensland PhD candidate Tim Richards, from the Dinosaur Lab in UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, led a research team that analyzed a fossil of the creature’s jaw, discovered on Wanamara Country, near Richmond in North West Queensland.
“It’s the closest thing we have to a real life dragon,” Mr. Richards said.
“The new pterosaur, which we named Thapunngaka shawi, would have been a fearsome beast, with a spear-like mouth and a wingspan around seven meters.
“It was essentially just a skull with a long neck, bolted on a pair of long wings.
“This thing would have been quite savage.
“It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaur that wouldn’t have heard it until it was too late.”
Tim Richards with the skull of an anhanguerian pterosaur. Credit: Tim Richards
Mr. Richards said the skull alone would have been just over one meter long, containing around 40 teeth, perfectly suited to grasping the many fishes known to inhabit Queensland’s no-longer-existent Eromanga Sea.
“It’s tempting to think it may have swooped like a magpie during mating season, making your local magpie swoop look pretty trivial – no amount of zip ties would have saved you.
“Though, to be clear, it was nothing like a bird, or even a bat – Pterosaurs were a successful and diverse group of reptiles – the very first back-boned animals to take a stab at powered flight.”
Hypothetical outlines of Australian pterosaurs showing relative wingspan sizes. 1.8 m human for scale. Credit: Tim Richards
The new species belonged to a group of pterosaurs known as anhanguerians, which inhabited every continent during the latter part of the Age of Dinosaurs.
Being perfectly adapted to powered flight, pterosaurs had thin-walled and relatively hollow bones. Given these adaptations their fossilized remains are rare and often poorly preserved.
“It’s quite amazing fossils of these animals exist at all,” Mr Richards said. “By world standards, the Australian pterosaur record is poor, but the discovery of Thapunngaka contributes greatly to our understanding of Australian pterosaur diversity.”
It is only the third species of anhanguerian pterosaur known from Australia, with all three species hailing from western Queensland.
Reconstruction of the skull of Thapunngaka shawi (KKF494). From Richards et al. (2021). Credit: Tim Richards
Dr. Steve Salisbury, co-author on the paper and Mr Richard’s PhD supervisor, said what was particularly striking about this new species of anhanguerian was the massive size of the bony crest on its lower jaw, which it presumably had on the upper jaw as well.
“These crests probably played a role in the flight dynamics of these creatures, and hopefully future research will deliver more definitive answers,” Dr. Salisbury said.
The fossil was found in a quarry just northwest of Richmond in June 2011 by Len Shaw, a local fossicker who has been ‘scratching around’ in the area for decades.
The name of the new species honors the First Nations peoples of the Richmond area where the fossil was found, incorporating words from the now-extinct language of the Wanamara Nation.
Hypothetical outline of Thapunngaka shawi with a 7 m wingspan, alongside a wedge-tailed eagle (2.5 m wingspan) and a hang-glider (10 m ‘wingspan’). Credit: Tim Richards
“The genus name, Thapunngaka, incorporates thapun [ta-boon] and ngaka [nga-ga], the Wanamara words for ‘spear’ and ‘mouth’, respectively,” Dr. Salisbury said.
“The species name, shawi, honours the fossil’s discoverer Len Shaw, so the name means ‘Shaw’s spear mouth’.”
The fossil of Thapunngaka shawi is on display at Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond.
Louisiana broke its own record for Covid-19 related hospitalizations on multiple days last week, with 2,421 individuals hospitalized with the virus on Friday. The same day it reported 6,116 new cases, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
The annual jazz festival will not take place “as a result of the current exponential growth of new Covid cases in New Orleans and the region and the ongoing public health emergency,” the festival said in a statement on its website.
The festival, which normally takes place over two weekends in late April and early May, had been moved to October earlier this year.
Previously announced acts for this year’s Jazz Fest included the Rolling Stones, which was scheduled to play the 2019 festival and had to cancel due to an illness from Mick Jagger. Other acts that were booked for the 2021 Jazz Fest included Foo Fighters, Lizzo and Dead and Company.
“We now look forward to next spring, when we will present the Festival during its traditional timeframe. Next year’s dates are April 29 — May 8, 2022,” the festival posted on their website.
