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US gasoline futures are dropping 11%, which could mean more relief at the pump

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US gasoline futures are dropping 11%, which could mean more relief at the pump

Prices at the pump have retreated from June’s never-before-seen levels, but remain stubbornly high.

Some relief could be in sight. U.S. gasoline futures have dropped more than 11% this week, following a decline in oil prices as recession fears spark concerns around a drop-off in demand.

The national average for a gallon of gas stood at $4.75 Thursday, according to AAA. That’s down from the record $5.016 hit on June 14. But prices are still $1.62 higher than this time last year, reported by CNBC.

Other factors that could send gas prices higher again include a hurricane or any refining-related issues, with refineries already running near peak capacity.

Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, forecasts the national average will drop to $4.50. Without any major disruptions, prices could fall even further.

“If we can get through the next six weeks without a major hurricane, we are looking at $4.40,” he said.

California has the highest state average at $6.185. The state’s Mono county is currently averaging $7.224 per gallon. South Carolina’s average of $4.257 is the lowest in the U.S.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said the national average could drop to between $4 and $4.25 by mid-August, barring a price spike in oil.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, slid below $100 per barrel on Tuesday for the first time since mid-May. Oil makes up more than half the cost of gasoline, with refining expenses and taxes, among other things, also influencing prices.

On Thursday WTI traded around $99.51 per barrel, while gasoline futures stood 1.2% higher at $3.27 per gallon.

Prices at the pump tend to rise faster than they fall, as stations look to lock in profits in an ultra-competitive business.

“When [oil] prices trend up, stations are usually 2-5 days behind price increases until the upward trend stops,” noted De Haan. “That means for weeks they can be behind on raising prices. When prices do finally fall, they lower prices slowly to recapture margins from when prices rose. The longer and steeper upward trend, the slower stations likely lower prices when there’s finally relief,” he added.

But there were some positive signs of easing. De Haan counted 2,535 gas stations with prices below $3.99 on Thursday. Even though that’s a small fraction of 145,000 gas stations in the country, De Haan expects the number could double or triple in the next week or so.

Record prices have been a major contributor to rampant inflation, and a headache for the Biden administration ahead of November’s midterm elections.

President Joe Biden called on Congress in June to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax, but such a move has garnered little support from lawmakers.

Looking forward, some Wall Street firms believe oil prices will regain prior highs, which would mean only temporary relief at the pump. Goldman Sachs is calling for Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, to hit $140 this summer. It traded at $101.81 Thursday. Meantime Citi has been an oil bear for some time, and on Tuesday said Brent could hit $65 by the end of the year should the economy tip into recession.

States are spending billions on EVs in battle to replace automotive capital Michigan

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States are spending billions on EVs in battle to replace automotive capital Michigan

The move to electric vehicles — rapidly accelerating as the price of fossil fuels rises and battery technology improves — is easily the biggest shakeup in the industry since mass production began in Michigan at the start of the 20th century. And it has left Michigan’s status as the nation’s automotive capital deeply in jeopardy, CNBC reported.

Startups including Amazon-backed Rivian and VinFast from Vietnam are spending billions to build factories in the Southeast — Georgia and North Carolina, respectively. Korea’s Hyundai has announced that it will set up shop in Georgia. Volkswagen has a massive facility in Tennessee and is looking to expand there.

But Michigan took a body blow last year when one of its most iconic companies — Ford — announced it would spend $11.4 billion to build a manufacturing complex dubbed “Blue Oval City” in Tennessee, and a pair of battery plants nearby in Kentucky. The company says the expansion will create nearly 11,000 jobs.

“I think we are at peak EV in terms of the frenzy,” said Tom Stringer, managing director in charge of the site selection and incentives practice at BDO in New York. “I think you see this reflected in the stock prices. The froth is off the market. Now, it’s ‘prove it.’ Do customers want these vehicles? Can these manufacturers go to scale and deliver?”

Stringer said that all the states have been careful to structure their incentives so the companies must first create the jobs before they can cash in.

“There have been no giveaways in this industry, which is great for from a taxpayer standpoint,” he said.

