Global Pulse

标签： Oceania

大洋洲

  • ‘Stung me’: How 2024 heartbreak resulted in top-secret plan to make Matt King next NSW coach

    ‘Stung me’: How 2024 heartbreak resulted in top-secret plan to make Matt King next NSW coach

    It was a bitter disappointment for Matt King when he walked away empty-handed from his 2024 bid for the New South Wales Blues State of Origin head coaching job. But that heartbreak has turned into a long-awaited breakthrough, after rugby league officials pulled back the curtain on a top-secret succession plan that had earmarked King as Laurie Daley’s successor from the very start.

    The pre-existing blueprint explains how the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) was able to formally name King as Daley’s replacement just 24 hours after the incumbent confirmed he would step down from the role. King has signed a two-year contract with a third-year extension option, ending all speculation that Penrith Panthers mentor Ivan Cleary would take over the top job in 2028. Next year’s State of Origin series will also pit two former Melbourne Storm teammates against one another as rivals: King is set to go head-to-head with Billy Slater, who is widely expected to remain head coach of the Queensland Maroons.

    NSWRL chief executive David Trodden laid out the details of the long-term plan during King’s official unveiling to the press on Tuesday morning. “We’ve had this succession plan in place since 2024. We’ve spent every step of that period watching Matt develop and grow as a coach,” Trodden explained. “I share a very close, honest and open relationship with Loz [Daley], so when he decided not to continue, it didn’t come as a major surprise to me. We have had planning in place all along. The plan was always that Matt would take this role because he is the very best person for it – the only thing we needed to do was make small adjustments to our timeline.”

    Trodden added that the NSWRL board and its appointment subcommittee reviewed the original 2024 plan and confirmed that sticking to the prearranged strategy remained the right course of action. “Once we signed off, it was just a matter of executing the plan and moving forward. It’s actually a very comfortable feeling being in full control of a process like this. This didn’t happen by accident – it happened because it was carefully planned out,” he said.

    For King, the disappointment of 2024 was raw at the time, but he now says the rejection was the best possible outcome for his career. “Total honesty, that decision stung me,” he admitted of his unsuccessful 2024 interview. “I was really desperate for the job then, but you know that old saying – things happen for a reason. I understand the board made the right decision back then, even though I was disappointed. Getting the chance to work alongside Loz for the last couple of years has only helped me develop and grow as a coach. Troddo [David Trodden] is telling the absolute truth when he says they always saw me as the eventual successor.”

    King added that Daley retained the option to extend his tenure if the Blues had found success in his final two years in charge. “Troddo is a man of his word, and he kept the promise he made to me a couple of years ago, and I’m really appreciative of that,” he said.

    The NSWRL did not interview any other candidates for the head coaching role, a clear sign of the deep organizational trust in King, a former Blues representative who played nine games for his state and won the inaugural Brad Fittler Medal as NSW’s best player in 2005. King has put in a decade of apprenticeship work to prepare for his first senior head coaching role, including 10 years as an assistant coach at the Sydney Roosters, three seasons as a Blues assistant coach, and a stint with the Lebanon national team at the Rugby League World Cup.

    In his first message to players eligible to represent NSW, King said he will be tracking candidates across all clubs, and laid out the core traits he wants to see from his squad: players who are tough, play with clear strategic focus, and are prepared to step up in high-stakes moments.

    The rookie head coach will not have an easy road ahead, after watching Daley cope with intense public and media pressure over the past two years in charge. But King says he is ready to embrace the weight of expectations. “I am so aware of what’s coming my way, and I’m choosing to sign up for it,” King said, speaking at the press conference alongside his wife and children. He joked that his palms were just as sweaty walking into the announcement as they were when he asked his partner to marry him.

    King praised how Daley handled pressure during his tenure, noting that the outgoing coach never pushed stress onto his staff or playing group, absorbing all the pressure himself. “I really admired that, and I realize that absorbing pressure is a massive part of my job,” he said. “It’s a funny thing about pressure. I’ve got the weirdest love-hate relationship with it. We all face pressure at different points in our lives, and every time I’ve gotten through those moments, they’ve turned into some of the greatest moments of my life.”

