Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators:

Australian Dollar: $0.7080 USD (up $0.0120 USD)

Iron Ore Sep Spot Price (SGX): $109.45 USD (down $0.85 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $91.57 USD (up $1.03 USD)

Gold Price: $1,792.30 USD (down $2.31 USD)

Copper Price (CME): $3.6365 (up $0.0485 USD)

Bit=coin: $23,910.78 (up 3.10% in the last 24 hours)

Dow Jones: 33,309.51 at 5.27pm NY time (up 535.10 points on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

Ukraine counteroffensive begins with a bang in Crimea

Blasts that rocked a Russian military airfield in forcibly annexed Crimea signal the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and a critical new phase of the war that could shape its ultimate outcome, two Ukrainian officials told POLITICO.

Ukraine’s defense ministry coyly denied responsibility while warning about the dangers of smoking around explosives.

President Zelenskyy said “This Russian war against Ukraine and against all of free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea — with its liberation. … I know that we will return to the Ukrainian Crimea.” 

Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in the explosions at the air base in Crimea.

Russian journalist charged with spreading false information after staging an anti-war protest

Russian authorities have detained and charged a former state TV journalist who quit after making an on-air protest against Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Marina Ovsyannikova (Above) was charged over a protest she staged last month, holding a banner that said "Putin is a killer, his soldiers are fascists. 352 children have been killed (in Ukraine)".

"How many more children should die for you to stop?"

Ovsyannikova's lawyer said she was charged with spreading false information about Russia’s armed forces. 

"We'll take Taiwan" China envoy pledges no retreat

The Australian - Page 1 & 2 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Ben Packham, Will Glasgow - PortMac.News Summary

The issue of Taiwan was a major of focus of the National Press Club speech of China's ambassador to Australia on Wednesday. Xiao Qian used the speech to warn that his nation is prepared to use "All necessary measures" to reunite Taiwan with mainland China.

He also indicated that Taiwan's population may need to be given a "Correct understanding" of China when reunification occurs.

China's ambassador to France also recently flagged the prospect that the Taiwanese will face a re-education program under Chinese rule.

Xiao also raised the prospect that relations between Australia and China could be "Reset" following the election of the new federal government, although he said that "Concrete actions" are needed on both sides.

Dutton won't waver on China

The Australian - Page 2 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Geoff Chambers - PortMac.News Summary

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he will not back down on his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party.

Dutton says his attacks on the CCP and the People's Liberation Army have always been directed at President Xi Jinping rather than the Chinese people, and especially not Australia's migrant Chinese population.

Dutton adds that China is an important trading partner and Australia wants a normalised relationship with the nation.

However, he says Australia will not tolerate the bullying and over-the-top reactions that has occurred in recent times.

Reforms to electricity market could be path to a carbon price

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Peter Hannam - PortMac.News Summary

Australia's federal, state and territory energy ministers will meet on Friday for the first time since the national electricity market was suspended for nine days in June.

The agenda for the meeting will include expanding the the national electricity objective to including reducing carbon emissions; at present, the national electricity objective's stated goals are price, quality, safety and reliability and security of supply of electricity.

Bruce Mountain from the Victoria Energy Policy Centre says that adding emissions reduction to the NEO could provide a pathway to the introduction of a carbon tax.

Coalition split as Chalmers pans ACTU

The Australian - Page 4 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Patrick Commins, Ewin Hannan - PortMac.News Summary

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the federal government is unlikely to proceed with all of the proposals that are put forward at its upcoming jobs summit.

His comments followed the release of an ACTU policy paper in which it advocates imposing a new tax on companies whose profits are boosted by inflation and scrapping the stage-three personal income tax cuts.

Meanwhile, National Party leader David Littleproud has accepted Chalmers' invitation to attend the summit after Opposition leader Peter Dutton declined.

Chalmers says the success of the summit does not rely on Dutton's participation.

Big hospitality group grilled over 'Sham' EBA

The Australian Financial Review - Page 3 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by David Marin-Guzman - PortMac.News Summary

Mantle Group has attracted further scrutiny over an enterprise bargaining agreement that included a clause which allowed employees to 'voluntarily' give up their penalty rates.

The new EBA covers most of the hospitality group's workers, but just five employees signed off on it, and the Fair Work Commission has expressed concern that they were in fact managers or human resources personnel who may not even be covered by the agreement.

The FWC has proposed ordering Mantle's head of human resources to appear before it after raising concerns that the manager's statutory declaration in support of the EBA contained incorrect statements of fact.

700 Qantas, Jetstar engineers on strike

The Australian - Page 4 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Robyn Ironside - PortMac.News Summary

More than 90 per cent of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association's members who took part in a postal ballot have voted in favour of protected industrial action.

The ALAEA's federal secretary Steve Purvinas says aircraft maintenance engineers will not stage disruptive strikes, and the ballot is aimed at getting Qantas, Jetstar and Network Aviation to resume negotiations for a new pay deal.

He says the airlines' offer of a wage freeze followed by pay rises of 2% is inadequate given that the inflation rate is more than 5%.