Still, subsidy watchdog Greg LeRoy of the nonprofit group Good Jobs First believes states have gotten caught up in the hype, to the potential detriment of the taxpayers.

“It’s understandable, governors want to get in on the ground floor of a rising industry, electric vehicles, in the future.” But, he said, “spending a billion dollars on a single facility, you’re never going to break even from a tax revenue point of view.”

“No one wants to see that, right?” said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in an interview. “I mean, it was kind of a shock.”

It was enough of a shock to get Whitmer, a Democrat, and the Republican-controlled state legislature to agree in record time on a package of incentives aimed at matching the deals that helped other states win EV manufacturers. Georgia is doling out $1.5 billion in state and local incentives to Rivian, for example. North Carolina agreed to pay up to $1.2 billion to lure VinFast. Ford stands to collect $883 million from Tennessee and another $250 million from Kentucky.

So, in December, just weeks after Ford’s bombshell announcement, Whitmer signed a package of legislation including a new $1 billion incentive fund for “strategic outreach and attraction.”

If anyone in Michigan is annoyed about having to put up that kind of money just to retain an industry that is already there, they are not showing it.

“It’s my job to make sure that we’ve got all of the resources we can focus, so that we are competitive with what other states are throwing at these companies to try to earn their investment,” Whitmer said.

Sure enough, another homegrown Michigan company, General Motors, happily took the bait.

In January, GM announced it would spend $7 billion to expand its electric vehicle business in the state, including a new battery plant in a joint venture with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, and expanding GM’s electric vehicle production at its Lake Orion, Michigan, assembly plant. That work had been slated to be done in Mexico.

In exchange, GM stands to collect around $1 billion in incentives, including $600 million from the new incentive fund.

“The future of mobility is very much happening in the state of Michigan,” Whitmer said.

The head of the state’s economic development arm said the new incentives will help bolster Michigan’s sales pitch as it tries to win more business.

“Michigan is a state that put the world on wheels, created Motown, tremendous advances in the life sciences and medical devices. We’re still that state of inventiveness,” said Quentin L. Messer, Jr., CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

But one site selection consultant, who says he worked on several electric vehicle deals, warns that most of the big deals have already been done.

The job market is still ‘red hot’ despite recession fears

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The job market is still ‘red hot’ despite recession fears

Workers are still reaping the benefits of a hot labor market characterized by few layoffs, ample job openings and a high level of voluntary departures, according to U.S. Department of Labor data issued Wednesday.

According to CNBC, the numbers reveal that the pandemic-era trend known as the Great Resignation is still in full swing despite fears of a U.S. recession, though it is showing some signs of leveling off, labor economists said.

“Overall, this doesn’t look like a job market about to tip into recession,” said Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at career site Glassdoor. “Labor demand is still extremely hot, and even if things are cooling from white-hot, they’re still red-hot.

There were nearly 11.3 million job openings on the last business day of May, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of 3.6% is near the pre-pandemic level in early 2020, when it was 3.5%. That was the lowest jobless rate since 1969.

“It’s still a job seeker’s labor market,” Bunker said. “Workers still have lots of bargaining power.

“They maybe lost a little leverage from a couple months ago, but we haven’t seen a significant change there yet.”

Job openings — a proxy for employers’ demand for labor — are down from about 11.7 million in April and a record 11.9 million in March. But they are still elevated in historical terms and hovering near their level of late 2021.

Additionally, workers have been quitting their jobs at a near record pace. About 4.3 million people voluntarily left their jobs in May, about the same as in the previous month and down only slightly from their peak of more than 4.4 million in March.

“The quits rate was doing 100 [miles per hour] on the freeway; it slowed down but it’s still doing 90,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at job site Indeed. “It’s still pretty quick, just not as fast as it was.”

This Great Resignation trend has been a centerpiece of the labor market since early 2021. It’s even entered the zeitgeist via so-called “QuitToks” on social media site TikTok and in a Beyonce song released last month.