    King will wrap up his current duties as assistant coach with the Roosters by the end of the NRL season, and will officially begin his tenure as Blues head coach on November 1. He thanked a group of senior NRL coaches who unofficially served as his advisory board throughout his journey: Melbourne Storm head coach Craig Bellamy, Cronulla Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon, Brisbane Broncos coach Michael Maguire, and Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson – none of whom knew King had given them that unofficial title, but all of whom taught him the core qualities successful players and coaches need. Frank Ponissi will remain on the Blues staff as team performance manager through 2027 to support King, though King will need to hire a new assistant coach to replace him, working alongside existing assistants Boyd Cordner and Brett White.

  • Credit Corp shares plummet 15 per cent on full-year results amid US debt spree fears

    Credit Corp shares plummet 15 per cent on full-year results amid US debt spree fears

    Australia’s largest debt collection and purchasing firm, Credit Corp, has seen a sharp sell-off of its publicly traded shares after the company’s full-year financial results revealed an aggressive expansion push into the U.S. debt market that has spooked market participants.

    Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Credit Corp released its annual earnings report on Tuesday. Even with a solid 12.1% year-over-year jump in full-year profit and a 14% increase in total annual dividends compared to 2023, investor sentiment turned bearish almost immediately after the results hit markets. Within the first hour of trading, the company’s share price dropped 9%, and by midday local time, losses had deepened to 15%. The steep decline stands out against a broader market uptick, with the benchmark ASX 200 hitting a five-month intraday high on the same trading day.

    Credit Corp operates across four key markets: Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The firm specializes in two core lines of business: collecting outstanding delinquent debt, and extending lending to consumers who are considered too high-risk to access credit from mainstream banks and large lending institutions. Over the past 12 months, the company’s total lending volume surged 15% to reach AU$510.5 million. In its home region of Australia and New Zealand, annual debt collection revenue grew 4% to AU$260 million, according to the results. The most notable takeaway from the report, however, was the large volume of U.S. debt purchased by the company as part of its international growth strategy.

    In comments accompanying the earnings release, Credit Corp chief executive Thomas Beregi addressed ongoing macroeconomic pressures, pointing to the global cost of living crunch while highlighting the company’s strong record on consumer protection. “The impact of elevated costs of living has served to sharpen our focus on ensuring we respond to consumer hardship appropriately and engage respectfully with our customers,” Beregi said. He added that independent reporting from leading Australian financial counselling groups has ranked Credit Corp’s Australian debt purchasing division as the top-performing credit provider for consumer hardship response for three consecutive years. The company also maintains the lowest external dispute resolution complaint rate among large Australian debt buyers, a track record Beregi said the firm would preserve as it expands.

    Contrary to widespread concerns about rising consumer defaults amid cost of living pressures, Credit Corp’s financial results show that payment arrears and loan losses have remained within projected forecast levels, even as the company’s total loan book and purchased debt portfolio has expanded. “Arrears and losses remained within pro-forma levels despite the growth in the book and broader macro-economic uncertainty with continued cost-of-living pressures,” the report noted.

    Despite these reassuring metrics on consumer default risk, investors have focused heavily on the risks associated with the company’s U.S. debt buying spree. Industry analysts point to a key structural feature of the debt purchasing business that has left investors nervous: returns from newly acquired debt do not materialize until years after the purchase is made. “Debt buying earnings lag purchasing, so this is an FY2028 collections problem,” PAC Partners senior trader James Nicolaou explained in a market note following the earnings release. Nicolaou also noted that the stock had already rallied 25.7% over the three months leading up to the results, leaving it overpriced for an earnings report that failed to beat consensus analyst expectations. He added that earnings per share revisions had already been trending downward before Tuesday’s report.

