One-third of Australian school students are not meeting basic literacy and numeracy expectations, national standardised testing has found.

The federal government released on Wednesday the results of the 2024 National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy tests, revealing that one in three students failed to meet baseline standards for reading and mathematics, Xinhua news agency reported.

Almost 1.3 million students in years three, five, seven and nine at more than 9,400 primary and secondary schools sat the annual test and were graded as either exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, developing, or in need of additional support, with the latter two representing a failure to meet baseline standards.

Ten per cent of students were identified as needing additional support to progress satisfactorily and 23 per cent were found to be developing. The testing found significant gaps in results between different student demographics.

Across every year group, female students outperformed their male counterparts in literacy while males generally performed better in numeracy testing.

In literacy and numeracy, one-third of Indigenous students were graded as in need of additional support compared to 8.6 per cent of non-Indigenous students in literacy and 7.7 per cent in numeracy.

Twenty-four per cent of students from very remote schools either exceeded or met literacy expectations compared to 70.7 per cent of students from major city schools.

Students with parents working in skilled professions consistently outperformed their counterparts with parents in unskilled professions.

Responding to the results, Education Minister Jason Clare said that they show serious reform is needed to build a better and fairer school education system.

“Your chances in life shouldn’t depend on your parents’ pay packet or the colour of your skin, but these results again show that’s still the case,” he said in a statement.

Clare is currently in negotiations with his state and territory counterparts over a new funding deal for public schools.

In July, he issued an ultimatum to state and territory education ministers giving them until September to sign on to a new agreement that would link 16 billion Australian dollars ($10.6 billion) in funding for schools over 10 years to reforms aimed at lifting students’ performance. AGENCIES

Pakistan’s Olympic gold medallist Arshad Nadeem, who is enjoying a grand welcome on his home coming, has entered into a controversy after he met an individual with links to the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

In a viral video on social media, Arshad Nadeem, the star javelin thrower who claimed gold at the Paris Olympics, was seen sharing pleasant moments with Haris Dar, a member of Milli Muslim League (MML), the political face of Jamat-ud-Dawa (JUD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan..

Haris Dar was seen sitting with Arshad Nadeem at his hometown in Mian Channu in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Local sources said that Haris Dar is a known political figure in the area and that he had come to congratulate Arshad Nadeem on his achievement.

However, the visuals of Haris Dar sitting next to Arshad Nadeem have sparked a serious controversy across the social media with concerns and questions being raised over the presence of proscribed groups and designated individuals under different political covers.

It is pertinent to note that Haris Dar’s name is also in the US’ Treasury Department’s list of proscribed persons under the title ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorists’.

His name was enlisted by the United States in 2018 for his active role in the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been on United Nations’ identified list of terrorist organisations, making Haris Dar even more controversial.

After the Pakistan government opted to take action against Hafiz Saeed and all of the affiliate organisations operating out of Pakistan, a new political party, Milli Muslim League (MML), was formed to provide political cover, shelter and presence to many operatives of JUD.

The MML was founded in 2017 and had even contested the 2018 elections, followed by the 2024 polls.

Haris Dar now serves as the Joint Secretary of MML and has been an active member of the party.

MML is a political branch of JUD and LeT’s founder and mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed.

“Haris Dar may have been allegedly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba. But today, he is a political representative of a political party — Milli Muslim League (MML) — who had come to congratulate Arshad Nadeem. Milli Muslim League is a registered political party in Pakistan and like all others who are visiting Arshad Nadeem, members of MML have all the right to do the same,” said political analyst Adnan Shaukat. AGENCIES

New Zealand’s central bank eased the level of monetary policy restraint by reducing the official cash rate (OCR) by 25 basis points to 5.25 per cent on Wednesday due to eased inflation.

New Zealand’s annual consumer price inflation is returning to within the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) 1 to 3 per cent target band,  Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ).

“Surveyed inflation expectations, firms’ pricing behaviour, headline inflation, and a variety of core inflation measures are moving consistent with low and stable inflation,” the statement said.

Economic growth remains below trend, inflation is declining across advanced economies, and some central banks have begun reducing policy interest rates, the RBNZ said.

Consumer price inflation in New Zealand is expected to remain near the target mid-point over the foreseeable future, it added.

The pace of further easing of the monetary policy restraint will depend on the MPC’s confidence that pricing behaviour remains consistent with a low inflation environment, and that inflation expectations are anchored around the 2 per cent target, the statement said.