Uber Eats riders' families launch compo legal battle

The Sydney Morning Herald - Page Online : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Nick Bonyhady - PortMac.News Summary

The Transport Workers Union has filed a claim for workers' compensation on behalf of the families of two men who died while delivering meals for Uber Eats in 2020.

The union is seeking to overturn iCare's ruling that the families of the two gig-economy workers are not entitled to compensation, and contends that they both died from accidents during the course of their employment with Uber Eats.

The TWU's national secretary Michael Kaine argues that the families would have been entitled to compensation if the men had been killed in any other workplace.

Impossible to say if the worst of the pandemic is over

The Sydney Morning Herald - Page Online : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Kate Aubusson, Mary Ward - PortMac.News Summary

Many pandemic modellers and epidemiologists believe that Australia's winter COVID-19 wave has peaked.

However, some virologists have cautioned that this does not mean necessarily mean that the end of the global pandemic is in sight.

Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney says there is no real scientific basis to suggest that the worst of the pandemic is over, arguing that the virus has evolved more substantially than anyone imagined and is continuing to do so.

He adds that it is too soon to know just when the virus will reach an evolutionary peak.

NSW reported 11,356 new COVID-19 cases and 30 deaths on Tuesday; there were 5,898 new infections and 52 deaths in Victoria.

CBA warns on wage-price spiral

The Australian - Page 13 & 17 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Joyce Moullakis - PortMac.News Summary

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has posted a 2021-22 cash profit of $9.6bn, which is 11% higher than previously.

The CBA's net interest income rose 1%, but its net interest margin fell 18 basis points to 1.9%.

Shareholders will receive a fully franked final dividend of $2.10 per share, and a full-year payout of $3.85 per share.

Meanwhile, the bank expects the cash rate to rise by another 75 basis points to 2.6%, but CEO Matt Comyn says interest rates could rise even further if there is a 'Wage-price spiral'.

Ansell accused of 'Knowingly profiting' from forced labour at Malaysia

Brisbane Times - Page Online : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Chris Barrett - PortMac.News Summary

Australian-listed Ansell is the subject of a class action in the US by 13 workers from Bangladesh over the alleged use of forced labour in its supply chain.

The case centres on claims that the migrant workers were trafficked to Malaysia, where they worked for Ansell supplier Brightway Holdings.

It will be alleged that the Bangladeshis were forced to work for more than 12 hours a day, were underpaid and lived in overcrowded and unclean accommodation.

Brightway supplies single-use gloves to Ansell, which sells them in the US.

The damages claim also includes US-based Kimberly-Clark Corporation.

Treasury probes Meta over news code

The Australian - Page 18 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Chris Griffith - PortMac.News Summary

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance says the federal government should 'Designate" Facebook parent Meta under the news media bargaining code.

This would compel Meta to bargain with all news publishers, regardless of their size. Mark Phillips from the MEAA says Meta has demonstrated contempt for the Australian public since the code was first proposed.

The Treasury is conducting a review of the code, while Meta has indicated that its move to end revenue-sharing agreements with US news publishers will not affect its current deals in Australia.

Rare collection of Sidney Nolan's earliest works going under the hammer

The Age - Page Online : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Elizabeth Flux - PortMac.News Summary

Bonhams will shortly auction a collection of 47 paintings by Australian artist Sidney Nolan.

They are some of Nolan's earliest works, and were produced between 1938 and 1947; many date from the period when Nolan lived with art patrons John and Sunday Reed at their Melbourne home of Heide in the 1940s.

The artworks are from the collection of the late Lady Mary Nolan, and will be displayed in Sydney and Melbourne ahead of the auction on 23 August.

Morgan Stanley tips more iron ore pain

The Australian Financial Review - Page 27 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Alex Gluyas - PortMac.News Summary

The iron ore price is currently trading at around $US103 per tonne, having reached a low of $US88.18 in late July.

Morgan Stanley commodities strategist Marius van Straaten does not expect a significant increase in the iron ore price during the second half of 2022, contending that any rebound will depend on a China-led recovery in demand by the steel industry.

Morgan Stanley notes that any Chinese government stimulus measures are unlikely to boost physical demand for steel in the nation's construction sector for about six months.

Old miners browned off as green metals steal show

The Australian Financial Review - Page 15 & 22 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Brad Thompson, Peter Ker - PortMac.News Summary

BDO's Sherif Andrawes says the Australian mining industry's shift in focus to so-called green metals was evident at the recent Diggers & Dealers conference.

Gold has traditionally been the mainstay of mineral exploration in Australia, but Andrawes notes that minerals that are critical to the energy transition were the centre of attention at the annual conference.

Andrawes is upbeat about the future of Australia's gold industry, although he expects battery minerals and green metals to become a key pillar of the domestic economy.

ASX falls as investors hit pause on tech rally

The Australian Financial Review - Page 26 : 11 August 2022 - Original article by Richard Henderson - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket lost ground on 10 August, with the S&P/ASX 200 easing 0.5% to close at 6,992.7 points.

St Barbara shed 11.6% to end the session at $1.07, Block was down 6% at $116.58 and Silex Systems fell 6.1% to $3.09.

However, GrainCorp rose 5.1% to $8.03 and Imugene was up 9.6% at $0.30.