    On a positive note for shareholders, the company declared a fully franked final dividend of 45.5 Australian cents per share. When combined with the earlier interim dividend of 32 cents per share, total annual dividends come in 14% higher than the previous year, outpacing the company’s profit growth for the period.

  • Young Danes start extended military service

    Young Danes start extended military service

    Shifting its national defense posture in response to shifting European security threats following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Denmark has rolled out a landmark reform to its national conscription system, launching an 11-month mandatory military service period that is nearly three times longer than the previous four-month term. Some 1,600 young Danish recruits reported to bases across the country on Monday to begin their service, marking the first cohort to train under the updated policy adopted by the NATO member state in 2024. The reform also breaks historic gender barriers by formally opening conscription to all eligible women.

    Among the high-profile recruits reporting for duty on Monday was 19-year-old Princess Isabella of Denmark, who began her conscription service with the elite Guard Hussar Regiment at Antvorskov Barracks in the southwestern city of Slagelse.

    For senior defense officials, the overhaul of the conscription system is a direct response to heightened security risks along NATO’s eastern flank. During a visit to Oksbol military base in western Denmark, Colonel Michael Villumsen framed the change as a straightforward reaction to regional instability. “Well, look east. Need I say more? It is of course the security situation from the Russia perspective and what Russia will be able to do if NATO actually does not do anything,” Villumsen told Agence France-Presse. “Now NATO is doing something and our Danish contribution to this is actually enforcing our combat readiness very quickly through conscription,” he added.

    Unlike mandatory conscription systems in many other countries, Denmark’s model remains largely rooted in voluntary participation. When volunteer numbers fall short of required recruitment targets, remaining positions are filled through random lottery selection. This year, women make up roughly 20 percent of the incoming conscript cohort, a milestone following the 2024 reform.

    Beyond extending the service period, the updated system expands the scope of operational duties that new conscripts can be assigned to after initial training. The first three to five months of service are dedicated to building core military competencies, including marksmanship, battlefield first aid, and rigorous physical conditioning. Once trainees complete this foundational phase, they are deployed to a range of active operational missions, from border and critical infrastructure surveillance to operating unmanned aerial drone systems.

  • Infantino, the FIFA president under pressure after scrapped investor plan

    Infantino, the FIFA president under pressure after scrapped investor plan

    For nearly a decade at the helm of global football’s governing body, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has cultivated an image of unassailability – brushing off repeated criticism, securing backing for expanded editions of the Club World Cup and men’s World Cup, and solidifying his hold on power. But the sudden collapse of his signature private investment initiative has left the 56-year-old facing the most significant threat to his leadership since he took office in 2016.

    Just two weeks before the plan unravelled, Infantino was riding a wave of momentum following the 48-team 2025 World Cup, hosted across three North American countries. Widely regarded as a successful logistical feat despite numerous off-field controversies, the tournament cemented Infantino’s reputation as a leader who delivers: he has consistently funneled more revenue into the accounts of FIFA’s 211 member associations, the electorate that retains power over his future.

    Walking onto the final match pitch alongside close ally and former U.S. President Donald Trump, Infantino’s public standing appeared at an all-time high. The son of Italian immigrants, who has opened up about childhood bullying in his native Switzerland over his red hair and freckles, that personal anecdote was previously deployed to deflect criticism of 2022 Qatari World Cup host’s human rights record. “I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled,” Infantino said at the time. “But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated against as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied — because I had red hair and freckles.”

    Unlike his polarizing predecessor Sepp Blatter, Infantino has largely kept a low profile with the media, and won three consecutive presidential elections unopposed in 2016, 2019 and 2023. Still, critics have long accused him of turning FIFA into an autocratic body, claims that have gained new traction after the fiasco of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan. The initiative, billed as Infantino’s personal project, proposed bringing outside private investment into FIFA’s flagship competitions, including both the men’s and women’s World Cup. Announced publicly last Tuesday, the plan was completely scrapped by Saturday following a massive backlash from member federations and football stakeholders worldwide.