For the most part, workers are shifting to better jobs, lured by factors like higher pay, according to economists. Wages in May jumped by 6.1% versus a year earlier, the biggest annual increase in more than 25 years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Layoffs were also near record lows in May. The layoff rate — which measures layoffs during the month as a percent of total employment — was unchanged at 0.9% in May, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Before the pandemic, 1.1% was the country’s lowest layoff rate. But May marked the 15th straight month in which layoffs were below that pre-pandemic record — an indication that employers are holding on to their existing workers, Bunker said.

4 bears killed after stealing food from tents at Alaska campground

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4 bears killed after stealing food from tents at Alaska campground

Alaska wildlife officials have killed four black bears in a campground recently reserved for people in Anchorage who are homeless after the city’s largest shelter was closed, reported by CBS News.

Employees from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Tuesday killed a sow and her two cubs and another adult bear that was acting separately, stealing food from tents inside Centennial Park, which is managed by the city, officials said.

Predatory maulings by black bears are extremely rare. But in 2017, there were back-to-back fatal maulings of people by black bears. A worker at a remote gold exploration site was mauled to death, and a second worker was injured by the same bear. In another attack, a black bear killed a 16-year-old runner Sunday who got lost competing in a mountain race south of Anchorage.   

According to the Fish and Game department website, there are an estimated 100,000 black bears in Alaska. “When it comes to food, black bears are creatures of opportunity,” the department says.

Anchorage is Alaska’s biggest city, with nearly 300,000 residents, but it is also bear country.

The park is located in east Anchorage, nestled between Chugach State Park and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which state wildlife officials describe as a vast bear habitat.

The Department of Fish and Game said Anchorage residents share the municipality with up to 350 American black bears and up to 65 brown bears.

“Certainly it’s a busy bear time for us all across Anchorage,” said department spokesperson Cynthia Wardlow.

This part of Anchorage “does tend to be a pretty active bear area because of the high density housing,” she said.

The city closed its pandemic mass shelter at Sullivan Arena on June 30. The arena had housed hundreds of homeless people throughout the last two years, Alaska Public Media reported.

When the shelter closed, some people who are homeless moved to Centennial Park, grabbing the 84 available spots after the campground stopped taking reservations from the public.

Corey Allen Young, a spokesperson for Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, said there are 210 people living at Centennial Park, and the city has provided enhanced security for camp users.

The city “has also brought in 60 bear proof food storage containers, 20 bear proof 32 gallon containers and is doing hourly clean up efforts to mitigate the trash and food. We also continue to inspect camps and educate campers about bear safe practices,” Young said in an email.

The campground, just off the Glenn Highway, is “an ideal jumping-off point for Alaska travelers,” the city’s website says. But it also warns campers not to store food inside tents or outside in coolers so bears are not attracted to campsites.

Wildlife officials said before the bears were killed, they were entering tents to get food, personal hygiene items and trash.

When bears go inside tents or structures, they pose a risk to human life and are considered a public safety threat, and they may be killed.

“Centennial Campground staff are doing the best they can to manage the campground and minimize attractants, but there are still a lot of tents with food in them,” Dave Battle, the Fish and Game department area biologist in Anchorage, said in a statement. “Until that changes, more bears are going to come into the campground and get into tents.”

He said this is a safety issue for campers.

“Killing any particular bear is a very temporary solution,” Battle said. “There are always going to be more bears in that vicinity because of its location, and we can’t teach bears not to eat what they can find.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday

According to AP, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday amid a mass revolt by top members of his government, marking an end to three tumultuous years in power in which he brazenly bent and sometimes broke the rules of British politics.

Months of defiance ended almost with a shrug as Johnson stood outside No. 10 Downing St. and conceded that his party wanted him gone.

Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, succeeding Theresa May, who resigned after Parliament rejected the Brexit agreement she negotiated with the EU. Johnson pushed his own Brexit deal through in an often messy and turbulent debate.

With his mop of unruly blond hair, he often looked like a schoolboy who had just rolled out of bed and run to class with his pajamas under his clothes.

“Them’s the breaks,” he said.

The brash, 58-year-old politician who took Britain out of the European Union and steered it through COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine was brought down by one scandal too many — this one involving his appointment of a politician who had been accused of sexual misconduct.