“In the meantime, we urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials, so that we can all soon experience together the joy that is Jazz Fest,” it said.
Jazz Fest in 2020 was also canceled due to the pandemic.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell reintroduced a mask mandate for the city on July 30, saying, “Thanks to the Delta variant, the Covid pandemic is once again raging out of control.” The mayor is also requiring all city employees to get vaccinated.
Just 37.4% of Louisiana’s population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
On August 2, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards reinstated a mask mandate for the state that went into effect Wednesday and lasts until at least September 1.
“The least onerous thing we can do in order to try and curb transmission and give some breathing room back to our hospitals is to reinstate the mask mandate,” he said.
Edwards has said capacity at his state’s hospitals is “absolutely strained.”
“Then all of us who are protected against delta may not be protected against zaida (zeta),” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in a Q&A with USA Today published Sunday.
If an overwhelming majority of the population is vaccinated, the virus will disappear in the country, Fauci said. But having only a partially vaccinated population means that smoldering levels of infection will carry into the fall, be confused as the flu in the winter and pick back up in the spring, Fauci told USA Today.
And if the rest of the world isn’t vaccinated over the next couple of years, more circulation could mean more variants, Fauci warned.
Already, states are struggling to fend off the Delta variant, a strain believed to be significantly more transmissible than others. In 47 states, the seven-day average of new cases is surging by at least 10% more than the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And the US is averaging more than 100,000 new Covid-19 cases every day — the highest in almost six months, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In many parts of the country, particularly the South, hospitalizations are surging. Louisiana set a new record for Covid-19 hospitalizations last week, Florida’s hospitalizations jumped 13% over the previous peak in 2020, and a hospital in Houston said Sunday morning there are no more beds left in the facility.
“Over the last 12 hours, we have lost more patients than … in the last five to six weeks,” Houston’s United Memorial Medical Center Chief of Staff Dr. Joseph Varon said.
And though the impacts of the pandemic are worsening once again, some continue to engage in activities that health experts worry are high risk for spread, like the 10-day motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, that began over the weekend. Fauci told NBC’s Meet the Press he worries the event could cause a rapid surge in cases.
“There comes a time when you’re dealing with the public health crisis that could involve you, your family and everyone else, that something supersedes that need to do what you need to do,” Fauci said. “You’re going to be able to do that in the future, but let’s get this pandemic under control before we start acting like nothing is going on. Something bad is going on. We’ve got to realize that.”
The answer to stopping or slowing the virus could be vaccine mandates, which Fauci told NBC he would support once the vaccines get full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Fauci added that while he can’t predict when a Covid-19 vaccine will receive full FDA approval, he hopes it will be “within the next few weeks.”
Experts not worried about vaccine protection yet
The good news, experts say, is that data shows that vaccines do protect against the strains the US is currently grappling against.
Some concerns have risen with the emerging Lambda (C.37) variant, first identified in Peru. But the teams that study emerging variants vigorously don’t yet have anxieties about vaccines not working against Delta or Lambda, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told George Stephanopoulos on ABC on Sunday.
“We all worry about the day when a variant arrives that the vaccines stop working as well,” Collins said. “The best way to reduce that from happening is to reduce the number of infections. That’s how variants happen.
“All the more reason why we should be doing everything possible to cut back the wild spread of Delta so we don’t get something even more dangerous.”
But public health officials are watching vaccine protection closely, Fauci told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, including how protection may wane over time.
When data shows protection goes below a certain threshold, health officials will recommend boosters for the general population, Fauci said.
Pfizer has said that protection of its Covid-19 vaccine appears to drop to 84% after six months. Moderna said last week that its Covid-19 vaccine showed 93% efficacy against symptomatic disease through six months, CNN has previously reported.
Boosters could come too late for immunocompromised people
Concerns over vaccine protection are different for people who are immunocompromised, have had a transplant or are undergoing cancer therapy.
“We know for sure that they never did get an adequate response — most of them, not all of them, but most of them,” Fauci said. “We need to look at them in a different light than the durability for a normal person, which means that we will almost certainly be boosting those people before we boost the general population that’s been vaccinated.”