    One of Infantino’s most prominent critics is former UEFA president Michel Platini, who gave Infantino his start in senior football administration as UEFA’s secretary-general in 2009. “Unfortunately Infantino has become more of an autocrat since the (Covid) pandemic,” Platini told *The Guardian* in January. “I think he lost the game. There is less democracy than in Blatter’s time.” The 71-year-old, who was banned from football in 2015 over a 2011 FIFA payment but later exonerated by a Swiss court, has argued Infantino is better suited to a secondary leadership role. “He was a good No. 2, but is not a good No. 1,” Platini said. “He worked very well at UEFA but he has one problem: he likes the rich and powerful people, the ones with money. It’s his character.”

    That tendency has drawn intense scrutiny in recent weeks, particularly over Infantino’s ties to Trump. He faced widespread ridicule last year after awarding Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, and controversy erupted during the 2025 World Cup when U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s one-match suspension was overturned immediately following a phone call from Trump, allowing the player to compete in the round of 16 against Belgium.

    The revelation that the FFE plan partnered with a firm owned by Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, only reinforced critics’ claims that Infantino prioritizes connections to powerful figures over institutional integrity. “Josh Kushner’s firm has a legitimate track record,” Terrence Burns, a veteran brand marketing strategist who worked on two successful World Cup host bids, told AFP. “But the association was always going to be read politically, in a year when Infantino’s proximity to the White House was already the subject of formal ethics complaints, and after a red card review a good many federations regarded as a red line.”

    Burns added that the due diligence process for the partnership failed a key test: “We’ve understood in sponsorship for 40 years that a partner brings their whole context with them, and the diligence question isn’t ‘Is this money clean?’ but ‘What will this money be understood to mean?’ That test was either not run, not believed, or not cared about.”

    In the wake of the FFE plan’s collapse, Infantino has moved to calm tensions, saying he will prioritize repairing relationships with member federations. “Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together… in the spirit of shared interest in our game,” he said. “And with the objective to continue growing football everywhere.”

    The coming months will decide the future of Infantino’s tenure. FIFA will hold its next presidential election in Rabat next March, with nominations for candidates closing on November 18. For the first time in nearly a decade, Infantino’s hold on the sport’s top office is far from certain.

  • WWII shells surface in wildfire-ravaged French village

    WWII shells surface in wildfire-ravaged French village

    A devastating large-scale wildfire that tore through forested areas near Bordeaux in southwestern France has unearthed a hidden leftover from World War II: hundreds of explosive munitions in the coastal village of Le Porge. After days of coordinated demining operations to clear the dangerous relics, all local residents were able to return to their residences starting Monday.

    Local government officials confirm that recovery teams have pulled approximately 400 intact shells and ammunition fragments from the fire-ravaged zone, where more than 180 residential properties were destroyed by the fast-spreading flames. During the height of the wildfire, residents and first responders reported hearing repeated loud explosions that were initially assumed to be rupturing gas cylinders stored in homes. But fire commander Thomas Mimiague says those blasts were almost certainly triggered by the heat of the fire igniting the long-buried World War II ordnance.

    A closer inspection of the recovered munitions shows the cache includes both German and French military hardware, dominated by mortar shells with a smaller number of high-explosive anti-tank rounds. Speaking on the origins of the cache, Mimiague noted that there is no clear documentation of why the munitions were placed in the area, but the leading working theory is that they were simply dumped and abandoned by military forces at the end of the conflict.

    The Le Porge find comes amid an unprecedented summer wildfire season across France. The Bordeaux region blitz, the most severe fire to hit the area since 1949, burned through more than 40,000 hectares (nearly 99,000 acres) of forest and brush over roughly 10 days before fire crews successfully brought it under control. Fortunately, the blaze did not spread into the region’s iconic premium wine-growing estates, avoiding widespread damage to the area’s world-famous wine industry.