The messiest of prime ministers did not leave cleanly. Johnson stepped down immediately as Conservative Party leader but said he would remain as prime minister until the party chooses his successor. The timetable for that process will be announced next week, he said.

But many in the party want him gone before then, and his government has been shredded by scores of resignations.

Among the possible candidates to succeed him: former Health Secretary Sajid Javid, former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

After the latest scandal broke, Johnson clung to power for days, defiantly telling lawmakers on Wednesday that he had a “colossal mandate” from voters and intended to get on with the business of governing.

But he was forced to concede defeat Thursday morning after one of his closest allies, newly appointed Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi, publicly told him to resign for the good of the country.

“In the last few days, I tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate,” Johnson said. “I regret not to have been successful in those arguments, and of course it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself.”

About 50 Cabinet secretaries, ministers and lower-level officials had quit the government over the past few days, often castigating the prime minister for his lack of integrity.

The mass resignations had stalled the business of some parliamentary committees because there were no ministers available to speak on the government’s behalf.

“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said.

Zahawi, who was promoted earlier this week as Johnson tried to shore up his Cabinet, said he and a group of colleagues had privately expressed their concerns to the prime minister on Wednesday and he decided to go public after Johnson ignored the advice to resign.

“The country deserves a government that is not only stable but which acts with integrity,” Zahawi said in a letter posted on Twitter.

It was a humiliating defeat for Johnson, who not only pulled off Brexit but was credited with rolling out one of the world’s most successful mass vaccination campaigns to combat COVID-19.

But the perpetually rumpled, shaggy-haired leader known for greeting critics with bombast and bluster was also dogged by criticism that he acted as if the rules did not apply to him.

He managed to remain in power despite allegations that he was too close to party donors, that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament about government office parties that broke COVID-19 lockdown rules.

He was fined by police over the parties and survived a no-confidence vote last month in Parliament in which 41% of Conservative lawmakers tried to oust him.

In his rise to power he showed many of the same habits and abilities that would carry him far but also spell his downfall: He was an ebullient, attention-loving mayor of London; a journalist who was fired for making up a quote and filed exaggerated stories about EU excesses; and a politician with an Eton- and Oxford-honed talent for colorful language and the thrust and parry of debate.

He became known for his loose regard for the truth and his glib and offensive marks. He called Papua New Guineans cannibals and likened Muslim women who wear face-covering veils to “letter boxes.”

Recent disclosures that Johnson knew about sexual misconduct allegations against a Conservative lawmaker before he promoted him to a senior position in government proved to be one scandal too many.

The crisis began when Chris Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip amid accusations that he had groped two men at a private club. That triggered a series of reports about past allegations against Pincher.

Johnson tried to deflect criticism with shifting explanations about what he knew and when he knew it, but that just highlighted concerns that the prime minister couldn’t be trusted.

Javid and Sunak resigned within minutes of each other Tuesday night, triggering the wave of departures among their Cabinet colleagues and lower-level officials and sending the government into crisis.

Javid said Johnson’s actions threatened to undermine the integrity of the Conservative Party and the British government.

“At some point we have to conclude that enough is enough,” he said Wednesday in the House of Commons. “I believe that point is now.”

Bernard Jenkin, a senior Conservative Party lawmaker, told the BBC he met with Johnson later in the day and advised him to step down.

“I just said to him, ‘Look, it’s just when you go now, and it’s how you go. You can go with some dignity or you can be forced out like Donald Trump clinging to power and pretending he’s won the election when he’s lost,’” Jenkin said.

Russia joins G20 meeting overshadowed by Ukraine invasion

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Russia joins G20 meeting overshadowed by Ukraine invasion

According to Reuters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will have his first close encounter with the fiercest critics of his country’s invasion of Ukraine at a G20 gathering in Indonesia that was getting under way on Thursday.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict and a global food crisis blamed on the war are expected to be front and centre of the two-day foreign ministers’ meeting on the island of Bali

Thursday’s welcome dinner will be the first time President Vladimir Putin’s long-serving foreign minister Lavrov will be up close with the most vocal opponents of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February, which Moscow has called a “special military operation”.