Research published in JAMA Network Open estimates that 6 million people in the US are taking immunosuppressants that could interfere with the vaccine — a number the researchers say is likely an under-estimate.
The FDA is moving quickly to make a decision on Covid-19 vaccine boosters for people with compromised immune systems, and a decision could come sometime before early September, a Biden administration official told CNN.
Even if the decision comes soon, it may not be soon enough for people who are immunocompromised amid the spread of the Delta variant, according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the FDA.
“Because by the time you actually make that decision … and you start operationalizing a booster campaign, you’re talking about maybe late October if the decision comes in September, that you can start getting a sizeable number of people boosted,” Gottlieb told CBS Sunday.
“It takes time to get that stood up and get people into the doctors’ offices to get injections. And it will take a couple of weeks for the immunity to mature.”
CNN’s Jessica Firger, Holly Yan, Aya Elamroussi and Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report.
An upgraded M1X Mac mini is expected to arrive later this year, and one tipster has provided its schematics, revealing how the machine could look and which ports to expect.
Fresh Schematics Show a Thinner Design, as Well as a Magnetic Charger That Is Not Present in the M1 Mac mini
The schematics come from LeaksApplePro, with the layout of the ports looking similar to a previous leak where the M1X Mac mini renders were shown. Apparently, the newer model will sport a thinner design than the M1 Mac mini, along with a ‘plexiglass’ material that will be present on top of the chassis. We have also provided details on which ports to expect, from left to right.
Apple Engineers Have Reportedly Expressed Concern Over the Company’s Weak Living Room Hardware Strategy
Power button
Magnetic charging port
Four Thunderbolt 4 ports
Two USB-A ports
One RJ45 Ethernet jack
One HDMI port
What is new in terms of ports is that magnetic output, along with additional Thunderbolt 4 ports. Even for a compact machine like the M1X Mac mini, this appears like overkill, but the one thing that creative professionals will be disheartened to see, or not see, is the absence of an SD card reader. Fortunately, if you want to take advantage of one, you can either purchase a dongle that has one, or buy one of the M1X MacBook Pro models, as both the 14-inch and 16-inch are reportedly getting one.
I am sorry Timothy. These are the redesigned M1X Mac Mini schematics. Now you know how Apple schematics are. I expect it to release in late 2021 or early 2022. pic.twitter.com/tLYBY5FVCZ
— LeaksApplePro (@LeaksApplePro) August 7, 2021
Just like the upcoming portable Macs, the M1X Mac mini may also be limited to 32GB of unified RAM, but given the nature of macOS, that might be sufficient for a ton of users. There is no word on pricing, but as far as the launch goes, a different tipster mentioned that the M1X Mac mini could be unveiled alongside the new MacBook Pro models during Q4, 2021. This means we should expect them in late October or early November, but once again, that depends on the ongoing chip shortage, as well as the global health crises.
BARCELONA, SPAIN – AUGUST 08: (EDITOR’S NOTE: Alternate crop) Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona faces the media during a press conference at Nou Camp on August 08, 2021 in Barcelona, Spain.
Eric Alonso | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
Lionel Messi has received a formal two-year contract offer from Paris Saint-Germain.
The French club have offered Messi an initial two-year deal, thought to be worth £25m a year after tax, and the six-time Ballon d’Or winner and his representatives are now reviewing and considering it carefully.
Messi also has two other potential options after leaving Barcelona but PSG remain the favourites to sign him.
Barcelona announced Messi would not continue at the club after they were unable to fulfil a new contract that had been agreed with the player due to “financial and structural obstacles”.
The Argentina international has spoken directly with PSG head coach Mauricio Pochettino this week about moving to the French capital.
Asked if PSG will be his next move at his farewell news conference on Sunday, Messi said: “That is one possibility, to reach those heights.
“I’ve got nothing confirmed with anybody. I had a lot of calls, a lot of interested clubs. At the moment, nothing is closed, but we are talking about a lot of things.”
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PSG quickly emerged as the front-runners for his signature, in a move that would reunite him with former Barcelona team-mate Neymar.
Messi said he did not want to leave Barcelona in an emotional farewell news conference on Sunday.