  • US regulators grant long-awaited Boeing 737 MAX 7 certificate

    US regulators grant long-awaited Boeing 737 MAX 7 certificate

    More than eight years after its first test flight took to the skies, Boeing’s 737 MAX 7 has officially received airworthiness certification from U.S. regulators, marking a long-awaited milestone for the aerospace giant after years of crisis and regulatory scrutiny. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the approval of the MAX 7, the smallest and newest member of Boeing’s troubled single-aisle MAX jet family, on Monday. The certification process was stretched far beyond original timelines by strict new regulatory requirements imposed after two deadly 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people and shook global confidence in Boeing’s safety oversight.

    The green light, which had been widely expected by industry observers and company insiders in recent weeks, immediately sent Boeing’s share price surging 8 percent in trading. This certification marks the first new Boeing aircraft model to win regulatory approval since the 2018-2019 crisis pushed the company into a years-long period of reputational and financial damage.

    “This important certification validates the rigor of our airplane’s design and recognizes the determination and resilience of our 737 MAX development team,” said Stephanie Pope, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “Our team stayed focused on completing all requirements and delivering a safe and more capable airplane to our customers.”

    In its own statement, the FAA confirmed that the approval followed “almost a decade of extensive review” and “years of sustained work to resolve complex technical issues” on the program. Boeing initially targeted 2019 for the first deliveries of the 172-seat MAX 7, a timeline that collapsed entirely after the two fatal crashes, and was further complicated by a mid-flight fuselage blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 flight in January 2024 that reignited safety concerns across the MAX program.

    To earn certification, Boeing completed an exhaustive testing regimen including 441 separate flight tests totaling 686 hours of airborne evaluation. The 2018 and 2019 crashes were ultimately traced to a poorly designed anti-stall system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which was found to activate improperly and overpower pilot controls. U.S. prosecutors later charged that Boeing intentionally misled FAA regulators about MCAS, leaving the system unmentioned in flight manuals and pilot training materials. Congressional hearings also revealed weak FAA oversight of Boeing as a contributing cause of the crashes, leading to 2020 federal legislation that required Boeing to install upgraded angle-of-attack (AOA) sensors across the entire global fleet of more than 2,300 existing MAX aircraft within a two-year window.

    Boeing is now closing in on a second key certification milestone for the MAX family: approval for the MAX 10, the largest variant that can carry up to 230 passengers. The company is also continuing to work through regulatory processes for the long-delayed 777X widebody jet program.

    With certification of the MAX 7 secured, Boeing is moving forward with plans to ramp up MAX production to meet years of accumulated backlogged orders. The company confirmed Monday it is already preparing the first customer aircraft for delivery to launch operator Southwest Airlines, which welcomed the FAA’s decision and said it expects to introduce the MAX 7 into revenue service “in the coming months.”

    Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took the helm in August 2024 in the wake of the Alaska Airlines incident, has centered his leadership on strict quality control and hitting incremental production targets. The FAA has already approved gradual production increases for the MAX line, raising monthly output from 38 aircraft to 42, and most recently to 47 jets per month. Last week, Ortberg told financial analysts he does not expect major supply chain disruptions to slow the company’s plan to lift monthly MAX production to 52 jets, though he acknowledged challenges ahead as output climbs further.

    “I think it’s going to get harder as we go from 52 to 57 and beyond that. We’ll just have to see how well we’re all collectively doing,” Ortberg said. “But look, we’re on our plan. Our plan’s working.”

    In July, Boeing opened a new MAX production line at its Everett, Washington facility that is designed to support the target of 52 monthly MAX deliveries. Reaching this output level is critical to the company’s medium-term financial recovery goals, which include generating $10 billion in annual free cash flow after years of underperforming earnings that have weighed heavily on shareholder returns.

  • Last Scottish island bird hunt banned after almost 500 years

    Last Scottish island bird hunt banned after almost 500 years

    After nearly half a millennium of annual tradition, a historic gannet chick hunt on a remote uninhabited Scottish island has been halted for 2026, government conservation officials announced Monday. The centuries-old practice, widely known as the Guga Hunt, will not proceed this year in response to growing risks to the local northern gannet population, according to NatureScot, Scotland’s national natural heritage agency.