Lavrov planned to meet some of his counterparts on the sidelines of the summit, Russian news agency TASS reported, but ministers including Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have ruled out separate meetings with him.

In 2014, the G7 excluded Russia from what had become the G8, over its annexation of Crimea.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her country and like-minded nations would use the G20 meeting to highlight the impact of the war.

“We will be making very clear collectively our views about Russia’s position and Russia’s behaviour,” she said.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, however, may leave early: the BBC reported she planned to return to London amid the political drama around Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation.

A British Foreign Office official declined to comment.

The Group of 20 includes Western countries that have accused Moscow of war crimes in Ukraine – which it denies – and have imposed sanctions, but also countries like China, Indonesia, India and South Africa that have been more muted in their response.

Speaking after meeting his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Lavrov emphasised the importance of Russia-China ties in shaping a more “just and democratic world based on the principles of international law, primarily the U.N. charter”.

He also lashed out at what he said was an “openly aggressive” West “which seeks to maintain its privileged position and dominance in international affairs”.

Some U.S. and European officials have stressed the gathering will not be “business as a usual”. A spokesperson for the German foreign minister said G7 countries would coordinate their response to Lavrov.

Top officials from Britain, Canada and the United States walked out on Russian representatives during a G20 finance meeting in Washington in April. However despite early talk of boycotting subsequent G20 meetings, some analysts say Western nations may have decided this would be counterproductive.

A senior U.S. State Department official said on Thursday it was important to maintain a focus on what Indonesia had set out for its G20 presidency and “not let there be any disruptions or interruptions to that”.

Energy and food security are on the Bali meeting agenda, with Western nations accusing Russia of stoking a global food crisis and worsening inflation by blockading shipments of Ukrainian grain. Russia has said it is ready to facilitate unhindered exports of grain.

In her meeting with China’s Wang, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stressed the need to protect regional stability and solve global issues related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“The solidity of the voices of developing nations are needed to stop the war, and to reintegrate food exports of Ukraine and Russia into the global supply chain,” Indonesia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Heads of MI5 and FBI give joint warning of growing threat from China

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Heads of MI5 and FBI give joint warning of growing threat from China

The heads of MI5 and FBI warned of the growing long-term threat posed by China to UK and U.S. interests, in their first joint appearance on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the service has already “more than doubled our previously-constrained effort against Chinese activity of concern,” adding it was running seven times as many investigations as in 2018.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the Chinese government “poses the biggest long-term threat” to economic and national security, for the UK, the U.S. and allies in Europe and elsewhere.

Speaking at MI5 headquarters in Thames House, London, both the security services heads gave numerous examples of issues linked to China, asking an audience which included businessmen and academics to be cautious and encouraging them to partner with the FBI and MI5 so they can have the appropriate intelligence about this threat.

“The Chinese government is trying to shape the world by interfering in our politics (and those of our allies, I should add),” Wray said, saying Beijing had directly interfered in a Congressional election in New York this year, as it did not want a candidate who was a critic and former protester at Tiananmen Square to be elected.

Wray warned that the Chinese government “poses an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realize,” and is “set on stealing your technology.”

The Chinese governement’s hacking program is “bigger than that of every other major country combined,” according to Wray.

Over the past year, the UK has shared intelligence with 37 countries to help them defend against cyber espionage, McCallum said, adding that in May they had disrupted a sophisticated threat targeting critical aerospace companies.

Speaking about Taiwan, which China regards as a province, Wray said that China may try to forcibly take it over and if that were to happen, “it would represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen.”

“The widespread Western assumption that growing prosperity within China and increasing connectivity with the West would automatically lead to greater political freedom has, I’m afraid, been shown to be plain wrong,” McCallum said.

“The allegations against China by U.S. and UK intelligence officials are completely groundless and the so-called cases they listed are pure shadow chasing,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the UK said, in response to a question about the comments made by McCallum and Wray.