Messi was in tears as he received a standing ovation in his final Barcelona press conference to announce the end of his 21 years with the club.
Barcelona confirmed Messi’s departure on Thursday night, the same day he returned to Catalonia following his post-Copa America holiday.
Messi had travelled to Barcelona expecting to agree on the details of the announcement of his new five-year deal, and he confirmed he offered to reduce his wages by 50 per cent.
“This year, my family and I were convinced we were going to stay at home, that’s what we all wanted more than anything,” said Messi.
“We’d always made this our own, we were at home. We thought we would be staying here in Barcelona. But today, we have to say goodbye to all of this.”
Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi called on Sunday for the Lebanese army to take control of the southern part of the country, Hezbollah’s stronghold, and strictly implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, after recent clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We call upon the Lebanese army, which is responsible with the international forces for the security of the south, to take control of the entire lands of the south, to strictly implement Resolution 1701, and to prevent the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory, not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but rather for the safety of Lebanon,” said al-Rahi during Sunday Mass, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
The Maronite patriarch stressed that he could not “accept, by virtue of equality before the law, that a party decides peace and war outside the decision of legality and the national decision entrusted to two-thirds of the members of the government.”
On Friday, 19 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, with the Iron Dome intercepting 10 rockets and six rockets falling in open areas near Har Dov along the Lebanese border. The other rockets fell inside Lebanon. There were no injuries or casualties.
It was the sixth such attack in recent months and the first that Hezbollah admitted to being behind.
Alongside the stance against Hezbollah’s actions, al-Rahi condemned what he called “periodic Israeli violations against southern Lebanon, and the violation of Security Council Resolution No. 1701, as well as the heated tension in the border areas of residential villages and their surroundings,” according to NNA.
The patriarch stressed that “it is true that Lebanon has not signed peace with Israel, but it is also true that Lebanon has not decided war with it, and is officially committed to the 1949 truce,” adding “We do not want to involve Lebanon in military operations that provoke devastating Israeli reactions.”
Al-Rahi also claimed that the clashes were meant to “divert attention from the sanctity and glow of the Mass of the martyrs and victims of” the Beirut Port explosion when the one-year anniversary of the blast was marked last week.
The Maronite patriarch attacked the country’s leaders: “We ask officials and politicians: How will you convince the people that you are qualified to lead them towards salvation, and every day you plunge them into a new crisis? How will you convince the world that you are worthy of help while you do not care about the international conferences dedicated to the relief of the Lebanese and which are ready to save Lebanon? How will you convince yourselves that you were up to the level of responsibility and hopes? Is there any humanity in you to feel with people in their misery?
“We want to end the military logic and war and adopt the logic of peace and the interest of Lebanon and all the Lebanese,” stated the patriarch, according to NNA.
The head of Lebanon’s Kataeb Party and former MP, Sami Gemayel, expressed support for the patriarch on Monday, saying that the party is “convinced” that there are many Lebanese citizens who agree with the patriarch and Kataeb Party concerning sovereignty and removal of arms outside the military.
Hezbollah supporters expressed outrage at the patriarch’s comments on social media, using the hashtags “Patron of bias” and “patron of surrender.” Hezbollah-affiliated reporter Ali Shoaib addressed the patriarch in a tweet, writing “Just for once, ask the Lebanese army to prevent the Israeli attacks instead of asking it to prevent the firing of rockets!!”
Lebanese MP Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party allied with Hezbollah, responded to the social media responses to al-Rahi’s statements, saying that “insulting what [al-Rahi] represents and who he represents is rejected by all standards,” according to NNA.
Kanaan called for dialogue between Hezbollah and al-Rahi and a “discussion of his concerns, which are national concerns, expressed by a wide segment of the Lebanese people, with its various components and colors, in terms of not keeping Lebanon an open arena for exchanging messages, heating the borders and opening battles that harm the country and its economy, especially since the Lebanese are going through the most difficult stage in their 100 year history.”
The MP stressed that the patriarch’s positions must be discussed with respect, far from any abuse or anger.
This isn’t the first time that al-Rahi has issued statements against Hezbollah’s control of southern Lebanon and existence as a paramilitary organization in the country.