    The hunt, which was first officially documented in 1549, sees a group of hunters from the Isle of Lewis called the Men of Ness undertake a grueling 40-mile voyage across rough, open seas to reach Sula Sgeir, a remote rocky islet off Scotland’s northwest coast. Once on the island, hunters use specialized long poles to remove juvenile gannets from cliffside nests, kill the birds, and cure their meat with salt before bringing it back to the Isle of Lewis to be prepared as a traditional local delicacy.

    NatureScot confirmed that the Men of Ness had submitted an application for a license to harvest up to 2,000 young gannets this season. After a full review, the agency rejected the request, citing the latest scientific research on the health of the Sula Sgeir gannet colony. The region’s gannet population suffered widespread mass mortality between 2021 and 2023 driven by outbreaks of avian influenza, leaving the colony vulnerable to further population decline. Conservation officials determined that allowing the hunt to proceed this year would carry a measurable risk of long-term harm to the colony’s recovery. The license ban will remain in place through 206, with hunters eligible to reapply for permission to resume the hunt in 2027 should the population show signs of recovery.

    The hunt has faced widespread opposition from animal rights advocates for decades, who have organized repeated petitions and campaigns calling for the practice to be ended permanently. However, the decision to cancel this year’s hunt has sparked disappointment among local communities who view the tradition as a core part of their cultural heritage. For centuries, wild bird meat was a critical source of nutrition for remote, marginalized communities in Scotland’s harsh northern island environments, where access to affordable food was often extremely limited. Guga, the salted gannet chick meat, is traditionally boiled for several hours and served with potatoes, and remains a cultural touchstone for local residents even today.

    John Malcolm, a 46-year-old local resident, told reporters that while he recognized the ban was a necessary outcome of the latest conservation science, the loss of the annual tradition is a significant loss to the region. “It’s a real shame,” he said. “The hunt’s been going for almost 500 years, and for generations it was seen as a sustainable practice that supported our community.”

  • Brisbane police arrest wanted man after dramatic Moorooka shopping centre chase caught on dashcam

    Brisbane police arrest wanted man after dramatic Moorooka shopping centre chase caught on dashcam

    A high-stakes police pursuit that wound through suburban Brisbane ended in a dramatic manhunt through a busy shopping centre carpark, with two people now in custody facing a string of serious motor vehicle offences. The tense operation unfolded on Friday evening, starting just after 7:25 pm when patrol officers spotted a man and a woman exiting a residence on Spencer Street in Redbank, climbing into a stolen Mercedes sedan.

    Law enforcement immediately began tracking the vehicle as the 30-year-old male driver sped toward inner-city Brisbane, with officers alleging he operated the car in an extremely dangerous manner at excessive speed throughout the pursuit. To stop the fleeing vehicle, police deployed a tyre deflation device on a road leading into Moorooka, which successfully punctured one of the Mercedes’ front tyres. Undeterred, the driver continued moving, grinding the flattened rim along the asphalt for several kilometres before abandoning the car near Moorooka Square and fleeing on foot into the open shopping centre precinct.

    Newly released dashcam footage from Queensland Police captures the next intense phase of the operation: an unmarked police vehicle cuts across marked parking bays and navigates around dozens of stationary parked cars at high speed, as officers close the gap on the running suspect. Within minutes of the suspect entering the carpark, officers cornered and arrested him without further incident.

    Following the male suspect’s capture, police launched a secondary search for the 29-year-old woman who had remained with the vehicle. Authorities allege she drove the damaged Mercedes away from the shopping centre precinct as officers focused on apprehending the male suspect. A second tyre deflation device was deployed to stop her vehicle, and she was taken into custody shortly after.