The spokesperson said that China urged both the countries to “have a clear understanding of the trend of the time, abandon the Cold War mentality which has long gone out of date, stop spreading “China threat”, and stop creating confrontation and conflicts.”

Beijing city mandates COVID vaccinations, eases curbs on domestic travellers

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Beijing city mandates COVID vaccinations, eases curbs on domestic travellers

China’s capital on Wednesday mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for most people to enter crowded venues such as libraries, cinemas and gyms, the first such move by Beijing which it coupled with a slight easing of domestic travel curbs.

From July 11, people wanting to enter certain public would need to be vaccinated unless they have issues that render them unsuitable for shots, a city official told a news briefing. Restaurants and public transportation are exempt from the rule.

China as a whole has already required higher risk employees, such as those working in the public transport sector and cold-chain industry, to be vaccinated, though refrained from blanket mandates on the general public and stressed vaccination is voluntary.

According to Reuters, Beijing city had fully inoculated 97.7% of its adult population as of last September. It is now urging residents to get booster shots and trying to persuade the elderly, a group with lower vaccination rates than younger adults, to be jabbed.

Beijing city reported three new local COVID cases on Wednesday as of 3 p.m., all of whom were already isolated for medical observation, following a total of nine infections earlier this month.

The capital also finetuned its stringent rules on domestic travel. It would now “strictly restrict” entry by people who, within seven days, have travelled in towns that have recently reported one local infection or more, compared with 14 days earlier.

It also said on Wednesday that restrictions on entry by travellers from domestic areas near China’s international borders will be scrapped.

Direct international flights to Beijing will be resumed in an orderly way, the city said, without giving a timeline.

As of April 17, 80.6% of those aged 60 and above in Beijing had received their first dose.

Elderly people who visit certain venues offering activities specifically for senior citizens should be vaccinated as soon as possible, said city health official Li Ang.

“It’s a slap on your own face,” wrote a user on Twitter-like Chinese platform Weibo, alluding to the contradiction between Beijing’s rules and the national health authority’s pledge last year that there would be no curbs on movement by unvaccinated people.

Hu Xijin, a prolific Chinese commentator and former editor in chief of the state-backed Global Times, said he hoped there could be a proper “grace period” for such impactful rules, though adding that the rule had a scientific basis.

Officials should take into consideration how to address the hesitancy among some groups, such as those who are preparing to have children and are worried that vaccination might affect the health of babies, Hu said.

Beijing has yet to specify details of the new mandate, such as whether it will just require an initial dose or a full vaccination or even booster, and whether it will recognise foreign vaccines such as those from Pfizer and Moderna that remain unapproved in China.

More than 85,000 either evacuated or face having to do so in Sydney even as heavy rains ease

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More than 85,000 either evacuated or face having to do so in Sydney even as heavy rains ease

 A wild storm system has moved away from Sydney after pounding Australia’s largest city with four days of torrential rain, satellite images showed on Wednesday, although river waters stayed above danger levels, forcing more evacuations.

According to Reuters, the year’s third major flooding episode saw more than 85,000 people in New South Wales, most of them in Sydney’s western suburbs, asked to evacuate or warned they might be asked to do so, up from 50,000 on Tuesday, authorities said.

A cargo ship, the Portland Bay, which had been stranded in treacherous waters since Monday, was finally rescued on Wednesday and towed to port in Sydney.

“This ship came within a couple of hours of shipwreck, an outcome that would have risked lives and environmental disaster,” Transport Minister Catherine King said in a statement.

Some parts of New South Wales have received rain of up to 700 mm (28 inches) since Saturday, a figure that exceeds the annual average, but conditions have begun to ease in Sydney.

“We’re looking at some dry conditions tomorrow and then Friday, some slight showers returning on the weekend but nothing quite as heavy as what we have seen,” weather official Jonathan How told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“This still remains a dangerous situation and we need to respond appropriately,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters during a visit to the Sydney suburb of Windsor.

He announced a one-off emergency cash payment of A$1,000 ($680) to those hit by the floods.

Yet frustration with the government’s response was evident as Albanese visited a volunteer emergency relief shelter.