Immediately following Wednesday’s OCR cut, New Zealand’s major retail banks cut their mortgage rates.

The OCR started to increase in late 2021 in response to New Zealand’s high inflation, to the current peak of 5.5 per cent in May last year. However, recent statistics show stalling economic growth, with slowing inflation and rising unemployment. AGENCIES

Lao Deputy Prime Minister Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune has called on health officials and medical staff across Laos to improve the management of dengue fever cases, aiming to prevent a serious outbreak of the disease.

Medical staff at provincial and district hospitals and health centres need to broaden their knowledge and ensure the provision of effective services to people of all ethnic groups, the Center of Information and Education for Health under the Lao Ministry of Health on Wednesday quoted Kikeo as saying.

Every province, town and village should make sure that all stagnant water is regularly cleared so that mosquito breeding grounds are reduced, reports Xinhua news agency, quoting Kikeo.

He also advised improvement of the coordination framework about dengue fever and the sharing of information promptly, adding that various preventive measures should be thoroughly carried out and explained in detail so that the public and local government agencies will be able to follow through effectively.

Changes in agricultural practices due to variations in temperature and rainfall can affect the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Better reporting systems are needed to monitor and predict trends, as well as to support surveillance and capture the true burden of the disease. AGENCIES

About 25 tons of radioactive water have leaked within the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the plant’s operator has reported, a week after the latest round of ocean discharge started.

The nuclear-contaminated water, which leaked from a surge tank connected to the Unit 2 reactor building, was meant to be contained in a tank receiving overflow from the spent nuclear fuel pool, reports Xinhua news agency, quoting Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

Accumulating on the first basement level of the reactor building, the leaked water led to a rise in the level of contaminated water already present in the area, TEPCO introduced on Tuesday, confirming that the contaminated water had not escaped outside the reactor building.

The leak was first identified last Friday when a decrease in the water level of the surge tank was detected, according to TEPCO, which, upon further investigation, discovered water flowing into a drain in a room on the third floor of the reactor building.

The company plans to use a remotely operated robot to measure radiation levels in the room by Friday and further pinpoint the exact location and cause of the leak. The cooling pump for the pool has been temporarily shut down as part of the investigation.

Hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and an ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima nuclear plant suffered core meltdowns that released radiation, resulting in a level-7 nuclear accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.

The plant has been generating a massive amount of water tainted with radioactive substances from cooling down nuclear fuel in reactor buildings. The contaminated water is now being stored in tanks at the nuclear plant.

Despite furious opposition both at home and abroad, the ocean discharge of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water began in August 2023, and the eighth round of ocean discharge started last week.

In fiscal 2024, TEPCO plans to discharge a total of 54,600 tonnes of the contaminated water in seven rounds, which contains approximately 14 trillion becquerels of tritium.

Amid raging credibility and safety concerns among the Japanese public following a series of accidents at the crippled plant, TEPCO and the Japanese government have been frequently challenged for mishandling the contaminated water. AGENCIES

 Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday that he will not run in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election next month, according to media reports.

While addressing a press conference here at the Prime Minister’s office, Kishida said his decision not to join the race, a decision that will lead to him stepping down as premier, is “the first step to show that the LDP will change” as quoted by Kyodo news agency report.

Kishida has been under scrutiny within the party for his handling of a political fundraising scandal involving some of its factions.

The approval ratings for Kishida’s Cabinet, launched in October 2021, have plunged to the 20 per cent range in the wake of the scandal.

Despite his unpopularity, Kishida had been keen to secure re-election in the leadership race. But calls have been growing within the LDP for him to resign amid fears over how the LDP would fare in the next general election under his leadership, political analysts said.

So far, former Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is popular among the public, has expressed his intention to run in the LDP presidential election. Ishiba previously served as LDP Secretary General, the Number 2 figure within the ruling party.

Digital Minister Taro Kono, a reform-minded maverick and social media-savvy lawmaker, has informed LDP Vice- President Taro Aso, a former Prime Minister, that he intends to run in the race, according to sources.

LDP Secretary General Toshimitu Motegi, Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and former Economic Security Minister Takayuki Kobayashi are also among those who may join the race. AGENCIES

The Israeli army has killed a Palestinian man during clashes that erupted after the soldiers blew up two apartments owned by prisoners in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.

Israeli forces stormed the cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh and surrounded two residential buildings, Palestinian security sources told Xinhua news agency.