In August of last year, after the Beirut port blast, the Maronite patriarch called for the state to take control over weapons in the country and to confine decisions of war and peace to the state. Al-Rahi called on all parties not to involve Lebanon in any conflict and to take Lebanon’s interest into consideration first, according to NNA.
The patriarch has also repeatedly called for Lebanon to focus on neutrality and not to enter international and regional wars which he said have nothing to do with the country.
In 2014, al-Rahi visited Israel during a visit by Pope Francis. Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon expressed outrage at the decision at the time.
A strong storm system rolled across areas in Nebraska cause serious flooding in cities like Omaha on Saturday, prompting the rescue drivers who abandoned their vehicles and seven people who were trapped in two elevators inside the basement of an apartment building.
The Omaha World-Herald reported that the basement of the Old Market Loft apartments quickly filled up with water from flash flooding in the area. Video purported to be from inside the elevator also emerged online.
FIRES RAMPAGE THROUGH FORESTS IN GREECE; THOUSANDS EVACUATED
Tony Luu told the paper that he was inside one of the elevators at the time of the flooding. He said he was with two friends at the time. He said he went to the building’s basement to check on the conditions considering the rainfall. He said the elevator shook and no longer responded when they pressed buttons to get it to stop.
Water reportedly began to pour in and was soon up to their chests and necks, the paper reported. They managed to get a friend to call 911. A roommate and two others also saw a post on social media and managed to get into the basement and help pull apart the elevator doors.
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The report said that firefighters also managed to rescue four others stuck inside another elevator in the building. None reportedly needed medical attention.
KETV described the conditions in the city.
“Rain fell so fast and fierce, visibility was near zero for those who tried to drive on the streets at the height of the storm. Nickel to quarter-sized hail fell along a path from Dodge to Harrison, 144th east to the Missouri River,” the report said.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian special envoy and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a free trade agreement between his nation and India would signal the “democratic world’s tilt away from China.”
Abbott visited New Delhi last week as Australia’s special trade envoy for India as the Australian government gives priority to sealing a bilateral trade deal.
In an opinion piece likely to anger Beijing that that was published in The Australian newspaper on Monday, Abbott said the “answer to almost every question about China is India.”
“With the world’s other emerging superpower becoming more belligerent almost by the day, it’s in everyone’s interests that India take its rightful place among the nations as quickly as possible,” Abbott wrote.
“Because trade deals are about politics as much as economics, a swift deal between India and Australia would be an important sign of the democratic world’s tilt away from China, as well as boosting the long-term prosperity of both our countries,” Abbott added.
Abbott was prime minister when China and Australia finalized a bilateral free trade deal which took effect in 2015. He also hosted a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping a year earlier.
Relations have since soured over issues including Australia banning Chinese telecom giant Huawei from major communications infrastructure projects, outlawing covert foreign interference in Australian politics and calling for an independent investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abbott accused Beijing of “capricious boycotts” of Australian exports including coal, barley, wine and seafood that demonstrated Chinese use of trade as a “strategic weapon.”
“The basic problem is that China’s daunting power is a consequence of the free world’s decision to invite a communist dictatorship into global trading networks,” Abbott said.
“China has exploited the West’s goodwill and wishful thinking to steal our technology and undercut our industries; and, in the process, become a much more powerful competitor than the old Soviet Union ever was, because it’s now a first-rate economy that’s rapidly developing a military to match; and spoiling for a fight over Taiwan, a pluralist democracy of 25 million that’s living proof there’s no totalitarian gene in the Chinese DNA,” Abbott added.
The Chinese Embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Negotiations between India and Australia on a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement began in 2011 but were suspended in 2015.
India is particularly concerned by freer trade in Australian farm exports. New Delhi’s demands for less restrictive visas for Indian workers is a major sticking point for Australia.
Australia’s current Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi last year upgraded the bilateral relationship with a raft of agreements that strengthened defense ties and committed both nations to expanding trade.
Abbott visited India last week to “propel our economic relationship to its full potential, to the mutual benefit of the Indian and Australian people,” Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell said in a statement.