“Everyone is talking about fixing the same problem … nothing has happened,” a resident of the area told Albanese, in images broadcast by television. “The locals are always prepared, the government is not.”

The weather on Australia’s east coast has been dominated by the La Nina phenomenon, typically associated with greater rainfall, for two years in a row.

Although La Nina ended in June, weather officials say there is a 50-50 chance it may return later this year.

The intense system of low pressure off the east coast moved to the middle of the north coast of New South Wales, stretching over 300 km (186 miles), with the weather bureau predicting more than 200 mm (8 inches) of rainfall in some areas over six hours.

Since Saturday, torrential rains have dumped waters into river catchments around Sydney, already nearly full before the latest deluge, as authorities warned the floods could last until early next week.

The rains and flooding forced the Australian Rail Track Corp to shut the key rail network carrying coal to Newcastle, the world’s biggest coal export port, late on Tuesday, although the operator said it hoped to re-open the line within 48 hours.

Australia’s top coal producer, Glencore (GLEN.L), said its operations in the Hunter region in New South Wales saw some “short-term impacts” from the weather but gave no details.

A spokesperson for Newcastle port said there had been intermittent disruptions since Monday but operations were expected to return to normal by around midday on Wednesday.

Social media footage showed people using boats to carry fuel and essential supplies to homes cut off by floods. Many piled up sandbags to protect homes and businesses, while emergency crews rescued stranded farm animals.

Xi’an shuts down again as China finds first cases of new Omicron subvariant

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Xi’an shuts down again as China finds first cases of new Omicron subvariant

China’s northwestern city of Xi’an, home to 13 million people, was partially shut down on Wednesday after it reported the country’s first outbreak of a highly transmissible new Omicron subvariant that is fast dominating the United States and Europe, CNN reported.

The city recorded 18 Covid infections from Saturday to Monday, all of which are of the Omicron BA.5.2 subvariant, according to local disease control officials.

BA.5.2 is a sub-lineage of BA.5, which is already dominant in the US and appears to escape antibody responses among both people previously infected with Covid-19 and those who have been fully vaccinated and boosted, according to researchers.

It is the first time the subvariant has been reported in China, one of the last places in the world still adhering to a stringent zero-Covid policy.

As of Wednesday, Xi’an has reported 29 local infections.

Meanwhile in Shanghai, authorities on Tuesday ordered mass testing for 12 of its 16 districts, in response to a handful of new infections linked to a karaoke bar.

Although the financial hub lifted a months-long lockdown on most of its 25 million residents in June, it is still subject to Covid restrictions from frequent testing to targeted lockdowns.

The city reported 24 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases as of Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Xi’an officials announced sweeping restrictions that would shut down parts of the city for seven days starting from Wednesday.

Entertainment, sports and cultural venues, including bars, cinemas, gyms, libraries and museums, were closed; restaurant dining and large gatherings, from weddings to conferences, were suspended; all places of worship were shut and religious activities banned, city official Zhang Xuedong said at the press conference Tuesday.

Kindergartens and primary and secondary schools were ordered to start summer holidays early, while universities were told to seal their campuses, according to Zhang.

Authorities also locked down nine residential neighborhoods categorized as “high-risk areas,” banning residents from leaving their communities.

“The seven-day temporary control measures are meant to quieten the society down as much as possible, reduce mobility…and the risk of cross-infection,” Zhang said.

The announcement caused a stir among some Xi’an residents, many of whom recalled the chaos of the city’s month-long stringent lockdown between December and January.

During that citywide lockdown, a steady stream of complaints about food shortages, as well as heartbreaking scenes of critical patients — including heavily pregnant women — being denied medical care caused shock and anger across the nation.

On Tuesday night, photos and videos posted by Xi’an residents on social media showed huge crowds of travelers — many carrying large bags and suitcases — outside the train station, rushing to leave the city.

In the city’s Changan district, residents were ordered to undergo mass Covid testing from midnight to 6 a.m. Wednesday. They are only allowed to leave their community, enter public venues and use public transport after taking the tests, according to a government notice.

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