One apartment belongs to prisoner Ayser al-Barghouti, and the other to prisoner Khaled al-Kharouf, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Israeli army arrested al-Barghouti and al-Kharouf on January 8 on the charge of carrying out a shooting attack east of Ramallah that killed an Israeli woman.

The forces planted explosives inside the two apartments and then blew them up, causing loud explosions in the two areas, the sources added.

Following that, clashes erupted between Palestinians who threw stones and empty bottles at Israeli forces while the forces fired live and rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters.

Medical sources told Xinhua news agency that the young man, Moataz Sarsour, from the al-Am’ari refugee camp, was critically wounded by live bullets to the chest and was transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex, where doctors declared him dead due to his injuries.

Israel frequently demolishes the homes of Palestinian attackers, which the Israeli government asserts is intended to deter potential attackers.

Cities, villages, towns, and refugee camps in the West Bank have been experiencing increasing tensions between Palestinians and Israelis since October 7, 2023, when the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out.

Since then, more than 620 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire and shelling across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. AGENCIES

Hezbollah attacked the Mount Neria base, a battalion leadership headquarters of Israel’s Golani Brigade forces, with volleys of Katyusha rockets late Tuesday night, according to state media.

Earlier, Hezbollah had launched more than 20 rockets from southern Lebanon at the Meron base in northern Israel, both al-Manar and Al Jazeera have reported.

Al-Manar reported that heavy rocket fire, explosions, and sirens were heard in Western Galilee.

Hezbollah announced that its fighters targeted an Israeli deployment at the Jal Al-Deir site with a barrage of rockets at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, hitting them directly, according to the National News Agency (NNA).

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes targeting the Lebanese villages of At Tiri, Haddatha, and Rchaf around midnight, NNA added.

Israeli warplanes also conducted airstrikes on the Lebanese villages of Kafr Kila and Khiam, as well as the municipality of Kunin, it noted.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on October 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon, Xinhua news agency reported.

The situation escalated further after Israel’s attack on Dahieh in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing a Hezbollah senior military commander, Fouad Shokor, and seven civilians.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened a definite and painful response to the Israeli raid at the appropriate time and place. AGENCIES

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a sensitive site in East Jerusalem, sparking widespread condemnation.

In video footage released by his office on Tuesday, Ben-Gvir is seen accompanied by far-right supporters, walking around the compound and chanting,”The people of Israel live!”

He was joined by Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Israel’s Minister for the development of the Negev and Galilee, Xinhua news agency reported.

Several supporters were heard reciting a Jewish prayer, which is prohibited under the longstanding status quo. Photos circulating on social media showed dozens of Jews praying and bowing at the site.

“Our policy is to allow prayers,” Ben-Gvir said.

Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news reported that about 1,500 right-wing activists accompanied Ben-Gvir during the visit.

The visit prompted a response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which said in a statement that Ben-Gvir could not establish new policies at the site.

“No minister, including the National Security Minister, has a private policy,” the statement said.

It emphasised that the visit “deviated from the status quo” and reaffirmed that Israel’s policy regarding the site “has not changed and will not change”.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesperson released a condemnation, warning in a statement of the “consequences of the dangerous provocations of the terrorist colonialist invasions in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque”.

Jordan, the custodian of the compound, condemned the visit.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry described the actions of the two senior officials as a “blatant violation of international law and the historical and legal status in Jerusalem and the holy sites”.

The continued unilateral Israeli actions and ongoing violations of the historical and legal status in Jerusalem and its holy sites require a clear and firm international stance condemning these violations and breaches, and providing necessary protection for the Palestinian people, said the Ministry.

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Israel also condemned the visit, stating that unilateral moves threaten the status quo in Jerusalem.

In a statement, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit condemned in the strongest terms the visit, saying that “those hardliners push the situation to the brink and deliberately provoke sentiments of millions of Muslims worldwide”.

The storming of Al-Aqsa happened under the protection of the Israeli police that turned the Old City into a military barrack and imposed restrictions on the access of the worshipers, Aboul-Gheit stressed.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the Israeli irresponsible behaviours violate the international laws and the existing historical and legal condition in Al-Aqsa”.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound holds sacred significance for both Muslims and Jews and has long been a flashpoint for deadly violence between the two sides.

Under the status quo, non-Muslim worshippers may visit the site in the heart of the Old City but are not allowed to pray there. AGENCIES