    The 30-year-old male suspect has been charged with nine separate criminal offences, including two counts of unauthorised use of a motor vehicle, one count of dangerous vehicle operation, and one count of unlicensed driving. He made his first court appearance at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday. The female co-accused faces a single charge of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and is scheduled to appear at the same Brisbane court on 31 August.

  • Josh Addo-Carr sends emotional message to injured ‘brother’ Latrell Mitchell

    Josh Addo-Carr sends emotional message to injured ‘brother’ Latrell Mitchell

    Australian rugby league star Josh Addo-Carr has opened up about his deep worry for long-time teammate and close friend Latrell Mitchell, as the injured center continues his prolonged battle to return to competitive play. Addo-Carr also revealed he holds out strong hope that the pair can rekindle their devastating on-field partnership at the upcoming Rugby League World Cup this October.

    Mitchell, who plies his trade with South Sydney, has not featured in a match since Round 11 of the current NRL season, sidelined by persistent back and calf injuries that ultimately forced him to miss the entire 2024 State of Origin series. Two weeks ago, South Sydney confirmed Mitchell had consulted a specialist neurologist to address complex nerve damage, a frustrating injury that has kept him off the pitch for months. He is also set to miss this weekend’s Indigenous Round clash against Parramatta, leaving the rugby league community and his closest loved ones waiting anxiously for his recovery.

    In a candid interview, Addo-Carr shared that he stays in regular contact with Mitchell to check on his progress. “I speak to him all the time,” the veteran winger said. “I rang him the other day and said ‘love you, brother’. You don’t wish injuries upon any player – everyone wants to play every week and train every day. But this is just how things are right now. I always make sure to check in, I know he’s doing everything he can to get back out there. He’s my brother, and I hope he returns very, very soon.”

    The Australian national Kangaroos squad is also pinning its hopes on Mitchell regaining full fitness in time for the World Cup, which kicks off on October 15. The pair delivered a historic performance for Australia at the 2021 (held 2022) tournament, where Mitchell scored two tries in the final victory and Addo-Carr crossed for 12 tries across the opening four games on Australia’s way to lifting the world title. Their left-edge combination was widely regarded as unstoppable throughout that campaign.

    For Addo-Carr, a spot in the 2024 World Cup squad remains within reach. The winger has notched six tries so far this NRL season – his lowest seasonal tally since his debut year – but remains in contention after a strong showing on last year’s Ashes tour. With key contenders Xavier Coates sidelined by an Achilles injury and Mark Nawaqanitawase switching codes to rugby, Addo-Carr has held multiple conversations with Kangaroos head coach Kevin Walters about his selection prospects.

    “That would be mad if I got picked,” Addo-Carr said. “I’ve had a few phone calls with Kevvy, we check in all the time, we’ve got a really close connection. I’ve told him I definitely won’t let him down, so hopefully I get that call up. I’d love nothing more than to pull on that Kangaroos jersey again. When someone backs you, you don’t want to disappoint. He gave me an opportunity last year, and I won’t let him down this time.”

    Reflecting on the 2022 World Cup camp, Addo-Carr called it the best representative camp of his career. “We played the hardest teams in the world, and we came out on top,” he said. “That Aussie camp, with the coaches and all the players, it’s such a fun environment. We work hard together during the week, and getting to play footy together is the best part. I absolutely love being there and representing the best country in the world.”

    While Australia enters the tournament as defending champions and pre-tournament favorites, much of the pre-tournament hype has centered on a formidable New Zealand forward pack that many tip to challenge the Kangaroos’ crown. When asked about growing external hype around the Kiwis and doubt cast on Australia’s chances, Addo-Carr brushed off the chatter. “They can talk all they want,” he said. “We just stay humble, go about our business, that’s what Australians do. Hopefully I get the call up, and I won’t let Kevvy down, I won’t let our country down, and I won’t let my teammates down.”

  • Veteran cafe owner says he would not open his business in today’s economy

    Veteran cafe owner says he would not open his business in today’s economy

    Thirty years after leaving Ecuador to build his coffee legacy in Australia, Gerardo Barrios, owner of Don Adan Coffee, is sounding a stark alarm: small businesses across the country are facing the harshest operating conditions in modern history, and he would never launch his business if he were starting out today.

    Barrios’ family ties to coffee stretch back nine generations, all the way to the era of Napoleon III, blending Ecuadorian heritage with Australian local enterprise across his two cafe locations. But even with deep industry roots and loyal community support, cascading cost increases are squeezing already razor-thin profit margins to breaking point.

    “Every additional cost matters,” Barrios explained in an interview with NewsWire. “When you’re dealing with rising wages, utilities and supply costs all at the same time – every extra dollar is money that could help a local business grow and employ people.”

    Australia’s national minimum wage rose to $26.44 an hour ($1004.90 weekly) starting July 1 this year, a change designed to support working households but one that has added immediate strain to small business cash flow. While economists argue higher wages will boost broader consumer spending, Barrios says the immediate impact for small operators has left almost no breathing room for working capital. “The cash flow for businesses is now almost non-existent,” he said.

    Barrios’ experience aligns with the first-ever AMP Bank GO small business cost pressure index, which found overall operating costs for Australian small businesses have surged by almost 25% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with no relief in sight. AMP Bank GO director John Arnott says cost increases will keep climbing through 2027, driven largely by rising wage bills, which account for roughly half of the index’s total weighting.

    “Small businesses are caught in the middle. Their own bills keep rising, but their customers are watching every dollar,” Arnott said. “Many have absorbed as much as they can, but there comes a point where those costs have to show up somewhere.” That means Australian consumers should prepare for another round of price increases as struggling operators look to recoup lost revenue.

    Arnott noted that public discussion about post-pandemic cost pressures has focused almost exclusively on household budgets, leaving small business struggles largely out of the spotlight. The index was created to fill that gap, he said, and feedback from hundreds of small operators confirms conditions are the worst they have ever seen. Common stories from business owners include laying off staff for the first time in decades, and openly questioning whether they can keep their doors open long-term.

    Barrios has been proactive in working with suppliers to negotiate bulk discounts to avoid passing full cost increases to his customers, aiming to keep sales volumes steady while protecting his customer base. “Rather than just raising the price, we have to look at ways that we can maintain high volumes that will make sure that we have consistency of sales,” he explained. “And then we can go to our suppliers and say, look, I’m doing this many coffees. This is how much value I can bring to you. You surely can give me a 5 per cent discount.”

    But underlying structural pressures from the pandemic continue to weigh heavily on surviving businesses. Barrios says public perception of small business support during COVID is deeply distorted by the former Scott Morrison government’s JobKeeper program, which delivered $1500 per fortnight to eligible workers to prevent mass layoffs during lockdowns. Official reviews found 38% of the first $70 billion in JobKeeper payments went to businesses that recorded no sales declines, but Barrios points out that payments went directly to workers, not to business owners to cover fixed operating costs.

    “I didn’t get JobKeeper, my staff got JobKeeper,” he said. “I had to get loans worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, just to stay afloat, many coffee shops closed… So the ones that stay to stay afloat like me, we have to borrow money. Since we borrowed that money from Covid, the interest rates went up 16 times. So everybody was talking about the mortgage cliff but nobody was talking about the business loan cliff.”

    Insurance costs have also emerged as one of the fastest-growing expenses for small businesses, compounding pressure from wages, supply chains, and debt servicing.

    Despite the severe challenges, Barrios holds fast to the core community value that local coffee shops bring to Australian life, and has a message for consumers. At his two cafes alone, 20 children can trace their existence back to connections their parents made at his shop, and the business serves as a vital social hub for isolated community members who rely on daily visits for social connection.

    “I didn’t want to whinge about rising costs but instead provide a space for my patrons to have a good life together,” he said. “I’m going to provide a space for you to have a good life and all we want you to do is support us. This is the value we bring to the community but we’re going to be one of the very few coffee shops still providing this space as we are disappearing.”